Bodyguard

Whoa, Nelly! The Bodyguard, in which Kevin Costner plays a top-flight personal security specialist to Whitney Houston's superstar singer-actress, is a near-classic - one of the sappiest, knuckleheaded bad movies to come out of Hollywood in years. Produced and scripted by Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Grand Canyon) and dutifully directed by Mick Jackson (you can almost hear the talented English filmmaker tossing his arms in futility), The Bodyguard is a shallow, narcissistic romantic melodrama about life in the high sanctums of show business.

George H. Davidson Jr., a retired Philadelphia detective sergeant and former bodyguard for Mayor James H.J. Tate, died Monday. He was 65 and lived in Juniata Park. Davidson was bodyguard for the late mayor for about six years. On one occasion in 1964, he was waiting for Tate near the mayor's limousine at Penn Center when he ran after and captured a man who had just held up a Philadelphia National Bank branch. Another time, in 1960, Davidson walked into a restaurant on Market Street near 13th for a bite to eat and spotted a check-scam suspect he had been seeking for more than three years.

Had he not failed to appear in court on four occasions, reputed mobster Martin "Marty" Angelina might be out of jail today. Angelina, 37, of Smedley Street near Forrestal, yesterday pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy charges. He was held without bail. U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Melinson commended Angelina's attorney, Jack McMahon, for his argument for bail, but said he could not release Angelina because he's repeatedly failed to appear for court. Angelina's wife, Danielle, who has two children under 2, bit her lip trying to hold back tears.

Terry Royster, a bodyguard for 76ers point guard Allen Iverson, surrendered Saturday to police in Hampton, Va., on a rape charge, law enforcement officials confirmed last night. Royster, 37, was held on charges stemming from what police said was a "domestic situation" with a 35-year-old Hampton woman on Nov. 8, at her home. Royster, who was in Hampton, turned himself in after police informed him of the charges by telephone. Officials said Royster had been detained since Saturday and would also be charged with assault.

A preliminary court date of Dec. 22 was set yesterday morning in Hampton, Va., for Terry Royster, the bodyguard of 76ers point guard Allen Iverson. Royster was arrested Saturday on a rape charge. Royster, 37, accompanied by his attorney, Larry Woodward of Virginia Beach, was arraigned in Hampton General District Court on charges of rape and two counts of assault, stemming from a Nov. 8 incident involving a 35-year-old woman believed to be a former girlfriend. No plea was entered by Royster.

Former Atlanta Braves center fielder Otis Nixon was arrested yesteday after allegedly threatening his bodyguard with a knife at a suburban Atlanta hotel, police said. Police said Nixon, 45, drew the knife during a scuffle with Keven Brown, 37. Police intervened after the fight spilled out of Nixon's hotel room and into a hallway at about 12:40 a.m. Brown, 37, told police that Nixon called him and asked the bodyguard to pick up one of Nixon's female friends and bring her to the hotel.

A reputed bodyguard for a former boss of the so-called Junior Black Mafia has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Philadelphia on charges of illegally possessing four firearms. FBI agents, acting on information supplied by informants, found the weapons on Nov. 8 when they searched David Kendrick's apartment on 55th Street near Pennsgrove Street, according to court records. At the time, Kendrick was free on $150,000 bail, awaiting trial in the Jan. 17, 1990 shooting of a Philadelphia police officer.

LOS ANGELES - One of Michael Jackson's bodyguards had barely stepped into the singer's bedroom when he heard a scream. "Daddy!" Jackson's young daughter cried. A few feet away, the singer lay motionless in his bed, eyes slightly open. His personal doctor, Conrad Murray, was trying to revive him when he saw that Jackson's older children were watching. "Don't let them see their dad like this," Murray said, the first of many orders that bodyguard Alberto Alvarez testified Thursday that he heeded in the moments before paramedics arrived at Jackson's home in June 2009.

Troubled cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones won't be disciplined by the Dallas Cowboys for a scuffle with his bodyguard that team owner Jerry Jones said resulted from joking banter that got out of hand and was quickly settled. "They were literally kidding each other," Jerry Jones said yesterday. "They were jiving around . . . and all of a sudden one of them starting saying some things, and here you go. " Dallas police were called to an upscale downtown hotel because of the disturbance late Tuesday night.

WARREN Messing has two overstuffed, timeworn scrapbooks, painstakingly compiled by his wife, that document his 23 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. There aren't any perp walks here, though. Instead, there's the stocky officer with Elizabeth Taylor. And Sylvester Stallone. And John Travolta. To name a few. Messing, on the force from 1960 to 1983, was a bodyguard to the famous and glamorous who traveled through Philadelphia in an era when star sightings and film crews weren't as common as they are today.

The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston's 1992 film debut, crystallized the late pop sensation's success as a woman for all media. Commemorating both the 20th anniversary of the movie that nearly wasn't and the life of the talent that is no more, Warner Home Video releases a Blu-ray video of this film Tuesday that had a longer gestation than an elephant. On Wednesday, The Bodyguard will have a one-night-only revival on a big screen near you, the ideal context for fans to sing along with Houston's renditions of "Queen of the Night" and "I Will Always Love You," songs that made the film's soundtrack one of the best sellers in history.

WARREN Messing has two overstuffed, timeworn scrapbooks, painstakingly compiled by his wife, that document his 23 years in the Philadelphia Police Department. There aren't any perp walks here, though. Instead, there's the stocky officer with Elizabeth Taylor. And Sylvester Stallone. And John Travolta. To name a few. Messing, on the force from 1960 to 1983, was a bodyguard to the famous and glamorous who traveled through Philadelphia in an era when star sightings and film crews weren't as common as they are today.

LOS ANGELES - One of Michael Jackson's bodyguards had barely stepped into the singer's bedroom when he heard a scream. "Daddy!" Jackson's young daughter cried. A few feet away, the singer lay motionless in his bed, eyes slightly open. His personal doctor, Conrad Murray, was trying to revive him when he saw that Jackson's older children were watching. "Don't let them see their dad like this," Murray said, the first of many orders that bodyguard Alberto Alvarez testified Thursday that he heeded in the moments before paramedics arrived at Jackson's home in June 2009.

SEEMS AS IF Patti LaBelle 's next single should be a cover of the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me. " On Wednesday, Richard King filed a lawsuit against the Wynnewood-based LaBelle and her bodyguards after they allegedly beat the living crap out of him. King, a West Point cadet and member of the school's football team, was returning home for spring break on March 11 via Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston when LaBelle's bodyguard's...

MONTERREY, Mexico - The mayor of a Mexican town who survived two drug cartel assassination attempts now has his own corrido , a genre of Mexican folk song that in recent years has been more devoted to glorifying the exploits of drug traffickers than public servants. But in a Mexico desperate for heroes, plain-talking Mayor Jaime Rodriguez Calderon seems made to order: The song dedicated to him is called "El Alcalde Bronco," or "The Unbroken Mayor. " "I'm not one of these politicians who hides what they think.

WHILE ELIZABETH Taylor was in Philadelphia in 1982, performing the Noel Coward comedy "Private Lives" with ex-hubby Richard Burton, Warren Messing was always by her side. Messing, a veteran Philadelphia police officer, acted as Taylor's bodyguard, protecting her from overenthusiastic fans and ushering her through high society while she performed in a four-week run at the Forrest Theatre. Messing - now 74 and retired, living with his wife in North Wildwood - wasn't supposed to trail Dame Liz. He initially was hired to serve as extra security detail, despite retiring from the police force a week before, after 23 years on the job. But Taylor's regular bodyguard was sent off to New York due to a drug problem.

A former Camden police detective, once a mayoral bodyguard, was sentenced Friday to a year of probation for "offensively" touching women and filing false police reports. Keith Hicks, 51, had been on the force for 19 years and "served the community well" before violating the public's trust, Superior Court Judge Irvin J. Snyder said. In March, Hicks pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment and one count of tampering with or fabricating evidence related to three cases. Prosecutors said Hicks had offensively touched two women and ordered a third to undress.

A former Camden police detective, once a mayoral bodyguard, was sentenced Friday to a year of probation for "offensively" touching women and filing false police reports. Keith Hicks, 51, had been on the force for 19 years and "served the community well" before violating the public's trust, Superior Court Judge Irvin J. Snyder said. In March, Hicks pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment and one count of tampering with or fabricating evidence related to three cases. Prosecutors said Hicks had offensively touched two women and ordered a third to undress.

A Pennsylvania state trooper with Ben Roethlisberger the night he was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old college student in a Georgia nightclub is subject to the agency's code of conduct regardless of whether he was working for the Steelers quarterback, state police said. An ongoing internal investigation will determine whether Trooper Ed Joyner did anything "that could reasonably be expected to destroy public respect for the Pennsylvania State Police or confidence in the state police," said Lt. Myra Taylor, a state police spokeswoman.

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt yesterday filed papers opposing his wife's demand to be reinstated as the team's chief executive, citing insubordination and an affair she allegedly had with her bodyguard. The documents were submitted 1 day after Jamie McCourt filed divorce papers seeking to regain her $2 million-a-year job. In a filing submitted by the Dodgers that opposes her return to the team, Dodgers attorneys allege that Jamie McCourt took a trip with her bodyguard, Jeff Fuller, in early July to Israel on team business, but then headed to France for 2 1/2 weeks and billed the Dodgers for the trip.