Anderson protests Canada’s annual seal hunt

TORONTO – Pamela Anderson has added her name to the growing list of celebrities speaking out against Canada’s annual seal hunt, which just got under way.

Anderson, who hosted Sunday’s Juno Awards, Canada’s largest music awards, has asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper turned down a similar request by French film legend Brigitte Bardot, who traveled to Ottawa last week to protest the hunt.

The seal hunt has attracted plenty of celebrity protesters this year, including Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills, who called the cull “a stain on the character of the Canadian people” and urged the government to turn to ecotourism in the region.

British singer Morrissey said he won’t include Canada on any tours until the seal hunt ends.

“As a proud Canadian who frequently travels abroad, I am alarmed that people are starting to see Canada as a country more beholden to a pack of greedy hunters and to the sealskin `fashion’ whims of a few countries than to the massive international outcry against the hunt,” Anderson said in a letter faxed to Harper’s office late Monday.

“One of the biggest problems facing the U.S. government is appearing aloof about its own hostile behavior; I’d hate to see that happen north of the border too.”

Anderson is a native of British Columbia in western Canada.

The actress said she’s collected thousands of signatures on an online People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals petition protesting the annual hunt, which opened last Saturday in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The regulated hunt begins among the aboriginal Inuits in the Arctic North in November and will move to Newfoundland and Labrador in April.

Simpson considers adoption before having own children

LOS ANGELES – Jessica Simpson has babies on the brain.

The 25-year-old singer filed for divorce from Nick Lachey last December but her publicist says Simpson is looking at adoption.

“Nothing has been finalized yet” as to when and how Simpson will adopt, her publicist, Rob Shuter, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. But he added, “It is true that she’s exploring options.”

Shuter said Simpson and her family have anonymously contributed funds to a smattering of Mexican orphanages for several years now. The singer started visiting the orphanages with a church group at age 11.

“I want to adopt, and I plan to adopt before I have my own kids,” the pop star recently told TV’s “Extra.”

In the interview, Simpson cited a certain high-profile mother as an influence.

“I think Angelina Jolie has done amazing, amazing things, and the international adoption rate just since her has skyrocketed,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Simpson is best known for starring in the MTV reality show “Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica” with Lachey, who gained fame as a member of the boy band 98 Degrees.

PBS host undergoes heart surgery in Paris

NEW YORK – Talk-show host Charlie Rose was scheduled to undergo heart surgery in Paris on Wednesday after experiencing shortness of breath last week while in Syria, a spokesman said.

Rose, 64, the anchor and executive editor of PBS’ “The Charlie Rose Show,” was in Syria to interview President Bashar Assad.

Rose was examined by cardiologists in Paris and entered the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital on Saturday.

He is to undergo mitral valve repair, an open-heart procedure to treat narrowing or regurgitation of the valve, according to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

Spokesman Howard Rubenstein said he had talked with Rose on Tuesday and “he sounded real good.”

Rose will recuperate in Paris after the surgery before returning to New York. His doctors expect him to be back at work by the end of April, according to a statement from Rubenstein.

In the meantime, Rose’s program will be hosted by journalists and foreign policy experts chosen by his staff, the statement said.

“The Charlie Rose Show” airs on more than 200 PBS affiliates around the United States.

Compiled by the Associated Press