Celebrity news

Playing a strong hand

Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, apparently knows how to wield more than a stack of chips when everything is riding on it. The soft-spoken patent lawyer from Stonington, Conn., fought off a pair of attackers Dec. 20 at Las Vegas' Bellagio hotel-casino after he had finished playing a cash game of poker, according to a police report. Raymer was returning to his room about 2 a.m. when two men approached. As he opened the door to the room, they tried to push him in. But the heavyset Raymer resisted and began struggling with the men, the report said. As he was fighting, one of the men pulled out a gun and said: "We just want the money." But Raymer didn't give up, and yelled for security, causing the men to flee.
For sale, not cheap
Actor-comedian Eddie Murphy's seven-bedroom mansion in Englewood, N.J., which includes a bowling alley, theater and recording studio, is on the market for $30 million. Murphy, 43, who has owned the gated estate in known as "Bubble Hill" for 18 years, put it on the market this month, a local newspaper reported. The star of "Trading Places," "Beverly Hills Cop" and "The Nutty Professor" bought the 25,000-square-foot home in 1986, four years after it was built. "It's an absolutely magnificent, stupendous house," a Realtor told the newspaper. The mansion also carries a hefty annual property tax bill, totaling nearly $200,000 this year, tax records showed.