Taylor Lautner Talks "Twilight" & Tomfoolery on "The Tonight Show"

Continuing his promotional duties for "Breaking Dawn - Part 2," Taylor Lautner spent his Halloween making a guest appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Wednesday (October 31).

Mustering up plenty of screams from the Burbank studio audience, the hunky werewolf confidently grabbed a seat alongside Leno to chat about everything from the final "Twilight Saga" installment to his practical joker nature.

Dishing on a previous run in with "Twilight" author Stephanie Meyer (who's also a prankster) and her friend Megan, Taylor said, "[We] happened to be at a restaurant at the exact same time…Megan is deathly afraid of shrimp so I decided to be really nice and ask the waiter if I could order a shrimp cocktail for their table…so they set the shrimp cocktail right in front of Megan and I could hear her scream from the restaurant."

Adding that the shenanigans didn't stop there, the 20-year-old giddily told, "Stephanie spoke to the chef and asked him to make me a cake dessert. I get it and it has Rob [Pattinson's] face all over it and it's this Team Edward cake."

"I still retaliated after that," Lautner continued. "I asked them to send over a Team Potter cake [Harry Potter]. It could have been a little dirty, but I did it."

Enjoy the pictures of Taylor Lautner at "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (October 31).

Via: Taylor Lautner Talks "Twilight" & Tomfoolery on "The Tonight Show"

Amy Winehouse's wedding dress stolen

Mitch Winehouse, father of the late singer Amy Winehouse, has revealed that two dresses belonging to the singer have been stolen from her home in Camden, North London.

Winehouse, 60, told The Sun : "It's sickening that someone would steal something in the knowledge of its sentimental value."

IN PICTURES: Amy Winehouse remembered

A cocktail-style, newspaper-print dress by Moschino and the anchor-print minidress she wore to marry ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil in 2006 have been lifted from the house. The items were due to be auctioned next month in New York in aid of the Amy Winehouse Foundation. The wedding dress was expected to raise £100,000 and the Moschino gown, which she wore to perform on Jools Holland's TV show, was estimated to fetch £30,000.

The drug and alcohol-addled singer died in July 2011 aged 27 and her house has since been turned into something of a shrine by fans but is in the process of being sold.

IN PICTURES: Amy Winehouse's style legacy

"Her wedding dress was only a little cotton thing, a hundred quid at best in the shops. Whoever nicked it realised its significance and knew it had an extra value," said Mitch. "We are all baffled as to why some of her designer dresses didn't go too. There were a couple from Dolce & Gabbana worth a fortune."

Winehouse explained that many of his daughter's possessions are currently being tagged, numbered and logged in preparation of storage, and that the theft could have occurred during a "window of about two days while that process was underway". He added: "We're going through everything else to see what else, if anything, has been lifted."

Via: Amy Winehouse's wedding dress stolen

Company With Links to Meningitis-Linked Pharmacy Recalls All Products

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- A firm with the same founders as New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak, announced Wednesday that it would voluntarily recall all of its products.

"Ameridose LLC, based in Westborough, Mass., is voluntarily recalling all of its unexpired products in circulation," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

"The FDA is currently conducting an inspection of Ameridose's facility," the agency added. "Although this inspection is ongoing, the FDA's preliminary findings have raised concerns about a lack of sterility assurance for products produced at and distributed by this facility."

While the FDA stressed that there have so far been no reports of infections linked to Ameridose products, they say they recommended the recall "out of an abundance of caution."

"Health care professionals and patients may dial the FDA's Drug Information Line at 855-543-DRUG [3784] and press [the star sign] to get the most recent information regarding the Ameridose recall and speak directly to a pharmacist," the agency added.

In the meantime, the death toll from the ongoing fungal meningitis outbreak rose to 29 on Wednesday, with 377 illnesses reported across 19 states.

The newest fatality occurred in Virginia, according to the latest daily tally issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The recall follows news last week of unsanitary conditions at the Framingham, Mass.-based New England Compounding Center plant. On Friday, federal investigators said their tour of the plant found foreign, "greenish-black" material in some vials of the injectable steroid suspected as the cause of the illnesses.

The contaminated product was one of a host of potential violations discovered during a recent inspection of New England Compounding Center's plant, FDA officials said during a Friday press briefing.

"The investigators observed approximately 100 vials of the steroid drug, which purports to be a sterile injectable drug, that had a greenish-black foreign material and a white filamentous [containing filaments] material inside," Steven Lynn, director of the FDA's Office of Manufacturing and Product Quality, said during the briefing.

The FDA also found the company was not able to keep its "clean room" clean, Lynn said. "A clean room is a space designed to maintain a controlled environment with low levels of airborne particles and surface contamination," he explained.

Over the weekend, Massachusetts officials closed a second compounding pharmacy after inspection revealed conditions that might threaten the sterility of its products.

According to The New York Times, Waltham, Mass.-based Infusion Resource voluntarily surrendered its license over the weekend after inspectors found "significant issues with the environment in which medications were being compounded," Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, director of the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality at the Massachusetts Public Health Department, said at a press briefing.

While she did not release details of what the inspection found, Biondolillo did say that patients had been receiving intravenous medications at the pharmacy, violating state law.

Massachusetts officials said last Tuesday that they had begun a criminal investigation into New England Compounding Center. They added that the company functioned as a drug manufacturer, producing drugs for broad use, rather than filling individual prescriptions for individual doctors, in violation of its state license, CBS News reported.

According to published reports, state records show that the New England Compounding Center was plagued by problems as far back as 2006. Those records, obtained by the Associated Press under a public documents request, showed there was evidence of inadequate contamination control and no written standard operating procedures for using equipment, among other problems, at the facility.

New England Compounding Center and Infusion Resource are both compounding pharmacies. These pharmacies combine, mix or alter ingredients to create drugs to meet the specific needs of individual patients, according to the FDA. Such customized drugs are frequently required to fill special needs, such as a smaller dose, or the removal of an ingredient that might trigger an allergy in a patient.

Compounding pharmacies aren't subject to the same FDA oversight as regular drug manufacturers are, but some members of Congress now say the meningitis outbreak highlights the need for more regulatory control.

Meningitis is a potentially fatal inflammation of the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Federal health officials said last week that fungus found in steroid injections produced by the company matched the fungus linked to the meningitis outbreak. The officials said they'd confirmed the presence of the fungus, Exserohilum rostratum, in unopened vials of a steroid produced by the New England Compounding Center.

The steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, is injected into patients for back and joint pain. The company has since shut down operations and stopped distributing its products, health officials said.

The CDC and state health departments estimate that roughly 14,000 patients may have gotten steroid injections from the three lots, and nearly 97 percent of them have been contacted for medical follow-up.

All of the fungal meningitis patients identified so far were thought to be injected with methylprednisolone acetate from the Massachusetts pharmacy, according to the CDC.

Nine of the 377 cases involve what the CDC calls "peripheral joint infection," meaning an infection in a knee, hip, shoulder or elbow. These joint infections aren't considered as dangerous as injections near the spine for back pain that have been linked to the potentially fatal meningitis infections.

The FDA said it was advising all health care professionals to follow up with any patients who were given any injectable drug from or produced by the New England Compounding Center. These drugs include medications used in eye surgery, and a heart solution purchased from or produced by the company after May 21.

The CDC on Wednesday had the following state-by-state breakdown of cases: Florida: 23 cases, including 3 deaths; Georgia, 1 case; Idaho, 1 case; Illinois, 1 case; Indiana: 48 cases, including 3 deaths; Maryland: 22 cases, including 1 death; Michigan: 101 cases, including 7 deaths; Minnesota: 10 cases; New Hampshire: 11 cases; New Jersey: 18 cases; New York: 1 case; North Carolina: 3 cases, including 1 death; Ohio: 14 cases; Pennsylvania: 1 case; Rhode Island: 1 case; South Carolina: 1 case; Tennessee: 74 cases, including 11 deaths; Texas: 1 case; Virginia: 45 cases, including 3 deaths.

Health officials said they expect to see more cases of the rare type of meningitis, which is not contagious, because symptoms can take a month or more to appear.

Infected patients have developed a range of symptoms approximately one to four weeks following their injection. People who have had a steroid injection since July, and have any of the following symptoms, should talk to their doctor as soon as possible: worsening headache, fever, sensitivity to light, stiff neck, new weakness or numbness in any part of your body or slurred speech, the CDC said.

Infected patients must be treated with intravenous drugs in a hospital.

Via: Company With Links to Meningitis-Linked Pharmacy Recalls All Products

Kate Moss Channels Morticia Addams For Jonathan Ross's Halloween Party: Is This Her Best Halloween Costume EVER?

Kate Moss always makes an effort for Halloween. When she was dating Jefferson Hack she dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein, in her Johnny Depp days she did an interpretation of a spider in black lace and in 2008, she and Fran Cutler dressed up as Tina Turner and Cher. So it comes as no surprise to see the supermodel pulled out all the stops for this year's shenanigans.

When Jonathan Ross threw his legendary Halloween party in London last night, there was no way Mossy was going to miss out on the fun. And so she got trussed up with hubby Jamie Hince and daughter Lila Grace as the coolest interpretation of the Addams Family we've ever seen. Channelling Morticia, Kate donned a sparkling skin-tight gown under a fur-lined black coat and covered Croydon's finest cheekbones in lashings of white face paint framed by a jet-black wig. She added a blood-red pout, winged eyeliner and fluttering lashes too. Wow-ee. Hair hero Sam McKnight Instagrammed the snaps below which serve to show just how fabulous our Kate looks. Talk about killer cheekbones!

Meanwhile, Jamie was Kate's perfect match as Gomez Addams wearing a maroon coat, dainty moustache, slicked back hair and a bonkers stare. Genius! As for little Lila, she was a very cool cat in a black leather jacket over a leotard and tights topped off with cat ears and a bucket crammed with treats. Oh, and and can you spot James Brown trapesing behind them? With that cape and fangs, he looks JUST like Edward Cullen (ish).

But is this Ms Moss' most spooktacular costume EVER? Take a look at her finest outfits from Halloweens gone by in the gallery above and cast your vote...

Via: Kate Moss Channels Morticia Addams For Jonathan Ross's Halloween Party: Is This Her Best Halloween Costume EVER?

Ten Witches Whose Beauty Regime Wed Steal

With all those eye of newt, tongue of dog, and toe of bat potions, most witches don't have the best beauty game. In folklore and fairytales, they're cast as shadowy figures with bulbous chin moles, matted-down hair — from those pointy-hat wearing, broom zooming days —  and mottled, pock-marked skin. That's why, throughout all eternity, there's few very curse-wielding broads who have broken past those sinister stereotypes. But there are exceptions to this rule. Click through to see Neve Campbell and her sexy school girl coven in The Craft; Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the spell-casting sisters in Practical Magic; Blake Lively's big sister from her Teen Witch days, and more, in our slideshow of smokin' witches. 

Via: Ten Witches Whose Beauty Regime Wed Steal

GOP Candidate Squeezes in One Last Offensive Remark on the 'Rape Thing'

Though it's likely you're already suffering from Republican rape outrage fatigue, there's one extremely late entry into this election's collection of misogynistic quips. At a fund-raiser on Sunday, a liberal activist asked Washington Congressional candidate John Koster if there's any case in which he'd support abortion. In an audio recording posted online, Koster says, "When a mother's life is in danger, I'm not going to make that decision," — though there are other instances in which he is comfortable making that call. "Incest is so rare, I mean, it's so rare," says Koster, saying that as for the "rape thing," he knows one rape survivor who had her child, put it up for adoption, and is now pro-life. He adds, "But on the rape thing, it's like, how does putting more violence onto a woman's body and taking the life of an innocent child that's the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?"

Via: GOP Candidate Squeezes in One Last Offensive Remark on the 'Rape Thing'

Black Breast Cancer Patients May Have Higher Death Risk in First 3 Years

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Black women with breast cancer are much more likely to die within three years of diagnosis than white women with the disease, researchers have found.

The risk is especially high among black women with estrogen receptor-positive tumors, according to Erica Warner, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

She and her colleagues looked at data from more than 19,000 U.S. women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2007 and followed for an average of about seven years.

Overall, black patients were 48 percent more likely than white patients to die of breast cancer in the first three years after diagnosis, and had a 34 percent higher risk afterward, the investigators found.

Asian breast cancer patients were 40 percent less likely to die than white patients. There was no difference in death risk between Hispanic and white patients, the study authors noted.

The findings were presented Sunday at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting about cancer health disparities, held in San Diego.

The study also found the black patients with estrogen receptor-positive tumors were more than twice as likely to die within three years of diagnosis than white patients with that type of breast cancer.

In addition, black women with luminal A and luminal B breast cancer subtypes were also much more likely to die within three years of diagnosis than white women with those cancer subtypes.

"This finding is important because these are the types of tumors that we traditionally think of as more treatable," Warner said in an association news release.

There were no differences in death risk between black women and white women with estrogen receptor-negative, basal or HER2-overexpressing tumor subtypes, the investigators noted.

"The results of this study emphasize that clinical management and follow-up for patients with breast cancer, particularly black women, is important in the first few years after diagnosis," Warner said.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Via: Black Breast Cancer Patients May Have Higher Death Risk in First 3 Years