Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Married:

actor ORLANDO BLOOM and Victoria's Secret supermodel MIRANDA KERR. The pair began dating in 2007; he's 33 and she's 27. The pair has denied that they were getting married, but earlier today, a rep for the Australian store David Jones, for which Miranda is a spokesperson, released a statement saying that she'd had to cancel plans for an appearance because she was on her honeymoon. Reuters obtained the statement from Miranda, which said "We have been trying to plan this for some time and unfortunately the only window of opportunity for our honeymoon fell at the same time."

Political Racket /Dirty Tricks:

Lobbyists and PR pros are cashing in on the oil spill ravaging the Gulf of Mexico as offshore drilling and environmental groups shell out big bucks to convince lawmakers to push for their favored legislation.
   Transocean, which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon, spent nothing on lobbying before the rig's April 20 explosion. Since then, it's spent $110-thousand to lobby on energy bills, and a seven-figure sum on media consultants and lawyers.
   The oil industry group American Petroleum Institute has spent $2.3 million since March, almost doubling its lobbying outlays. BP has hired big-name lobbyists with deep ties to government, getting help with veterans of the Clinton and Reagan administrations.
   The Environmental Defense Fund increased its lobbying from $522-thousand to $670-thousand from the first quarter to the second, and the Wilderness Society boosted its spending from $61-thousand to $99-thousand.
   A Sierra Club lobbyist said the numbers reflect an "all-hands-on-deck situation." (Maiman)

Lawsuit of the Day:

A Washington State woman is suing American Airlines for refusing to refund her luggage fee after they lost her bags.
   DANIELLE COVARRUBIAS (coh-vah-ROO-bee-us) flew from Seattle to Grand Rapids, MI, and paid $25 to check her bag. When the bag didn't turn up (with $800 worth of clothes and personals) she asked the airline if there was anything she could do, airline personnel told her nothing. And when she demanded they at least refund her baggage fee immediately --she was denied.
   Now she's suing the airline for $5 million.
   According to the lawsuit, American Airlines damages, loses or delays more than 24-hundred pieces of luggage a day.
   American won't comment but according to the airline's policy, customers can get those fees reimbursed if they file a written claim over lost luggage and ask for a refund. No word on whether Danielle did that; she's not talking, either.

Cops & robbers:

The Farce is with Darth:
   Darth Vader held up a Chase bank in Setauket, Long Island, yesterday. The NY Daily News reports the person wearing a Darth Vader costume stalked into the bank, shoved another customer (--who thought "Darth" was joking--) out of the way, pulled out a pistol and pulled out a mass of cash from the teller drawers.
   The surveillance camera at the bank, however, showed the robber wearing camouflage pants under the cape --bad form. Also: no light saber.
   The guy got away with an undetermined amount of cash.

Stars and their movies:

Have you had enough of bad TV remakes hitting the silver screen? Prepare yourself --there's another one coming. WILMER VALDERRAMA bragged to AbsoluteNow.com that he's signed on to play "Ponch" in the upcoming movie based on the 70's cop show "CHiPs." The actor says ERIK ESTRADA is giving him some tips and he's already learned to ride a motorcycle for the role. (Lee)

Grace notes:

BEYONCE got pulled over for texting while driving. That's illegal in New York City, and TheBoomBox.com says Beyoncé tried to charm her way our of it, but the cop who pulled her over on June 23rd didn't know who she was! The singer was issued a 100-dollar ticket. (Marino)