DJ AM has been put into a medically-induced coma so that he can have skin grafts to try to replace some of the “extensive” damage from burns to his face. According to US Weekly, the doctors at the hospital said he’s lucky to be alive. From the phrasing it’s hard to tell if the mean he’s lucky to be alive because four of the six people on the plane died, or because the extent of his injuries are so severe.

They also noted that AM was able to call his mom from the ambulance.

DJ AM “was completely terrified and traumatized” after his jet crash early Friday, but he was conscious long enough inside the ambulance to call his mother, a source tells Usmagazine.com.

During the emotional phone call, DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, let her know he was injured and going to the hospital, the source says.

He is currently in a doctor-induced coma so he can undergo skin grafts in an attempt to repair some of the extensive burn damage.

The medical staff considers him lucky to be alive, as the crash killed four people and also severely injured Travis Barker. (TMZ.com reports Barker was burned from the waist down.)

Meanwhile, a pal tells Us Goldstein’s ex fiancee Nicole Richie “wishes only the best for Adam and hopes he recovers from this.”

[From US Magazine]

DJ AM’s brother-in-law Benjamin Long told People that he is a survivor and has pulled through a lot of intense battles in the past. The family is doing their best to stay hopeful and positive.

DJ AM’s sister, Lara, and her husband, Benjamin Long, learned the news of the plane crash – in which Barker and DJ AM were badly burned and four others were killed – from a phone call from AM’s mother on Saturday morning.

“We’re in shock,” Benjamin Long told PEOPLE. “Nobody expects something like this. We’re waiting to hear more.”

“The whole thing is crazy,” said Benjamin Long. “We’re thankful that he made it. And we feel horrible about those who didn’t. It’s just awful.”

He added that his bother-in-law is a survivor. “He flies all the time,” says Long. “A lot of people know his story. He’s pulled through a lot of things in the past.”

[From People]

Long has a good point about all the challenges A.M. has overcome before. After surviving years of abuse from his father, A.M. conquered a cocaine addiction and beat suicidal depression. He also lost a tremendous amount of weight after having gastric bypass surgery and has managed to keep his weight stable for two years since then, which is no small feat. That kind of mentality will really serve him well. Our thoughts are with all the plane crash victims and their families.

Here’s DJ AM and fellow plane crash survivor Travis Barker arriving to perform a set together at club LAX in Vegas on June 18th. Header of AM at the MTV Movie Awards on September 7th. Images thanks to WENN.

Musician Travis Barker and celebrity DJ Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM, were among the surviving passengers in a private learjet which crashed taking off from a South Carolina airport Friday night. Both Barker and Goldstein are in critical condition in the burn unit of an area hospital. Four other passengers were killed, but their names have not yet been released. Barker and Goldstein were performing along with Perry Farrell, best known as the former lead singer of the band Janes Addiction, and Gavin DeGraw. It is not yet known whether Farrell and DeGraw were on the plane. (Update: according to various accounts, both Farrell and DeGraw are fine and were not on the plane.)

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and a popular disc jockey were critically injured in a Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people, authorities said Saturday.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. The plane went off a runway and crashed on a nearby road, she said.

Hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits said Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were in critical condition at a burn center in Augusta, Ga., about 75 miles southwest of Columbia.

NBC News reported that Barker, who also starred in MTV reality show “Meet the Barkers”, had performed Friday night at an event alongside Perry Farrell, the former Jane’s Addiction singer, as well as Gavin DeGraw and Goldstein.

‘Terrible and tragic’
It was not clear whether Farrell and DeGraw were also traveling with Barker and Goldstein.

Federal officials confirmed that two crew members and two passengers were killed in the crash.

“It’s absolutely terrible and tragic,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.

Bergen said the Lear 60 was headed to Van Nuys, California. She was unable to confirm the names of those on board.

Barker and Goldstein perform together under the name TRVSDJ-AM.

[From MSNBC]

This is awful news and our hearts go out to their families and to those who lost their lives. Part of me hopes that Farrell and DeGraw were not on the plane, but it’s a tragedy no matter who died in that accident.

We’ll have to stay tuned to this story and see if more information is available.

Update: Here is a photo of the crash and more information from the local news source, WLTX. The plane crashed into an embankment when taking off, and then caught fire. Baholicious notes Perez Hilton says Perry Farrell and Gavin DeGraw were not on the plane, but that has not yet been confirmed. There were two passengers and two crew members who perished in the crash:

An airport spokesperson says a lear jet–a small, private passenger plane–crashed just after take off a little before midnight Friday.

At this time, it appears the plane was attempting to take off, ran off the runway, through a fence, and hit an embankment along Highway 302. The plane then caught fire, and airport emergency crews are working to put out the blaze.

Six people were aboard the airplane. It’s believed four people are dead, and two were taken to the hospital.

CBS News has confirmed that Travis Barker, a drummer who once was a member of the rock bank “Blink 182″, and D.J. AM, who’s real name is Adam Goldstein, were aboard that plane, and survived. They have been taken to the hospital for treatment at the Augusta Burn Center, and they both are in critical condition.

Barker and Goldstein were in Columbia Friday night as part of a concert in Columbia’s Five Points.

Update 2: TMZ is reporting that Perry Farrell was not on the plane. Hopefully Perez Hilton was right and Gavin DeGraw wasn’t on the plane, either.

Update 3: Gavin DeGraw wasn’t on the plane, according to his rep, quoted in People.

The other two passengers who died are said to be males, while the two crewmembers were a female pilot and a male co-pilot.

Update 4: TMZ reports that the pilot and co-pilot have died, Sarah Lemmon and James Bland, along with another male passenger, Charles Still, and Travis Barker’s assistant, Chris Baker, 29, (no relation) who was featured on his reality show Meet the Barkers. Baker had a wife and baby at home.

Barker and Goldstein escaped by opening the door of the plane and jumping out right after it crashed and was already on fire. Barker is said to be burned from the waist down and it is thought that he will survive. Goldstein has suffered serious burns to his face.

Travis Barker and DJ Am are shown at the MTV Movie Awards on 9/7/08

Warning, mild spoilers for Dexter ahead
The National Enquirer reports in this week’s issue that actor Jimmy Smits, who plays district attorney Miguel Prado, stabbed an actor in the chest several times during a scene in which he accidentally picked up a real knife that was inexplicably put right next to a fake prop knife on set. Smits stabbed actor Jeff Chase in the chest with a knife he assumed was a prop. He easily could have killed him, but as luck had it Chase was wearing a chest plate, which saved his life:

Dexter star Michael C. Hall screamed in horror “Stop! Stop! Stop!” as fellow actor Jimmy Smits stabbed another actor repeatedly in the chest with a real knife on the set of their hit show.

The shocking September 5 incident occurred after a real knife was mistakenly placed next to a theatrical prop knife.

“During a horrific execution scene with actor Jeff Chase, Smits was so into the part he kept stabbing Chase ferociously with what he thought was a fake knife,” a shaken eyewitness told the Enquirer…

Smits was so caught up in the emotionally charged scene, it took him about 16 seconds to stop. “By a miracle, Chase escaped without a cut because he had a protective chest plate on underneath his clothes,” said the source.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 28, 2008]

I left out a key detail in The Enquirer’s story which would make this even more of a spoiler. I’m a Dexter fan and have seen most every episode, and that detail about the incident might give too much away. If you want the full story you can pick up the Enquirer.

It’s a good thing that the actor was fine after that ordeal. A crew member might looking for a new job after this.

Several actors have been killed in stunts that involved props. The most well known is Brandon Lee, who was killed in 1993 by a stunt bullet on the set of The Crow. The gun was supposed to contain blanks, but a bullet that was accidentally lodged in the barrel from an earlier scene was fired at him later during filming, and hit him in the stomach. The bullet became lodged in his spine and he later died at the hospital.

Jon-Erik Hexum died in 1984 after he put a prop gun loaded with blanks to his head on the set of television show Cover Up and pulled the trigger as a joke.

This story has a much less tragic ending and it is likely that Dexter staff have learned their lesson and will be more careful in the future.

Header photo via IGN

Kim Kardashian had a bad accident in her hotel room last night and had to be rushed to the hospital. She suffered a serious cut on her foot from a glass coffee table . The extent of her injuries is not know, although it is said to be serious and could put her future on Dancing with The Stars in jeopardy. The reality star was said to be on the short list of DWTS contestants, and this season’s lineup is just about to be announced today.

The new season of “Dancing With the Stars” may have already lost its first competitor — and they haven’t even announced the official cast yet.

Kim Kardashian — who is scheduled to be on the show this season — badly cut her foot in her hotel room late Sunday night. We’re told she sliced her foot open on a glass coffee table and was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital. No word on how many stitches she needed, but a source tells TMZ there was “so much blood, it looked like a murder scene.”

“DWTS” makes its official cast announcement this morning and Kim is in town to do press for that and her new movie, “Disaster Movie.” We’re told Kim has already begun to practice for the show, but it’s unclear now whether she’ll be able to participate.

[From TMZ]

Maybe her injuries are minor and she’ll be able to go on DWTS. They have a very fast production schedule though, and if she had to have stitches and/or the doctors tell her she’ll need to stay off it for any length of time chances are good that she’ll be off the show. Hopefully she’s ok either way.

Also rumored to be starring on the next Dancing With The Stars is 70s heartthrob Tom Selleck. The National Enquirer reported in their August 18 issue that producers were looking for an “older hunk” and that 63 year-old Selleck fit the bill. He’s said to still be in great shape. His friend Steve Guttenberg from their film Three Men and a Baby was on last season’s DWTS and is said to have brokered the deal.

Kim Kardashian is shown outside of her Pussycat Dolls performance on 8/15/08. Credit: PRN / PR Photos

News came out earlier today that Morgan Freeman was involved in a one-car accident in Mississippi last night in which he and a female passenger had to be cut out of the car, a 1997 Nissan, with the jaws of life. Morgan was airlifted to a hospital 100 miles from the accident, and an official there would only comment that his condition was “serious,” which sounded dire. He was said to be conscious and talking to rescuers at the scene. The Guardian has a quote from a friend of Freeman’s, who says that he has also been sitting up and talking in the hospital. They also have the name of his passenger, and say that the car Freeman was driving belonged to her. That would make sense as it’s an older model.

No drugs or alcohol were thought to be involved in the crash and there is speculation that Freeman fell asleep at the wheel.

Freeman was driving near his home in Charleston, Mississippi, at the time of the accident. The actor and a female companion were cut free by emergency workers before being airlifted to a hospital 90 miles away in Memphis, Tennessee.

Kathy Stringer, a spokeswoman for the regional medical centre in Memphis, described the 71-year-old actor’s condition as “serious”.

The editor of the Charleston Sun Sentinel newspaper, who arrived at the scene shortly after the accident, said Freeman had been conscious and talking to rescuers.

“They had to use the jaws of life [hydraulic cutters] to extract him from the vehicle,” Clay McFerrin said. “He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”

His account was confirmed by state troopers, who added that Freeman’s 1997 Nissan Maxima had apparently gone off the road. The actor overcorrected, causing the car to flip over several times before coming to a rest.

Mississippi highway patrol sergeant Ben Williams told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper: “Both [occupants] had some injuries, to what extent I do not know.”

Police confirmed that Freeman and his passenger were both wearing seatbelts when the accident happened at 11.30pm.

Williams said the car Freeman had been driving belonged to Demaris Meyer, of Memphis. The car left a rural highway and overturned several times. “There’s no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved,” Williams said.

There was still no information on Ms Meyer’s condition, he added.

Bill Luckett, a friend of the actor and co-owner of Freeman’s restaurant, Madidi, said he was sitting up and talking at the hospital.

[From Guardian.co.uk]

MTV reports that Freeman was even cracking jokes at the scene, telling people trying to take photos “No freebies! No freebies!” His injuries are thought to be broken ribs and a hurt knee.

That sounds a lot more promising than the earlier reports that he was in serious condition and I hope Freeman is going to be ok. The 71 year-old Oscar winner is next scheduled to work on The Human Factor, based on a book about the 1995 Rugby Cup, and directed by Clint Eastwood. Hopefully he will make a full recovery.

Update: Morgan’s rep tells People that his injuries are a broken arm, elbow, and “shoulder damage,” and it sounds like he’s doing pretty well under the circumstances:

“He has a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder damage but he is in good spirits,” said Donna Lee. “He is going to have surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to correct the damage. He says he’ll be okay and is looking forward to a full recovery.”

[From People.com]

Morgan Freeman is shown in the header outside The Late Show on 6/23/08. Credit: HRC/WENN. He is shown below at a screening of Miss Pettigrew on 3/2/08. Credit: PNP/WENN

Shia LaBeouf has been charged with misdemeanor DUI after a car accident early Sunday morning in LA. Cops said he exhibited signs of “obvious intoxication,” but an eyewitness gives a different account of the accident. Brian Perrulli told Access Hollywood (link has automatic sound) that he was heading home from work when he came across the scene. He said Shia was shocked and disoriented after the ordeal but that he didn’t seem drunk to him. According to Perrulli, the driver in the other car repeatedly told Shia to leave the scene, saying ” ‘I never saw you,” but Shia kept asserting that he needed to stay and take responsibility for the accident.

While Shia’s DUI charge remains, cops have ruled that he wasn’t at fault for the accident, in which the other driver ran a red light and Shia was taking a legal left turn, running into him and rolling over in his truck. I guess we know now why the other guy was so eager to tell Shia to take off:

“He was not at fault,” sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Authorities are now fingering the driver of the vehicle hit by LaBeouf’s pickup. The motorist, whose identity has not been disclosed, ran a red light while LaBeouf attempted to make a legal left turn, said Whitmore. LaBeouf instead plowed into the oncoming car.

The other driver was actually cited at the scene for the moving offense that resulted in the rollover of the Indiana Jones star’s ride.

LaBeouf wasn’t responsible for the crash, his DUI count still stands.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Kristin Aloma said the actor “was exhibiting obvious signs of intoxication” and booked him on the misdemeanor charge Sunday morning. According to his booking sheet, the normally lanky actor was listed as carrying 199 pounds on 5-foot-10 frame.

LaBeouf, however, has yet to be arraigned. He was taken by ambulance from the scene to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He remains at the facility recuperating from surgery on his left hand. He is expected to make a full recovery.

[From E! Online]

Given the circumstances Shia will probably get off with a slap on the wrist. Maybe he learned his lesson though and won’t drink and drive again. He might start facing some of his demons too, because it sounds like he’s conflicted about how much he drinks. He told Details Magazine in an interview to be published in their upcoming issue that “I don’t know how to do it [drink] like a gentleman. I don’t know how to have one drink.” He also said that “it’s not something that is conducive to being a role model.” Maybe he’ll release a statement taking responsibility and admitting the massive error he made. It seems like it would be the right thing to do even after it was determined that the accident was caused by the other driver.

Here’s Shia’s car after the accident along with a photo of him at the Indiana Jones premiere on 5/21/08. Credit: WENN

“American Idol” host and executive producer of the abominations that are the Denise Richards and Dina Lohan reality shows, Ryan Seacrest, suffered a minor shark bite over the weekend. The uber-annoying Seacrest discussed the incident on his radio show. It was a minor bite and Ryan will live to carry on his world tour of aggravation and bad taste.

So much for a relaxing trip to the beach.

On his KIIS-FM radio show Monday, Ryan Seacrest said he decided to take a dip in the ocean over the weekend when, he said, “I was bit by a shark!”

See more photos of stars at the beach.

He said he was “about eight feet out” when he felt something swim by him.

“I thought it was a stick,” he said. “I wasn’t sure what had happened.”

Then, he said, “I saw it swim! He took a bite, and he left.”

Seacrest, 33, said the shark’s tooth “wasn’t a great thing to find. It was like finding a splinter!”

Although he said he was “in pain,” the American Idol co-host wasn’t hurt too badly, as he still went on the air to blab about it. (“I need to take an Advil!” he yelped.)

But he’s bitter.

Asked by his radio co-host if anyone else got bit, Seacrest lamented: “No, just me, of course! There were like 1,000 people in the ocean, and I get bit by the shark!”

[From Us Weekly]

Maybe it was hard to find that shark tooth lodged in his little toothpick leg due to all that self-tanning cream and spray-on glitter. I like to think that the shark was trying to do us all a public service by eating the tiny tanorexic host. Or, maybe the shark was part of an elaborate hit put out by Simon Cowell.

Ryan Seacrest is shown on the fourth of July in the Hamptons. Credit: Fame

William Shatner with his current wife, Elizabeth Anderson Martin, at the Primetime Emmy Awards on 9/16/07
William Shatner’s new memoir, “Up Til Now,” gives some details about the accidental drowning death of his late wife, Nerine. However, a family member of Nerine’s is now issuing a tell-all book of his own about the Star Trek icon, saying that he was not a caring husband and was more concerned about himself than her- right up until the day she died.

According to The Globe, Boston Legal star William Shatner will not be happy to learn that his deceased wife Nerine’s brother is writing a tell-all book about his sister’s mysterious death in 1999, and he’s calling Shatner a liar. William Shatner’s wife Nerine was an alcoholic who was in and out of rehab, and her AA sponsor had warned Bill never to leave her alone. Shatner left her with a housekeeper one day and returned to find her on the bottom of their pool. He called 911 instead of diving in to pull her out. The brother claims that Shatner didn’t jump in the pool because he was wearing a new $25,000 toupee and didn’t want to ruin it! The former brother.-in-law insists “The normal reaction is to pull the person out of the pool and start CPR.” He’s got a point there.

[From Janet Charlton's Hollywood]

While numerous stories about the size of his ego have been circulating for decades, I think I’m going to have to side with Shartner on this one. It seems way out of line for this brother to be slamming his former brother-in-law over what was ruled an accident by police. I also don’t think it was Shatner’s responsibility to make sure that a grown woman was never left alone. If she was really in that bad of shape, she should have been in an in-patient rehab facility, not a mansion with a pool. It sounds to me like this brother is trying to make a buck off Shatner’s name while people still remember his wife’s death. Shatner has since remarried.

Brooke Hogan was involved in a car accident on Sunday, which was caused by another driver who was not a member of her family and resulted in no injuries. Brooke, 20, was driving a 2008 Mercedes with her friend Laura, 23, in the passenger seat. She was in the center lane on a bridge when a 1997 Toyota that was speeding in the right lane lost control while trying to change lanes and smashed into her car, pushing it into the left concrete barrier. Both cars sustained about $3,000 worth of damage. There is no charge against the other driver, but the Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. Brooke’s mother and father, who are going through a divorce, both came to the scene of the accident. [Details from Tampabay.com via WeSmirch]

Not one to miss a chance to dismissively mention the vegetative victim of her brother’s drunken car crash last year, Brooke blogged on her MySpace that she reminded her friend to buckle up, thanks to the important lesson he taught her by ending up comatose. Brooke claims she told her friend to buckle her seatbelt and that she had just put it on when a car slammed into them. The thing that I find most offensive about this entry is the title. Brooke capitalized the “MY” in the “Seatbelts saved MY life today” as if to emphasize that it was John Graziano who was to blame for not wearing a seatbelt. This would be consistent with an earlier statement her family put out that emphasized that John was not wearing a seatbelt, along with Brooke’s now-deleted blog post calling John’s family liars for their tearful testimony at her brother’s trial:

Seatbelts saved MY life today…

What happened to my brother and our friend John was horrible and very hard for both of our families. But I truly believe my brother and John saved My life and my best friends life…. I don’t know if you heard, but my friend and I got into a really bad car accident today ourselves… As I turned on my car I clicked my seatbelt. As we pulled out onto the road, I looked over and realized my friend didn’t have her seatbelt on. I reminded her to put it on and the minute she clicked it, a car crashed into us. It was a horrible car accident, one that most would be severely hurt in, but we had our seatbelts on and they kept us in tight. I have to thank my brother and my best friend John for teaching me an important lesson that saved our lives.

I know that because my family is under a microscope, the turn of unfortunate events are magnified and seem like they just keep on coming…And having everyone watching and commenting on our life is extremely hard. If I could stop it I would because it feels terrible. We try to stay away from it but can’t help that its shoved in our faces. So please, if youre a supporter, please spread the good around cause its nice to have friends when things go awry. And for the haters, Im sure we’re not the only ones you’re hurting. I would hope people are never this mean to you because it makes things so much harder……You’re human and so are we. Nothing different.

[From Brooke Hogan's MySpace via ONTD]

Brooke Hogan is saying out of one side of her mouth that she wore a seatbelt and that’s why she’s safe as compared to her brother’s Iraq veteran friend who will probably never be able to walk or speak a full sentence in his life again. On the other side of her mouth she’s telling people not to rip on her family, despite giving us more reasons to do so every day. Her brother may be spending eight difficult months in jail, but he will get out again and live very comfortably. Brooke and most likely the rest of her family will never grasp what a horrible crime her brother committed or realize that the insults and criticism hurled at them is like a mosquito bite compared to the pain of losing a family member.

Header photo by Eamonn Kneeshaw for the St. Petersburg Times. Photo below of Brooke out shopping in December thanks to WENN.

Drew Barrymore was involved in a hit-and-run accident on Monday in Los Angeles, but was unhurt. She also chased down the runaway driver and got his digits – license plate digits –for police.

The collision occurred shortly before noon as Barrymore was driving near Gardner Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, said Sgt. Kristin Aloma of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station.

Barrymore followed the hit-and-run vehicle after her car was rear-ended and got its license plate number, Aloma said.

Police are trying to track down the driver, Aloma said.

Los Angeles Times

While I’m sure that Drew didn’t chase the driver on foot, she was rear ended so the car was probably okay to drive, they don’t have engines in the back. I think engines are in the front – I’m not a car person. But I love the imagery of her sprinting off down the road, Charlie’s Angels style, leaping onto the car in question, ripping off his license plate and delivering it to police like the Holy Grail. Sometimes I have a problem separating actresses from their parts.

Hopefully the car wasn’t stolen, so that the driver will be easily identified by the plate number. While the accident may have been minor, hit and runs should be prosecuted to ensure that people don’t think they can get away with it.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are shown leaving Mr. Chow on 5/4/08. He does not look like he should be driving. Thanks to WENN for these photos.