People news 10/4/03

Lil' Kim's name removed from wanted fugitive list

TEANECK, N.J. -- Lil' Kim is no longer a fugitive in New Jersey.

Her real name, Kimberly Jones, was removed from Teaneck's wanted list Tuesday after someone posted $350 bail on her behalf, The Record of Bergen County reported in Friday's editions.

The 28-year-old rapper apparently failed to appear on a marijuana possession charge four years ago and the court had issued a warrant for her arrest. The warrant became known several days ago when the Web site The Smoking Gun reported on it.

Attorney Mel Sachs said his client believed the case had been resolved and that she didn't need to be present in court.

"She wasn't avoiding the case," Sachs said. "She wants to meet any and all obligations to the court."

Lil' Kim was at her Hillsdale home, the lawyer said, and Teaneck detective Lt. Dean Kazinci said police hadn't been actively pursuing the warrant.

A new court date hasn't been set.

Lil' Kim was arrested in July 1996 during a raid at the Glen Pointe condominium of rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., Kazinci said.

Jerry Garcia's artwork adorns California wine

GEYSERVILLE, Calif. -- The next time you drink to the memory of Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia, you can toast him with his own signature wine.

The Clos du Bois winery is launching J. Garcia wines, which feature Garcia's artwork on its labels. Garcia's abstract creations already have graced T-shirts and neckties.

"The first release to our distributors is sold out," winery spokesman Kelly Keasy said in the Marin Independent Journal this week. "It's been unbelievably well-received."

The initial release consists of 50,000 cases of 2002 Sonoma County chardonnay, 2000 Sonoma County merlot and 2000 Sonoma County cabernet sauvignon. A zinfandel is due out later this year.

Garcia, who died of a heart attack in 1995, attended high school near this Sonoma County town, about 90 miles north of San Francisco. Members of his estate, who say Garcia enjoyed drinking Clos du Bois wine, approached the winery about putting Garcia's artwork on its bottles.

This isn't the first time the Grateful Dead has inspired wine enthusiasts. Six years ago, the wine company Celebrity Cellars released a nonalcoholic series called "Dead Red," which featured images of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead on their bottles.

Plaque marks London home of Mary Shelley

LONDON -- The biographer of "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley unveiled an English Heritage blue commemorative plaque at the writer's London home on Friday.

Miranda Seymour led tributes to Shelley at the house at 24 Chester Square in central London where the author lived from 1846 until her death in 1851.

Mary Godwin, born into a freethinking family in London in 1797, married the poet and radical Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816.

In 1822 her husband drowned in a sailing accident off the coast of Italy, and Mary Shelley returned to London in the summer of 1823 with their 3-year-old son Percy.