Travolta Recounts Effort to Save 'Autistic' Jett

Tarino Lightbourne tries to turn the tables on John Travolta at extortion trial

(NEWSER) - Jett Travolta was “dead, d-e-a-d, dead” before the ambulance arrived, Bahamian paramedic Tarino Lightbourne testified yesterday—adding that it was the Travoltas’ lawyer who offered him $15 million to destroy a “Refusal of Transport/Treatment” document signed by the actor. The paramedic is charged along with a former Bahamas senator with attempting to extort $25 million from Travolta over claims that he and wife Kelly Preston intentionally killed their son. More»

(NEWSER) - Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne, the second of three suspects held in the John Travolta extortion case, pleaded not guilty today to conspiracy charges in the Bahamas, E! Online reports. Lightbourne had driven Jett Travolta to a hospital the day he died. The paramedic is being held without bail; a prosecutor says his release could compromise the search for a “certain document,” perhaps a photo of Jett’s body. More»

They want son's spirit to live on, says ex-Scientologist

(NEWSER) - John Travolta and Kelly Preston are expecting a baby just 16 months after the death of son Jett—but are they hoping that baby will actually be Jett? That’s what one former Scientologist, who left the church after 24 years, tells the New York Post . “The whole ethos of Scientology is that we come back,” says Michael Pattinson, and practitioners believe a dead follower’s spirit can live on in a new body. More»

John, Kelly speak publicly for first time since Jett's tragic death

(NEWSER) - Near-daily religious counseling has helped the family cope with the loss of Jett, say John Travolta and Kelly Preston, who spoke out for the first time since his January death. “We've been working very hard every day as a family to heal,” Travolta says, "We have our own way of doing it, and it has been helping." The family was taking part in a roundtable interview for Old Dogs, which stars 9-year-old daughter Ella Bleu, USA Today reports. More»

Alleged extortionists to face new trial after word of acquittal gets out

(NEWSER) - A Bahamian judge ordered a mistrial in the John Travolta extortion case yesterday after a loose-lipped juror apparently spread word that one of the two accused would be acquitted. The judge blamed juror misconduct after a local politician made a speech saying that a former senator—charged along with a paramedic of trying to extort $25 million from Travolta over his son's death—was "a free woman." The pair will be tried again, the New York Daily News reports. More»