Entertainment Briefs March 6, 2010

Driver regrets involving NYPD

NEW YORK - The driver who accused supermodel Naomi Campbell of assaulting him said Thursday through his lawyer that he "got angry and overreacted" and regrets involving the police.

"This whole thing has been blown out of proportion and I apologize to Ms. Campbell for causing that to happen," driver Miodrag Mejdina said.

Mejdina told police Tuesday that Campbell hit him from behind and his head struck the steering wheel of the car, causing bruising under his right eye. He pulled over in midtown Manhattan and got out to speak to a traffic agent, who alerted police. Campbell was not at the scene when officers arrived, police said.

Police consulted with the Manhattan district attorney's office and issued a harassment report, which doesn't carry any penalty, because no officer witnessed what took place between the driver and Campbell. The 27-year-old Mejdina decided not to press charges.

Campbell, whose feisty temper has led to previous legal troubles, issued a statement saying she was pleased that Mejdina had apologized and that she wanted to move on.

"I have worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I will not be held hostage to my past," she said.

Campbell, of Britain, became one of the world's highest-paid models after being discovered at age 15.

Shakira honored at UN labor agency

GENEVA - Shakira has received a medal from the U.N. labor agency for her work to help impoverished children.

The 33-year-old Colombian pop star has worked as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Her Barefoot foundation provides nutrition to more than 6,000 children in Colombia, and she is member of the ALAS foundation that advocates for children across Latin America.

At a small ceremony Wednesday in Geneva, U.N. labor chief Juan Somavia called Shakira a "true ambassador for children and young people, for quality education and social justice."

Shakira said in a statement Thursday that social, economic and environmental policies must focus on children and their education.

Shakira also spoke last month with President Barack Obama about U.S. policy on children.

'Hurt Locker' star poised to explode

LOS ANGELES - Jeremy Renner seems surprisingly calm, considering he's going through a breakup with his girlfriend, moving into a new house he renovated and preparing to attend the Oscars as a best-actor nominee.

"I feel like my life was busier before all of this happened," says Renner, looking relaxed on a recent sunny afternoon in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and a pair of jeans at a cafe overlooking the Sunset Strip. "I was trying so hard to get awareness for the film. Once that happened, it's been like a breath of fresh air. I'm just coming down off that high."

After some 15 years in show business, Renner, 39, captured the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with his performance as a risk-taking bomb disposal technician in "The Hurt Locker," the tense Iraq war drama directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who is also nominated for an Oscar.

The film has already won awards from the Producers Guild of America, National Society of Film Critics, Directors Guild of America and British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Renner and Bigelow have been making the rounds on awards shows, spending more time together than they did most days on the set of "The Hurt Locker" in Jordan.

"I rarely saw her throughout the day," Renner says. "The sets were so big, and the cameras were so far away. I would maybe see her once in the daytime. There were days we would see the cameras more if we got into close quarters, but it was so hot and so intense that you just didn't realize you were shooting a movie half the time."

Renner's list of credits include "Dahmer" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." He'll be seen alongside Ben Affleck in the upcoming crime drama "The Town."

His most unsavory role was his first major part: He played a stoner in the comedy "National Lampoon's Senior Trip."

"I was just proud to be in a film that would play in movie theaters in Modesto," he says of his California hometown.

His schedule is filled with meetings about potential projects, but he's also developing his own material.

"I personally don't feel any pressure, but people keep asking, 'What are you going to do next?'" Renner says. "I don't know. I'll find out when it happens. I just want to take this time and savor it before moving on to the next thing."