Sammy Hagar on Sharing Chickenfoot Drummer with Chili Peppers,

Chickenfoot is four songs and "seven pieces of new music" into its second album, according to frontman Sammy Hagar. But he acknowledges there's some concern about keeping that not-so-old gang of theirs together.

The challenge is drummer Chad Smith and his regular gig with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are currently writing for the follow-up to 2006's "Stadium Arcadium." "Once they start recording, Chad's never going to be able to get a break," Hagar tells Billboard.com. "If he does, he'll get a couple weeks here, a couple days there, which is not really enough to devote to Chickenfoot. And when they're done with [the album] they're gonna go on the road for a year and a half. So we either have to get a new drummer or wait for Chad...which is unfair to Chickenfoot. It's too good a band."

But Hagar says he, Smith and rest of Chickenfoot -- guitarist Joe Satriani and founding Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony -- are not frustrated by the situation. "We care, but at the same time [Chickenfoot] is not mandatory," Hagar explains. "It's not like we feel like, 'Hey, this is our only chance in life.' Everyone's already been there, done that. Chickenfoot is not our bread and butter, and I think that's really important."

Chickenfoot will play together again on Sept. 10 in Indio, Calif., and Sept. 11 in Stateline, Nev. Hagar says the group had plans to hit the studio after that but things are "kind of up in the air."

However, the frontman is stoked by the material he and Satriani are writing, including the four songs Chickenfoot has already worked on as a quartet. "We probably have a record ready to go," Hagar reports. "It's just waiting for when we can all get together to do it" -- a process also complicated by the Oct. 5 release of Satriani's next album, "Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards," and a three-plus month world tour that starts Oct. 16 in Ireland and comes to North America in December.

Meanwhile, Hagar and his band the Wabos are currently supporting Aerosmith. He has no recording plans of his own at the moment but is working on an autobiography, "Red," with San Francisco music journalist Joel Selvin that he promises will be "really revealing, right down to just about everything you'd want to know" -- including his tenures in Montrose and Van Halen.

"I figure there's only one shot at an autobiography, and you've got to tell the story, as much as it may be painful," says Hagar, who has made two previous attempts at his memoirs. "I really believe there's a lot of people out there that really have no idea where I came from and who I really am. I've never been a press junkie, and I think that's a good thing. So I think the book is going to blow people's minds."

Martin Short's wife dies

LOS ANGELES – Martin Short's wife, Nancy Dolman, has died. She was 58.

Short's manager, Marc Gurvitz, said Monday that Short's wife of 30 years had died but provided no cause of death or any additional details. Short, best known for his comedic roles on "Saturday Night Live" and in the "Father of the Bride" franchise, married Dolman in 1980 after the pair met while working together in a production of "Godspell."

They have three children: Katherine, 27, Oliver, 24, and Henry, 20.

The Big Picture

PATRICK GOLDSTEIN ON THE COLLISION OF ENTERTAINMENT, MEDIA AND POP CULTURE

Jennifer Aniston: Exactly why is she a movie star?

Let's face it. When it comes to enduring mysteries, it's hard to come up with something more mystifying than how Jennifer Aniston became a movie star. After all, she's made an almost-unbroken string of forgettable movies that have rarely made a lot of money, a streak that looks like it will remain intact with the release of "The Switch" this weekend. So how did it happen? As it turns out, my favorite sports columnist, ESPN's Bill Simmons, has a provocative--and hugely entertaining--theory about how Aniston has managed to remain an A-list star, despite appearing in such hapless sludge as "Derailed," "Rumor Has It," "Management," "Love Happens," "He's Just Not That Into You" and "The Bounty Hunter."

Aniston's biggest hit was "Marley & Me," though it's something of a stretch to say that she was the driving force for the film's box-office triumph. Or as Simmons puts it: "They could have made this movie with Betty White playing Owen Wilson's wife and it still would have made $100 million." So why hasn't Aniston faded into obscurity, ya know, like Matt LeBlanc and some of the other "Friends" lesser lights? Here's a condensed version of Simmons' theory:

"Because of the Angelina/Brad/Jennifer love triangle, which is like Brett Favre's comeback/retirement/comeback routine multiplied by 10, but has been cruising along for twice as long. The saga evolved in various forms: the betrayal itself; the aftermath, when Aniston licked her wounds as "Brangelina" took off; her futile search for a bounce-back boyfriend; the Brangelina clan expanding; everyone feeling worse and worse for Aniston, with her finally admitting that she was still bummed out; the Brangelina clan expanding again; Aniston's weird dalliance with the much younger John Mayer, which ended when he talked out of school about her; the Brangelina clan expanding again; Aniston approaching her 40th birthday and wanting a baby; the Brangelina clan producing twins; Aniston hitting 40 with no baby or husband; Aniston passing 40 with no baby or husband. People can't get enough of this stuff. Aniston resonates with women like no other celebrity. No matter how wealthy or famous or good-looking she is, the nuts and bolts of Aniston's "tragic" story could have happened to anyone: She lost her scummy husband to a seductive co-worker. Maybe it was the worst thing that ever happened to her personally, but professionally? Godsend."

Being The Sports Guy, Simmons compares Aniston to an aging athlete (think Karl Malone or Steve Nash) who, having never won a championship ring, is desperate to finally get into the winner's circle. In fact, he theorizes that if Aniston had remarried in 2006 to a rich Rande Gerber type and had a couple of kids, by 2010, "would anyone care about Jennifer Aniston? NO!!!!!!" Only if she made good movies, something that has so far largely eluded her. Simmons suspects that Aniston doesn't much want to make great movies, saying "she's happy being a likable celebrity with decent comic timing who plays herself in every movie (with only her hairstyle and co-star changing)."

I suspect this strain of career success/personal unhappiness runs deep in the Hollywood DNA. After all, there are loads of old-school showbiz starlets, dating back to the days of Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth, who had all sorts of similar man trouble, the only difference being that in those days, you married all the louses and had to endure a quickie Mexican divorce before you could regain your freedom. Who knows? Maybe Aniston will find Mr. Right tomorrow and enjoy a burst of later-in-life happiness. If having a successful marriage freed her from the shackles of being on the cover of US every other month, I bet marital bliss couldn't come a minute too soon.

Soundgarden rocker broke, homeless

The Soundgarden reunion could not have come at a better time for bassist Ben Shepherd, who confessed he's broke and "technically homeless".

In an interview with Spin magazine, Shepherd admits he has been sleeping at friends' homes after breaking up with his girlfriend.

He tells the publication, "I've been sleeping on studio couches and at friends' houses. I'm totally broke."

But Shepherd, 41, admits his current predicament is nothing compared to the low he experienced when Soundgarden split in the late 1990s.

He recalls, "My whole life seemed over. Soundgarden broke up; my other band, Hater, broke up; my fiancee broke up with me, and then I broke three ribs.

"I got addicted to pain pills, drank a ton, and wound up OD'ing on morphine. I was laid out in my house for five days, and no one knew it. It was a f**king horrible time."

Elvis faithful make pilgrimage to Graceland

MEMPHIS — Elvis Presley fans from around the world flocked to Graceland on Sunday for the annual late night procession past the king of rock 'n' roll's grave.

Presley died at his Graceland mansion Aug. 16, 1977. The procession is the highlight of a week-long series of fan-club meetings, film showings and Elvis-impersonator contests. Elvis purchased the 13-acre Graceland property in 1957 for a song — just a bit more than $100,000.

Dozens of multi-colored but empty chairs lined the walls of Graceland on Sunday afternoon, their early-arriving owners seeking refuge from 100-degree temperatures at water stations.

The procession usually attracts several thousand fans and runs into the morning hours. Fans usually leave flowers, teddy bears and other items at the grave site, which also is the resting place of Presley's father Vernon, his mother Gladys and grandmother Minnie Mae.

Paul Fivelson came from Chicago to meet up with a buddy he met at the vigil three years ago. Wearing shorts and a black Elvis Week T-shirt, Fivelson said he likes to be near the front of the line to meet interesting people as they walk by the famous stone wall, which has personal messages from fans written on it.

Fivelson, 58, said he takes pride in being "a die-hard Elvis loyalist" who listens to the American icon's music every day. His granddaughter's name is Presley.

"I miss him, I loved him," said Fivelson, a substitute teacher. "To be part of the Elvis experience and the aura of the whole thing, just means everything in the world to me."

Before the procession, fans from as far as Japan and England browsed Graceland's sprawling souvenir shopping center and gathered under a large tent across the street from the mansion to listen to performers belt out Elvis tunes.

Shelley Somerville flew from Australia with her husband for their honeymoon. Hours before the procession, she held an umbrella to shield herself from the sun. It's the third candlelight vigil for Somerville, who said she likes Elvis' gospel music the most.

"Elvis has touched a lot of hearts, and there's something spiritual about him," said Somerville, a 31 year-old administrative assistant. "There's a calming feeling around him."

The week's festivities included conversations with writers, photographers and close friends of Elvis, including Joe Esposito, part of the Elvis entourage nicknamed the "Memphis mafia."

'Muppet Show' bandleader Jack Parnell dies at 87

LONDON – British jazz drummer Jack Parnell, who served as bandleader on "The Muppet Show," has died aged 87, his family said Monday.

The family said Parnell died at his home in Southwold, eastern England, on Sunday following a yearlong battle with cancer.

Parnell was born in 1923, the son of a showbiz family — his father was a music hall performer and his uncle ran a string of theaters — and began drumming professionally as a teenager. During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force and performed in a band at the headquarters of Bomber Command.

Later, Parnell joined the renowned Ted Heath jazz band before leading his own ensembles.

As musical director at British broadcaster ATV from the late 1950s, he oversaw the music for long-running variety show "Sunday Night at the London Palladium," produced specials featuring Tom Jones and Barbra Streisand, composed theme tunes and served as musical director of "The Benny Hill Show."

In 1976, ATV began producing "The Muppet Show," a musical variety show with a cast of Jim Henson puppets and celebrity human guest stars.

Parnell conducted the orchestra for the whole of the series' five-year run, although the ostensible bandleader was the pop-eyed Muppet conductor, Nigel.

Parnell retired from ATV in 1982 but continued to perform with bands near his home well into his 80s.

He is survived by his wife, Veronica, two daughters and three sons — two of them drummers.

Oscar-winner actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Actress Patricia Neal, who won an Oscar in 1964 for "Hud" and later fought back from crippling strokes, has died at age 84.

Neal had lung cancer and died at her home in Edgarton, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard, Sunday morning, said longtime friend Bud Albers of Knoxville, Tenn.

The Kentucky-born Neal, famous for her husky voice, was already a Tony-winning stage actress when she made her film debut in 1949. Among her movies were "The Fountainhead" and "A Face in the Crowd."

The year after winning the Academy Award, she suffered a series of strokes and had to relearn to walk and talk. But she returned to the screen and earned another Oscar nomination and three Emmy nominations.

Albers said her family let him know of her death. A stroke and brain injury rehabilitation center is named for her in Knoxville.

'Caddyshack' star Resin dies

Caddyshack actor Dan Resin has died at the age of 79.

The star, best known for his role as Mr. Beeper in the 1980 comedy film, passed away on Friday in Oakland, New Jersey after suffering complications from Parkinson's disease.

Resin began his career on Broadway in the 1950s, with roles in productions such as My Fair Lady and Once Upon a Mattress.

He later stepped offstage and in front of the camera and starred in commercials and TV shows, as well as films including Wise Guys, The Sunshine Boys and The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover.

He is best remembered for his role opposite Chevy Chase and Bill Murray in Caddyshack.

Resin is survived by his wife of 56 years, Margaret, and three daughters, according to Variety.com.

Ono still opposes Chapman parole

John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono is continuing her staunch opposition to his killer's release - she has submitted her sixth letter to U.S. court officials in a bid to deny Mark Chapman parole.

The Beatles legend was shot dead in New York in 1980 and Chapman was later convicted of his murder and sentenced to 20-years-to-life behind bars.

He became eligible for parole in 2000 and Ono has consistently opposed his release.

Chapman, now 55, will face another parole board hearing early next month and Ono has written to officials once again to insist she would not feel safe if her husband's killer is freed.

Ono's lawyer Peter Shukat tells the New York Daily News, "Her position has not changed."

Robert Gangi, head of prisoners' rights group, Correctional Association of America, is convinced Chapman will not be released following the upcoming parole hearing.

He says, "Given that he committed a high profile crime and he killed one of the most famous and most beloved figures literally in the world, it's highly unlikely three parole commissioners would vote to grant him release."

Actor Maury Chaykin dies at 61

Maury Chaykin, a prolific and award-winning actor recently seen in the hit TV comedy Less Than Kind, has died.

The veteran actor died in Toronto early Tuesday, his 61st birthday, his agent Paul Hemrend told CBC News. No cause of death was confirmed, but Chaykin had been battling kidney problems.

Chaykin, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to an American father and Canadian mother, studied drama at the State University of New York in Buffalo.

He moved to Toronto to join the theatre scene in the mid-1970s, and the city would remain his base for the rest of his life.

Ferne Downey, national president of the actors union ACTRA, hailed Chaykin for his contribution to Canadian film and TV on Tuesday.

"Maury was an infinitely gifted actor who has left us an incomparable body of work that will be cherished for many generations to come," she said.

"We will miss his passion for his craft and his love and commitment to building our Canadian industry."

An actor with more than 120 credits, Chaykin regularly appeared in the films of Atom Egoyan (Adoration, Where the Truth Lies, The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica, The Adjuster) and Don McKellar (Cooking with Stella, Blindness ).

Other prominent appearances include Whale Music, Dances with Wolves and the TV film Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks. He played the titular detective in a Nero Wolfe series and appeared in Entourage in a notable send-up of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

In Whale Music, based on the novel by Canadian Paul Quarrington, who died earlier this year, Chaykin played the washed-up rock star who spends his time mourning his dead brother (played by Paul Gross) and writing music for whales. That performance — part pathos, part comedy — earned him a Genie Award for best actor.

In an April interview on CBC's cultural affairs show Q, Chaykin said he didn't consider "character actor" a negative label.

"It's been a real blessing over the years," he said. "I don't know what to attribute it to, other than creative producers and directors who see different things in an actor. And they've seen different aspects of me.

"There have been attempts to typecast me. But I've been in control of that ... by protecting myself financially, so that I'm not in a position where I have to take the same kinds of gigs all the time. The word 'no' is my protection.

"But I've been so happy with the way things have panned out, and the kind of roles that I've been offered have been interesting to me and those are the ones that I accept," he said, listing roles such as Desmond Howl in Whale Music, Uncle Arthur in Diane Keaton's Unstrung Heroes and the wealthy entrepreneur in Egoyan's The Adjuster as his favourite roles.

He also earned Gemini awards for his spots in La Femme Nikita in 1998 and CBC's At the Hotel in 2006.

Most recently, Chaykin starred as Sam Blecher, the driving-instructor father of the main character Sheldon Blecher, in the edgy, coming-of-age comedy Less Than Kind, produced by Mark McKinney.

"I'm having a great time," Chaykin said of the production, which he hailed as a "group of people who all love what they're doing."

Chaykin is survived by his wife, actress Susannah Hoffmann, and their daughter, Rose.

Honoring Zappa

Plans are underway to honor iconoclastic musician / composer Frank Zappa in the city of his birth, including a bust and a performance by son Dweezil’s band, Zappa Plays Zappa.

Zappa was born in Baltimore, Dec. 21, 1940. Now the city is planning a proper tribute to one of the most unique musicians of the 20th century. Scheduled for Sept. 19, the event will include an unveiling and dedication of a bust contributed by a Lithuanian fan club.

The bust will be placed at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Southeast Anchor in the Highlandtown neighborhood. Plans call for various Zappa-related events to be held at the library and nearby Patterson Theatre.

For Zappa historians, the Sept. 19 dedication date marks the 25th anniversary of the guitarist’s testifying on Capitol Hill in favor of free expression by recording artists. Zappa’s testimony before the Senate’s Commerce, Technology and Transportation committee was in direct response to efforts by the Parents Music Research Center’s (PMRC) efforts to persuade the recording industry to label records considered to contain objectionable material. The PRMC was co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-Senator Al Gore.

A wider range of events planned by Clearpath Entertainment in collaboration with the Zappa family, the Southeastern Community Development Corporation, Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Creative Library will help anchor the new Highlandtown Arts and Entertainment district and will include a library exhibit, symposiums, and a party taking place after the dedication and concert.

“Frank Zappa’s musical genius and influence is undeniable and it has always been a must for us that Dweezil headline this show in the ultimate tribute to his father,” Clearpath’s David Christensen said. “This is going to be Zappa Plays Zappa, next to Zappa’s statue, on a street dedicated Zappa Way, on Zappa Day; it couldn’t be more fitting.”

Q&A: Bill Murray

In Friday’s “Get Low,” Bill Murray plays Frank Quinn, a funeral director in 1930s Tennessee who’s hired to plan a funeral for Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), a crazed-hermit type who wants his wake and eulogy to be staged while he’s still alive.

Based on the true story of a Roane County man who drew national attention for his scheme, it’s a perfect part for Murray, who has mastered the art of expressing the unique absurdity of any situation.

Question - Robert Duvall plays a pretty convincing nut. Was he actually tough to act with?

It was tough. You’re playing behind the beat, because he’s set in this crazy rhythm, and you’re sort of chasing a meat wagon that’s rolling down the street.

It’s either challenging or nervous, but you know that he can do anything you can do, so you don’t wanna aim low. You don’t wanna throw a softball out there. You gotta just open a can of beans on him every time, because that’s your job. I’m gonna push him as hard as I can to get the best out of him. It’s like testing spaghetti. You throw it on the wall and see what happens.

Question - And how did you approach your funeral-director role?

I actually knew people in the funeral business. My grandfather got a job as a greeter in a funeral home. He was such an amazing person. He would just be there as if he were a friend to the deceased, and people would talk to him about the deceased. When he died himself, there was an enormous turnout for him, because all these people had become friends with him at their own family’s funerals.

Question - Did the filmmakers know about your family’s funeral experience when they offered you the role?

No. That’s a film I should be making myself. Funerals, especially in my family, were always times of great hilarity, even in times of deepest sadness. My father died when I was a youth, and there were all of us, nine kids in a limousine, just laughing about all the cousins and relatives outside the window going, “Get a load of that.” People are looking at the car going, “Oh, it must be so sad in there,” and we’re just roaring on the inside.

Question - You’re known to be really picky about your roles. What are you looking for?

I’m really just lazy. I don’t have any plan about it. In the early days, there were comedies because that’s what I came out of and people sent you scripts that were varying degrees of whatever, and you were free to improvise all the time. You could change everything. But if you stay around long enough and don’t humiliate yourself, you receive better scripts. When people see you can handle something with a little more range, then you get more and more things. I’ve been lucky to get a whole different generation of filmmakers to send me their material and say, “Would you do this?” And I’ve been lucky that they’re good directors.

Question - Out of all the improvised scenes you’ve done, which are you proudest of?

The “it just doesn’t matter” speech in “Meatballs” was a complete rave. I just said, “put in a full load [of film],” and they put in like, 1,800 feet or something [about 20 minutes worth] — and I basically did the whole thing. That’s when you really dazzle a crowd.

Also, in “Where the Buffalo Roam.” It’s unfortunate — we made a mistake on it — but taking questions from the audience as Hunter Thompson, and just answering as myself as Hunter Thompson, was really wonderful. Unfortunately, they shot it on me. I can do it a 1,000 times, but they really should have shot the audience, because it was fresh and new. That’s one thing I learned that day. You shoot the crowd first.

Picking his brain

"I like these cigars that these guys make down in Miami, Padron Cigars. I went to their factory down there. It's a family business, and their symbol is a hammer. Their grandfather came from Cuba--he was a refugee--and he went to another Cuban and said, 'Can you give me work? I gotta have a job.' And the guy said, 'I can't give you work, but I can give you a hammer.' And he gave him a hammer. And the guy went from house to house repairing and building. Within six months, he had somehow bought some tobacco and was rolling cigars out of the trunk of someone's car. Now they make a million cigars a year."

"There's a beautiful place in Paris called Le Balajo Bastille. It's in the Rue de Lappe, and they have old, old tango on Sunday afternoons."

"My passion for the Chicago Cubs is as deep as the green of the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day. It's a deep, deep color. Except that it's blue."

"The course at the Tralee Golf Club in Ireland is the most beautiful golf course I've ever played. There's one kind of stupid hole, but it's a beautiful course--it's right on the water. The holes are ridiculously pretty. It was built by Arnold Palmer and it's just...the sea and the light and the sky and the hills and the fields. It's just the prettiest one."

"I just saw this band the Rascals [who scored No. 1 hits with 'Good Lovin' and 'Groovin' in the '60s] the other night. They hadn't played together in 40 years, and seeing them, I realized that there's no other band ever like these guys. The combination of theatricality and vocals and feeling, just feeling, and the ability to rock 'n' roll. It was maybe the best thing I've ever seen."

Murray injured after TV stunt

Bill Murray was left bleeding from a nasty head wound after injuring himself during a 'dumpster dive' stunt for a TV show on Wednesday.

The Ghostbusters funnyman leaped into a makeshift dumpster swimming pool filled with garbage as part of a skit for the Late Show with David Letterman to mock official plans for trash-bin swimming holes in New York City.

But Murray's funny moment went awry when he banged his head in the jump and staggered back on to the show's set covered in blood.

The actor bravely continued his interview with the host, and producers were able to patch up his injury during a break in filming.

A rep tells the New York Post, "He did hit his head on the dumpster and was bleeding during the interview with Letterman, but the producers patched him up in the commercial break."

Murray later cancelled plans to attend a screening of his new film Get Low in Manhattan in order to recover from his traumatic day.

Major League Star James Gammon Dies at 70

James Gammon, best known for his role as exasperated coach Lou Brown in Major League and its sequel, has died at the age of 70.

Gammon passed Friday at his daughter's home in Costa Mesa, California, surrounded by family and friends, after a battle with cancer of the adrenal glands and liver, according to the Los Angeles Times.

While Gammon was famed for his role as the manager of the Cleveland Indians in the much-loved baseball comedy, he also had notable roles in a variety of film and TV projects, including Silverado and Cold Mountain, and played father Nick Bridges on Nash Bridges for five years.

But the well-known character actor didn't just make a name for himself onscreen.

A Los Angeles theater mainstay, Gammon co-founded the MET Theater and garnered numerous LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for acting and directing.

The MET Theater will be the location for Gammon's memorial service, scheduled for August.

Gammon leaves behind his wife of 38 years and two daughters.

Murray dumped agent over phone nightmare

Actor Bill Murray fired his agent when he realized he didn't want to be associated with someone who kept bothering him.

The Lost in Translation star now has no representation and acts as his own agent and publicist after one particularly keen aide kept calling and calling.

Murray tells Entertainment Weekly magazine, "When you have an agent, the phone rings all the time, because there's someone there whose job it is to get so-and-so on the phone, and so they dial the number, and they'll let it ring 75 times.

"You can be in your house and be like, 'I'm not answering that phone...' and all you can really think is, 'I really don't want to meet the person that lets a phone ring like that."

Murray insists his life is a lot simpler now - and quieter.

He explains, "The phone just doesn't ring, it's nice."

Andrews mum on whether CWS is her last ESPN gig

OMAHA, Neb. – Erin Andrews will talk about sports, about her experience on "Dancing With the Stars" and about her advocacy for crime victims.

As for her status with ESPN once the College World Series ends?

"I'm in a situation where I'm not talking to people about that," Andrews said Wednesday.

Andrews' contract expires July 1, meaning the CWS could be her last assignment for the cable sports giant.

Her Los Angeles-based agent, Babette Perry, also declined to comment.

Andrews built her celebrity at ESPN and expanded upon it as a finalist on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" this year. She said she hopes to stay involved in sports but also cross over more into other areas.

"I already have," she said. "It used to be the guys just wanted to talk to me about sports. Now women know more about me because of 'Dancing With the Stars' and they want to ask me about 'Max,'" she said, referring to her dance partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Andrews said she also wants to continue speaking out on behalf of women who have been crime victims, particularly victims of stalking, such as herself.

A 48-year-old man in March was sentenced to 27 months in prison for following Andrews to at least three cities and shooting videos of her in the nude through hotel peepholes last year.

"My life has totally changed after everything that happened last summer," Andrews said.

She said she is using her visibility to be a mouthpiece for the strengthening of anti-stalking laws.

"Laws need to be stronger. Right now they're a big joke," she said. "Laws haven't kept up with the times. Stalking has become much more popular."

She said she plans to become active in the U.S. Justice Department's "Join the List" campaign, a celebrity-driven campaign marking the 15 years since President Bill Clinton signed the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. Andrews also is working with the National Center for the Victims of Crime.

Since her stalking case made news last year, Andrews has said she's been subjected to taunts from crowds at events.

"You always get idiots who make comments," she said.

At the CWS, camera phones and digital cameras point at Andrews as she crosses from one dugout to the other between innings and while she's giving on-field reports, but she said fans have been nice to her.

"Omaha is very easy," she said. "Omaha people are sweet about everything."

Daniel Lanois in motorcycle crash

Canadian record producer, guitarist and singer-songwriter Daniel Lanois is in intensive care in Los Angeles following a motorcycle crash on the weekend and concert dates in Europe this summer have been cancelled.

Jive Records sent out a release Tuesday saying Lanois suffered "multiple injuries" in the crash.

"(He) is expected to be released from intensive care soon. Due to the severity of the injuries, Lanois has cancelled all upcoming tour dates and promotional activity and will be recuperating for the next two months," the release said.

Lanois's website (daniellanois.com) lists several dates in Europe in July.

It also says he was scheduled to perform at the Montreal International Jazz Festival on July 2.

"We were informed that sadly, Daniel Lanois won't be able to perform in Montreal because of his accident," festival spokesman Hugo Leclerc told QMI Agency Tuesday.

Lanois started his producing career with brother Bob in their mother's basement in Ancaster, Ont. He purchased a home in Hamilton to form Grant Avenue Studios.

He has worked with U2, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and Canadian children's singer Raffi. His 1995 collaboration with Emmylou Harris on the album Wrecking Ball nabbed him a Grammy for best contemporary folk album.

He had recently started the new trio, Black Dub (blackdub.net).

Lanois took to his Twitter account on Saturday to say he was wrapping up in L.A. and heading to Canada.

"Sweeping up in LA. Headed to the canoe for Black Dub rehearsals soonish.

Nuit Blanche plans with the Toronto team," he wrote.

Jive Records recently signed Black Dub and the release said their debut album will be released "when circumstances permit."

Alanis Morissette marries rapper boyfriend

Canadian rock's angry young woman has decided to settle down.

Ottawa-born Alanis Morissette has wed her rapper boyfriend, MC Souleye, in Los Angeles, the Canadian singer says in the Twitter section on her official website.

"Hi guys! So happy to share with you that my man Souleye and I got married," Morissette tweeted Monday.

According to People magazine, the quiet ceremony was held May 22 at their Los Angeles home. It is the first marriage for both.

Souleye, 30, whose real name is Mario Treadway, hails from Massachusetts. He launched his career after winning a spot on the nautical music festival Jam Cruise in 2005. Recently, he released a seven-song compilation, but is unsigned.

Morissette, who just celebrated her 36th birthday, was previously engaged to actor Ryan Reynolds, but they split in 2006. He is now married to entertainer Scarlett Johansson.

Morissette's biggest album, Jagged Little Pill, with the plaintive hit You Oughta Know, followed her breakup with Full House star Dave Coulier.

Just days before her wedding, Morissette performed the song I Remain at the red-carpet premiere of the film Prince of Persia.

She recently told USA Today that she planned to write another album this summer and was working on a book.

Rue McClanahan, 'Golden Girl' Blanche, dies

NEW YORK – Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 76.

Her manager, Barbara Lawrence, said McClanahan died Thursday at 1 a.m. at New York-Presbyterian Hospital of a brain hemorrhage.

She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on "aging gracefully." In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series "Maude," starring Beatrice Arthur. After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on "Mama's Family" in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in "The Golden Girls," a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging — and frequently eccentric — women living together in Miami.

"Golden Girls" aimed to show "that when people mature, they add layers," she told The New York Times in 1985. "They don't turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us."

Blanche, who called her father "Big Daddy," was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, "Your life's an open blouse."

Fellow "Golden Girl" Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend.

"I treasured our relationship," said White, who was working in Los Angeles on the set of her TV Land comedy "Hot in Cleveland" on Thursday. "It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that's even possible."

McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played.

"Probably the closest I've ever done was Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Pasadena Playhouse," she said. "I think, too, that's where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy."

Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, "is in love with life and she loves men. I think she has an attitude toward women that's competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she's insecure. It's the other side of the Don Juan syndrome."

After "The Golden Girls" was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, "Golden Palace."

McClanahan continued working in television, on stage and in film, appearing in the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle "Out to Sea" and as the biology teacher in "Starship Troopers."

She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in "Wicked," Broadway's long-running "Wizard of Oz" prequel.

In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy "Sordid Lives: The Series," playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.

During production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. It didn't stop her from filming a sex scene in which the bed broke, forcing her to hang on to a windowsill to avoid tumbling off.

McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Okla., to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.

McClanahan's acting career began on the stage. According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, she appeared at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, studied in New York with Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, and worked in soaps and on the stage.

She won an Obie — the off-Broadway version of the Tony — in 1970 for "Who's Happy Now," playing the "other woman" in a family drama written by Oliver Hailey. She reprised the role in a 1975 television version; in a review, The New York Times described her character as "an irrepressible belle given to frequent bouts of `wooziness' and occasional bursts of shrewdness."

She had appeared only sporadically on television until producer Norman Lear tapped her for a guest role on "All in the Family" in 1971.

She went from there to a regular role in the "All in the Family" spinoff "Maude," playing Vivian, the neighbor and best friend to Arthur in the starring role.

When Arthur died in April 2009, McClanahan recalled that she had felt constrained by "Golden Girls" during the later years of its run. "Bea liked to be the star of the show. She didn't really like to do that ensemble playing," McClanahan said.

McClanahan was married six times: Tom Bish, with whom she had a son, Mark Bish; actor Norman Hartweg; Peter D'Maio; Gus Fisher; and Tom Keel. She married husband Morrow Wilson on Christmas Day in 1997.

She called her 2007 memoir "My First Five Husbands ... And the Ones Who Got Away."

Gary Coleman's widow not his wife

Tragic actor Gary Coleman's death has been hit by a fresh controversy - the woman who told doctors she was his wife and gave permission for them to turn off his life support system was divorced from the actor.

U.S. TV news show Entertainment Tonight has obtained papers confirming that Coleman and Shannon Price had ended their marriage at the time of his death.

In fact, the documents reveal the couple, who wed in August 2007, didn't make it to their first anniversary as man and wife. Coleman and Price were legally divorced on August 12, 2008.

Coleman filed for divorce under sealed documents. All court fees were paid for by the actor and no alimony was awarded.

But despite the fact Price was no longer married to the actor when he fell into a coma and died after suffering a brain haemorrhage last week, she was still living with him in Utah - and she gave medics permission to turn off his life support.

A spokesperson for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center - the hospital where Coleman died - tells the news show, "We had no indication that the information Shannon gave us was false. She portrayed herself as his wife."

Coleman's attorney Randy Kester has confirmed the couple was divorced, telling People.com, "At the time of Gary's death, they were not married... Gary wanted me to keep their divorce private, but now that it's been made public, I'm compelled to say it's all true."

Utah Valley Regional Medical Health Center officials have launched an investigation into Coleman's death.

Spokeswoman Janet Frank says, "We're definitely concerned about this and we're looking into what exactly happened here.

"Shannon certainly portrayed herself as his wife to our staff and doctors. We assumed she was telling the truth. We can't comment on specific details in Mr. Coleman's case, but in general, any patient on life support is thoroughly evaluated medically before life support is ended."

Kester adds, "It's possible that Gary gave Shannon the authority in writing at the hospital to make medical decisions for him, but whether he did, I don't know."

Tributes pour in for 'iconoclast' Hopper

Accolades are beginning to pour in for actor and director Dennis Hopper, who died Saturday in Venice, Calif., from prostate cancer complications.

The 74-year-old Oscar-nominated filmmaker and noted visual artist and art collector was remembered for his passion and dedication to movies and to his friends.

"Dennis introduced me to the world of Pop Art and 'lost' films," longtime buddy Peter Fonda said in a release late Saturday.

Fonda co-starred in the iconic anti-establishment film, Easy Rider (1969), which nabbed Hopper an Oscar nomination for writing. He was also the director.

"We rode the highways of America and changed the way movies were made in Hollywood," Fonda said. "I was blessed by his passion and friendship."

Gene Hackman called Hopper an "iconoclast." Hackman co-starred with him in 1986's Hoosiers, which netted Hopper another Oscar nod for playing an alcoholic basketball coach.

"Dennis was an artist and I will always treasure having worked with him," Hackman said. "He will be missed."

"When I first met Dennis on the set of Blue Velvet, he had just come out of rehab," recalled actress Isabella Rosellini.

"I was afraid of him, but Dennis turned out to be infinitely kind, compassionate and understanding. He had gone to hell and came back from it with great wisdom. It will take me a while to realize and accept he isn't with us any longer."

Actress Marlee Matlin called Hopper a "maverick, a wonderful actor."

"You always got something unexpected from him."

Dennis Hopper, creator of hit 'Easy Rider,' Has Died

LOS ANGELES – Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood wild man whose memorable and erratic career included an early turn in "Rebel Without a Cause," an improbable smash with "Easy Rider" and a classic character role in "Blue Velvet," has died. He was 74.

Hopper died Saturday at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz said. Hopper's manager announced in October 2009 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The success of "Easy Rider," and the spectacular failure of his next film, "The Last Movie," fit the pattern for the talented but sometimes uncontrollable actor-director, who also had parts in such favorites as "Apocalypse Now" and "Hoosiers." He was a two-time Academy Award nominee, and in March 2010, was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

After a promising start that included roles in two James Dean films, Hopper's acting career had languished as he developed a reputation for throwing tantrums and abusing alcohol and drugs. On the set of "True Grit," Hopper so angered John Wayne that the star reportedly chased Hopper with a loaded gun.

He married five times and led a dramatic life right to the end. In January 2010, Hopper filed to end his 14-year marriage to Victoria Hopper, who stated in court filings that the actor was seeking to cut her out of her inheritance, a claim Hopper denied.

"Much of Hollywood," wrote critic-historian David Thomson, "found Hopper a pain in the neck."

All was forgiven, at least for a moment, when he collaborated with another struggling actor, Peter Fonda, on a script about two pot-smoking, drug-dealing hippies on a motorcycle trip through the Southwest and South to take in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

On the way, Hopper and Fonda befriend a drunken young lawyer (Jack Nicholson, whom Hopper had resisted casting, in a breakout role), but arouse the enmity of Southern rednecks and are murdered before they can return home.

"'Easy Rider' was never a motorcycle movie to me," Hopper said in 2009. "A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country."

Fonda produced "Easy Rider" and Hopper directed it for a meager $380,000. It went on to gross $40 million worldwide, a substantial sum for its time. The film caught on despite tension between Hopper and Fonda and between Hopper and the original choice for Nicholson's part, Rip Torn, who quit after a bitter argument with the director.

The film was a hit at Cannes, netted a best-screenplay Oscar nomination for Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern, and has since been listed on the American Film Institute's ranking of the top 100 American films. The establishment gave official blessing in 1998 when "Easy Rider" was included in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Its success prompted studio heads to schedule a new kind of movie: low cost, with inventive photography and themes about a young, restive baby boom generation. With Hopper hailed as a brilliant filmmaker, Universal Pictures lavished $850,000 on his next project, "The Last Movie."

The title was prescient. Hopper took a large cast and crew to a village in Peru to film the tale of a Peruvian tribe corrupted by a movie company. Trouble on the set developed almost immediately, as Peruvian authorities pestered the company, drug-induced orgies were reported and Hopper seemed out of control.

When he finally completed filming, he retired to his home in Taos, N.M., to piece together the film, a process that took almost a year, in part because he was using psychedelic drugs for editing inspiration.

When it was released, "The Last Movie" was such a crashing failure that it made Hopper unwanted in Hollywood for a decade. At the same time, his drug and alcohol use was increasing to the point where he was said to be consuming as much as a gallon of rum a day.

Shunned by the Hollywood studios, he found work in European films that were rarely seen in the United States. But, again, he made a remarkable comeback, starting with a memorable performance as a drugged-out journalist in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War epic, "Apocalypse Now," a spectacularly long and troubled film to shoot. Hopper was drugged-out off camera, too, and his rambling chatter was worked into the final cut.

He went on to appear in several films in the early 1980s, including the well regarded "Rumblefish" and "The Osterman Weekend," as well as the campy "My Science Project" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2."

But alcohol and drugs continued to interfere with his work. Treatment at a detox clinic helped him stop drinking but he still used cocaine, and at one point he became so hallucinatory that he was committed to the psychiatric ward of a Los Angeles hospital.

Upon his release, Hopper joined Alcoholics Anonymous, quit drugs and launched yet another comeback. It began in 1986 when he played an alcoholic ex-basketball star in "Hoosiers," which brought him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

His role as a wild druggie in "Blue Velvet," also in 1986, won him more acclaim, and years later the character wound up No. 36 on the AFI's list of top 50 movie villains.

He returned to directing, with "Colors," "The Hot Spot" and "Chasers."

From that point on, Hopper maintained a frantic work pace, appearing in many forgettable movies and a few memorable ones, including the 1994 hit "Speed," in which he played the maniacal plotter of a freeway disaster. In the 2000s, he was featured in the television series "Crash" and such films as "Elegy" and "Hell Ride."

"Work is fun to me," he told a reporter in 1991. "All those years of being an actor and a director and not being able to get a job — two weeks is too long to not know what my next job will be."

For years he lived in Los Angeles' bohemian beach community of Venice, in a house designed by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry.

In later years he picked up some income by becoming a pitchman for Ameriprise Financial, aiming ads at baby boomers looking ahead to retirement.

His politics, like much of his life, were unpredictable. The old rebel contributed money to the Republican Party in recent years, but also voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008.

Dennis Lee Hopper was born in 1936, in Dodge City, Kan., and spent much of his youth on the nearby farm of his grandparents. He saw his first movie at 5 and became enthralled.

After moving to San Diego with his family, he played Shakespeare at the Old Globe Theater.

Scouted by the studios, Hopper was under contract to Columbia until he insulted the boss, Harry Cohn. From there he went to Warner Bros., where he made "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant" while in his late teens.

Later, he moved to New York to study at the Actors Studio, where Dean had learned his craft.

Hopper's first wife was Brooke Hayward, the daughter of actress Margaret Sullavan and agent Leland Hayward, and author of the best-selling memoir "Haywire." They had a daughter, Marin, before Hopper's drug-induced violence led to divorce after eight years.

His second marriage, to singer-actress Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, lasted only eight days.

A union with actress Daria Halprin also ended in divorce after they had a daughter, Ruthana. Hopper and his fourth wife, dancer Katherine LaNasa, had a son, Henry, before divorcing.

He married his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy, who was 32 years his junior, in 1996, and they had a daughter, Galen Grier.

'Diff'rent Strokes' star Gary Coleman dies

PROVO, Utah – Gary Coleman, the child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" whose later career was marred by medical and legal problems, died Friday after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said life support was terminated and Coleman died at 12:05 p.m. MDT.

Coleman, with his sparkling eyes and perfect comic timing, became a star after "Diff'rent Strokes" debuted in 1978. He played younger brother Arnold Jackson a pair of African-American siblings adopted by a wealthy white man.

His popularity faded when the show ended after six seasons on NBC and two on ABC.

Coleman suffered continuing ill health from the kidney disease that stunted his growth and had a host of legal problems in recent years.

Coleman suffered the brain hemorrhage Wednesday at his Santaquin home, 55 miles south of Salt Lake City.

A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.

Diff'rent Strokes" debuted on NBC in 1978 drew most of its laughs from the tiny, 10-year-old Coleman.

Race and class relations became topics on the show as much as the typical trials of growing up.

Coleman was an immediate star, and his skeptical "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" — usually aimed at his brother, Willis — became a catchphrase.

In a 1979 Los Angeles Times profile, his mother, Edmonia Sue Coleman, said her son had always been a ham as a small child. He acted in some commercials before he was signed by T.A.T., the production company that created "Diff'rent Strokes."

"Gary remembers everything. EVERYTHING," co-producer and director Herb Kenwith told the newspaper. "His power of concentration is unlike any adult's I know."

Asked by Ebony magazine in 1979 how he learned his lines so easily, young Gary replied, "It's easy!"

But the attention his starring role brought him could be a burden as well as a pleasure. Coleman told The Associated Press in 2001 that he would do a TV series again, but "only under the absolute condition that it be an ensemble cast and that everybody gets a chance to shine."

"I certainly am not going to be the only person on the show working," he said. "I've done that. I didn't like it."

The series lasted six seasons on NBC and two on ABC and lives on thanks to DVDs and YouTube. But its equally enduring legacy became the former child stars' troubles in adulthood, including the 1999 suicide of Dana Plato, who played the boys' white, teenage sister.

Todd Bridges, who played Coleman's brother, was tried and acquitted of attempted murder.

Coleman had financial and legal problems in addition to continuing ill health from the kidney disease that required dialysis and at least two transplants. As an adult, his height reached only 4 feet 8 inches.

He continued to get credits for TV guest shots and other small roles over the years. But he told the AP in 2001 that he preferred earning money from celebrity endorsements. "Now that I'm 33, I can call the shots. ... And if anybody has a problem with that, I guess they don't have to work with me."

Coleman was among 135 candidates who ran in California's bizarre 2003 recall election to replace then-Gov. Gray Davis, whom voters ousted in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Coleman, who advocated drastic steps for California's faltering economy such as lowering income taxes and raising sales tax, came in eighth place with 12,488 votes, or 0.2 percent, just behind Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.

Running for office gave him a chance to show another side of himself, he told The Associated Press at the time.

"This is really interesting and cool, and I've been enjoying the heck out of it because I get to be intelligent, which is something I don't get to do very often," he said.

Coleman told The New York Times at the time that "I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson. I'm someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more."

But legal disputes dogged him repeatedly. In 1989, when Coleman was 21, his mother filed a court request trying to gain control of her son's $6 million fortune, saying he was incapable of handling his affairs. He said the move "obviously stems from her frustration at not being able to control my life."

In a 1993 television interview, he said he had twice tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.

He moved to Utah in fall 2005, and according to a tally in early 2010, officers were called to assist or intervene with Coleman more than 20 times in the following years. They included a call where Coleman said he had taken dozens of Oxycontin pills and "wanted to die." Some of the disputes involved his wife, Shannon Price, whom he met on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball" and married in 2007.

In September 2008, a dustup with a fan at a Utah bowling alley led Coleman to plead no contest to disorderly conduct. The fan also sued him, claiming the actor punched him and ran into him with his truck.

Coleman was born Feb. 8, 1968, in Zion, Ill., near Chicago. His mother told Ebony his kidney disease was diagnosed when he was 2. He underwent his first transplant at age 5.

He attracted attention when he took part in some local fashion shows and people suggested he should get work performing in commercials, which he then did, she said.

'People Are Funny' host Art Linkletter dies

LOS ANGELES – Art Linkletter, who hosted the popular TV shows "People Are Funny" and "House Party" in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 97.

His son-in-law Art Hershey says Linkletter died Wednesday at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles.

Linkletter was known on TV for his funny interviews with children and ordinary folks. He also collected their comments in a number of best-selling books.

In the 1960s, Linkletter became an outspoken anti-drug crusader after his daughter's suicide, which he blamed on LSD use although an autopsy found none of the drug in her body.

Brittany Murphy's husband is found dead at home

LOS ANGELES – The husband of Brittany Murphy was found dead at his Los Angeles home late Sunday, five months after the Hollywood actress died, police said.

The preliminary cause of the death of British screenwriter Simon Monjack is natural causes, police spokesman Sgt. Louie Lozano told The Associated Press.

"We concluded there no signs of foul play or any criminal activity involved," said Sgt. Alex Ortiz, another police spokesman.

Firefighters responding to an emergency call from a woman at 9:40 p.m. found the 39-year-old Monjack dead at the Hollywood Hills residence, police spokesman Sgt. Louie Lozano said. Ortiz said he didn't know who called. Monjack and Murphy had shared their home with Murphy's mother, Sharon.

Ortiz said that the Los Angeles Coroner's Office was taking over the investigation because criminal activity had been ruled out, and would provide more details later on the death and circumstances surrounding it.

At his wife's funeral in December, a visibly emotional Monjack talked about their relationship and called her his best friend and soul mate. The two married in 2007.

He had said that they had been planning a family and contemplating a move to New York.

Monjack is credited as producer and co-writer of the 2001 film "Two Days, Nine Lives" and executive producer of the 2006 "Factory Girl."

Murphy, best known for her major roles in "Clueless," "Girl Interrupted," and "8 Mile" in 2002, died Dec. 20, at age 32 after collapsing in her home. The Los Angeles County coroner's office concluded Murphy's death was accidental, but likely preventable.

The coroner's report said that the medications found in her system were consistent with treatment of a cold or respiratory infection. Monjack and Murphy's mother had reported the actress was ill with flulike symptoms in the days before her death.

An autopsy found no evidence that Murphy abused drugs. Investigators had found numerous prescription medications in her home.

E Street's Clemons: Pain will make me stronger

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The Big Man is back.

E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who arose from a wheelchair to perform at the 2009 Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen after a double knee replacement, is taking the stage again amid a new struggle to recover from major spinal surgery.

The stage "always feels like home. It's where I belong," Clemons, a former youth counselor, said after performing Saturday night at a Hard Rock Cafe benefit for Home Safe, a children's charity.

Clemons, who had surgery Jan. 13, said in a recent interview he's winning his battles — including severe, chronic pain and post-surgical depression. His impish humor helps.

"I am the bunny, baby!" he said gleefully, evoking the drum-pounding rabbit from the battery commercial.

"I'm huge!" he hollered with a grin as he was delivered by wheelchair, sax cradled on his lap, to the foot of the stage at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. He stood, switched to his cane, and struggled up three stairs. At home, he occasionally tries to walk without the cane, until his wife catches him.

Rockers Steve Smith and the Nakeds heralded his arrival by cranking up Tenth Avenue Freezeout, which relates how "The Big Man joined the band" and the "little pretties raised their hands."

E Street blood brothers Steven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg sat in as Clemons sang and wailed his sax through a raucous rock 'n' roll party. Clemons flashed his million-watt, seen-it-all smile as guys in sports jackets and women in cocktail dresses climbed out of the frenzied crowd and gyrated onstage.

"The main attraction for all of us is Clarence Clemons," Weinberg said earlier on the red carpet.

His Max Weinberg Big Band is starting a national tour next month in New Jersey. But Weinberg remained coy about any career reincarnation in television, which he smilingly called "a tough business."

"As they say in television, you'll have to stay tuned," said the former bandleader for Conan O'Brien's late-night shows.

Throughout his performance, Clemons sat on a tall chair. His right foot tapped out a steady beat. His left remained motionless; he's getting treatment for that.
"God will give you no more than you can handle," he said in the interview. "This is all a test to see if you are really ready for the good things that are going to come in your life. All this pain is going to come back and make me stronger.

"Of all the surgeries I've had, there's not much left to operate on. I am totally bionic."

He scheduled his latest surgery during E Street downtime. The band is taking a breather after globe-trotting for the better part of two years.

"I'm always preparing myself for Bruce's next tour. I never get too far ... away from that," said Clemons.

If it happens, as he hopes, in 2011, "I'll be ready."

In the meantime, he savors the small joys — fishing for tarpon, working on behalf of community causes. Clemons and his wife, Victoria, both avid cooks, are having a "great gourmet kitchen" installed.

Life's background music comes courtesy of E Street Radio, as well as "a lot of Latin stuff."

And Michael Jackson, too.

"I didn't think I'd ever be a Michael Jackson fan. But ... watching him move, watching him dance, is so encouraging for me. Because, in my mind, I can do all that stuff."

"I want to be able to dance again," says Clemons. "I keep that vision in my mind."

Barrier-breaking jazz star Lena Horne dies at 92

NEW YORK – Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress who reviled the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them, slowing her rise to Broadway superstardom, has died. She was 92.

Horne died Sunday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin. Chin would not release any other details.

Horne, whose striking beauty and magnetic sex appeal often overshadowed her sultry voice, was remarkably candid about the underlying reason for her success.

"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," she once said. "I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked."

In the 1940s, she was one of the first black performers hired to sing with a major white band, the first to play the Copacabana nightclub and among a handful with a Hollywood contract.

In 1943, MGM Studios loaned her to 20th Century-Fox to play the role of Selina Rogers in the all-black movie musical "Stormy Weather." Her rendition of the title song became a major hit and her signature piece.

On screen, on records and in nightclubs and concert halls, Horne was at home vocally with a wide musical range, from blues and jazz to the sophistication of Rodgers and Hart in songs like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered."

In her first big Broadway success, as the star of "Jamaica" in 1957, reviewer Richard Watts Jr. called her "one of the incomparable performers of our time." Songwriter Buddy de Sylva dubbed her "the best female singer of songs."

But Horne was perpetually frustrated with the public humiliation of racism.

"I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn't work for places that kept us out. ... It was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world," she said in Brian Lanker's book "I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America."

While at MGM, she starred in the all-black "Cabin in the Sky," in 1943, but in most of her other movies, she appeared only in musical numbers that could be cut in the racially insensitive South without affecting the story. These included "I Dood It," a Red Skelton comedy; "Thousands Cheer" and "Swing Fever," all in 1943; "Broadway Rhythm" in 1944; and "Ziegfeld Follies" in 1946.

"Metro's cowardice deprived the musical of one of the great singing actresses," film historian John Kobal wrote.

Early in her career Horne cultivated an aloof style out of self-preservation, becoming "a woman the audience can't reach and therefore can't hurt," she once said.

Later she embraced activism, breaking loose as a voice for civil rights and as an artist. In the last decades of her life, she rode a new wave of popularity as a revered icon of American popular music.

Her 1981 one-woman Broadway show, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music," won a special Tony Award. In it, the 64-year-old singer used two renditions — one straight and the other gut-wrenching — of "Stormy Weather" to give audiences a glimpse of the spiritual odyssey of her five-decade career.

A sometimes savage critic, John Simon, wrote that she was "ageless ... tempered like steel, baked like clay, annealed like glass; life has chiseled, burnished, refined her."

When Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the best actress Oscar in 2002, she sobbed: "This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. ... It's for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened."

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, the great-granddaughter of a freed slave, was born in Brooklyn on June 30, 1917, to a leading family in the black bourgeoisie. Her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, wrote in her 1986 book "The Hornes: An American Family" that among their relatives was a college girlfriend of W.E.B. Du Bois and a black adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Dropping out of school at age 16 to support her ailing mother, Horne joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem night spot where the entertainers were black and the clientele white.

She left the club in 1935 to tour with Noble Sissle's orchestra, billed as Helena Horne, the name she continued using when she joined Charlie Barnet's white orchestra in 1940.

A movie offer from MGM came when she headlined a show at the Little Troc nightclub with the Katherine Dunham dancers in 1942.

Her success led some blacks to accuse Horne of trying to "pass" in a white world with her light complexion. Max Factor even developed an "Egyptian" makeup shade especially for the budding actress while she was at MGM.

But in his book "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance: A Pictorial History of Film Musicals," Kobal wrote that she refused to go along with the studio's efforts to portray her as an exotic Latin American.

"I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become," Horne once said. "I'm me, and I'm like nobody else."

Horne was only 2 when her grandmother, a prominent member of the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, enrolled her in the NAACP. But she avoided activism until 1945 when she was entertaining at an Army base and saw German prisoners of war sitting up front while black American soldiers were consigned to the rear.

That pivotal moment channeled her anger into something useful.

She got involved in various social and political organizations and — along with her friendship with Paul Robeson — got her name onto blacklists during the red-hunting McCarthy era.

By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Horne also spoke at a rally that same year with another civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination.

It was also in the mid-'60s that she put out an autobiography, "Lena," with author Richard Schickel.

The next decade brought her first to a low point, then to a fresh burst of artistry.
She had married MGM music director Lennie Hayton, a white man, in Paris in 1947 after her first overseas engagements in France and England. An earlier marriage to Louis J. Jones had ended in divorce in 1944 after producing daughter Gail and a son, Teddy.

In the 2009 biography "Stormy Weather," author James Gavin recounts that when Horne was asked by a lover why she'd married a white man, she replied: "To get even with him."

Her father, her son and her husband, Hayton, all died in 1970 and 1971, and the grief-stricken singer secluded herself, refusing to perform or even see anyone but her closest friends. One of them, comedian Alan King, took months persuading her to return to the stage, with results that surprised her.

"I looked out and saw a family of brothers and sisters," she said. "It was a long time, but when it came I truly began to live."

And she discovered that time had mellowed her bitterness.

"I wouldn't trade my life for anything," she said, "because being black made me understand."

Country singer Chely Wright finds strength to face the music

Nashville star Chely Wright says that country music fans will forgive a lot — forlorn tales of failure and redemption are as essential to the music as steel pedal guitar — but there is one thing that the boots and pickup truck constituency cannot abide when it looks up at its stars in the spotlight.

A country music star cannot be gay.

"It's the unforgivable," says Wright, who this week announced to the world that she is a lesbian. "Historically, country music would rather an artist be a drunk — they even encourage and endorse that one. You get good money from Jim Beam to put that emblem on the side of your bus. I was on the Crown Royal tour, and I have to say it was one of my favorite tours. They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay. They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp — any and all of it is better than being gay."

Wright said all of this a few weeks ago as she sat on a couch at the Hollywood Hills home of her publicist, Howard Bragman. Her voice was clear and steady but her eyes were moist and at times there was a tremble in her hand, which held a folded tissue ready for the tears. A photo crew from People magazine was in the other room, they had just finished the session for the issue that has just hit newsstands. The cover story announced to the world a secret that Wright has guarded since her childhood in Kansas.

Few of her friends and most of her family didn't know that Wright was a lesbian, nor did her former boyfriend Brad Paisley, who Wright says was cruelly confused by her actions and secrets during their well-publicized romance. That sort of wrenching disconnect between the truth and the lie is why Wright says that she put a 9-mm gun in her mouth at one point and tried to find the terrible courage needed to pull the trigger. She didn't, thankfully, and instead found a purer bravery required to face the world — even if it means career suicide.

"I'm sleeping better at night, and that's been a long time. I thought I would be ramping up in my anxiety but I'm sleeping well these days. There's comfort in seeing the finish line. My emotions are a swinging pendulum but here I am — what, 16 or 18 days before my coming out? — and I have a growing sense of calm." I have a public capital that I have paid into throughout my career. I have been a good steward of my life. And this is how I am going to play my chips. I feel like I have and I want to. I may very well lose my career. I fully expect to lose my country music career."

Wright was named best new female vocalist by the Academy of Country Music in 1994 and scored a No. 1 country hit in 1999 with "Single White Female." Her new single, the aptly named "Broken," was released last month, taken off of her eighth album, "Lifted Off the Ground," which was released Tuesday. .

"I feel like I'm floating," she said. "It's like my friends who are in the know, which are not many, and my family members who know, which isn't all of them, are lifting me up to get through this."

Wright has penned a memoir too, called "Like Me," which hit bookstores on Tuesday.

"There is so much of country music that is genuinely me," Wright said. "It's not like I don't fit in — I do and in so many ways. As a little kid growing up I sat there and read all the liner notes. They were the margins for imagination. Nobody knows what country music fans expect a country star to be more than me because I am a country music fan and always have been. I felt like the people on the album were telling me their story and they were looking right back at me. Loretta Lynn was looking into my eyes and saying, 'I'm singing this song for you.' Those artists were welded into my mind. Those artists were about God, family and faith. And, you know? I am too."

Wright said that when she studied the pantheon of country music as a child she felt further isolated. "I just didn't see anybody like me. And I knew I wasn't going to be the first. I knew I was never going to make it on the Opry stage or be able to record an album. I knew I would never get a record deal."

Wright says she doesn't expect public rebukes from peers. "I don't think a lot of people will come forward and condemn me. Some might but there won't be many. It's the quiet haters that do a lot of damage in the world."

The Nashville response has been largely mute, with one exception. Wright reveals in the book that it was this exchange with John Rich of country duo Big & Rich that pushed her over the edge: " 'You're not gay, are you?!' I said, 'No, John, I'm not.' He said, 'Good, thank God.' And that began a spiral for me. I had a meltdown shortly after that."

Rich has responded in a statement "I would never pass judgment on any friend of mine. I feel awful that, at this time in Chely's life, my decade-old comment — 'Good, thank God' — was taken the wrong way."

Wright said it was a confluence of conscience and circumstance that put her in a position to detonate this career bombshell at this time. For one thing, she feels the tug of a career desire to make music that is less beholden to radio airplay and more defined by the album statements of a veteran song crafter.

"Look, I'm not 19 years old. I'm getting older. I want to be an artist who can be relevant at 60 and still getting better. You look at people like Levon Helm and Emmylou Harris and they're still getting better and challenging themselves. I'm about to turn 40 and I don't want to be trying to figure out a way to rewrite 'Single White Female' and 'Shut Up and Drive.' There's nothing sadder than trying to redo that."

In 2005, Wright released "Metropolitan Hotel," a collection that revealed an artist who wanted to move toward an alt-country sound, but instead of taking a leap, it was more of a tentative half-step, she admits now.

"I panicked. I got insecure about my abilities to grow artistically and then I got a little seduced by what I knew — you dance with the one that brung you and commercial country music has been so good to me. So I made half of the record in an artistic fashion looking toward a Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams vein and then the other half I made with country radio in mind."

It was while working on the new album that Wright decided her old choices and concessions were no longer manageable in her life.

"I had my breakdown — which some of my friends called breakthrough, which is a nice way to say it — and I was halfway through the recording process of this new record when I decided to come out. I was already set on course to make this record with [producer] Rodney Crowell and it was not going to be defined by a country radio sound. I didn't decide to come out and then make an alt-country album to go with it."

The alt-country path may lead to good reviews but Wright says there is a major trade-off at the concert box-office.

"When you have a big hit in country music or a couple of them, as I have had, you can fully expect to enjoy a career in touring for the rest of your life. You can pay your bills through live music in some capacity, in some way, shape or form. There is no greater fan in music than a country music fan and once they sign up, they love you for the rest of your life. I am prepared to lose that and I expect I will lose that. This is the right thing to do."

J.Lo opens up about Affleck

Jennifer Lopez is convinced her high-profile engagement to Ben Affleck was destined to fail, insisting no couple could have survived the intense media pressure the pair endured.

Lopez began dating Affleck in 2002, sparking a media circus that turned crazy for the couple when the actor proposed - but the glare of the spotlight became too much for the stars and they called off plans to wed the following year.

And Lopez admits the romance was doomed from the start.

She says, "I love Ben. He's a great guy but it was a lot for both of us to be under that type of siege for two years straight. We were on the cover of every magazine every week, and it was just a weird thing that the media catches on to, and they just go crazy with it. Our relationship, I think, did suffer from it."

And the actress credits her husband, Latin singer Marc Anthony, with teaching her how to live her life away from the glare of the paparazzi.

She tells U.K. TV host Graham Norton, "I think he has a totally different approach to fame, to celebrity - our work, our business. (He believes) you can have your career, you can promote, you can do all that stuff - but you can also have a personal life, and it can be quiet.

"I think, when you're in the throes of (fame), you don't realise that you have control over it. You kind of feel like, 'Oh, it's just happening, I can't stop it.' But he taught me that you can."

Lopez married Anthony in 2004, while Affleck is now happily married to another Jennifer, actress Garner.

Boss Brass founder Rob McConnell dies at 75

Canadian jazz great Rob McConnell, a trombonist and band leader of the Boss Brass, has died. He was 75.

McConnell passed away in a Toronto hospital Saturday after a long battle with cancer.

McConnell was a valve trombonist, arranger and composer and worked with many small jazz groups in Canada.

His leadership of the Boss Brass, a 16-piece band he formed in 1968, catapulted McConnell and Canadian jazz onto the world stage.

Flugelhorn and trumpet player Guido Basso played with Boss Brass from 1968 until McConnell grew too ill to participate last year.

"It was the only Canadian jazz band that could cross the border and play the living daylights out of U.S. musicians," he told CBC News.

Basso paid tribute to McConnell's ability as a composer and arranger.

"He heard things the rest of us didn't," he said. "It was the way he was able to take a song that you and I know well and reharmonize it get the ultimate beauty out of the melody," he said.

McConnell was also a "fabulous" player of "superb jazz at its highest level," he added.

They last played together during a Boss Brass reunion during the Toronto Jazz Festival in 2009.

On stage, McConnell was a comedian and storyteller, and his jazz arrangements often included a humorous note.

He added a saxophone section and extra trumpet to the Boss Brass in the 1970s, bringing the group to 22 members.

Multiple Grammys

They were one of Canada's most popular jazz ensembles and performed live at U.S. festivals as well as recording Juno Award winners Big Band Jazz (1978), Present Perfect (1981) and All in Good Time (1984).

McConnell recorded more than 30 albums throughout his career and earned multiple Grammys, as well as Canadian Jazz Awards.

McConnell was raised in Toronto and learned slide trombone in high school. He began his career in 1954 in Edmonton with the band of saxophonist Don Thompson.

He worked in Toronto with Alex Lazaroff's Rhythm Rockets and Bobby Gimby before moving to New York in 1964 to play with Maynard Ferguson's big band.

In addition to playing with Boss Brass, he was also part of small jazz groups with guitarist Ed Bickert other Canadian jazz talents such as Guido Basso, Ian McDougall, and Rick Wilkins.

"Rob was a world-class arranger and trombonist," Toronto guitarist David Occhipinti said in tribute to McConnell.

"Being from Toronto, I had the good pleasure of hearing him play on many occasions and was always grateful to be able to hear a musician of such integrity and quality so close to home. His beautiful writing and playing will be missed!"

He was named officer of the Order of Canada in 1998.

Country singer Chely Wright reveals she is gay

WASHINGTON – Country singer Chely Wright is the latest celebrity to come out.

Wright tells People she's gay and that nothing in her life has been more magical than the moment she decided to reveal her sexuality.

The 39-year-old says she experienced a community in which homosexuality was shunned and she "hid everything" for her music.

Wright is releasing her memoir, "Like Me," and her new album, "Lifted Off the Ground," this week.

An e-mail sent to Wright's record label wasn't immediately returned Monday.

Actress Lynn Redgrave has died at age 67

NEW YORK – Lynn Redgrave, an introspective and independent player in her family's acting dynasty who became a 1960s sensation as the unconventional title character of "Georgy Girl" and later dramatized her troubled past in such one-woman stage performances as "Shakespeare for My Father" and "Nightingale," has died. She was 67.

Her publicist Rick Miramontez, speaking on behalf of her children, said Redgrave died peacefully Sunday night at her home in Kent, Conn. Children Ben, Pema and Annabel were with her, as were close friends.

"Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven year journey with breast cancer," Redgrave's children said in a statement Monday. "She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time."

Redgrave was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2002, had a mastectomy in January 2003 and underwent chemotherapy.

Her death comes a year after her niece Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident and just a month after the death of her older brother, Corin Redgrave.

The youngest child of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, Lynn Redgrave never quite managed the acclaim — or notoriety — of elder sibling Vanessa Redgrave, but received Oscar nominations for "Georgy Girl" and "Gods and Monsters," and Tony nominations for "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Shakespeare for My Father" and "The Constant Wife." In recent years, she also made appearances on TV in "Ugly Betty," "Law & Order" and "Desperate Housewives."

"Vanessa was the one expected to be the great actress," Lynn Redgrave told The Associated Press in 1999. "It was always, 'Corin's the brain, Vanessa the shining star, oh, and then there's Lynn.'"

In theater, the ruby-haired Redgrave often displayed a sunny, sweet and open personality, much like her ebullient offstage personality. It worked well in such shows as "Black Comedy" — her Broadway debut in 1972 — and again two years later in "My Fat Friend," a comedy about an overweight young woman who sheds pounds to find romance.

Redgrave's play "Nightingale" at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2009 was the last time she appeared on stage in New York.

"She was adored by audiences, and although she embarked on a medical treatment as previews began, she never missed a show and gave magnificent performances eight times a week," said Lynne Meadow, artistic director of MTC.

"We admired her strength, her talent, her courage and her enormous good heart. There wasn't a stage hand, a press rep, a box office person who didn't worship Lynn. She was true theatre royalty."

Tall and blue-eyed like her sister, she was as open about her personal life as Vanessa has been about politics. In plays and in interviews, Lynn Redgrave confided about her family, her marriage and her health. She acknowledged that she suffered from bulimia and served as a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers. With daughter Annabel Clark, she released a 2004 book about her fight with cancer, "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery From Breast Cancer."

Redgrave was born in London in 1943 and despite self-doubts pursued the family trade. She studied at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, and was not yet 20 when she debuted professionally on stage in a London production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream." Like her siblings, she appeared in plays and in films, working under Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier as a member of the National Theater and under director/brother-in-law Tony Richardson in the 1963 screen hit "Tom Jones."

"Before I was born, my father was a movie star and a stage star," the actress told the AP in 1993. "I was raised in a household where we didn't see our parents in the morning. We lived in the nursery. Our nanny made our breakfast, and I was dressed up to go downstairs to have tea with my parents, if they were there."

True fame caught her with "Georgy Girl," billed as "the wildest thing to hit the world since the miniskirt." The 1966 film starred Redgrave as the plain, childlike Londoner pursued by her father's middle-aged boss, played by James Mason.

Dismissed by critic Pauline Kael as a false testament to free thinking, the movie was branded "cool" by moviegoers on both side of the Atlantic and received several Academy Award nominations, including one for Redgrave and one for the popular title song performed by the Australian group The Seekers.

"All the films I've been in — and I haven't been in that many attention-getting films — no one expected anything of, least of all me," Redgrave said in an AP interview in 1999.

"Georgy Girl" didn't lead to lasting commercial success, but did anticipate a long-running theme: Redgrave's weight. She weighed 180 pounds while making the film, leading New York Times critic Michael Stern to complain that Redgrave "cannot be quite as homely as she makes herself in this film.

"Slimmed down, cosseted in a couture salon, and given more of the brittle, sophisticated lines she tosses off with such abandon here, she could become a comedienne every bit as good as the late Kay Kendall," he wrote.

Films such as "The Happy Hooker" and "Every Little Crook and Nanny" were remembered less than Redgrave's decision to advocate for Weight Watchers. She even referenced "Georgy Girl" in one commercial, showing a clip and saying, "This was me when I made the movie, because this is the way I used to eat."

At age 50, Redgrave was ready to tell her story in full. As she wrote in the foreword to "Shakespeare for My Father," she was out of work and set off on a "journey that began almost as an act of desperation," writing a play out of her "passionately emotional desire" to better understand her father, who had died in 1985.

In the 1993 AP interview, Redgrave remembered her father as a fearless stage performer yet a shy, tormented man who had great difficulty talking to his youngest daughter.

"I didn't really know him," Redgrave said. "I lived in his house. I was in awe of him and I adored him, and I was terrified of him and I hated him and I loved him, all in one go."

Redgrave credited the play, which interspersed readings from Shakespeare with family memories, with bringing her closer to her relatives and reviving her film career. She played the supportive wife of pianist David Helfgott in "Shine" and received an Oscar nomination as the loyal housekeeper for filmmaker James Whale in "Gods and Monsters." She also appeared in "Peter Pan," "Kinsey" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic."

On stage, she looked at her mother's side of the family in "The Mandrake Root" and "Rachel and Juliet."

"Nightingale" touched upon her health, the life of her grandmother (Beatrice Kempson) and the end of her 32-year marriage to actor-director John Clark, who had disclosed that he had fathered a child with the future wife of their son Benjamin. She sat at a desk and worked from a script, but it didn't affect what the AP called "her touching, beautifully realized performance," the AP wrote last year.

Lynn Redgrave is survived by six grandchildren, her sister Vanessa, and four nieces and nephews.

A private funeral with be held later this week.

Michaels suffers brain hemorrhage

Bret Michaels is in critical condition suffering from a brain hemorrhage, his publicist said Friday.

Joann Mignano, Michaels’ New York-based publicist, confirmed a report on People magazine’s website that said the former Poison frontman was rushed to intensive care late Thursday after a severe headache. The report said doctors discovered bleeding at the base of his brain stem.

Mignano said tests are being conducted but did not know where he was being treated.

The 47-year-old glam-rock reality TV star had an emergency appendectomy at a private care facility for diabetics last week after complaining of stomach pains before he was scheduled to perform at Sea World in San Antonio, Texas. Michaels later wrote on his website that though the surgery “has taken its toll,” doctors expected him to make a full recovery.

Michaels is currently a contestant on the third season of Donald Trump’s NBC competitive reality show, “The Celebrity Apprentice.” For the first six episodes, Michaels served as a lighting rod for the show’s male team, avoiding being fired in the boardroom.

Trump said in a statement Friday that he was “deeply saddened“ to hear of Michaels’ condition.

“He’s a great competitor and champion, and I hope he will be fine,” Trump said.

Before joining “The Celebrity Apprentice,” Michaels starred as the lothario on VH1’s lusty reality dating series “Rock of Love“ from 2007 to 2009. For three seasons, Michaels searched for the women of his dreams amid a sea of implants, tattoos and thongs.

He also served as a judge on the fifth season of the USA singing competition “Nashville Star” in 2007.

Ringo rejects Vatican’s forgiveness

Ringo Starr has rejected forgiveness from Catholic Church officials who once called him a Satanist.

Pope Benedict XVI sanctioned an article in the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper earlier this week, in which the Beatles were praised for their "beautiful" music and were absolved for their rock star decadence and experiments with drugs. The front-page editorial also addressed John Lennon's controversial comments about the Beatles being "bigger than Jesus" at the height of their success.

The newspaper's editors wrote, "The Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages, that were possibly even Satanic... (but) what would pop music be like without the Beatles?"

But Starr is far from impressed with the paper's unwanted forgiveness - the drummer says, "Didn't the Vatican say we were Satanic or possibly Satanic? And they've still forgiven us? I think the Vatican, they've got more to talk about than the Beatles."

'Designing Women' star Dixie Carter dies at 70

LOS ANGELES – "Designing Women" star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70.

Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area.

"This has been a terrible blow to our family," Holbrook said in a written statement. "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy."

A native of Tennessee, Carter was most famous for playing wisecracking Southerner Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on "Designing Women," the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. The series was the peak of a career in which she often played wealthy and self-important but independent Southern women.

She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for her seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives."

Carter's other credits include roles on the series "Family Law" and "Diff'rent Strokes."

She married Holbrook in 1984. The two had met four years earlier while making the TV movie "The Killing of Randy Webster," and although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and were wary at first.

They finally wed two years before Carter landed her role on "Designing Women." Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson.

The two appeared together in her final project, the 2009 independent film "That Evening Sun," shot in Tennessee and based on a short story by Southern novelist William Gay.

The middle of three children, Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tenn.

Carter was the daughter of a grocery and department store owner who died just three years ago at 96. She said at the time of his death that he taught her to believe in people's essential goodness.

"When I asked him how he handled shoplifting in his new store, which had a lot of goods on display, making it impossible to keep an eye on everything, he said, 'Most people are honest, and if they weren't, you couldn't stay in business because a thief will find a way to steal,'" Carter said. "'You can't really protect yourself, but papa and I built our business believing most people are honest and want to do right by you.'"

Carter grew up in Carroll County and made her stage debut in a 1960 production of "Carousel" in Memphis. It was the beginning of a decades-long stage career in which she relied on her singing voice as much as her acting.

She appeared in TV soap operas in the 1970s, but did not become a national star until her recurring roles on "Diff'rent Strokes" and another series, "Filthy Rich," in the 1980s.

Those two parts led to her role on "Designing Women," a comedy about the lives of four women at an interior design firm in Atlanta.

Carter and Delta Burke played the sparring sisters who ran the firm. The series also starred Annie Potts and Jean Smart.

The show, whose reruns have rarely left the airwaves, was not a typical sitcom. It tackled such topics as sexism, ageism, body image and AIDS.

"It was something so unique, because there had never been anything quite like it," Potts told The Associated Press at a 2006 cast reunion. "We had Lucy and Ethel, but we never had that exponentially expanded, smart, attractive women who read newspapers and had passions about things and loved each other and stood by each other."

Carter appeared on the drama "Family Law" from 1999 to 2002, and in her last major TV appearance she played Gloria Hodge, the surly mother-in-law to Marcia Cross's Bree on "Desperate Housewives."

Carter said the role was far from the kindly woman she played on "Designing Women."

"It's a vast difference," Carter said while filming the series. "Gloria Hodge doesn't have any redeeming qualities except her intelligence."

In addition to Holbrook, Carter is survived by daughters Mary Dixie and Ginna.

Pistols' Lydon honours McLaren

John Lydon has put his differences with former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren aside to pay tribute to the svengali, who lost his battle with cancer on Thursday morning.

The two men fell out during the Pistols' heyday and spent the last 30 years feuding with each other in interviews over copyright and royalties.

But, in a statement following the news of McLaren's death, Lydon says he will miss the music mogul, insisting he was "always entertaining".

Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, adds, "Above all else he was an entertainer."

The punk rock icon landed the role of Pistols frontman after impressing McLaren with a mimed version of an Alice Cooper song.

Sex Pistols' former manager McLaren has died at 64

LONDON – The former manager of the Sex Pistols and one of the seminal figures of the punk rock era, Malcolm McLaren, died Thursday. He was 64.

A man who identified himself as his son Joe Corre said McLaren died of cancer in Switzerland.

"He was the original punk rocker and revolutionized the world," Corre said in a telephone interview. "He's somebody I'm incredibly proud of. He's a real beacon of a man for people to look up to."

The multitalented McLaren rose to fame as the colorful manager of The Sex Pistols, but the art college dropout is also known for the infamous clothes shop he opened on London's King's Road with his then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood in 1971.

The shop changed its name and focus several times, operating as "SEX" and "World's End" and "Seditionaries" at various times before she and McLaren split.

Music journalist Jon Savage, who wrote "England's Dreaming," a history of the Sex Pistols and punk, said that "without Malcolm McLaren there would not have been any British punk."

"He's one of the rare individuals who had a huge impact on the cultural and social life of this nation."

In addition to music and fashion, McLaren also dabbled in journalism and filmmaking — working in Hollywood with directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg.

Earlier the AP spoke with Les Molloy, which British media identified as McLaren's agent. Molloy said McLaren had died in New York but Corre said that was wrong, and that Molloy was no longer McLaren's agent and was not authorized to speak for the family.

Repeated calls to Molloy since then have not been answered.

McLaren is survived by Corre and his longtime partner Young Kim.

Corre said that while funeral arrangements have yet to be made, McLaren had wanted to be buried in north London's stately Highgate cemetery, near where he was born.

Sean Connery-hosted runway is mad for plaid

NEW YORK – Sean Connery celebrated Scotland's eclectic style with a fashion show featuring celebrities, athletes and wounded war veterans in modernized kilts, capes and beanies from that country's top designers.

Connery said Monday's Dressed to Kilt, marking its seventh year, "certainly brings together a very interesting mix of people."

Mike Myers, in a kilt, argyle socks and sneakers, was first on the catwalk at the Chelsea nightclub space, appearing sandwiched between bagpipers from the 48th Highlanders of Canada. Al Roker was close behind in a longer kilt, paired with bright yellow socks.

Joan Jett was a crowd-pleaser in her door-knocker bra top, patent-leather trench coat, micro-mini kilt and an outrageous feather headpiece by William Chambers, and Kelly Bensimon and Kellie Pickler each wore tiny corset dresses.

Scottish export Alan Cumming wore an all-matching plaid three-piece kilt suit, and actors Kyle MacLachlan and Sam Waterston also seemed pretty comfy in their kilts. Speed skater Shani Davis accessorized with his Olympic gold medal.

But while there was a thoroughly festive atmosphere on stage, the mood became respectful when veterans from the Wounded Warrior Project appeared as models. Amputees Dan Nevins, Ryan Kules and Dawn Halfaker were among those appearing in full Scottish garb who brought the audience to their feet.

The fashion show raises money for Friends of Scotland, a nonprofit founded by Connery. Proceeds were to be split by between Wounded Warriors, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Scottish equivalent group, the Erksine Hospital. A pop-up shop on Madison Avenue selling some of the items from Dressed to Kilt will be open through April 13.

Connery has been known to wear kilts for other occasions, but, watching from a roped-off VIP area with Donald and Melania Trump, he opted for trousers and a turtleneck.

"I know nothing about fashion, but I'm very fortunate," Connery said. "If the clothes are halfway decent, I can wear them — as long as I stick to my diet."

'Dynasty' oil tycoon John Forsythe dead at 92

LOS ANGELES – John Forsythe, the handsome, smooth-voiced actor who made his fortune as the scheming oil tycoon in TV's "Dynasty" and the voice of the leader of "Charlie's Angels," has died after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 92.

Forsythe died late Thursday at his home in Santa Ynez from complications of pneumonia, publicist Harlan Boll said Friday.

"He died as he lived his life, with dignity and grace," daughter Brooke Forsythe said.

Despite his distinguished work in theater and films, Forsythe's greatest fame came from his role as Blake Carrington in producer Aaron Spelling's 1981-89 primetime soap opera "Dynasty."

Forsythe lent dignity to the tale of murder, deceit, adultery and high finance, which often brought Carrington into conflict with his flashy, vengeful former wife, Alexis Colby, played to the hilt by Joan Collins.

"He was one of the last of the true gentlemen of the acting profession," Collins said in a statement. "I enjoyed our nine years of feuding, fussing and fighting as the Carringtons."

Heather Locklear, another "Dynasty" co-star, called him "a gentleman in every sense of the word," and a "gifted actor who knew the true meaning of being gracious and kind."

Forsythe was an important part of another hit Spelling series without being seen. From 1976 to 1981 he played the voice of Charlie, the boss who delivered assignments to his beautiful detectives, including Farrah Fawcett, via telephone in "Charlie's Angels."

"We were so happy when he agreed to be the voice of Charlie, and he always laughed about having to take a back seat to Farrah's hair," Spelling's widow Candy said in a statement.

Forsythe evidenced little of the ego drive that motivates many actors. He viewed himself with a self-effacing humor, considering himself "a vastly usable, not wildly talented actor."

In a 1981 interview by The Associated Press, he also said: "I figure there are a few actors like Marlon Brando, George C. Scott and Laurence Olivier who have been touched by the hand of God. I'm in the next bunch."

Mike Greenfield, a former agent for Forsythe, said he was a pleasure to work with and to know.

"They don't get much better than John. He was a class act on every level," Greenfield said.

With his full head of silver hair, tanned face and soothing voice, Forsythe as Carrington attracted the ardor of millions of female television viewers. "It's rather amusing at my advanced age (mid-60s) to become a sex symbol," he cracked.

While he had small roles in a couple of films in the early 1940s, Forsythe's first successes were mainly on the stage. While serving during World War II, he was cast in Moss Hart's Air Force show "Winged Victory," along with many other future stars.

After the war, Forsythe became a founding member of the Actors Studio, recalling it as "a wildly stimulating place for a guy like me who was a babe in the woods. I never suspected there was that kind of artistry and psychological approach to acting."

Forsythe began appearing in television plays as early as 1947, and he continued his Broadway career. A role in Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" led to the awesome task of replacing Henry Fonda in "Mister Roberts."

He was next able to create a role of his own, as the naive Army officer in occupied Okinawa in "Teahouse of the August Moon." The play was a huge success, winning the Pulitzer Prize. "It gave me a sense of worth as an actor," Forsythe remarked.

The call to Hollywood was irresistible, and Forsythe came west to star in such films as "The Captive City," "The Glass Web" and "Escape from Fort Bravo." His best break came in 1955 when he starred in Alfred Hitchcock's one attempt at whimsy, "The Trouble with Harry," about a corpse that kept turning up in a New England town.

Forsythe's film roles were limited because he was already busy in television. The comedy "Bachelor Father," in which he played a Hollywood lawyer who cared for his teenage niece, lasted from 1957 to 1962, appearing successively on CBS, NBC and ABC.

His later films included "Madame X" (opposite Lana Turner) and "In Cold Blood" and Hitchcock's spy thriller "Topaz."

"And Justice for All" (1979) marked a departure for the actor. Director Norman Jewison cast him as a judge with a kinky sex life.

"He wanted to create suspense on whether the judge was guilty of such dark deeds," Forsythe said.

He credited the role for causing him to be considered as the unscrupulous Carrington in "Dynasty."

"The producers didn't know what the hell they wanted," Forsythe recalled. "They talked to me in terms of J.R. in 'Dallas.' I said, 'Look, fellas, I don't want to play J.R. Part of my strength as an actor comes from what I've learned all these years: when you play a villain, you try to get the light touches; when you play a hero, you try to get in some of the warts."

He was born John Lincoln Freund on Jan. 29, 1918, in Penn's Grove, N.J.

He won an athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina, had a stint as public address announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers, then launched his struggle to become an actor against the wishes of his father. Having had his name mispronounced all his life, he adopted the name of Forsythe, which came from his mother's family.

He toured the country in a children's theater troupe with his first wife, actress Parker McCormick, and began appearing in radio soap operas and Broadway plays.

His first marriage ended after the birth of a son, Dall. During the run of "Winged Victory," Forsythe married another actress, Julie Warren. They had two daughters, Page in 1950, Brooke in 1954.

When not acting, Forsythe maintained a strong interest in politics and sports, often playing in charity tennis tournaments. A devoted environmentalist, he also narrated a long-running outdoor series, "The World of Survival."

In lieu of flowers, Forsythe's family asked that donations be made to the American Cancer Society.

The family said there will be no public service.

Veteran 'Wire,' 'ER' screenwriter David Mills dies

NEW ORLEANS – David Mills, a veteran television writer who worked on the award-winning series "ER" and "The Wire," died after collapsing on the set of his latest production. He was 48.

Mills died Tuesday night in New Orleans, said HBO spokesman Diego Aldana. Doctors at Tulane Medical Center said he suffered a brain aneurism, according to a statement Wednesday from Mills' latest production, "Treme."

Mills was on the set of the new HBO series as it filmed a scene at Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter when he was stricken and rushed to the hospital where he died without regaining consciousness, the statement said.

"He was an enormous talent," said David Simon, a co-executive producer with Mills who first met the award-winning writer in the newsroom of their college newspaper. "He loved words and he loved an argument but not in any angry or mean-spirited way. He loved to argue ideas. He delighted in it, and he was confident that something smarter and deeper always came from a good argument."

Mills was living in New Orleans while working as a writer and executive producer of the drama set during post-Katrina and slated to premiere on April 11.

Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William "Bunk" Moreland on "The Wire," and plays a musician in "Treme," said Mills collapsed on the set Tuesday.

"He was carrying on a conversation and just fell over," Pierce said. "They called the medics, but there was nothing to be done."

"Treme" is named after the Creole neighborhood known for its rich musical history.

"I'm so sorry he won't be able to see the launch of the show he cared so much about," Pierce said.

HBO said in a statement that the network is "deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague."

"He was a gracious and humble man, and will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him, as well as those who were aware of his immense talent. David has left us too soon but his brilliant work will live on."

"Treme" cast and crew members held a memorial for Mills on the set Wednesday morning, Pierce said.

"He was very quiet and introverted, but spoke volumes when he wrote," Pierce said of Mills. "He challenged us as actors and he challenged Americans when it came to matters of race. He was one of the more talented people working in TV. He made it much more than just empty entertainment."

Mills began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post, before turning to screenwriting. Besides "ER" and "The Wire," he worked on the HBO drama "The Corner," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "NYPD Blue" and was executive producer and writer of the short-lived NBC miniseries "Kingpin," about a Mexican drug cartel.

Mills started his television writing career with Simon, a longtime friend and "Wire" creator, in 1994. The pair wrote an episode of "Homicide" that year, for which they won a Writers Guild of America award. Mills won Emmys for co-writing and executive producing the miniseries "The Corner" and an Edgar in 2007 for "The Wire."

Robert Culp, who starred in `I Spy,' dead at 79

LOS ANGELES – Robert Culp, the actor who teamed with Bill Cosby in the racially groundbreaking TV series "I Spy" and was Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday after collapsing outside his Hollywood home, his manager said. Culp was 79.

Manager Hillard Elkins said the actor was on a walk when he fell. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead just before noon. The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack, Elkins said, though police were unsure if the fall was medically related.

Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder said no foul play was suspected. Binder said a jogger found Culp, who apparently fell and struck his head.

"I Spy" greatly advanced the careers of Culp and Cosby and forged a lifelong friendship. Cosby said Wednesday Culp was like an older brother to him.

"The first born in every family is always dreaming of the older brother or sister he or she doesn't have, to protect, to be the buffer, provide the wisdom, shoulder the blows and make things right," he said. "Bob was the answer to my dreams.

"No matter how many mistakes I made on 'I Spy,' he was always there to teach and protect me," Cosby said.

Candace Culp, the actor's ex-wife, said she was devastated.

"He was a wonderful, creative man who contributed so much to his business, as an actor, as a writer, as a director," she said.

Robert Culp lately had been working on writing screenplays, Elkins said.

"I Spy," which aired from 1965 to 1968, was a television milestone in more ways than one. Its combination of humor and adventure broke new ground, and it was the first integrated television show to feature a black actor in a starring role.

Culp played Kelly Robinson, a spy whose cover was that of an ace tennis player. (In real life, Culp actually was a top-notch tennis player who showed his skills in numerous celebrity tournaments.). Cosby was fellow spy Alexander Scott, whose cover was that of Culp's trainer. The pair traveled the world in the service of the U.S. government.

Culp followed "I Spy" with his most prestigious film role, in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." The work of first-time director Paul Mazursky, who also co-wrote the screenplay, lampooned the lifestyles of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Bob and Carol (Culp and Natalie Wood) introduced wife-swapping to their best friends, Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon).

Culp also had starring roles in such films as "The Castaway Cowboy," "Golden Girl," "Turk 182!" and "Big Bad Mama II."

His teaming with Cosby, however, was likely his best remembered role.

Cosby won Emmys for actor in a leading role all three years that "I Spy" aired, and Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.

"I was the proudest man around," he said in a 1977 interview.

Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.

Culp and Cosby also costarred in the 1972 movie "Hickey and Boggs," which Culp also directed. This time they were hard-luck private detectives who encountered multiple deaths. Audiences who had enjoyed the lightheartedness of "I Spy" were disappointed, and the movie flopped at the box office.

"His proudest moments were when he was writing and directing 'I Spy' and 'Hickey and Boggs,'" Cosby said. "Bob was meticulous and committed."

After years of talking up the idea, they finally re-teamed in 1994 for a two-hour CBS movie, "I Spy Returns."

In his first movie role Culp played one of John Kennedy's crew in "PT 109."

His first starring TV series, "Trackdown" (1957-1959) was a Western based partly on files of the Texas Rangers. In the 1980s, he starred as an FBI agent in the fantasy "The Greatest American Hero."

He remained active in movies and TV. Among his notable later performances was as a U.S. president in 1993's "The Pelican Brief." More recently, he had a recurring role as Patricia Heaton's father in the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" and appeared in such shows as "Robot Chicken," "Chicago Hope" and an episode of "Cosby."

Robert Martin Culp, born in 1930 in Oakland, led a peripatetic existence as a college student, attending College of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., Washington University in St. Louis and San Francisco State College before landing at the University of Washington drama school.

Then at age 21, a semester removed from his degree, he moved to New York, where he began landing roles in off-Broadway plays. One of them was in "He Who Gets Slapped."

"I saw it in college in Seattle, and I said, `My God, that's my part, that's my part,'" he once told an interviewer. After he won the role in a Greenwich Village production "the floodgates opened," he said.

Good reviews and an Obie award led to offers from Hollywood.

Culp was married five times, to Nancy Ashe, Elayne Wilner, France Nuyen, Sheila Sullivan and Candace Culp. He had four children with Ashe and one with Candace Culp.

Tiger Woods to break silence in interview on Sunday

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tiger Woods's first interview since a media storm engulfed his private life will be shown by ESPN at 7 p.m. EST on Sunday, a source at the network told Reuters.

The interview will be conducted by Tom Rinaldi and will be broadcast on the Sports Center show.

Woods is due to return to action at the U.S. Masters on April 8, his first appearance since November.

The golfer has not conducted any interviews since stories broke regarding his marital infidelities, but he delivered an apologetic televised statement in February.

Fess Parker, TV's `Davy Crockett,' dies at 85

LOS ANGELES – Fess Parker, a baby-boomer idol in the 1950s who launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV's Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death came on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death, said Anash. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

"Fess Parker has been a role model and idol of mine since I first saw him on the big screen — he is a true Hollywood legend," said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a statement. "As a talented actor and successful businessman, he was an inspirational Californian whose contributions to our state will be remembered forever."

Former first lady Nancy Reagan said Parker was "a longtime friend to Ronnie and me ... He will be greatly missed."

The first installment of "Davy Crockett," with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the "Disneyland" TV show.

The 6-foot, 6-inch Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts and trademark fur caps. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ("Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...") was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Parker's own version reached No. 5.

The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," in 1955.

True to history, Disney killed off its hero in the third episode, "Davy Crockett at the Alamo," where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 at age 49. But spurred by popular demand, Disney brought back the Crockett character for some episodes in the 1955-56 season, including "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race."

"Like many kids growing up in the '50s, Davy Crockett was my first hero, and I had the coonskin cap to prove it," said Disney CEO Bob Iger. "Fess Parker's unforgettable, exciting and admirable performance as this American icon has remained with me all these years, as it has for his millions of fans around the world. Fess is truly a Disney Legend, as is the heroic character he portrayed, and while he will certainly be missed, he will never be forgotten."

Parker's career leveled off when the Crockett craze died down, but he made a TV comeback from 1964-1970 in the title role of the TV adventure series "Daniel Boone" — also based on a real-life American frontiersman. Actor-singer Ed Ames, formerly of the Ames Brothers, played Boone's Indian friend, Mingo.

After "Daniel Boone," Parker largely retired from show business, except for guest appearances, and went into real estate.

"I left the business after 22 years," Parker told The Associated Press in 2001. "It was time to leave Hollywood. I came along at a time when I'm starting out with Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Sterling Hayden and Gregory Peck."

"Who needed a guy running around in a coonskin cap?" he said.

Parker had made his motion picture debut in "Springfield Rifle" in 1952. His other movies included "No Room for the Groom" (1952), "The Kid From Left Field" (1953), "Them!" (1954), "The Great Locomotive Chase" (1956), "Westward Ho, the Wagons!" (1956), "Old Yeller" (1957) and "The Light in the Forest" (1958).

Several of Parker's films, including "The Great Locomotive Chase" and "Old Yeller," came from the Disney studio.

It was Parker's scene as a terrified witness in the horror classic "Them!" that caught the attention of Walt Disney when he was looking for a "Davy Crockett" star. He chose Parker over another "Them!" actor, James Arness — who became a TV superstar in the long-running "Gunsmoke."

After departing Hollywood, Parker got into real estate with his wife, Marcella, whom he had married in 1960.

He bought and sold property, built hotels (including the elegant Fess Parker's Wine Country Inn & Spa in Los Olivos and Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort Santa Barbara) and grew wine grapes on a 2,200-acre vineyard on California's Central Coast, where he was dubbed King of the Wine Frontier and coonskin caps enjoyed brisk sales.

After its inaugural harvest in 1989, Parker's vineyard won dozens of medals and awards. The Parkers' son, Eli, became director of winemaking and their daughter, Ashley, also worked at the winery.

Parker was a longtime friend of Ronald Reagan, whose Western White House was not far from the Parker vineyards. Reagan sent Parker to Australia in 1985 to represent him during an event, and when Parker returned he was asked by White House aide Michael Deaver if he was interested in being ambassador to that country.

"In the end, I decided I'd better take myself out of it. But I was flattered," Parker said.

Parker also once considered a U.S. Senate bid, challenging Alan Cranston. But Nevada Sen. Paul Laxalt said it would be a rough campaign, and a key dissenter lived under the same roof.

"My wife was not in favor," Parker said. "I'm so happy with what evolved."

Fess Elisha Parker Jr. was born Aug. 16, 1924, in Fort Worth, Texas — Parker loved to point out Crockett's birthday was Aug. 17. He played football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene but was injured in a nearly fatal road-rage knifing in 1946.

"There went my football career," Parker had said.

He later earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas.

Parker was discovered by actor Adolphe Menjou, who was Oscar-nominated for "The Front Page" in 1931 and who was a guest artist at the University of Texas. Menjou urged him to go to Hollywood and introduced Parker to his agent.

Influential singer/songwriter Alex Chilton dies at 59

Singer/songwriter Alex Chilton, who achieved early fame as a member of the Box Tops before helping to form the highly influential '70s pop act Big Star, has died at the age of 59.

Paramedics took Chilton to a hospital in New Orleans Wednesday (3/17) after he complained of heart problems, longtime friend John Fry told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He was unconscious by the time he reached the emergency room, according to Fry, and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

"Alex passed away a couple of hours ago," Big Star drummer Jody Stephens told the newspaper. "I don’t have a lot of particulars, but they kind of suspect that it was a heart attack." Chilton and Big Star were scheduled to perform at the SXSW Festival in Austin, TX, later this week.

Born in Memphis, Chilton struck early success with his first band, the Box Tops, reaching the top of the pop charts at age 16 with "The Letter," a No. 1 hit in the US that was covered famously three years later by Joe Cocker on his "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" album.

Following the breakup of the Box Tops in 1969, Chilton began a solo career, teaching himself how to play guitar in the process and recording in Fry's Memphis Ardent Studios with local musicians. After a short-lived move to New York City, Chilton returned to Memphis in 1971 and joined Big Star, previously a fledgling trio named Icewater featuring Stephens, singer/guitarist Chris Bell and bassist Andy Hummel.

The band released its debut album, "#1 Record," in 1972 and then promptly disbanded in the wake of Bell's increasing drug problems, only to reform a few months later as trio with Chilton, Stephens and Hummel. The band's second album, "Radio City," appeared in 1974.

A third and final album, "Third/Sister Lovers," was recorded in 1974, but didn't surface until 1978, only a few months before Bell died in a car accident, and long after Big Star had broken up a second time. All three Big Star albums are considered hugely influential in the indie-rock world, and helped inspire artists ranging from the members of R.E.M. to Paul Westerberg of The Replacements, who included a song entitled "Alex Chilton" on their 1987 album "Please to Meet Me."

"Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes around," reads a line in the song.

Chilton resumed his solo career later in the '70s and maintained a steady recording career throughout the remainder of his life. His most recent album is 2000's "Set."

In the late '90s, Chilton participated in a reunion with the original members of the Box Tops, and also began touring with a new version of Big Star, featuring Stephens and two members of The Posies: Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. The band recorded one studio album with this lineup, 2005's "In Space," which was released by Rykodisc.

"What would be ideal would be to make a ton of money and have nobody know about you," Chilton told an Associated Press interviewer in 1987. "Fame has a lot of baggage to carry around. I wouldn't want to be like Bruce Springsteen. I don't need that much money and wouldn't want to have 20 bodyguards following me."

"If I did become really popular, the critics probably wouldn't like me all that much," he said. "They like to root for the underdog."

Chilton is survived by his wife, Laura, and his son, Timothy.

Kate Winslet, husband split

LONDON — British movie star Kate Winslet has split from her film director husband Sam Mendes after nearly seven years of marriage, their British law firm said Monday.

With their matching Oscars and string of high-profile commercial and artistic successes, Winslet and Mendes were a golden couple of Britain’s show business world.

But the surprise announcement, sent in an email to journalists, said they had been separated since the beginning of the year without specifying an exact date.

Law firm Schillings said the split was “entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement.”

Winslet, 34, married Mendes, 44, in a small, low-key ceremony in the Caribbean in May 2003. It was Winslet’s second marriage. Her first, to British director Jim Threapleton, ended in divorce in 2001.

Winslet has one child from her marriage with Threapleton and another from her marriage with Mendes. The statement said both she and Mendes were “fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children.”

It wasn’t clear whether divorce proceedings have begun. Calls and emails seeking comment from Schillings weren’t immediately returned.

Winslet’s breakthrough role was in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures,” which traced the obsessive relationship between two girls in 1950s New Zealand.

She went on to run through a number of other stage and film roles — including a memorable turn as Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of “Hamlet” — but stardom would not come until James Cameron’s “Titantic,” one of the most commercially successful films in cinematic history.

The film would earn Winslet one of many Academy Award nominations but her first win would not come until 2009, when she scooped the prize for best actress for her role in “The Reader.”

Mendes, an acclaimed stage and film director, won the coveted best-director Oscar for “American Beauty.”

He directed his wife in “Revolutionary Road,” a recent film about a crumbling marriage that reunited Winslet with her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Reviews were largely favourable, but the film failed to set off the same box office fever that made “Titanic” one of the most successful films in history.

In “Revolutionary Road,” Winslet portrayed a suburban housewife who became increasingly bored and desperate with her stay-at-home life. The film won Winslet a Golden Globe for best dramatic actress, and in her acceptance speech she thanked her husband for pushing her so hard.

“Thank you for directing this film, babe, and thank you for killing us every single day and really enjoying us actually being in such horrific pain,” she said last year.

Mendes said at the time that directing his wife had been one of the best experiences of his life, although he said she liked to discuss the movie 24 hours a day while he preferred to do something else, like watch a baseball game, at night when work was done.

Corey Haim funeral not city-funded: Toronto

The city of Toronto has denied claims that actor Corey Haim's funeral Tuesday will be paid for by taxpayers.

The Toronto actor's mother, Judy Haim, made the claim that the city would cover funeral costs in an interview Sunday with the U.S. TV program Access Hollywood.

The city has a fund to cover funerals of the destitute — but it provides for only a minimal funeral.

Toronto city spokesman Kevin Sack said Monday the city had not even received an application to the fund.

On Monday, Haim's family was also backing down from a claim that the city will pay for his funeral.

The private funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Steeles Memorial Chapel in Toronto.

A private memorial fund has been set up to help Haim's mother pay for funeral expenses. It is reported to have raised close to $20,000.

Toronto-born Haim, star of Lost Boys and Lucas, died last Wednesday at age 38.

The Los Angeles coroner's office has not released a cause of death, but said prescription drug bottles were found in Haim's Beverly Hills, Calif., apartment.

Haim's career had flagged, although he had take several film roles in the past few years.

'Mission: Impossible' star Peter Graves dies in LA

LOS ANGELES – Peter Graves, the tall, stalwart actor likely best known for his portrayal of Jim Phelps, leader of a gang of special agents who battled evil conspirators in the long-running television series "Mission: Impossible," died Sunday.

Graves died of an apparent heart attack outside his Los Angeles home, publicist Sandy Brokaw said. He would have been 84 this week.

Graves had just returned from brunch with his wife and kids and collapsed before he made it into the house, Brokaw said. One of his daughters administered CPR but was unable to revive him. Graves' family doctor visited the house and believed he had a heart attack, Brokaw said.

Although Graves never achieved the stardom his older brother, James Arness, enjoyed as Marshall Matt Dillon on TV's "Gunsmoke," he had a number of memorable roles in both films and television.

Normally cast as a hero, he turned in an unforgettable performance early in his career as the treacherous Nazi spy in Billy Wilder's 1953 prisoner-of-war drama "Stalag 17."

He also masterfully lampooned his straight-arrow image when he portrayed bumbling airline pilot Clarence Oveur in the 1980 disaster movie spoof "Airplane!"

Graves appeared in dozens of films and a handful of television shows in a career of nearly 60 years.

The authority and trust he projected made him a favorite for commercials late in his life, and he was often encouraged to go into politics.

"He had this statesmanlike quality," Brokaw said. "People were always encouraging him to run for office. But he said, 'I like acting. I like being around actors.'"

Graves' career began with cheaply made exploitation films like "It Conquered the World," in which he battled a carrot-shaped monster from Venus, and "Beginning of the World," in which he fought a giant grasshopper.

He later took on equally formidable human villains each week on "Mission: Impossible."

Every show began with Graves, as agent Phelps, listening to a tape of instructions outlining his team's latest mission and explaining that if he or any of his agents were killed or captured "the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

The tape always self-destructed within seconds of being played.

The show ran on CBS from 1967 to 1973 and was revived on ABC from 1988 to 1990 with Graves back as the only original cast member.

The actor credited clever writing for the show's success.

"It made you think a little bit and kept you on the edge of your seat because you never knew what was going to happen next," he once said.

He also played roles in such films as John Ford's "The Long Gray Line" and Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter," as well as "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell," "Texas Across the River" and "The Ballad of Josie."

Graves' first television series was a children's Saturday morning show, "Fury," about an orphan and his untamed black stallion. Filmed in Australia, it lasted six years on NBC. A western, "Whiplash," also shot in Australia, played for a year in syndication, and the British-made "Court-Martial" appeared on ABC for one season. In his later years, Graves brought his white-haired eminence to PBS as host of "Discover: The World of Science" and A&E's "Biography" series.

He noted during an interview in 2000 that he made his foray into comedy somewhat reluctantly.

Filmmakers Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker had written a satire on the airplane-in-trouble movies, and they wanted Graves and fellow handsome actors Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen and Robert Stack to spoof their serious images.

All agreed, but Graves admitted to nervousness. On the one hand, he said, he considered the role a challenge, "but it also scared me."

"I thought I could lose a whole long acting career," he recalled.

"Airplane!" became a box-office smash, and Graves returned for "Airplane II, The Sequel."

Born Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, Graves adopted his grandfather's last name to avoid confusion with his older brother, James, who had dropped the "U" from the family name.

He was a champion hurdler in high school, as well as a clarinet player in dance bands and a radio announcer.

After two years in the Air Force, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota as a drama major and worked in summer stock before following his brother west to Hollywood.

He found enough success there to send for his college sweetheart, Joan Endress. They were married in 1950 and had three daughters — Kelly Jean, Claudia King and Amanda Lee — and six grandchildren.

Graves credited the couple's Midwest upbringing for a marriage that lasted more than 50 years in a town not known for long unions.

"Hollywood or New York ... can be very flighty and dangerous places to live, but the good grounding we had in the Midwest ethic I think helped us all our lives," he said.

Haim to be buried in Toronto

Corey Haim will be buried where he was born — in Toronto.

Haim's manager told Us Weekly the 80s icon's family "want to do it back home" but there will also be a memorial service in Los Angeles.

No date has been set for the funeral or memorial service, but the magazine reports the family is planning to ask the Hollywood community for donations to fund the burial and service.

It was reported Haim was in Los Angeles helping to take care of his mother Judy, who has cancer. Haim's sister Cari told the magazine her mother is not doing well.

"This is really hitting her hard," she said.

TMZ.com reported the L.A. County Coroner's Office said Haim had pulmonary congestion, and enlarged heart and water in his lungs, but the coroner could not say if these conditions caused his death. The coroner will not determine a cause of death until a toxicology report is completed.

Haim, who is best known for his roles in the movies The Lost Boys, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream, as well as being the "other" Corey alongside Corey Feldman, died Wednesday. It was well-known he suffered from drug addictions for most of his adult life.

Feldman has said he expects there will be a large memorial service for Haim.

"You see these people making great statements and that's wonderful and I hope they're all there for the memorial and I hope they're all there for the funeral," he told talk show host Larry King. "But where were they during his life?

Underwood finds love and snow

Nashville is about as different from Ottawa as two places can be on one planet, but living in two capitals -- the capital of Canada and the other the country music capital -- is a challenge that country superstar Carrie Underwood is learning to balance.

One thing is certain: Underwood is in love.

The singer, who got engaged to Ottawa Senators centre Mike Fisher in December and is nominated for six Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM), including entertainer of the tear, top female vocalist and album of the year for her latest release, Play On, quietly makes the trip for a snowy weekend to watch the 29-year-old hockey star play at Scotiabank Place, hang out at Fratelli's restaurant (one of their favourite haunts in Kanata), or laze around Fisher's home in Carp.

Yes, we might be seeing a lot more of this self-professed "southern girl," if it weren't for one major obstacle.

Snow.

They don't get a lot of the white stuff back home in Oklahoma, where the Grammy Award-winning singer is originally from. It's not something she's used to.

"It's another world here," she says with a laugh during a break in final rehearsals for her Play On tour, which begins Thursday in Reading, Pa.

"Don't forget, we're just north of Texas. So when it snows in Oklahoma, we close everything, but it doesn't seem to bother people here. I'm waiting for the day I drive my truck into a snow bank."

A Christian whose traditional southern values matched well with Fisher's own devout upbringing, Underwood was pleasantly surprised to find that Ottawans are every bit as welcoming as people back home.

"The people I've met here are great, helping me to adjust to life in Canada. And they love Mike. That warms my heart."

However, she recently discovered that marrying a fan favourite like No. 12 puts a lot of competitive romantic pressure on the new bride-to-be.

"A woman came up to me at the grocery store and chewed me out, telling me if I thought I was going to take Mike away from Ottawa, I had another thing coming, and she wasn't kidding. She let me know she loved him and he was going to stay here, period, no matter what I said. She might have been kidding, but she wasn't being funny."

When the glamourous couple do tie the knot (when, she won't say), they'll split their time between Nashville in the summer and Ottawa during hockey season when she's not touring.

She loves living in the country music capital because she can hang out with family and friends, go to tailgate parties and watch NFL football.

Underwood, who calls herself a huge football fan, sang the American national anthem at Super Bowl XLIV.

"I like hockey now. I'm still learning the game, but I grew up watching football.

"Mike's right at home in Nashville. He's got friends there long before he met me."

The couple met when Fisher visited Underwood backstage following her concert at Scotiabank Place in March 2008.

"We took our time to become friends first. Our relationship grew organically. Now I know that this is the one God's chosen for me."

The ACM awards will air live from Las Vegas on April 18 at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Corey Haim prolonged tragic Hollywood tradition

LOS ANGELES – Corey Haim's story is sadly familiar in Hollywood: A teen talent who discovered drugs as he tasted his first success and whose personal problems increased as his star-power faded.

Haim died Wednesday at 38, another chapter in Hollywood's tragic history of careers ravaged by drugs.

Brittany Murphy's career was rebounding when she died at 31 in December from pneumonia and prescription drugs.

River Phoenix was 16 when he starred in "Stand By Me" and 23 when he died of a drug overdose outside a Hollywood nightclub.

Haim died at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, His mother called paramedics after he collapsed while getting out of bed at his apartment.

Haim started working in TV commercials at 10 and was a big-screen heartthrob at 15. The star of 1987's "The Lost Boys" discovered drugs while making that movie.

"I was working on 'Lost Boys' when I smoked my first joint," he told the British tabloid The Sun in 1994. "I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack."

Haim said he went into rehab and was put on prescription drugs. In 2007, he told ABC's "Nightline" that drugs hurt his career.

"I wasn't functional enough to work for anybody, even myself," he said. "I wasn't working."

Haim had returned to the spotlight in recent years, appearing in the A&E reality TV show "The Two Coreys" with "Lost Boys" co-star Corey Feldman. The show was canceled in 2008 after two seasons. Feldman later said Haim's drug abuse strained their working and personal relationships.

Haim was ill with flulike symptoms before his death, and police said he was taking over-the-counter and prescription medications.

An autopsy will determine his cause of death. There was no evidence of foul play.

"He could have succumbed to whatever (illness) he had or it could have been drugs," police Sgt. William Mann said. "He has had a drug problem in the past."

Feldman said he wept when he learned Haim had died.

"This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend," Feldman said in a statement.

Troy Searer, an executive producer of "The Two Coreys," said Haim's "heart and his potential were only outmatched by his demons."

Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction-medicine specialist and star of VH1's drug-treatment reality programs "Celebrity Rehab" and "Sober House," said the lure of Hollywood attracts many potential addicts.

"There's a higher incidence of addiction among celebrities," he said. "It's not the Hollywood-ness. It's the fact that addicts show up in Hollywood and addicts are likely to die."

Pinsky added: "Young Hollywood only reflects what's going on in the culture at large."

Jennifer Gimenez, an actress and recovering drug addict and alcoholic who appears on "Sober House," said Hollywood's ultra-competitive environment can lead some people to seek escape in substances.

"I don't feel like Hollywood takes you down," she said. "I just feel like it co-signs it a lot."

Gimenez found success at 14 as a model and suddenly had to shoulder adult-sized responsibilities. Add the pressure of working in a competitive industry, and a person predisposed to addiction succumbs, she said.

Successful actors are not immune to the dangers of addiction. Heath Ledger was poised for superstardom when he overdosed in 2008 at age 28. He posthumously won the Oscar the following year for his work as the Joker in "The Dark Knight."

Haim's career outlook had been improving in recent months, and his neighbors told reporters the actor was looking healthier and getting stronger.

He had a role in the 2009 Jason Statham action flick "Crank 2: High Voltage" and was making appearances to support his new film "American Sunset," billed on his Web site as the first film he had starred in "since he left the business on a sabbatical."

Haim's agent Mark Sterling and producers of "American Sunset" did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Searer said he last spoke to Haim about six months ago, when the actor "seemed incredibly positive."

"He had done a few smaller films and things seemed to be on the upswing for him," Searer said.

Haim, however, seemed sadly prophetic when he was interviewed by CNN's Larry King in 2007, calling himself "a chronic relapser for the rest of my life."

'Lost Boys' actor Corey Haim dead in Calif. at 38

LOS ANGELES – Corey Haim, a 1980s teen heartthrob whose career was blighted by drug abuse, has died. He was 38.

Haim died early Wednesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said.

"As he got out of bed, he felt a little weak and went down to the floor on his knees," Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said. His mother called paramedics.

An autopsy will determine cause of death. There was no evidence of foul play, police Sgt. Michael Kammert said.

Haim, who gained attention for roles in "Lucas" and "The Lost Boys," had flulike symptoms before he died and was getting over-the-counter and prescription medications, police Sgt. William Mann said.

"He could have succumbed to whatever (illness) he had or it could have been drugs," Mann said. "He has had a drug problem in the past."

Haim was taken by ambulance to the hospital from an apartment in Los Angeles near Burbank.

His friend, Corey Feldman, said he wept when he heard the news.

"This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family and best friend," he said in a statement. "We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference.

"I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived," Feldman said.

Haim acknowledged his struggle with drug abuse to a British tabloid in 2004.

"I was working on 'Lost Boys' when I smoked my first joint," he told The Sun. "I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack."

Haim said he went into rehabilitation and was put on prescription drugs. He took stimulants and sedatives.

"I started on the downers, which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck," he said.

In 2007, he told ABC's "Nightline" that drugs hurt his career.

"I wasn't functional enough to work for anybody, even myself. I wasn't working," he said.

The Toronto-born actor got his start in television commercials at 10 and developed a good reputation for his work in such films as 1985's "Murphy's Romance" and his portrayal of Liza Minnelli's dying son in the 1985 television film "A Time to Live."

His career peaked when he became a heartthrob with his roles in the 1986 movie "Lucas" and "The Lost Boys" in 1987 in which he battled vampires.

In later years, he made a few TV appearances and had several direct-to-video movies. He also had a handful of recent movies that have not yet been released.

In 1997, Haim filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing debts for medical expenses and more than $200,000 in state and federal taxes.

His assets included a few thousand dollars in cash, clothing and royalty rights.

In recent years, he appeared in the A&E reality TV show "The Two Coreys" with Feldman. It was canceled in 2008 after two seasons. Feldman later said Haim's drug abuse strained their working and personal relationships.

In a 2007 interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Haim called himself "a chronic relapser for the rest of my life."

Sean Penn rages against critics

Sean Penn has opened fire on critics of his recent mercy mission to Haiti, stating he hopes they all die of rectal cancer.

The controversial movie star has been so caught up in the relief effort in earthquake-ravaged Haiti in recent weeks, he hasn't paid attention to what politicians and newsmakers have been saying about him.

But, now he's home, the 49-year-old can't believe his actions have upset so many people - and he's disturbed that his critics can't just see the good in what he's trying to do in Haiti, where he helped establish a private relief organisation.

In a taped TV interview, which will air this weekend on CBS News' Sunday Morning, Penn rages, "Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah. You know, but I'm not going to spend a lot of energy on it."

He isn't letting the criticism affect his plans to return to Haiti - and he's taking his teenage kids with him: "They're gonna help... The first person served by service is the server. You know, there's nobody in the world that isn't looking for a kind of purpose in life, and tangible purpose is the most immediately recognisable."

And Penn insists his celebrity input is helping the people of Haiti: "We were able to get X-ray machines, and ventilators, and do all kinds of things."

Hall & Oates bassist T-Bone Wolk dies

Tom (T-Bone) Wolk, who played bass guitar for Daryl Hall and John Oates for 29 years, has died. He was 58.

Hall & Oates band manager Jonathan Wolfson says Wolk died Sunday of an apparent heart attack in Pawling, N.Y., where he had been recording a solo album with Daryl Hall.

He has been resident musical director and often co-producer for Hall & Oates, the pop-rock duo who first came to fame in the 1970s and continue to play together.

"His musical sensibility was peerless, any instrument that he touched resonated with a sensitivity and skill level that I have never experienced while playing with any other musician," John Oates said in a statement posted to his website Monday.

"He possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of styles and musical history which he referenced to support all the artists that he played with over the years. He became our band's musical director over time leading by example and by the deference and respect that everyone who played alongside him so rightfully accorded him. He made everyone he played with better. "

Wolk was a talented session musician, who also played acoustic guitar, accordion, mandolin, mandocello, hammered dulcimer and pump organ.

He was a member of the Saturday Night Live house band from 1986 to 1992, appearing on screen playing bass.

Born and raised in Yonkers, N.Y., Wolk studied art at Cooper Union Art School in New York, but spent most of his time playing in bars.

He played with various musicians in the 1970s, including Billy Vera, drummer Chris Parker and funk artist Lonnie Mack.

After winning a spot with Hall & Oates in 1981, he continued working with a range of other artists, including Carly Simon, Elvis Costello, Roseanne Cash, Amanda Marshall, Diane Ziegler, Charlie Musselwhite, Avril Lavigne and Billy Joel.

He owns 50 or 60 instruments, including the Gibson Ripper, which is one of his favourite bass guitars.

Wolfson says Wolk was preparing to appear Monday with Hall & Oates on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

ESPN suspends Kornheiser for comments about Storm

BRISTOL, Conn. – ESPN has suspended host Tony Kornheiser from his television talk show "Pardon the Interruption" for two weeks for comments he made on the radio last week about SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm's clothing.

Kornheiser announced the suspension on his Washington D.C. radio show Tuesday morning, calling his remarks about Storm intemperate and stupid.
"As the result of this, I have been sent to the sidelines of PTI for a while," Kornheiser said.

In a written release Tuesday, ESPN called Kornheiser's comments inappropriate.
"Hurtful and personal comments such as these are not acceptable and have significant consequences," said John Skipper, ESPN's vice president for content. "Tony has been suspended from PTI for two weeks. Hannah is a respected colleague who has been an integral part of the success of our morning SportsCenter."

Kornheiser described an outfit Storm was wearing at ESPN last week as "horrifying," saying her shirt was too tight and looked "like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body."

Kornheiser said he had called Storm to personally apologize for the remarks.
"If you put a live microphone in front of somebody, eventually that person will say something wrong," Kornheiser said on his show Tuesday. "This was one of the times I said something wrong."

Storm declined to comment, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.

ESPN has been troubled by a series of workplace issues involving alleged misconduct by its television personalities, though they have involved behavior off the air.

Benson, 90210 Actress Caroline McWilliams Dies

The small screen has just lost one of its familiar faces.

Benson and Soap star Caroline McWilliams died Feb. 11 at her home in Los Angeles from complications of multiple myeloma, her family told the Los Angeles Times. She was 64-years-old.

McWilliams began her career on the soap opera Guiding Light in 1969 followed by a stint on Another World before she broke into prime time with Soap. That was soon followed by her most famous role, Marcy Hill opposite Robert Guillaume on Benson.

In 1982, McWilliams married Michael Keaton. They had one son, Sean Douglas, but divorced in 1990. Around that time, she appeared in the movie Mermaids and on Beverly Hills, 90210, as the mother to Jamie Walters' character.

McWilliams also enjoyed the theater, frequently performing onstage and directing live productions.

Conan weighing live tour; next stop, Europe?

LOS ANGELES – Conan O'Brien may be taking his act on the road and even overseas.

O'Brien's exit deal with NBC barred the former "Tonight" host from TV appearances for several months. He is weighing a tour that would take him directly to his fans, according to a person familiar with the proposal.

The person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the plans, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Details are unsettled, the person said, but O'Brien may perform live in U.S. venues, including college campuses, and head to Europe. An O'Brien spokesman declined comment.

The tour could be a prelude to a new talk show for the comedian, who left "Tonight" in January when NBC tried to bump him to a midnight slot. Possibilities include Fox, which expressed interest.

Jay Leno reclaims "Tonight" next month.

"Dead" singer Gordon Lightfoot says he feels fine

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Gordon Lightfoot is very much alive despite reports on Thursday that said the legendary 71-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter had died while on a North American tour.

Lightfoot, whose hits include "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", "Sundown", and "Carefree Highway", was said to have been pronounced dead by a prank message posted on the Twitter micro-blogging service, according to the website of the Globe and Mail newspaper. Reports of his death spread quickly on radio, television, and news websites.

Lightfoot, noted for richly crafted lyrics and a deep, smooth voice, was reached by telephone by Toronto's CP24 news station and said he was informed of his death by a report he heard on his car radio as he drove to his office.

"Everything is good," he told CP24. "I don't know where it come from, it seems like a bit of a hoax. I was quite surprised to hear it myself... I feel fine."

Tiger Woods to break silence on Friday - agent

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Tiger Woods will break his silence on Friday, when he is expected to address his plans for the future in the wake of a sex scandal that drove the golf superstar into seclusion.

Woods' agent said Wednesday that the 34-year-old golfer will speak at 11 am Eastern Time (1600 GMT) on Friday at the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass, headquarters of the US PGA Tour at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Woods will make a statement to a select group of media, with one television camera to relay the event live, but he won't take questions, agent Mark Steinberg said.

"While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between him and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him," Steinberg said in a statement. "He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends, and that's what he's going to discuss.

"His remarks will be open to a press pool for live coverage. It is NOT a news conference."

It remains to be seen how deep Woods will delve into the scandal that erupted around him in the wake of a mysterious car crash outside his Florida home in the early hours of November 27.

"It's encouraging that he's coming back to at least be seen by the public, and the rest of us, too," British Open champion Stewart Cink said at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona.

"I don't know what he's going to talk about," Cink said. "I think this is maybe the beginning of the comeback process for him.

"It will be good to see Tiger's face again and see that he's actually out there somewhere."

Ireland's Padraig Harrington said Woods was wise to make his first public appearance a strictly controlled one.

"The first time out, he's better controlling it," Harrington said. "Over time, there will be questions. At the moment, the best thing is a more controlled environment and gradually ease his way back into it."

Shortly before Woods' crash, the National Enquirer published a story claiming he had been seeing a nightclub hostess.

After the crash, a welter of women claimed they had affairs with Woods, and he became a target of tabloids and television comedians.

In December, Woods announced via his website that he would take an "indefinite break" from golf.

"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," the married father of two said in a statement on his website then.

"I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness."

Since then speculation has raged as to the 14-time major champion's whereabouts, the state of his marriage and just when and where he would make his return.

In January widespread reports placed Woods at a rehabilitation clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he was receiving treatment for sex addiction.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who was at the Match Play Championship, declined to speculate on what Woods would have to say, but like Cink he welcomed his decision to speak.

"I'm pleased he's going to make some comments," Finchem said, adding that Woods had asked to use the TPC Sawgrass facility.

"We were asked to make the facility available and help with the logistics," Finchem said.

"Like everybody else, we'll learn what he has to say. My sense is that this is part of his schedule and what he's going through. I don't know what he's going to say, what he's going to do after he finishes his rehab."

Finchem will certainly be on hand to hear what the player who has become the face of the game globally has to say.

"I will be in attendance," Finchem said.

Woods' long awaited public appearance will comes in the middle of the Match Play tournament, whose chief sponsor Accenture dropped Woods in the midst of the scandal.

"I suppose he might want to get something back against the sponsor that dropped him," said world number eight Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.

Finchem said he didn't believe Woods' appearance would detract from the elite event.

"We have tournaments every week," Finchem said. "I think it's going to be a story in and of itself. A lot of people are going to be watching golf this week to see what the world of golf says about it, my guess is. So that will be a good thing."

The Knack lead singer Doug Fieger dies

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Doug Fieger, leader of the power pop band The Knack who sang on the 1979 hit "My Sharona," died Sunday. He was 57.

Fieger, a Detroit-area native, died at his home in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles after battling cancer, according to The Knack's manager, Jake Hooker.

Fieger formed The Knack in Los Angeles 1978, and the group quickly became a staple of Sunset Strip rock clubs. A year later he co-wrote and sang lead vocals on "My Sharona."

Fieger said the song, with its pounding drums and exuberant vocals, was inspired by a girlfriend of four years.

"I had never met a girl like her — ever," he told The Associated Press in a 1994 interview. "She induced madness. She was a very powerful presence. She had an insouciance that wouldn't quit. She was very self-assured. ... She also had an overpowering scent, and it drove me crazy."

"My Sharona," an unapologetically anthemic rock song, emerged during disco's heyday and held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard pop chart for six weeks, becoming an FM radio standard.

It became a pop culture phenomenon, parodied by Weird Al Yankovic and others and sampled by rap group Run DMC.

In 1994, "My Sharona" re-entered the Billboard chart when it was released as a single from the soundtrack of the Ben Stiller film "Reality Bites."

"My Sharona" gained attention again in 2005 when it was reported that George W. Bush had the song on the presidential iPod.

Their songs, about young love and teenage lust, included the hits "Good Girls Don't," "She's So Selfish" and "Frustrated."

The Knack continued to release albums and tour through the mid-2000s but they never replicated the success they enjoyed with their first two albums, "Get the Knack" and "... But the Little Girls Understand."

Fieger battled cancer for six years. In 2006 he underwent surgery to remove two tumors from his brain.

He is survived by a sister, Beth Falkenstein, and a brother, attorney Geoffrey Fieger of Southfield, Mich., who is best known for representing assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.

A Los Angeles memorial service for friends and family is being planned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVdnqEyToqg

"Silent Bob" Thrown Off Southwest Flight For Being Too Large

OAKLAND - He wasn't even supposed to be there that day.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith, fresh from delivering a speech at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, unleashed his fury on Southwest Airlines after the pilot on Smith's flight from Oakland to Burbank ejected him for being "too fat to fly" Saturday evening.

"I'm way fat, but I'm not there just yet," Smith wrote on his Twitter.com account after the incident, adding that he was able to lower both arm rests at his seat. "I broke no regulation."

Southwest Airlines measures whether a customers too large to fly based on the passenger's ability to lower both armrests while sitting on the plane. If the passenger cannot lower one or both armrests, the carrier typically requires the passenger to purchase an additional seat or make arrangements on other flights that may accommodate for extra space.

"Wanna tell me I'm too wide for the sky?" Smith inquired on his Twitter account. "Totally cool, but fair warning folks: If you look like me, you may be ejected from Southwest Air."

The director of Clerks and Chasing Amy, who is also known for playing a character named "Silent Bob" in several films, added that Southwest Airlines did offer him a $100 voucher for his troubles. Additionally, Smith wrote that a female passenger seated next to him was also "chastized for not buying an additional seat."

A spokesperson for Southwest Airlines wrote an apology on the company's Twitter account following the Twitter-lashing unleashed by Smith Saturday evening.

Smith is expected to further address the Southwest Airlines issue on his podcast Sunday evening. The director eventually landed in Burbank on another flight.

Letterman stagehand hospitalized

David Letterman's TV sidekick was hospitalized on Monday after a game of catch on the show went awry.

The talk show host was enjoying a break during the taping of The Late Show with David Letterman when he started passing a ball to his stage manager, Biff Henderson, who is often involved in comedy segments of the TV program.

But Letterman's last throw to his sidekick went wrong when Henderson moved to catch the ball and tumbled off the stage in front of the studio audience. Before he knew Henderson had been hurt, Letterman quipped, "I can smell a lawsuit."

Audience member Sheva Oliver tells the New York Daily News, "They cut the cameras and the band played for about 20 minutes and that's how we all knew it was serious."

The crew cut the taping and the 63 year old was attended by medics, who moved him onto a gurney and took him to Roosevelt Hospital in an ambulance.

Henderson was treated for a leg injury and released later that night.

AC/DC rocker attacks Geldof charity

AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson has taken aim at Live Aid hero Bob Geldof for publicizing his tireless charity work.

The heavy rocker, who himself supports a number of organizations, insists philanthropy isn't something celebrities should boast about.

Johnson admits he keeps his giving to himself because he doesn't want to make less affluent people feel guilty for not parting with their hard-earned cash.

He tells Australia's Herald Sun newspaper, "I do it myself, I don't tell everybody I'm doing it. I don't tell everybody they should give money - they can't afford it."

And Johnson isn't stopping there - he's also attacking Geldof's 1985 charity concert, which was held to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, claiming it was in vain because the cash raised didn't benefit the people it should have.

He adds, "When I was a working man, I didn't want to go to a concert for some bastard to talk down to me that I should be thinking of some kid in Africa. I'm sorry mate, do it yourself, spend some of your own money and get it done. It just makes me angry. I become all tyrannical.

"Bob Geldof is a canny lad. He did what he thought was right at the time but it didn't work. The money didn't go to poor people. It makes me mad when people try to use politics or charity for publicity. Do a charity gig, fair enough, but not on worldwide television."

Mel Gibson loses his cool again

Mel Gibson has been caught name calling again - and this time it aired on TV.

The movie star had an uncomfortable satellite interview with U.S. TV presenter Dean Richards on Friday and signed off by calling the host an "a**hole".

The WGN-TV personality pressed Gibson, who was promoting new film The Edge of Darkness, on his past indiscretions, asking the Aussie if he thought the public's perception of him had changed following his 2006 drink driving arrest, in which the actor spewed anti-Semitic insults at a police officer and was publicly shamed.

A visibly annoyed Gibson replied, "That's almost four years ago, dude. I've moved on, I guess you haven't... I've done all the necessary mea culpas, so let's move on, dude. Come on."

Richards then concluded the interview, urging film fans to see Gibson's new film.

The actor said, "Bye bye," took a swig of coffee and then called the TV host an "asshole", thinking he was no longer live and the interview was over.

The TV encounter has been picked up and aired on TMZ.com.

New Zealand musician Pauly Fuemana of "How Bizarre" fame dies

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand musician Pauly Fuemana, who found international fame with his country's biggest selling record ever, "How Bizarre," died in hospital on Sunday after a short illness, according to media reports.

The 40-year-old recorded under the name OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, whose 1995 single "How Bizarre" reached No. 1 in eight countries, including Canada, Australia and Ireland. It peaked at No. 4 on the radio chart in the United States.

The deceptively upbeat song -- whose title was inspired by a ubiquitous catchphrase -- revolved around peculiar encounters with policemen and circus performers. But behind the catchy melody and Mariachi horns lurked a darker story, hinting at Fuemana's upbringing in a crime-infested suburb of New Zealand's biggest city.

"I put a lot of hidden stories in there so people could read between the lines and sense it for what it is instead of telling them, 'Yeah, we got pulled over by the cops, and my mate got his head smashed in, and we got arrested, and they found some pot on him,'" Fuemana told Reuters in a 1997 interview.

Fuemana failed to match the success of "How Bizarre," and was declared bankrupt in 2006, losing his house and other assets, including his songwriting royalties.

The Otara Millionaires Club was originally a rap group named for a suburb of Auckland where offshoots of Los Angeles' Crips and Bloods gangs reigned amid fenced-off schools, run-down buildings and curfews. Brandishing machetes, the preferred means of settling gang disputes, the band would throw bottles at fans to hype them up.

When things got too hot, Fuemana quit the group in early 1995, took the name with him and recorded "How Bizarre" as a solo artist under the abbreviated moniker. It was produced and co-written by Alan Jansson .

The follow-up album of the same name, made for just US$25,000, was released worldwide by PolyGram the following year.

After Fuemana's star faded he kept a low profile. He and Jannson reunited in 2007 to release a single "4 All of Us."

Radio New Zealand said Fuemana had been ill for several months and was surrounded by his family and friends when he died in Auckland.

'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies

NEW YORK – J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.

"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight — and concern."

Enraged by all the "phonies" who make "me so depressed I go crazy," Holden soon became American literature's most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn. The novel's sales are astonishing — more than 60 million copies worldwide — and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the book remains a defining expression of that most American of dreams — to never grow up.

Salinger was writing for adults, but teenagers from all over identified with the novel's themes of alienation, innocence and fantasy, not to mention the luck of having the last word. "Catcher" presents the world as an ever-so-unfair struggle between the goodness of young people and the corruption of elders, a message that only intensified with the oncoming generation gap.

Novels from Evan Hunter's "The Blackboard Jungle" to Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep," movies from "Rebel Without a Cause" to "The Breakfast Club," and countless rock 'n' roll songs echoed Salinger's message of kids under siege. One of the great anti-heroes of the 1960s, Benjamin Braddock of "The Graduate," was but a blander version of Salinger's narrator.

The cult of "Catcher" turned tragic in 1980 when crazed Beatles fan Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, citing Salinger's novel as an inspiration and stating that "this extraordinary book holds many answers."

By the 21st century, Holden himself seemed relatively mild, but Salinger's book remained a standard in school curriculums and was discussed on countless Web sites and a fan page on Facebook.

Salinger's other books don't equal the influence or sales of "Catcher," but they are still read, again and again, with great affection and intensity. Critics, at least briefly, rated Salinger as a more accomplished and daring short story writer than John Cheever.

The collection "Nine Stories" features the classic "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," the deadpan account of a suicidal Army veteran and the little girl he hopes, in vain, will save him. The novel "Franny and Zooey," like "Catcher," is a youthful, obsessively articulated quest for redemption, featuring a memorable argument between Zooey and his mother as he attempts to read in the bathtub.

"Catcher," narrated from a mental facility, begins with Holden recalling his expulsion from a Pennsylvania boarding school for failing four classes and for general apathy.

He returns home to Manhattan, where his wanderings take him everywhere from a Times Square hotel to a rainy carousel ride with his kid sister, Phoebe, in Central Park. He decides he wants to escape to a cabin out West, but scorns questions about his future as just so much phoniness.

"I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it?" he reasons. "The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question."

"The Catcher in the Rye" became both required and restricted reading, periodically banned by a school board or challenged by parents worried by its frank language and the irresistible chip on Holden's shoulder.

"I'm aware that a number of my friends will be saddened, or shocked, or shocked-saddened, over some of the chapters of `The Catcher in the Rye.' Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all of my best friends are children," Salinger wrote in 1955, in a short note for "20th Century Authors."

"It's almost unbearable to me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach," he added.

Salinger also wrote the novellas "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Seymour — An Introduction," both featuring the neurotic, fictional Glass family which appeared in much of his work.

His last published story, "Hapworth 16, 1928," ran in The New Yorker in 1965. By then he was increasingly viewed like a precocious child whose manner had soured from cute to insufferable. "Salinger was the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school," Norman Mailer once commented.

In 1997, it was announced that "Hapworth" would be reissued as a book — prompting a (negative) New York Times review. The book, in typical Salinger style, didn't appear. In 1999, New Hampshire neighbor Jerry Burt said the author had told him years earlier that he had written at least 15 unpublished books kept locked in a safe at his home.

"I love to write and I assure you I write regularly," Salinger said in a brief interview with the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate in 1980. "But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it."

Jerome David Salinger was born Jan. 1, 1919, in New York City. His father was a wealthy importer of cheeses and meat and the family lived for years on Park Avenue.

Like Holden, Salinger was an indifferent student with a history of trouble in various schools. He was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy at age 15, where he wrote at night by flashlight beneath the covers and eventually earned his only diploma. In 1940, he published his first fiction, "The Young Folks," in Story magazine.

He served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, carrying a typewriter with him most of the time, writing "whenever I can find the time and an unoccupied foxhole," he told a friend.

Returning to New York, the lean, dark-haired Salinger pursued an intense study of Zen Buddhism but also cut a gregarious figure in the bars of Greenwich Village, where he astonished acquaintances with his proficiency in rounding up dates. One drinking buddy, author A.E. Hotchner, would remember Salinger as the proud owner of an "ego of cast iron," contemptuous of writers and writing schools, convinced that he was the best thing to happen to American letters since Herman Melville.

Holden first appeared as a character in the story "Last Day of the Last Furlough," published in 1944 in the Saturday Evening Post. Salinger's stories ran in several magazines, especially The New Yorker, where excerpts from "Catcher" were published.

The finished novel quickly became a best seller and early reviews were blueprints for the praise and condemnation to come. The New York Times found the book "an unusually brilliant first novel" and observed that Holden's "delinquencies seem minor indeed when contrasted with the adult delinquencies with which he is confronted."

But the Christian Science Monitor was not charmed. "He is alive, human, preposterous, profane and pathetic beyond belief," critic T. Morris Longstreth wrote of Holden.

"Fortunately, there cannot be many of him yet. But one fears that a book like this given wide circulation may multiply his kind - as too easily happens when immortality and perversion are recounted by writers of talent whose work is countenanced in the name of art or good intention."

The world had come calling for Salinger, but Salinger was bolting the door. By 1952, he had migrated to Cornish. Three years later, he married Claire Douglas, with whom he had two children, Peggy and Matthew, before their 1967 divorce. (Salinger was also briefly married in the 1940s to a woman named Sylvia; little else is known about her).

Meanwhile, he was refusing interviews, instructing his agent to forward no fan mail and reportedly spending much of his time writing in a cement bunker. Sanity, apparently, could only come through seclusion.

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes," Holden says in "Catcher."

"That way I wouldn't have to have any ... stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. I'd build me a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made."

Although Salinger initially contemplated a theater production of "Catcher," with the author himself playing Holden, he turned down numerous offers for film or stage rights, including requests from Billy Wilder and Elia Kazan. Bids from Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein also were rejected.

Salinger became famous for not wanting to be famous. In 1982, he sued a man who allegedly tried to sell a fictitious interview with the author to a national magazine. The impostor agreed to desist and Salinger dropped the suit.

Five years later, another Salinger legal action resulted in an important decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court refused to allow publication of an unauthorized biography, by Ian Hamilton, that quoted from the author's unpublished letters. Salinger had copyrighted the letters when he learned about Hamilton's book, which came out in a revised edition in 1988.

In 2009, Salinger sued to halt publication of John David California's "60 Years Later," an unauthorized sequel to "Catcher" that imagined Holden in his 70s, misanthropic as ever.

Against Salinger's will, the curtain was parted in recent years. In 1998, author Joyce Maynard published her memoir "At Home in the World," in which she detailed her eight-month affair with Salinger in the early 1970s, when she was less than half his age. She drew an unflattering picture of a controlling personality with eccentric eating habits, and described their problematic sex life.

Salinger's alleged adoration of children apparently did not extend to his own. In 2000, daughter Margaret Salinger's "Dreamcatcher" portrayed the writer as an unpleasant recluse who drank his own urine and spoke in tongues.

Ms. Salinger said she wrote the book because she was "absolutely determined not to repeat with my son what had been done with me."

Murray injured in ski accident

Actor Bill Murray was hopping around on a crutch at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, after injuring himself in a ski accident.

The Lost In Translation star was in so much pain from his injured leg, he had to sit and cool down his knee with a bucket full of ice at the film event in Utah, according to RadarOnline.com.

A source tells the website, "He couldn’t move very well because of his leg brace. But he was shimmying as best as he could... He was suddenly sitting down with the Svedka ice bucket on his lap. One guy went up and asked him if he was the guardian of the ice, and Bill laughed and said it was to cool down his knee, which was acting up."

Pernell Roberts, last star of TV's `Bonanza,' dies

LOS ANGELES – Pernell Roberts, the ruggedly handsome actor who shocked Hollywood by leaving TV's "Bonanza" at the height of its popularity, then found fame again years later on "Trapper John, M.D.," has died. He was 81.

Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic Western's cast, died of cancer Sunday at his Malibu home, his wife Eleanor Criswell told the Los Angeles Times.

Although he rocketed to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family led by Lorne Greene's patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt his "Bonanza" character was given.

"They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared," he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. "None of it ever happened."

It particularly distressed him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father.

"Doesn't it seem a bit silly for three adult males to get Father's permission for everything they do?" he once asked a reporter.

Roberts agreed to fulfill his six-year contract but refused to extend it, and when he left the series in 1965, his character was eliminated with the explanation that he had simply moved away.

"Bonanza," with its three remaining stars, continued until 1973, making it second to "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running Western on TV. Blocker died in 1972, Greene in 1987, and Landon in 1991.

When Roberts left the show the general feeling in Hollywood was that he had foolishly doomed his career and turned his back on a fortune in "Bonanza" earnings.

Indeed, for the next 14 years he mainly made appearances on TV shows and in miniseries, or toured with such theatrical productions as "The King and I, "Camelot" and "The Music Man."

His TV credits during that time included "The Virginian," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission Impossible," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Banacek," "Ironside" and "Mannix."

Then, in 1979, he landed another series, "Trapper John, M.D.," in which he played the title role.

The character, but little else, was spun off from the brilliant Korean War comedy-drama "M-A-S-H," in which Wayne Rogers had played the offbeat Dr. "Trapper" John McIntire opposite Alan Alda's Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce.

Rogers had left that series after just three seasons.

In "Trapper John, M.D.," the Korean War was nearly 30 years past and Roberts' character was now a balding, middle-aged chief of surgery at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. He no longer fought the establishment, having learned how to deal with it with patience and wry humor.

The series, praised for its serious treatment of the surgical world, aired until 1986.

Roberts' other venture into series TV was "FBI: The Untold Stories" (1991-1993), in which he acted as host and narrator.

Pernell Roberts Jr. was born in 1928 in Waycross, Ga. As a young man, he once commented, "I distinguished myself by flunking out of college three times." After pursuing occupations that ranged from tombstone maker to railroad riveter, he decided to become an actor.

Roberts worked extensively in regional theaters, then gained notice in New York, where he won a Drama Desk award in 1956 for his performance in an off-Broadway production of "Macbeth."

He eventually moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in several TV shows and landed character roles in such features as "Desire Under the Elms," "The Sheepman" and "Ride Lonesome" until "Bonanza" made him a star.

Three of Roberts' marriages ended in divorce. His first, to Vera Mowry, produced a son, Jonathan, who died in 1989 at age 37.

Charlie Daniels suffers mild stroke in Colorado

DURANGO, Colo. – Fiddler-guitarist Charlie Daniels is recovering after suffering a mild stroke while snowmobiling in Colorado, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Daniels, 73, suffered the stroke Friday and was treated at a hospital in Durango, 230 miles southwest of Denver, spokeswoman Paula Szeigis said. He then was airlifted to a Denver hospital and released on Sunday.

"It was a scary moment there but he's doing great," Szeigis said.

Daniels lives in Mount Juliet, Tenn., but has a home in the Durango area where he takes an extended vacation every year around Christmas.

He was snowmobiling with his wife and friends when he suffered the stroke. He's now back at his Durango-area home, Szeigis said.

A statement on Daniels' Web site says he doesn't plan to cancel any concerts. His next appearance is scheduled for Feb. 27 in Fort Pierce, Fla.

Daniels is best known for his 1979 hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." The Charlie Daniels Band was awarded a Grammy for best country vocal for the song.

Folk singer Kate McGarrigle dies

Canadian folk and roots music singer Kate McGarrigle, best known for her work with her sister, Anna, as the McGarrigle Sisters, has died at age 63.

McGarrigle, born in Montreal, died Monday night. Cause of death is not yet known.

The mother of musicians Rufus and Martha Wainwright through her previous marriage with American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, McGarrigle is a music industry icon in her own right.

The McGarrigle sisters recorded 10 albums in French and English, and their songs have been covered by artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Billy Bragg and Emmylou Harris.

In 1983, McGarrigle was made a member of the Order of Canada.

Reports that McGarrigle was critically ill surfaced over the weekend after her son, Rufus, cancelled his tour of Australia and New Zealand, scheduled to begin in February, to be with her.

McGarrigle and her sister were born in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, Que., and learned to play piano at the urging of their father. They took lessons from nuns at a nearby convent.

They continued to pursue music despite the reservations of their father, performing in clubs while attending university in Montreal in the 1960s – with Kate studying engineering and Anna pursuing painting.

"He would have hated the idea of us becoming professional musicians because he thought professional musicians were bums, people that wandered from town to town," Anna McGarrigle told The Canadian Press in 2005 after winning a lifetime acheivement award from the ASCAP, the respected American songwriting association.

Debut album warmly received

They debuted with the album Kate & Anna McGarrigle in 1976. It was named album of the year by Melody Maker and the No. 2 record of the year by the New York Times.

Their repertoire includes songs such as:

Heart Like a Wheel.
Goin' Back to Harlan.
Complainte pour Ste. Catherine.
Love Over and Over.
Heartbeats Accelerating.
Talk to Me of Mendocino.
On My Way to Town.

Murphy's death blamed on Hollywood

Brittany Murphy's husband Simon Monjack has opened up about the death of the Clueless star - blaming her demise on the pressures of Hollywood.

The actress, 32, died on December 20 after suffering a cardiac arrest at her Hollywood Hills home. She was laid to rest on Christmas Eve, but the cause of her death has been deferred pending toxicology results.

Monjack and his mother-in-law Sharon have now spoken out for an upcoming U.S. chat show - and the British director is convinced the Tinseltown lifestyle led to his wife's death.

In an emotional interview with Larry King, he says: "You want to know what broke Brittany Murphy's heart? Hollywood broke Brittany Murphy's heart."

Monjack also speaks frankly in the TV chat about how he and Sharon are dealing with the death of the young actress.

He says, "I don't think I am. I don't think either of us are (coping). You wake up in the morning and it's like a rebirth. It's - there's not enough time to - your dreams, be they good or bad, when you wake up and I reach out to touch or hold my wife and she isn't there."

The heartbroken pair also opens up about the moment they learned Murphy was dead.

Monjack tells King that doctors let him and his mother-in-law hear the tragic news at the same time - but Sharon is adamant she knew her beloved daughter had died before she was told.

She says, "We knew before that. It was just - you know, you felt her life go out of her."

The interview is set to be broadcast in the U.S. on Wednesday.

Sandra Bullock gives $1 million to Haiti relief

LOS ANGELES – Sandra Bullock said Friday she donated $1 million toward Haitian earthquake relief, and Madonna announced she gave $250,000 toward the effort as celebrity aid continued to pour into the devestated country.

Bullock's contribution went to Doctors Without Borders' emergency operations in Port-Au-Prince, where three of the organization's existing facilities were damaged by the magnitude 7.0 quake.

"I wanted to ensure that my donation would be used immediately to meet the needs of the Haitian people affected by this catastrophic event," said Bullock in a statement.

Madonna's gift was to Partners In Health, a longtime medical provider in Haiti.
"I urge all of my friends and fans around the world to join me collectively to match my contribution or give in any way you can," she said. "We must act now."

Earlier Friday, Not On Our Watch, an advocacy and grantmaking group founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and others, donated $1 million to Partners in Health.

The international Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in the earthquake, which devastated the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

Soul singer Teddy Pendergrass dies

PHILADELPHIA - Teddy Pendergrass, who became R&B's reigning sex symbol in the 1970s and '80s with his forceful, masculine voice and passionate love ballads and later became an inspirational figure after suffering a devastating car accident that left him paralyzed, died Wednesday at age 59.

The singer's son, Teddy Pendergrass II, said his father died at a hospital in suburban Philadelphia. The singer underwent colon cancer surgery eight months ago and had "a difficult recovery," his son said.

"To all his fans who loved his music, thank you," his son said. "He will live on through his music."

Pendergrass suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the waist down in the 1982 car accident. He spent six months in a hospital but returned to recording the next year with the album "Love Language."

He returned to the stage at the Live Aid concert in 1985, performing from his wheelchair.

Pendergrass later founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, an organization whose mission is to encourage and help people with spinal cord injuries achieve their maximum potential in education, employment, housing, productivity and independence, according to its Web site.

Pendergrass, who was born in Philadelphia on March 26, 1950, gained popularity first as a member of Harold Melvin&the Blue Notes.

In 1971, the group signed a record deal with the legendary writer/producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The group released it first single, "I Miss You," in 1972 and then released "If You Don't Know Me by Now," which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Pendergrass quit the group in 1975 and embarked on a solo career in 1976. It was his solo hits that brought him his greatest fame. With songs such as "Love T.K.O.," "Close the Door" and "I Don't Love You Anymore," he came to define a new era of black male singers with his powerful, aggressive vocals that spoke to virility, not vulnerability.

His lyrics were never coarse, as those of later male R&B stars would be, but they had a sensual nature that bordered on erotic without being explicit.

"Turn Off the Lights" was a tune that perhaps best represented the many moods of Pendergrass - tender and coaxing yet strong as the song reached its climax.

Pendergrass, the first black male singer to record five consecutive multi-platinum albums, made women swoon with each note, and his concerts were a testament to that adulation, with infamous stories of women throwing their underwear on stage for his affection.

Following the car accident, it was 19 years before Pendergrass resumed performing concerts. He made his return on Memorial Day weekend in 2001, with two sold-out shows in Atlantic City, N.J.

Pendergrass is survived by his son, two daughters, his wife, his mother and nine grandchildren.

Art Clokey dies at 88; creator of Gumby

Art Clokey, the creator of the whimsical clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep Friday at his home in Los Osos, Calif., after battling repeated bladder infections, his son Joseph said. He was 88.

Clokey and his wife, Ruth, invented Gumby in the early 1950s at their Covina home shortly after Art had finished film school at USC. After a successful debut on "The Howdy Doody Show," Gumby soon became the star of its own hit television show, "The Adventures of Gumby," the first to use clay animation on television.

After an initial run in the 1950s, Gumby enjoyed comebacks in the 1960s as a bendable children's toy, in the 1980s after comedian Eddie Murphy parodied the kindly Gumby as a crass, cigar-in-the-mouth character in a skit for "Saturday Night Live" and again in the '90s with the release of "Gumby the Movie."

Today, Gumby is a cultural icon recognized around the world. It has more than 134,000 fans on Facebook.

As successive generations discovered the curious green character, Gumby’s success came to define Clokey's life, with its theme song reflecting Clokey's simple message of love: "If you've got a heart, then Gumby's a part of you."

"The fact is that most people don't know his name, but everybody knows Gumby," said friend and animator David Scheve. "To have your life work touch so many people around the world is an amazing thing."

Clokey was born Arthur Farrington in Detroit in October 1921 and grew up making mud figures on his grandparents' Michigan farm. "He always had this in him," his son, Joseph, recalled Friday.

At age 8, Clokey's life took a tragic turn when his father was killed in a car accident soon after his parents divorced. The unusual shape of Gumby's head would eventually be modeled after one of the few surviving photos of Clokey's father, which shows him with a large wave of hair protruding from the right side of his head.

After moving to California, Clokey was abandoned by his mother and her new husband and lived in a halfway house near Hollywood until age 11, when he was adopted by Joseph W. Clokey. The renowned music teacher and composer at Pomona College taught him to draw, paint and shoot film and took him on journeys to Mexico and Canada.

Art Clokey attended the Webb School in Claremont, whose annual fossil hunting expeditions also inspired a taste for adventure that stayed with him. "That's why 'The Adventures of Gumby' were so adventurous," his son said.

Clokey served in World War II, conducting photo reconnaissance over North Africa and France. Back in Hartford, Conn., after the war, he was studying to be an Episcopal minister when he met Ruth Parkander, the daughter of a minister. The two married and moved to California to pursue their true passion: filmmaking.

During the day, the Clokeys taught at the Harvard School for Boys in Studio City, now Harvard-Westlake. At night, Art Clokey studied film at USC under Slavko Vorkapich, a pioneer of modern montage techniques.

Clokey's 1953 experimental film, "Gumbasia," used stop-motion clay animation set to a lively jazz tempo. It became the inspiration for the subsequent Gumby TV show when Sam Engel, the president of 20th Century Fox and father of one of Clokey's students, saw the film and asked Clokey to produce a children's television show based on the idea.

In the 1960s, Clokey created and produced the Christian TV series "Davey and Goliath" and the credits for several feature films, including "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini."

Gumby's ability to enchant generations of children and adults had a mystical quality to it, said his son, and reflected his father's spiritual quest. In the 1970s, Clokey studied Zen Buddhism, traveled to India to study with gurus and experimented with LSD and other drugs, though all of that came long after the creation of Gumby, his son said.

His second wife, Gloria, whom he married in 1976, was art director on Gumby projects in the 1980s and '90s. She died in 1998.

Besides his son Joseph, Clokey is survived by his stepdaughter, Holly Harman of Mendocino County; three grandchildren, Shasta, Sequoia and Sage Clokey; his sister, Arlene Cline of Phoenix; and his half-sister, Patricia Anderson of Atlanta.

Instead of flowers, the family suggests contributions in Gumby's name to the Natural Resources Defense Council, of which Art Clokey was a longtime member.

"Gumby was green because my dad cared about the environment," his son said.

Singer-songwriter Lhasa dies at 37

Influential Montreal-based singer Lhasa de Sela has died of breast cancer. She was 37.

The Mexican-American singer-songwriter died in her Montreal home late Jan. 1, after a 21-month battle with breast cancer, according to a statement on her website.

Known as Lhasa, she marked the world music scene with her dreamy and ethereal songs, written and recorded in Spanish, French and English.

Her first album, La Llorona (the crying woman, in Spanish) was released in 1997 to critical acclaim, earning Lhasa a Quebec Félix Award that same year and a Canadian Juno for Best Global Artist in 1998.

After touring for two years, Lhasa settled in the south of France to write her second album, recorded in French, English and Spanish.

Her ultimate album, a collection of English songs recorded live, was launched at Montreal's Corona Theatre last year. Lhasa cancelled her 2009 tour because of her illness.

Lhasa was born in Big Indian, in upstate New York, in 1972. She moved to Montreal when she was 19 and split her time between Canada and France.

She is survived by her partner Ryan, her parents, her stepmother, and nine brothers and sisters. A private funeral is being planned, according to her website.

Shania to carry Olympic Torch

TIMMINS, Ont. - It will be a Party for Two on Friday as Canadian country music sensation Shania Twain carries the Olympic Torch through her hometown of Timmins, Ont.

It's expected that Twain will carry the torch during a two-hour celebration in Timmins. The Torch was dogged by protests last month as it made its way through Southern Ontario. But Olympic officials say there are no signs of any demonstrations planned for Timmins on Friday and they don't intend to boost security when the country music star carries the flame.

They say security officials "don't want to take away" the uniqueness of the torch run - both for Twain's fans and the singer herself - by having undue levels of security.

But they say security can be increased at a moment's notice if there is a sign of trouble.

Sheen's wife claims he held knife to her throat

ASPEN, Colo. – Charlie Sheen's wife has told Aspen police the actor pinned her on a bed, put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her after she said she wanted a divorce.

An arrest warrant affidavit released Monday quotes Brooke Mueller Sheen as saying the actor told her, "You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you."
The affidavit says Charlie Sheen denied threatening her with a knife.

Sheen was arrested Christmas Day on suspicion of menacing, second-degree assault and criminal mischief.

The 44-year-old Charlie Sheen is free on $8,500 bond. His lawyer and his agent didn't immediately return calls on Monday.

In a 911 call released Monday, a woman who identifies herself as Sheen's wife says she feared for her life.

Rihanna wants sex for Xmas

All Rihanna wants for Christmas is good food and a bit of naughty fun under the tree.

The Umbrella singer has had a tumultuous 12 months during which she was attacked by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, but she's hoping to end the year with a smile - she's asking Santa for a delicious homecooked meal and a bedroom romp.

When asked what's topping her wish list, Rihanna replied, "Some great food and some great sex. That's not too much to ask, right? The sex might be a little difficult but my mum is coming to cook me some food. She does spicy stew called pepper pot. It sounds strange but it's really, really good."

Rihanna admits she's never seen snow at Christmas - because she always returns to her native Barbados for the holidays: "We do the whole traditional tree thing, it's just not a white Christmas. I might be in Barbados (this year) but I'm thinking about spending it with my grandparents in New York."

Small, private funeral held for Brittany Murphy

LOS ANGELES – Brittany Murphy's family and friends celebrated her life at a private Christmas Eve funeral in Los Angeles.

Family spokesman Alex Ben Block says Murphy was buried Thursday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Block says the invitation-only gathering was "very nice, very respectful."

He says a Christian minister and a rabbi presided over the service, and guests sang "Amazing Grace" at the grave site.

The 32-year-old actress died after collapsing at her Hollywood Hills home on Sunday.

Authorities continue to investigate the death but do not suspect foul play. An autopsy performed Monday was inconclusive, and the coroner's office is awaiting results of toxicology and tissue tests before determining an official cause of death.

Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins split after 23 years

LOS ANGELES – One of Hollywood's most enduring couples has separated.
Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, partners for 23 years and parents of two sons, split up over the summer, publicist Teal Cannady said in a statement Wednesday. She did not elaborate.

Sarandon, 63, and Robbins, 51, met while shooting the 1988 film "Bull Durham." He played a hotshot pitcher, she was the passionate fan who simultaneously seduced him and prepared him for the big leagues.

Sarandon and Robbins never married. Instead, they have been compared to other longtime Hollywood pairs who remain committed despite never officially tying the knot, such as Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

Sarandon stars in "The Lovely Bones," opening worldwide next month. Robbins last appeared in 2008's "City of Ember."

Steven Tyler Enters Rehab for Painkiller Addiction

Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler has entered a rehab facility for pain management and an addiction to prescription painkillers resulting from 10 years of performance injuries, PEOPLE has learned.

"With the help of my family and team of medical professionals, I am taking responsibility for the management of my pain and am eager to be back on the stage and in the recording studio with my bandmates Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford," Tyler says in a statement released to PEOPLE.

"I love Aerosmith; I love performing as the lead singer in Aerosmith," he adds. "I am grateful for all of the support and love I am receiving and am committed to getting things taken care of."

His daughter, Liv Tyler says, "My family and I are in complete support of my dad's decision to seek treatment. He is a courageous man. We love him and are so proud that he is getting help to balance his pain management, not just for himself but for his family, friends and fans."

A Decade of Injuries

Tyler, 61, has suffered orthopedic injuries over the past decade that have left him with "severe chronic pain" and will require additional surgeries on his knees and feet, says his physician, Dr. Brian McKeon, Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopedics at Tufts School of Medicine.

"Managing and controlling his pain has been challenging, and despite our use of alternative therapies and the creation of custom shoes built by a team of engineers from Timberland, Steven's pain has progressed," says McKeon, who also is team doctor for the Boston Celtics. "The balance between managing his pain and avoiding addiction is tenuous and difficult and his bravery in persevering through rigorous touring is admirable. As with many athletes, Steven put his performance first as he struggled with acute pain for years."

Tyler's bandmates candidly expressed concern for his well-being – and the future of Aerosmith – after he fell off a stage during a concert in August, breaking his shoulder.

"I think that he needs help and that attention needs to be put to his health," drummer Kramer told PEOPLE, adding the singer, who had battled drug addiction in the '70s and 80s, had "isolated himself."

Murphy’s final moments revealed

The details of Brittany Murphy’s last moments have been made public after notes written by an official at the Los Angeles County Coroner's office were released online.

The actress passed away following a suspected cardiac arrest at her Hollywood home on Sunday. She was found collapsed in the shower by her mother, Sharon, and paramedics transferred her to L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Now documents, obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com, reveal how the star's husband, Simon Monjack, and her mother made frantic efforts to revive her before the paramedics arrived.

The notes, allegedly written by an official named as Investigator Blacklock, also reveal the star "had been complaining of shortness of breath and severe abdominal pain" for seven to 10 days prior to her death. Details of the prescription medications found at the house are also listed.

The notes claim investigators found large amounts of prescription pills, including anti-seizure medication Topamax, Fluoxetine, which is used to treat depression, anti-anxiety medication Ativan, pain-reliever Vicoprofen and Propranolol, used to treat hypertension.

The cause of Murphy's death has been "deferred" pending toxicological results, although an autopsy on her body was completed on Monday. Officials previously stated they believe the star died from natural causes.

Arnold Stang, actor known for nerdy roles, dies

NEWTON, Mass. – Arnold Stang, a radio, theater, film and television actor famous for his nerdy looks and demeanor, has died.

His son says Stang died of pneumonia Sunday at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts. He was 91.

The New York City native started his career on the radio as a teenager. He played alongside Milton Berle in the 1950s, starred as Frank Sinatra's sidekick in the 1955 movie "The Man with the Golden Arm," and was a member of the ensemble comedic cast of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" in 1963.

He voiced the lead character in the 1960s cartoon "Top Cat," and continued comedy and drama roles into his 80s.

Stang, who had lived in the Boston suburb of Needham for the past decade, is survived by his wife of 60 years, JoAnne; son, David; and daughter, Deborah.

Carrie Underwood engaged to NHL player Mike Fisher

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Carrie Underwood is engaged to Ottawa Senators hockey player Mike Fisher, her publicist said Monday.

No wedding date has been set for the couple, who have been dating for about a year.

"The couple couldn't be happier," said publicist Jessie Schmidt.

Fisher, 29, recorded his 300th career point for the Senators in their 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Fisher had an assist on Anton Volchenkov's goal in the first period.

Asked by The Associated Press last month what Underwood's family thought of Fisher, the 26-year-old singer said they were supportive.

"They love me and I would hope my parents would think we raised a good, smart girl, so she's going to do the right thing no matter what it is," she said.

Days before the CMA Awards in early November, Underwood did not know whether she would be spending the holidays with Fisher.

"Christmas, I don't know. We haven't really thought that far ahead. We kind of take it one week at a time," she said then.

Underwood has kept her relationship largely under wraps, but she gave Fisher a very public shout-out in the liner notes of her current album, "Play On," that was released Nov. 3. She wrote, "Thank you (No.) 12 (referring to his jersey number.) You are the most amazing addition to my life! You are such a wonderful person and have had such an amazing hand in the building of this album and in the growth of me as a person. I love you so much! You make my life better in every way!"

Family: Brittany Murphy was ill days before death

LOS ANGELES – Brittany Murphy was ill with flulike symptoms in the days before her death and prescription medications were taken from her home, the Los Angeles coroner's office said Monday.

The 32-year-old star of films such as "Clueless" and "8 Mile" died Sunday morning after collapsing at her Hollywood Hills home. Paramedics tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said they will conduct an autopsy Monday to try to determine what killed the actress, and said her death appeared to be from natural causes. He said the illness, reported to officials by her family, could have contributed to her death, but it will be weeks before a final determination is made.

Toxicology tests will be performed, and officials will contact her personal physician to get a better sense of Murphy's medical history, Winter said.
Neighbor Clare Staples said she saw firefighters working to resuscitate the actress Sunday morning. She said Murphy was on a stretcher.

Murphy's husband, wearing pajama bottoms and no shoes, appeared "dazed" as firefighters tried to save her, Staples said. "It's just tragic," she added.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

"The sudden loss of our beloved Brittany is a terrible tragedy," Murphy's husband and family wrote in a statement. "She was our daughter, our wife, our love, and a shining star. We ask you to respect our privacy at this difficult time."

Murphy's death put "Saturday Night Live" in an awkward spot. Two weeks ago, the NBC show aired a sketch during "Weekend Update" in which cast member Abby Elliott performed an impression of Murphy, who had recently been fired from a film project. The impression portrayed Murphy as spacey and living in the past.

After her death Sunday, the sketch disappeared from Hulu.com, the online video repository co-owned by NBC Universal.

The quiet removal prompted many bloggers and online viewers to question the sketch's tastefulness and the decision to erase it without notice. A publicist for "Saturday Night Live" didn't respond to requests for comment.

Murphy moved to Los Angeles with her mother, Sharon, in the early 1990s. Her career started with small roles in television series, commercials and movies, but her part in "Clueless" led to larger projects.

She is best known for parts in "Girl, Interrupted" and "8 Mile," and also voiced the character Luanne Platter for more 200 episodes on Fox's animated series "King of the Hill."

Her role in "8 Mile" led to more recognition, Murphy told AP in 2003. "That changed a lot," she said. "That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not."

She married British screenwriter Simon Monjack in 2007.

Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, said he learned of her death from his son, the actress's brother, and was stunned.

"She was just an absolute doll since she was born," Bertolotti said from his Branford, Fla., home. "Her personality was always outward. Everybody loved her — people that made movies with her, people on a cruise — they all loved her. She was just a regular gal."

He said he hadn't heard much about the circumstances of Murphy's death. Bertolotti divorced her mother when Murphy was young and hadn't seen Murphy in the past few years.

"She was just talented," Bertolotti said. "And I loved her very much."

'A lot of prescriptions' found at Brittany Murphy's house

As more information surrounding the details of Brittany Murphy's death emerge the picture gets even scarier.

Murphy, who died Sunday morning after going into cardiac arrest had been vomiting and complaining that she felt very ill in the hours before she was discovered unconscious by her mother in the shower, reports TMZ.

According to sources, Brittany had been taking prescription medication for flu-like symptoms the past few days and that several prescriptions were found at the house in her name, as well as her mother's and her husband's.

"There were a lot ... a lot of prescriptions in the house," one source tells TMZ.

An autopsy will be performed on Monday or Tuesday to determine the exact cause of death, but it could take weeks to get back toxicology reports.

Newfoundland bluegrass legend Rex Yetman dies

Rex Yetman, a bluegrass pioneer and legend in Newfoundland and Labrador, has died. He was 76.

Yetman, who was born in Jamestown, N.L., was best known as the mandolinist from the York County Boys, Canada's first bluegrass group.

For nearly 60 years, he played and sang bluegrass music.

Yetman first heard bluegrass music as a child from the Grand Ole Opry on his family's radio, but it wasn't until he moved to Ontario that he started to play.

In 1953, Yetman met a fiddler named John McManaman and the two would sneak backstage and get musicians to teach them how to play.

Along with guitarist Mike Cameron, fiddler Brian Barron and bassist Fred "Dusty" Legere, they became known as The York County Boys.

The group appeared on shows like The Tommy Hunter Show and Carl Smith's Country Music Hall, and were once opening acts for Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.

In 2006, Yetman won an East Coast Music Award for Bluegrass Recording of the year as part of the band, Crooked Stovepipe.

Yetman died Friday. His funeral will be held Monday at St. James Anglican Church in Jamestown.

Hospital: Actress Brittany Murphy dies at age 32

LOS ANGELES – Brittany Murphy, the actress who got her start in the sleeper hit "Clueless" and rose to stardom in "8 Mile," died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 32.

Murphy was pronounced dead at 10:04 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Sally Stewart said. Stewart would not provide a cause of death or any other information.

Murphy was transported to the hospital after the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call at 8 a.m. at the home she shared with her husband, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, in the Hollywood Hills.

Los Angeles police have opened an investigation into Murphy's death, Officer Norma Eisenman said. Detectives and coroner's officials were at her Murphy and Monjack's home Sunday afternoon but did not talk to reporters. Paparazzi were camped outside.

Messages left for Murphy's manager, agent and publicist by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.

Neighbor Clare Staples said she saw firefighters working to resuscitate the actress Sunday morning. She said Murphy was on a stretcher and "looked as though she was dead at the scene."

Murphy's husband, wearing pajama bottoms and no shoes, appeared "dazed" as firefighters tried to save her, Staples said. "It's just tragic," she added.

TMZ.com first reported Murphy's death Sunday morning.

Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, said he learned of her death from his son, the actress's brother, and was stunned.

"She was just an absolute doll since she was born," Bertolotti said from his Branford, Fla., home. "Her personality was always outward. Everybody loved her — people that made movies with her, people on a cruise — they all loved her. She was just a regular gal."

He said he hadn't heard much about the circumstances of Murphy's death. Bertolotti divorced her mother when Murphy was young and hadn't seen Murphy in the past few years. He said he used to be in the mob and served prison time on federal drug charges.

"She was just talented," Bertolotti said. "And I loved her very much."

Born Nov. 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and later moved with her mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in "Girl, Interrupted," "Clueless" and "8 Mile."

Her on-screen roles declined in recent years, but Murphy's voice gave life to numerous animated characters, including Luanne Platter on more than 200 episodes of Fox's "King of the Hill" and Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature "Happy Feet."

She is due to appear in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film, "The Expendables," set for release next year.

Her role in "8 Mile" led to more recognition, Murphy told AP in 2003. "That changed a lot," she said. "That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not."

Murphy credited her mother, Sharon, with being a key to her success.

"When I asked my mom to move to California, she sold everything and moved out here for me," Murphy said. "I was really grateful to have grown up in an environment that was conducive to creating and didn't stifle any of that. She always believed in me."

She dated Ashton Kutcher, who costarred with Murphy in 2003's romantic comedy "Just Married."

Kutcher sent a message on Twitter Sunday morning about Murphy's death: "2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine," Kutcher wrote. "My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon."

Dan O'Bannon 1946-2009

Dan O'Bannon, the sci-fi and horror screenwriter behind some of the genres' most recognisable titles, has died in Los Angeles following a short illness. He was 63.

A USC graduate in the same year as John Carpenter, O'Bannon was instrumental in Carpenter's cracking (and crackpot) first feature Dark Star, serving as co-writer, FX supervisor, production designer and editor, and playing Sgt Pinback (who turns out not to be Sgt Pinback at all). O'Bannon is the one who chases the beachball alien all over the spaceship; an idea that would sort of resurface later...

O'Bannon did some FX work on Star Wars in 1977, but is best known for kickstarting a different franchise. While authorship of Alien as we know it today is down to a number of people, there's no question that O'Bannon's Star Beast screenplay set the ball rolling, and he brought many of his colleagues from Alejandro Jodorowsky's aborted Dune to the project. The rest is movie history.

He wrote Blue Thunder and Life Force, and had two cracks at Philip K Dick, adapting We Can Remember It For You Wholesale and Second Variety into Total Recall and Screamers. Some say his Moebius-illustrated Heavy Metal comic The Long Tomorrow was a big visual influence on Blade Runner.

His Soft Landing and B-17 segments of the 1981 Heavy Metal movie were well-received, And he directed twice, fronting the fondly-remembered George Romero knock-off/parody Return of the Living Dead in 1985, and The Resurrected in 1992: an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

His screenplays were often reworked, much to his chagrin (particularly Blue Thunder, which lost most of its politics) but his legacy is without doubt. Just like Pinback, he had something of value to contribute to this mission.

Company: Roy Disney, nephew of Walt Disney, dies

LOS ANGELES – Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney whose powerful behind-the-scenes influence on The Walt Disney Co. led to the departure of former chief Michael Eisner, has died. He was 79.

The company announced that Disney died Wednesday in Newport Beach, Calif., after a yearlong bout with stomach cancer.

Company president and chief executive Bob Iger said Disney was much more than a valued 56-year company veteran.

"Roy's commitment to the art of animation was unparalleled and will always remain his personal legacy and one of his greatest contributions to Disney's past, present and future," Iger said in a statement.

Although he generally stayed out of the spotlight, Roy Disney didn't hesitate to lead a successful campaign in 1984 to oust Walt Disney's son-in-law after concluding he was leading the company in the wrong direction.

Nearly 20 years later, he launched another successful shareholders revolt, this time against Eisner, the man he'd helped bring in after the previous ouster.

Eisner and his wife issued a statement expressing their sympathies over Disney's death.

Don Hahn, an executive producer at the Disney movie studio, credited Roy Disney with ushering in a new era after taking over the animation department in 1984. Together, they helped make such blockbusters as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King."

"He took it under his wing, was a cheerleader, a coach, therapist," Hahn said.

John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, also lauded Disney.

"He put his heart and soul into preserving Disney's legendary past, while helping to move the art of animation into the modern age by embracing new technology," Lasseter said.

Born in 1930, Roy Disney had practically grown up with the company. His uncle Walt Disney and his father, Roy O. Disney, had co-founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio seven years before, later renaming it The Walt Disney Co.

While Walt was the company's creative genius, his brother was the one in charge of the company's finances.

Starting in the 1950s, the younger Roy Disney worked for years in the family business as an editor, screenwriter and producer. Two short films he worked on were nominated for Academy Awards: the 1959 "Mysteries of the Deep," which he wrote, was nominated as best live action short, and the 2003 film "Destino," which he co-produced, was nominated as best animated short.

Despite his heritage, Roy Disney never got the chance to lead the company. But as an investor who grew his Disney stock into a billion-dollar fortune, he had a huge impact on the company's destiny.

In 1984, dissatisfied with the leadership Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller was providing, Disney resigned from the company's board of directors and sought investors to back a bid to install new management. (Miller was the husband of Diane Disney Miller, Roy's cousin.)

His efforts resulted in the hiring of Eisner and Frank Wells, who led the company as a team until Wells died in 1994.

During that time, Disney rejoined the board and rose to become the company's vice chairman and chairman of its animation division. He also became a savvy investor over the years, forming Shamrock Holdings with his friend and fellow Disney board member Stanley Gold in 1978.

The fund grew to become a major investor in California real estate, the state of Israel and other entertainment and media companies.

Gold, president of Shamrock Holdings and a friend of Disney for 35 years, described him as steadfastly loyal to his principles and his friends.

"He was a gracious, humble gentleman," Gold said in a statement.

After years of dissatisfaction with Eisner's leadership and the company's lagging stock price, Disney and Gold resigned their board seats in 2003 and launched a shareholder revolt.

In his resignation letter, Disney called for Eisner's ouster, complaining that on his watch the company's standards had declined, particularly at theme parks like California's Disneyland and Florida's Walt Disney World.

Initially rebuffed, Disney rallied small investors and enthusiasts who responded to his folksy complaints about peeling paint at the theme parks and his anger at being told he would have to leave the board because he was too old.

Shareholders eventually delivered an unprecedented rebuke to Eisner, withholding 45 percent of votes cast for his re-election to the board. The chief executive was later stripped of his role as board chairman and announced his retirement in 2005, a year before his contract was up.

Disney initially opposed Iger, Eisner's successor, but they reconciled and in 2005 Iger named Disney a board member emeritus and welcomed him back to company events. Disney didn't attend board meetings and at the time of his death was no longer a significant shareholder.

Born in Los Angeles on Jan. 10, 1930, Roy Edward Disney was Roy and Edna Disney's only child. As an adult, he bought a castle in Ireland and indulged his passion for yacht racing, setting several speed records.

He was also an active philanthropist, supporting the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, a school founded by his father and uncle.

"It's kind of hard to imagine us without him," said school president Steven D. Lavine, citing Disney's unflagging support.

In 1999, he matched a gift from The Walt Disney Co. to establish an experimental theater space as part of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He named the theater for his parents.

In 2005, Disney pledged $10 million to establish the Roy and Patricia Disney Cancer Center at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

Tiger Woods to take 'indefinite' leave from golf

Tiger Woods said Friday he is taking an indefinite leave from golf to work on saving his marriage, using the word "infidelity" for the first time in a statement posted on his Web site.

"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf," Woods said. "I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person."

Woods and his wife, Elin, have been married five years and have a 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son.

The announcement came two weeks after a car accident set in motion a shocking downfall for the world's No. 1 player, and included sordid allegations of numerous extramarital affairs. One woman even shared a voice mail she said Woods left her two nights before his Nov. 27 accident.

Woods hasn't been seen in public since the accident.

"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," Woods said. "I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try."

The PGA Tour said it supported the decision by its biggest star.

"His priorities are where they need to be, and we will continue to respect and honor his family's request for privacy," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement, the tour's first public comment since Woods mentioned his "personal failings" on Dec. 2. "We look forward to Tiger's return to the PGA Tour when he determines the time is right for him."

The announcement by Woods raised the possibility, depending on how long he stays away from the game, that he could miss the Masters for the first time since he played as an amateur in 1995. The tournament is April 8-11.

One of Woods' favorite playing partners also said it was the right thing to do.
"I think it's great that he's going to put his family first and work things out," Steve Stricker said from Naples, Fla. "Golf will always be there. He wants to make sure his marriage is right and everything is good on the homefront. We'll sure miss him on tour until he gets things taken care of."

It will be the second straight season the PGA Tour begins without its No. 1 player, although this is different. A year ago, he was out of golf for eight months while recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, and television ratings dropped 50 percent during his absence.

"We knew before he was coming back," Stricker said. "Now we're not sure when he's coming back. But this sounds good. I hope everything works out for him."

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, told The Associated Press that he supports Woods' decision to take time off for his family.

"The entirety of someone's life is more important than just a professional career," Steinberg said in an e-mail to the AP. "What matters most is a young family that is trying to cope with difficult life issues in a secluded and caring way.

Whenever Tiger may return to the game should be on the family's terms alone."
Addressing the subject of Woods' sponsors, Steinberg said that "it would be both premature and inappropriate to comment on the status of specific business relationships.

"Suffice it to say, we have had thoughtful conversations and his sponsors have been open to a solution-oriented dialogue," he said. "Of course, each sponsor has unique considerations and ultimately the decisions they make we would fully understand and accept."

Earlier this year, Woods became the world's first athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings, according to Forbes magazine. His sponsors include Nike, Gillette, AT&T, Accenture and Tag Heuer.

'Family Ties' actor arrested after Colo. assault

BOULDER, Colo. – Police say a former cast member of the 1980s television show "Family Ties" has been arrested for investigation of assault in Colorado.

Police said Monday that 28-year-old Brian Bonsall got into a fight at an apartment on Saturday and hit a friend with part of a broken wooden stool.

Bonsall allegedly told officers he had been drinking and didn't remember what happened.

Bonsall played Michael J. Fox's little brother Andy Keaton on the sitcom.

He is being held in the Boulder County Jail and was due in court Wednesday. Jail records didn't indicate his lawyer's name.

Authorities say Bonsall was sentenced to probation in 2007 for assaulting his girlfriend. He was later accused of probation violations.

The former child actor lives in Westminster, Colo., about 20 miles south of Boulder.

Irish balladeer Liam Clancy dies at 74

Irish ballad singer Liam Clancy — the last surviving member of the influential Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem folk singing troupe — has died at age 74.

Clancy died Friday at Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, Ireland, surrounded by his wife and two of his children, according to his manager.

The singer had suffered from fibrosis of the lungs, which also claimed the life of his brother, Bobby, in 2002.

Irish Arts Minister Martin Cullen was among those who offered a tribute to Clancy, hailing his "superb singing, warm voice and gift for communicating in a unique storytelling style."

Ireland has lost a brilliant musician, politician Enda Kenny said of Clancy's passing.

"His death really does mark the end of an era. Liam's contribution to Irish music and culture was simply outstanding," he said in a statement.

"As a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, [he] revolutionized ballad and hope music in Ireland and, later with Tommy Makem, Liam provided outstanding entertainment and promotion of his country."

Youngest brother

Born in Carrick-on-Suir, Liam Clancy was the youngest of 11 children. He began singing when American folk song collector Diane Hamilton Guggenheim visited his mother during a search for traditional Irish music, in 1955. It was through travels with Guggenheim that he would meet countryman Makem, his life-long friend and collaborator.

In his late teens, Clancy moved to New York to join two of his brothers, who were then working as actors in the city's theatre community. The siblings — Paddy, Tom and Liam — teamed with Makem, who had also moved to the U.S., and began putting on small concerts to raise money.

Their performances, which included folk adaptations of traditional Irish songs, eventually found a host of admirers on the pub circuit and in New York's famed Greenwich Village bohemian folk scene — including avid fan Bob Dylan, who cited the group as a major influence and called Liam Clancy "the best ballad singer I've ever heard."

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem shot to fame in 1961 when the Aran sweater-clad quartet was tapped as a last-minute substitution for a missing guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. They began recording albums and landed ever-more prestigious gigs, including at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall.

Solo career in Canada

By the early 1970s, however, the troupe dissolved and Clancy pursued a solo career. Facing debts, he moved his family to Calgary, scored a hit with the song The Dutchman, hosted his own TV program and was featured on other music shows, including CBC's 1976 concert series Summer Evening.

He would later reunite with Makem, gaining renown as the duo Makem and Clancy. That eventually led to an expanded reunion of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

His brothers Tom and Paddy died in 1990 and 1998. Makem died in 2007.

Clancy published his autobiography, The Mountain of the Women: Memoirs of an Irish Troubadour, in 2001 and was profiled in an award-winning Irish TV documentary in 2006. This past September, The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy screened at the Dublin Film Festival.

Clancy is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.

Mellencamp to quit smoking if Facebook campaign hits one-million mark

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — John Mellencamp's 14-year-old son has started a social networking campaign on Facebook that he hopes will get his rocker dad to quit smoking.

The 58-year-old Mellencamp has said many times since his 1994 heart attack that he's failed in trying to kick his decades-old habit. Mellencamp's youngest son, Speck, says his dad has promised to quit if he gets 1 million people to join the Facebook group. More than 7,000 people had joined the group as of Tuesday afternoon.

Mellencamp publicist Bob Merlis told The Associated Press that the challenge is legitimate.

The Facebook group is called: "1,000,000 to join, my dad john mellencamp will quit smoking."

Woods takes blame for 'embarrassing' crash

MIAMI (AFP) – Golf superstar Tiger Woods broke his silence two days after crashing his car Sunday, saying the "embarrassing" accident was his fault, and hitting out at "unfounded and malicious rumors."

In a statement posted on his website, Woods said he was solely responsible for the accident, which attracted worldwide attention and sparked speculation about his private life.

"This situation is my fault, and it's obviously embarrassing to my family and me," Woods said. "I'm human and I'm not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn't happen again."

But Woods again declined to speak to Florida Highway Patrol troopers, who had expected to talk with him Sunday afternoon as part of their investigation into the accident.

Officers, who were turned away on both Friday and Saturday, were to meet Woods at his home and discuss how his car came to hit a fire hydrant and then a tree near his two million-dollar home in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida.

Sergeant Kim Montes, a spokeswoman from the Florda Highway Patrol, said Woods' lawyer Mark Nejame informed the patrol that Woods would not be meeting with troopers Sunday afternoon.

"It has not been rescheduled," said Montes, who said the crash remains under investigation.

Woods is not required by Florida law to make a statement to officers investigating a traffic accident. Authorities have already said alcohol wasn't a factor in the crash. Montes said that the investigators had merely wanted to give Woods an opportunity to give his version of events.

The FHP released a recording of a 911 emergency call in which a shaken neighbor of Woods tells dispatchers that a black Cadillac Escalade hit a tree.

"I have someone down in front of my house," says the caller, who is not identified and never mentions Woods by name. "I see him, he's laying down."

During the call, a woman yells out in the background "What happened?"

The neighbor responds that he has police on the line to report the accident. Not long after, the poor telephone connection is lost.

Daniel Saylor, police chief of the Orlando suburb of Windermere, has said Woods' wife, Elin, used a golf club to smash out a rear window to help him get out of his Cadillac SUV when she heard the crash from inside their home in the at 2:25 am Friday.

While Woods broke his silence with his website statement, he gave few details, calling the incident a private matter.

"Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible," he said.

Leading the speculation about the crash, the celebrity news website TMZ.com reported that a dispute between the couple was at the center of the accident.

By the website's account, Nordegren confronted her husband about tabloid reports that he was having an affair with a New York club hostess.

"The only person responsible for the accident is me," Woods said. "My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false."

Woods was treated for facial cuts and released from hospital on Friday.

An initial FHP report that Woods was in "serious" condition in hospital sparked a frantic wave of media coverage. A clutch of reporters have since been camped out near Woods's home.

"This incident has been stressful and very difficult for Elin, our family and me," Woods said. "I appreciate all the concern and well wishes that we have received. But, I would also ask for some understanding that my family and I deserve some privacy no matter how intrusive some people can be."

Woods, a 14-time major champion, is one of the best-known athletes in the world. According to Forbes business magazine, he is the first athlete to break through the billion-dollar earnings mark.

He and his wife have been married for five years and have two children, daughter Sam Alexis, born in 2007, and son Charlie Axel, born in February.

At age 25, he became the first man to win the US Open, the British Open, the USPGA and the Masters on a roll to make him the first simultaneous holder of all four major championship titles.

Woods is scheduled to play his last tournament of 2009 next week, when he hosts the Chevron World Challenge in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks, California. The annual event benefits his charitable foundation.

Woods was scheduled to hold a news conference at the tournament on Tuesday, and that schedule had not been revised as of Saturday evening.

Police chief: Woods' wife helped after accident

Tiger Woods was injured in a car accident early Friday outside his Florida mansion, and a local police chief said his wife used a golf club to smash out the back window and help get the world's No. 1 golfer out of the SUV.

Woods was treated and released from a hospital in good condition, his spokesman said. The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods' vehicle hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his neighbor's yard as he pulled out of his driveway at 2:25 a.m.

Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor told The Associated Press that officers found the 33-year-old PGA star laying in the street with his wife, Elin, hovering over him.

She told officers she was in the house when she heard the accident and "came out and broke the back window with a golf club."

Woods had lacerations to his upper and lower lips, and he had blood in his mouth, Saylor said.

The chief said Woods was in and out of consciousness when his two officers arrived. He said the officers held Woods to the ground and "when he woke up, he tried to get up and lost consciousness."

He said officers treated Woods for 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Woods was alone in his 2009 Cadillac when he pulled out of his driveway from his mansion at Isleworth, a gated waterfront community just outside Orlando.

The patrol reported Woods' injuries as serious, although Woods spokesman Glenn Greenspan issued a statement that Woods was treated and released.

The patrol said alcohol was not involved, although the accident remains under investigation and charges could be filed.

Left unanswered was where Woods was going at that hour. Greenspan and agent Mark Steinberg said there would be no comment beyond the short statement of the accident on Woods' Web site.

Woods, coming off a two-week trip to China and Australia earlier this month, is host of the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, Calif., which starts Thursday. He is scheduled to have his press conference Tuesday afternoon at Sherwood Country Club. Steinberg said he did not know if Woods planned to play next week.

The accident report was not released until nearly 12 hours after Woods was injured. Patrol spokesman Kim Montes said the accident did not meet the criteria of a serious crash, and the FHP only put out a press release because of inquiries from local media.

Montes said the patrol reports injuries as serious if they require more than minor medical attention.

Air bags in the SUV did not deploy.

Investigators still have not had a chance to speak to Woods, but when they do, "we will ask him everything," Montes said. "We just haven't had a chance to do so because he was being medically treated."

Montes said charges could be filed if there was a clear traffic violation, although troopers still do not know what caused Woods' SUV to hit the hydrant and the tree.

Woods' $2.4 million home is part of an exclusive subdivision near Orlando, a community set on an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course and a chain of small lakes. The neighborhood, which is fortified with high brick walls and has its own security force, is home to CEOs and other sports stars such as the NBA's Shaquille O'Neal.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that an orange and white barricade sat on top of a hole in front of Woods' home. About 10 feet away, there was a tire track near an oak tree in his neighbor's yard. The tree had a few scuff marks but was largely unscathed.

Woods, who has won 82 times around the world and 14 majors, attended the Stanford-Cal football game last Saturday, where he tossed the coin at the start of the game and was inducted into Stanford's sports Hall of Fame at halftime.

He won six times this year after missing eight months recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. Even though he failed to win a major, Woods said he considered this a successful year because he did not know how his knee would respond.

Elton John suffering 'serious' infection, flu

Singer Elton John has postponed several more concert dates, putting off three performances with Billy Joel in the United States in November.

John recently put on hold the final dates of his Red Piano tour in Britain and Ireland.

A posting on his website over the weekend said promoters were "informed by management that Elton has been advised by his doctor to postpone these performances due to a serious case of E. coli bacterial infection and influenza."

That means his concerts with Joel in Seattle on Nov. 4 and 7 and another in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 10 are postponed.

The pair already had a previous postponement in the summer during their Face 2 Face tour. Joel had to pull out because he got sick. They had been on the road for two months at that point.

Fans are being asked to hold on to their tickets.

The cancelled concerts in Britain and Ireland are expected to be back on in December.

British media are reporting that John has checked in to a hospital in London. His Canadian partner, David Furnish, told reporters the performer is "fine."

Actor Lou Jacobi has died at the age of 95.

The Canadian star - real name Louis Harold Jacobovitch - passed away in his home in Manhattan, New York on Friday, reports the Associated Press.

Jacobi made his debut on Broadway in 1955 with a role in The Diary of Anne Frank before starring in nine other Broadway plays, including 1959's Tenth Man and Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn in 1961.

He also starred in a number of movies, including Arthur with Dudley Moore, Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * (*But Were Afraid To Ask), and I.Q. alongside Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins.

Jacobi is survived by his brother, Rabbi Avrom Jacobovitch, as well as sister Rae Gold.

TV comic giant Soupy Sales dies

DETROIT - Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, died Thursday. He was 83.

Sales died at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, said his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher. Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week, Usher said.

At the peak of his fame in the 1950s and '60s, Sales was one of the best-known faces in the nation, Usher said.

"If President Eisenhower would have walked down the street, no one would have recognized him as much as Soupy," said Usher.

At the same time, Sales retained an openness to fans that turned every restaurant meal into an endless autograph-signing session, Usher said.

"He was just good to people," said Usher, a former jazz music producer who managed Sales in the 1950s and now owns Detroit-based Marine Pollution Control.

Sales began his TV career in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then moved to Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.

The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities lined up to take one on the chin alongside Sales. During the early 1960s, stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine received their just desserts side-by-side with the comedian on his television show.

"I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Sales said in a 1985 interview.

Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, N.C., where his was the only Jewish family in town. His parents, owners of a dry-goods store, sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan. The family later moved to Huntington, W.Va.

His greatest success came in New York with "The Soupy Sales Show" - an ostensible children's show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales' manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.

Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers' purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.

The cast of "Saturday Night Live" later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the Pee-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.

Sales returned from the Navy after World War II and became a $20-a-week reporter at a West Virginia radio station. He jumped to a DJ gig, changed his name to Soupy Heinz and headed for Ohio.

His first pie to the face came in 1951, when the newly christened Soupy Sales was hosting a children's show in Cleveland. In Detroit, Sales' show garnered a national reputation as he honed his act - a barrage of sketches, gags and bad puns that played in the Motor City for seven years.

After moving to Los Angeles, he eventually became a fill-in host on "The Tonight Show."

He moved to New York in 1964 and debuted "The Soupy Sales Show," with co-star puppets White Fang (the meanest dog in the United States) and Black Tooth (the nicest dog in the United States). By the time his Big Apple run ended two years later, Sales had appeared on 5,370 live television programs - the most in the medium's history, he boasted. He had a pair of albums that hit the Billboard Top 10 in 1965; "Do the Mouse" sold 250,000 copies in New York alone.

Sales remained a familiar television face, first as a regular from 1968-75 on the game show "What's My Line?" and later appearing on everything from "The Mike Douglas Show" to "The Love Boat." He played himself in the 1998 movie "Holy Man," which starred Eddie Murphy.

He joined WNBC-AM as a disc jockey in 1985, a stint best remembered because Sales filled the hours between shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.

Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony, a pair of musicians who backed David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.

Pro wrestler, music video icon Albano dies at 76

NEW YORK – "Captain" Lou Albano, who became one of the most recognized professional wrestlers of the 1980s after appearing in Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" music video, died Wednesday. He was 76.

Albano, whose real name was Louis Vincent Albano, died in Westchester County in suburban New York, said Dawn Marie, founder of Wrestlers Rescue, an organization that helps raise money for the health care of retired wrestlers. He died of natural causes, Marie said.

World Wrestling Entertainment called him one of the company's "most popular and charismatic legends."

With his trademark Hawaiian shirts, wiry goatee and rubber bands hung like piercings from his cheek, Albano was an outsize personality who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, was known as much for his showmanship as for his talent in the ring.

His fame skyrocketed when he appeared in Lauper's landmark 1983 music video, playing a scruffy, overbearing father in a white tank top who gets shoved against a wall by the singer.

Partly because of the success of Albano's partnership with Lauper, the entity then known as the World Wrestling Federation forged ties with the music industry. That helped bring it to a wider national audience in the mid-1980s, known as the "Rock n' Wrestling" era.

"When the Captain hit the screen with the video, it gave us a whole new audience," said "Irish" Davey O'Hannon, a professional wrestler who knew Albano since the 1970s. "When that came out, let me tell you, it just rocketed."

It was a time when wrestlers such as Albano, Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant were so popular that they could headline a television cartoon series and appear in movies.

Albano later had a role in the music video for Lauper's 1984 song "Time After Time," and he appeared in episodes of the TV series "Miami Vice" and in the 1986 movie "Body Slam." He played Mario in "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show," a live-action animated show, from 1989 to 1991.

His career in the ring began in 1953 in Canada, and he went on to form the "The Sicilians" tag team with Tony Altimore. They were known for wearing fedoras and talking about the Mafia in interviews, according to the book "WWE Legends" by Brian Solomon.

Albano also coached popular tag teams such as The Wild Samoans, The Executioners and The Moondogs. He retired from the WWE in 1996.

Albano was born on July 29, 1933, in Rome. After moving to the U.S., the family settled in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Survivors include his wife, Geri, four children and 14 grandchildren.

Singer Leona Lewis punched during UK book signing

LONDON – A young man punched singer Leona Lewis in the head as she signed autographs and posed for photographs at a book signing session in central London on Wednesday, her spokesman said.

Stuart Bell said Lewis, 24, had been meeting members of the public at Waterstone's book store in Piccadilly in central London for about 90 minutes when a man from the line came up and hit her. He was immediately led away by security guards and later arrested by police.

Bell said Lewis, who was launching her new autobiography "Dreams," was shaken up by the incident and went to see a doctor as a precaution.

Lewis shot to fame after winning the "X Factor" reality show in 2006, and her powerful voice has led to comparisons with Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston
London's Metropolitan police said a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and is being held in custody.

'Godfather' singer Al Martino dies in Pa. at 82

SPRINGFIELD, Pa. – The singer who played the Frank Sinatra-type role of Johnny Fontane in "The Godfather" has died at his childhood home in suburban Philadelphia.

Publicist Sandy Friedman says Al Martino died Tuesday afternoon in Springfield, in Delaware County. He was 82.

Starting in 1952, Martino was known for hit songs including "Here in My Heart," "Spanish Eyes," "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Volare."

Besides acting in the Marlon Brando classic "The Godfather," he sang the 1972 film's title score, "The Love Theme From The Godfather." His Fontane character is a singer and occasional actor.

Martino was born in South Philadelphia as Alfred Cini. He was a longtime resident of Beverly Hills, Calif.

His publicist didn't state the cause of his death.

Lucy of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' fame dies

LONDON – Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46.

Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death.

Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son.

Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

At the time, John Lennon was gathering material for his contributions to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," a landmark album released to worldwide acclaim in 1967.

The elder Lennon seized on the image and developed it into what is widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece, replete with haunting images of "newspaper taxis" and a "girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Rock music critics thought the song's title was a veiled reference to LSD, but John Lennon always claimed the phrase came from his son, not from a desire to spell out the initials LSD in code.

Vodden lost touch with Julian Lennon after he left the school following his parents' divorce, but they were reunited in recent years when Julian Lennon, who lives in France, tried to help her cope with the disease.

He sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.

"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," Julian Lennon told the Associated Press in June. "I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."

In recent months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits.

She enjoyed her link to the Beatles, but was not particularly fond of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," she told the Associated Press in June. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."

Vodden is the latest in a long line of people connected to the Beatles who died at a relatively young age.

The list includes John Lennon, gunned down at age 40, manager Brian Epstein, who died of a drug overdose when he was 32, and original band member Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage at 21.

A spokeswoman for Julian Lennon and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, said they were "shocked and saddened" by Vodden's death.

Angie Davidson, a lupus sufferer who is campaign director of the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, said Vodden was "a real fighter" who had worked behind the scenes to support efforts to combat the disease.

"It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long," said Davidson.

Ceaseless deaths of the famous mark summer `09

NEW YORK – We had been told to expect the deaths of the famous to come in threes, not in the dozens.

But all through the summer of 2009 came a ceaseless and somber drumbeat, as idols of all walks of life passed away. From Walter Cronkite to Sen. Ted Kennedy, the nonstop loss of luminaries continued almost as if a seasonal occurrence — as much a part of summer as hot dogs and humidity.

If a filmmaker were trying to capture the summer of 2009, Michael Jackson news would be playing in the background. Many thought coverage of Jackson's death was too much; a Pew Research Center poll released in July found that 64 percent of those surveyed thought the media blitz was overdone (though none could top MTV Japan, which designated an entire week of mourning for Jackson).

But news outlets went heavy on coverage for the many others who passed. Collectively, it made the constant commemorating hard to escape, especially for anyone active on social networks and the Web.

"It's relentless because of the impact of the Internet," said Adam Bernstein, the obituary editor of the Washington Post. "Twitter feeds go out. Every death seems to become more of a tempest rather than just the simple news of what it is."

Hayes Ferguson, the chief operating officer of Legacy.com, a site dedicated to providing a way for readers to express memories and condolences, believes media and technology can offer comfort to those grieving.

"People are able to reminisce and collect their thoughts after reviewing career highlights of prolific artists such as Michael Jackson," said Ferguson. "The number of Kennedy and Jackson tributes has been particularly large but there is a demand for this type of information."

Even with the media-inflated memorials, the parade of deaths was unusual. The phrase "summer of death" popped up, perhaps first used by New York magazine, which cheekily claimed the trademark. There's no particular reason for such an aberration; the death rate is typically higher during winter.

Early May saw the passing of the beloved Dom DeLuise, 75. But the portly entertainer was only a springtime harbinger of what was to follow.

On June 4, the "Kung Fu" actor David Carradine, 72, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room. On June 23, Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight" show sidekick to Johnny Carson, died at the age of 86.

Just two days later, two icons of Generation X died. First was the news that Farrah Fawcett, the `70s sex symbol and "Charlie's Angels" star had died of cancer at 62. Late in the day, came the more unbelievable reports that Jackson had died.

Jackson's cultural importance alone would have been enough to keep his passing in the news cycle for weeks. But the complex nature of his estate and the murky details surrounding his death (eventually labeled a homicide by the medical examiner's office) insured Jackson remained on front pages and on cable news crawls. He was only buried on Sept. 3. Prosecutors are still investigating.

Before the end of June, the TV pitchman Billy Mays died. Like Jackson, he was just 50.

Early July saw the passing of Robert S. McNamara, 93. The Pentagon chief who directed the escalation of the Vietnam War — and was vilified by many for it.

Cronkite, who memorably commented in 1968 that Vietnam appeared an unwinnable stalemate, died on July 17. A voice of authority and the premier TV anchorman of the century, Cronkite's death was felt across journalism.

Don Hewitt, the TV news pioneer who created "60 Minutes" and was, like Cronkite, a CBS legend, died later in the summer on Aug. 19. That was just a day after the passing of political columnist Robert Novack.

Two days after Cronkite's death was Frank McCourt's. The teacher and "Angela's Ashes" author, died of cancer at the age of 78. Perhaps more than anyone, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer blazed the trail of the popular modern memoir.

August saw the death of writer-director John Hughes, whose films such as "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Sixteen Candles" defined `80s youth. Hughes was 59.

On Aug. 11, Eunice Kennedy Shriver died. Famous to some for being the sister of President John F. Kennedy, Shriver's great accomplishment was founding the Special Olympics.

Two days later, Les Paul died at the age of 94. His contributions to music can't be underestimated; he developed multitrack recording and the solid-body electric guitar.

And just two weeks after Shriver's death, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died at his home in Hyannis Port at the age of 77 after battling a brain tumor. The liberal lion of the Senate served for 46 years in Washington where he helped pass countless laws on many parts of civic life, from civil rights to health care.

The glamorous New York author Dominick Dunne, who specialized in stories about the rich and famous, died on Aug. 26 at the age of 83. Two days later followed DJ AM, the 36-year-old celebrity disc jockey.

"It feels like there's a lot of interest in celebrities — maybe more interest now than there used to be," said Claire Noland, obituary editor of The Los Angeles Times. "Any time you have someone that's even a moderate celebrity, they make more news now than maybe they would have before."

Last week, Patrick Swayze. The "Dirty Dancing" actor, 57, lost his long fight with pancreatic cancer. But even he wasn't the last.

With just days of summer officially remaining, perhaps — and hopefully — the last star to pass away in the summer of '09 was Mary Travers, who was one-third of the `60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. She died Wednesday at the age of 72 after battling leukemia for several years.

And that summary still omits the passings of many others, including TV actress Gale Storm, Academy Award-winning actor Karl Malden, music manager Allen Klein, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, British conductor Sir Edward Downes, the jazz composer George Russell, and Merce Cunningham, the avant-garde dancer and choreographer.

Together, those who died in the summer of 2009 came from seemingly every phase of life. Among them were titans of the news business, moviemaking, television, politics, music and literature.

No one who ever picked up a guitar, danced to "Thriller," watched a quality TV news broadcast, read a gripping memoir or laughed through a coming-of-age comedy could have failed to feel the loss.

Autumn can't come soon enough.

Leonard Cohen OK after fainting on stage

Canadian poet-singer Leonard Cohen is recovering after collapsing on stage while on a music tour in Spain.

Doctor Music Concerts released a statement early Saturday saying Cohen has been released from hospital after suffering stomach problems.

The singer — who turns 75 on Monday — fainted halfway through Bird on the Wire while performing in Valencia on Friday.

Video placed on YouTube by a concertgoer shows Cohen kneeling several times as he sings and then keeling sideways.

Band members rushed to his aid. He was treated on site at first and then sent to hospital, his record company said.

A band member told fans the performer had suffered stomach cramps and vomiting.

Cohen is due to perform Monday in Barcelona to wrap up his Spanish tour.

A spokesman for the Palau Sant Jordi concert hall in Barcelona said trucks bearing Cohen's stage set arrived on Saturday and will be set up.

According to the poet's website, after Spain, he isn't due to perform until Oct. 17 in Sunrise, Florida.

Mary Travers of 1960s folk anthem trio dies at 72

NEW YORK – Mary Travers, one part of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, which used beautiful, tranquil harmonies to convey the angst and turmoil of the Vietnam anti-war movement, racial discrimination and more, died after a yearslong battle with leukemia. She was 72.

The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, said Travers died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Though their music sounded serene, Peter, Paul and Mary represented the frustration and upheaval of the 1960s, as a generation of liberal activists used their music not only to protest political policies, but also to spark social change. And even as the issues changed, and the fiery protests abated, the group remained immersed in musical activism.

Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family "with great dignity and without restraint."

"It was, as Mary always was, honest and completely authentic," he said. "That's the way she sang, too — honestly and with complete authenticity."

Noel "Paul" Stookey, the trio's other member, praised Travers for her inspiring activism, "especially in her defense of the defenseless."

"I am deadened and heartsick beyond words to consider a life without Mary Travers and honored beyond my wildest dreams to have shared her spirit and her career," he said.

Mary Allin Travers was born on Nov. 9, 1936, in Louisville, Ky., the daughter of journalists who moved the family to Manhattan's bohemian Greenwich Village. She quickly became enamored with folk performers like the Weavers and was soon performing with Pete Seeger, a founding member of the Weavers who lived in the same building as the Travers family.

With a group called the Song Swappers, Travers backed Seeger on one album and two shows at Carnegie Hall. She also appeared (as one of a group of folk singers) in a short-lived 1958 Broadway show called "The Next President," starring comedian Mort Sahl.

It wasn't until she met up with Yarrow and Stookey that Travers would taste success on her own. Yarrow was managed by Albert B. Grossman, who later worked in the same capacity for Bob Dylan.

Their beatnik look — a tall blonde flanked by a pair of goateed guitarists — was a part of their initial appeal. As The New York Times critic Robert Shelton put it not long afterward, "Sex appeal as a keystone for a folk-song group was the idea of the group's manager ... who searched for months for `the girl' until he decided on Miss Travers."

The trio mingled their music with liberal politics, both onstage and off. Their version of "If I Had a Hammer" became an anthem for racial equality. Other hits included "Lemon Tree," "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff (The Magic Dragon)."

They were early champions of Dylan and performed his "Blowin' in the Wind" at the March on Washington in August 1963.

And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.

Travers was remembered Thursday at the well-known folk venue Club Passim in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. Many of the singers who played there in the '60s were influenced by Peter, Paul and Mary, said Dan Hogan, the club's executive director.

"Mary Travers, especially, had a commitment to social causes and to social justice, and I think that encouraged most of the folk singers at our club to feel that this is really something worth committing to and making a career out of folk music," Hogan said.

The group collected five Grammy Awards for their three-part harmony on enduring songs like "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" and "Blowin' in the Wind," and were near the top of the charts as the biggest stars of the folk revival movement.

It was heady stuff for a trio that had formed in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, running through simple tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Their debut album came out in 1962, and immediately scored a pair of hits with their versions of "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree." "Moving" was the follow-up, including the hit tale of innocence lost, "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" — which reached No. 2 on the charts, and generated since-discounted reports that it was an ode to marijuana.

Album No. 3, "In the Wind," featured three songs by the then-22-year-old Dylan. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Blowin' in the Wind" both reached the top 10, bringing Dylan's material to a massive audience.

"Blowin' in the Wind" became another civil-rights anthem, and Peter, Paul and Mary fully embraced the cause. They marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., and performed with him in Washington.

In a 1966 Times interview, Travers said the three worked well together because they respected one another. "There has to be a certain amount of love just in order for you to survive together," she said.

With the advent of the Beatles and Dylan's switch to electric guitar, the folk boom disappeared. Travers expressed disdain for folk-rock, telling the Chicago Daily News in 1966 that "it's so badly written. ... When the fad changed from folk to rock, they didn't take along any good writers."

But the trio continued their success, scoring with the tongue-in-cheek single "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," a gentle parody of the Mamas and the Papas, in 1967 and the John Denver-penned "Leaving on a Jet Plane" two years later.

They also continued as boosters for young songwriters, recording numbers written by then-little-known Gordon Lightfoot and Laura Nyro.

In 1969, the group earned their final Grammy for "Peter, Paul and Mommy," which won for best children's album. They disbanded in 1971, launching solo careers — Travers released five albums — that never achieved the heights of their collaborations.

Over the years they enjoyed several reunions. They remained politically active as well, performing in 1995 on the anniversary of the Kent State shootings and performing for California strawberry pickers.

Travers had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia and was able to return to performing after that.

"It was like a miracle," Travers told The Associated Press in 2006. "I'm just feeling fabulous."

But by mid-2009, Yarrow told WTOP radio in Washington that her condition had worsened again and he thought she would no longer be able to perform.

Travers lived for many years in Redding, Conn. She is survived by her husband, Ethan Robbins, and daughters, Alicia and Erika.

Obit: 'Laugh-In's' Henry Gibson Dies at 73

Henry Gibson, who came to fame on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and went on to act in several Robert Altman films, has died at age 73.

The character actor had recurring roles on the TV series "Boston Legal" and "King of the Hill," and was a regular on "Love, American Style."

For Altman, Gibson had prominent roles in "Nashville" and "The Long Goodbye." He played an bumbling American Nazi leader in "The Blues Brothers."

On "Laugh-In," Gibson was known for his bad poetry, which he recited throughout his career.

He was nominated for two Golden Globe awards -- one for "Nashville" and the other for "Laugh-In" -- as well as a Grammy for the songs he wrote for "Nashville."

Gibson died of cancer on Monday at his home in Malibu, his son James Gibson said Wednesday.

Henry Gibson was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 21, 1935. He started as a child actor, with his break coming in Jerry Lewis' "The Nutty Professor."

Gibson is survived by three sons: Jon, a business affairs executive at Universal Pictures; James, a screenwriter, Charles, a director and visual effects supervisor; and two grandchildren.

Memorial services have not been announced. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Friends of the Malibu Public Library.

Publicist: Patrick Swayze dies at 57

LOS ANGELES – Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.

He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a "Saturday Night Live" episode, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.

A major crowdpleaser, the film drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman's Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. ... He's at his best — as is the movie — when he's dancing."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. Swayze played Darrel "Dary" Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers — and essentially the father figure — in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse.

In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama "Powder Blue," starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.

"Basketball Diaries" author Jim Carroll dies

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Punk-rock poet and musician Jim Carroll, who chronicled his wild teen years in "The Basketball Diaries," has died of a heart attack, his ex-wife told The New York Times.

Rosemary Klemfuss, who was married to Carroll in 1978 before they divorced in the mid-1980s, said he died on Friday at his Manhattan home. He was 60, the newspaper said on Sunday, although other biographical profiles listed his age as 59.

Carroll's most famous work, "The Basketball Diaries," was published in 1978. In it, he wrote of his wild youth as both a basketball star and a drug abuser during his teen years at Manhattan's private Trinity school, was made into a 1995 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Pioneering punk-rock singer Patti Smith told the newspaper "I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation."

"The work was sophisticated and elegant," said Smith, who helped usher Carroll into a music career that included songs such as "People Who Died" and "Catholic Boy."

Carroll also worked with rockers from Lou Reed and The Doors to Pearl Jam and Rancid.

Carroll, a fixture on Manhattan's downtown punk-rock scene, saw his poetry lauded by Beat Generation icons including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His work was published in The Paris Review, and he worked at Andy Warhol's Factory and on the pop artist's films.

'M-A-S-H' writer Larry Gelbart dies at 81

LOS ANGELES – Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," the films "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!" and television's "M-A-S-H," is dead.

Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home Friday morning after a long battle with cancer, said Creative Artists Agency, which represented him. He was 81.

Gelbart, who won a Tony for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," an Emmy for "M-A-S-H" and was nominated for two Oscars, is most likely best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War.

Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and colleague, called Gelbart "the Jonathan Swift of our day."

"It's a great, great, great, great, great, great loss. You can't put enough `greats' in front of it," said Reiner, who directed "Oh, God!" from Gelbart's Oscar-nominated script. "The mores of our time were never more dissected and discussed. He had the ability to make an elaborate joke given nothing but one line."

"M-A-S-H" debuted on CBS in 1972, when the nation was still embroiled in the Vietnam War, and some viewers were initially puzzled or offended by its depiction of the cynical, wisecracking physicians who worked frantically to save the lives of soldiers.

By its second season it had caught on, however, and it remained one of television's top-10 rated shows for a decade, until its final episode in 1983. Along the way, it won numerous awards including the Emmy for best comedy series.

"What attracted me to `M-A-S-H' was the theme song, `Suicide is Painless,'" Gelbart once remarked. "It was written in a very minor key and appealed to me emotionally."

The show, based on a book and the 1970 Robert Altman film of the same name, starred Alan Alda. Gelbart was brought into the project by producer-director Gene Reynolds who worked with him shaping the show.

After writing 97 half-hour episodes and winning an Emmy, Gelbart quit during the show's fourth season, saying he was "totally worn out."

His entry into the entertainment business 30 years before had been worthy of a TV script itself.

Gelbart's father was a Los Angeles barber with a clientele of Hollywood notables, including Danny Thomas. While cutting Thomas' hair one day, he bragged of his 16-year-old son's writing ability and the comedian asked to see some of his work. Soon Thomas had hired Gelbart to write for his radio show.

"A comedy prodigy does not exist. A kid can make other kids laugh, but to make adults laugh with sophisticated humor at that age, it's not heard of," Reiner said Friday. "He had an unerring ear and eye for humor. He had a funny mother, which helps, and a father who loved jokes."

He went on to write gags for Bob Hope, Jack Paar, Red Buttons, Jack Carson, Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis. In 1953 he accepted Sid Caesar's offer of $1,000 a week to work for "Caesar's Hour," joining a legendary writing team that included Reiner, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon.

"He's the fastest of the fast, the wittiest man in the business," Brooks once said of him.

Deciding to expand his horizons, Gelbart also co-authored a revue, "My L.A.," which was a local hit in 1948.

His first foray to Broadway was far less successful. His 1961 play, "The Conquering Hero" closed after seven performances.

His next Broadway show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," written with Burt Shevelove, enjoyed a far better fate the following year. Based loosely on the Roman plays of Plautus with songs by Stephen Sondheim, the show was a runaway hit, resulting in road companies and a 1966 movie with Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers.

After the play's success, Gelbart decided to move with his wife and five children to England, quipping that he wanted "to escape religious freedom in America."
They remained there for nine years, and his only notable work during that time was a script, written with Shevelove, for the 1966 black comedy, "The Wrong Box."

By the time he returned to Hollywood, however, he had a broader view of the world that he said helped him tackle "M-A-S-H."

"I make jokes all the time," Gelbart once said of his penchant for comedy. "It's a tic — a way of making myself comfortable. I can't imagine not having humor to lean on."

Gelbart also returned to the theater with "Sly Fox," which transformed Ben Jonson's Elizabethan "Volpone" to Gold Rush San Francisco. Starring George C. Scott as the devious miser, it was a solid success.

"Mastergate," a scathing treatment of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, flopped in 1989, but Gelbart scored the same year with "City of Angels," a musical spoof of Hollywood movies and crime novels.

His films "Oh, God!" with George Burns as a philosophical deity, and "Tootsie," with Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor, both brought him Academy Award nominations, and the HBO movie "Barbarians at the Gate," about Wall Street chicanery, brought another Emmy.

Larry Simon Gelbart was born in Chicago, moving to Los Angeles while in high school.

He married singer and actress Pat Marshall in 1956 and they raised their two children, Becky and Adam, and her three by a previous marriage, Cathy, Gary and Paul. Cathy died of cancer at age 50.

Garrison Keillor suffers minor stroke

Prairie Home Companion writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor has suffered a minor stroke.

He was admitted to Saint Marys Hospital, a Mayo Clinic facility in Minneapolis on Sunday, according to Karl Oestreich, a Mayo Clinic spokesman.

"He is up and moving around, speaking sensibly, working at a laptop, and it's expected he'll be released on Friday," Oestreich said in a statement. "He plans to resume a normal schedule next week."

Keillor, a much-loved humorist who wrote Lake Wobegon Days and Life Among the Lutherans, started his career by poking gentle fun at his fellow countrymen at Minnesota Public Radio.

He was scheduled to open a new season of his radio program Prairie Home Companion on Sept. 26.

The 35th anniversary of the show was celebrated this July in Avon, Minn., the town which inspired the fictional Lake Wobegon.

Walter Cronkite celebrated at memorial service

NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton remembered Walter Cronkite as "a great citizen and a profoundly good human being" during a memorial service Wednesday for the legendary newsman.

Clinton saluted Cronkite for "an inquiring mind and a caring heart and a careful devotion to the facts."

After watching Cronkite as a youngster, Clinton grew to be friends with him in adulthood, "and I just ended up being crazy about the guy."

Others scheduled to appear included former Cronkite colleagues at CBS News, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, musicians Wynton Marsalis and Mickey Hart, and President Barack Obama.

Jimmy Buffett sang his classic "Son of a Son of a Sailor" for his sailing buddy Cronkite.

But before that, he had a warm recollection of seeking some advice for a mutual friend, the late "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley.

After a sail, "the sun was down, the rum was out, and I said, 'Walter, Ed called me and he's thinking about wearing an earring on '60 Minutes.'"

Buffett said Cronkite responded: "It doesn't matter if he wears an earring, as long as it's a good story." Then Cronkite added impishly: "If I was going to wear an earring on '60 Minutes,' I'd wear one of those big, long dangly ones."

Cronkite, who died July 17 at 92, anchored "The CBS Evening News" from 1962 until 1981. He came to be known as "the most trusted man in America."

Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw called him "a seminal force in the transformation of this country."

Brokaw, who grew up in South Dakota, said, "Walter Cronkite and all those early (TV news) pioneers lifted a lamp and showed us the wider world and allowed us to understand it more clearly and coherently."

Among those attending the service, at Manhattan's Lincoln Center, were former CBS anchor Dan Rather; ABC's Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and Bob Woodruff; and NBC's Brian Williams.

Columnist Army Archerd dies at 87

LOS ANGELES – Army Archerd, whose breezy column for the entertainment trade publication Daily Variety kept tabs on various Hollywood doings for more than a half-century, has died. He was 87.

Archerd's wife, Selma, said he died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure. She said the cancer was the result of his time spent in shipyards while serving in the Navy during World War II. She said he had become very ill over the last two years, especially in the last two weeks.

"He was the love of my life," said Selma.

Over the years, Archerd won praise from the Hollywood establishment for always checking the accuracy of his news tips before printing them. He had an extensive phone directory of much-guarded private numbers that he would use to call movie stars and studio bosses directly to ferret out which rumors were true and which were not.

His biggest scoop came in 1985 when he was first to report that veteran leading man Rock Hudson had AIDS. It was the first time a major Hollywood star was disclosed to be an AIDS victim, and it helped break down some of the secrecy surrounding the disease.

Archerd — born Armand Archerd in New York in 1922 — also broke the story that Julia Roberts had jilted fiance Keifer Sutherland in 1991 and that longtime bachelor Warren Beatty had married Annette Bening in 1992. His source for the Beatty-Bening story was Beatty himself.

"I know it sounds like a cliche," said Selma, "but the time we spent together, it was just an outstanding life of knowing the most gorgeous people in the world, being very well accepted by them, traveling all over the world like millionaires, even though we were poor."

For more than 50 years, Archerd also served as the greeter-interviewer at the Academy Awards. Acting nominees and other celebrities were conducted to a platform alongside the red carpet for a brief chat with Archerd that was heard by the thousands of fans gathered outside the theater.

"I try to give the nominees a little moment in the sun, maybe their last," he explained in 2002.

Archerd's columns were generally mild-mannered, although he could lash out at what he considered wrongdoing. After he excoriated Michael Jackson for including anti-Semitic remarks in his "HIStory" album, the entertainer apologized and took them out.

Archerd's first brush with the studios came in the early 1940s when he worked in the Paramount mailroom while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

After wartime service in the Navy, he returned to Los Angeles and began his news career working with longtime entertainment reporter Bob Thomas on a daily Hollywood column for The Associated Press.

Three years later he became an aide to Harrison Carroll, the gossip columnist for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

In 1953 he was chosen to write Daily Variety's "Just for Variety" column, which was required morning reading for Hollywood's movers and shakers. He later went on to become one of the first journalists to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His marriage to Joan Archerd, which produced two children, Amanda and Evan, ended in divorce in 1969 after 25 years. He married his second wife, Selma, in 1970.

Archerd is survived by his wife, his son and two stepsons.

Astronauts pack Buzz Lightyear for ride home

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle and station packed up Buzz Lightyear on Monday for the ride home from "infinity and beyond."

The 12-inch action figure has been at the international space station for more than a year.

Mission Control asked Discovery's crew to do a final check to make certain Buzz was safely stowed on the shuttle, in advance of the closing of the hatches between the linked spacecraft late Monday night. The shuttle will depart Tuesday.

The Buzz Lightyear toy had kept a relatively low profile at the space station since its June 2008 arrival, but was pulled out for extensive filming over the past week. Some of the movie scenes: Buzz going to sleep with an astronaut who lets go, causing the doll to float away and hit a wall, and Buzz flying through a chamber followed by a real spaceman.

NASA said the video will be used in an educational outreach effort for children and have a "Toy Story" movie spin.

As for Buzz, a Walt Disney World spokesman said the toy will take part in "several debriefing sessions" and then a tickertape parade with Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin at the beginning of October. The spokesman said Buzz has become "the longest serving astronaut in space."

The 13 human astronauts had one last major job to accomplish together Monday before parting company.

A moving van holding a ton of trash and discarded equipment needed to be moved back aboard Discovery. It was delivered by the shuttle, fully loaded with supplies, and moved onto the international space station exactly one week ago.

In a series of Labor Day interviews, shuttle astronaut Jose Hernandez said his presence in space "means hope for all our people that speak Spanish." He grew up in a migrant worker family from Mexico.

"If you work hard and study hard, any dream can be achieved," Hernandez said in Spanish, "and I am the proof of that because I started (with) very little means."

The space station's new resident, Nicole Stott, said she's looking forward to gazing down at her home state of Florida and the rest of the planet over the next three months. She took up a watercolor kit to paint what she sees.

She said the artwork might not be that good, "but it will certainly be fun for me to try."

Stott flew up on Discovery as the replacement for Timothy Kopra, who has been in orbit since mid-July. Kopra will return to Earth on Thursday, along with the six other shuttle astronauts and, of course, Buzz.

Shania Twain slowly stepping back into spotlight

WASHINGTON – Country music singer Shania Twain is slowly stepping back into the spotlight after the break up of her marriage to Robert "Mutt" Lange in May 2008.

Twain has been keeping a low profile, aside from a brief appearance at the Country Music Association awards last November. But this week she will be a guest judge on "American Idol" during the Chicago auditions, and she has reached out to fans by posting a personal letter and video travelogue on her Web site.

Reba McEntire hopes this will mark Twain's reemergence onto the scene.

"The country music industry is ready for Shania Twain to come back, definitely," said McEntire. "You could see that at the CMA Awards. They gave her a standing ovation when she walked out on stage."

Taylor Swift recently gave credit to Twain "for always making theatrical videos," during an acceptance speech at the Country Music Television awards. Swift said, "I take my cues from you."

Twain posted the letter and video on her Web site Friday, her 44th birthday, to show what she and her son have been up to in the past year.

"I hit a very big bump in the road," she wrote. "But Eja and I are doing well and with all the concern you, my fans, have shown over this difficult period, I want you to see for yourself that we are doing fine, by sharing these personal images with you."

Twain's marriage to Lange fell apart last May following his alleged affair with Marie-Anne Thiebaud, a longtime secretary and manager of the couple's chateau in Switzerland. Since then, Twain has relied on Thiebaud's ex-husband, Frederic Thiebaud to heal.

"A dear friend and true gentleman by the name of Fred, has been the most constant companion of support for both Eja and me," Twain wrote. "And having gone through the suffering of his family splitting apart at the same time under the same extreme circumstances, he understood me better than anyone."

Twain said she has made a point of surrounding herself with "loved ones I can trust."

"When I reflect on it all," Twain said. "It's clear how remarkably active my life has been since last December — a time in the life of someone working hard to "move on" and succeeding."

There's no word on when she might come out with new music. But she said her experiences are helping her find inspiration through seeing new and fascinating things. And she's putting that inspiration in to writing.

Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump arrested in LA

LOS ANGELES – Singer Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy has been arrested on a two-year-old warrant for driving without a valid license.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says the 25-year-old was arrested late Tuesday during a traffic stop by Los Angeles police. He was booked on an outstanding warrant for driving without a license and released early Wednesday after posting $15,000 bail.

Court records show Stump failed to appear on a misdemeanor driving without a valid driver's license case in Beverly Hills in June 2007. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest at the time.

A phone message left for Stump's music publicist wasn't immediately returned Wednesday.

Fall Out Boy is scheduled to play at the Reading Festival in England on Friday.

Dominick Dunne, author of crime stories dies

NEW YORK – Author Dominick Dunne, who told stories of shocking crimes among the rich and famous through his magazine articles and best-selling novels such as "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles," died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 83.

Actor-director Griffin Dunne said in a statement released by Vanity Fair that his father had been battling bladder cancer for some time. But the cancer did not prevent Dunne from working and socializing, his twin passions.

In September 2008, against the orders of his doctor and the wishes of his family, he flew to Las Vegas to attend the kidnap-robbery trial of O.J. Simpson, a postscript to his coverage of Simpson's 1995 murder trial that spiked Dunne's considerable fame.

In the past year, Dunne had traveled to Germany and The Dominican Republic for experimental stem cell treatments to fight his cancer. At one point, he wrote that he and Farrah Fawcett were in the same cancer clinic in Bavaria but did not see each other.

He discontinued his column at Vanity Fair to concentrate on finishing another novel, "Too Much Money," which is to come out in December. He also made a number of appearances to promote a documentary film about his life, "After the Party," which was being released on DVD.

Dunne was beginning to write his memoirs and, until close to the end of his life, he posted online messages on his own Web site commenting on events in his life and thanking his fans for their constant support.

Earlier this summer, he was well enough to attend a Manhattan party hosted by Tina Brown. Chatting with an Associated Press reporter, Dunne recalled being treated for cancer at a hospital in Germany where Fawcett was also a patient. He also spoke of Michael Jackson, who had recently died, and remembered lunching with the singer and Elizabeth Taylor. Jackson was so excited to see her, Dunne said, he presented her with a diamond necklace just for the occasion.

Dunne was part of a famous family that also included his brother, novelist and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne; his brother's wife, author Joan Didion; and his son, Griffin.

A one-time movie producer, Dunne carved a new career starting in the 1980s as a chronicler of the problems of the wealthy and powerful.

Tragedy struck his own life in 1982 when his actress daughter, Dominique, was slain — and that experience informed his fiction and his journalistic efforts from then on.

"If you go through what I went through, losing my daughter, you have strong, strong feelings of revenge," Dunne said in 1990 in discussing his novel, "People Like Us," in which the protagonist shoots the man convicted of killing his daughter.

"As a novelist, I could create a situation in which I could do in the book what I couldn't do in real life. I intended for Gus (the character in the book) to kill the guy. But when I got to that part I couldn't write it. He wounds him and goes to prison himself for a couple of years."

He was as successful as a journalist as he was as a novelist and spent many of his later years in courtrooms covering high profile trials. Writing for Vanity Fair, he covered such cases as the William Kennedy Smith rape trial in 1991 and the trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, accused of murdering their millionaire parents, in 1993.

"You're talking about kids who had everything — the cars, the tennis courts, swimming pools, credit cards. And yet this happened," he said at the time of the Menendez trial.

As much as those trials riveted the nation, they were far overshadowed in 1994 when football great O.J. Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. With a trial that stretched out over a year and cable TV outlets providing endless coverage, the bespectacled Dunne became a familiar face to millions.

"I especially like to watch the jurors," Dunne explained to Fox TV during the trial. "I always pick out about four jurors who become my favorites. I sort of try to anticipate what they are thinking and how they are reacting."

He called his book on the Simpson trial, "Another City, Not My Own," "a novel in the form of a memoir." It, too, reached the best-seller lists.

"Every word is true, but it's written in the style of a novel," he said.

From the gritty world of the courtroom during the day, he would move into the glamorous realm of high society at night, dining with the rich and famous, charming them with his inside stories of the Simpson trial.

He was a colorful raconteur and his stories mesmerized listeners. He was a much sought after dinner guest on both coasts and in the glamour capitals of Europe where he frequently traveled. He was a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, interviewing members of royalty and movie stars.

His assignments took him to London to cover the inquest into Princess Diana's death and to Monaco to look into the mysterious death of billionaire Edmond Safra.

He continued appearing regularly on television, and in 2002 debuted a weekly program on Court TV, "Power, Privilege and Justice."

"I am openly pro-prosecution and make no bones about it," he told the San Francisco Chronicle that year. "I don't think there are enough people out there sticking up for victims."

The show gave him an added dose of celebrity when it was distributed in foreign countries.

He had already been working on "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles," a fictionalized retelling of a sensational 1950s society murder, when his 22-year-old daughter Dominique was strangled by her former boyfriend, John Sweeney, in 1982, shortly after she had completed her first movie, "Poltergeist."

Sweeney was convicted only of voluntary manslaughter, not murder, and was freed after serving less than four years of a six-year sentence. The verdict was seen as a major victory for the defense, and Dunne bitterly told the judge in court, "you withheld important information from this jury about this man's history of violent behavior." He later told the Los Angeles Times the sentence was "a tap on the wrist."

In a 1985 AP interview, Dunne said he nearly stopped writing when Dominique was slain.

"I was going to stop the book," Dunne said. "I didn't want to do a book that dealt with a murder. But my book editor wouldn't let me quit. She was incredibly sympathetic and lenient on time. I'm glad now that she didn't let me quit."

"People Like Us" and "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" were both turned into miniseries, and he stressed he had nothing to do with the changes the TV scriptwriters made.

"If I had wanted it that way, I would have written it that way," Dunne told TV Guide, referring to changes made in the key character in "People Like Us" to make him more sympathetic.

Among his other books were the 1993 "A Season in Purgatory," that helped revive interest in the 1975 slaying of teenager Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Conn. A Kennedy relative, Michael Skakel, was convicted in the killing in 2002.

He also wrote "An Inconvenient Woman" and "The Mansions of Limbo."

In 1999, Dunne published a memoir called, "The Way We Lived Then," a compliation of photographs of him and his family with famous people and his recollections of the glamour life he and his wife Lenny enjoyed for many years.

Dunne was born in 1925 in Hartford, Conn., to a wealthy Roman Catholic family and grew up in some of the same social circles as the Kennedys. In his memoir, he traced his fascination with Hollywood to a childhood trip he took "out West" with an aunt. They took one of those home of the stars bus tours and he vowed to come back and be part of the glamorous world he had glimpsed.

He served in the Army during World War II and graduated from Williams College in 1949.

While in the Army, he was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism in 1944 for carrying two wounded men to safety at the Battle of Merz in Feisberg, Germany.

He wrote that, "Winning a medal was the only thing I can ever remember doing that won any admiration from my father."

At Williams College in Massachusetts, he and a fellow student, Stephen Sondheim, appeared in plays together. After college, he went to New York where he landed a job in the fledgling TV industry as stage manager of the "Howdy Doody" children's show. NBC brought him to Hollywood to stage manage the famous TV version of "The Petrified Forest' with Humphrey Bogart.

Among his credits as a producer were the TV series "Adventures in Paradise" and "The Boys in the Band," a pioneering 1970 drama about gay life. Two of his films, "The Panic in Needle Park" and "Play It As It Lays," were written or co-written by his brother John and sister-in-law Didion.

He was invited to celebrity parties and said he decided then, "This is how I want to live."

But Dunne said his years living the high life in Hollywood left him divorced, broke and addicted, and he moved to a cabin in Oregon to dry out and to start over as a novelist. While his brother was the famous Dunne at that time, the Times said, "nowadays, (Dominick) Dunne is far better known."

John Gregory Dunne died in 2003.

Dunne and his wife, Ellen Griffin Dunne, known as Lenny, were married in 1954. They divorced in the 1960s but he wrote that afterward they remained close nonetheless. She died in 1997.

Beside Dominique, they had two sons, Alexander and Griffin. Griffin has acted in such films as "An American Werewolf in London" and "After Hours." He branched into directing and producing as well, with "Fierce People" and "Practical Magic" among his credits.

Mass. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy dies at age 77

BOSTON – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in a political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.

In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, served alongside 10 presidents — his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them — compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.

His only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.

To the American public, Kennedy was best known as the last surviving son of America's most glamorous political family, father figure and, memorably, eulogist of an Irish-American clan plagued again and again by tragedy.

Kennedy's death triggered an outpouring of superlatives, from Democrats and Republicans as well as foreign leaders.

"An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time," Obama said in a written statement.

"For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts," said Obama, vacationing at Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.

Kennedy's family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever," the statement said. "We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all."

A few hours later, two vans left the family compound at Hyannis Port in pre-dawn darkness. Both bore hearse license plates — with the word "hearse" blacked out.

There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements. Two of Kennedy's brothers, John and Robert, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a statement that said, "It was the thrill of my lifetime to work with Ted Kennedy.....The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die."

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan said that her husband and Kennedy "could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another."

Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962, taking the seat that his brother John had occupied before winning the White House, and served longer than all but two senators in history.

His own hopes of reaching the White House were damaged — perhaps doomed — in 1969 by the scandal that came to be known as Chappaquiddick, an auto accident that left a young woman dead. He sought the White House more than a decade later, lost the Democratic nomination to President Jimmy Carter, and bowed out with a stirring valedictory that echoed across the decades: "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."

Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent surgery and a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

He made a surprise return to the Capitol last summer to cast the decisive vote for the Democrats on Medicare. He made sure he was there again last January to see his former Senate colleague Barack Obama sworn in as the nation's first black president, but suffered a seizure at a celebratory luncheon afterward.

He also made a surprise and forceful appearance at last summer's Democratic National Convention, where he spoke of his own illness and said health care was the cause of his life. His death occurred precisely one year later, almost to the hour.

He was away from the Senate for much of this year, leaving Republicans and Democrats to speculate about the impact what his absence meant for the fate of Obama's health care proposals.

Under state law, Kennedy's successor will be chosen by special election. In his last known public act, the senator urged state officials to give Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick the power to name an interim replacement. But that appears unlikely, leaving Democrats in Washington with one less vote for the next several months as they struggle to pass Obama's health care legislation.

His death came less than two weeks after that of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver on Aug. 11. Kennedy was not present for the funeral, an indication of the precariousness of his own health.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy's son Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said his father had defied the predictions of doctors by surviving more than a year with his fight against brain cancer.

The younger Kennedy said that gave family members a surprise blessing, as they were able to spend more time with the senator and to tell him how much he had meant to their lives.

"There are very few people who have touched the life of this nation in the same breadth and the same order of magnitude," Obama said in April as he signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law.

Kennedy arrived at his place in the Senate after a string of family tragedies. He was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to die of natural causes.

Kennedy's eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a plane crash in World War II. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in Los Angeles as he campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Years later, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash at age 38 along with his wife.

It fell to Ted Kennedy to deliver the eulogies, to comfort his brothers' widows, to mentor fatherless nieces and nephews. It was Ted Kennedy who walked JFK's daughter, Caroline, down the aisle at her wedding.

Tragedy had a way of bringing out his eloquence.

Kennedy sketched a dream of a better future as he laid to rest his brother Robert in 1968: "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."

After John Jr.'s death, the senator said: "We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But like his father, he had every gift but length of years."

His own legacy was blighted on the night of July 18, 1969, when Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, on Martha's Vineyard. Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old worker with RFK's campaign, was found dead in the submerged car's back seat 10 hours later.

Kennedy, then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence and a year's probation. A judge eventually determined there was "probable cause to believe that Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently ... and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne."

At the height of the scandal, Kennedy went on national television to explain himself in an extraordinary 13-minute address in which he denied driving drunk and rejected rumors of "immoral conduct" with Ms. Kopechne. He said he was haunted by "irrational" thoughts immediately after the accident, and wondered "whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys." He said his failure to report the accident right away was "indefensible."

After Chappaquiddick especially, Kennedy gained a reputation as a heavy drinker and a womanizer, a tragically flawed figure haunted by the fear that he did not quite measure up to his brothers. As his weight ballooned, he was lampooned by comics and cartoonists in the 1980s and '90s as the very embodiment of government waste, bloat and decadence.

But in his later years, after he had remarried, he came to be regarded as a statesman on Capitol Hill, seen as one of the most effective, hardworking lawmakers Washington has ever seen.

A barrel-chested figure with a swath of white hair, a booming voice and a thick, widely imitated Boston accent, he coupled fist-pumping floor speeches with his well-honed Irish charm and formidable negotiating skills. He was both a passionate liberal and a clear-eyed pragmatist, willing to reach across the aisle to get things done.

Kennedy's speech in accepting defeat to Carter electrified the Democratic convention and turned out to be a defining moment. At 48, he seemed liberated from the towering expectations and high hopes invested in him after the death of his brothers, and he plunged into his work in the Senate.

First elected to the Senate in 1962 to his brother John's seat, easily re-elected in 2006, Kennedy served close to 47 years, longer than all but two senators in history: Robert Byrd of West Virginia (50 years and counting) and the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who died after a tenure of nearly 47 1/2 years. Kennedy's career spanned 10 presidencies.

His legislative achievements included bills to provide health insurance for children of the working poor, the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, abortion clinic access, family leave, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

He was also a key negotiator on legislation creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens and was a driving force for peace in Ireland and a persistent critic of the war in Iraq.

Kennedy did not always prevail. In late 2008, he unsuccessfully lobbied for niece Caroline's appointment to the Senate from New York. New York Gov. David Paterson chose then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand instead.

Wildly popular among Democrats, Kennedy routinely won re-election by large margins. He grew comfortable in his role as Republican foil and leader of his party's liberal wing.

President George W. Bush welcomed Kennedy to the Rose Garden on several occasions as he signed bills that the Democrat helped write.

"He's the kind of person who will state his case, sometimes quite eloquently and vociferously, and then on another issue will come along and you can work with him," Bush said shortly before his first term began in 2001.

But Bush was also the target of some of Kennedy's sharpest attacks. Kennedy assailed the Iraq war as Bush's Vietnam, a conflict "made up in Texas" and marketed by the Bush administration for political gain.

Kennedy and his niece Caroline shook up the Democratic establishment in January 2008 when they endorsed Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination for president.

After Obama won in November, Kennedy renewed words once spoken by his brother John, declaring: "The world is changing. The old ways will not do. ... It is time for a new generation of leadership."

Born in 1932, the youngest of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children, Edward Moore Kennedy was part of a family bristling with political ambition, beginning with maternal grandfather John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a congressman and mayor of Boston.

Round-cheeked Teddy was thrown out of Harvard in 1951 for cheating, after arranging for a classmate to take a freshman Spanish exam for him. He eventually returned, earning his degree in 1956.

He went on to the University of Virginia Law School, and in 1962, while his brother John was president, announced plans to run for the Senate seat JFK had vacated in 1960. A family friend had held the seat in the interim because Kennedy was not yet 30, the minimum age for a senator.

Kennedy was immediately involved in a bruising primary campaign against state Attorney General Edward J. McCormack, a nephew of U.S. House Speaker John W. McCormack.

"If your name was simply Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke," chided McCormack.

Kennedy won the primary by 300,000 votes and went on to overwhelmingly defeat Republican George Cabot Lodge, son of the late Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, in the general election.

Devastated by his brothers' assassinations and injured in a 1964 plane crash that left him with back pain that would plague him for decades, Kennedy temporarily withdrew from public life in 1968. But he re-emerged in 1969 to be elected majority whip of the Senate.

Then came Chappaquiddick.

Kennedy still handily won re-election in 1970, but he lost his leadership job. He remained outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War and support of social programs but ruled out a 1976 presidential bid.

In the summer of 1978, a Gallup Poll showed that Democrats preferred Kennedy over President Carter 54 percent to 32 percent. A year later, Kennedy decided to run for the White House with a campaign that accused Carter of turning his back on the Democratic agenda.

The difficult task of dislodging a sitting president was compounded by Kennedy's fumbling answer to a question posed by CBS' Roger Mudd: Why do you want to be president?

"Well, it's um, you know you have to come to grips with the different issues that, ah, we're facing," Kennedy said. "I mean, we can, we have to deal with each of the various questions of the economy, whether it's in the area of energy ..."

He bowed out of the race after getting roundly beaten by Carter in the primaries and losing a rules battle at the Democratic convention. Later, when asked to assess the campaign, he replied: "Well, I learned to lose, and for a Kennedy that's hard."

Kennedy married Virginia Joan Bennett, known as Joan, in 1958. They divorced in 1982. In 1992, he married Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie. His survivors include a daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen; two sons, Edward Jr. and Patrick, a congressman from Rhode Island; and two stepchildren, Caroline and Curran Raclin.

In 1991, Kennedy roused his nephew William Kennedy Smith and his son Patrick from bed to go out for drinks while staying at the family's Palm Beach, Fla., estate. Later that night, a woman Smith met at a bar accused him of raping her at the home.

Smith was acquitted, but the senator's carousing — and testimony about him wandering about the house in his shirttails and no pants — further damaged his reputation.

Kennedy offered a mea culpa in a speech at Harvard that October, recognizing "my own shortcomings, the faults in the conduct of my private life."

Later on, his second wife appeared to have a calming influence on him, helping him rehabilitate his image.

Kennedy's family life has been marked by illness.

Edward Jr. lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973 at age 12. Kara had a cancerous tumor removed from her lung in 2003. In 1988, Patrick had a noncancerous tumor pressing on his spine removed. He has also struggled with depression and addiction and announced in June that he was re-entering rehab.

Kennedy's memoir, "True Compass," is set to be published in the fall.

AP Source: Coroner rules Jackson's death homicide

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Michael Jackson's death a homicide, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, a finding that makes it more likely criminal charges will be filed against the doctor who was with the pop star when he died.

The coroner determined a fatal combination of drugs was given to Jackson hours before he died June 25 in his rented Los Angeles mansion, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings have not been publicly released. Forensic tests found the powerful anesthetic propofol acted together with at least two sedatives to cause Jackson's death, the official said.

Dr. Conrad Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist who became Jackson's personal physician weeks before his death, is the target of a manslaughter investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. According to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Monday in Houston, Murray told investigators he administered a 25 mg dose of propofol around 10:40 a.m. after spending the night injecting Jackson with two sedatives in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to sleep.

The warrant, dated July 23, states that lethal levels of propofol were found in Jackson's system. Besides the propofol and two sedatives, the coroner's toxicology report found other substances in Jackson's system but they were not believed to have been a factor in the singer's death, the official said.

Murray has spoken to police and last week released a video saying he "told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail." His attorney, Edward Chernoff, had no immediate comment but has previously said Murray never administered anything that "should have" killed Jackson.

A call to the coroner's office was not returned Monday.

Murray did not say anything about the drugs he gave to Jackson.

CBS News pioneer Don Hewitt dies at 86

NEW YORK – Don Hewitt, the CBS Newsman who invented "60 Minutes" and produced the popular newsmagazine for 36 years, died Wednesday. He was 86.

He died of pancreatic cancer at his Bridgehampton home, CBS said. His death came month after that of fellow CBS legend Walter Cronkite.

Hewitt joined CBS News in television's infancy in 1948, and produced the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.

He made his mark in the late 1960s when CBS agreed to try his idea of a one-hour broadcast that mixed hard news and feature stories. The television newsmagazine was born on Sept. 24, 1968, when the "60 Minutes" stopwatch began ticking.

He dreamed of a television version of Life, the dominant magazine of the mid-20th century, where interviews with entertainers could coexist with investigations that exposed corporate malfeasance.

"The formula is simple," he wrote in a memoir in 2001, "and it's reduced to four words every kid in the world knows: Tell me a story. It's that easy."

Hard-driven reporter Mike Wallace, Hewitt's first hire, became the journalist those in power did not want on their doorsteps. Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley and Diane Sawyer also reported for the show.

"60 Minutes" won 73 Emmy Awards, 13 DuPont/Columbia University Awards and nine Peabody Awards during Hewitt's stewardship, which ended in 2004.

After Cronkite's death at age 92 on July 17, Hewitt said, "How many news organizations get the chance to bask in the sunshine of a half-century of Edward R. Murrow followed by a half-century of Walter Cronkite?"

Hewitt often said the accepted wisdom for television news writers before "60 Minutes" was to put words to pictures. He believed that was backward.

A Sunday evening fixture, "60 Minutes" was television's top-rated show four times, most recently in 1992-93. While no longer a regular in the top 10 in Hewitt's later years, it was still TV's most popular newsmagazine.

Upon the launch of "60 Minutes," Hewitt recalled that news executive Bill Leonard told him to "make us proud."

"Which may well be the last time anyone ever said `make us proud' to anyone else in television," he wrote in his memoir. "Because Leonard said `make us proud' and not `make us money,' we were able to do both, which I think makes us unique in the annals of television."

As executive producer, Hewitt was responsible for deciding each week which stories would make it on the air. Correspondents and producers alike would wait nervously in screening rooms for his verdict on their work.

Among his other jobs, Hewitt directed the first network television newscast on May 3, 1948. He originated the use of cue cards for news readers, now done by electronic machines. He was the first to "superimpose" words on the TV screen for a news show.

Before the 1960 presidential debate, Hewitt asked Kennedy if he wanted makeup. Tanned and fit, Kennedy said no. Nixon followed his lead. Big mistake.

"As every student of politics knows, that debate — like a Miss America contest — turned on who made the better appearance, not with what he said but with how he looked," Hewitt recalled later. "Kennedy won hands down."

Hewitt did not retire completely. In 2007, he produced a televised version of the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular," bringing the venerable show to a national TV audience for the first time — on NBC.

Donald Shepard Hewitt was born in New York City on Dec. 14, 1922, and grew up in the suburb of New Rochelle. He dropped out of New York University to become a copy boy at the New York Herald Tribune. He joined the Merchant Marines during World War II and worked as a correspondent posted to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's London headquarters.

After the war and a few brief journalism jobs, he took a job as an associate director at CBS News in 1948.

During his tenure, "60 Minutes" was often a place where people came to make news. Presidential candidate Bill Clinton addressed questions of infidelity in 1992, and Al Gore used the show to announce he wouldn't run for president in 2004.

Hewitt often said he was proud of his show's ability to exonerate innocent people through investigations, such as when a Texas man sent to jail for life for robbery was freed after Safer discredited the evidence against him.

When "60 Minutes" showed a tape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian lethally injecting a patient in 1998, it ignited a debate on euthanasia and the proper role of a TV news show.

Hewitt was the subject of an unflattering portrait in the 1999 movie "The Insider," which depicted him caving to pressure from CBS lawyers and not airing a whistleblowing report from an ex-tobacco executive. The full report eventually aired.

Although bitter at the former "60 Minutes" producer who became a hero of "The Insider" for fighting to air the story, Hewitt later said he wasn't proud of his actions.

Hewitt had said he wanted to "die at my desk," creating a delicate situation for CBS. The show's ratings were declining and it had the oldest audience in television, as well as some of the oldest correspondents.

Hewitt, then 80, was persuaded to announce in January 2003 that he would step down at the conclusion of the 2003-2004 season, which he did. In return, CBS gave him a contract that would pay him through age 90.

Hewitt and his wife, Marilyn, had four children.

Steven Tyler: I Zigged When I Should Have Zagged

Steven Tyler says that in thousands of concerts he's only fallen off the stage four times – but this last one was worthy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"I landed upside down, and after twenty stitches on the back of my head, and a broken left shoulder, I just want to say that I'm plain grateful that I didn't break my neck!" the 61-year-old Aerosmith lead singer said Thursday in his first comments since last week's accident that left him with a broken left shoulder and 20 stitches on the back of his head.

Tyler said everything seemed to be going perfectly at the Aug. 5 show in Sturgis, S.D., where after a storm caused a one-hour delay, "Tens of thousands of my biker buddies were ready to rock!" He called it "one of the best shows we've played in a long time! The band was slammin' and I was lovin' every minute of it!"

The first trouble came when the fuses on the equipment blew and the sound went down in the middle of the song "Love In an Elevator." "Well, I wasn't gonna go hide under the big top and play 'ROCK STAR' and wait for everything to be fixed," he said in his statement. "I wanted to go out to the crowd to continue the show ... so, the Train Kept A-Rollin' and I ran out on the cat walk and grabbed my mic to finish the song."

That's when things got out of hand. "I was doing the Tyler shuffle and then I zigged when I should have zagged ... AND I slipped, and as I live on the edge ... I fell off the edge!" he said, expressing relief that he survived the ordeal.

Tyler thanked fans "for your love and support" and paid tribute to the band's crew and the venue's staff "for taking care of me in a time of need," as well as the police department and the helicopter crew "for getting me outta there before I bled to death."

He also thanked "all the doctors and nurses at the Rapid City Hospital for putting my Humpty Dumpty ass back together again."

"And most of all ... I want to thank the angel on my shoulder," he said. "Looking forward to seeing all of you very soon."

Guitar legend-inventor Les Paul dies at age 94

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.

According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.

As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the finished recording.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the mid-'50s.

"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of music," Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system."

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.

"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a tradition guitar shape.

In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the Les Paul guitar.

Pete Townsend of the Who, Steve Howe of Yes, jazz great Al DiMeola and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page all made the Gibson Les Paul their trademark six-string.

Over the years, the Les Paul series has become one of the most widely used guitars in the music industry. In 2005, Christie's auction house sold a 1955 Gibson Les Paul for $45,600.

In the late 1960s, Paul retired from music to concentrate on his inventions. His interest in country music was rekindled in the mid-'70s and he teamed up with Chet Atkins for two albums. The duo were awarded a Grammy for best country instrumental performance of 1976 for their "Chester and Lester" album.

With Mary Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records for hits including "Vaya Con Dios" and "How High the Moon," which both hit No. 1. Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul had helped develop.

"I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many voices as I wished," he recalled. "This is quite an asset." The overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording artists such as the Carpenters.

Released in 2005, "Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played" was his first album of new material since those 1970s recordings. Among those playing with him: Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Richie Sambora.

"They're not only my friends, but they're great players," Paul told The Associated Press. "I never stop being amazed by all the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message."

Two cuts from the album won Grammys, "Caravan" for best pop instrumental performance and "69 Freedom Special" for best rock instrumental performance. (He had also been awarded a technical Grammy in 2001.)

Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.

Paul was born Lester William Polfus, in Waukseha, Wis., on June 9, 1915. He began his career as a musician, billing himself as Red Hot Red or Rhubarb Red. He toured with the popular Chicago band Rube Tronson and His Texas Cowboys and led the house band on WJJD radio in Chicago.

In the mid-1930s he joined Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and soon moved to New York to form the Les Paul Trio, with Jim Atkins and bassist Ernie Newton.

Meanwhile, he had made his first attempt at audio amplification at age 13. Unhappy with the amount of volume produced by his acoustic guitar, Paul tried placing a telephone receiver under the strings. Although this worked to some extent, only two strings were amplified and the volume level was still too low.

By placing a phonograph needle in the guitar, all six strings were amplified, which proved to be much louder. Paul was playing a working prototype of the electric guitar in 1929.

His work on taping techniques began in the years after World War II, when Bing Crosby gave him a tape recorder. Drawing on his earlier experimentation with his homemade record-cutting machines, Paul added an additional playback head to the recorder. The result was a delayed effect that became known as tape echo.

Tape echo gave the recording a more "live" feel and enabled the user to simulate different playing environments.

Paul's next "crazy idea" was to stack together eight mono tape machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the recording heads on top of each other. The resulting machine served as the forerunner to today's multitrack recorders.

In 1954, Paul commissioned Ampex to build the first eight-track tape recorder, later known as "Sel-Sync," in which a recording head could simultaneously record a new track and play back previous ones.

He had met Ford, then known as Colleen Summers, in the 1940s while working as a studio musician in Los Angeles. For seven years in the 1950s, Paul and Ford broadcast a TV show from their home in Mahwah, N.J. Ford died in 1977, 15 years after they divorced.

In recent years, even after his illness in early 2006, Paul played Monday nights at New York night spots. Such stars as Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Van Halen came to pay tribute and sit in with him.

"It's where we were the happiest, in a `joint,'" he said in a 2000 interview with the AP. "It was not being on top. The fun was getting there, not staying there — that's hard work."

Aguilera called 'a diva from hell'

Celebrated British photographer Rankin has blasted Christina Aguilera as the "diva from hell", vowing never to work with the "self-obsessed" singer again.

The snapper, whose numerous celebrity subjects have included Britney Spears, Kate Moss and Leonardo DiCaprio, worked with Aguilera on a photo shoot in 2007.

But Rankin is adamant he will never photograph the star again because of her bad behaviour.

He tells Britain's Closer magazine, "Christina was a diva from hell and pure torture to be around. She's so self-obsessed.

"She insisted that her chauffeur drive her indoors into the studio so she wasn't papped (snapped by the paparazzi) - even though there was nobody outside. Then, she crashed my after party and her bodyguard stood outside the bathroom shouting, 'Nobody but Christina uses this toilet.' She's a joke."

'80s teen flick director John Hughes dies in NYC

NEW YORK – Writer-director John Hughes, Hollywood's youth impresario of the 1980s and '90s, who captured the teen and preteen market with such favorites as "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Home Alone," died Thursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.

Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, Michelle Bega said. He was in New York to visit family.

Jake Bloom, Hughes' longtime attorney, said he was "deeply saddened and in shock" to learn of the director's death.

A native of Lansing, Michigan, who later moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from ad writer to comedy writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of "Sixteen Candles," or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in "The Breakfast Club."

Hughes' ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular "Home Alone," which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Pretty in Pink," "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and "Uncle Buck."

"I was a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person," Culkin said. "The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man."

Devin Ratray, best known for playing Culkin's older brother Buzz McCallister in the "Home Alone" films, said he remained close to Hughes over the years.

"He changed my life forever," Ratray said. "Nineteen years later, people from all over the world contact me telling me how much 'Home Alone' meant to them, their families, and their children."

Steve Martin played lead character Neal Page in the 1987 hit "Planes, Trains & Automobiles."

"John Hughes was a great director, but his gift was in screenwriting," Martin said. "He created deep and complex characters, rich in humanity and humor."

Other actors who got early breaks from Hughes included John Cusack ("Sixteen Candles"), Judd Nelson ("The Breakfast Club"), Steve Carell ("Curly Sue") and Lili Taylor ("She's Having a Baby").

Actor Matthew Broderick worked with Hughes in 1986 when he played the title character in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

"I am truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend John Hughes. He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family," Broderick said.

Ben Stein, who played the monotone economics teacher calling the roll and repeatedly saying "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?", said Hughes was a towering talent.

"He made a better connection with young people than anyone in Hollywood had ever made before or since," Stein said on Fox Business Network. "It's incredibly sad. He was a wonderful man, a genius, a poet. I don't think anyone has come close to him as being the poet of the youth of America in the postwar period. He was to them what Shakespeare was to the Elizabethan Age.

"You had a regular guy — just an ordinary guy. If you met him, you would never guess he was a big Hollywood power."

As Hughes advanced into middle age, his commercial touch faded and, in Salinger style, he increasingly withdrew from public life. His last directing credit was in 1991, for "Curly Sue," and he wrote just a handful of scripts over the past decade. He was rarely interviewed or photographed.

Eddie Van Halen Recovering After Hand Surgery

Eddie Van Halen is said to be on the mend after undergoing surgery to treat increasing pain in his left hand.

“During the last leg of our tour, I started developing pain in my thumb and my pinky. I didn’t think much of it at the time,” the guitarist says. “It got progressively worse to the point that about three months ago I wasn’t able to play at all. My pinky and my thumb were totally locked up and felt like there was something broken.”

Van Halen sought out specialists in Düsseldorf, Germany, who initially began treating the guitarist for arthritis, but soon discovered a bone spur, twisted tendon and a cyst in the joint of his left thumb.

“They said the only way to fix it was surgery, which of course scared the shit out of me, but I was told it was the only way to fix it,” Van Halen says. “Surgery was a success, now I just have to let it heal. I am totally jazzed that they found the problem, fixed it and in about four months my hand will feel like I am 18 again. Thank God.”

Van Halen is said to be recovering nicely, having already regained his reach and full spread of his hand. He’s said to be taking his recovery slowly, however, to insure he heals properly. His rehabilitation should be complete in 4-6 months.

“In the meantime I am able to write a bit, but can not overexert my hand because it needs to heal properly,” the guitarist says.

His stitches come out in a few days, and he’s confident he’ll be able to play at maximum intensity when he completes his recovery.

Cronkite eulogized as newsman, friend, father

NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite was remembered as a great journalist, sailor, friend and father during services that, despite the grandeur of the setting, felt remarkably comfortable — like the man.

"I was often asked, `What he's really like?' And I would always answer, `He's just the way you hope he is,'" said Mike Ashford, a sailing comrade of more than 30 years and one of the speakers at Thursday's funeral.

Another speaker, longtime CBS newsman and "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney, recalled meeting Cronkite when they both were in England covering World War II.

"You get to know someone pretty well in a war," said Rooney, describing Cronkite as "such a good friend."

"I just feel so terrible about Walter's death that I can hardly say anything," he admitted, excused himself and left the pulpit.

The services were witnessed by a near capacity crowd at the elegant, enormous St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in midtown Manhattan, where the Cronkite family has worshipped for years.

Broadcast journalists — co-workers, competitors, successors — were on hand, including Connie Chung, Bob Schieffer, Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Charles Gibson, Matt Lauer, Tom Brokaw, Morley Safer and Meredith Vieira. Comedians-actors Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller were also in attendance.

But there was also room for members of the public to pay their respects.

James Huntsburg and his wife, Sylvia, visiting from Canada, had heard about the funeral. Admitted to the sanctuary, they took their place in one of the pews.

Huntsburg said he grew up watching Cronkite, who, he said, "touched me."

When he heard of Cronkite's death last Friday at 92, Huntsburg and his wife hadn't yet left from their home near Toronto for their Manhattan vacation.

"I feel blessed to be here," said Huntsburg, visibly moved.

For his reporting, Cronkite came to be called "the most trusted man in America" and was widely considered the premier TV journalist of his time. He anchored "The CBS Evening News" from 1962 until 1981 — a period that included the Vietnam War, the space race, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy as well as Martin Luther King Jr. and Watergate.

Sanford Socolow shared anecdotes from his many years working with Cronkite as a producer.

"Once," Socolow recalled, "he had this bizarre idea that he would ad-lib the newscast without a script." As Cronkite's cue for the control room to roll each film clip, he would gently brush his nose with his hand.

"It was utter chaos," said Socolow. "It lasted for two days."

But repeatedly during the ceremony, Cronkite's passion for sailing his beloved boat, the Wyntje, was celebrated.

Ashford offered vivid memories of their sailing adventures.

"Walter, hunched over the helm, would catch my eye, grin, and over the racket of the wind, holler, 'Sen-sational!'"

And veteran TV producer Bill Harbach, a Cronkite friend for a half-century, recited the John Masefield poem "Sea-Fever," movingly addressed to Cronkite.

Chip Cronkite affectionately gave thanks to his father for a host of things — on the water and off.

"Thanks," he said, "for rushing to the side of the boat when a boom knocked me overboard. You stood there ready to jump in after me, and then were glad you didn't have to. Thanks for getting ready to take out my appendix yourself with a sharpened spoon on the African plains, two days' drive for a hospital. That time, I was glad you didn't have to."

A separate memorial will be held within the next few weeks at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Cronkite is to be cremated and his remains buried next to his wife, Betsy, in the family plot at a cemetery in Kansas City, Mo.

'Angela's Ashes' author McCourt dies in NYC at 78

NEW YORK – Frank McCourt, the beloved raconteur and former public school teacher who enjoyed post-retirement fame as the author of "Angela's Ashes," the Pulitzer Prize-winning "epic of woe" about his impoverished Irish childhood, died Sunday of cancer.

McCourt, who was 78, had been gravely ill with meningitis and recently was treated for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer and the cause of his death, said his publisher, Scribner. He died at a Manhattan hospice, his brother Malachy McCourt said.

Until his mid-60s, Frank McCourt was known primarily around New York as a creative writing teacher and as a local character — the kind who might turn up in a New York novel — singing songs and telling stories with his younger brother Malachy and otherwise joining the crowds at the White Horse Tavern and other literary hangouts.

But there was always a book or two being formed in his mind, and the world would learn his name, and story, in 1996, after a friend helped him get an agent and his then-unfinished manuscript was quickly signed by Scribner. With a first printing of just 25,000, "Angela's Ashes" was an instant favorite with critics and readers and perhaps the ultimate case of the non-celebrity memoir, the extraordinary life of an ordinary man.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I've proven him wrong," McCourt later explained. "And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools."

The book has been published in 25 languages and 30 countries.

McCourt, a native of New York, was good company in the classroom and at the bar, but few had such a burden to unload. His parents were so poor that they returned to their native Ireland when he was little and settled in the slums of Limerick. Simply surviving his childhood was a tale; McCourt's father was an alcoholic who drank up the little money his family had. Three of McCourt's seven siblings died, and he nearly perished from typhoid fever.

"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood," was McCourt's unforgettable opening. "People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty, the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests, bullying schoolmasters; the English and all the terrible things they did to us for 800 long years."

The book was a long Irish wake, "an epic of woe," McCourt called it, finding laughter and lyricism in life's very worst. Although some in Ireland complained that McCourt had revealed too much (and revealed a little too well), "Angela's Ashes" became a million seller, won the Pulitzer and was made into a movie of the same name, starring Emily Watson as the title character, McCourt's mother.
Author Peter Matthiessen, who became friendly with McCourt after "Angela's Ashes" came out, said he was "stunned" when he read it.

"I remember thinking, 'Where did this guy come from?" Matthiessen said. "His book was so good, and it came out of nowhere."

The white-haired, sad-eyed, always quotable McCourt, his Irish accent still thick despite decades in the U.S., became a regular at parties, readings, conferences and other gatherings, so much the eager late-life celebrity that he later compared himself to a "dancing clown, available to everybody." His friend and fellow memoirist Mary Karr once kidded him that her idea of a rare book was an unsigned copy of "Angela's Ashes."

McCourt told The Associated Press in 2005 he wasn't prepared for fame.

"After teaching, I was getting all this attention," he said. "They actually looked at me — people I had known for years — and they were friendly and they looked me in a different way. And I was thinking, `All those years I was a teacher, why didn't you look at me like that then?'"

But the part of it he liked best, he said, was hearing "from all those kids who were in my classes."

"At least they knew that when I talked about writing I wasn't just talking through my hat," he said.

Much of his teaching was spent in the English department at the elite Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where he defied the advice of his colleagues and shared his personal stories with the class; he slapped a student with a magazine and took on another known to have a black belt in karate.

After "Angela's Ashes," McCourt continued his story, to strong but diminished sales and reviews, in "'Tis," which told of his return to New York in the 1940s, and in "Teacher Man." McCourt also wrote a children's story, "Angela and the Baby Jesus," released in 2007.

More than 10 million copies of his books have been sold in North America alone, said Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc.

"We have been privileged to publish his books, which have touched, and will continue to touch, millions of readers in myriad positive and meaningful ways," Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said in a statement.

McCourt was married twice and had a daughter, Maggie McCourt, from his first marriage.

His brother Malachy McCourt is an actor, commentator and singer who wrote two memoirs and, in 2006, ran for New York governor as the Green Party candidate. At least one of his former students, Susan Gilman, became a writer.

McCourt will be cremated, his brother said. A memorial service is planned for September.

Legendary CBS anchor Walter Cronkite dies at 92

NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.

Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.

Adler said, "I have to go now" before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.

Cronkite was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera "As the World Turns."

Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages. (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; In Holland, they are Cronkiters.)

"He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator," CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.

CBS has scheduled a prime-time special, "That's the Way it Was: Remembering Walter Cronkite," for 7 p.m. Sunday.

His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was "mired in stalemate" in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. He also helped broker the 1977 invitation that took Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem, the breakthrough to Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

He followed the 1960s space race with open fascination, anchoring marathon broadcasts of major flights from the first suborbital shot to the first moon landing, exclaiming, "Look at those pictures, wow!" as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon's surface in 1969. In 1998, for CNN, he went back to Cape Canaveral to cover John Glenn's return to space after 36 years.

"It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite," CBS News president Sean McManus said in a statement. "More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments."

He had been scheduled to speak last January for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., but ill health prevented his appearance.

A former wire service reporter and war correspondent, he valued accuracy, objectivity and understated compassion. He expressed liberal views in more recent writings but said he had always aimed to be fair and professional in his judgments on the air.

Off camera, his stamina and admittedly demanding ways brought him the nickname "Old Ironpants." But to viewers, he was "Uncle Walter," with his jowls and grainy baritone, his warm, direct expression and his trim mustache.

When he summed up the news each evening by stating, "And THAT's the way it is," millions agreed. His reputation survived accusations of bias by Richard Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, and being labeled a "pinko" in the tirades of a fictional icon, Archie Bunker of CBS's "All in the Family."

Two polls pronounced Cronkite the "most trusted man in America": a 1972 "trust index" survey in which he finished No. 1, about 15 points higher than leading politicians, and a 1974 survey in which people chose him as the most trusted television newscaster.

"He was the most trusted man in America and he was a reporter. Imagine. Who could we say that about today?" said Jeff Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes," who began working at CBS News the year Cronkite stepped down from the anchor job.

Like fellow Midwesterner Johnny Carson, Cronkite seemed to embody the nation's mainstream. When he broke down as he announced Kennedy's death, removing his glasses and fighting back tears, the times seemed to break down with him.

And when Cronkite took sides, he helped shape the times. After the 1968 Tet offensive, he visited Vietnam and wrote and narrated a "speculative, personal" report advocating negotiations leading to the withdrawal of American troops.

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds," he said, and concluded, "We are mired in stalemate."

After the broadcast, President Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

In the fall of 1972, responding to reports in The Washington Post, Cronkite aired a two-part series on Watergate that helped ensure national attention to the then-emerging scandal.

"When the news is bad, Walter hurts," the late CBS president Fred Friendly once said. "When the news embarrasses America, Walter is embarrassed. When the news is humorous, Walter smiles with understanding."

More recently, in a syndicated column, Cronkite defended the liberal record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and criticized the Iraq war and other Bush administration policies.

But when asked by CNN's Larry King if that column was evidence of media bias, Cronkite set forth the distinction between opinion and reporting. "We all have prejudices," he said of his fellow journalists, "but we also understand how to set them aside when we do the job."

Cronkite was the top newsman during the peak era for the networks, when the nightly broadcasts grew to a half-hour and 24-hour cable and the Internet were still well in the future.

As many as 18 million households tuned in to Cronkite's top-rated program each evening. Twice that number watched his final show, on March 6, 1981, compared with fewer than 10 million in 2005 for the departure of Dan Rather, Cronkite's successor.

A vigorous 64 years old, Cronkite had stepped down with the assurance that other duties awaited him at CBS News, but found little demand there for his services. He hosted the shortlived science magazine series "Walter Cronkite's Universe" and was retained by the network as a consultant, although, as he was known to state wistfully, he was never consulted.

He also sailed his beloved boat, the Wyntje, hosted or narrated specials on public and cable TV, and issued his columns and the best-selling "Walter Cronkite: A Reporter's Life."

For 24 years he served as on-site host for New Year's Day telecasts by the Vienna Philharmonic, ending that cherished tradition only in 2009.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Cronkite was selected to introduce the postponed Emmy awards show. He told the audience that in its coverage of the attack and its aftermath, "television, the great common denominator, has lifted our common vision as never before."

Cronkite joined CBS in 1950, after a decade with United Press, during which he covered World War II and the Nuremberg trials, and a brief stint with a regional radio group.

At CBS he found a respected radio-news organization dipping its toe into TV, and it put him in front of the camera. He was named anchor for CBS's coverage of the 1952 political conventions, the first year the presidential nominations got wide TV coverage. From there, he was assigned to such news-oriented programs as "You Are There" and "Twentieth Century." (He also briefly hosted a morning show, accompanied by a puppet named Charlemagne the Lion.)

On April 16, 1962, he replaced Douglas Edwards as anchor of the network's "Evening News."

"I never asked them why," Cronkite recalled in a 2006 TV portrait. "I was so pleased to get the job, I didn't want to endanger it by suggesting that I didn't know why I had it."

He was up against the NBC team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, which was solidly ahead in the ratings. Cronkite lacked Brinkley's wry wit and Huntley's rugged good looks, but he established himself as an anchorman to whom people could relate.

His rise to the top was interrupted just once: In 1964, disappointing ratings for the Republican National Convention led CBS boss William S. Paley to dump him as anchor of the Democratic gathering. Critics and viewers protested and he was never displaced again.

Cronkite won numerous Emmys and other awards for excellence in news coverage. In 1978, he and the evening news were the first anchorman and daily broadcast ever given a DuPont award. Other honors included the 1974 Gold Medal of the International Radio and Television Society, a 1974 George Polk journalism award and the 1969 William Allen White Award for Journalistic Merit, the first ever to a broadcaster.

His salary reportedly reaching seven figures, he was both anchorman and star — interviewed by Playboy, ham enough to appear as himself on an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." But Cronkite repeatedly condemned television practices that put entertainment values ahead of news judgment.

"Broadcast journalism is never going to substitute for print," he said. "We cannot cover in depth in a half hour many of the stories required to get a good understanding of the world."

The evening news program expanded from 15 minutes to half an hour in September 1963, 17 months after Cronkite took over, but it never got to the full hour he said he needed to do a proper job.

Cronkite denied rumors that he had been forced out by Rather, but chastised him upon his 2005 departure as anchor in the wake of a disputed "60 Minutes" story about President Bush's military service.

"Dan gave the impression of playing a role, more than simply trying to deliver the news to the audience," Cronkite said. He apparently felt more warmly about Katie Couric, providing a voiceover to introduce the former "Today" show host when she debuted as the CBS anchor in 2006.

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was born Nov. 4, 1916, in St. Joseph, Mo., the son and grandson of dentists. The family moved to Houston when he was 10. He joked years later that he was disappointed when he "didn't see a single damn cowboy."

He got a taste of journalism at The Houston Post, where he worked summers after high school and served as campus correspondent at the University of Texas. He also did some sports announcing at a local radio station.

Cronkite quit school after his junior year for a full-time job with the Houston Press. After a brief stint at KCMO in Kansas City, Mo., he joined United Press in 1937. Dispatched to London early in World War II, Cronkite covered the battle of the North Atlantic, flew on a bombing mission over Germany and glided into Holland with the 101st Airborne Division. He was a chief correspondent at the postwar Nuremberg trials and spent his final two years with the news service managing its Moscow bureau.

Cronkite returned to the United States in 1948 and covered Washington for a group of Midwest radio stations. He then accepted Edward R. Murrow's invitation to join CBS in 1950.

In 1940, Cronkite married Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, whom he had met when they both worked at KCMO. They had three children, Nancy, Mary Kathleen and Walter Leland III. Betsy Cronkite died in 2005.

In his book, he paid tribute to her "extraordinarily keen sense of humor, which saw us over many bumps (mostly of my making), and her tolerance, even support, for the uncertain schedule and wanderings of a newsman."

Michael Jackson hailed as greatest entertainer, best dad

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder and Usher sang emotional farewells Tuesday to Michael Jackson, who was hailed as "the greatest entertainer that ever lived" and described by his tearful 11-year-old daughter Paris as "the best father you could ever imagine."

Some 18,000 fans, family members and friends took part in a public memorial for Jackson in the Los Angeles sports arena where the singer had rehearsed the day before his death for a highly anticipated series of comeback concerts.

Jackson's brothers, each wearing a single sequined glove in homage to his signature look, carried the singer's golden casket into the downtown Staples Center.

Carey performed Jackson's 1970 ballad "I'll Be There," Usher's voice cracked as he sang "Gone Too Soon" and the King of Pop's three children made a rare public appearance without veils used for years by Jackson to shield them from the media.

But it was Jackson himself who loomed larger than life, shown in old concert footage, music videos and news clips, singing, dancing his moonwalk and surrounded by adoring crowds.

"The more I think about Michael, and talk about Michael, the more I think that 'King of Pop' is not good enough," said Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, who signed The Jackson 5 to a recording contract in 1968. "I think he is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived."

The two-hour memorial focused on Jackson's musical achievements, overshadowed in the last 10 years by the darker side of the singer's life, including his humiliating 2005 trial and acquittal on charges of child sex abuse.
Jackson's sudden death from cardiac arrest in Los Angeles on June 25 at the age of 50 stunned fans across the world and sent sales of his biggest hits from albums such as "Thriller" and "Off the Wall" back to the top of music charts.

President Barack Obama, on a visit to Russia, said he was "one of the greatest entertainers of our generation, perhaps any generation," and added: "I think like Elvis, like Sinatra, like The Beatles, he became a core part of our culture.

The memorial focused on Jackson's 45-year musical career in which he was awarded 13 Grammys, his charity work for childrens' groups and his role in opening the mainstream pop and celebrity world to African-Americans.

It was broadcast live on U.S. national TV networks and Internet company Akamai, which handles 20 percent of the world's Web traffic, said it was the most widely viewed event on the Web since the inauguration of Obama in January.

Gordy was among the few who referred obliquely to Jackson's recent troubles.

"Sure there was some sad times and maybe some questionable decisions on his part, but Michael Jackson accomplished everything he dreamed of," said Gordy.

"NOTHING STRANGE" ABOUT DADDY

Jackson was on the eve of a comeback after his career collapsed in the 1990s. The exact cause of his death is still awaiting toxicology results amid reports of abuse of prescription drugs, including the powerful narcotic Diprivan.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who has lashed out at media coverage of the bizarre aspects of Jackson's life, had a message for the singer's three children.

"Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with," he said.

The children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris and Prince Michael, 7, joined the family on stage for a mass chorus of Jackson's inspirational hits "We Are the World" and "Heal the World."

Paris, in tears, took the microphone to say: "Ever since I was born my daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine and I just wanted to say I love him, so much."

Jackson's family and close friends held a brief private ceremony earlier Tuesday at a Los Angeles cemetery before the memorial and were reported afterwards to have gathered at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

But the destination of the singer's body remained unknown with speculation that he could yet be laid to rest at his beloved ranch, Neverland, in central California.

Police had estimated more than 250,000 people would gather at the arena but the orderly crowds were much smaller than expected.

Police, security, escorts and sanitation for the memorial are expected to cost cash-strapped Los Angeles city council nearly $4 million and the city council Tuesday launched a website asking for fans to make donations toward the costs.

Former T.O. radio DJ found dead

Longtime Toronto radio personality Martin Streek has died.

Streek, who worked at modern-rock station 102.1 the Edge for decades, was found dead in his apartment yesterday. Foul play is not suspected, police said.

The news broke on an Internet message board post by David Marsden, who was a driving force behind of CFNY - the call letters of the station - in its early years.

It is believed Streek committed suicide.

According to Marsden's post, Streek's Facebook status was updated yesterday and read: "So...I guess that's it...thanks everyone...I'm sorry to those I should be sorry to, I love you to those that I love, and I will see you all again soon (not too soon though)... Let the stories begin."

As of 9 a.m. today, a Facebook memorial page set up to honour Streek had more than 800 members.

He was a victim of restructuring at the Edge. Both Streek and fellow station veteran Barry Taylor were let go in May.

Streek most recently hosted the station's weekly countdown program as well as live-to-air broadcasts from the Phoenix Concert Theatre on Saturdays and Velvet Underground on Sundays.

Jackson memorial performers announced as LA braces

LOS ANGELES – The stage was set Monday for Michael Jackson's final act as the world capital of make-believe braced for what could be the biggest, most spectacular celebrity send-off of all time.

Ecstatic fans who won the lottery for seats at Tuesday's memorial received the tickets and spangly wristbands that will get them into the 20,000-seat Staples Center downtown. The family announced the participants will include Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.

The legal maneuvering that marked Jackson's extraordinary and troubled life also continued on Monday, with his mother losing a bid to control his enormous but tangled estate. And in one of the few reminders of Jackson's darkest hours, a New York congressman branded Jackson a "pervert" undeserving of so much attention.

More than 1.6 million people registered for free tickets to the 10 a.m. memorial, which will be broadcast live worldwide. A total of 8,750 people were chosen to receive two tickets each. The lucky ones picked up their passes Monday at Dodger Stadium amid heavy police presence.

"I got the golden ticket!" one fan screamed out of his car window in a Willy Wonka moment as he drove out of the parking lot.

"My mother loves Elvis. This is my Elvis," said ticket winner Mynor Garcia, 29.

Downtown hotels were quickly filling. Police, trying to avoid a mob scene, warned those without tickets to stay away because they would not be able to get close to the Staples Center.

British Airways reported a surge of bookings as soon as the memorial arrangements were announced. Virgin's trans-Atlantic flights to San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were all packed with fans and VIPs, spokesman Paul Charles said.

"I think this is America's version of Princess Diana. People want to be in the vicinity. People from the UK and elsewhere want to share their emotions together," Charles said.

About 50 theaters across the country, from Los Angeles to Topeka, Kan., to Washington, D.C., were planning to broadcast the memorial live, said Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. spokeswoman Suzanne Moore. Admission will be free — first-come, first-served.

Jackson's friend Elizabeth Taylor will be mourning in private. She said on her Twitter feed Monday that she would not attend the memorial.

"I just don't believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others," she tweeted. "How I feel is between us. Not a public event."

In Los Angeles Superior Court, meanwhile, a judge appointed Jackson's longtime attorney and a family friend as administrators of his estate over the objections of his mother, Katherine. Attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain had been designated in Jackson's 2002 will as the people he wanted to oversee his empire.

Mrs. Jackson's attorneys expressed concerns about McClain and Branca's financial leadership.

"Frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom," said one of her attorneys, John E. Schreiber.

Another one of her attorneys, Burt Levitch, told Judge Mitchell Beckloff that Branca had previously been removed from financial positions of authority by Jackson. Branca's attorney said he was rehired by Jackson on June 17, days before Jackson's death.

Branca and McClain will have to post a $1 million bond on the estate, and their authority will expire Aug. 3, when another hearing will be held.

"Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain for the next month are at the helm of the ship," the judge said.

Jackson died at age 50 with hundreds of millions in debts. But a court filing estimates his estate is worth more than $500 million. His assets are destined for a trust, with his three children, his mother and charities as beneficiaries.

On eBay, bids for memorial tickets were reaching as high as $3,000, and prices on Craigslist were in the thousands, although both sites were removing postings attempting to sell memorial tickets.

Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, had planned to attend the memorial but backed out Monday.

"The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy," her attorney Marta Almli said in a statement. "Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."

In New York, Republican Rep. Peter King released a YouTube video calling Jackson, who was acquitted of child molestation charges, a "pervert" and a "low-life."

But the memories of Jackson's problems were far from the minds of fans preparing to say goodbye.

"It's the passing of a great soul," said Matt Tyson, 31, of Ojai, Calif. "He brought people together, helped express something that's in us all."

The family was expected to hold a private funeral at some point at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. No public funeral procession through city streets was scheduled, and it was not known whether Jackson's body would be at the Staples Center memorial.

In a symbolic convergence of events, however, the circus will be there.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey starts a run at Staples Center on Wednesday. In the predawn hours before Jackson's memorial, the elephants will walk from the train station to the arena.

Fans celebrate winning Michael Jackson memorial passes

LOS ANGELES–Like a modern-day Willy Wonka tale, fans began to celebrate Sunday after winning coveted tickets to Michael Jackson's memorial service at Staples Center.

More than 1.6 million fans registered online for free in the random drawing of only 8,750 names. Each person selected will receive two tickets to Tuesday's memorial. The odds of getting a ticket were about 1 in 183.

"I'm in shock that it has happened," said Deka Motanya, 27, of San Francisco. "It's surreal." She received an email message at 4:35 p.m. notifying her, "Congratulations, your application was successful."

She immediately Twittered: "OMG OMG OMG OMG i got tickets to the michael jackson memorial service!!!''

Soon after receiving his invitation, David Gobaud, 25, who studies computer science at Stanford University, was scrambling to find his way down to Los Angeles.

"It's amazing. It's quite a surprise. I didn't believe it was real in the beginning," he said. "It's Michael Jackson, one of the greatest musical stars of all time.''

The tickets will admit 11,000 people to the Staples Center plus 6,500 in the Nokia Theater overflow section next door. The streets around the stadium will be closed to prevent those without tickets from trying to attend, police said Sunday.

Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned the ticketless to stay away: "You'll be standing in the hot sun on a city street with a lot of other people ... but not within eyeshot of Staples.''

At the Wilshire Grand Los Angeles hotel about a half mile from the Staples Center, more than 90 per cent of the hotel's 1,000 rooms were booked for Monday and Tuesday night, up from about 60 per cent last week.

"There's a lot of demand right now," said spokesperson Marc Loge. "We are going to sell out."

Jackson died at age 50 on June 25 after going into cardiac arrest in the bedroom of his rented mansion. The cause of Jackson's death has not been determined. Autopsy results are not expected for several weeks.

Also Sunday, a judge signed search warrants connected to the investigation of Jackson's death, Los Angeles County Superior Court spokesperson Allan Parachini said. The warrants were sealed and Parachini would not discuss any details.

Authorities are investigating allegations that Jackson had been consuming painkillers, sedatives and antidepressants. The powerful sedative Diprivan, which is usually administered by anaesthesiologists in hospitals, was found in his home. It was not known what drugs, if any, Jackson obtained from doctors.

Jackson's family was planning a private ceremony at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, McDonnell said. He did not provide further details.

More than a week after his death, tributes and accolades keep coming. Madonna had a Jackson impersonator dance to "Wanna Be Starting Something" at her concert Saturday in the same London arena where he was to stage his comeback.

The Rev. Al Sharpton called for nationwide "love vigils" for Jackson, asking people to gather in schools, community centers and churches to watch the memorial service and talk about the pop star's "message" instead of the "mess" surrounding his death.

The memorial service will be broadcast on five television networks, after NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to air the service live. NBC joins ABC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment.

Winners received a unique code and instructions on how to pick up their tickets Monday. When they pick up their tickets, a wristband will be placed on their wrists.

To prevent ticket scalping, fans must have both the ticket and the wristband to enter Staples Center on Tuesday. Wristbands that have been ripped, taped or tampered with will be voided.

City officials are preparing for huge crowds. McDonnell, the assistant police chief, would not say how many police would be on the job, but alluded to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the recent championship celebration for the Los Angeles Lakers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The ceremony will not be shown on Staples' giant outdoor TV screen and there will be no funeral procession through the city.

No details were available about the actual memorial events.

Beatles, Stones ex-manager Allen Klein dies

Record label executive Allen Klein, who once managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has died at age 77.

Bob Merlis, a publicist for Klein's company, ABKCO Music & Records, said Saturday the music mogul died of Alzheimer's disease in his New York City home.

Klein was one of the most influential, and sometimes most reviled, figures in the world of music in the 1960s.

Known for his business acumen, he managed a high-performing stable of talent that included Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Herman's Hermits and Sam Cooke.

His music company also produced the music of the Animals, Bobby Womack, Marianne Faithfull, Chubby Checker and the Kinks.

He is perhaps most famous for signing the Stones and then the Beatles. Both agreements, however, would end in acrimony and lawsuits.

Klein ended up owning the rights to the recordings of the Rolling Stones and the copyrights from the band's performances from the 1960s, including hit singles such as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Klein was often described as ruthless. Stones guitarist Keith Richards would deem Klein's affiliation with the band as "the price of an education."

The New Jersey-born accountant admitted to his hard-boiled attitude.

"Don't talk to me about ethics," he once told Playboy magazine. "The man you beat is likely to call you unethical. So what?"

Klein is also the person often accused of triggering the demise of the Beatles. John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison decided to bring Klein on their management team in 1969 over the protestations of Paul McCartney.

That disagreement led to a court battle and the eventual dissolution of the band.

During that time, a New York Times article called him "the toughest wheeler-dealer in the pop jungle."

A funeral for Klein will be held in New York City on Tuesday.

Television networks planning Jackson coverage

NEW YORK – NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise Michael Jackson's memorial service live this week.

NBC joins ABC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment in offering the ceremony live. It's set for 10 a.m. PDT at Los Angeles' Staples Center.

NBC had initially planned only a one-hour prime-time special on Tuesday night, but said Sunday it would also cover the event live. It was not immediately clear who would anchor.

Charles Gibson will anchor coverage for ABC, which is setting aside its typical daytime programming.

CBS anchor Katie Couric will be at the Staples Center, although the network had not yet said whether it was offering live coverage of the memorial.

CNN has seen its ratings soar with the Jackson story, and it will show the memorial on the main network and HLN (formerly Headline News). CNN International will air the ceremony to the rest of the world. Anderson Cooper, Larry King and Don Lemon are the anchors for CNN coverage. Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor at HLN. CNN en Espanol also will cover it.

Chris Jansing will anchor live coverage of the memorial on MSNBC. Shepard Smith will anchor live coverage of the ceremony on Fox News, with Megyn Kelly anchoring coverage of the event on the Fox network.

E! Entertainment and TV Guide will cover the ceremony on their television networks and Web sites.

David Carradine's death: asphyxiation, but not suicide

David Carradine's sudden and mysterious death in June finally has some answers ... but not all of them.

A private autopsy has determined that the "Kung Fu" star died from asphyxiation, but the medical examiner is ruling out suicide, reports Reuters.

Carradine's family hired forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden to do a second autopsy following up on the Thai investigation after he was found dead with a rope around his neck in a Bangkok hotel room on June 4.

"He didn't die of natural causes, and he didn't die of suicidal causes from the nature of the ligatures around the body, so that leaves some kind of accidental death," says Baden, who also hosts HBO's "Autopsy" series.

The doctor also says that Carradine's hands were tied above his head, not behind his back as had been previously reported. Baden estimates that maybe a week more is needed to get to the bottom of how the actor accidentally died.

Jackson funeral set for Tuesday in downtown L.A.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Michael Jackson's funeral is being scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 7, at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, sources said.

AEG Live, which owns the basketball arena and the adjacent Nokia Theater, will use both facilities and the surrounding plaza. There's no word yet on how ticketing will be handled.

Earlier speculation had the funeral being held everywhere from Neverland to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden dies at 97

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden, known for his distinctive nose and roles opposite Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On The Waterfront," has died, officials said Wednesday. He was 97.

Malden's passing was announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), where he served as president from 1989 to 1992.

A statement distributed by the Academy said the actor, who starred in more than 50 films, died at home surrounded by family members. No cause of death was disclosed.

Born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago in 1912 to a Serbian father and Czech mother, Malden was the eldest of three sons and grew up in Gary, Indiana.

He developed a love of acting after appearing regularly in school plays and in productions organized by his father at a local church.

Malden worked in Gary's steel mills from 1931 until 1934 before accepting a scholarship to Chicago's Goodman Theater.

Another scholarship student, Mona Greenberg, became his wife in 1938. The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last year.

After tying the knot Malden forged a successful Broadway career, appearing in landmark productions such as Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" and Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire."

During this time he developed working relationships and lifelong friendships with director Elia Kazan and co-star Brando.

Malden's recreation of the role of Mitch in "Streetcar" earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1951, and he scored another nod in that category for playing Father Barry in "On the Waterfront."

After moving to Los Angeles in 1959 to pursue his film career, Malden landed roles in films including "One-Eyed Jacks," "The Cincinnati Kid," "Birdman of Alcatraz," and "Patton."

In the 1970s, Malden made a transition to television, starring in the popular series "The Streets of San Francisco" which introduced Michael Douglas. Douglas credited Malden as his mentor ever since.

Besides his work on stage and screen, Malden was equally famous for a string of TV commercials for American Express travelers checks in the 1970s and 1980s in which he famously implored: "Don't leave home without them."

Of his American Express ads, in which he invariably sported a Trilby hat and came over as a hard-nosed detective who'd seen it all, Malden once said: "It was a pleasure. It was a joy. I loved every minute of it."

"I'm a workaholic," Malden said. "I love every movie I've been in, even the bad ones, every TV series, every play, because I love to work. It's what keeps me going."

...'I'm not dead yet,' say stars killed off in online rumour frenzy

For those struggling to keep track:

Dead: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays and David Carradine.

Not Dead: George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Rick Astley, Jeff Goldblum, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres and Natalie Portman.

The recent spate of celebrity deaths has fuelled fake alerts of dead stars, who have had to issue denials about the exaggerated reports of their demise.

There are three main ways these arise. First, there are several long-running rumours that seem to be recycled every few years. Jeff Goldblum dying on a set in New Zealand seems be an old rumour – in the past, Tom Hanks was targeted – that resurfaces every few years.

New technology is also causing problems, as people pass along breaking news, often without verifying the information. There are many websites where it is possible to plug in a celebrity's name and it will spit out a realistic parody news story that looks like a real web news page. TMZ.com says the site fakeawish.com was responsible for the false Clooney rumours.

Then there are the hackers, who are also getting in on the action. Twitter accounts seem to be particularly sensitive, as Spears, DeGeneres and Cyrus reportedly had their accounts on the microblogging service hacked, with fabricated tweets of their demise.

Luckily, there is also a cottage industry of websites in the business of debunking these false reports. Snopes.com is a repository of urban legends and how these rumours come about. Museumofhoaxes.com is another good site examining this phenomenon and recently had a blog post noting it's not just an Internet thing: a news story in The New York Times in April 1945 detailed a flood of celebrity death rumours following president Franklin D. Roosevelt's death.

The dubious claims of death are so pervasive, they have already been co-opted by malware writers.

"Every time a disaster happens or news about some celebrity reaches the media, malware writers try to take advantage of it," wrote McAfee researcher Guilherme Venere in a blog posting. "Watch out for spam offering links to `news' or `pictures' of deceased celebrities."

The lesson here is, when in doubt, use a search engine to confirm first and forward later.

Funeral held for Farrah Fawcett

The life of Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett was celebrated Tuesday at a private funeral in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

Her longtime companion, Ryan O'Neal, was among pallbearers who accompanied the casket, covered in yellow and orange flowers, into the Roman Catholic cathedral.

Fawcett's friend Alana Stewart and Charlie's Angels co-star Kate Jackson were among early arrivals before the hearse pulled up, accompanied by 10 motorcycle officers.

Fans and news media watched from across the street. The service was closed to the public. Fawcett died Thursday at age 62 after a public battle with cancer. O'Neal and Stewart were at her side.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," O'Neal said in a statement last week. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."

Farrah Fawcett poses for photographers on the red carpet before a 2006 Comedy Central event in Los Angeles. (Associated Press)
Diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2006, Fawcett's battle with the disease was documented in Farrah's Story, which aired last month on NBC.

Stewart, a producer of the documentary, said Fawcett was "much more than a friend; she was my sister."

"Although I will miss her terribly, I know in my heart that she will always be there as that angel on the shoulder of everyone who loved her," Stewart said in a statement.

Fawcett and O'Neal, 68, have a son, 24-year-old Redmond, who has been jailed since April 5 on drug charges.

Last week, a judge granted his request to attend Fawcett's funeral.

Impressionist, Vegas headliner Fred Travalena dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Impressionist Fred Travalena, a headliner in Vegas showrooms and a regular on late-night talk shows with his takes on presidents, crooners and screen stars, has died in Los Angeles. He was 66.

Publicist Roger Neal says Travalena died Sunday at his home in the Encino area after a recurrence of the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that first surfaced in 2002.

Travalena was known for the sheer volume of celebrities he imitated, leading to the nicknames "The Man of a Thousand Voices" and "Mr. Everybody."

His act included presidents from Kennedy to Obama, musicians from Frank Sinatra to Bruce Springsteen and actors from Marlon Brando to Tom Cruise.

The Bronx native started his career in Las Vegas in 1971.

Lisa Marie Presley: Michael Jackson Afraid He'd 'End Up' Like Elvis

Michael Jackson's former wife Lisa Marie Presley said on Friday the pop star was a tortured soul who once predicted that he would "end up" like her father, the late rock icon Elvis Presley.

Writing on her MySpace blog, Presley also ripped into reports in the media that her relationship with Jackson was contrived, saying they split because she could not save him from self-destructive behavior.

"Our relationship was not a 'a sham' as is being reported in the press," Presley, 41, wrote in the blog posting, which was verified by her spokesperson.

She called it an "unusual relationship" but added: "Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much."

Presley, the only daughter of the original "King of Rock 'n' Roll" and a performer in her own right, describes having a conversation with Jackson about her father's August 16, 1977 death. Elvis Presley died at age 42 of a heart attack after years of drug use.

"At some point he (Jackson) paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty: 'I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did.'"

Presley wrote that she tried to deter Jackson from the idea, but he shook his head and nodded "as if he knew what he knew" and would not be dissuaded.

"As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (a sight I never wanted to see again), just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted," she said.

Presley wrote that she and Jackson's family tried to save him from "the inevitable, which is what just happened" but she became overwhelmed and had to end their relationship.

"I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him," she wrote.

NBC to host celebration of Ed McMahon on July 1

LOS ANGELES – Ed McMahon's publicist says a celebration of the late "Tonight" show sidekick, who died Tuesday at 86, is set for July 1.

McMahon's publicist, Howard Bragman, tells The Associated Press Friday that NBC will host the untelevised event, scheduled to be held at 6 p.m. PST at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood.

Bragman says details are still being finalized, including the guest list.

McMahon died early Tuesday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Bragman says McMahon had a "multitude of health problems the last few months."

McMahon played second banana to longtime host Johnny Carson on NBC's "Tonight" show from 1962 until Carson retired in 1992.

Hayden on Movie Nudity: "You Never Know"

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Hayden Panettiere has no problem showing some skin.
In her new movie, I Love You, Beth Cooper (in theaters July 10), Ms. Panettiere stars as the most popular girl in high school who is the object of the school nerd's affection. In one scene, with her back to the camera, she drops her towel in the locker room to impress her geeky suitor, played by Paul Rust.

So just how naked was she? Read on to find out...

"I was really naked," the 18-year-old starlet tells me. "I had these little sticky petals on my boobs, but that was about it. My dad calls me such an exhibitionist. He always says, 'God, even when you were little, you were such an exhibitionist!' "

Even so, Panettiere has no plans to go frontal for the cameras...yet.

"I'm cool with my body, and I'm cool running around undressed and all that stuff, but there are just certain things that not everyone needs to know, that you need to keep somehow private and personal to you," she said. "But you never know, you never know. I could be 30 years old and just be like, 'Screw it—I want to take it all off. I better take a picture of this baby before it all goes.' "

Exact details of Jackson death still unclear

LOS ANGELES – The final act of Michael Jackson's life came into clearer focus Friday, a picture of a fallen superstar working out with TV's "Incredible Hulk" and under the care of his own private cardiologist as he tried to get his 50-year-old body in shape for a grueling bid to reclaim his glory.

While the exact circumstances of his death remained unclear, early clues suggested he may simply have pushed his heart too far.

Police said they had towed the doctor's BMW from Jackson's home because it may include medication or other evidence, and a source familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that a heart attack appeared to have caused the cardiac arrest that led to the pop icon's sudden death.

As grief for the King of Pop poured out from the icons of music to heartbroken fans, and the world came to grips with losing one of the most luminous celebrities of all time, an autopsy showed no sign of trauma or foul play to Jackson, who died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center after paramedics not could not revive him.

The AP source who said Jackson apparently suffered a heart attack was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity. Jackson's brother Jermaine had said the pop singer apparently went into cardiac arrest — which often, but not always, happens because of a heart attack.

Authorities said they spoke with the doctor briefly Thursday and Friday and expected to meet with him again soon. Police stressed that the doctor, identified by the Los Angeles Times as cardiologist Conrad Murray, was not a criminal suspect.

"We do not consider him to be uncooperative at this time," Beck said. "We think that he will assist us in coming to the truth of the facts in this case."

Craig Harvey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner, said there were no signs of foul play in the autopsy and further tests would be needed to determine cause of death. He said Jackson was taking some unspecified prescription medication but gave few other details.

Meanwhile, a 911 call released by fire officials shed light on the desperate effort at the mansion to save Jackson's life before paramedics arrived Thursday afternoon. Jackson died later at UCLA Medical Center.

In the recording, an unidentified caller pleads with authorities to send help, offering no clues about why Jackson was stricken. He tells a dispatcher that Jackson's doctor is performing CPR.

"He's pumping his chest," the caller says, "but he's not responding to anything."
Asked by the dispatcher whether anyone saw what happened, the caller answers: "No, just the doctor, sir. The doctor has been the only one there."

The president of the company promoting Jackson's shows said Murray was Jackson's personal physician for three years. Jackson insisted Murray accompany him to London, said Randy Phillips, president of AEG Live.

Phillips quoted Jackson as saying: "Look, this whole business revolves around me. I'm a machine, and we have to keep the machine well-oiled." Phillips said Jackson submitted to at least five hours of physicals that insurers had insisted on.

On Friday, the autopsy was completed in a matter of hours, but an official cause of death could take up to six weeks while medical examiners await toxicology tests. No funeral plans had been made public.

Jackson had remained out of the public spotlight during intense rehearsals for the London concerts, but those with access said he was upbeat and seemingly energized by his planned comeback. Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the Grammys, said he watched Jackson dance energetically as recently as Wednesday.

"There was this one moment, he was moving across the stage and he was doing these trademark Michael moves, and I know I got this big grin on my face, and I started thinking to myself, 'You know, it's been years since I've seen that,'" he said.

Lou Ferrigno, the star of "The Incredible Hulk," said he had been working out with Jackson for the past several months.

Still, Jackson's health had been known to be precarious in recent years, and one family friend said Friday that he had warned the entertainer's family about his use of painkillers.

"I said one day we're going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson," Brian Oxman, a former Jackson attorney and family friend, told NBC's "Today" show. "The result was I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are. I don't know what caused his death. But I feared this day, and here we are."

Oxman claimed Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal to help with pain suffered when he broke his leg after he fell off a stage and for broken vertebrae in his back.

The worldwide wave of mourning for Jackson continued unabated for the man who revolutionized pop music and moonwalked his way into entertainment legend.

"My heart, my mind are broken," said Elizabeth Taylor, who was one of Jackson's closest friends and married one of her husbands at a lavish wedding at the pop star's Neverland Ranch in 1991. She said she had heard the news as she was preparing to travel to London for Jackson's comeback show, and added, "I can't imagine life without him."

Hundreds made a pilgrimage to the Jackson family's compound in Los Angeles, leaving flowers and messages of love. They did the same at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and at the home in Los Angeles' Holmby Hills where Jackson was stricken. Some camped out overnight.

In New York, people stopped at Harlem's Apollo Theater, where Jackson had performed as a child with his brothers in one of rock's first bubblegum supergroups, the Jackson 5.

Scores of celebrities who knew or worked with Jackson — or were simply awed by him — issued statements of mourning. Some came through publicists and others through emotional postings on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, where countless everyday fans were sharing memories as well.

"I truly hope he is memorialized as the '83 moonwalking, MTV owning, mesmerizing, unstoppable, invincible Michael Jackson," said John Mayer. Miley Cyrus called him "my inspiration."

And Diana Ross, the former lead singer of the Supremes who introduced the Jackson 5 at their debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1969, said she could not stop crying. "I am unable to imagine this," she said. "My heart is hurting."

His two ex-wives both said they were devastated. One of them, Lisa Marie Presley, posted a long, emotional statement on her MySpace page in which she said her ex-husband had confided to her 14 years ago that he feared dying young and under tragic circumstances, just as her father, Elvis Presley, had.

"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that," Presley said.

Presley's father, the King of Rock 'n' Roll to Jackson's King of Pop, died in 1977 at age 42 of a drug-related death.

At rehearsals for Sunday's Black Entertainment Awards show, stars like Beyonce, Wyclef Jean and Ne-Yo were frantically revamping their performances in an effort to turn the evening into a Michael Jackson tribute.

"There's a direct line from Ne-Yo to Michael Jackson," said executive producer Stephen Hill. "There's a direct line from Beyonce to Michael Jackson. There's a direct line from Jay-Z to Michael Jackson. I think they'll want to pay tribute in their own way."

When he was on trial on child molestation charges in 2005, Jackson appeared gaunt and had recurring back problems that he attributed to stress. His trial was interrupted several times by hospital visits, and Jackson once even appeared late to court dressed in his pajamas after an emergency room visit.

After his acquittal, Jackson's prosecutor argued against returning some items that had been seized from Neverland, the Santa Barbara County estate Jackson had converted into a children's playland. Among the items were syringes, the powerful painkiller Demerol and other prescription drugs.

Demerol carries a long list of warnings to users. The government warns that mixing it with certain other drugs can lead to reactions including slowed or stopped breathing, shock and cardiac arrest.

Within hours of Jackson's death on Thursday, fans were inundating Web sites that sell his music, and physical stores reported they had been cleaned out of Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 CDs. All 10 of the albums on Amazon.com's bestseller list Friday were Jackson's; the 25th anniversary edition of "Thriller," the bestselling album of all time, was at the top.

Meanwhile, fans were snapping up every Jackson recording they could get their hands on.

Bill Carr, Amazon.com Inc.'s vice president for music and video, said the Web site sold out within minutes all CDs by Michael Jackson and by the Jackson 5.

Jackson's albums accounted for all 10 of Amazon's "Bestsellers in Music" list Friday, with the 25th anniversary edition of the celebrated "Thriller" album taking the top spot.

Barnes and Noble Inc.'s Web site and retail stores also sold out most Jackson CDs, DVDs and books, and its 10 best-selling CDs were Jackson titles as well.
"They love him," said Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president for music and video.

"He's a legend, and they're anxious to make sure they have his music in their collections."

Michael Jackson, `King of Pop,' dead at 50

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop" who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."

"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince
Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."

Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."

'Charlie's Angel' Farrah Fawcett dies at 62

LOS ANGELES – Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.

The pop icon, who in the 1980s set aside the fantasy girl image to tackle serious roles, died shortly before 9:30 a.m. in a Santa Monica hospital, spokesman Paul Bloch said.

Ryan O'Neal, the longtime companion who had reunited with Fawcett as she fought anal cancer, was at her side, along with close friend Alana Stewart, Bloch said.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," O'Neal said. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."

She burst on the scene in 1976 as one-third of the crime-fighting trio in TV's "Charlie's Angels." A poster of her in a clingy swimsuit sold in the millions.

She left the show after one season but had a flop on the big screen with "Somebody Killed Her Husband." She turned to more serious roles in the 1980s and 1990s, winning praise playing an abused wife in "The Burning Bed."

She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2006. As she underwent treatment, she enlisted the help of O'Neal, who was the father of her now 24-year-old son, Redmond.

This month, O'Neal said he asked Fawcett to marry him and she agreed. They would wed "as soon as she can say yes," he said.

Her struggle with painful treatments and dispiriting setbacks was recorded in the television documentary "Farrah's Story." Fawcett sought cures in Germany as well as the United States, battling the disease with iron determination even as her body weakened.

"Her big message to people is don't give up, no matter what they say to you, keep fighting," her friend Stewart said. NBC estimated the May 15, 2009, broadcast drew nearly 9 million viewers.

In the documentary, Fawcett was seen shaving off most of her trademark locks before chemotherapy could claim them. Toward the end, she's seen huddled in bed, barely responding to a visit from her son.

Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith made up the original "Angels," the sexy, police-trained trio of martial arts experts who took their assignments from a rich, mysterious boss named Charlie (John Forsythe, who was never seen on camera but whose distinctive voice was heard on speaker phone.)

The program debuted in September 1976, the height of what some critics derisively referred to as television's "jiggle show" era, and it gave each of the actresses ample opportunity to show off their figures as they disguised themselves in bathing suits and as hookers and strippers to solve crimes.

Backed by a clever publicity campaign, Fawcett — then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors because of her marriage to "The Six Million Dollar Man" star Lee Majors — quickly became the most popular Angel of all.

Her face helped sell T-shirts, lunch boxes, shampoo, wigs and even a novelty plumbing device called Farrah's faucet. Her flowing blond hair, pearly white smile and trim, shapely body made her a favorite with male viewers in particular.

A poster of her in a dampened red swimsuit sold millions of copies and became a ubiquitous wall decoration in teenagers' rooms.

Thus the public and the show's producer, Spelling-Goldberg, were shocked when she announced after the series' first season that she was leaving television's No. 5-rated series to star in feature films. (Cheryl Ladd became the new "Angel" on the series.)

But the movies turned out to be a platform where Fawcett was never able to duplicate her TV success. Her first star vehicle, the comedy-mystery "Somebody Killed Her Husband," flopped and Hollywood cynics cracked that it should have been titled "Somebody Killed Her Career."

The actress had also been in line to star in "Foul Play" for Columbia Pictures. But the studio opted for Goldie Hawn instead. "Spelling-Goldberg warned all the studios that that they would be sued for damages if they employed me," Fawcett told The Associated Press in 1979. "The studios wouldn't touch me."

She finally reached an agreement to appear in three episodes of "Charlie's Angels" a season, an experience she called "painful."

She returned to making movies, including the futuristic thriller "Logan's Run," the comedy-thriller "Sunburn" and the strange sci-fi tale "Saturn 3," but none clicked with the public.

Fawcett fared better with television movies such as "Murder in Texas," "Poor Little Rich Girl" and especially as an abused wife in 1984's "The Burning Bed." The last earned her an Emmy nomination and the long-denied admission from critics that she really could act.

As further proof of her acting credentials, Fawcett appeared off-Broadway in "Extremities" as a woman who is raped in her own home. She repeated the role in the 1986 film version.

Not content to continue playing victims, she switched type. She played a murderous mother in the 1989 true-crime story "Small Sacrifices" and a tough lawyer on the trail of a thief in 1992's "Criminal Behavior."

She also starred in biographies of Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld and photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

"I felt that I was doing a disservice to ourselves by portraying only women as victims," she commented in a 1992 interview.

In 1995, at age 50, Fawcett posed partly nude for Playboy magazine. The following year, she starred in a Playboy video, "All of Me," in which she was equally unclothed while she sculpted and painted.

She told an interviewer she considered the experience "a renaissance," adding, "I no longer feel ... restrictions emotionally, artistically, creatively or in my everyday life. I don't feel those borders anymore."

Fawcett's most unfortunate career moment may have been a 1997 appearance on David Letterman's show, when her disjointed, rambling answers led many to speculate that she was on drugs. She denied that, blaming her strange behavior on questionable advice from her mother to be playful and have a good time.

In September 2006, Fawcett, who at 59 still maintained a strict regimen of tennis and paddleball, began to feel strangely exhausted. She underwent two weeks of tests and was told the devastating news: She had anal cancer.

O'Neal, with whom she had a 17-year relationship, again became her constant companion, escorting her to the hospital for chemotherapy.

"She's so strong," the actor told a reporter. "I love her. I love her all over again."

She struggled to maintain her privacy, but a UCLA Medical Center employee pleaded guilty in late 2008 to violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes for selling records of Fawcett and other celebrities to the National Enquirer.

"It's much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope," she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in which she also revealed that she helped set up a sting that led to the hospital worker's arrest.

Her decision to tell her own story through the NBC documentary was meant as an inspiration to others, friends said. The segments showing her cancer treatment, including a trip to Germany for procedures there, were originally shot for a personal, family record, they said. And although weak, she continued to show flashes of grit and good humor in the documentary.

"I do not want to die of this disease. So I say to God, `It is seriously time for a miracle,'" she said at one point.

Born Feb. 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, she was named Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett by her mother, who said she added the Farrah because it sounded good with Fawcett. She was less than a month old when she underwent surgery to remove a digestive tract tumor with which she was born.

After attending Roman Catholic grade school and W.B. Ray High School, Fawcett enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. Fellow students voted her one of the 10 most beautiful people on the campus and her photos were eventually spotted by movie publicist David Mirisch, who suggested she pursue a film career. After overcoming her parents' objections, she agreed.

Soon she was appearing in such TV shows as "That Girl," "The Flying Nun," "I Dream of Jeannie" and "The Partridge Family."

Majors became both her boyfriend and her adviser on career matters, and they married in 1973. She dropped his last name from hers after they divorced in 1982.

By then she had already begun her long relationship with O'Neal. Both Redmond and Ryan O'Neal have grappled with drug and legal problems in recent years.

'Tonight' sidekick Ed McMahon dies in LA at 86

LOS ANGELES – Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight Show" sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding "H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!" for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86.

McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.

Bragman didn't give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a "multitude of health problems the last few months."

McMahon had bone cancer, among other illnesses, according to a person close to the entertainer, and had been hospitalized for several weeks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

McMahon broke his neck in a fall in March 2007, and battled a series of financial problems as his injuries preventing him from working.

McMahon and Carson had worked together for nearly five years on the game show "Who Do You Trust?" when Carson took over NBC's late-night show from Jack Paar in October 1962. McMahon played second banana on "Tonight" until Carson retired in 1992.

"You can't imagine hooking up with a guy like Carson," McMahon said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1993. "There's the old phrase, hook your wagon to a star. I hitched my wagon to a great star."

McMahon, who never failed to laugh at his Carson's quips, kept his supporting role in perspective.

"It's like a pitcher who has a favorite catcher," he said. "The pitcher gets a little help from the catcher, but the pitcher's got to throw the ball. Well, Johnny Carson had to throw the ball, but I could give him a little help."

"And now h-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!" was McMahon's trademark opener for each "Tonight" show, followed by a small, respectful bow toward the star. McMahon's style was honed during his youthful days as a carnival hawker.

The highlight for McMahon came just after the monologue, when he and Carson would chat before the guests took the stage.

"We would just have a free-for-all," he said in the AP interview. "Now to sit there, with one of the brightest, most well-read men I've ever met, the funniest, and just to hold your own in that conversation. ... I loved that."

When Carson died in 2005, McMahon said he was "like a brother to me," and recalled bantering with him on the phone a few months earlier.

"We could have gone on (television) that night and done a 'Carnac' skit. We were that crisp and hot."

His medical and financial problems kept him in the headlines in his last years. It was reported in June 2008 that he was facing possible foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home.

By year's end, a deal was worked out allowing him to stay in his home, but legal action involving other alleged debts continued.

Among those who had stepped up with offers of help was Donald Trump.
"When I was at the Wharton School of Business I'd watch him every night," Trump told the Los Angeles Times in August. "How could this happen?"

McMahon even spoofed his own problems with a spot that aired during the 2009 Super Bowl promoting a cash-for-gold business. Pairing up with rap artist MC Hammer, he explained how easy it is to turn gold items into cash, jokingly saying "Goodbye, old friend" to a gold toilet and rolling out a convincing "H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's money!"

Born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. on March 6, 1923, in Detroit, McMahon grew up in Lowell, Mass. He got his start on television playing a circus clown on the 1950-51 variety series "Big Top." But the World War II Marine veteran interrupted his career to serve as a fighter pilot in Korea.

He joined "Who Do You Trust?" in 1958, its second year, the start of his long association with Carson. It was a partnership that outlasted their multiple marriages, which provided regular on-air fodder for jokes.

While Carson built his career around "Tonight" and withdrew from the limelight after his retirement, McMahon took a different path. He was host of several shows over the years, including "The Kraft Music Hall" (1968) and the amateur talent contest "Star Search."

He was a longtime co-host of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, a Labor Day weekend institution, and was co-host with Dick Clark of "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes."

McMahon and Clark also teamed up as pitchmen for American Family Publishers' sweepstakes, with their faces a familiar sight on contest entry forms and in TV commercials. McMahon was known for his ongoing commercials for Budweiser as well.

He had supporting roles in several movies, including "Fun With Dick and Jane" (1977) and "Just Write" (1997). He took on his first regular TV series job in the 1997 WB sitcom "The Tom Show" with Tom Arnold.

McMahon released his autobiography, "For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times," in 1998. In it, he recounts the birth of "Tonight."

"Let's just go down there and entertain the hell out of them," Carson told him before the first show. Wrote McMahon: "That was the only advice I ever got from him."

In 1993, he recalled his first meeting with Carson after they left "Tonight."
"The first thing he said was, 'I really miss you. You know, it was fun, wasn't it?'" McMahon recalled. "I said, 'It was great.' And it was. It was just great."

Besides his wife, Pam, McMahon is survived by children Claudia, Katherine, Linda, Jeffrey and Lex.

Bragman said no funeral arrangements have been made.

Veteran CBS newsman Walter Cronkite reported ill

NEW YORK – CBS isn't commenting on reports that veteran newsman Walter Cronkite is gravely ill.

The 92-year-old former anchor of "The CBS Evening News," who has been ailing for some time, has reportedly taken a turn for the worse, according to TVNewser and other online sites.

CBS News spokesman Kevin Tedesco had no comment on Friday.

Bob Schieffer said, "All of us are praying for the best, and our thoughts are with Walter's family." The host of CBS' "Face the Nation" and a longtime Cronkite colleague, Schieffer noted that he had no current news on Cronkite's condition.

The face of CBS News for more than two decades, Cronkite was named "the most trusted man in America" in a 1972 "trust index" survey, and he ended each broadcast with the reassuring signoff, "And that's the way it is."

He left the "Evening News" anchor desk in 1981, but after that kept a busy schedule both in journalistic and other activities.

For 24 years, he served as onsite host for New Year's Day telecasts by the Vienna Philharmonic until ill health forced him to bow out earlier this year.

Clarkson blasts weight critics

Kelly Clarkson has lashed out at people who poke fun at her fluctuating weight - insisting she is happy with the way she looks.

The former American Idol champion has been spotted sporting a fuller figure in recent months, leading to internet bloggers to criticise her for piling on a few extra pounds.

But the star won't let the pressure to be thin faze her - insisting she has been forced to deal with the nasty jibes since she shot to fame in 2002.

She says, "For seven years it's been happening. It's like, 'Okay, cool the fat joke'.

"I love my body. I'm very much OK with it. I don't think artists are ever the ones who have the problem with their weight, it is other people."

Blues queen Koko Taylor dies at 80

CHICAGO — Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery. She was 80.

Taylor died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about two weeks after having surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed, said Marc Lipkin, director of publicity for her record label, Alligator Records, which made the announcement.

"The passion that she brought and the fire and the growl in her voice when she sang was the truth," blues singer and musician Ronnie Baker Brooks said Wednesday. "The music will live on, but it's much better because of Koko. It's a huge loss."

Taylor's career stretched more than five decades. While she did not have widespread mainstream success, she was revered and beloved by blues aficionados, and earned worldwide acclaim for her work, which including the best-selling song Wang Dang Doodle and tunes such as What Kind of Man is This and I Got What It Takes.

Taylor appeared on national television numerous times, and was the subject of a PBS documentary and had a small part in director David Lynch's Wild at Heart.

In the course of her career, Taylor was nominated seven times for Grammy awards and won in 1984.

Taylor last performed on May 7 in Memphis, at the Blues Music Awards.

"She was still the best female blues singer in the world a month ago," said Jay Sieleman, executive director of The Blues Foundation based in Memphis. "In 1950s Chicago she was the woman singing the blues. At 80 years old she was still the queen of the blues."

Born Cora Walton just outside Memphis, Taylor said her dream to become a blues singer was nurtured in the cotton fields outside her family's sharecropper shack.

"I used to listen to the radio, and when I was about 18 years old, B.B. King was a disc jockey and he had a radio program, 15 minutes a day, over in West Memphis, Arkansas and he would play the blues," she said in a 1990 interview. "I would hear different records and things by Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Sonnyboy Williams and all these people, you know, which I just loved."

Although her father encouraged her to sing only gospel music, Cora and her siblings would sneak out back with their homemade instruments and play the blues. With one brother accompanying on a guitar made out of bailing wire and nails and one brother on a fife made out of a corncob, she began on the path to blues woman.

Orphaned at 11, Koko — a nickname she earned because of an early love of chocolate — at age 18 moved to Chicago with her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert "Pops" Taylor, in search for work.

Setting up house on the South Side, Koko found work as a cleaning woman for a wealthy family living in the city's northern suburbs. At night and on weekends, she and her husband, who would later become her manager, frequented Chicago's clubs, where many the artists heard on the radio performed.

"I started going to these local clubs, me and my husband, and everybody got to know us," Taylor said. "And then the guys would start letting me sit in, you know, come up on the bandstand and do a tune."

The break for Tennessee-born Taylor came in 1962, when arranger/composer Willie Dixon, impressed by her voice, got her a Chess recording contract and produced several singles (and two albums) for her, including the million-selling 1965 hit, Wang Dang Doodle, which she called silly, but which launched her recording career.

From Chicago blues clubs, Taylor took her raucous, gritty, good-time blues on the road to blues and jazz festivals around the nation, and into Europe. After the Chess label folded, she signed with Alligator Records.

In most years, she performed at least 100 concerts a year.

"Blues is my life," Taylor once said. "It's a true feeling that comes from the heart, not something that just comes out of my mouth. Blues is what I love, and blues is what I always do."

In addition to performing, she operated a Chicago nightclub, which closed in November 2001 because her daughter, club manager Joyce Threatt, developed severe asthma and could no longer manage a smoky nightclub.

Survivors include her daughter; husband Hays Harris; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements will be announced, the label said.

Actor David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

BANGKOK – Much like the character that made him famous, David Carradine was always seeking, both spiritually and professionally, his life forever intertwined with the Shaolin priest he played in the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu."

Just as the character, Kwai Chang Caine, roamed the 19th Century American West, Carradine spent his latter years searching for the path to Hollywood stardom, accepting low-budget roles while pursuing interests in Asian herbs, exercise and philosophy, and making instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.

Carradine was found dead Thursday in Thailand. The 72-year-old actor appeared to have hanged himself in a suite at the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel, said Lt. Teerapop Luanseng, the officer responsible for investigating the death.

"I can confirm that we found his body, naked, hanging in the closet," Teerapop said. He said police were investigating and suspected suicide, though one of his managers questioned that theory.

"All we can say is, we know David would never have committed suicide," said Tiffany Smith, of Binder & Associates, his management company. "We're just waiting for them to finish the investigation and find out what really happened. He really appreciated everything life has to give ... and that's not something David would ever do to himself."

Carradine had flown to Thailand last week and began work on "Stretch" two days before his death, Smith said. He had several other projects lined up after the action film, which was being directed by Charles De Meaux with Carradine in the lead.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday.

"I was deeply saddened by the news of David Carradine's passing," said director Martin Scorcese. "We met when we made 'Boxcar Bertha' together, almost 40 years ago. I have very fond memories of our time together on that picture and on 'Mean Streets,' where he agreed to do a brief cameo."

Carradine came from an acting family. His father, John, made a career playing creepy, eccentric characters in film and on stage. Half-brothers Keith, Robert and Bruce also became actors, and actress Martha Plimpton is Keith Carradine's daughter.

"My Uncle David was a brilliantly talented, fiercely intelligent and generous man. He was the nexus of our family in so many ways, and drew us together over the years and kept us connected," Plimpton said Thursday.

Carradine was "in good spirits" when he left the U.S. for Thailand on May 29 to work on "Stretch," Smith said.

"David was excited to do it and excited to be a part of it," she said by phone from Beverly Hills.

Filming began Tuesday, she said, adding that the crew was devastated by Carradine's death and did not wish to speak publicly about it for the time being.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid Thursday morning. It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a curtain cord and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

Police said Carradine's body was taken to a hospital for an autopsy that would be done Friday.

Carradine appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his early film roles was as folk singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic, "Bound for Glory."

But he was best known for "Kung Fu," which aired from 1972-75.

Carradine, a martial arts practitioner himself, played Caine, an orphan who was raised by Shaolin monks and fled China after killing the emperor's nephew in retaliation for the murder of his kung fu master.

Pursued by revenge assassins from China, Caine wanders the American West in search of his half-brother Danny. His conscience forces him to fight injustice wherever he encounters it, fueled by flashbacks to his training in which his master famously refers to him as "Grasshopper."

Carradine left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.

"I wasn't like a TV star in those days. I was like a rock 'n' roll star," Carradine said in an interview with Associated Press Radio in 1996. "It was a phenomenon kind of thing. ... It was very special."

Actor Rainn Wilson, star of TV's "The Office," said on Twitter: "R.I.P. David Carradine. You were a true hero to so many of us children of the 70s. We'll miss you, Kwai Chang Caine."

Carradine reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."

He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill." Bill, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's "Kill Bill — Vol. 1." In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates, including Bill.

In "Kill Bill — Vol. 2," released in 2004, Thurman's character catches up to Bill. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.

Bill was a complete contrast to Caine, the soft-spoken refugee serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West.

"David's always been kind of a seeker of knowledge and of wisdom in his own inimitable way," Keith Carradine, said in a 1995 interview.

After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick "Death Race 2000." He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western "The Long Riders." But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films.

Tarantino's films changed that.

"All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.

"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight."

In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes.

"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.

"It's time to do nothing but look forward."

Former Wilco guitarist dies in his sleep

URBANA, Ill.–Jay Bennett, a former member of the band Wilco, has died at age 45, according to his record label.

"We are profoundly saddened to report that our friend died in his sleep ... Jay was a beautiful human being who will be missed,'' read the posting Sunday on Undertow Music Collective's website.

Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy said in a statement Monday he was "deeply saddened" by Bennett's death.

Tweedy said Bennett made significant contributions to Wilco's songs and the band's evolution. He said Bennett would be remembered ``as a truly unique and gifted human being.''

Bennett died at his Urbana home early Sunday and an autopsy was being performed, friend and fellow musician Edward Burch told the Chicago Sun-Times in a story posted online late Sunday.

A cause of death was not immediately available. The Champaign County Coroner's office did not return messages.

Bennett worked as a sound engineer and played instruments for Wilco from 1994 to 2001.

Earlier this month, Bennett sued Tweedy, claiming he was owed royalties for songs during his seven years and five albums with the group.

In the breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Bennett also claimed that he deserved money from the band's 2002 documentary, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" The film documents the making of Wilco's album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Voice of Mickey Mouse dies in L.A. at 62

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sound-effects specialist Wayne Allwine, who followed in the footsteps of Walt Disney to provide the falsetto voice of Mickey Mouse for the past 32 years, has died, Walt Disney Co said Wednesday.

Allwine succumbed to complications from diabetes at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles Monday. He was 62.

He was only the third person to lend his voice to the famed rodent. Disney himself started voicing Mickey Mouse in 1928, when he made his talking debut in "Steamboat Willie." Jimmy Macdonald took over the responsibilities in 1947 and handed over the reins to his protege Allwine in 1977.

Allwine provided Mickey's voice for such movies as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), and "The Prince and the Pauper" (1990). He also brought Mickey to life for Disney theme parks, television, radio and live stage events.

"Wayne dedicated his entire professional life to Disney, and over the last 32 years, gave so much joy, happiness and comfort to so many around the world by giving voice to our most beloved, iconic character, Mickey Mouse," Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger said.

Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale in 1947, Allwine joined Disney in 1966, working his way up from a job in the mail room. He worked under sound-effects expert Macdonald for seven-and-a-half years, editing such Disney films as "Splash" (1984) and "Three Men and a Baby" (1987).

"Mickey's the real star," Allwine once said of his job. "You know you just have to love the little guy while you have him, because he won't be yours forever."

Allwine is survived by his wife, Russi Taylor, who provides the voice of Minnie Mouse, and five children from previous marriages.

'Survivor' champ battling Hodgkin's disease

NEW YORK - "Survivor" champ Ethan Zohn has cancer.

Zohn, who outlasted the competition to win "Survivor: Africa" in 2002, is undergoing chemotherapy for a rare form of Hodgkin's disease.

A spokeswoman for the CBS series, Lori DelliColli, confirmed Zohn's condition after the news was first reported by People magazine.

The former pro soccer player, known for his curly mop of hair, was diagnosed with stage-two Hodgkin's disease in late April.

Doctors discovered a swollen lymph node beneath his collar bone and a mass on the left side of his chest.

Then, last week, he began chemo treatments after being diagnosed with a less common type of the cancer that forms in the body's lymph system.

Bea Arthur dies of cancer at 86

LOS ANGELES - Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" and who won a Tony Award for the musical "Mame," died Saturday. She was 86.

Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home with her family at her side, family spokesman Dan Watt said. She had cancer, Watt said, declining to give further details.

"She was a brilliant and witty woman," said Watt, who was Arthur's personal assistant for six years. "Bea will always have a special place in my heart."

Arthur first appeared in the landmark comedy series "All in the Family" as Edith Bunker's loudly outspoken, liberal cousin, Maude Finley. She proved a perfect foil for blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), and their blistering exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur's own series.

In a 2008 interview with The Associated Press, Arthur said she was lucky to be discovered by TV after a long stage career, recalling with bemusement CBS executives asking about the new "girl."

"I was already 50 years old. I had done so much off-Broadway, on Broadway, but they said, 'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series,"' Arthur said.

"Maude" scored with television viewers immediately on its CBS debut in September 1972, and Arthur won an Emmy Award for the role in 1977.

The comedy flowed from Maude's efforts to cast off the traditional restraints that women faced, but the series often had a serious base. Her TV husband Walter (Bill Macy) became an alcoholic, and she underwent an abortion, which drew a torrent of viewer protests. Maude became a standard bearer for the growing feminist movement in America.

The ratings of "Maude" in the early years approached those of its parent, "All in the Family," but by 1977 the audience started to dwindle. A major format change was planned, but in early 1978 Arthur announced she was quitting the show.

"It's been absolutely glorious; I've loved every minute of it," she said. "But it's been six years, and I think it's time to leave."

"Golden Girls" (1985-1992) was another groundbreaking comedy, finding surprising success in a television market increasingly skewed toward a younger, product-buying audience.

The series concerned three retirees - Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan - and the mother of Arthur's character, Estelle Getty, who lived together in a Miami apartment. In contrast to the violent "Miami Vice," the comedy was nicknamed "Miami Nice."

As Dorothy Zbornak, Arthur seemed as caustic and domineering as Maude. She was unconcerned about the similarity of the two roles. "Look - I'm 5-feet-9, I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line," she told an interviewer. "What can I do about it? I can't stay home waiting for something different. I think it's a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting."

The interplay among the four women and their relations with men fuelled the comedy, and the show amassed a big audience and 10 Emmys, including two as best comedy series and individual awards for each of the stars.

In 1992, Arthur announced she was leaving "Golden Girls." The three other stars returned in "The Golden Palace," but it lasted only one season.

Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in New York City in 1922. When she was 11, her family moved to Cambridge, Md., where her father opened a clothing store. At 12 she had grown to full height, and she dreamed of being a petite blond movie star like June Allyson. There was one advantage of being tall and deep-voiced: She was chosen for the male roles in school plays.

Bernice - she hated the name and adopted her mother's nickname of Bea - overcame shyness about her size by winning over her classmates with wisecracks. She was elected the wittiest girl in her class. After two years at a junior college in Virginia, she earned a degree as a medical lab technician, but she "loathed" doing lab work at a hospital.

Acting held more appeal, and she enrolled in a drama course at the New School of Social Research in New York City. To support herself, she sang in a night spot that required her to push drinks on customers.

During this time she had a brief marriage that provided her stage name of Beatrice Arthur. In 1950, she married again, to Broadway actor and future Tony-winning director Gene Saks. They divorces in 1978.

After a few years in off-Broadway and stock company plays and television dramas, Arthur's career gathered momentum with her role as Lucy Brown in the 1955 production of "The Threepenny Opera."

In 2008, when Arthur was inducted in the TV Academy Hall of Fame, she pointed to the role as the highlight of her long career. "A lot of that had to do with the fact that I felt, 'Ah, yes, I belong here,"' Arthur said.

More plays and musicals followed, and she also sang in nightclubs and played small roles in TV comedy shows.

Then, in 1964, Harold Prince cast her as Yente the Matchmaker in the original company of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Arthur's biggest Broadway triumph came in 1966 as Vera Charles, Angela Lansbury's acerbic friend in the musical "Mame," directed by Saks. Richard Watts of the New York Post called her performance "a portrait in acid of a savagely witty, cynical and serpent-tongued woman."

She won the Tony as best supporting actress and repeated the role in the unsuccessful film version that also was directed by Saks, starring Lucille Ball as Mame. Arthur would play a variation of Vera Charles in "Maude" and "The Golden Girls."

In 1983, Arthur attempted another series, "Amanda's," an Americanized version of John Cleese's hilarious "Fawlty Towers." She was cast as owner of a small seaside hotel with a staff of eccentrics. It lasted a mere nine episodes.

Between series, Arthur remained active in films and theatre. Among the movies: "That Kind of Woman" (1959), "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1970), Mel Brooks' "The History of the World: Part I" (1981), "For Better or Worse" (1995).

The plays included Woody Allen's "The Floating Light Bulb" and "The Bermuda Avenue Triangle," written by and co-starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. During 2001 and 2002 she toured the U.S. in a one-woman show of songs and stories, "... And Then There's Bea."

In 1999, Arthur told an interviewer of the three influences in her career: "Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous; (method acting guru) Lee Strasberg taught me what I call reality; and ("Threepenny Opera" star) Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."

In recent years, Arthur made guest appearances on shows including "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Malcolm in the Middle." She was chairwoman of the Art Attack Foundation, a non-profit performing arts scholarship organization.

Reports: Farrah Fawcett hospitalized

Cancer-stricken actress Farrah Fawcett has been admitted to hospital in a critical condition, according to reports.

The former Charlie's Angels star, 62, is said to be unconscious but stable after checking into a medical centre in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to People.com.

Her long-term partner Ryan O'Neal is at her bedside, as well as their 24-year-old son Redmond, who quit his stint in a California rehab centre on Wednesday after allegedly failing a drugs test.

Fawcett, who was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, recently returned from undergoing experimental stem-cell treatment in Germany.

Composer Maurice Jarre dies

PARIS (AFP) – Maurice Jarre, Oscar-winning composer of music for films including "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia", died overnight Sunday in Los Angeles aged 84.

The death of Jarre, who won a third Oscar for his score for "A Passage to India", was announced to AFP by the manager of his son, electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.

The elder Jarre wrote the music for more than 150 films by great directors including John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston and Luchino Visconti.

In 1952 he wrote his first score, for the short "Hotel des Invalides," at the request of director Georges Franju.

Maurice Jarre, who settled in the United States in the mid-1860s, also wrote symphonic music and music for theatre and ballet.

Pop, country singer Dan Seals dies of cancer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Dan Seals, who was England Dan in the pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley and later had a successful country career, has died of complications from cancer. He was 61.

Longtime manager Tony Gottlieb said Seals, diagnosed with lymphoma two years ago, died Wednesday night at his daughter's home in Nashville.

With England Dan and John Ford Coley, Seals had hits including "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" and "Nights Are Forever," both in 1976. His country hits in the '80s and '90s included "Bop," "You Still Move Me," "Love on Arrival," and a duet with Marie Osmond, "Meet Me in Montana."

"I've loved to play and sing from the moment I knew what it was," he told The Associated Press in 1992.

Seals, who is survived by his wife, four children and seven grandchildren, was in hospice care when he died.

"He was very positive," said Gottlieb, Seals' manager for about 30 years. "He participated in several clinical trials to assist with research on this type of lymphoma."

Gottlieb said a major misconception about Seals is that he was a pop singer who came to country music. In reality, he said, Seals grew up singing country music and crossed into pop.

"He was raised in a very rural part of West Texas. His father was an amateur country singer, and he used to play with his dad. They were Hank Williams, Grand Ole Opry people. He was much more of a country singer than a pop singer."

Seals' older brother, Jimmy, was the Seals in Seals & Crofts, who recorded the hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl" in the 1970s.

Until Dan Seals got sick, the brothers were working as a duo, Seals & Seals. They performed some shows and were recording an album but never finished it. The songs they did complete, about eight in all, will be released.

"In the last two years he only did like three shows," Gottlieb said. "He just didn't have the energy."

Seals, whose father was a pipefitter, was born in McCamey, Texas, and grew up in Iraan, Texas, and Dallas.

His well-crafted songs tended to be insightful and graphic with lofty themes. In 1989, his music video for the song "Rage On" addressed a topic rare in country music: an interracial relationship. It showed angry youths smashing the windows of the car of a young man dating a girl of a different race. One boy hurled a beer bottle at the girl's father. The song itself was about small town values.

"When we record songs, we take chances," Seals said at the time. "We feel we are on the cutting edge of what we can do."

Natasha Richardson dies after fall on ski slope

NEW YORK – Natasha Richardson, a gifted and precocious heiress to acting royalty whose career highlights included the film "Patty Hearst" and a Tony-winning performance in a stage revival of "Cabaret," died Wednesday at age 45 after suffering a head injury during a beginners' ski lesson.

Alan Nierob, the Los Angeles-based publicist for Richardson's husband Liam Neeson, confirmed her death in a written statement.

"Liam Neeson, his sons (Micheal, 13, and 12-year-old Daniel), and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha," the statement said. "They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."

The statement did not give details on the cause of death for Richardson, who suffered a head injury and fell on a beginner's trail during a private ski lesson at the luxury Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec. Seemingly fine after the fall, about an hour later she complained that she didn't feel well.

She was hospitalized Tuesday in Montreal and later flown to a hospital in New York, where family members had been seen coming and going.

Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson's mother, arrived in a car with darkened windows and was taken through a garage when she arrived at the Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side about 5 p.m. Wednesday. An hour earlier, Richardson's sister, Joely, arrived alone and was swarmed by the media as she entered through the back of the hospital.

It was a sudden and horrifying loss for her family and friends, for the film and theater communities, for her many fans and for both her native and adoptive countries. Descended from at least three generations of actors, Richardson was a proper Londoner who came to love the noise of New York, an elegant blonde with large, lively eyes, a bright smile and a hearty laugh.

If she never quite attained the acting heights of her Academy Award-winning mother, she still had enjoyed a long and worthy career. As an actress, Richardson was equally adept at passion and restraint, able to portray besieged women both confessional (Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois) and confined (the concubine in the futuristic horror of "The Handmaid's Tale").

Like other family members, she divided her time between stage and screen. On Broadway, she won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in a 1998 revival of "Cabaret." She also appeared in New York in a production of Patrick Marber's "Closer" (1999) as well as 2005 revival of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," in which she played Blanche opposite John C. Reilly's Stanley Kowalski.

She met Neeson when they made their Broadway debuts in 1993, co-starring in "Anna Christie," Eugene O'Neill's drama about a former prostitute and the sailor who falls in love with her.

"The astonishing Natasha Richardson ... gives what may prove to be the performance of the season as Anna, turning a heroine who has long been portrayed (and reviled) as a whore with a heart of gold into a tough, ruthlessly unsentimental apostle of O'Neill's tragic understanding of life," The New York Times critic Frank Rich wrote. "Miss Richardson, seeming more like a youthful incarnation of her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, than she has before, is riveting from her first entrance through a saloon doorway's ethereal shaft of golden light."

Her most notable film roles came earlier in her career. Richardson played the title character in Paul Schrader's "Patty Hearst," a 1988 biopic about the kidnapped heiress for which the actress became so immersed that even between scenes she wore a blindfold, the better to identify with her real-life counterpart.

"Natasha Richardson ... has been handed a big unwritten role; she feels her way into it, and she fills it," wrote The New Yorker's Pauline Kael. "We feel how alone and paralyzed Patty is — she retreats into being a hidden observer."

Richardson was directed again by Schrader in a 1990 adaptation of Ian McEwan's "The Comfort of Strangers" and, also in 1990, starred in the screen version of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

She later co-starred with Neeson in "Nell," with Mia Farrow in "Widow's Peak" and with a pre-teen Lindsay Lohan in a remake of "The Parent Trap." More recent movies, none of them widely seen, included "Wild Child," "Evening" and "Asylum."

She was born in London in 1963, the performing gene inherited not just from her parents (Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson), but from her maternal grandparents (Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson), an aunt (Lynn Redgrave) and an uncle (Corin Redgrave). Her younger sister, Joely Richardson, also joined the family business.

Friends and family members remembered Natasha as an unusually poised child, perhaps forced to grow up early when her father left her mother in the late '60s for Jeanne Moreau. (Tony Richardson died in 1991).

Interviewed by The Associated Press in 2001, Natasha Richardson said she related well to her family if only because, "We've all been through it in one way or another and so we've had to be strong. Also we embrace life. We are not cynical about life."

Richardson always planned to act, apart from one brief childhood moment when she wanted to be a flight attendant — "wonderful irony now since I hate to fly and have to take a pill in order to get on a plane. I'm so terrified."

Her screen debut came at age 4 when she appeared as a flower girl in "The Charge of the Light Brigade," directed by her father, whose movies included "Tom Jones" and "The Entertainer." The show business wand had already tapped her the year before, when she saw her mother in the 1967 film version of the Broadway show "Camelot."

"She was so beautiful. I still look at that movie and I can't believe it. It still makes me cry, the beauty of it. I could go on and on — in that white fur hooded thing, when she comes through the forest for the first time. You've never seen anything so beautiful!" Richardson said.

She studied at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and was an experienced stage actress by her early 20s, appearing in "On the Razzle," "Charley's Aunt" and "The Seagull," for which the London Drama Critics awarded her most promising newcomer.

Although she never shared her mother's fiercely expressed political views, they were close professionally and acted together, most recently on Broadway to play the roles of mother and daughter in a one-night benefit concert version of "A Little Night Music," the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical.

Before meeting up with Neeson (who called her "Tash") Richardson was married to theater and producer Robert Fox, whose credits include the 1985 staging of "The Seagull" in which his future wife appeared.

She sometimes remarked on the differences between her and her second husband — she from a theatrical dynasty and he from a working-class background in Northern Ireland.

"He's more laid back, happy to see what happens, whereas I'm a doer and I plan ahead," Richardson told The Independent on Sunday newspaper in 2003. "The differences sometimes get in the way but they can be the very things that feed a marriage, too."

She once said that Neeson's serious injury in a 2000 motorcycle accident — he suffered a crushed pelvis after colliding with a deer in upstate New York — had made her really appreciate life.

"I wake up every morning feeling lucky — which is driven by fear, no doubt, since I know it could all go away," she told The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2003.

Richardson's family gathers near injured actress

NEW YORK – Members of Natasha Richardson's family gathered at a New York hospital where the Tony-winning actress was reportedly taken with a serious head injury after falling on a Canadian ski slope.

Richardson, 45, part of the Redgrave dynasty of British actors and the wife of Liam Neeson, was flown from Montreal to New York on Tuesday after the accident, a person close to the family, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Richardson's condition was very serious and her family was highly distressed, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing two people close to her family who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

A reporter from the Toronto Star earlier reported seeing a distraught Neeson crouched inside the back of an ambulance at Montreal's Sacre-Coeur hospital as Richardson, wrapped in blankets and with tubes covering her face, was loaded inside. Neeson had immediately left the Toronto set of his upcoming movie, "Chloe," to be by her side in Montreal, a publicist for the film said.

Later that evening, a somber looking Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson's mother, was seen in photographs walking into Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Two boys, identified in photos as her sons, Micheal Richard Antonio Neeson and Daniel Jack Neeson, and a young woman identified as niece Daisy Bevan were seen leaving the hospital early Wednesday. Richardson's condition and the specifics of her injury could not immediately be determined.

Richardson is the elder daughter of Oscar-winning Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson. She fell during a private lesson Monday at the famed Mont Tremblant ski resort.

"We know that she has had an accident but we really do not know any more details," said Kika Markham, who is married to Richardson's uncle, Corin Redgrave. "We are very concerned."

A statement from the Mont Tremblant resort said Richardson fell on a beginners trail and later reported not feeling well.

"She did not show any visible sign of injury but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back t