Even though I don’t know if she’s done it in the past, Jane Seymour seems like one of those people that’s always offering unsolicited advice and telling people what to do. I totally love her, and I can’t really put my finger on why I think this. There’s just something vaguely school marmish about her. In an attempt to prove me right (how very kind of you Jane) she’s decided to lecture Angelina Jolie about what she needs to be doing for her pregnancy – via OK! Magazine, the best doctor at all.

“My advice to her is to put some weight on,” the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman star told OK!. “I think she needs to keep putting on weight so she can feed those babies. I don’t think she should think twice. She hasn’t put on enough weight.”

Seymour,57, says that when she had her twins, John and Kristopher, in 1995, it was a life threatening delivery.

“I nearly died having the twins,” she recalled. “I had preclampsia, which is toxemia, and I had to have an emergency C-section and I almost lost my life. So my advice to her [Jolie] is to listen to your doctors and if they say bed rest and they say blood pressure cuff every hour and they say whatever medication they say, you should take it very seriously.”

[From OK! Magazine]

I think the reason Jane Seymour’s comments annoy me isn’t that she’s wrong, but that there’s something about the way she’s phrased her words that implies she’s assuming Angelina isn’t doing these things, and isn’t taking her pregnancy seriously. Jolie is definitely very, very thin. But she seems to be very devoted to her kids – certainly enough that you’d think if her doctor told her it was medically necessary to gain weight, she’d do it to the best of her ability. There are some people out there who really can’t put on the pounds. I hate them with a fire I can’t explain. But I’m constantly told they’re out there.

It seems like Jane Seymour’s comments are coming from a good place, and she’s just offering her advice based on her very scary experience. Somehow it comes off sort of lecturing to me, but it’s probably just her way of trying to pass on some life experience.

Header of Jane Seymour at the “Reservation Road” premiere in Los Angeles on October 18th; Angelina Jolie is shown at Cannes for the “Kung Fu Panda” premiere on May 19th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Actress Jane Seymour, described by the townspeople of Bath, England as the “Neighbor from hell” has sold her palatial 700-year-old mansion despite winning a long court battle against town residents over the mansion’s 24-hour liquor license. Jane and her husband James Keach bought St Catherine’s Court in 1984 for about $700,000 (USD) and just sold it to a mystery buyer for a reported $20 million (USD). Not a bad profit. The couple purchased the house after Jane fell in love with it while filming a movie there. But Seymour and Keach live in Malibu and only spent about three months of the year at St. Catherine’s, choosing to rent it out for upscale parties during the other nine months. Unfortunately this didn’t sit well with the residents of Bath, who complained of being disturbed by loud parties and drunken revelers. When Seymour applied for a 240hour liquor license in May, residents stepped up their protestations, taking their complaints not just to the council but to the media too – and they did a pretty good job, getting national attention about the “neighbor from hell.” Though Seymour recently won the permit, apparently she’s soured on the home.

Jane Seymour has thrown in the towel and sold her country mansion after a long-running battle with villagers over late-night parties. The 56-year-old former Bond girl was described as ‘the absent neighbor from hell’ for the traffic and noise problems caused by revelers. Miss Seymour only lived at St Catherine’s Court near Bath for about three months of the year. At other times, she rented out the 13-bedroom Elizabethan manor house for private parties and corporate functions, which neighbors claim repeatedly disturbed their tranquility.

She has now sold the Grade I listed property through an agent for an undisclosed sum, despite recently winning a court fight with residents over her 24-hour alcohol license at the mansion. Precisely what prompted the sale remains unclear, but some believe that she may have tired of the dispute with locals.

[From the Daily Mail]

The neighbors had planned marches to Seymour’s home several times and left petitions with hundreds of signatures in an attempt to get her to stop with the loud parties. Makes it sounds like she’s a raucous teenager. Bath is a small, quaint, very old town that’s mostly paved with single lane cobblestone streets. The large influx of traffic from the parties snarled the roads and made it nearly impossible for residents to drive whenever a party was going on. Residents complained that Seymour ignored them, since she was never there to be inconvenienced. “St Catherine’s Valley residents plan a march on her home on Sunday to hand over a petition of hundreds of signatures.”

Jane Jones, 53, tells ThisisLondon: “She just ignores our letters and doesn’t answer the door. “They are the absent neighbors from hell. She will go back to America and just count the money while the rest of us have to live here and put up with the disruption.”

[From Monsters and Critics]

Seymour was probably wise to pack up and move out. It’s a shame, because St. Catherine’s is an absolutely stunning home. I’m a sucker for real estate. But when you piss off an entire town, it’s not going to be a pleasant, relaxing experience when you come for your annual vacation. And while it doesn’t exactly sound like there were rabid teenagers blaring their rock and roll from the open windows, it makes sense that being practically unable to leave your home and go about your regular activities because Jane Seymour wants to have a party isn’t really fair either.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s St. Catherine’s Court. Header image of Jane Seymour and husband James Keach at the Reservation Road Premiere on October 18th. Photos thanks to PR Photos.

I live in Europe, so I don’t watch American television yet, (although I’m trying to get JayBird to install one of those Slingbox devices so I can.) Right now I’m on “vacation” in the states, though, and my mother loves Dancing with the Stars and we watched a couple of episodes, fast forwarding through the results episode because they just drag that shit out as long as possible.

The show is quite entertaining, and it’s easy to see how people get hooked. When excellent dancer and Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan was eliminated in an upset last week, I suspected that she was involved with her partner, because of the way he was clinging to her and she called him “baby” all romantic-like. Sabrina and her partner, Mark Ballas, are indeed dating, with Sabrina confirming their romance to TVGuide, saying that “I always call him ‘Baby Marky.’ I absolutely love and adore him.” She also said they were going out on a date the next day. Sabrina and Mark were spotted out at Hollywood hotspot Hyde, and TMZ has video of a photographer asking them when they’re getting married, with Sabrina answering “August of 08.”

With all the attention and fame that comes with competing on the dance show, many c and d-listers are vying for a place. Tori Spelling is said to be anxious to appear next season, and to follow her 90210 cast mates, Jennie Garth and Ian Ziering’s, lead. The thing is, she’s also gunning for her husband, Dean McDermott, to be on the show, and since he’s only known as Mr. Tori Spelling, producers don’t want to take him on:

[Tori Spelling] is campaigning to be on next season’s Dancing with the Stars after seeing how it helped Beverly Hills 90210 pals Jennie Garth and Ian Ziering. “She is hoping it will open doors,” says an insider. “At the very least, she can earn some money from touring with the dancers after the show. She’s the breadwinner in her family and needs to keep her career alive.” There’s just one hitch - Tori has hinted that she wants her husband, Dean McDermott, on the show. The show’s producers “don’t want Dean at all,” adds the source.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 12, 2007]

I can see Tori appearing on the show, but she seems so gawky to me that you wouldn’t expect her to get the hang of it. Maybe it’s just her um, features, that give you that impression and she could be a surprisingly good dancer.

Jane Seymour and her partner were eliminated from last night’s Dancing with The Stars, with Jennie Garth also in the bottom two. Four couples remain on the show, Melanie B and Makshim, Helio Castroneves and Julianne, Jennie Garth and Derek, Marie Osmond and Jonathan, and Cameron Mathison and Edyta. Marie Osmond was absent from last night’s results show due to the death of her father. Jane Seymour also missed a results show in week two due to her mother’s death that day.

Nearly 50 million people watched the premiere of Dancing With The Stars this season, so you can see how the show appeals to minor celebrities like Tori.

Tori and Dean are shown on 9/28/07 in Vegas before Tori’s appearance with The Pussycat Dolls.