Zoo chimp settles on porn channel, and more

Zoo chimp settles on porn channel

A chimpanzee at a Spanish zoo spends much of her day watching human pornography. Primatologist Pablo Herreros says his goal in giving Gina the chimp a television set was to provide her with mental stimulation. Within days, Herreros says, Gina was not only “using the remote control perfectly well,” but using it exclusively “to access the porn channel.” Whether human or non-human, Herreros concludes, all “primates possess an intense sexual life.”

Katie Holmes hires a dating coach

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Katie Holmes has hired a dating coach, says ShowbizSpy.com. Since her divorce last year from Tom Cruise, the 34-year-old actress has been living quietly in New York with daughter Suri. Now Holmes is lonely and ready to start dating again, and friends say she has hired a professional to teach her “flirting tips,” as well as the art of connecting with strangers. “It’s really hard to meet people in New York,” says one friend, “especially when you’re a single mother. It’s a new year and she wants to do something about it.”

Special delivery: $14,000 in cash

A California man has paid off a $14,000 property-tax bill using only dollar bills and loose change. Larry Gasper says he wasn’t deliberately trying to inconvenience county officials with the unorthodox payment, which he transported to county offices in a wheelbarrow—causing the clerks’ jaws to drop. It’s just that he’s very short of money, and had to scrape up the payment by gathering up all his change, taking small donations from various friends who “offered to help a bit,” and then tapping “my grandkids’ piggy banks and my daughters’ piggy banks.”