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 to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor," said the statement from the resort, about 80 miles northwest of Montreal.

The ski resort said the instructor and a member of the ski patrol accompanied Richardson to her hotel, where they again recommended she be seen by a doctor. Mont Tremblant spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse said Richardson said she seemed fine at first.

"An hour later she said she didn't feel well. She had a headache, so we sent her to the hospital," Lacasse said. "There were no signs of impact and no blood, nothing."

The New York Times quoted Lyne Lortie, a spokeswoman for Mont Tremblant, as saying Richardson wasn't wearing a helmet.

Richardson's films include "Gothic," "A Month in the Country," "Nell" (in which she appeared with her future husband), "The Parent Trap" and "Maid in Manhattan."

Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Richardson has had extensive stage experience in the West End and Broadway. She won a Tony in 1998 for playing Sally Bowles in a revival of "Cabaret."

Her maternal grandparents were the actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and her uncle Corin and aunt Lynn Redgrave are both actors. Sister Joely Richardson is also an actress, best known for starring in the TV series "Nip/Tuck."

In January, Richardson and her mother played the roles of mother and daughter in a one-night benefit concert version of "A Little Night Music," the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical, at Studio 54 in New York.

She married Neeson in 1994, and the couple have two sons, aged 13 and 12.

Reports: Natasha Richardson in critical condition

MONTREAL – British actress Natasha Richardson is in critical condition in a Montreal hospital after being severely injured in a skiing accident in Quebec, according to published reports.

People.com and IrishCentral.com reported that the Tony award-winning actress and wife of Liam Neeson suffered a head injury Monday and is in a Montreal hospital.

People.com said Richardson was initially taken to a hospital near the luxury Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec, and was later transferred to the Montreal hospital.

A family member confirmed Richardson had had a skiing accident.

"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."

Richardson, 45, is the elder daughter of Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson, and belongs to a British acting dynasty.

Her maternal grandparents were the actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and her uncle Corin and aunt Lynne Redgrave are also both actors. Sister Joely Richardson is also an actress, best known for starring in TV series "Nip/Tuck."

Richardson's films include "Gothic," "A Month in the Country," "Nell" — in which she appeared with future husband Liam Neeson — "The Parent Trap" and "Maid in Manhattan."

Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Richardson has had extensive stage experience in the West End and Broadway. She won a Tony Award in 1998 for playing Sally Bowles in "Cabaret."

In January, Richardson and her mother played the roles of mother and daughter in a one-night benefit concert version of "A Little Night Music," the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical, at the Nokia Theatre Times Square in New York.

She married Neeson in 1994, and the couple has two sons.

Ron Silver dies at 62

Ron Silver, actor and activist, has died at age 62. Silver, who appeared in numerous episodes of The West Wing, had been battling cancer, according to the New York Post.

He "died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create. "He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years and his family is making arrangements for a private service."

Robin Williams Needs Heart Surgery, Scraps Tour

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Robin Williams is taking a time-out for "a little tune-up."

The madcap Oscar winner announced today he is postponing the remaining dates of his one-man show, Weapons of Self-Destruction, to undergo heart surgery.

The 57-year-old Williams announced Tuesday he was scuttling two shows in Florida this week after experiencing shortness of breath. Following a checkup, Williams discovered he needed a procedure to replace an aortic valve.

In a statement, Williams expresses optimism that he will be able to resume his show in the fall.

"I'm so touched by everyone's support and well wishes," said Williams. "This tour has been amazing fun, and I can't wait to get back out on the road after a little tune-up."

Previously purchased tickets will be honored at the rescheduled dates, or ticketholders can opt for refunds.

Williams has been on the sold-out 80-city tour since September. Tickets for the Broadway leg of this road trip sold out so quickly that another three dates were tacked on in April to meet demand.

Playwright, screenwriter Horton Foote dies at 92

NEW YORK – Playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote, who movingly portrayed the broken dreams of common people in "The Trip to Bountiful," "Tender Mercies" and his Oscar-winning screen adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird," died Wednesday in Connecticut, Paul Marte, a spokesman for Hartford Stage, said. He was 92.

Foote died in his apartment in Hartford where he was preparing work on a production for next fall at the nonprofit theater, Marte said.

Foote left the cotton fields of his native Wharton, Texas, as a teenager, dreaming of becoming an actor. But realizing his gifts as a storyteller, he embarked on a writing career that spanned more than half a century and earned him two Academy Awards ("To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Tender Mercies") and a 1995 Pulitzer Prize for "The Young Man From Atlanta."

Foote was active in the theater until the end of life. His play, "Dividing the Estate," the comic tale of a Texas family squabbling over an inheritance, was presented on Broadway this season by Lincoln Center Theater.

The stories and lives of the people he loved in Texas became the bedrock for many of his plays, with the fictional Harrison, Texas, standing in for Wharton. Dividing his time mostly between Texas and New York, he kept the Wharton home in which he had grown up and did much of his writing there.

"I picked a difficult subject, a little lost Texas town no one's heard of or cares about," Foote told The New York Times in 1995. "But I'm at the mercy of what I write. The subject matter has taken me over."

Never one for urbane and trendy topics, Foote instead focused on ordinary people and how their nostalgic recollections would mislead them.

"My first memory was of stories about the past — a past that, according to the storytellers, was superior in every way to the life then being lived," Foote wrote in 1988. "It didn't take me long, however, to understand that the present was all we had, for the past was gone and nothing could be done about it."

Parents and children are treated with an even touch. While many playwrights in the 1970s and 1980s turned to the evening news and wrote issue-oriented dramas, Foote stuck with everyday people dealing with problems of the heart: children without fathers, parents without children, career failures and redemption through love.

Penn to lobby for Harvey Milk Day in California

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Fresh from his best actor Oscar for his performance as Harvey Milk, Sean Penn is pushing California to officially recognize the late gay politician's birthday.

State Senator Mark Leno plans to reintroduce a bill Tuesday with Penn by his side designating Milk's birthday a "day of significance."

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the same bill last year.

In his veto message, the governor said Milk should be honored in San Francisco but not statewide.

Leno says Penn's award shows that Schwarzenegger's argument about Milk being only of provincial interest no longer holds up.

Broadcasting pioneer Paul Harvey dies at age of 90

CHICAGO – Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, according to ABC Radio Networks. He was 90.

Harvey died surrounded by family at a hospital in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for ABC Radio Networks, where Harvey worked for more than 50 years. No cause of death was immediately available.

Harvey had been forced off the air for several months in 2001 because of a virus that weakened a vocal cord. But he returned to work in Chicago and was still active as he passed his 90th birthday. His death comes less than a year after that of his wife and longtime producer, Lynne.

"My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news," Paul Harvey Jr. said in a statement. "So in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend."

Known for his resonant voice and trademark delivery of "The Rest of the Story," Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his "News and Comment" for ABC Radio Networks.

He became a heartland icon, delivering news and commentary with a distinctive Midwestern flavor. "Stand by for news!" he told his listeners. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as "skyjacker," "Reaganomics" and "guesstimate."

"Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation's history," ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson said in a statement. "We will miss our dear friend tremendously and are grateful for the many years we were so fortunate to have known him."

In 2005, Harvey was one of 14 notables chosen as recipients of the presidential Medal of Freedom. He also was an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame, as was Lynne.

Former President George W. Bush remembered Harvey as a "friendly and familiar voice in the lives of millions of Americans."

"His commentary entertained, enlightened, and informed," Bush said in a statement. "Laura and I are pleased to have known this fine man, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Harvey composed his twice-daily news commentaries from a downtown Chicago office near Lake Michigan.

Rising at 3:30 each morning, he ate a bowl of oatmeal, then combed the news wires and spoke with editors across the country in search of succinct tales of American life for his program.

At the peak of his career, Harvey reached more than 24 million listeners on more than 1,200 radio stations and charged $30,000 to give a speech. His syndicated column was carried by 300 newspapers.

His fans identified with his plainspoken political commentary, but critics called him an out-of-touch conservative. He was an early supporter of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy and a longtime backer of the Vietnam War.

Perhaps Harvey's most famous broadcast came in 1970, when he abandoned that stance, announcing his opposition to President Nixon's expansion of the war and urging him to get out completely.

"Mr. President, I love you ... but you're wrong," Harvey said, shocking his faithful listeners and drawing a barrage of letters and phone calls, including one from the White House.

In 1976, Harvey began broadcasting his anecdotal descriptions of the lives of famous people. "The Rest of the Story" started chronologically, with the person's identity revealed at the end. The stories were an attempt to capture "the heartbeats behind the headlines." Much of the research and writing was done by his son, Paul Jr.

Harvey also blended news with advertising, a line he said he crossed only for products he trusted.

In 2000, at age 82, he signed a new 10-year contract with ABC Radio Networks.
Harvey was born Paul Harvey Aurandt in Tulsa, Okla. His father, a police officer, was killed when he was a toddler. A high school teacher took note of his distinctive voice and launched him on a broadcast career.

While working at St. Louis radio station KXOK, he met Washington University graduate student Lynne Cooper. He proposed on their first date (she said "no") and always called her "Angel." They were married in 1940 and had a son, Paul Jr.

They worked closely together on his shows, and he often credited his success to her influence. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997, seven years after her husband was. She died in May 2008.

Ed McMahon in Intensive Care

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Ed McMahon is in intensive care at a Los Angeles hospital.

The 85-year-old former Johnny Carson sidekick has been hospitalized for several weeks with pneumonia, as well as other unspecified ailments, rep Howard Bragman tells E! News.

Bragman declined to comment on reports that McMahon has also been diagnosed with bone cancer, but did say the TV icon's condition is "serious" and his family is at his side.

"We're going to hope for the best right now," he said, adding that eveyone is "very optimistic" and McMahon is "gathering his strength."

McMahon has had his share of troubles in recent months, including bank debts, a home foreclosure, a process server-biting dog and a broken neck, which he blames for his financial woes.

Jazz singer Blossom Dearie dies at 82 in NYC

NEW YORK – Blossom Dearie, a classically trained pianist who transformed herself into a jazz singer with a unique baby-doll voice heard in New York and London cabarets for three decades, has died at 82.

Dearie died of natural causes Saturday at her Manhattan home, said her manager, Donald Schaffer. No specific cause of death was given.

"She lived for her music, and she lived to perform her music. She had impeccable taste," Schaffer said.

Born April 29, 1926, in East Durham, N.Y., Marguerite Blossom Dearie dropped her first name to bolster a musical career that began with early training in piano and moved to jazz vocals. By the mid-1940s, she was a member of the Blue Flames, associated with Woody Herman's orchestra and with the Alvino Rey band.

Dearie began her solo career in postwar Paris. With an octet called the Blue Stars, she recorded a French version of the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland." She was briefly married to Belgian saxophonist Bobby Jaspar and later signed a six-album contract with jazz impresario Norman Granz, the owner of Verve Records. The New York Times called the resulting albums cult classics.

Dearie appeared regularly at London nightclubs in the 1960s. She founded her own label, Daffodil Records, in New York in 1974, writing the music to lyrics by Johnny Mercer and others. She gained national attention by appearing on NBC's "Today" show during its early years.

Dearie liked to poke fun at composers she thought pretentious or overrated. A favorite target was Andrew Lloyd Webber, responsible for the music for "Jesus Christ Superstar" and other hit musicals.

Her last record was the 2003 single "It's All Right to be Afraid," dedicated to victims and survivors of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. She last performed in 2006 at a cabaret in midtown Manhattan.

She is survived by an older brother, a niece and a nephew.

Versatile actor James Whitmore dies

LOS ANGELES – James Whitmore, the many-faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in movies, television and especially the theater with his popular one-man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died Friday, his son said. He was 87.

The Emmy- and Tony-winning actor was diagnosed with lung cancer the week before Thanksgiving and died Friday afternoon at his Malibu home, Steve Whitmore said.

"My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," said Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family."

His long-running "Give 'em Hell, Harry," tracing the life of the 33rd president, was released as a theatrical movie in 1975. Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, marking the only time in Oscar history that an actor has been nominated for a film in which he was the only cast member. His Teddy Roosevelt portrait, "Bully," was also converted into a movie.

He later became the TV pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food, and used the product in his large vegetable garden at his Malibu home.

While not known for his politics, Whitmore was an early supporter of President Barack Obama. He stumped for Obama during a 2007 rally at the Gibson Theatre at Universal Studios, telling the crowd that Obama had the wisdom "to deal with a very, very confused and complex country, and the world." Whitmore also appeared in TV commercials in 2008 for the "First Freedom First" campaign, which advocates religious liberty and preserving the separation of church and state.

Whitmore had regularly attended an Oscar night bash, Night of 100 Stars, and had sent in his RSVP for this year, said Edward Lozzi, a spokesman for agent Norby Walters' gala.

Whitmore started both his Broadway and Hollywood careers with acclaimed performances, both as tough-talking sergeants. In 1947, discharged a year from Marine duty, he made his Broadway debut in a taut Air Force drama, "Command Decision." He was awarded a Tony for outstanding performance by a newcomer.

Two years later, Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe as supporting actor in the war movie "Battleground."

He followed with memorable performances in scores of films, refusing to be typed. Besides war movies, he appeared in Westerns ("The Last Frontier," "Chato's Land"), musicals ("Kiss Me Kate," "Oklahoma!"), science fiction ("Planet of the Apes," "Them"), dramas ("The Asphalt Jungle," "The Shawshank Redemption") and comedies ("Mr. O'Malley and Mrs. Malone," "The Great Diamond Robbery.")

Shirley Jones, a teenager when she starred in "Oklahoma," said she came to know Whitmore during months of filming in Nogales, Ariz., and recalled being impressed by her good-humored and highly disciplined colleague.

"He told me, `If you're going to be in this business, you better learn your craft,'" Jones recalled. "And he never stopped learning."

His favorite film was "Black Like Me" (1964), a true story about a white reporter who blackened his face to experience life as an African-American in the South.

Another of his rare starring roles was "The Next Voice You Hear" (1950), in which a family hears the voice of God via the radio. He played opposite Nancy Davis, the future Mrs. Ronald Reagan.

Whitmore often appeared on television, starring in the series "The Law and Mr. Jones" (1960-1962), "My Friend Tony" (1969) and "Temperatures Rising" (1972-1973). He received an Emmy in 1999 as guest actor in a series for "The Practice."

Jones recalled seeing him in a 2007 episode of the TV drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and marveling at his still-sharp talent. "I was absolutely blown away by that. He had a huge role, playing a lawyer, and it was phenomenal," she said.

A student of history, Whitmore delighted in portraying famous American personages. He toured in the play "The Magnificent Yankee," about Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He played Ulysses S. Grant in a 1960 TV movie, Adm. William F. "Bull" Halsey in the Pearl Harbor attack spectacle "Tora! Tora! Tora!", and Walt Whitman in a dramatic reading, "A Whitman Portrait."

The monologues of Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt brought Whitmore his greatest success. In 2000, he appeared in "Will Rogers, U.S.A." at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., his eighth engagement in the show at Ford's over a 30-year period.

President Ford attended a performance of "Give 'em Hell, Harry" at Ford's Theater after Richard Nixon resigned. Whitmore worried about Ford's reaction to Truman's crusty words about Nixon.

The actor recalled: "I was three feet from Gerry Ford when I said to the press as Truman: `Nixon is a no-good lying (expletive); if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in.' After the show, (Ford) came up on stage and put his arm around me and said, `That was a pretty good blocking back.'" Ford had been line coach when Whitmore played football at Yale.

His movie and television careers continued into the 21st century, but he admitted that he preferred the stage.

"I find the process of making movies absolutely boring," he told a reporter in 1994. "It's so fragmented. You wait and wait and wait and then, look, as Jack Lemmon says, `It's magic time.' In the theater, once the curtain goes up, the actor is in charge."

Born in 1921 in White Plains, N.Y., Whitmore was active in school sports and acted in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, though his strict Methodist family disapproved of the profession. After a year at an Ivy League prep school, Whitmore in 1939 enrolled in prelaw at Yale University, where he had won a football scholarship. Two knee injuries ended his football career, and he devoted himself to dramatics.

After graduating from Yale, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the South Pacific. "I had a lot of time to think in the Marine Corps," he recalled, "and so I decided it wasn't the law I wanted but the theater."

In New York he studied at the American Theater Wing under the G.I. Bill, living on $20 a week and rooming with another hopeful actor, Jack Warden. After a season in summer stock in New Hampshire, he returned to New York and won the role of Sergeant Harold Evans in "Command Decision." Rave reviews started his career in motion.

He married Nancy Mygatt in 1947, and the couple had three sons, James, Steven and Daniel. They later divorced, and in 1971 he married an actress, Audra Lindley. They often appeared in plays together, even after their 1979 divorce. He remarried his first wife in the 1980s, but another divorce ensued. Nearing 80 in 2001, Whitmore married actress-writer Noreen Nash.

Cramps founder and punk pioneer Lux Interior dies

LOS ANGELES — Lux Interior, co-founder and lead singer of the pioneering horror-punk band the Cramps, has died, the group's publicist said. He was 60.
Interior — whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser — died Wednesday of a pre-existing heart condition at a hospital in Glendale, Calif., publicist Aleix Martinez said in a statement.

Interior met his future wife Kristy Wallace — who would later take the stage name Poison Ivy — in Sacramento in 1972.

The pair moved to New York and started the Cramps with Interior on lead vocals and Ivy on guitar. The group was a part of the late '70s early punk scene centered at Manhattan clubs like CBGB, alongside acts like the Ramones and Patti Smith.

Their unmistakable sound was a lo-fi synthesis of rockabilly and surf guitar staged with a deviant dose of midnight-movie camp. Some called it "psychobilly."

The pale, tall, gaunt Interior appeared shirtless with black hair and tiny, low-slung black pants, looking part zombie, part Elvis Presley as he crawled, writhed and howled his way across the stage.

The group had the raw intensity of punk, but took the music in new directions by incorporating theatrical elements, often horror-themed, in songs like I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Bikini Girls With Machine Guns. Their breakthrough debut EP was 1979's Gravest Hits.

The band made a notorious appearance at a California mental institution, Napa State Hospital, in 1978. The performance, whose video is still popular on YouTube, was a punk-era echo of the Folsom Prison concert of Johnny Cash, one of the band's influences.

Interior was widely rumored in 1987 to have died from a heroin overdose, and his wife received flowers and funeral wreaths.

"At first I thought it was kind of funny," he told the Los Angeles Times at the time. "But then it started to give me a creepy feeling."

The Cramps' lineup changed often through the decades but Interior and Ivy remained the center. Their bluesy, trebly sound — the group didn't have a bass guitarist — resonates in modern minimalist groups like the White Stripes and the Black Lips.

The band's last release was the 2004 rarities collection How to Make a Monster. They were still touring as recently as last November.

Former CBC radio host Russ Germain dies at 62

Veteran CBC broadcaster Russ Germain has died.

CBC reports on its website that the radio newsman, who used to anchor The World at Six, succumbed to a battle with cancer in Toronto.

He was 62.

Germain spent 29 years at the public broadcaster, joining The World at Six in 1983 after hosting CBC Radio's Ideas through the late '70s and early '80s.

Germain, who retired in 2002, also hosted the morning radio show World Report and served as CBC Radio's broadcast language adviser.

Before joining the CBC in 1973, he was a TV announcer in Saskatoon and worked at various private stations.

The day the music died

Fifty years ago this Tuesday -- on Feb. 3, 1959 -- three of the then biggest acts in rock 'n' roll were killed in an airplane crash.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper" (J.P. Richardson) all died instantly. They were ejected upon impact as an inexperienced pilot got confused in a snowstorm and inadvertently flew his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza right into the ground -- in a remote corn field near Clear Lake, Iowa.

Such a travesty, such a waste. This was the first time those words were spoken about rock 'n' rollers, but certainly not the last.

It is remembered as "The Day the Music Died," thanks to that famous lyric from Don McLean's classic 1971 ode American Pie.

Holly -- born Charles Hardin Holley -- hailed from Lubbock, Tex. On his own or with his backing band The Crickets, he'd scored a slew of hits since 1957 with That'll Be the Day, Oh! Boy, Maybe Baby, Peggy Sue and It Doesn't Matter Anymore. Today, Holly is remembered as both a ground-breaking songwriter and guitar player for the rock 'n' roll form. Everyone from The Beatles to the Rolling Stones to Bruce Springsteen have listed him as a major influence. He was only 22.

Valens -- born Richard Steven Valenzuela -- was a pioneer of latin rock from Pacoima, Calif. He had just broken big with the hit Donna, which would reach No. 2 on the U.S. charts. Perhaps the song he's most remembered for now, La Bamba, reached only No. 22. He was 17.

The Big Bopper -- born Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. -- was from Sabine Pass, Tex. He'd been a DJ before turning to recording. He was still milking his first big hit, Chantilly Lace, which had reached No. 6 on the U.S. charts. He was only 28.

The fateful trio were taking part in a bus tour of Midwestern cities, along with their backing musicians and one other act -- Dion and the Belmonts. It was dubbed The Winter Dance Party Tour, which, according to the website fiftiesweb.com, visited 24 cities in less than five weeks. Holly was the biggest name, but Valens had the hottest hit with Donna.

The bus they travelled on was old and airy and the interior heater reportedly was busted. By the time they arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959, they were frozen and had had it with the travelling refrigerator.

After the show, Holly chartered a plane to take he and his backing musicians -- Tommy Allsup and a friend from Lubbock, future country star Waylon Jennings -- to their next stop in Fargo, N.D., some 500 km away.

As the story goes, Allsup flipped a coin with Valens for the right to one of the cramped plane's seats, and Valens won. Jennings felt bad for The Big Bopper, who was battling a fever and felt crammed in the bus, and Jennings voluntarily gave up his seat for him. When Holly found out, he cracked to Jennings, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up." Jennings good-naturedly shot back, "Well, I hope your plane crashes."

An hour later, it did. Jennings would be haunted by that conversation for decades.

The pilot was Roger Peterson, only 21. According to the official Civil Aeronautics Board report of the crash (available online), Peterson was both improperly briefed on the rapidly deteriorating weather -- a snowstorm was moving in -- and didn't look into it enough himself.

As the report concluded, "at night, with an overcast sky, snow falling, no definite horizon, and a proposed flight over a sparsely settled area with an absence of ground lights," Peterson almost certainly would have had to fly by instruments only. Problem was, Peterson was "not properly certified nor qualified" to do it.

Worst of all, because of gusty winds, Peterson had to rely greatly on an instrument known as an attitude indicator, and he was probably unaware that "the pitch display of this instrument is the reverse of the instrument he was accustomed to; therefore, he could have become confused and thought that he was making a climbing turn, when in reality he was making a descending turn."

Indeed, no one aboard knew it, but Peterson was taking them at high speed right into the ground. The Beechcraft Bonanza was instantly demolished. There was no fire or explosion.

They were rock's first major casualties.

The news got out later that day, and American rock 'n' rollers were in shock. Perhaps that's what McLean was referring to in the last verse of his cryptic American Pie:

And in the streets: the children screamed,

The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.

But not a word was spoken;

The church bells all were broken.

And the three men I admire most:

The father, son, and the holy ghost,

They caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova Split

Musical sweethearts Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have ended their romantic relationship. In 2007's indie fairytale film 'Once,' the pair charmed audiences with their portrayal of an Irish busker (Hansard) who falls for a young Czech immigrant (Irglova). The two Oscar-winners carried the budding romance off-screen, while continuing to perform music together as the Swell Season.

In a recent interview, however, Hansard states that he and Irglova are no longer romantically involved.

"It did become a real relationship," Hansard admits. "I think it was just a very natural part of what we were doing together. We had made the film. We had gone through so much with the Oscar. Of course, we fell into each other's arms. It was a very necessary part of our friendship but I think we both concluded that that wasn't what we really wanted to do. So we're not together now. We are just really good friends."

Having fallen for the duo ourselves, Spinner named the film's poignant ballad, 'Falling Slowly,' the Best Song of 2007. A few months after performing for the Interface, Hansard and Irglova took home the Oscar for Best Original Song for that tune. Thankfully, the pair will continue to make beautiful music together, at least in the literal sense. They have a few upcoming gigs overseas (as the Swell Season) and are considering releasing a newly-recorded album independently.

Author John Updike dead at 76

NEW YORK — John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76.

Updike, best known for his four “Rabbit” novels, died of lung cancer at a hospice near his home in Beverly Farms, Mass., according to his longtime publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir “Self-Consciousness” and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams.

He released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for “Rabbit Is Rich” and “Rabbit at Rest,” and two National Book Awards.

Although himself deprived of a Nobel, he did bestow it upon one of his fictional characters, Henry Bech, the womanizing, egotistical Jewish novelist who collected the literature prize in 1999.

His settings ranged from the court of “Hamlet” to postcolonial Africa, but his literary home was the American suburb, the great new territory of mid-century fiction.

Born in 1932, Updike spoke for millions of Depression-era readers raised by “penny-pinching parents,” united by “the patriotic cohesion of World War II” and blessed by a “disproportionate share of the world’s resources,” the postwar, suburban boom of “idealistic careers and early marriages.”

He captured, and sometimes embodied, a generation’s confusion over the civil rights and women’s movements, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Updike was called a misogynist, a racist and an apologist for the establishment.

On purely literary grounds, he was attacked by Norman Mailer as the kind of author appreciated by readers who knew nothing about writing. Last year, judges of Britain’s Bad Sex in Fiction Prize voted Updike lifetime achievement honours.

But more often he was praised for his flowing, poetic writing style. Describing a man’s interrupted quest to make love, Updike likened it “to a small angel to which all afternoon tiny lead weights are attached.”

Nothing was too great or too small for Updike to poeticize. He might rhapsodize over the film projector’s “chuckling whir” or look to the stars and observe that “the universe is perfectly transparent: we exist as flaws in ancient glass.”

Author Joyce Carol Oates, a friend of Updike’s, said there was a “luminosity in John’s style that was just extraordinary. He also had a wonderful, warm, sympathetic sense of humour which people didn’t always notice.”

In the richest detail, his books recorded the extremes of earthly desire and spiritual zealotry, whether the comic philandering of the preacher in “A Month of Sundays” or the steady rage of the young Muslim in “Terrorist.”

Raised in the Protestant community of Shillington, Pa., where the Lord’s Prayer was recited daily at school, Updike was a lifelong churchgoer influenced by his faith, but not immune to doubts.

“I remember the times when I was wrestling with these issues that I would feel crushed. I was crushed by the purely materialistic, atheistic account of the universe,” Updike told The Associated Press during a 2006 interview.

“I am very prone to accept all that the scientists tell us, the truth of it, the authority of the efforts of all the men and woman spent trying to understand more about atoms and molecules. But I can’t quite make the leap of unfaith, as it were, and say, ‘This is it. Carpe diem (seize the day), and tough luck.’ “

He received his greatest acclaim for the “Rabbit” series, a quartet of novels published over a 30-year span that featured ex-high school basketball star Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom and his restless adjustment to adulthood and the constraints of work and family. To the very end, Harry was in motion, an innocent in his belief that any door could be opened, a believer in God even as he bedded women other than his wife.

The series “to me is the tale of a life, a life led by an American citizen who shares the national passion for youth, freedom, and sex, the national openness and willingness to learn, the national habit of improvisation,” Updike would later write. “He is furthermore a Protestant, haunted by a God whose manifestations are elusive, yet all-important.”

Other notable books included “Couples,” a sexually explicit tale of suburban mating that sold millions of copies; “In the Beauty of the Lilies,” an epic of American faith and fantasy; and “Too Far to Go,” which followed the courtship, marriage and divorce of the Maples, a suburban couple with parallels to Updike’s own first marriage.

Updike’s “The Witches of Eastwick,” released in 1984, was later made into a film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon.

Plagued from an early age by asthma, psoriasis and a stammer, he found creative outlets in drawing and writing.

Updike was born in Reading, Pa., his mother a department store worker who longed to write, his father a high school teacher remembered with sadness and affection in “The Centaur,” a novel published in 1964.

The author brooded over his father’s low pay and mocking students, but also wrote of a childhood of “warm and action-packed houses that accommodated the presence of a stranger, my strange ambition to be glamorous.”

For Updike, the high life meant books, such as the volumes of P.G. Wodehouse and Robert Benchley he borrowed from the library as a child, or, as he later recalled, the “chastely severe, time-honoured classics” he read in his dorm room at Harvard University, leaning back in his “wooden Harvard chair,” cigarette in hand.

While studying on a full scholarship at Harvard, he headed the staff of the Harvard Lampoon and met the woman who became his first wife, Mary Entwistle Pennington, whom he married in June 1953, a year before he earned his A.B. degree summa cum laude. (Updike divorced Pennington in 1975 and was remarried two years later, to Martha Bernhard. He had four children).

After graduating, he accepted a one-year fellowship to study painting at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts at Oxford University. During his stay in England, a literary idol, E.B. White, offered him a position at The New Yorker, where he served briefly as foreign books reviewer. Many of Updike’s reviews and short stories were published in The New Yorker, often edited by White’s stepson, Roger Angell.

“No writer was more important to the soul of The New Yorker than John,” New Yorker editor David Remnick said in a statement. “We adored him. He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him.”

By the end of the 1950s, Updike had published a story collection, a book of poetry and his first novel, “The Poorhouse Fair,” soon followed by the first of the Rabbit books, “Rabbit, Run.”

Praise came so early and so often that New York Times critic Arthur Mizener worried that Updike’s “natural talent” was exposing him “from an early age to a great deal of head-turning praise.”

Updike learned to write about everyday life by, in part, living it. In 1957, he left New York, with its “cultural hassle” and melting pot of “agents and wisenheimers,” and settled with his first wife and four kids in Ipswich, Mass, a “rather out-of-the-way town” about 48 kilometres north of Boston.

“The real America seemed to me ‘out there,’ too heterogeneous and electrified by now to pose much threat of the provinciality that people used to come to New York to escape,” Updike later wrote.

“There were also practical attractions: free parking for my car, public education for my children, a beach to tan my skin on, a church to attend without seeming too strange.”

In recent years, his books included “The Widows of Eastwick,” a sequel to “The Witches of Eastwick,” and two essay collections, “Still Looking” and “Due Considerations.” A book of short fiction, “My Father’s Tears and Other Stories,” is scheduled to come out later this year.

His standing within the literary community may never have been greater than in 2006, when he delivered a passionate defence of bookstores and words, words on paper, at publishing’s annual national convention.

Responding to a recent New York Times essay predicting a digital future, he scorned this “pretty grisly scenario” and praised the paper book as the site of an “encounter, in silence, of two minds.”

“So, booksellers, defend your lonely forts,” he concluded.

His speech was applauded, discussed and widely quoted, far more than the talk given at the same breakfast gathering by then-Senator Barack Obama.

'Prisoner' actor Patrick McGoohan dies in LA

LOS ANGELES – Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show "The Prisoner," has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said.

McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama "Columbo," and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film "Braveheart."

But he was most famous as the character known only as Number Six in "The Prisoner," a sci-fi tinged 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small enclave known only as The Village, where a mysterious authority named Number One constantly prevents his escape.

McGoohan came up with the concept and wrote and directed several episodes of the show, which has kept a devoted following in the United States and Europe for four decades.

His agent, Sharif Ali, said Wednesday that McGoohan was still active in Hollywood, with two offers for wide-release films on the table when he died. "The man was just cool," Ali said. "It was an honor to have him here and work with him. ... He was one of those actors, a real actor. He didn't have a lie."

Born in New York on March 19, 1928, McGoohan was raised in England and Ireland, where his family moved shortly after his birth. He had a busy stage career before moving to television, and won a London Drama Critics Award for playing the title role in the Henrik Ibsen play "Brand."

He married stage actress Joan Drummond in 1951. The oldest of their three daughters, Catherine, is also an actress.

His first foray into TV was in 1964 in the series "Danger Man," a more straightforward spy show that initially lasted just one season but was later brought back for three more when its popularity — and McGoohan's — exploded in reruns.

Weary of playing the show's lead John Drake, McGoohan pitched to producers the surreal and cerebral "The Prisoner" to give himself a challenge.

The series ran just one season and 17 episodes in 1967, but its cultural impact remains.

He voiced his Number Six character in an episode of "The Simpsons" in 2000. The show is being remade as a series for AMC that premieres later this year.

"His creation of 'The Prisoner' made an indelible mark on the sci-fi, fantasy and political thriller genres, creating one of the most iconic characters of all time," AMC said in a statement Wednesday. "AMC hopes to honor his legacy in our re-imagining of 'The Prisoner.'"

Later came smaller roles in film and television. McGoohan won Emmys for guest spots on "Columbo" 16 years apart, in 1974 and 1990.

He also appeared as a warden in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film "Escape from Alcatraz" and as a judge in the 1996 John Grisham courtroom drama "A Time To Kill."

His last major role was in "Braveheart," in what The Associated Press called a "standout" performance as the brutal king who battles Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, played by Gibson.

In his review of the film for the Los Angeles Times critic Peter Rainer said "McGoohan is in possession of perhaps the most villainous enunciation in the history of acting."

McGoohan is survived by his wife and three daughters.

Ricardo Montalban dies at 88

LOS ANGELES – Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home, his family said. He was 88.

Montalban's death was first announced at a city council meeting by president Eric Garcetti, who represents the district where the actor lived. He died "from complications of advancing age," his son-in-law, Gilbert Smith, later said.

"He was so gracious, and Aaron was always humbled by Ricardo's gratitude for 'Fantasy Island," said Candy Spelling, wife of the late Aaron Spelling, who created the show. "I miss him already, and wish his family well."

Montalban had been a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946. He was cast in the leading role opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta," and starred again with the swimming beauty in "On an Island with You" and "Neptune's Daughter."

But Montalban was best known as the faintly mysterious, white-suited Mr. Roarke, who presided over a tropical island resort where visitors fulfilled their lifelong dreams — usually at the unexpected expense of a difficult life lesson. "I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island," he told arriving guests.

Montalban had already coined a cultural catchphrase before the show, which ran from 1978 to 1984. As the celebrity spokesman for mid-1970s models of the Chrysler Cordoba, Montalban unwittingly opened himself up to endless imitation when he described the car's optional seats as being "available in soft, Corinthian leather."

More recently, he appeared as villains in two hits of the 1980s: "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" and — in line with his always-apparent sense of humor about himself — the farcical "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad."

Montalban's longtime friend and publicist David Brokaw said the actor was "exactly how you'd imagine him to be" off camera. "What you saw on the screen and on television and on talk shows, this very courtly, modest, dignified individual, that's exactly who he was," Brokaw said.

Raul Yzaguirre, longtime president of National Council of La Raza, called Montalban "a hero" and noted the actor's contributions to his community. Montalban helped found the ALMA Awards, which honor and encourage fair portrayals of Latinos in entertainment.

"He was just a marvelous human being and an inspiration to be around," Yzaguirre said. "I hope his spirit pervades more of Hollywood — the spirit of humility and excellence and giving back to the community and just plain decency."

Between movie and TV roles, Montalban was active in the theater. He starred on Broadway in the 1957 musical "Jamaica" opposite Lena Horne, picking up a Tony nomination for best actor in a musical.

Montalban also toured in Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," playing Don Juan, a performance critic John Simon later recalled as "irresistible." In 1965 he appeared on tour in the Yul Brynner role in "The King and I."

"Fantasy Island" received high ratings for most of its run on ABC, and still appears in reruns. Mr. Roarke and his sidekick, Tattoo, played by the 3-foot, 11-inch Herve Villechaize, reached the state of TV icons. Villechaize died in 1993.

In a 1978 interview, Montalban analyzed the ethereal quality of his character: "Was he a magician? A hypnotist? Did he use hallucinogenic drugs? I finally came across a character that works for me. He has the essence of mystery, but I need a point of view so that my performance is consistent. I now play him 95 percent believable and 5 percent mystery. He doesn't have to behave mysteriously; only what he does is mysterious."

In 1970, Montalban organized fellow Latino actors into an organization called Nosotros ("We"), and he became the first president. Their aim: to improve the image of Spanish-speaking Americans on the screen; to assure that Latin-American actors were not discriminated against; to stimulate Latino actors to study their profession.

Montalban commented in a 1970 interview:

"The Spanish-speaking American boy sees Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wipe out a regiment of Bolivian soldiers. He sees `The Wild Bunch' annihilate the Mexican army. It's only natural for him to say, `Gee, I wish I were an Anglo.'"

Montalban was no stranger to prejudice. He was born Nov. 25, 1920, in Mexico City, the son of parents who had emigrated from Spain. The boy was brought up to speak the Castilian Spanish of his forebears. To Mexican ears that sounded strange and effeminate, and young Ricardo was jeered by his schoolmates.

His mother also dressed him with old-country formality, and he wore lace collars and short pants "long after my legs had grown long and hairy," he wrote in his 1980 autobiography, "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds."

"It is not easy to grow up in a country that has different customs from your own family's."

While driving through Texas with his brother, Montalban recalled seeing a sign on a diner: "No Dogs or Mexicans Allowed." In Los Angeles, where he attended Fairfax High School, he and a friend were refused entrance to a dance hall because they were Mexican.

Rather than seek a career in Hollywood, Montalban played summer stock in New York. He returned to Mexico City and played leading roles in movies from 1941 to 1945. That led to an MGM contract.

"Movies were never kind to me; I had to fight for every inch of film," he reflected in 1970. "Usually my best scenes would end up on the cutting-room floor."

Montalban had better luck after leaving MGM in 1953, though he was usually cast in ethnic roles. He appeared as a Japanese kabuki actor in "Sayonara" and an Indian in "Cheyenne Autumn." His other films included "Madame X," "The Singing Nun," "Sweet Charity," "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" and "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes."

Montalban was sometimes said to be the source of Billy Crystal's "you look MAHvelous" character on "Saturday Night Live," though the inspiration was really Argentinian-born actor Fernando Lamas.

In 1944, Montalban married Georgiana Young, actress and model and younger sister of actress Loretta Young. Both Roman Catholics, they remained one of Hollywood's most devoted couples. She died in 2007. They had four children: Laura, Mark, Anita and Victor.

Montalban suffered a spinal injury in a horse fall while making a 1951 Clark Gable Western, "Across the Wide Missouri," and thereafter walked with a limp he managed to mask during his performances.

Despite the constant pain that grew worse as the decades wore on, the actor was able to take a role in an Aaron Spelling TV series, "Heaven Help Us." Twice a month in 1994, he flew to San Antonio for two or three days of filming as an angel who watched over a young couple.

And when asked to play the grandfather in "Spy Kids 2" and "Spy Kids 3," Montalban told filmmaker Robert Rodriguez in his self-effacing way: "I'm old. I'm in a wheelchair. And I have a Mexican accent. Three strikes and you're out," recalled Joel Brokaw, another of the actor's spokesmen.

"But Robert Rodriguez idolized Ricardo, and came up to his home in the Hollywood Hills to convince him to do the role," Brokaw said. He did, and despite his obvious pain while waiting to do a scene, "something miraculous would happen," Brokaw said. "As soon as Rodriguez said 'Action,' his pain would completely disappear, time and time again. I asked him about this. He smiled and said, 'It's impossible for my mind to do two things at once.'"

Montalban is survived by daughters Laura and Anita, sons Victor and Mark and six grandchildren.

Obama picks CNN's TV doctor as surgeon general: reports

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President-elect Barack Obama wants CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta to be his surgeon general and serve as chief overseer of Americans' health, the network said Tuesday.

Gupta, a neurosurgeon who is well known from his television and print reporting on medical matters, would bring star power to a job that normally labors in obscurity.

CNN's management confirmed that Gupta had been approached by the Obama team. The Atlanta-based media celebrity was said to be considering a move to Washington to take on the job, which requires Senate confirmation.

Reports by CNN itself along with other networks and the Washington Post said Obama's transition team was impressed by Gupta's communications skills and his past experience in government as a White House adviser during the 1990s.

In a statement, CNN management said: "Since first learning that Dr Gupta was under consideration for the surgeon general position, CNN has made sure that his on-air reporting has been on health and wellness matters and not on health-care policy or any matters involving the new administration."

A transition spokesman declined to comment on the reports.

As head of the 6,000-member Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the surgeon general acts as the government's chief educator on public health issues, but has little direct role in policy-making.

The position is perhaps best known to Americans through the surgeon general's health warnings printed on all cigarette packets sold in the country.

Actor Pat Hingle, Batman commissioner, dies at 84

Pat Hingle, a veteran actor whose career included a recurring role as Commissioner Gordon in several Batman movies in the 1990s, has died at 84.

Family friend Michele Seidman says Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach, N.C., shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday. He had been battling blood cancer.

Family spokeswoman Lynn Heritage said Hingle was diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006.

His career on the stage and in movies and television spanned six decades.

Born Martin Patterson Hingle in 1924, he went to the University of Texas on a tuba scholarship. He would serve in the U.S. navy during the Second World War and return to finish a degree in broadcasting.

Hingle became a member of the legendary Actors Studio — known for teaching method acting, which required performers to use their own emotions and experiences to portray a character.

Hingle would go on to earn a Tony nomination Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1958). Film roles included On the Waterfront, Hang 'Em High and Norma Rae.

Hingle was also a guest star in many TV series, including Touched by an Angel, Murder She Wrote, Homicide: Life on the Street, Wings and Cheers.

His last movie was Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006).

Hingle is survived by his wife, Julia, five children and 11 grandchildren.

Q&A WITH RICHARD BELZER - THE UNCONVENTIONAL ACTOR/COMIC/WRITER (PHEW) TALKS DOGS, ANCIENT HISTORY AND BEING TOO FUNNY FOR THE ARMY

Richard Belzer is best known for playing detective John Munch on "Law and Order: SVU" (and on any other series that'll have him - he's played Munch on more shows than any actor has played the same character in TV history). But his start in show biz was on the stage. Belzer is known for his unconventional attitudes - he proudly embraces the term "conspiracy theorist" - and this has made him one of the top comedians throughout the '70s. Last year, Belzer brought his comic sensibility to publishing with "I Am Not A Cop!" a book that featured an actor named Richard Belzer who plays a TV detective named John Munch. But for those who'd like to see that sensibility in its original habitat, Belzer appears with Richard Lewis at Town Hall on January 17.

You've played Detective John Munch on 10 separate tV shows. At this point, do shows want Munch on just because of the record?

I think it's more flattering than that. People are so enamored of the character that when they see in a script, "detective," they think, let's bring Belzer in. They did that on "The X-Files," on "Arrested Development," on "Sesame Street." It's been so much fun.

You recently released a novel with yourself as the main character. Why did you take that approach?

I've always been fascinated by the confluence of celebrity and reality, and I'm a big fan of film noir. I wanted to combine all those elements into a kind of 21st-century, noir-mystery comedy. The idea that I'm an actor who plays a detective on TV who gets caught up in a real crime appealed to me because it gives me fictional license, but I can use a lot of reality. It's kind of a reality novel.

You started your movie career in the cult classic "The Groove Tube," from the early '70s , which was druggie and raw. Can you imagine a movie like that succeeding today?

No. We laid out the joke in a very prosaic way because we were kind of the first people to do satire of movies and television at that level.

The "Weekend Update" format for "SNL" and the "Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow" tag line came out of "The Groove Tube," didn't they?

Yes. One of Lorne Michaels' direct influences in creating "Saturday Night Live," by his own admission, was "The Groove Tube."

It's hard to imagine, but you were in the Army. How did you get along there?

I was discharged - under honorable conditions - for being non-adaptable to military service. I was deemed too funny to carry a gun. I was in for seven months, went through basic training, got a top secret clearance to become a radio intercept operator, went AWOL once. I was too funny for words and was asked to leave. I didn't want to kill anybody. Call me crazy.

How did having testicular cancer change your life?

There are a lot of cliches about near-death experiences, how they make you appreciate life more. I think they're much exaggerated. It was very sobering and you do learn to value things you hadn't before, but life is so complex. You still have to earn everything. I wouldn't recommend having cancer for the wisdom.

* "[Bob] Cousy was one of the early players to dribble behind his back and do behind-the-back passes. He was a legendary ball player in the '50s and early sixties that I tried to copy."

* "I take photos. I shoot a lot of landscapes and flowers, people and animals. I'm getting ready to publish a book of my photographs. I'm using Panasonic Lumix with a Leica lens. It's a small digital camera that takes incredible pictures, and it's become an opiate for me. It gives me hours of unending joy."

* "If you Google my name and 'Bebe,' there's thousands of entries of my dog on red carpets. The photographers will say, 'Bebe, over here!' They don't care about me anymore."

* "I have a house in Bozouls, in the southwest of France. It's a little farming village. [My wife and I]have a beautiful 500-year-old stone mill house on a waterfall. The day-to-day lifestyle of French country living is totally antithetical to anything I do in America."

* "I'm a big, big fan of black and white film noir. Films like 'Out of the Past' and 'Murder, My Sweet.' The idea that the films of the '30s and '40s were coming out of the Depression and World War II, I'm fascinated by the psychology of what purpose they filled. Some of them were light and frothy, some were anti-prison-abuse films, and Hollywood was really raw and evolving."

* "I'm a bag fan of Roman history, particularly the period prior to and after Julius Caesar's reign. On some level they were so incredibly advanced and yet barbaric at the same time. Things haven't changed much."

John Travolta "heartbroken" over son's death

NASSAU (Reuters) – John Travolta broke a two-day silence over the death of his 16-year-old son Jett on Sunday, saying he and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, were "heartbroken" by their sudden loss.

Jett, who had a history of seizures, was found unconscious in a bathroom at his family's home at the Old Bahama Bay resort on Grand Bahama Island on Friday morning.

He was pronounced dead after being taken by ambulance to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport and an autopsy to determine the cause of death is due to be performed in the Bahamas on Monday.

"Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered," Travolta said in a statement posted on his website www.travolta.com.

"We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time that we had with him for the rest of our lives."

The statement did not refer to Jett's medical history or possible cause of death. But it offered thanks from the Hollywood star, his wife and their 8-year-old-daughter, Ella, for "many messages of condolence from around the world."

Travolta has said previously that Jett became very sick when he was a toddler and was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, which leads to inflammation of the blood vessels in young children.

Travolta's publicists have declined to comment on autopsy or funeral plans for the actor's teenage son and could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

John Travolta's 16-year-old son dies in Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas – Police in the Bahamas say John Travolta's teenage son has died after injuring himself at the actor's vacation home. Police spokeswoman Loretta Mackey says 16-year-old Jett Travolta hit his head in a bathtub Friday morning. She said he was declared dead at Rand Memorial Hospital on Grand Bahama Island.

Jett was the oldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, who also have an 8-year-old daughter.

A spokeswoman for the hospital in Freeport said she could not release any information because of privacy concerns.

Famous faces who have left us in 2008

A roll call of notable people in arts, entertainment and popular culture who died this year:

(Cause of death cited for younger people if available.)

January

- Milt Dunnell, 102. Legendary Canadian sports journalist known for his deft turn of phrase and encyclopedic breadth of experience. Jan. 3.

- Bill Belew, 76. Costume designer, created Elvis Presley's jumpsuits. Jan. 7.

- Johnny Grant, 84. Honorary Hollywood mayor. Jan. 9.

- Maila Nurmi, 85. TV's spooky, sexy "Vampira." Jan. 10.

- Dusty Cohl, 78. Credited with taking the Toronto International Film Festival to an international level. Jan. 11

- Brad Renfro, 25. Actor; played title role in The Client. Jan. 15. Drug overdose.

- Allan Melvin, 84. Actor; Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch. Jan. 17.

- Lois Nettleton, 80. Actress; had long career on Broadway, television. Jan. 18.

- Suzanne Pleshette, 70. Beautiful, husky-voiced actress; sardonic wife on The Bob Newhart Show. Jan. 19.

- John Stewart, 68. Member of Kingston Trio; wrote Monkees hit Daydream Believer. Jan. 19.

- Heath Ledger, 28. Actor nominated for Oscar for Brokeback Mountain. Jan. 22. Drug overdose.

- Margaret Truman Daniel, 83. Harry Truman's only child; a singer, TV personality, mystery writer. Jan. 29.

February

- Shell Kepler, 49. Actress; gossipy nurse Amy Vining on General Hospital. Feb. 1.

- Barry Morse, 89. Canadian actor played the relentless detective in 1960s TV series The Fugitive. Feb. 2.

- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, around 91. Beatles' guru; introduced transcendental meditation to West. Feb. 5.

- Phyllis A. Whitney, 104. Novelist whose suspense tales (Feather on the Moon) sold millions. Feb. 8.

- Roy Scheider, 75. Two-time Oscar nominee (The French Connection, All That Jazz); police chief in Jaws. Feb. 10.

- Steve Gerber, 60. Comic-book writer, created Howard the Duck. Feb. 10. Pulmonary fibrosis.

- David Groh, 68. Played Valerie Harper's husband on sitcom Rhoda. Feb. 12.

- Perry Lopez, 78. TV, film actor (Chinatown.) Feb. 14.

- Robin Moore, 82. Wrote The French Connection, The Green Berets. Feb. 21.

- Mike Smith, 64. Lead singer for British band Dave Clark Five. Feb. 28.

March

- Jeff Healey, 41. Rock, jazz musician (Angel Eyes). March 1. Cancer.

- Gary Gygax, 69. He co-created Dungeons & Dragons; hailed as father of role-playing games. March 4.

- Dave Stevens, 52. Comic book artist, created "The Rocketeer." March 10. Leukemia complications.

- Ivan Dixon, 76. Actor; Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes. March 16.

- Anthony Minghella, 54. Oscar-winning director, turned literary works (The English Patient) into acclaimed movies. March 18. Hemorrhage.

- Paul Scofield, 86. British actor; won Oscar for A Man for All Seasons. March 19.

- Arthur C. Clarke, 90. Visionary science fiction writer (2001: A Space Odyssey). March 19.

- George Gross, 85. Founding sports editor of the Toronto Sun and considered by many a legend in the sports journalism field. March 21.

- Neil Aspinall, 66. Longtime Beatles friend; managed their business enterprises. March 23.

- Sherri Wood, 28. Vibrant Sun Media entertainment writer, after a courageous 11-month battle against brain cancer. In four short but dynamic years with Sun Media, she interviewed everyone from Kim Cattrall to Coldplay and reviewed everything from music to movies. March 24.

- Richard Widmark, 93. Hollywood leading man; made sensational debut as a giggling killer (Kiss of Death). March 24.

- Abby Mann, 80. Socially conscious screenwriter, won Oscar (Judgment at Nuremberg). March 25.

- Sean Levert, 39. A third of 1980s R&B trio LeVert (Casanova). March 30. Natural causes.

- Dith Pran, 65. Cambodian journalist whose harrowing story inspired The Killing Fields. March 30.

April

- Wayne Frost, 44. Hip-hop pioneer known as Frosty Freeze (Flashdance). April 3.

- Charlton Heston, 84. Oscar winner (Ben-Hur). April 5.

- Ollie Johnston, 95. Last of Disney animators called "Nine Old Men" (Fantasia). April 14.

- Hazel Court, 82. Actress in 1950-60s horror movies (The Raven). April 15.

- Danny Federici, 58. Keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen (Hungry Heart). April 17. Cancer.

- Al Wilson, 68. 1970s soul singer (Show and Tell). April 21.

- Albert Hofmann, 102. Discoverer of LSD, which influenced music, art in 1960s. April 29.

May

- Jim Hager, 66. One of Hager Twins on Hee Haw. May 1.

- Eddy Arnold, 89. Country singer known for his mellow baritone (Make the World Go Away). May 8.

- Larry Levine, 80. Recording engineer; helped Phil Spector create Wall of Sound. May 8.

- John Rutsey, 55. Original drummer and co-founding member of the seminal rock band Rush. May 11.

- Robert Rauschenberg, 82. His use of odd and everyday articles made him an art world giant. May 12.

- John Phillip Law, 70. 1960s actor (Barbarella). May 15.

- Alexander Courage, 88. Emmy-winning composer (Star Trek theme.) May 15.

- Jack Duffy, 81. Actor and singer best known for playing charades on the popular 1970s TV comedy show Party Game. May 19.

- Dick Martin, 86. Zany co-host of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which took television by storm in 1960s. May 24.

- Sydney Pollack, 73. Oscar-winning director, a Hollywood mainstay (Tootsie, Out of Africa). May 26.

- Harvey Korman, 81. Emmy winner for The Carol Burnett Show. May 29.

- Lorenzo Odone, 30. His parents' battle to save him from rare disease inspired Lorenzo's Oil. May 30.

June

- Yves Saint Laurent, 71. One of the most influential, enduring designers of the 20th century. June 1.

- Mel Ferrer, 90. Actor (War and Peace), producer of movies starring then-wife Audrey Hepburn. June 2.

- Bo Diddley, 79. A founding father of rock 'n' roll, known for "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm. June 2.

- Bob Anderson, 75. He played young George Bailey (James Stewart) in It's a Wonderful Life. June 6.

- Jim McKay, 86. Wide World of Sports host who told Americans about killings at 1972 Olympics. June 7.

- James Reaney, 81. Governor General's Award-winning poet, author and dramatist of three famous plays about Ontario's Donnelly family. June 11.

- Tim Russert, 58. Host of Meet the Press whose personality and passion made him beloved in Washington. June 13.

- Stan Winston, 62. Oscar-winning special-effects maestro (Jurassic Park). June 15.

- Cyd Charisse, 86. Dancer turned actress; starred in musicals with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly. June 17.

- Kermit Love, 91. Costume designer; helped create Big Bird, other Sesame Street characters. June 21.

- George Carlin, 71. The dean of counterculture comedians who taught us "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV." June 22.

- Dody Goodman, 93. Daffy comedian (Jack Paar Show, Grease) June 22.

July

- Larry Harmon, 83. He turned Bozo the Clown into a show business staple. July 3.

- Evelyn Keyes, 91. She played middle O'Hara sister in Gone With the Wind. July 4.

- Dorian Leigh, 91. 1950s supermodel, made Revlon's super-red "Fire and Ice" lipstick famous. July 7.

- Les Crane, 74. Innovator in talk radio, TV; hosted show opposite Johnny Carson in 1960s. July 13.

- Jo Stafford, 90. Singer; topped charts in early 1950s (You Belong to Me). July 16.

- Larry Haines, 89. Actor on Search for Tomorrow for nearly its entire 35-year run. July 17.

- Estelle Getty, 84. Actress; played the sarcastic Sophia on The Golden Girls. July 22.

August

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 89. Nobel-winning Russian author who chronicled Stalin's slave labour camps. Aug. 3.

- Bernie Brillstein, 77. Agent, studio head; guided Saturday Night Live stars. Aug. 7.

- Mahmoud Darwish, 67. Palestinian poet who eloquently told of his people's experiences. Aug. 9.

- Bernie Mac, 50. One of "Original Kings of Comedy" who connected with audiences across a wide spectrum (Ocean's Eleven). Aug. 9. Pneumonia.

- Isaac Hayes, 65. Soul crooner who laid groundwork for disco; won Oscar, Grammy for Theme From Shaft. Aug. 10.

- George Furth, 75. Actor-playwright; wrote Tony-winning book for Company. Aug. 11.

- Jerry Wexler, 91. Record producer who coined "rhythm and blues". Aug. 15.

- Dave Freeman, 47. Co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die. Aug. 17. Accidental fall.

- Pervis Jackson, 70. Bass singer in 1970s R&B group The Spinners. Aug. 18.

- Fred Crane, 90. Actor who gave opening line in Gone With the Wind. Aug. 21.

September

- Jerry Reed, 71. Witty country singer (When You're Hot, You're Hot) and actor (Smokey and the Bandit). Sept. 1.

- Bill Melendez, 91. Producer-animator who gave life to Snoopy, Charlie Brown in Peanuts TV specials. Sept. 2.

- Anita Page, 98. Co-starred in 1929 Oscar-winner The Broadway Melody. Sept. 6.

- Gregory Mcdonald, 71. Wrote Fletch mysteries. Sept. 7.

- Richard Monette, 64. Actor and the longest-serving artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Sept. 9.

- David Foster Wallace, 46. Author famed for complex, darkly witty works (Infinite Jest). Sept. 12. Suicide.

- Charlie Walker, 81. Grand Ole Opry star (Pick Me Up on Your Way Down). Sept. 12.

- Richard Wright, 65. Founding member, keyboardist for British band Pink Floyd. Sept. 15.

- Connie Haines, 87. Big-band singer; performed with Frank Sinatra. Sept. 22.

- Paul Newman, 83. Oscar-winning actor/race driver/philanthropist who never lost the heartthrob cool of his anti-hero performances. Sept. 26.

October

- House Peters Jr., 92. TV actor; the original Mr. Clean. Oct. 1.

- Frank Kerr, 52. Lead singer of Hamilton punk band Teenage Head.

- Nick Reynolds, 75. Founding member of Kingston Trio. Oct. 1.

- Eileen Herlie, 90. Stage, TV actress; Myrtle Fargate in All My Children, Oct. 8.

- Neal Hefti, 85. Trumpeter; composed themes for The Odd Couple, Batman. Oct. 11.

- Edie Adams, 81. Singer-actress; partnered with husband Ernie Kovacs. Oct. 15.

- Jack Narz, 85. Longtime game show host, unwittingly involved in quiz show scandal. Oct. 15.

- Levi Stubbs, 72. Dynamic Four Tops frontman (Baby I Need Your Loving). Oct. 17.

- Dee Dee Warwick, 63. Soul singer; performed with sister Dionne. Oct. 18.

- Rudy Ray Moore, 81. Raunchy, influential black comedian (Dolemite). Oct. 19.

- Mr. Blackwell, 86. Designer whose worst-dressed list skewered fashion felonies. Oct. 19.

- Estelle Reiner, 94. Had famed line in When Harry Met Sally -- "I'll have what she's having." Married to Carl Reiner and mother of director-actor Rob Reiner. Oct. 25.

- Gerard Damiano, 80. Directed Deep Throat, 1972 porn film that became unlikely hit. Oct. 25.

- William Wharton, 82. Painter-turned-author whose novel Birdy won National Book Award. Oct. 29.

November

- Shakir Stewart, 34. He succeeded Jay-Z as head of Def Jam Recordings. Nov. 1. Suicide.

- Michael Crichton, 66. Best-selling author whose books became blockbuster films (Jurassic Park). Nov. 4.

- Maria Elena Marques, 83. Actress (The Pearl). Nov. 11.

- Mitch Mitchell, 61. Drummer with Jimi Hendrix Experience (Purple Haze). Nov. 12

- Kenny MacLean, 52. Bassist for the 1980s band Platinum Blonde. Nov. 24.

- Patricia Marand, 74. Broadway actress ("It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman.") Nov. 27.

December

- Paul Benedict, 70. Actor; played English neighbour Harry Bentley on The Jeffersons. Dec. 1.

- Odetta, 77. Folk singer with powerful voice who inspired civil rights marchers. Dec. 2.

- Forrest J. Ackerman, 92. Editor, literary agent; credited with coining term "sci-fi." Dec. 4.

- Beverly Garland, 82. Actress in 1950s cult hits (Swamp Women). Dec. 5.

- Nina Foch, 84. Oscar-nominated actress (Executive Suite, Spartacus). Dec. 5.

- Dennis Yost, 65. Lead singer of 1960s group Classics IV (Stormy). Dec. 7.

- Robert Prosky, 77. Prolific character actor (Hill Street Blues). Dec. 8.

- Bettie Page, 85. Beauty who daringly bared it all in the straitlaced '50s. Dec. 11.

- Van Johnson, 92. Boy-next-door Hollywood star (30 Seconds Over Tokyo). Dec. 12.

- Sam Bottoms, 53. Actor who had small but memorable roles in Apocalypse Now, The Last Picture Show. Dec. 16. Brain cancer.

- Majel Barrett Roddenberry, 76. Star Trek actress (Nurse Christine Chapel); widow of creator Gene Roddenberry. Dec. 18.

- Robert Mulligan, 83. Oscar-nominated director of To Kill a Mockingbird; helped launch Reese Witherspoon's career. Dec. 20.

- Eartha Kitt, 81. Sexy singer (C'est Si Bon), dancer and actress who preferred Broadway to movies. Dec. 25.

- Ann Savage, 87. Actress who earned a cult following as femme fatale in such 1940's pulp-fiction films as Detour. Dec. 25.

- Delaney Bramlett, 69. Singer-songwriter-producer who penned classic rock songs (Let It Rain) and worked with George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Dec. 27.

Sultry Eartha Kitt dead at 81

NEW YORK - Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said.

She was 81.

Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday in Connecticut of colon cancer.

Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of the United States' most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe, to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age, even as she neared 80.

When her book "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying physically fit, was published in 2001, Kitt was featured on the cover in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy. Kitt also wrote three autobiographies.

Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

After becoming a hit singing "Monotonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for "Mrs. Patterson" but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in "Shinbone Alley" and "The Owl and the Pussycat."

Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want to Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the saucy gold digger's theme song "Santa Baby," which is revived on radio each Christmas.

The next year, the record company released follow-up album "That Bad Eartha," which featured "Let's Do It," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated in the children's recording category for the 1969 record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa."

Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958 and more recently appearing in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.

On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular "Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.

"Generally, the whole entertainment business now is bland," she said in a 1996 Associated Press interview.

"It depends so much on gadgetry and flash now. You don't have to have talent to be in the business today."

"I think we had to have something to offer, if you wanted to be recognized as worth paying for."

Kitt was plainspoken about causes she believed in. Her anti-war comments at the White House came as she attended a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women.

"They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth - in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth - you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

In 1978, Kitt returned to Broadway in the musical "Timbuktu!" - which brought her a Tony nomination - and was invited back to the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

In 2000, Kitt earned another Tony nod for "The Wild Party." She played the fairy godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" in 2002.

As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway after replacing Chita Rivera in a revival of "Nine."

She also gained new fans as the voice of Yzma in the 2000 Disney animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove."'

In an online discussion at Washingtonpost.com in March 2005, shortly after Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won Oscars, she expressed satisfaction that black performers "have more of a chance now than we did then to play larger parts."

But she also said: "I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody."

"After all, it's the general public that made (me) - not any one particular group. So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have."

Kitt was born in North, S.C., and her road to fame was the stuff of storybooks. In her autobiography, she wrote her mother was black and Cherokee, while her father was white and she was left to live with relatives after her mother's new husband objected to taking in a mixed-race girl.

An aunt eventually brought her to live in New York City, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts, later dropping out to take various odd jobs.

By chance, she dropped by an audition for the dance group run by Dunham, a pioneering African-American dancer. In 1946, Kitt was one of the Sans-Souci Singers in Dunham's Broadway production "Bal Negre."

Kitt's travels with the Dunham troupe landed her a gig in a Paris nightclub in the early 1950s. Kitt was spotted by Welles, who cast her in his Paris stage production of "Faust."

That led to a role in "New Faces of 1952," which featured such other stars-to-be as Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde and, as a writer, Mel Brooks.

While travelling the world as a dancer and singer in the 1950s, Kitt learned to perform in nearly a dozen languages and, over time, added songs in French, Spanish and even Turkish to her repertoire.

"Usku Dara," a song Kitt said was taught to her by the wife of a Turkish admiral, was one of her first hits, though Kitt says her record company feared it too remote for U.S. audiences to appreciate.

Song titles such as "I Want to be Evil" and "Just an Old Fashioned Girl" seem to reflect the paradoxes in Kitt's private life.

Over the years, Kitt had liaisons with wealthy men, including Revlon founder Charles Revson, who showered her with lavish gifts.

In 1960, she married Bill McDonald but divorced him after the birth of their daughter, Kitt.

While on stage, she was daringly sexy and always flirtatious. Offstage, however, Kitt described herself as shy and almost reclusive, remnants of feeling unwanted and unloved as a child. She referred to herself as "that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae."

For years, Kitt was unsure of her birthplace or birth date. In 1997, a group of students at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., located her birth certificate, which verified her birth date as Jan. 17, 1927. Kitt had previously celebrated Jan. 26.

The research into her background also showed Kitt was the daughter of a white man, a poor cotton farmer.

"I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me and that has been my only family," she told the Post online.

"The biggest family in the world is my fans."

Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter dead at 78

LONDON (Reuters) – Harold Pinter, the British playwright and Nobel laureate famous for brooding portrayals of domestic life and his barbed politics, died aged 78 on Christmas Eve after battling cancer, media reported on Thursday.

Pinter, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2005, was a vocal opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, likening President George W. Bush's administration to the Nazis and calling former British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "mass murderer."

His plays, including "The Caretaker" and "The Homecoming," were regarded as among the finest of the last half century and enjoyed a recent renaissance as modern audiences tapped into his dark studies of tedious lives balancing on the edge of chaos.

Pinter's second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, told the Guardian newspaper he was "a great."

"It was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten," she said.

Pinter's work influenced a generation of British dramatists, defined the "kitchen sink" drama and introduced a new word to the English language. "Pinteresque" perfectly describes taught silences peppered with half-stated insights.

His plays exuded tension, were spiced with erotic fantasies and were full of obsession, jealousy and hatred. Critics dubbed Pinter's chilling masterpieces "the theater of insecurity."

But the son of a working-class Jewish tailor never helped audiences to unravel the meaning of his plays, telling them: "There are no hard distinctions between what is real and unreal."

MARITAL SCANDAL

From 1958 to 1978 a flurry of Pinter plays changed the face of British theater. But then silence fell for 15 years until the London production of his next full-length play, "Moonlight."

He became the subject of marital scandal in 1980 when his actress wife Vivien Merchant, his long-time muse, divorced him because of an affair with Lady Fraser, a renowned author and daughter of anti-pornography campaigner Lord Longford.

Pinter married Fraser later that year but Merchant, star of many Pinter plays, died in 1982, a victim of alcoholism.

In later life Pinter turned to political activism, campaigning for human rights, nuclear disarmament and speaking out against Western foreign policy.

"The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless and fully documented but nobody talks about them," he said.

Pinter also carved out a distinguished career as a screenwriter with hits such as "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "The Servant."

But, back in 1958, Pinter's first full-length play -- "The Birthday Party" -- was almost his last.

Critics derided him, the play folded after a week and the budding playwright trying to support a wife and young baby contemplated quitting.

Influential critic Harold Hobson rescued him, saying "Mr Pinter, on the evidence of this work, possesses the most original, disturbing and arresting theatrical talent in London."

Less than two years after his first play flopped, Pinter's second play "The Caretaker" opened in London's West End and established his reputation as a major dramatist.

Majel Roddenberry, widow of 'Trek' creator, dies

LOS ANGELES – Majel Barrett Roddenberry, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's widow who nurtured the legacy of the seminal science fiction TV series after his death, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry died of leukemia Thursday morning at her home in Bel-Air, said Sean Rossall, a family spokesman.

At Roddenberry's side were family friends and her son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr.
Roddenberry was involved in the "Star Trek" universe for more than four decades. She played the dark-haired Number One in the original pilot but metamorphosed into the blond, miniskirted Nurse Christine Chapel in the original 1966-69 show. She had smaller roles in all five of its television successors and many of the "Star Trek" movie incarnations, although she had little involvement in the productions.

She frequently was the voice of the ship's computer, and about two weeks ago she completed the same role for the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie "Star Trek," Rossall said.

Roddenberry also helped keep the franchise alive by inspiring fans and attended a major "Star Trek" convention each year, Rossall said.

"I think `Star Trek' will always be her legacy," Rossall said.

"Star Trek" and its successors often focused on political and philosophical issues of the day. Roddenberry and her husband, who died in 1991, believed in creating "thoughtful entertainment" and were proud of the show and the passionate devotion of its fans, Rossall said.

"My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact that `Star Trek' fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive for the past 42 years. It was her love for the fans, and their love in return, that kept her going for so long after my father passed away," her son said in a statement on the official Roddenberry Web site.

Born Majel Lee Hudec on Feb. 23, 1932, in Cleveland, she began taking acting classes as a child. She had some stage roles, then in the late 1950s and 1960s had bit parts in a few movies and small roles in TV series, including "Leave It to Beaver" and "Bonanza."

She met her husband in 1964 during a guest role for a Marine Corps drama he produced called "The Lieutenant." That same year, she was cast in the pilot for the "Star Trek" series as the no-nonsense second-in-command. The pilot did not appeal to NBC executives and a second pilot was made, although parts of the original later showed up in a two-part episode called "The Menagerie."

The couple married in Japan in 1969 after "Star Trek" was canceled. After her husband's death, Roddenberry continued her involvement with the "Star Trek" franchise.

She also was the executive producer for two other TV science fiction series, "Andromeda" and "Earth: Final Conflict."

Actor Van Johnson, '40s heartthrob, dies at 92

NEW YORK – Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," "A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died Friday of natural causes. He was 92.

Johnson died at Tappan Zee Manor, an assisted living center in Nyack, N.Y., said Wendy Bleisweiss, a close friend.

With his tall, athletic build, handsome, freckled face and sunny personality, the red-haired Johnson starred opposite Esther Williams, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and others during his two decades under contract to MGM.

He proved to be a versatile actor, equally at home with comedies ("The Bride Goes Wild," "Too Young to Kiss"), war movies ("Go for Broke," "Command Decision"), musicals ("Thrill of a Romance," "Brigadoon") and dramas ("State of the Union," "Madame Curie").

During the height of his popularity, Johnson was cast most often as the all-American boy. He played a real-life flier who lost a leg in a crash after the bombing of Japan in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." He was a writer in love with a wealthy American girl (Taylor) in "The Last Time I Saw Paris." He appeared as a post-Civil War farmer in "The Romance of Rosy Ridge."

More recently, he had a small role in 1985 as a movie actor in Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo."

A heartthrob with bobbysoxers — he was called "the non-singing Sinatra" — Johnson married only once. In 1947 at the height of his career, he eloped to Juarez, Mexico, to marry Eve Wynn, who had divorced Johnson's good friend Keenan Wynn four hours before.

The marriage produced a daughter, Schuyler, and ended bitterly 13 years later. "She wiped me out in the ugliest divorce in Hollywood history," Johnson told reporters.

As a young actor, Johnson had a brief run with Warner Bros. and then got a screen test and a contract with MGM with the help of his friend Lucille Ball.

After a bit in "The War Against Mrs. Hadley," Johnson appeared with Lionel Barrymore as "Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant," as Mickey Rooney's friend in "The Human Comedy" and as a Navy pilot in "Pilot No. 5."

His big break, with Irene Dunne and Spencer Tracy in the wartime fantasy "A Guy Named Joe," was almost wiped out by tragedy.

On April 1, 1943, his DeSoto convertible was struck head-on by another car. "They tell me I was almost decapitated, but I never lost consciousness," he remembered. "I spent four months in the hospital after they sewed the top of my head back on. I still have a disc of bone in my forehead five inches long."

"A Guy Named Joe" was postponed for his recovery, and the forehead scar went unnoticed in his resulting popularity. MGM cashed in on his stardom with three or four films a year. Among them: "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Two Girls and a Sailor," "Weekend at the Waldorf." "High Barbaree," "Mother Is a Freshman," "No Leave No Love" and "Three Guys Named Mike."

Though he hadn't lost his boyish looks, Johnson's vogue faded by the mid-'50s, and the film roles became sparse, though he did have a "comeback" movie with Janet Leigh in 1963, "Wives and Lovers."

Also in the 1960s he returned to the theater, playing "Damn Yankees" in summer theaters at $7,500 a week. Then he accepted a two-year contract to star in "The Music Man" in London.

He explained why in an interview: "Because the phone didn't ring. Because the film scripts were getting crummier and crummier. Because I sat beside my pool in Palm Springs one day and told myself: `Van, you'll be 45 this year. If you don't start doing something now, you never will.'"

For three decades he was one of the busiest stars in regional and dinner theaters, traveling throughout the country from his New York base. In the 1980s, Johnson appeared on Broadway in "La Cage aux Folles," late in the run of the popular Jerry Herman msuical.

"The white-haired ladies who come to matinees are the people who put me on top," he said in a 1992 interview in Michigan, where he was appearing at a suburban Detroit theater. "I'm still grateful to them."

Television provided some gigs ("The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island" and "McMillan & Wife"), and he also became a painter, his canvases selling as high as $10,000. In a 1988 interview, he told of an important art lesson:

"I was on the Onassis yacht with Winston Churchill. He got his canvas out and so did I. He was working away, and he growled at me, `Don't just sit there and stare! Get some paint and splash it on!'"

He was born Charles Van Dell Johnson on Aug. 25, 1916, in Newport, R.I., where his father was a real estate salesman. From his earliest years he was fascinated by the touring companies that played in Newport theaters, and after high school he announced his intention to try his luck in New York. He arrived in 1934 with $5 and his belongings packed in a straw suitcase.

Johnson's tour of casting offices landed him nothing but chorus jobs. He went to Hollywood for a bit in the movie of "Too Many Girls," then was signed to a Warner Bros. contract.

"First the zenith, then the nadir," Johnson recalled. "Warner Bros. dropped me after `Murder in the Big House.'"

The discouraged young actor was about to return to New York when Ball, whom he knew on "Too Many Girls," invited him to dinner at Chasen's restaurant.

"Lucille tried to cheer me up, but I just couldn't seem to laugh," he said in a 1963 interview. "Suddenly she said to me, `There's Billy Grady over there; he's MGM's casting director. I'm going to introduce you, and at least you're going to act like you're the star I think you will be.'"

Bettie Page, 1950s pin-up queen, dies in L.A.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bettie Page, one of America's most photographed pin-up girls during the 1950s, died in Los Angeles on Thursday from pneumonia, her agent said. She was 85.

Page was a ubiquitous sight during the 1950s, propelled to stardom when she posed for Playboy as Miss January 1955. Soon her image was gracing playing cards, record albums and bedroom posters across the country.

She stopped modeling in 1957, retreated from the public spotlight and turned to religion. She enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the 1980s, as a new generation of fans became obsessed with her legacy.

Her agent, Mark Roesler, said Page was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital four weeks ago. She never regained consciousness after suffering a heart attack earlier this month.

With her dark bangs, alluring blue-gray eyes and wide smile, Page cultivated an innocent girl-next-door persona. The one-time school teacher was nice, but clearly also naughty. Some of her photos featured spanking and bondage.

"Bettie Page embodied the stereotypical wholesomeness of the Fifties and the hidden sexuality straining beneath the surface," authors Karen Essex and James L. Swanson wrote in their 1996 book "Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend."

Page professed to be mystified by all the attention, saying she never felt particularly attractive and had to wear a lot of makeup to cover up her large pores. After she found God, she was initially ashamed of having posed nude.

"(B)ut now most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude," she told Playboy last year. "So I'm not ashamed of it now, but I still don't understand it."

Bettie Mae Page was born on April 22, 1923, in Nashville, one of six children. She and two sisters were sent to an orphanage after her father went to jail and her mother could not cope on her own. Page later described her father as "a sex fiend" who started sexually molesting her when she was 13.

Page, armed with an arts degree with Peabody College in Nashville, did her first modeling work in the 1940s after moving to San Francisco with the first of her three husbands. After they divorced in 1947, she pursued modeling in New York. Photos from a shoot with Miami photographer Bunny Yeager ended up in the pages of Playboy.

The layout featured Page winking at the camera wearing only a Santa hat as she decorated a Christmas tree. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner described it as "a milestone in the history of the magazine," which he had founded less than two years earlier.

Later in life, Page was furious that Yeager made a fortune from the photos and never compensated her.

Some American lawmakers were not as impressed with her modeling abilities. Page was served with a subpoena to appear before U.S. Senate investigators trying to discover a link between juvenile delinquency and pornography. Page never appeared. Soon after, she completely disappeared from the scene.

After two other brief marriages failed, Page battled acute schizophrenia beginning in the early 1970s. Her comeback gathered momentum with the 1991 movie "The Rocketeer," based on a comic book where the hero's girlfriend was Page. Fan clubs and websites proliferated, and Page made a good living signing memorabilia at conventions. On the rare occasions that she gave interviews, she insisted that she not be photographed.

Page had no children. There was no immediate information about funeral plans.

Cruise Loses His Blackberry

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is searching for his missing cellphone, after reportedly losing it during a movie junket in Canada.

The actor misplaced his trusted BlackBerry between interviews in Toronto to promote his new movie Valkyrie - and he is desperate to track it down, before all his emails, text messages, and the phone numbers of all his celebrity pals, are leaked online.

According to the National Post, Cruise's assistants have scoured TV studios across the city but failed to find the missing accessory.

'Jeffersons' Neighbor Paul Benedict Dies at 70

Paul Benedict, the actor who played the eccentric English neighbor Harry Bentley on the sitcom "The Jeffersons," was found dead Monday at his home on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. He was 70.

Authorities were investigating the cause of death, said his brother, Charles.

Benedict's oversized jaw and angular features were partly attributed to acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that was first diagnosed by an endocrinologist who saw Benedict in a theatrical production.

He underwent medical treatment to prevent the disease from spreading while he continued to act -- and used his facial features for comic effect.

As an actor, Benedict built a career portraying loony characters in films such as "The Goodbye Girl" (1977), "The Man with Two Brains" (1983) and "The Addams Family" (1991). He also appeared in the Christopher Guest comedies "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984), "Waiting for Guffman" (1997) and "A Mighty Wind" (2003). On the PBS children's show "Sesame Street," Benedict was the Mad Painter who painted numbers everywhere.

But he was mainly known for his role as Bentley on "The Jeffersons," which ran on CBS from 1975 to 1985. He left in 1981 to pursue other projects but returned in 1983. Benedict later said he hadn't expected the show to last more than a season and only agreed to the part because producer Norman Lear kept asking him to reconsider.

The accented speech that he used even offstage led many to assume that Benedict was British, but in fact he was born Sept. 17, 1938, in Silver City, N.M. He was the youngest of six children; his father a doctor, his mother a journalist.

"When I was 5 years old, from the first time I went to the movies, I knew I wanted to be an actor," Benedict told The Times in 1992.

After growing up in Boston, Benedict attended the city's Suffolk University and began his acting career in the 1960s in the Theatre Company of Boston, performing alongside such future stars as Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino.

On Broadway, he appeared opposite Pacino in Eugene O'Neill's two-character play "Hughie" in 1996 and played the mayor in a 2000 revival of "The Music Man."

As a stage director, he was known for taking a work in progress or a new play and laboring with a playwright to infuse it with "intelligence, sympathy and warmth -- and of course, humor," The Times reported in 1992.

His breakthrough show as a director was "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" in 1987, closely followed by "The Kathy & Mo Show: Parallel Lives" in 1989, both two-person sleepers that became off-Broadway hits.

April Wine frontman hospitalized after collapse

April Wine lead singer Myles Goodwin was hospitalized in Montreal on Friday, after he collapsed on his way to the airport.

"He arrived at the airport, collapsed and hit his head," guitarist Brian Greenway, who was travelling with Goodwin, told CBC News.

While Greenway said that his colleague appeared to be doing better after initial treatment and undergoing some tests, he added that they were still awaiting further details.

"We'll have to wait and see what the doctors say."

The band had been heading for Nova Scotia, where they were to play at a sold out concert marking the 25th anniversary of Halifax radio station Q104.

The Canadian hard rockers, who originally got their start in Halifax, had been set to surprise fans by bringing original bandmembers Richie and David Henman onto the stage.

The show will go on, however, with a tribute to April Wine. Halifax-area rocker Joel Plaskett has also been added to the performance lineup.

Tributes pour in for Kenny MacLean

TORONTO — Platinum Blonde bass player Kenny MacLean was an ambitious “pop-meister” who was brimming with ideas and had a lot more music to share with the world, friends and colleagues said Tuesday as news of his death spread.

The Canadian ‘80s band officially announced on its website that MacLean had died. Police said the veteran musician was discovered collapsed and unresponsive Monday at his Toronto apartment.

Just days earlier, MacLean gave an “electrifying” performance at a party in Toronto to celebrate the upcoming release of his third solo album, “Completely,” and he had recently convinced his Platinum Blonde bandmates to get back together for a reunion gig, said drummer Chris Steffler.

“We were (going) to put together a Platinum Blonde show for the first time in over 20 years and the rehearsal was set for 5 p.m. Monday,” Steffler said.

“And I just couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t returning calls to confirm ... Now we’re all just kind of shocked.”

Steffler said the band is upset that some are quickly turning to gossip and speculating about how MacLean might have died, rather than focusing on his musical contributions.

MacLean was found in his bathroom with a toothbrush in his hand and the tap running, Steffler said, which suggests he might have suffered a heart attack.

Toxicology tests will reveal if there were any drugs in MacLean’s system but Steffler discounted the idea of an overdose or suicide attempt.

“He had his track pants and a T-shirt on, it’s not like it was after a show and he had a bunch of (cocaine) on his face or a needle sticking out of somewhere,” he said.

“There’s no way he would take his own life or anything like that, and his party consumption days were long behind him, so it’s really untimely.”

Record producer Terry Brown, who has worked on several classic Rush albums and music by the likes of Max Webster and Blue Rodeo, said MacLean’s death was “very sad news” and a loss of a great talent.

“He was an incredibly talented fellow who had so much enthusiasm and such great ideas, he was a pop-meister, he just wrote great pop tunes,” said Brown, who worked with MacLean on his solo album, “Clear.”

“And he was just one of those people that always had lots of melodies and great ideas in his head and was always dying to get things done. Unfortunately, we never got this (latest) record off the ground, which is a real shame. It had so much potential but ... I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

MacLean joined Platinum Blonde for their second album, 1985’s “Alien Shores,” which featured one of the band’s biggest Canadian hits — “Crying Over You,” which won a Gemini Award for best music video — and their only U.S. hit, “Somebody Somewhere.”

The album went quadruple platinum and 1987’s “Contact” went platinum.

MacLean won a SOCAN Award for his solo album, “Don’t Look Back,” and he also strayed from his rock roots to play with the Edmonton Symphony and Orchestra London.

Most recently, in addition to preparing to release his latest CD, he worked on a project called Rock Through The Ages, playing covers of musical hits from the 1950s through to today’s singles by the likes of Oasis and Coldplay.

His new band played regular gigs in Toronto as well as corporate shows for the likes of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Laidlaw, Monsanto, TD Canada Trust, the Toronto Blue Jays and Yamaha Music Canada.

He also worked with a company called hMh Music, an independent record label and music company dedicated to working with emerging artists.

Platinum Blonde bassist found dead

Sources say that former Platinum Blonde bassist Kenny MacLean died following a CD release party in Toronto Friday, Nov. 21.

He was found this morning by his sister and it is thought he passed away sometime during the night after the event.

"Kenny had his party at the Mod Club on Friday and he was really excited," local musician Angel Marr said in a brief phone interview.

"We don't know if he died right after the party or later," he continued. "I'm in shock. I've known Kenny for 15 years."

While police have yet to confirm the news, Facebook tributes have already started pouring in.

Former Much VJ Steve Anthony wrote that he is in "shock about my pal Kenny MacLean."

At their peak in the mid-'80s, Platinum Blonde was playing arenas and became known as 'Canada's Duran Duran.'

'Controversial' George Harrison interview comes to light

An illuminating interview with the late Beatles guitarist George Harrison has been unveiled after 40 years in storage.

Journalist Miranda Ward, a Beatles friend at the time, recorded the interview in 1967 on reel-to-reel tapes.

Film director David Lambert told BBC News he heard the recordings as part of his research for his movie, The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Memories. Lambert uses a small portion of the interview in the film.

"He goes on to talk about the drink culture of Great Britain, which in 1967, from how he describes it, seems exactly as it is today," Lambert said.

"He talks about use of drugs and how certain politicians tend to rule the world and rule our lives."

Lambert described the interview as "pretty controversial" but refused to divulge details.

"He covers all aspects of things, the Eastern mysticism, he was very involved at the time with the Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi]."

Expands on views

Lambert said Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001, expands on his own views about life and philosophy.

"I think you'll actually look at George and think, 'The guy really is talking a lot of sense and people should have listened possibly at the time.'

"He wasn't one to talk about these things. If you listened to it, you would fully expect someone like John [Lennon] to be doing the interview."

Lambert said he believes the full recording will come to light soon. He said movie director Martin Scorsese has expressed interest in the reel-to-reels. Scorsese announced in 2007 he was making a film about Harrison.

Harrison embarked on a successful solo career after the Beatles broke up at the end of the 1960s. The hits he wrote and sang include Here Comes the Sun, Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and My Sweet Lord.

What's in a Name, When It's Bronx Mowgli Wentz?

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Did Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz really name their kid Bronx Mowgli? That has to be a joke. —Cara, Alabama

No joke. Let's put it this way: If you've ever wondered exactly how desperate stars are for publicity, look no further than Ashlee and Pete's new bundle of joy, Bronx Mowgli Wentz.

"This is really about the couple making a play for attention," baby-naming expert Pamela Redmond Satran tells me. "It's just another element of celebrities using kids as publicity."

OK, but seriously. Other than a history graced with illegal whiskey, mass arson and Fort Apache, what could have moved these people to choose Bronx? Or Mowgli? Well, there are some clues emerging from their personal lives...

For the uninitiated, the Bronx is a New York borough, and Mowgli was the name of a little boy in Disney's classic cartoon film The Jungle Book. (Bonus fact: Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling once stated that the first syllable of Mowgli should rhyme with cow, not toe, though the latter pronunciation is more common in the U.S.)

"There was a Winnie-the-Pooh theme with her baby shower," Satran notes. "There's definitely a Disney theme going on with this couple, so that could have something to do with where the baby name came from."

Sure. That. As for Bronx, we've recently seen a slew of celebrity place names, including Savannah (Marcia Cross), Brooklyn (Victoria and David Beckham), Alabama (Drea de Matteo), and Kingston and Zuma (Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale). Zuma is a beach here in Southern California.

"That's a big trend right now, very fashionable," Satran says.

As for what the future holds for a boy with such a name, the answer is, nothing much.

"It'll probably be the same as if they named the baby Bobby," Satran says. "He'll live a life in the spotlight, playing with Brooklyn and Kingston."

Bob Dylan turns up at Neil Young's childhood home for a tour

When you live in the house where a world-famous musician grew up, it's expected to be a bit of a draw.

But John Kiernan, who occupies Neil Young’s former Winnipeg home on Grosvenor Avenue, never imagined another famous musician would show up at his door.

Kiernan told CBC News on Monday that he was looking out the window a week ago Sunday and saw his wife talking with two strangers on the front lawn.

“And I'm looking around, and I realize, this guy having a tuque on has really great boots on, these sort of cowboy, motorcycle boots. And he was wearing really nice leather pants. And I realize I'm staring face-to-face with Bob Dylan.”

After the music legend and his manager were invited into the house, Dylan asked a lot of thoughtful questions, including about Neil Young's old bedroom.

“OK, so this was his view, and this was where he listened to his music. It suddenly dawned on me, when you're looking at Bob Dylan standing in a hallway, that he had a very parallel experience 200 miles to the south, sitting in his room, listening to his music, looking out his window.”

Dylan grew up in Hibbing, Minn., about 500 km southeast of Winnipeg, while Neil Young spent his formative high school years playing in Winnipeg rock band The Squires.

Kiernan said Dylan and his manager visited for a while before heading off to tour other areas of the city.

Dylan then played a concert at Winnipeg's MTS Centre later that night, Nov. 2.

Country star Merle Haggard battling lung cancer

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country singer Merle Haggard, recently diagnosed with lung cancer, had part of a lung removed and is recovering at home, his spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The 71-year-old singer-songwriter underwent surgery on Monday in a Bakersfield, California, hospital.

"I'm feeling good ... better and better each day," Haggard was quoted as saying in a statement. "If not for the love and wisdom of my wife (Theresa), I might not be around today."

Doctors removed the upper lobe of Haggard's right lung after a biopsy revealed that he had non-small cell lung cancer, the statement said. Tests revealed that all the affected tissue was removed.

According to the American Lung Association, non-small cell lung cancer usually spreads to different parts of the body more slowly than the less-common small cell lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of men and women in the United States. The expected 5-year survival rate for lung cancer patients is 16 percent, according to the association.

Haggard has been touring and recording since 1965, combining folk, jazz, pop and blues traditions to compose songs that have been covered by the likes of Elvis Costello, the Grateful Dead and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

He is perhaps best known for his anti-hippie anthem "Okie From Muskogee," which topped the charts in 1969. Haggard entered the business following a decade of run-ins with the law, culminating in a stint in California's San Quentin State Prison.

"Mama Africa" Miriam Makeba dies after concert

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African singer Miriam Makeba, one of Africa's best known voices and a champion of the fight against apartheid during three decades in exile, has died of a heart attack after a concert in Italy. She was 76.

Known as "Mama Africa" and the "Empress of African Song," Makeba was the first black South African musician to gain international fame, winning renown in the 1950s for her sweeping vocals. She was loathed by South Africa's white minority rulers.

Former South African President and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela paid homage to the singer, calling her "South Africa's first lady of song" and saying her music inspired hope.

"Despite her tremendous sacrifice and the pain she felt to leave behind her beloved family and her country when she went into exile, she continued to make us proud as she used her worldwide fame to focus attention on the abomination of apartheid," Mandela said in a letter released by his foundation.

"It was fitting that her last moments were spent on a stage, enriching the hearts and lives of others -- and again in support of a good cause."

Makeba fell ill after a concert against organized crime in the southern Italian town of Baia Verde late Sunday, her publicist said. She died after being rushed to a clinic in the town of Castel Volturno.

"It was from a heart attack, but she had not been well for some time," publicist Mark Lechat told Reuters. He said Makeba had also been suffering from arthritis.

TRIBUTES

Radio stations across South Africa paid tribute to the singer, reading out text messages in praise of one of the best loved stars in the country and across the continent.

"Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid colonialism through the art of song," said Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Makeba spent 31 years in exile after speaking out against apartheid. One of her songs demanded the release of Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail for fighting white-minority rule. She returned home in 1990.

Makeba also always stressed her African pride through her hairstyles and traditional clothes.

She came from humble beginnings in a shantytown near Johannesburg. The former domestic servant first started to sing in her school choir and learned new songs by listening to recordings of American jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald.

Mixing jazz with traditional African sounds, Makeba punctuated some songs with the clicks of her Xhosa language, creating classics such as "The Click Song" and "Pata Pata."

Makeba won attention on the international stage as lead singer for the South African band The Manhattan Brothers. In New York, she worked with Harry Belafonte.

While she won over millions on the stage, Makeba's personal life was marred by tragedy. Makeba had said her first husband often beat her, and she left him after finding him in bed with her sister.

Makeba married American "black power" activist Stokely Carmichael in 1968 and they moved to the West African country of Guinea, but later split. She was divorced four times.

'Jurassic Park' author Crichton dead

NEW YORK -- Michael Crichton, the million-selling author who made scientific research terrifying and irresistible in such thrillers as "Jurassic Park," "Timeline" and "The Andromeda Strain," has died of cancer, his family said.

Crichton died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 66 after privately battling cancer.

"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," his family said in a statement.

"While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us -- and entertained us all while doing so -- his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes."

He was an experimenter and popularizer known for his stories of disaster and systematic breakdown, such as the rampant microbe of "The Andromeda Strain" or the dinosaurs running madly in "Jurassic Park." Many of his books became major Hollywood movies, including "Jurassic Park," "Rising Sun" and "Disclosure." Crichton himself directed and wrote "The Great Train Robbery" and he co-wrote the script for the blockbuster "Twister."

In 1994, he created the award-winning TV hospital series "ER." He's even had a dinosaur named for him, Crichton's ankylosaur.

"Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park,' " said "Jurassic Park" director Steven Spielberg, a friend of Crichton's for 40 years.

"He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. . . . Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place."

John Wells, executive producer of "ER" called the author "an extraordinary man. Brilliant, funny, erudite, gracious, exceptionally inquisitive and always thoughtful.

"No lunch with Michael lasted less than three hours and no subject was too prosaic or obscure to attract his interest. Sexual politics, medical and scientific ethics, anthropology, archeology, economics, astronomy, astrology, quantum physics, and molecular biology were all regular topics of conversation."

In recent years, he was the rare novelist granted a White House meeting with President George W. Bush, perhaps because of his skepticism about global warming, which Crichton addressed in the 2004 novel, "State of Fear."

Crichton's views were strongly condemned by environmentalists, who alleged that the author was hurting efforts to pass legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

If not a literary giant, he was a physical one, standing 6 feet 9 inches and ready for battle with the press. In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Crichton came with a tape recorder, text books and a pile of graphs and charts as he defended "State of Fear" and his take on global warming.

"I have a lot of trouble with things that don't seem true to me," Crichton said at the time, his large, manicured hands gesturing to his graphs. "I'm very uncomfortable just accepting. There's something in me that wants to pound the table and say, 'That's not true.' "

He spoke to few scientists about his questions, convinced that he could interpret the data himself.

"If we put everything in the hands of experts and if we say that as intelligent outsiders, we are not qualified to look over the shoulder of anybody, then we're in some kind of really weird world," he said.

A new novel by Crichton had been tentatively scheduled to come next month, but publisher HarperCollins said the book was postponed indefinitely because of his illness.

One of four siblings, Crichton was born in Chicago and grew up in Roslyn, Long Island. His father was a journalist and young Michael spent much of his childhood writing extra papers for teachers.

In third grade, he wrote a nine-page play that his father typed for him, using carbon paper so the other kids would know their parts. He was tall, gangly and awkward and used writing as a way to escape. Mark Twain and Alfred Hitchcock were his role models.

Figuring he would not be able to make a living as writer, and not good enough at basketball, he decided to become a doctor. He studied anthropology at Harvard College and later graduated from Harvard Medical School.

During medical school, he turned out books under pseudonyms. (One that the tall author used was Jeffrey Hudson, a 17th-century dwarf in the court of King Charles II of England.) He had modest success with his writing and decided to pursue it.

His first hit, "The Andromeda Strain," was written while he was still in medical school and quickly caught on upon its 1969 release. It was a featured selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was sold to Universal in Hollywood for $250,000.

"A few of the teachers feel I'm wasting my time, and that in some ways I have wasted theirs," he told The New York Times in 1969. "When I asked for a couple of days off to go to California about a movie sale, that raised an eyebrow."

His books seemed designed to provoke debate, whether the theories of quantum physics in "Timeline," the reverse sexual discrimination of "Disclosure" or the spectre of Japanese eminence in "Rising Sun."

"The initial response from the (Japanese) establishment was, 'You're a racist,' " he said. "So then, because I'm always trying to deal with data, I went on a tour talking about it and gave a very careful argument, and their response came back, 'Well you say that but we know you're a racist.' "

Crichton had a rigid work schedule, rising before dawn and writing from about 6 a.m. to around 3 p.m., breaking only for lunch. He enjoyed being one of the few novelists recognized in public but he also felt limited by fame.

"Of course, the celebrity is nice. But when I go do research, it's much more difficult now. The kind of freedom I had 10 years ago is gone," he said. "You have to have good table manners. You can't have spaghetti hanging out of your mouth at a restaurant."

Crichton was married five times and had one child. A private funeral is planned.

Tim Robbins runs into voting trouble

NEW YORK – Many Americans endured long lines to vote. Tim Robbins had to get a court order before he was allowed to cast his vote for president.

The 50-year-old actor's voting woes began Tuesday morning when he ran into trouble at his polling station: His name was missing from the registration rolls. He said his name was nowhere to be found on the books at a YMCA in downtown Manhattan, where he'd previously voted in presidential elections.

"I had been voting there for years," he said in a telephone interview. "I have not moved, I have not changed party affiliations. There's no reason why it shouldn't be in the rolls. So I was given a paper ballot and filled it out, but I wanted my vote to be registered there — and I don't trust paper ballots."

Robbins, who lives with partner Susan Sarandon and has been registered to vote in New York since 1988, said he doesn't trust paper or affidavit ballots because "oftentimes those things get lost or thrown away." So he did not submit his and asked to speak to a supervisor.

"I stayed in the voting place and asked to see someone from the Board of Elections and told them I wasn't going to leave until someone from the Board of Elections came and explained to me why I wasn't being allowed to vote — why my name had been taken off the voter rolls."

The supervisor said a police officer had been called over, he said, "at which point, I said to him, `Are you trying to intimidate me?'" The police at the location said he had "every right to be there," said Robbins, well-known as a liberal activist who even played a candidate running for the Senate in "Bob Roberts," a 1992 film he also wrote and directed.

Police said there was no police involvement.

After hours of waiting, Robbins said he was told to visit the board's downtown office, which confirmed what he knew to be true: He's a registered voter. A judge then issued a court order allowing him to vote — and that he did, at the same location where his trouble began.

"If anything it seems like a random thing, but in randomness there are numbers. And there have been in the past," said Robbins, who said that other voters also were not listed.

"This is just one example of how difficult it is to vote in the United States," he said.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Terkel dies at 96

CHICAGO – Studs Terkel, the ageless master of listening and speaking, a broadcaster, activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose best-selling oral histories celebrated the common people he liked to call the "non-celebrated," died Friday. He was 96.

Dan Terkell said his father died at home, and described his death as "peaceful, no agony. This is what he wanted."

"My dad led a long, full, eventful, sometimes tempestuous, but very satisfying life," Terkell said in a statement issued through his father's colleague and close friend Thom Clark.

He was a native New Yorker who moved to Chicago as a child and came to embrace and embody his adopted town, with all its "carbuncles and warts," as he recalled in his 2007 memoir, "Touch and Go." He was a cigar and martini man, white-haired and elegantly rumpled in his trademark red-checkered shirts, an old rebel who never mellowed, never retired, never forgot, and "never met a picket line or petition I didn't like."

"A lot of people feel, 'What can I do, (it's) hopeless,'" Terkel told The Associated Press in 2003. "Well, through all these years there have been the people I'm talking about, whom we call activists ... who give us hope and through them we have hope."

The tougher the subject, the harder Terkel took it on. He put out an oral history collection on race relations in 1992 called "Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About The American Obsession," and, in 1995, "Coming of Age," recollections of men and women 70 and older.

He cared about what divided us, and what united us: death — in his 2001 "Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith," and hope, in his 2003 "Hope Dies Last."

Terkel won a 1985 Pulitzer Prize for "The Good War," remembrances of World War II; contrasted rich and poor along the same Chicago street in "Division Street: America," 1966; limned the Depression in "Hard Times," 1970; and chronicled how people feel about their jobs in "Working," 1974.

"When the Chinese Wall was built, where did the masons go for lunch? When Caesar conquered Gall, was there not even a cook in the army? And here's the big one, when the Armada sank, you read that King Philip wept. Were there no other tears?" Terkel said upon receiving an honorary National Book Award medal in 1997. "And that's what I believe oral history is about. It's about those who shed those other tears, who on rare occasions of triumph laugh that other laugh."

Andre Schiffrin — Terkel's longtime editor, publisher and close friend who gave Terkel the idea for many of his books — said Terkel "had been in bad shape in recent weeks and he really felt that his life had come to an end. But he was as engaged as ever. He was a big fan of (Democratic presidential candidate Barack) Obama and he said one of the things that kept him going was that he wanted to see the results of the election."

For his oral histories, Terkel interviewed his subjects on tape, then transcribed and sifted. "What first comes out of an interview are tons of ore; you have to get that gold dust in your hands," he wrote in his memoir. "Now, how does it become a necklace or a ring or a gold watch? You have to get the form; you have to mold the gold dust."

Said Schiffrin: "He liked to tell the story of an interview with a woman in a public housing unit in Chicago. At the end of the interview, the woman said, `My goodness, I didn't know I felt that way.' That was his genius."

Terkel would joke that his obsession with tape recording was equaled by only one other man, a certain former president of the United States: "Richard Nixon and I could be aptly described as neo-Cartesians. I tape, therefore I am."

He also was a syndicated radio talk show host, voice of gangsters on old radio soaps, jazz critic, actor in the 1988 film "Eight Men Out," and survivor of the 1950s blacklist.

In 1999, a panel of judges organized by the Modern Library, a book publisher, picked "Working" as No. 54 on its list of the century's 100 best English-language works of nonfiction. And in 2006, the Library of Congress announced that a radio interview he did with author James Baldwin in September 1962 was selected for the National Recording Registry of sound recordings worthy of preservation. Terkel's other interview subjects included Louis Armstrong, Buster Keaton, Marlon Brando and Bob Dylan.

Terkel's politics were liberal, vintage FDR. He would never forget the many New Deal programs from the Great Depression and worried that the country suffered from "a national Alzheimer's disease" that made government the perceived enemy. In a 1992 interview with the AP, he advocated "pressure from below, from the grass roots. That means the people who live and work in cities — that used to be called the working class, although now everyone says middle class."

Terkel was born Louis Terkel on May 16, 1912, in the Bronx. His father, Samuel, was a tailor; his mother, Anna, a seamstress. The family moved to Chicago in 1922 and ran a rooming house where young Louis would meet the workers and activists who would profoundly influence his view of the world.

"It was those loners — argumentative ones, deceptively quite ones, the talkers and the walkers — who, always engaged in something outside themselves, unintentionally became my mentors," Terkel wrote in "Touch and Go."

He got the nickname Studs as a young man, from the character Studs Lonigan, the protagonist of James T. Farrell's beloved trilogy of novels about an Irish-American youth from Chicago's South Side.

Terkel graduated from the University of Chicago in 1932, studying philosophy, and also picked up a law degree. But instead of choosing law, he worked briefly in the civil service and then found employment in radio with one of his beloved "alphabet agencies" from the New Deal, the WPA Writers Project.

His early work as a stage actor led to radio acting, disc jockey jobs and then to radio interview shows beginning in the 1940s. From 1949 to 1952, he was the star of a national TV show, "Studs' Place," a program of largely improvised stories and songs set in a fictional bar (later a restaurant) owned by Studs. Some viewers even thought it was a real place, and would go looking for it in Chicago.

"People were never put down," Terkel recalled in the 1995 book "The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920-1961." "The stories were about little aspects of their lives. There was no audience and no canned laughter. ... It was one of the most exhilarating times of my life."

The McCarthy-era antipathy toward activists cost him his national TV outlet. But his radio interview show flourished, first at WFMT in Chicago and then, through syndication, in many markets.

As his editor sponsored elaborate parties to celebrate his 95th birthday and the release of his 2007 memoir, "Touch and Go," Terkel reflected on a career spent writing about those who rarely heard their stories told.

"My discovery was people needed to be needed by others, need to count; that's the word," he said in an interview with the AP.

He also joked about his long life: "Curiosity did not kill this cat."

In 1939, he married social worker Ida Goldberg, a marriage that lasted 60 years even though she couldn't get him to dance and always called him Louis, not Studs. "Ida was a far better person than I, that's the reality of it," Terkel later wrote of Ida, who died in 1999.

"She had a certain empathy I lack. And she was more politically active than I. ... Did she play a tremendous role in my life? Yeah, you could say so."

Live from New York, it's Amy Poehler's baby

NEW YORK – "Saturday Night Live" just won't be the same without Amy Poehler — who gave birth to a son hours before the "Baby Mama" star was to appear on the NBC show.

The live show's parody news anchor was missing from her spot alongside Seth Myers on "Weekend Update" because she gave birth earlier Saturday.

On behalf of Poehler and her husband, Will Arnett, "I can confirm that Amy gave birth to Archie Arnett on Saturday," read a statement from Poehler's spokesman, Lewis Kay.

The baby was born early Saturday evening in New York, weighing 8 pounds, 1 ounce.

Mother and child were "healthy and resting comfortably," according to the statement.

Poehler, who performed on Thursday night's special edition of "SNL" and is known for playing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was rehearsing the show until Friday. She also starred opposite Tina Fey in this year's "Baby Mama" as a working class girl who agrees to be a surrogate mother for a single businesswoman.

Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother slain in Chicago

CHICAGO – The mother and brother of Jennifer Hudson were found shot dead Friday at a South Side home, and police were looking for a missing child who is the nephew of the singer and Oscar-winning actress.

"We can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the deaths of Jennifer Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson," Hudson's personal publicist, Lisa Kasteler, said in a statement. "No further comment will be made and the family has asked that their privacy be respected at this difficult time."

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the deaths appeared to be the result of domestic abuse.

Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson said a family member entered the home around 3 p.m. Friday, found a woman shot on the living room floor and left to notify authorities. Responding officers found a man shot in the bedroom, Patterson said. There was no sign of forced entry.

Police tape blocked access to the large, white house, where a crowd gathered outside.

Authorities issued an Amber Alert for 7-year-old Julian King and were seeking a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban. The child was the grandson of the female victim, Patterson said.

The alert said the child was possibly abducted and could be accompanied by a man named William Balfour — considered armed and dangerous — who was a suspect in the double homicide investigation. Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, who has not been charged with a crime, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.

The two could also be in a teal or green Chrysler Concorde with a temporary license plate, a left front headlight hanging out and scratches on the left side of the vehicle, police said.

The tragedy comes as Hudson, who grew up in Chicago, continues to reach new heights in her career. Her song "Spotlight" is No. 1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts and her recently released, self-tiled debut album has been a top seller. She was featured in this year's blockbuster "Sex and the City" movie and is also starring in the hit film "The Secret Life of Bees."

She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her role in "Dreamgirls." In an interview last year with Vogue, Hudson credited her mother with encouraging her to audition for "American Idol," which launched her career.

The singer, whose father died when she was a teenager, described herself as very close to her family. In a recent AP interview she said her family, which includes older siblings Julia and Jason, helped keep her grounded.

"My faith in God and my family, they're very realistic and very normal, they're not into the whole limelight kind of thing, so when I go home to Chicago that's just another place that's home," she said. "I stand in line with everybody else, or, when I go home to my mom I'm just Jennifer, (so she says), 'You get up and you take care of your own stuff.' And I love that; I don't like when people tell you everything you want to hear, I want to hear the truth, you know what I mean."

Hudson recently announced her engagement to David Otunga, best known for his stint on VH1's reality show "I Love New York."

Hudson's representatives would not disclose her whereabouts Friday. She had been scheduled to appear Monday in Los Angeles to collect an ensemble cast honor at the Hollywood Awards for "The Secret Life of Bees" with co-stars including Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning.

Shatner upset Takei didn't invite him to wedding

LOS ANGELES – William Shatner is setting his phaser to stun against his old "Star Trek" co-star George Takei. In a video posted on Shatner's Web site Wednesday, he lashed out at Takei for not inviting him to his wedding last month.

The 77-year-old Kirk said Takei, who played Enterprise helmsman Sulu, apparently harbors a grudge against him that kept him from being invited to Takei's nuptials.

"The whole thing makes me feel badly," Shatner said in the video. "Poor man. There is such a sickness there. It's so patently obvious that there is a psychosis there. I don't know what his original thing about me was. I have no idea."

Takei and Brad Alman tied the knot Sept. 15. "Star Trek" alums Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig — who played Uhura and Chekhov, respectively — were among the attendees at the multicultural ceremony at the Japanese American National Museum. Takei and Altman had previously stated that Shatner was invited to their wedding, but he never RSVPed.

"It is unfortunate that Bill was unable to join us for our wedding as he indeed was invited to attend," Takei responded. "It is our hope that at this point he joins us in voting no on Proposition 8, which seeks to eliminate the fundamental right for same-sex couples to marry in California."

Shatner said he felt he never knew Takei when they worked together on the original TV series and later in the "Star Trek" films.

The "Boston Legal" co-star also attacked Takei's decision to come out of the closet later in life, saying "Who cares? Be gay. Don't be gay.

Comedian Rudy Ray Moore dies

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Rudy Ray Moore, a raunchy 1970s comedian who played the title role of a flashy pimp in the movie Dolemite and influenced a generation of rappers, has died. He was 81.

Moore died Sunday evening at an Akron nursing home from complications of diabetes, said his brother, Gerald Moore.

Services will be held in Akron and Spokane, Wash., where his mother and other family members live, he said.

Rudy Ray Moore was part of the heyday of black "party records." His stage personality featured blunt sex routines but, unlike contemporaries Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor, he never crossed over to mainstream white audiences.

The Washington Post said in a 1992 profile that Moore was "an astounding renderer of 'toasts,' — elaborately boastful, profane and scatological tales of life in the old-style urban subculture of pimps, prostitutes, gamblers and badmen. His husky, down-home voice is ideal for it."

Moore said he developed the style, later a feature of rap music, by listening to men sitting outside joints "drinking beer and lying and talking (expletive)."

Moore played the fast-talking pimp and title character in the 1975 film Dolemite. In later years Moore collaborated with 2 Live Crew, Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg.

Moore's other acting credits during the Blaxploitation era of black action films included The Human Tornado in 1976 and Disco Godfather in 1979.

Fashion critic Mr. Blackwell dies in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.

Blackwell died Sunday of complications from an intestinal infection, publicist Harlan Boll said.

Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 — long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair.

Year after year, he would take Hollywood's reigning stars and other celebrities to task for failing to dress in what he thought was the way they should.

Being dowdy was bad enough, but the more outrageous clothing a woman wore, the more biting his criticism. He once said a reigning Miss America looked "like an armadillo with cornpads."

A few other examples:

Madonna: "The Bare-Bottomed Bore of Babylon."

Barbra Streisand: "She looks like a masculine Bride of Frankenstein."

Christina Aguilera: "A dazzling singer who puts good taste through the wardrobe wringer."

Meryl Streep: "She looks like a gypsy abandoned by a caravan."

Sharon Stone: "An over-the-hill Cruella DeVille."

Lindsay Lohan: "From adorable to deplorable."

Patti Davis: "Packs all the glamour of an old, worn-out sneaker."

Ann Margret: "A Hells Angel escapee who invaded the Ziegfeld Follies on a rainy night."

Camilla Parker-Bowles: "The Duchess of Dowdy."

Bjork: "She dances in the dark — and dresses there, too."

Spears: "Her bra-topped collection of Madonna rejects are pure fashion overkill."

The critic acknowledged he had mixed feelings about appearing so publicly mean. Most of the women he put through the wringer, he said, were people he genuinely admired for their talent if not their fashion sense.

"The list is and was a satirical look at the fashion flops of the year," he said in 1998. "I merely said out loud what others were whispering. ... It's not my intention to hurt the feelings of these people. It's to put down the clothing they're wearing."

He told the Los Angeles Times in 1968 that designers were forgetting that their job "is to dress and enhance women. ... Maybe I should have named the 10 worst designers instead of blaming the women who wear their clothes."

Surprisingly, the woman who topped his worst dressed list for 1982 (announced in early 1983) was the newly married Diana, Princess of Wales. He said she had gone from "a very young, independent, fresh look" to a "tacky, dowdy" style. She quickly regained her footing and wound up as a regular on Blackwell's favorites list, the "fabulous fashion independents."

Blackwell had started out as an actor himself, having been spotted by a talent agent while still in his teens. He landed a job as an understudy in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's heralded drama "Dead End."

Although he got to the play the role of the Dead End Kids' leader on stage only one time, it led him to Hollywood where he landed bit parts in such films as "Little Tough Guy" (uncredited) and "Juvenile Hall" (as Dick Selzer).

He abandoned his acting career in 1958 after failing to make it in movies and switched to fashion design. He claimed to be the first to make designer jeans for women, and his salon had begun to attract a few Hollywood names when he issued his first list covering the fashion faux pas of 1960. (Italian star Anna Magnani and Gabor were among his early victims.)

It quickly brought him the celebrity he had long coveted, and he quickly became a favorite on the TV talk show circuit. He also became for a time, in his words, "The worst bitch in the world."

He hosted his own show, "Mr. Blackwell Presents," in 1968 and appeared as himself in such TV shows as "Matlock" and "Matt Houston."

In 1992, he sued Johnny Carson for claiming that he had added Mother Teresa to his list, saying the comment exposed him to hatred and ridicule. NBC's response was that the "Tonight Show" host was obviously joking.

"Did you see what he said about Mother Teresa? 'Miss Nerdy Nun is a fashion no-no,'" Carson had said. "Come on now, that's just too much."

During his heyday the issuing of Blackwell's annual list was an eagerly anticipated media event.

On the second Tuesday in January he would assemble reporters at his mansion for a lavish breakfast before making a dramatic entrance for the television cameras.

By the turning of the millennium, however, the list had lost its juice and Blackwell took to issuing it by e-mail.

Born Richard Sylvan Selzer in 1922, Blackwell recounted in his autobiography, "From Rags to Bitches," a troubled, poverty-ridden childhood in which he was variously a truant, thief and prostitute.

Furtado a married woman

TORONTO - Canadian singer Nelly Furtado has revealed she was secretly married over the summer.

The Grammy winner told Entertainment Tonight Canada on Friday that she married sound engineer Demacio Castellon on July 19.

The two worked together on Furtado's 2006 album "Loose," which included the hits "Promiscuous" and "Maneater."

They have been engaged since last year.

Furtado, 29, has a four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship that ended in 2005.

Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs dead at 72

DETROIT – Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs, whose dynamic and emotive voice drove such Motown classics as "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and "Baby I Need Your Loving," died Friday at 72.

He had been ill recently and died in his sleep at the Detroit house he shared with his wife of 48 years, said Dana Meah, the wife of a grandson. The Wayne County medical examiner's office also confirmed the death.

With Stubbs in the lead, the Four Tops sold millions of records and performed for more than four decades without a change in personnel.

"Levi Stubbs was one of the great voices of all times," former Motown labelmate Smokey Robinson said. "He was very near and dear to my heart. He was my friend and my brother, I miss him. God bless his family and comfort them."
The Four Tops began singing together in 1953 under the name the Four Aims and signed a deal with Chess Records. They later changed their names to the Four Tops to avoid being confused with the Ames Brothers.

They also recorded for Red Top, Riverside and Columbia Records and toured supper clubs.

The Four Tops signed with Motown Records in 1963 and produced 20 Top-40 hits over the next 10 years, making music history with the other acts in Berry Gordy's Motown stable.

"It is not only a tremendous personal loss for me, but for the Motown family, and people all over the world who were touched by his rare voice and remarkable spirit," Gordy said Friday. "Levi was the greatest interpreter of songs I've ever heard."

When he and others at Motown first heard "Baby I Need Your Loving," Gordy remembered: "Levi's voice exploded in the room and went straight for our hearts. We all knew it was a hit, hands down."

Their biggest hits were recorded between 1964 and 1967 with the in-house songwriting and production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. Both 1965's "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and 1966's "Reach Out" went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.

Other hits included "Shake Me, Wake Me" (1966), "Bernadette" and "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (both 1967).

The acclaimed documentary film "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," which took its name from the Four Tops song, was released in 2002 and focused on the Funk Brothers, the talented but unheralded musicians who played backup on many Motown recordings.

While Stubbs didn't play a direct role in the film's production, director Paul Justman spoke Friday of the singer's immense talent.

"He was a tremendous artist," Justman said.

Stubbs "fits right up there with all the icons of Motown," said Audley Smith, chief operating officer of the Motown Historical Museum. "His voice was as unique as Marvin's or as Smokey's or as Stevie's."

Gladys Knight remembered Stubbs as an immensely talented and kind man whom she had known since the 1950s. "We were family," she said. "Have you ever heard a voice that sounded like his? It was emotional. It was crisp, with energy and an edge."

She said he was as good a person as he was a performer. "He was amazing, very unassuming," Knight said. "Very humble. So many artists don't like to share. He would hand you the mike in a minute."

The Four Tops toured for decades after their heyday and reached the charts as late as 1988 with "Indestructible" on Arista Records. In 1986, Stubbs provided the voice for Audrey II the man-eating plant in the film "Little Shop of Horrors."
The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Stubbs' death leaves one surviving member of the original group: Abdul "Duke" Fakir. Original Top Lawrence Payton died of liver cancer in 1997. Renaldo "Obie" Benson died of lung cancer in 2005.

Stubbs hadn't done much performing in recent years because of his declining health, but was known to step up on stage from time to time when a Motown touring production came through Detroit.

He was born in 1936 and grew up in Detroit, where he sang with Fakir. They met fellow Payton and Benson while singing at a mutual friend's birthday party, then decided to form a group.

Stubbs is survived by his wife Cliniece, five children and 11 grandchildren.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie announce their divorce

LONDON - Madonna and filmmaker Guy Ritchie will end their marriage after nearly eight years, the couple said in a joint statement Wednesday.

The couple asked the media to "maintain respect for their family at this difficult time," said the statement, e-mailed to The Associated Press by Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist.

A financial settlement has not been agreed by the wealthy couple, who must also decide child custody issues.

In London, Ritchie's mother, Lady Amber Leighton, told reporters that the family wouldn't be making any statement.

Madonna and Ritchie, director of "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels," married in December 2000 at a Scottish castle. The couple have two children: Rocco, 8, and David Banda, 3, who was adopted from Malawi in 2006. Madonna also has a 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from her relationship with personal trainer Carlos Leon.

The couple are reportedly worth some $525 million, the bulk of that belonging to Madonna. Ritchie has an estimated $35 million fortune. They own homes in London, Los Angeles and New York, and a 1,200-acre retreat in Wiltshire, England.

Madonna is to perform concerts Wednesday and Thursday in Boston as her "Sticky and Sweet" tour continues. Ritchie's latest movie, "RocknRolla," recently opened to mixed reviews.

Lawyers said the couple would likely try to come to an agreement before heading to court.

"The judgment of the court would be to try and assess what they came in with and divide what they built up fairly equally," said David Allison, a lawyer with Family Law in Partnership, a London firm.

Ritchie's career has faltered during the marriage, while Madonna's songs, videos and concerts remain popular worldwide.

The needs of the couple's children will also be factored by the court, as they were in Britain's latest high-profile celebrity divorce, the battle between former Beatle Paul McCartney and model Heather Mills. In that case, McCartney and Mills fought over money and custody of their young daughter.

Mills received 24.3 million pounds in the divorce after four years of marriage.

"The needs of children figure quite highly, and that was one of the reasons Heather Mills got a gigantic amount of money, despite the fact that the bulk of Sir Paul's money was made before the marriage," Allison said.

The Sun newspaper splashed the split across its front page Wednesday under the headline: "We're Divorcing." It was the second time this year that the superstar couple's marriage has come under the media microscope. Over the summer, Madonna was linked — unfairly, she said — to the breakup of New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez and his ex-wife Cynthia.

Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.

Ringo Starr says he has no time for fan mail

LONDON (AFP) - Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has told his fans in a bizarre online video message to stop sending him fan mail as he is too busy to sign or read it, and it will only be "tossed".

"This is a serious message to everybody watching my update right now. Peace and love, peace and love," the musician said.

"I want to tell you please -- after the 20th of October do not send fan mail to any address that you have. Nothing will be signed after the 20th of October. If that has the date on the envelope it's going to be tossed.

"I'm warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. So no more fan mail, thank you, thank you, and no objects to be signed. Nothing."

Fans of the former Fab Four can, however, still get their Ringo fix with a Ringo Starr bag, "perfect for groceries, the beach or any other daily activities", sold on the website alongside a Ringo hoodie or t-shirt.

Could Megan Fox Be Any More Perfect?

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Sure, Megan Fox may not be obtainable. We get that. It's understood. That fantasy went buh-bye a long time ago.

Nevertheless, the girl continues to make it harder and harder to stop worshipping the bed she rolls around on.

It seems that behind all those sexy photo spreads and come-hither stares, there lies, quite simply, a nerd.

"Megan's a bit of a geek," Fox's How to Lose Friends & Alienate People costar, Simon Pegg, tells OK! magazine. "She was a fan of [my zombie movie] Shaun of the Dead."

He also points out that while working with the 22-year-old starlet, she often shared her appreciation for comic books.

Here's hoping a love for football, buffalo wings and Guitar Hero are not too far behind.

Stars flocking to Newman tribute

Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks will be among the A-list stars who will pay tribute to movie legend Paul Newman at a benefit gala for the late actor's California kids camp The Painted Turtle.

Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Danny Devito, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and Billy Crystal will also take the stage at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California on October 27.

The stars will perform a stage reading of The World of Nick Adams, an adaptation of a number of Ernest Hemingway's autobiographical stories, written by Newman's longtime pal A.E. Hotchner.

Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds marry in Canada

LOS ANGELES - Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds did a little rushing into it after all. The couple married this weekend, according to publicist Meredith O'Sullivan. She did not provide details.

Us Weekly reported on its Web site Sunday that the small wedding took place at a resort outside Vancouver, British Columbia. Guests included Scarlett's mother, Melanie Sloan, and her brother, Adrian Johansson, the magazine said.

The couple announced their engagement in May.

"We're just enjoying our time," the actress said last month. "We're just recently — very recently — engaged. So, you know, we're just taking it easy. And no big plan yet. But it's a good time and we're just ... enjoying our time to be young and engaged.

"I mean, I'm 23. There's no reason to rush into it. Everything feels very natural and relaxed."

Johansson most recently starred in the Woody Allen film "V CB." Reynolds starred on the TV show "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" and the romantic comedy "Definitely, Maybe."

Appreciation: Newman was among rare breed of star

Paul Newman couldn't have existed today — at least, not the way we came to know him.

Sure, the talent would have been there, the classic good looks, the magnetism, the easy charm. But the privacy he demanded (and won), which helped establish and solidify his mystique as a bona fide movie star, never would have been afforded him in our tabloid-driven, celebrity-obsessed culture.

Sad but true. Part of why we were fascinated with Newman, who died Friday at 83 of cancer, was because we didn't know every gory detail of his life, even though he'd reached the zenith of fame and popularity. He left us craving more — and that he lived and died far from Hollywood's glare in the small town of Westport, Conn., in the converted farmhouse he shared with his wife of 50 years, Joanne Woodward, speaks volumes not only about who he was but who he didn't want to be.

It's hard to think of an actor today who compares in that regard: someone who's blazingly confident on-screen but maintains some mystery about who he really is off of it, someone who would make even hardened, cynical journalists go weak in the knees upon meeting face-to-face. Newman's longtime friend and co-star, Robert Redford, certainly qualifies. But of the current generation of stars? We know too much about Tom Cruise. Will Smith? Leonardo DiCaprio? Johnny Depp, maybe — though he's carved out a path of quirky character roles, despite his leading-man looks.

George Clooney springs to mind, but even he has fought public battles with the paparazzi over the need to respect celebrities' privacy. Clooney himself seemed to recognize the legacy Newman left in reacting to his death Saturday morning: "He set the bar too high for the rest of us ... not just actors, but all of us. He will be greatly missed," he said — through his publicist.

Larger than life? Sure. But looking back at Newman's career, which encompassed nearly 60 feature films over the past half-century, it's the range that leaves an impression. You never forgot you were watching Paul Newman. He was a superstar, after all. He was the draw. But he could fit into a wide variety of parts — unlike some other actors with longevity and stature, who shall remain nameless for these purposes, who have devolved into caricatures of themselves as they've aged.

In just a sampling, Newman played:

• A washed-up football player in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958).

• Pool shark "Fast Eddie" Felson in "The Hustler" (1961), the role he would reprise in "The Color of Money" (1986), which, surprisingly, earned him his only Academy Award in 10 nominations.

• A bad-boy cowboy in "Hud" (1963).

• A rebellious prisoner in "Cool Hand Luke" (1967).

• A train robber alongside Redford, iconically, in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969).

• The player-coach of a small-town hockey team in the comedy cult favorite "Slap Shot" (1977).

• A wrongly accused suspect in a rare film that gets journalism right, "Absence of Malice" (1981).

• A cantankerous grandfather in "Nobody's Fool" (1994).

• A formidable mob boss in "Road to Perdition" (2002).

Newman came up in the Method-acting tradition, a la Brando, but there was never anything obviously studied about him; he made the swagger look natural. And his evolution over the years — from young and dangerous to middle-aged and struggling to older and wiser — constantly carried with it the aura of dignity.

"His powerful eloquence, his consummate sense of craft, so consummate that you didn't see any sense of effort up there on the screen, set a new standard," said Martin Scorsese, who directed him in "The Color of Money."

Newman himself didn't enjoy talking about acting, and could come off as a bit distant in interviews when asked about it. He did offer some insight to his motivation, however, in 2002:

"I used to make three pictures a year, and now I make a picture every three years. Things change. There have been a lot of good things out there, but they weren't the kind of pictures that I wanted to make. I didn't want to do pictures about explosions. I don't want to do pictures about shattered glass and broken bodies and blood. That just doesn't interest me."

Of course, we came to understand what interested him through his off-camera pursuits later in life. His passion came shining through in his love of, and talent for, auto racing. But it's through his philanthropy — the Newman's Own Foundation, which has raised more than $250 million for charities worldwide, and the Hole in the Wall Camps for children with life-threatening diseases — that he showed his true heart.

Maybe Paul Newman wasn't so hard to figure out after all.

Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83

WESTPORT, Conn. - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.

Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.

He got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."

He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer," and Newman directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie."

With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was a heartthrob just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. "I was always a character actor," he once said. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."

Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.

A screen legend by his mid-40s, he waited a long time for his first competitive Oscar, winning in 1987 for "The Color of Money," a reprise of the role of pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, whom Newman portrayed in the 1961 film "The Hustler."

Newman delivered a magnetic performance in "The Hustler," playing a smooth-talking, whiskey-chugging pool shark who takes on Minnesota Fats — played by Jackie Gleason — and becomes entangled with a gambler played by George C. Scott. In the sequel — directed by Scorsese — "Fast Eddie" is no longer the high-stakes hustler he once was, but rather an aging liquor salesman who takes a young pool player (Cruise) under his wing before making a comeback.

He won an honorary Oscar in 1986 "in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft." In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.

His most recent academy nod was a supporting actor nomination for the 2002 film "Road to Perdition." One of Newman's nominations was as a producer; the other nine were in acting categories. (Jack Nicholson holds the record among actors for Oscar nominations, with 12; actress Meryl Streep has had 14.)

As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the 2005 HBO drama "Empire Falls" and providing the voice of a crusty 1951 car in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."

But in May 2007, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had given up acting, though he intended to remain active in charity projects. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."

He received his first Oscar nomination for playing a bitter, alcoholic former star athlete in the 1958 film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Elizabeth Taylor played his unhappy wife and Burl Ives his wealthy, domineering father in Tennessee Williams' harrowing drama, which was given an upbeat ending for the screen.

In "Cool Hand Luke," he was nominated for his gritty role as a rebellious inmate in a brutal Southern prison. The movie was one of the biggest hits of 1967 and included a tagline, delivered one time by Newman and one time by prison warden Strother Martin, that helped define the generation gap, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."

Newman's hair was graying, but he was as gourgeous as ever and on the verge of his greatest popular success. In 1969, Newman teamed with Redford for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," a comic Western about two outlaws running out of time. Newman paired with Redford again in 1973 in "The Sting," a comedy about two Depression-era con men. Both were multiple Oscar winners and huge hits, irreverent, unforgettable pairings of two of the best-looking actors of their time.

Newman also turned to producing and directing. In 1968, he directed "Rachel, Rachel," a film about a lonely spinster's rebirth. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including Newman, for producer of a best motion picture, and Woodward, for best actress. The film earned Newman the best director award from the New York Film Critics.

In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1972 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.

"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the rubbish of Hollywood," he told People magazine in 1979.

Despite his love of race cars, Newman continued to make movies and continued to pile up Oscar nominations, his looks remarkably intact, his acting becoming more subtle, nothing like the mannered method performances of his early years, when he was sometimes dismissed as a Brando imitator. "It takes a long time for an actor to develop the assurance that the trim, silver-haired Paul Newman has acquired," Pauline Kael wrote of him in the early 1980s.

In 1982, he got his Oscar fifth nomination for his portrayal of an honest businessman persecuted by an irresponsible reporter in "Absence of Malice." The following year, he got his sixth for playing a down-and-out alcoholic attorney in "The Verdict."

In 1995, he was nominated for his slyest, most understated work yet, the town curmudgeon and deadbeat in "Nobody's Fool." New York Times critic Caryn James found his acting "without cheap sentiment and self-pity," and observed, "It says everything about Mr. Newman's performance, the single best of this year and among the finest he has ever given, that you never stop to wonder how a guy as good-looking as Paul Newman ended up this way."

Newman, who shunned Hollywood life, was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive, according to one friend.

He also claimed that he never read reviews of his movies.

"If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks," he said.

Off the screen, Newman had a taste for beer and was known for his practical jokes. He once had a Porsche installed in Redford's hallway — crushed and covered with ribbons.

"I think that my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told Newsweek magazine in a 1994 interview.

In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.

"We will miss our friend Paul Newman, but are lucky ourselves to have known such a remarkable person," Robert Forrester, vice chairman of Newman's Own Foundation, said in a statement.

Hotchner said Newman should have "everybody's admiration."

"For me it's the loss of an adventurous freindship over the past 50 years and it's the loss of a great American citizen," Hotchner told The Associated Press.

In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.

He and Woodward bought an 18th century farmhouse in Westport, where they raised their three daughters, Elinor "Nell," Melissa and Clea.

Newman had two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, and a son, Scott, from a previous marriage to Jacqueline Witte.

Scott died in 1978 of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. After his only son's death, Newman established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.

Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of two boys of Arthur S. Newman, a partner in a sporting goods store, and Theresa Fetzer Newman.

He was raised in the affluent suburb of Shaker Heights, where he was encouraged him to pursue his interest in the arts by his mother and his uncle Joseph Newman, a well-known Ohio poet and journalist.

Following World War II service in the Navy, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he got a degree in English and was active in student productions.

He later studied at Yale University's School of Drama, then headed to New York to work in theater and television, his classmates at the famed Actor's Studio including Brando, James Dean and Karl Malden. His breakthrough was enabled by tragedy: Dean, scheduled to star as the disfigured boxer in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler," died in a car crash in 1955. His role was taken by Newman, then a little-known performer.

Newman started in movies the year before, in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize. By 1958, he had won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the shiftless Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer."

In December 1994, about a month before his 70th birthday, he told Newsweek magazine he had changed little with age.

"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore," he said.

Newman is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.

Natalie Cole hospitalized due to hepatitis C

NEW YORK - Natalie Cole, who recently revealed she had hepatitis C, has been hospitalized as a result of side effects from her medication and a heavy promotional schedule, her representative said Friday.

The Grammy-winning singer has been in a New York City hospital since Sept. 12, and is expected to remain there for at least a few days, according to publicist Maureen O'Connor of the firm Rogers & Cowan.

Cole announced in July that she was suffering from hepatitis C, a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood. She said at the time that the disease was revealed during a routine examination and was likely caused by her drug use years ago.

O'Connor said Cole had been responding well to treatment, but blamed the medicine she has been taking and a busy publicity schedule to promote her new album, "Still Unforgettable," with causing her problems. Cole had taped several TV appearances and had appeared live on NBC's "Today" show on Sept. 11, a day before her hospitalization.

Cole is expected to be in the hospital for a few more days and then will return to her home in Los Angeles, where she will be on bedrest, O'Connor said.

"We canceling her activities in October, but we do expect her to have a complete recovery," she said. "She just needs some rest."

O'Connor said Cole has been well enough to talk on the phone everyday, but didn't have much information on her condition.

Cole, the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, has sold millions of albums in her own long career. Her best-selling work was her 1991 multiple-Grammy winning CD, "Unforgettable ... With Love," on which she remade some of her father's classics.

Legendary CFL coach and player Ron Lancaster dies of lung cancer at age 69

Hamilton (CP) - The CFL has lost one of its legends.

Canadian Football Hall of Famer Ron Lancaster has died. He was 69. A Hamilton Tiger-Cats spokesman says he died Wednesday night.

The former star quarterback and coach was diagnosed with lung cancer in early August and had been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy to treat the disease.

He had been working as a colour analyst on Hamilton Tiger-Cats radio broadcasts this season before receiving the diagnosis.

Lancaster began his illustrious CFL career in 1960 with the Ottawa Rough Riders.

He was dealt to Saskatchewan in 1963, spending 16 years there and leading the Roughriders to their first-ever Grey Cup title in 1966. He was the CFL's outstanding player in 1970 and '76.

He also had a lengthy coaching career with Saskatchewan, Edmonton and Hamilton, winning two Grey Cups while on the sidelines.

He is survived by his wife Bev, three children Lana, Ron and Bob and his four grandchildren.

Motown songwriter, producer Norman Whitfield dies

LOS ANGELES - Norman Whitfield, songwriter and producer who co-wrote a string of Motown classics including "War," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," has died. He was 67.

A spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said Whitfield died there Tuesday. He suffered from complications of diabetes and had recently emerged from a coma, The Detroit Free Press reported.

The New York-born Whitfield was a longtime Motown producer who during the 1960s and '70s injected rock and psychedelic touches into the label's soul music.

Many of his biggest hits were co-written with Barrett Strong, with whom he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. He and Strong won the Grammy in 1972 for best R&B song for the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone."

Many of Whitfield's songs from late '60s and early '70s have a strong political tone, including the Temptations' 1970 "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)," and Edwin Starr's 1970 "War."

In his only No. 1 hit, Starr sings in an anguished voice that war is "a heartbreaker, friend only to the undertaker. ... What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" Whitfield produced as well as co-wrote the song.

Among Whitfield's other songs were "Cloud Nine," "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" and "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," all hits for the Temptations; and "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby," a 1969 hit for Marvin Gaye.

The group Undisputed Truth had a top five hit in 1971 with Whitfield and Strong's "Smiling Faces Sometimes."

Whitfield "was able to go beyond R&B cliches with punchy melodies and arrangements and topical lyrics," Joe McEwen and Jim Miller wrote in "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll."

Whitfield won another Grammy in 1976 for best original TV or motion picture score for "Car Wash." The movie's theme song was a No. 1 hit for Rose Royce and a Golden Globe nominee for best original song.

In a statement, Motown great Smokey Robinson hailed Whitfield as "one of the most prolific songwriters and record producers of our time. He will live forever through his great music."

Just last week, Gaye's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," from 1968, was ranked at No. 65 in Billboard magazine's compilation of the top singles of the past 50 years. It was also a hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips, in 1967.

Pink Floyd member Richard Wright dies age 65

LONDON - Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.

Pink Floyd's spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member's family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group's jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia "happenings" made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group's dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.

The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote "The Great Gig In The Sky" and "Us And Them" for that album, and later worked on the group's epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother," "Echoes" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of "The Wall" when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of "The Wall," and did not perform on Pink Floyd's 1983 album "The Final Cut."

Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, "Identity," with Atlantic Records.

Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums "The Division Bell" and "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums "Wet Dream" (1978) and "Broken China" (1996).

In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the "Live 8" charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.

Wright also worked on Gilmour's solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album "On An Island" and the accompanying world tour.

"Peanuts" animator Bill Melendez dies

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Bill Melendez, best known for bringing the Peanuts characters to life with such classics as "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," died Tuesday at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica. He was 91.

Melendez, the only animator permitted by Charles M. Schulz to work with the Peanuts characters, earned eight Emmy Awards, 17 Emmy nominations, one Oscar nomination and two Peabody Awards. He began his career at Disney and Warner Bros., working on classic characters at those studios, and spent more than 70 years in the entertainment industry.

In 1948, the Mexican native left Warner Bros. and for more than a decade served as a director and producer on more than 1,000 commercials and films for United Productions of America, Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Prods.

It was at UPA that Melendez started doing work for the New York-based J. Walter Thompson ad agency, whose clients included Ford. The carmaker expressed interest in using the Peanuts characters to sell its cars on TV, and in 1959 Melendez prepared his animation work and showed it to Peanuts creator Schulz.

Melendez went on to bring Charlie Brown and his pals to the screen in more than 63 half-hour specials, five one-hour specials, four feature films and more than 372 commercials. In addition to perennial favorites "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (1966), Melendez produced the Oscar-nominated "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" (1971), "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (1973), "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" (1980) and "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown" (1975). He also provided the voices for Snoopy and Woodstock through the years.

Melendez also animated TV specials "Garfield on the Town," "Cathy," "Babar Comes to America" and "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe," among others. He shared an Emmy in 1987 for outstanding animated program with three others for "Cathy."

His last credit was as a producer for the 2006 TV special "He's A Bully, Charlie Brown."

Melendez, who sported a handle bar mustache for decades, began his career at Walt Disney Studios and worked on "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," "Bambi," "Dumbo" and classic Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons. He then moved to Warners to animate Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and others. He worked under the monikers C. Melendez and J.C. Melendez.

Bill Melendez Prods., its sister studio Melendez Films in London and Sopwith Prods. (Melendez's art distribution unit) will continue to animate, direct and produce features and commercials.

Melendez is survived by his wife of 68 years, Helen; two sons, Steven Melendez and (Ret.) Navy Rear Admiral Rodrigo Melendez; six grandchildren; and 11 great grandchildren. A memorial service will take place for family only.

Donations can be made in Melendez's name to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

'Dean of Canadian film composers' dies at 92

A New Brunswick-born composer who wrote music for hundreds of films while working for the National Film Board in Ottawa died over the weekend at age 92.

Eldon Rathburn became unofficially known as the "dean of Canadian film composers" during his three decades at the NFB and was himself the subject of a 1995 NFB documentary called Eldon Rathburn: They Shoot… He Scores.

Rathburn was born in Queenstown, N.B., and later moved to Saint John, where he played in Don Messer's band before the legendary fiddler became a television folk icon.

Rathburn started working for the National Film Board in 1947 and went on to score 250 short and feature films. He composed the soundtrack for the 1977 film adaptation of W.O. Mitchell's novel Who Has Seen the Wind.

He continued to compose after retiring 30 years later.

Rathburn became a member of the Order of Canada in 1998.

Singer-actor Jerry Reed dies at the age of 71

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jerry Reed, a singer who became a good ol' boy actor in car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit," has died of complications from emphysema at 71.

His longtime booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed, no relation to the star, said Reed died early Monday.

"He's one of the greatest entertainers in the world. That's the way I feel about him," Moore-Reed said.

Reed was a gifted guitarist who later became a songwriter, singer and actor.

As a singer in the 1970s and early 1980s, he had a string of hits that included "Amos Moses," "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "East Bound and Down" and "The Bird."

In the mid-1970s, he began acting in movies such as "Smokey and the Bandit" with Burt Reynolds, usually as a good ol' boy. But he was an ornery heavy in "Gator," directed by Reynolds, and a hateful coach in 1998's "The Waterboy," starring Adam Sandler.

Reynolds gave him a shiny black 1980 Trans Am like the one they used in "Smokey and the Bandit."

Reed and Kris Kristofferson paved the way for Nashville music personalities to make inroads into films. Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers (TV movies) followed their lead.

"I went around the corner to motion pictures," he said in a 1992 AP interview.

Reed had quadruple bypass surgery in June 1999.

Born in Atlanta, Reed learned to play guitar at age 8 when his mother bought him a $2 guitar and showed him how to play a G-chord.

He dropped out of high school to tour with Ernest Tubb and Faron Young.

At 17, he signed his first recording contract, with Capitol Records.

He moved to Nashville in the mid-1960s where he caught the eye of Chet Atkins.

He first established himself as a songwriter. Elvis Presley recorded two of his songs, "U.S. Male" and "Guitar Man" (both in 1968). He also wrote the hit "A Thing Called Love," which was recorded in 1972 by Johnny Cash. He also wrote songs for Brenda Lee, Tom Jones, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Reed was voted instrumentalist of the year in 1970 by the Country Music Association.

He won a Grammy Award for "When You're Hot, You're Hot" in 1971. A year earlier, he shared a Grammy with Chet Atkins for their collaboration, "Me and Jerry." In 1992, Atkins and Reed won a Grammy for "Sneakin' Around."

Reed continued performing on the road into the late 1990s, doing about 80 shows a year.

"I'm proud of the songs, I'm proud of things that I did with Chet (Atkins), I'm proud that I played guitar and was accepted by musicians and guitar players," he told the AP in 1992.

In a 1998 interview with The Tennessean, he admitted that his acting ability was questionable.

"I used to watch people like Richard Burton and Mel Gibson and think, `I could never do that.'

"When people ask me what my motivation is, I have a simple answer: Money."

Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, dies

LOS ANGELES - Don LaFontaine, the man who popularized the now loved-catch phrase, "in a world where..." and lent his voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68.

LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.

LaFontaine made more than 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.

In a rare on-screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for a car insurance company where he played himself telling a customer, "In a world where both of our cars were totally under water..."

In an interview last year, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.

"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to," he said of his viewers. "That's very easily done by saying, `In a world where ... violence rules.' `In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene."

LaFontaine insisted he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.

LaFontaine went on to work in the promo industry in the early 1960s. As an audio engineer, he produced radio spots for movies with producer Floyd Peterson.

When an announcer didn't show up for a recording session in 1965, LaFontaine voiced his first narration, a promo for the film, "Gunfighters of Casa Grande." The client, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, liked his performance.

LaFontaine remained active until recently, averaging seven to 10 voiceover sessions a day. He worked from a home studio his wife nicknamed "The Hole," where his fax machine delivered scripts.

LaFontaine is survived by his wife, the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three daughters.

His funeral arrangements were pending.

New Orleans celeb faction quiet as Gustav sputters

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago, celebrities reacted with a mix of grief, outrage and generosity. All-star telethons raised millions for storm victims, Kanye West and others derided the government's response — even Sean Penn went to the region to personally assist in rescue efforts.

Many celebrities who live in or hail from the area, from John Goodman to Brett Favre, took a deep and personal interest in helping relief efforts. Ellen DeGeneres, a New Orleans native whose elderly aunt, cousins and friends had their Gulf Coast homes destroyed, taped an episode of her show dedicated to the devastation.

With Hurricane Gustav only delivering a glancing blow to the region at Category 2 strength instead of the wallop that was predicated, it was still unclear Monday what the celebrity response would be in its wake. Though Gustav was still battering the area with rain and high winds on Monday night, there was no damage or deaths on the scale of Katrina.

Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day telethon raised a record $65 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association — but also made a pitch for those inconvenienced by Hurricane Gustav. This year's 22-hour telethon added a special plea for MDA-registered families forced to leave their homes because of the hurricane.

Efforts to reach stars from the area, such as rapper Lil Wayne, jazz star and actor Harry Connick Jr. and jazz great Wynton Marsalis — were unsuccessful on Monday, when most offices were closed due to the Labor Day holiday.

Representatives for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who lived in New Orleans for about a year after Katrina struck, also did not return messages. The couple and their famously expanding brood stayed in the city while Pitt was filming "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" last and were active in raising funds and other projects to rebuild the city.

West famously chastised President Bush during a national telethon to raise funds after Katrina struck by saying, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." But on his blog today, his postings centered around new music from Lupe Fiasco and a new style of watch rather than Gustav.

Gustav slams La. coastline west of New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - A weakened Hurricane Gustav crashed Monday into the flood-prone but nearly deserted coast of Louisiana, making landfall west of New Orleans as a Category 2 storm. Water was splashing over some floodwalls, but city officials were optimistic the levees protecting the city would hold.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gustav hit just before 10 a.m. Monday near the community of Cocodrie, the heart of the state's fishing and oil industry. Forecasters once feared the storm would arrive as a devastating Category 4 with much more powerful winds.

The city's levee system has been only partially rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina struck three years ago. Wind-driven water was topping the Industrial Canal floodwall, but it had not breached.

"We are seeing some overtopping waves," said Col. Jeff Bedey, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' hurricane protection office. "We are cautiously optimistic and confident that we won't see catastrophic wall failure."

As a nervous nation watched to see if Gustav would deliver another Katrina-style hit on the partially rebuilt city, officials steadfastly insisted three years of planning and infrastructure upgrades had prepared them for whatever was to come.

For all their seeming similarities, Hurricanes Gustav and Katrina were different in one critical respect: Katrina smashed the Gulf Coast with an epic storm surge that topped 27 feet, a far higher wall of water than Gustav hauled ashore.

"We don't expect the loss of life, certainly, that we saw in Katrina," Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Harvey E. Johnson told The Associated Press. "But we are expecting a lot of homes to be damaged, a lot of infrastructure to be flooded, and damaged severely."

Gusts snapped large branches from the majestic oak trees that form a canopy over St. Charles Avenue. Tens of thousands were without power in New Orleans and other low-lying parishes, but officials said backup generators were keeping city drainage pumps in service. Nearly 2 million had evacuated the coast, and only a few holdouts and those that refused to abandon Bourbon Street remained.

Katrina was a bigger storm when it made landfall in August 2005, and it made a direct hit on the Mississippi coast. Gustav skirted along Louisiana's shoreline at "a more gentle angle," said National Weather Service storm surge specialist Will Shaffer.

Initial reports indicated storm surge from Gust of about 8 feet above normal tides, but forecasts indicated up to 14 feet in surge was possible.

Michael Jackson at 50: `The best is yet to come'

NEW YORK - Michael Jackson marked a personal milestone Friday: his 50th birthday.

The 13-time Grammy winner, who has sold more than 750 million albums, told ABC News' "Good Morning America" that he's "looking forward to doing a lot of great things. ... I think the best is yet to come in my true humble opinion."

Jackson talked to ABC by phone Thursday.

"People see some of the things I do and they say, `Why don't you show this to the world? People don't know you do these things.' And maybe I will," he said.

Jackson said recording the blockbuster albums "Thriller" and "Off the Wall" were the happiest times of his life.

"That meant very much to me and seemed to be received so beautifully by the public and the world. You know, I enjoyed it very much," he said.

As for his birthday plans, "I'll just have a little cake with my children and we'll probably watch some cartoons," he said.

Jackson, a twice-divorced father of three, said he aims to provide a normal life for his children.

"I am letting them enjoy their childhood as much as possible. ... I let them go to the arcade and go to the movies and do things. I think that comes naturally. I want them to get to do things I didn't get to do," he said.

"I get pretty emotional when I see them having a wonderful time," he said.

Jackson was asked if he had received a membership card from AARP, which focuses on the needs and concerns of those 50 and older.

"Not that I know of!" he said, laughing.

David Duchovny in rehab for sex addiction

LOS ANGELES (AP) — David Duchovny has entered a rehabilitation facility for sex addiction. In a statement released Thursday by his lawyer, Stanton Stein, the actor said he did so voluntarily, adding: "I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family."

The actor's publicist, Flo Grace, confirmed the rehab report, which first appeared on People.com.

She and Stein both declined to elaborate further.

Duchovny, 48, plays a sex-obsessed character on the Showtime series "Californication," which earned Emmy nominations for casting and cinematography. The show's second season begins Sept. 28. Showtime had no comment Thursday.

The actor appeared in the film "The X Files: I Want to Believe" earlier this summer. He has been married to actress Tea Leoni since 1997. They have two children.

Ladies frontman survives plane crash

BANCROFT - Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson and three others are "really lucky" to have survived a float-plane crash north of Bancroft Sunday, officials say.

Robertson's plane went down in the woods north of Bancroft early Sunday afternoon.

"Everyone is fine and that is the important thing," said Adam Smith, a spokesman for the band, said Sunday night in an e-mail to The Intelligencer. "That's all the comment we have at this time."

Sgt. Jeff MacKinnon of Bancroft OPP said the crash happened near Baptiste Lake, about 10 minutes north of Bancroft and one of the North Hastings district's most popular cottage areas.

"At 12:30 p.m. a Cessna 206 was taking off from Baptiste Lake, lost airspeed and entered a wooded area west of the lake," Sgt. Jeff MacKinnon of Bancroft OPP said in a telephone interview.

He said the plane was totaled but all four adults managed to walk out of the woods and soon reported the crash.

"They got out and then called it in," said MacKinnon.

MacKinnon said police aren't releasing any further details, including the names of the plane's occupants, because the investigation is now being headed by Canada's Transportation Safety Board.

Sources in the area, however, said Robertson was piloting his own plane.

"They're all really lucky to get out of there. I think there was somebody on their side," said Brian Sears, deputy fire chief for Herschel Ward of the Municipality of Hastings Highlands.

"They could smell the fuel, so they didn't waste any time getting out of it."

He said the crash happened about a kilometre from the nearest road, with the plane breaking trees on its way to the ground.

"He'd clipped one a bit farther back from there (the crash site). It hit some more maples, and the maples just leaned down and uprooted, and from the looks of it cushioned it from any real heavy blow," said Sears.

"She's on her nose up against the trees. One pontoon is split right back underneath it.

"I've left some guys there because there was quite a bit of fuel leaking," he said. "We plugged it up as much as we could."

Sears said Robertson appeared to be doing well, and visited the site at least once after the forced landing.

"He came over and brought some water and pop over for the guys," said Sears.

Robertson doubles as host of the Ed's Up television show on Outdoor Life Network Canada. He's a well-known, well-liked cottager in the area.

Nearby resident Gord Peel, who said he has known Robertson for about 10 years, said he arrived on the scene about 20 minutes after the crash. Peel said the passengers were Robertson's wife, Natalie, and their friends Julie and Jeff Jones.

"There was some gusting wind up here today," Peel told The Intelligencer. "He got up, and he got into a stall."

Following the stall, he said, Robertson managed to "set the plane straight down into the trees. It hung up into a large tree, nose down, and its nose is resting on the ground.

"The doors were jammed; they couldn't get out. They had to get out through a window. They didn't even have a scratch. They were just more in shock than anything."

He said he found the four friends walking on a road, somewhat shaken but unharmed.

Belleville's Shirley and Willard Wasson were surprised to receive a phone call from Peel Sunday.

Shirley Wasson said their acquaintance called at around 1:30 p.m. to report the plane had crashed on the Wassons' 80-acre property.

Her husband said he'd been told the plane could not be removed until authorities had investigated the crash.

Transportation Safety Board staff, meanwhile, had not returned phone calls by press time Sunday.

Deborah Baxter is a spokeswoman for Transport Canada, which also investigates aviation incidents.

"We have not received a report on this accident, so if it was a private plane and nobody was hurt ... we may not get a report until later," Baxter said Sunday evening.

Applegate calls double mastectomy a 'tough' choice

NEW YORK - Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer — the really long view. Speaking on ABC News' "Good Morning America" in her first interview since announcing her diagnosis earlier this month, the "Samantha Who?" star said she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She'll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.

"I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that," she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. "I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."

The 36-year-old actress elected to remove both breasts even though the disease was contained in one breast. She said she is now cancer-free.

Applegate called the operation a logical decision. Her mother battled breast cancer, and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."

The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, she said.

"Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes," she said. "And I think that's — it's all part of healing, and anyone who's going through it out there, it's OK to cry. It's OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."

The Emmy-nominated "Samantha Who?" star has kept her sense of humor intact.

"I've laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I'll face challenges, but you can't get any darker than where I've been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, `I have to get out there and make this a positive.'"

Applegate's cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI. She said she's starting a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer to meet the costs of an MRI, which is not always covered by insurance.

Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, "Stand Up to Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.

She has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the ABC show "Samantha Who?", in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.

Northern Pikes frontman rebounds from addiction

TORONTO - The last time Northern Pikes frontman Jay Semko tried to break out with a solo album, it all went horribly wrong.

He had pulled together a disc called "Redberry" by reworking a collection of old song ideas he had socked away, and just as the album came out two years ago, found himself spiralling into the depths of alcoholism.

Semko says he checked into a treatment facility in rural Quebec, and from there, conducted a media interview by payphone, hoping to disguise how far he had fallen but soon found himself revealing all his secrets. After just a month in rehab, Semko hit the road on tour, eventually finding himself alone in Halifax with a bottle of vodka and on the precipice of what would be a hard fall off the wagon.

"There's about a three-month period there that was very blurry to me - where I had periods of being quite coherent and doing things and then I would lose it and take off on a bender for many days at a time," Semko says by phone from his home in Saskatoon as he prepares to release a new disc, this time sober.

"I became very negative and I really didn't (care) about anything. Towards the end, I just was this self-absorbed, negative individual."

By this point, Semko had lost his wife of 16 years, incurred stomach and liver problems, pawned his guitar and even began losing interest in the music he loved.

He says it took his family four interventions to get him to start seeing straight, and with the help of a tight support group and newfound spirituality, says he's been clean since March 26, 2007 and is ready for a new chapter in his life.

Semko's third disc, "International Superstar," is a country-tinged collection of bittersweet tunes outlining dark days and celebrating a healthier outlook on life. The catchy title track offers such evocative lyrics as: "Look at the international superstar, drunk as a skunk trying to smoke a cigar; He just dumped his wife and the bank took his car, he's an international superstar".

The album closes with the song "Jesus Is Gonna Help."

Semko credits a couple of fruitful trips to Nashville with reinvigorating his creative spirit and finding collaborators who could push him in positive directions.

"I really got out of the mode of trusting my instincts and I think a lot of that was because I was pretty messed up," says Semko, whose hits with the Pikes included "Things I Do For Money," "She Ain't Pretty," "Girl With a Problem," and "Teenland."

"It got to the point where I don't think I was dealing correctly with reality and not judging, not able to focus in on my instincts when it came to writing. Everything gets affected by that and sometimes in a positive way, and unfortunately most of the time in a negative way."

Although the Northern Pikes didn't quite reach the heights of international stardom, Semko points to the band's heyday in the early '90s as seeding a burgeoning addiction problem. He notes that their booking contracts often involved demands for large amounts of alcohol, and while his bandmates largely managed to keep things under control, he could not.

"Our (tour) rider was huge - a huge, huge rider of alcohol," says Semko, who still tours occasionally with the Pikes.

"We're talking, like, two large bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka and a bottle of schnapps and a bottle of scotch and 48 beer and anything else that you may want in there. And you know, if you're really smart about it, then you can do things in moderation and have no problem with it, but I'm not like that".

Despite his personal demons, Semko has maintained a steady work schedule since the Pikes temporarily broke up around 1993. Semko went on to score music for TV and film, including the Paul Gross vehicles "Due South" and "Men With Brooms." He'll be in Toronto next week (Aug. 15-17) for a "Due South" fan convention in which hundreds of devotees are expected to converge for panel discussions with the stars, play games and go tours of the series' shooting locations.

The appearance will coincide with the release of Semko's first solo single in more than 10 years, the wistful ballad, "She Won't Be Lonely Long."

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world right now because there's a good chance that I would not be here and not able to do what I'm doing," Semko says of his future.

"When I think of many of the situations that I put myself in through the years, it's a miracle that I'm here, it really is. And as a result of that, I feel obligated to be good now. To do good things to try and make the most of what I have now."

Reports: Christina Applegate has breast cancer

LOS ANGELES - Actress Christina Applegate reportedly is undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Ame Van Iden, publicist for the 36-year-old actress, released the following statement late Saturday:

"Christina Applegate was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer. Benefiting from early detection through a doctor ordered MRI, the cancer is not life threatening. Christina is following the recommended treatment of her doctors and will have a full recovery."

Applegate has earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her starring role in ABC's comedy "Samantha Who?" Applegate plays the title character, a young career woman who awakens from an eight-day coma remembering nothing about her past.

The series debuted last October and marked the return to television of Applegate, who helped establish the upstart Fox network in 1987 as ditzy teenager Kelly Bundy on "Married ... with Children." The raunchy comedy ran 11 seasons and has been airing in syndication ever since.

She won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2003 for her portrayal of Amy Green, the younger sister of Jennifer Aniston's character on "Friends."

Applegate earned a 2005 Tony Award nomination for her Broadway role in "Sweet Charity."

"I'm really grateful that acting is the job that was chosen for me," Applegate told The Associated Press in April. "I get really lost when I'm not working. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with myself. Thank God for dance class and The New York Times crossword puzzle and `American Idol.' But acting is what I really have to do."

Applegate is among the celebrities scheduled to appear on the "Stand Up To Cancer" one-hour television special to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.

Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks welcomes third daughter

NEW YORK - Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks and her husband, Gareth, have welcomed another addition to their all-girl brood: daughter Harper Rosie Maguire.

The baby was born Friday morning in Austin, Texas, weighing in at seven pounds, 10 ounces, the Dixie Chicks announced on their website. The couple have twin daughters, Eva and Katie, born in 2004.

"Martie is doing very well and Gareth and the family are over the moon," the band said in a statement.

Maguire, 38, plays fiddle and mandolin in the Dixie Chicks, which also includes Natalie Maines and Maguire's sister, Emily Robison. Hits by the Chicks include "Wide Open Spaces," "Without You," and "Travelin' Soldier."

`Golden Girls' actress Estelle Getty dies at 84

LOS ANGELES - Actress Estelle Getty has died at the age of 84.

Her son, Carl Gettleman, says the co-star of the TV show "The Golden Girls" died early Tuesday at home in Los Angeles. Gettleman says she suffered from advanced dementia.

The diminutive actress spent 40 years struggling for success before landing the role of a lifetime in 1985, playing the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on "The Golden Girls."

Affleck, Garner expecting 2nd child

Who better is there to confirm your pregnancy than your former TV dad?

Victor Garber, who played Jennifer Garner's father on "Alias," confirmed the speculation that the actress is indeed pregnant with her second child with husband Ben Affleck, reports Usmagazine.com.

Garner, 36, has been wearing loose-fitting tops of late, fueling rumors that she's expecting.

A source claims that the pregnancy is five months along.

The couple already has a daughter, 2-year-old Violet.

Garner last starred in "The Kingdom" and appeared in the teen pregnancy comedy "Juno." Affleck, 35, last wrote and directed "Gone Baby Gone" and will co-star in the relationship film "He's Just Not That Into You" next year.

Johansson dreams about car sex

Scarlett Johansson has made a steamy confession that will have fiance Ryan Reynolds' libido revving - she fantasizes about having sex in a car.

The actress, who announced her engagement to Reynolds in May, has admitted to a rather racy dream.

She reveals, "Sex in a car. If I were in a really raunchy frame of mind wanting something crazy and kinky, the back seat would be it."

Ontario cops save David Lee Roth's life

Two Ontario police officers have been credited with saving the life of Van Halen singer David Lee Roth - after he suffered a severe allergic reaction.

The rocker was pulled over on a stretch of highway in Oakland, Ontario on June 8 for speeding, and when cops approached the vehicle, they realized the star was in anaphylactic shock.

Roth has an allergy to nuts and was suffering a severe reaction after coming into contact with a contaminated substance.

The officers called an ambulance and kept Roth calm until paramedics arrived on the scene, according to CTV.ca.

Constable Chris Thompson admits he didn't realize that he was dealing with a famous rock star when he attended to the crisis.

He says, "At the time I wasn't star struck, I was just trying to help him. The guy stuck out like a sore thumb. He was wearing a little silk scarf and flashy clothing - it's not something you see in Oakland too often."

It's a girl for Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban!!

Oscar winner Nicole Kidman gave birth to a girl in Nashville on Monday morning, according to a publicist for her husband, country singer Keith Urban.

The couple named her Sunday Rose Kidman Urban.

"Nicole and Keith Urban are delighted to announce that Nicole Kidman gave birth to a baby girl on Monday morning, July 7, 2008," the publicist said in a statement.

Sunday Rose weighed six pounds, 7½ ounces at birth, and mother and daughter were doing well, the publicist said.

Kidman, star of The Golden Compass and Baz Luhrmann's upcoming big budget epic Australia, has two older children.

With her former husband Tom Cruise, she adopted two children — Isabella, now 15, and Connor, 12.

The actress, who won an Academy Award for portraying writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002), withdrew from the shoot of Stephen Daldry's drama The Reader because of her pregnancy.

Kidman and Urban married in Australia, where both have roots, in June 2006.

Bozo the Clown actor dies at 83

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular frizzy-haired clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of TV stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.

"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.

"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.

The business — combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances — made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.

"I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.

Maher and Shandling honor George Carlin at service

LOS ANGELES - He was the comedian who actually said the seven words you can never say on television, but close friends and family members remembered George Carlin as a man who, when he was off stage, had only a kind word for everyone he met.

At a private memorial service Sunday attended by some 150 people — "That was as small as we could keep it," chuckled Carlin's daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall — her father was memorialized by comedians Bill Maher, Garry Shandling and others as someone who had no enemies, in part because he was nice to everyone he spoke to.

"What everyone said tonight is if you spent time with my father, whether it was five seconds or five hours, he was kind, attentive, very connected to you, compassionate," said Carlin's daughter.

Among those who spoke at the service, which was closed to the public and news media, was Shandling, who told of being a teenage college student when he sought out Carlin nearly 40 years ago.

"My dad read his material and encouraged him to continue on, which was a life-changing moment in Gary's life," McCall told The Associated Press after the service.

Overall, Carlin's daughter said, the service was a happy event, one presided over in part by her father himself, who spoke from a montage of video clips assembled from his 51-year career.

Carlin, who died June 22 of heart failure, recorded nearly two dozen albums, 14 HBO comedy specials, wrote three best-selling books and appeared in numerous movies and TV shows.

"It was a very, very light event, as he wanted it," McCall said of the two-hour service. "He wanted a lot of laughter. I'd say 90 percent of it was laughing and just remembering what he brought to us in his funny way."

Although his standup routines were often filled with four-letter words — so many that early in his career Carlin was sometimes hauled off stage and taken to jail — his dead-on ability to highlight the absurdities of everyday life, and do so in such comical voices and faces, made his humor come across as anything but harsh.

And although famous for four-letter words, Carlin, 71, did not always use them. He was also Mr. Conductor on the children's show "Shining Time Station," Fillmore the hippie van in the 2006 children's movie "Cars," and the guest host of the first "Saturday Night Live" episode ever broadcast. That 1975 show was replayed by NBC on Saturday night in his honor.

There also was more to Carlin than just the comedian, said McCall, and that too was reflected at her father's funeral.

He loved music, and his service was attended by Kenny Rankin, who sang "Here's That Rainy Day," and Spanky McFarland of the 1960s pop group Spanky and Our Gang, who performed the song "Coming Home."

Other speakers included Carlin's older brother, Patrick, his partner, Sally Wade, and his former standup partner, Jack Burns. Carlin's wife, Brenda Hosbrook Carlin, died in 1997.

Carlin and Burns had met in 1960, and although they worked as a comedy duo only briefly they remained lifelong friends.

In an earlier AP interview, Burns recalled Carlin calling him several times a year to remind him of such things as the anniversary of the day they met, the day they did their first show together and, in one less-than-joyful incident, the day they were jailed for armed robbery in Texas in a case of mistaken identity.

That's just the sentimentalist he was, said McCall, who is Carlin's only child.

"He went out of his way to make sure friends and family members, if they needed anything, he was there for them," she said. "He was a complete man. He was more than just the seven words you can never say on television."

'Big Bird' costume creator Kermit Love dies of heart failure at 91

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The man who helped Jim Henson create the beloved "Sesame Street" character Big Bird has died from congestive heart failure. He was 91.

Kermit Love died Saturday. He was a prolific costume designer for some of ballet's most prominent choreographers, including luminaries like Twyla Tharp, Robert Joffrey and George Balanchine. His work creating costumes and masks caught Jim Henson's attention.

Henson designed the original sketches of Big Bird and Love then built the three-metre-tall yellow-feathered costume for "Sesame Street," which was first televised in the U.S. in 1969. It was Love's idea to add a few feathers designed to fall off, to create a more realistic feel.

Love also helped design costumes and puppets for Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster, among other "Sesame Street" characters. He even appeared on the show himself as Willy, the fantasy neighborhood's resident hot dog vendor.

According to the New York Times, Love always insisted he wasn't the namesake of Henson's famous frog.

Love also designed costumes and puppets for theatre, film and advertising, including the Snuggle bear from the fabric softener commercials.

Dody Goodman, stage and TV comedian, dies at 93

NEW YORK - Dody Goodman, the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar's late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died at 93.

Goodman died Sunday at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center, said Joan Adams, a close family friend. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October, Adams said.

Goodman, with her pixyish appearance and Southern-tinged, quavery voice, had an eclectic show-business career. She moved easily from stage to television to movies, where she appeared in such popular films as "Grease" and "Grease 2," playing Blanche, the principal's assistant, and in "Splash."

It was on "The Tonight Show" when Paar was the late night TV program's second host in the late 1950s that Goodman first received national attention. Her quirky, off-kilter remarks inevitably got laughs and endeared audiences.

"I was just thrown into the talking," Goodman said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press. "I had no idea how to do that. In fact, they just called me up and asked me if I wanted to be on 'The Jack Paar Show.' I didn't know who Jack Paar was. They said, 'We just want you to sit and talk."'

After a falling out with Paar, other chat shows took up the slack, including "The Merv Griffin Show" and "Girl Talk." And there were roles on TV series, too, most notably her appearances as Martha Shumway (Louise Lasser's mother) on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," starting in 1976, and guest shots on such shows as "Diff'rent Strokes," "St. Elsewhere" and "Murder, She Wrote."

In later years, Goodman was a regular in "Nunsense" and its various sequels, appearing off-Broadway and on tour in Dan Goggin's comic musical celebration of the Little Sisters of Hoboken. She started out playing Sister Mary Amnesia, later graduating to the role of Mother Superior.

"Dody had the most impeccable comic timing," Goggin said. "When we had her in the show, she was the only person on Earth who could walk on stage, say, 'Are you ready to start?' and bring the house down. Within seconds, the audience was eating out of her hand."

The actress was born Dolores Goodman on Oct. 28, 1914, in Columbus, Ohio, where her father ran a small cigar factory. She arrived in New York in the late 1930s to study dance at the School of American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, and later graduated to Broadway musicals.

The actress performed regularly on stage in the 1940s and early '50s as a chorus member in such musicals as "Something for the Boys," "One Touch of Venus," "Laffing Room Only," "Miss Liberty," "Call Me Madam," "My Darlin' Aida" and "Wonderful Town," in which she originated the role of Violet, the streetwalker.

"I had to make so many transitions into other things," Goodman said in the AP interview. "When I first came out of dancing, I did revues."

It was the early to mid-'50s, when small, topical nightclub revues flourished. Goodman, a natural comedian, thrived in them. She performed in shows by Ben Bagley and Julius Monk, and in Jerry Herman's first effort, a revue called "Parade."

In more recent times, she appeared on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

"He understands my sense of humor. I will do a dumb thing for fun. That's how I got the reputation for being dopey and dumb. I don't like dumb jokes but I will do dumb things for a laugh," she said in the AP interview.

Goodman, who never married, is survived by seven nieces and nephews, 11 great nieces and nephews and 15 great-great nieces and nephews, Adams said.

A memorial service is planned.

George Carlin mourned as counterculture hero

LOS ANGELES - Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Some People Are Stupid. Stuff. People I Can Do Without.

George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday at 71, leaves behind not only a series of memorable routines, but a legal legacy: His most celebrated monologue, a frantic, informed riff on those infamous seven words, led to a Supreme Court decision on broadcasting offensive language.

The counterculture hero's jokes also targeted things such as misplaced shame, religious hypocrisy and linguistic quirks — why, he asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

The actor Ben Stiller called Carlin "a hugely influential force in stand-up comedy. He had an amazing mind, and his humor was brave, and always challenging us to look at ourselves and question our belief systems, while being incredibly entertaining. He was one of the greats."

Carlin constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" — all of which are taboo on broadcast TV to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as host of the "Saturday Night Live" debut in 1975 — noting on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long" — and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a few TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 — a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).

"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"

He won four Grammy Awards for best spoken comedy album and was nominated for five Emmys. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, "George was fairly conservative when I met him," said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early '60s.

"We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away," Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration if not their close friendship. "It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."

That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.

While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.

"Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot," his Web site says.

From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Fort Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs, including carnival organist and marketing director for a peanut brittle.

In 1960, he left with $300 and Burns, a Texas radio buddy, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. His first break came just months later when the duo appeared on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show."

Carlin said he hoped to emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade Carlin grew up in — the 1950s — with a clever but gentle humor reflective of the times.

It didn't work for him, and the pair broke up by 1962.

"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."

Eventually Carlin lost the buttoned-up look and changed to his trademark beard, ponytail and all-black attire.

But even with his decidedly adult-comedy bent, Carlin never lost his childlike sense of mischief, even voicing kid-friendly projects like episodes of the TV show "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and the spacey Volkswagen bus Fillmore in the 2006 Pixar hit "Cars."

Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.

Actress-dancer Cyd Charisse dies in L.A. at 86

LOS ANGELES - Cyd Charisse, the long-legged beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies" to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1953's "The Band Wagon" (with Astaire).

She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin.

Her height was 5 feet, 6 inches, but in high heels and full-length stockings, she seemed serenely tall, and she moved with extraordinary grace. Her flawless beauty and jet-black hair contributed to an aura of perfection that Astaire described in his 1959 memoir, "Steps in Time," as "beautiful dynamite."

"Her beauty was breathtaking," Debbie Reynolds, who starred with Charisse in the 1952 classic "Singin' in the Rain," said in a statement. "The world will miss her dancing."

Charisse arrived at MGM as the studio was establishing itself as the king of musicals. Three producers — Arthur Freed, Joe Pasternak and Jack Cummings — headed units that drew from the greatest collection of musical talent. Dancers, singers, directors, choreographers, composers, conductors and a symphony-size orchestra were under contract and available. The contract list also included the screen's two greatest male dancers: Astaire and Kelly.

Astaire, who danced with her in "The Band Wagon" and "Silk Stockings," said of Charisse in a 1983 interview: "She wasn't a tap dancer, she's just beautiful, trained, very strong in whatever we did. When we were dancing, we didn't know what time it was."

She first gained notice as a member of the famed Ballet Russe, and got her start in Hollywood when star David Lichine was hired by Columbia Pictures for a ballet sequence in a 1943 Don Ameche-Janet Blair musical, "Something to Shout About."

Although that film failed to live up to its title, its ballet sequence attracted wide notice, and Charisse (then billed as Lily Norwood) began receiving movie offers.

"I had just done that number with David as a favor to him," she said in "The Two of Us," her 1976 double autobiography with Martin. "Honestly, the idea of working movies had never once entered my head. I was a dancer, not an actress. I had no delusions about myself. I couldn't act — I had never acted. So how could I be a movie star?"

She overcame her doubts and signed a seven-year contract at MGM. She also got a new name, the exotic "Cyd" instead of her lifelong nickname Sid to go with her first husband's last name.

"Singin' in the Rain" marked a breakthrough.

When Freed was dissatisfied with another dancer who had been cast, Charisse inherited the role and danced with Kelly in the "Broadway Melody" number that climaxed the movie. She stunned critics and audiences with her 25-foot Chinese silk scarf that floated in the air with the aid of a wind machine.

Charisse also danced with Kelly in "Brigadoon," "It's Always Fair Weather" and "Invitation to the Dance." She missed what might have been her greatest opportunity: to appear with Kelly in the 1951 Academy Award winner, "An American in Paris." She was pregnant, and Leslie Caron was cast in the role.

In 1996, Charisse recalled her reaction on entering the movies: "Ballet is a closed world and very rigid; MGM was a fairyland. You'd walk down the lot, seeing all these fabulous movies being made with the greatest talent in the world sitting there. It was a dream to walk through that lot."

Her first assignment was a "Ziegfeld Follies" sequence in which she was one of the female dancers "flitting around Astaire as he danced."

Like most young MGM contract players, she was schooled in drama and voice, and diction lessons eliminated her Texas accent. The singing lessons didn't take, however, and the songs in her musicals were dubbed.

She graduated to featured dancer in sequences for such films as "Till the Clouds Roll By," "Fiesta," "On an Island with You" and "Words and Music." She also appeared in such dramatic films as "East Side, West Side," "Tension" and "Mark of the Renegade."

"Silk Stockings" in 1957 marked the end of her dancing career in films, as well as the twilight of the movie musical. With the film business suffering from the onslaught of television, MGM dismantled its great collection of talent. Musicals were too expensive, and foreign audiences had soured on them.

Charisse continued with dramatic films, several of them made in Europe. She and Martin took their musical act to Las Vegas and elsewhere. In 1992 she finally made her Broadway debut, taking over the starring role as the unhappy ballerina in the musicalized "Grand Hotel." The musical had premiered in 1989 with Liliane Montevecchi in the role.

"I've done about everything in show business except to play on Broadway," Charisse said in a 1992 Associated Press interview. "I always hoped that I would one day. It's the World Series of show business. If anybody tells you they're not intimidated, they're lying."

In 1974, Charisse returned to MGM for a TV drama. Gazing over the half-filled commissary at lunchtime, she mused: "You never realize that good things are going to be over sometime. It all seemed so natural then: Clark Gable and Robert Taylor lunching at one table. Lana Turner would be lunching at a table in the corner. Ava Gardner, too.

"I grew up at this studio, and it didn't seem unusual to see all those stars. Nowadays, you'd never find so many names in one commissary. In fact, there aren't that many stars."

Her name was Tula Ellice Finklea when she was born in Amarillo, Texas, on March 8, 1922. From her earliest years she was called Sid, because her older brother couldn't say "sister." She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons to build up her strength after a bout with polio.

"I was so frail they were afraid to touch me," she recalled in that 1996 interview.

At 14 she auditioned for the head of the famed Ballet Russe, and became part of the corps de ballet and toured the U.S. and Europe. To appear with the nearly all-Russian company, she was first billed as Celia Siderova, than as Maria Istromena.

At one point during the European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939.

The Ballet Russe disbanded after the war broke out, and the newlyweds returned to Hollywood. In 1942, a son, Nicky, was born.

In 1948, the year after she and Nico divorced, Charisse married Martin. Her second son, Tony Jr., was born in 1950.

Effects guru Stan Winston dies of cancer at 62

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood special-effects maestro Stan Winston has died at age 62.

The Oscar-winning visual effects artist died at his home Sunday evening surrounded by family after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio.

Winston won visual effects Oscars for 1986's "Aliens, "1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and 1993's "Jurassic Park."

Winston is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.

Wedding Bells (Again) for Sara Evans

Los Angeles (E! Online) - If at first you don't succeed...

Country music star Sara Evans married former University of Alabama quarterback Jay Barker Saturday evening in an outdoor ceremony on a farm in Franklin, Tenn. It's the second marriage for both.

More than 130 guests witnessed the bride, 37, being escorted down the aisle by her 8-year-old son Avery. The black-and-white-themed ceremony was a family affair, with the couple's seven children (Evans has three and Barker has four) serving as attendants.

Evans wore an ivory silk taffeta wedding gown by Vera Wang, while Barker, 35, wore a suit by Dolce and Gabbana. He hosts a morning sports radio show in Alabama.

The couple announced their engagement on March 24 and were introduced to each other last year by their minister, Joe Beam, who performed the nuptials. They had each turned to Beam for support after their respective divorces.

Barker's 14-year marriage ended in the summer of 2007. Evans' 13-year marriage to politico Craig Schelske came to a grinding halt in October 2006 amid allegations of infidelity on both sides. The ugly, high-profile divorce began while she was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.

TV newsman Tim Russert dies of heart attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tim Russert, the host of NBC's "Meet the Press" and the American network's Washington bureau chief, died on Friday of a heart attack, NBC said. He was 58.

The MSNBC cable network interrupted its programming for a special report by former anchorman Tom Brokaw who said Russert collapsed and died at work in NBC's Washington bureau after returning from a trip to Italy with his family.

"This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice," Brokaw said. He called Russert a beloved colleague and said his late colleague loved the 2008 political campaign, working to the point of exhaustion week after week.

Russert, who took over "Meet the Press" in 1991 and oversaw a rise in the Sunday program's popularity, was known for both tough questioning of American political figures and a cheerful television persona.

He was also political analyst for "NBC Nightly News" and the "Today" Program, and anchored "The Tim Russert Show," a weekly interview program on CNBC cable-TV channel.

Newman dismisses cancer rumor

"Newman says he's doing nicely."

With that statement from his spokesman, screen icon Paul Newman employed his characteristic laid-back style to brush off reports that he is ailing with cancer.

The 83-year-old star of The Sting and Cool Hand Luke has appeared gaunt in recent photographs. Then on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that A.E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own food company in the 1980s, confirmed that the actor had been fighting cancer.

But Hotchner later told Access Hollywood he didn't know anything for sure.

The actor's spokesman, Jeff Sanderson, deliverer of the "doing nicely" statement, would not elaborate on the remark Wednesday or comment on Hotchner's statements.

Fans posted messages on blogs and in the comments section of news stories, offering prayers and well-wishes for the actor, whatever his health status.

Shawn Levy, who covers film for The (Portland) Oregonian and is working on a Newman biography, says rumors of illness have been circulating since the beginning of the year but are only now gathering mass attention. He notes a previous dismissal of the cancer rumor: Newman's statement joked that he was being treated "for athlete's foot and hair loss."

Seeing photos of an aged Newman can be startling to fans, he points out. "People forget. Even though the number 83 is staring them in the face, they think of Newman as younger than he is. We think of him as a 1960s guy because of Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke, but he was in his 40s when those came out."

But for a man in his 80s, Newman has been very active, Levy says. "We're talking about this guy like he's dying, but last year at 82, he finished fourth place in a car race in Watkins Glen, N.Y."

AP Exclusive: Newman friend says actor has cancer

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Paul Newman, the legendary actor and philanthropist, is battling cancer, his longtime neighbor and business partner said Wednesday. Newman, 83, has recently appeared gaunt in photos, and dropped plans to direct a play in his Connecticut hometown.

Writer A.E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, said the actor told him about the disease about 18 months ago. He did not specify what kind of cancer, but said Newman is in active treatment.

"I know that it's a form of cancer," Hotchner told The Associated Press. "It's a form of cancer and he's dealing with it."

Newman issued a statement late Tuesday that he's "doing nicely" but didn't specifically address questions about cancer. A call was placed to his spokesman Wednesday seeking comment.

The Oscar winner appeared to have lost weight when he was photographed during practice for the Indianapolis 500 auto race last month. Martha Stewart, in an entry dated June 6, posted a photo on her blog of herself with the actor, who looked thin, at a luncheon to benefit the Hole in the Wall Gang camps for critically ill children. (The Hole in the Wall Gang was led by Newman's affable outlaw character, Butch, in the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.")

Newman won an Oscar for his leading role in 1986's "The Color of Money." His screen credits also include "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke," "The Verdict" and "Road to Perdition."

Hotchner said Newman had an operation a few years ago. "It was certainly somewhere in the area of the lung," he said.

"He's battling," Hotchner said. "He's doing all the right stuff. Paul is a fighter. He seems to be going through a good period right now."

Asked about his prognosis, Hotchner said, "Everybody is hopeful. That's all we know."

In 1982, Hotchner and Newman started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $200 million, according to its Web site.

Last month, officials at Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse cited unspecified health issues when they announced that Newman would not direct "Of Mice and Men" this fall.

Newman lives in Westport with his wife, Joanne Woodward.

Two friends said Tuesday that Newman appeared to be doing well.

"I think he's feeling quite well," said actor James Naughton, who spoke to Newman on Monday night. "As far as I can tell he's doing very well."

Newman had an infection over the winter, but seems to have that under control, Naughton said. He was lively at this month's Hole in the Wall Gang camp fundraiser, he said.

Michael Brockman, Newman's racing team partner, said Newman told him recently that he wants to get back into his race car for a test run and possibly another competition. His last race was last fall, he said.

"I think he's doing better than he was," Brockman said, noting that Newman had regained most of the weight he had lost.

"I think he looks great," said Brockman, who saw Newman last weekend. "I wish I looked that good."

Brockman called Newman "one of the best guys I ever met."

"He's just a regular guy," Brockman said. "He's humble."

Jessica Alba gives birth to baby girl

LOS ANGELES - Add "baby guru" to Jessica Alba's resume.

The "Love Guru" co-star and her new husband, Cash Warren, are new parents, her publicist Brad Cafarelli said Monday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The 27-year-old actress gave birth to a healthy baby girl — Honor Marie Warren — on Saturday, Cafarelli said. He didn't provide further details.

Alba and Warren became engaged in late December following her announcement that she's expecting a baby with Warren, 31. They met on the set of the 2005 film "The Fantastic Four," which costarred Alba as the Invisible Woman and employed Warren as a director's assistant.

Outside of motherhood, this summer Alba joins Mike Myers in "The Love Guru" and will play a lingerie saleswoman who helps turn a loser's life around in "Meet Bill." Earlier this year, FHM readers magazine readers rated Alba the No. 3 sexiest woman alive (with "Transformers" star Megan Fox claiming the top spot).

What kind of mother will Alba be?

"I don't want to be my child's best friend," she recently told Fit Pregnancy magazine. "I want to be a mom. But I do want my child to come to me when they have problems and need to talk, so it's going to be about treading that line."

Alba's recently appeared in "Awake," "Good Luck Chuck" and "The Ten." She first gained fame as an action star on TV's "Dark Angel."

Veteran sportscaster Jim McKay dies at 87

NEW YORK - Jim McKay, the venerable and eloquent sportscaster thrust into the role of telling Americans about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died. He was 87.

McKay died Saturday of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md. The broadcaster who considered horse racing his favorite sport died only hours before Big Brown attempted to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes.

He was host of ABC's influential "Wide World of Sports" for more than 40 years, starting in 1961. The weekend series introduced viewers to all manner of strange, compelling and far-flung sports events. The show provided an international reach long before exotic backdrops became a staple of sports television.

McKay — understated, dignified and with a clear eye for detail — also covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. He was the anchor when events turned grim with the news that Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. It was left to McKay to tell Americans when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended in tragedy.

"They're all gone," McKay said.

The terse, haunting comment was replayed many times through the years when the events of Munich were chronicled.

He won both a news and sports Emmy Award for his coverage of the Munich Olympics in addition to the prestigious George Polk award.

"In the long run, that's the most memorable single moment of my career," said McKay, an Emmy Award winning broadcaster who was also in the studio for the United States' "Miracle on Ice" victory over Russia. "I don't know what else would match that."

A veteran of the U.S. Navy in World War II, McKay was the first on-air television broadcaster seen in Baltimore. He worked at CBS Sports briefly, but did his most memorable work at ABC Sports when it dominated the business under leader Roone Arledge.

"He had a remarkable career and a remarkable life," said Sean McManus, McKay's son and the president of CBS News and Sports. "Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn't come up to me and say how much they admired my father."

McKay was the first sportscaster to win an Emmy Award. He won 12, the last in 1988. ABC calculated that McKay traveled some 4 1/2 million miles to work events. He covered more than 100 different sports in 40 countries.

"There are no superlatives that can adequately honor Jim McKay," said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. "He meant so much to so many people. He was a founding father of sports television, one of the most respected commentators in the history of broadcasting and journalism."

McKay's first television broadcast assignment was a horse race at Pimlico in 1947. It was the start of a love affair — horse racing captivated him like nothing else.

"There are few things in sport as exciting or beautiful as two strong thoroughbreds, neck and neck, charging toward the finish," he once said.

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, worked with McKay for six years at ABC Sports.

"He was truly the most respected and admired sportscaster of his generation and defined how the stories of sports can and should be covered," he said in a statement. "While we all know what an absolute titan he was in his chosen field, I will always remember him as an extraordinary human being guided by a strong moral compass."

U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth said McKay set a standard for sports journalism.

"Jim is synonymous with the Olympic Games." he said. "As host of ABC's Olympic coverage, he brought into our homes the triumphs and struggles of athletes from around the world."

McKay left his mark on countless colleagues. Bob Costas called McKay a "singular broadcaster."

"He brought a reporter's eye, a literate touch, and above all a personal humanity to every assignment," Costas said. "He had a combination of qualities seldom seen in the history of the medium, not just sports."

Al Michaels described McKay as the "personification of class and style."

"His enthusiasm permeated every event he covered and thus always made it far more interesting," he said. "I always thought of him as a favorite teacher."

Mike Tirico, covering the NBA finals in Boston for ABC and ESPN, worked four British Opens with McKay. He said McKay held a special place in his household while growing up in Queens in New York.

"Dinner wasn't served on Saturday night until 'Wide World of Sports' was over," Tirico said.

Shania Twain opens up about split

Canadian country superstar Shania Twain has opened up about her split from her husband Robert (Mutt) Lange.

"As I am sure you have seen or heard; I am going through a rough time personally in my life," she wrote on her official website, thanking fans for their support in the wake of the breakup of her 14-year marriage to the famed music producer.

"I have so much to say but I know the best way for me to speak is through my music. ... I need some time to heal this broken heart but make no mistake; I will be back and hopefully stronger than ever."

Twain, 42, and Lange, 59, announced their split on May 15.

They have a son, Eja D'Angelo, 6.

People.com reported that Lange's relationship with Twain's close friend and secretary, Marie-Anne Thiebaud, was the reason for the split -- which Thiebaud vehemently denies.

Spokesman: Kelsey Grammer had 'mild' heart attack

LOS ANGELES - A spokesman for Kelsey Grammer says the "Frasier" star is recovering in a Hawaii hospital after a mild heart attack this weekend. Stan Rosenfield says Grammer is "resting comfortably" in an undisclosed hospital after being stricken Saturday. Rosenfield says the 53-year-old actor will be released early this week.

Rosenfield says Grammer — the star of "Cheers," "Frasier" and the recently canceled Fox sitcom "Back to You" — was paddle-boarding with his wife, Camille, when he experienced symptoms.

The couple lives in Kona, on Hawaii's big island.

Rosenfield says Grammer was immediately taken to an area hospital where it was determined that he had suffered a "mild heart attack." The spokesman says he is unaware of any history of heart trouble for Grammer.

Rock pioneer Bo Diddley dies at age 79

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook."

"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

"I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.

The company that issued his early songs was Chess-Checkers records, the storied Chicago-based labels that also recorded Chuck Berry and other stars.

Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley's Chess recordings "stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th century."

Diddley's other major songs included, "Say Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Shave and a Haircut," "Uncle John," "Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule."

Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song "Not Fade Away."

The Rolling Stones' bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964. The following year, another British band, the Yardbirds, had a Top 20 hit in the U.S. with their version of "I'm a Man."

Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself.

"He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic," E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006.

Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley's style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations.

"I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

Despite his success, Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.

"Seventy ain't nothing but a damn number," he told The Associated Press in 1999. "I'm writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain't quit yet."

Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances.

"I am owed. I've never got paid," he said. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

In the early 1950s, Diddley said, disc jockeys called his type of music, "Jungle Music." It was Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who is credited with inventing the term "rock 'n' roll."

Diddley said Freed was talking about him, when he introduced him, saying, "Here is a man with an original sound, who is going to rock and roll you right out of your seat."

Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the "Bo Knows" ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson's guitar skills, Diddley turned to the camera and said, "He don't know Diddley."

"I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," Diddley said. "I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube."

Born as Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Miss., Diddley was later adopted by his mother's cousin and took on the name Ellis McDaniel, which his wife always called him.

When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago, where he learned the violin at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He learned guitar at 10 and entertained passers-by on street corners.

By his early teens, Diddley was playing Chicago's Maxwell Street.

"I came out of school and made something out of myself. I am known all over the globe, all over the world. There are guys who have done a lot of things that don't have the same impact that I had," he said.

CBC broadcaster Bob MacGregor dies

Longtime CBC reporter, host and announcer Bob MacGregor has died.

MacGregor, who started his career at the public broadcaster in 1956, was a reporter, writer, host and producer in Toronto and Montreal during his 50-plus years in broadcasting.

Among his major assignments at the CBC was reporting from the 1973 Quebec election in which a pro-federalist Robert Bourassa faced off against the separatist René Levesque.

MacGregor would report on the dirty tricks and no-holds-barred name calling that would mark that campaign, which resulted in Bourassa winning a shocking landslide victory.

He also reported from Montreal's Expo '67.

For the past 10 years he was one of the announcers for the overnight hourly news.

MacGregor died of cancer Saturday afternoon in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., at age 74.

Legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent dies at 71

PARIS - Legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent, who reworked the rules of fashion by putting women into elegant pantsuits that came to define how modern women dressed, died Sunday evening, a longtime friend and associate said. He was 71.

Pierre Berge said Saint Laurent died at his Paris home following a long illness.

A towering figure of 20th century fashion, Saint Laurent was widely considered the last of a generation that included Christian Dior and Coco Chanel and made Paris the fashion capital of the world, with the Rive Gauche, or Left Bank, as its elegant headquarters.

In the fast-changing world of haute couture, Saint Laurent was hailed as the most influential and enduring designer of his time. From the first YSL tuxedo and his trim pantsuits to see-through blouses, safari jackets and glamorous gowns, Saint Laurent created instant classics that remain stylish decades later.

When the designer announced his retirement in 2002 at age 65 and the closure of the Paris-based haute couture house he had founded 40 years earlier, it was mourned in the fashion world as the end of an era. His ready-to-wear label, Rive Gauche, which was sold to Gucci in 1999, still has boutiques around the world.

In October 2006, Saint Laurent slipped and fell outside a Paris restaurant during Fashion Week, suffering slight scratches but reminding fans of the perennially fragile designer's advancing age.

Saint Laurent was born Aug. 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria, where his father worked as a shipping executive. He first emerged as a promising designer at the age of 17, winning first prize in a contest sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat for a cocktail dress design.

A year later in 1954, he enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale school of haute couture, but student life lasted only three months. He was introduced to Christian Dior, then regarded as the greatest creator of his day, and Dior was so impressed with Saint Laurent's talent that he hired him on the spot.

When Dior died suddenly in 1957, Saint Laurent was named head of the House of Dior at the age of 21. The next year, his first solo collection for Dior — the "trapeze" line — launched Saint Laurent's stardom. The trapeze dress — with its narrow shoulders and wide, swinging skirt — was a hit, and a breath of fresh air after years of constructed clothing, tight waists and girdles.

In 1960, Saint Laurent was drafted into military service — an experience that shattered the delicate designer, who by the end of the year was given a medical discharge for nervous depression.

Bouts of depression marked his career. Pierre Berge, the designer's longtime business partner and former romantic partner, was quoted as saying that Saint Laurent was born with a nervous breakdown.

Saint Laurent returned to the spotlight in 1962, opening his own haute couture fashion house with Berge. The pair later started a chain of Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutiques.

Life Magazine hailed his first line under his own label as "the best collection of suits since Chanel."

Berge has said that Saint Laurent's gift to fashion was that he empowered women after Chanel had freed them.

Nowhere was Saint Laurent's gift more evident than the valedictory fashion show that marked his retirement in January 2002.

Forty years of fashion were paraded in a 300-piece retrospective that blurred the boundaries of time, mixing his creations of yesterday and today in one stunning tribute to the endurance of Saint Laurent's style. He also designed costumes for theater and film.

There was the simple navy blue pea coat over white pants, which the designer first showed in 1962 when he opened his couture house and kept as one of his hallmarks.

His "smoking," or tuxedo jacket, of 1966 remade the tux as a high fashion statement for both sexes. It remained the designer's trademark item and was updated yearly until he retired.

Also from the 60s came Beatnik chic — a black leather jacket and knit turtleneck with high boots — and sleek pantsuits that underlined Saint Laurent's statement on equality of the sexes. He showed that women could wear "men's clothes," which when tailored to the female form became an emblem of elegant femininity.

"More than any other designer since Chanel, YSL represented Paris as the style leader," The Independent of London wrote in an editorial after Saint Laurent's retirement. "By putting a woman in a man's tuxedo, he changed fashion forever, in a style that never dated."

In his own words, Saint Laurent said he felt "fashion was not only supposed to make women beautiful, but to reassure them, to give them confidence, to allow them to come to terms with themselves."

Some of his revolutionary style was met with resistance. There are famous stories of women wearing Saint Laurent pantsuits who were turned away from hotels and restaurants in London and New York.

One scandal centered on the designer himself, when he posed nude and floppy-haired for a photographer in 1971, wearing only his trademark thick black glasses, to promote his perfume.

Saint Laurent's rising star was eternalized in 1983, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted a show to his work, the first ever to a living designer.

Subsequent shows at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and in Beijing made him a French national treasure, and he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1985.

When France basked in the glory of its 1998 World Cup soccer final, it was Saint Laurent who took center field pre-kick off with an on-field retrospective at the Stade de France.

In 1999, Saint Laurent sold the rights of his label to Gucci Group NV, ceding control of his Rive Gauche collection, fragrances, cosmetics and accessories for US$70 million cash and royalties.

Industry insiders cited friction between Saint Laurent and Gucci's creative director, Tom Ford, as a likely factor in the fashion guru's decision to retire three years later. Ford stepped down in 2003.

When he bowed out of fashion in 2002, Saint Laurent spoke of his battles with depression, drugs and loneliness, though he gave no indication that those problems were directly tied to his decision to stop working.

"I've known fear and terrible solitude," he said. "Tranquilizers and drugs, those phony friends. The prison of depression and hospitals. I've emerged from all this, dazzled but sober."

Brangelina rents French villa; twin births denied

CORRENS, France - The Brangelina clan began settling into a villa in the south of France as reports that the couple's twins had been born were refuted by other celebrity news outlets.

"Entertainment Tonight" first reported on its Web site Friday that Angelina Jolie had given birth in France, citing a "source close to Jolie." Then People magazine posted a story online saying that Jolie had not given birth, and E! and US Weekly followed with their own stories saying the babies remained unborn.

"Entertainment Tonight" did not immediately return a call for comment; visitors to the show's Web site saw a blank screen or a message that read "technical difficulties."

Representatives for Jolie and her companion, Brad Pitt, did not respond to phone and e-mail requests from The Associated Press.

Jolie has said previously that her twins are due in August. She and Pitt have four other children: 6-year-old Maddox, 4-year-old Pax and 3-year-old Zahara, who are adopted, and 2-year-old Shiloh.

In southern France, where locals say the couple recently moved, officials at the Etoile Maternite Catholique de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, one of the region's top maternity clinics, said that Jolie had not been there and did not appear scheduled to come.

Privacy rules about health matters are extremely strict in France.

The pair recently moved into the Miraval Estate villa in the French hamlet of Correns, in the Provence region, according to the mayor and a local inn owner.

Traditionally, the region has lured tourists mostly for rock-climbing excursions on the rolling hills of the verdant region and leisurely strolls in its quaint medieval villages.

Mayor Michael Latz trumpets Correns as France's first town where all locally grown produce is organic — and his villagers teem with pride about that reputation, and seem mostly bemused about the invasion of Hollywood buzz.

"I like to joke that I'm happy to be able to contribute to the image of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, because Correns is so well known," Mayor Michael Latz said with a smile outside the ochre-colored town hall.

Latz said that Tom Bove, an American businessman who owns Miraval, recently told him that Jolie and Pitt had agreed to a three-year lease on the property, known for producing high-quality organic wine.

The couple is "in the process of moving in," said Latz, adding that he hadn't met them and knew nothing about whether Jolie had given birth or not.

"They are people who I hope will live normally here," he said. "I would think the choice of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ... is tied to the quality of life in Correns."

Latz also rejected speculation about an imminent wedding, and said that under French law they'd need to alert local authorities if they want to officially tie the knot here.

Security guards were blocking the gates to the estate Friday, while a postal truck and other maintenance vehicles regularly passed in and out. The castle and accompanying buildings can't be seen from public roads.

Onno Stijl, owner of the L'Auberge du Parc inn, said it was a good thing they were moving in and could help business. He said he gets his wine from the estate's vineyards.

"It's a couple living here now like everyone," he said.

The area, he said, "is a bit isolated but that gives it a certain ... privacy."

According to its Web site, the Miraval estate dates from pre-Roman times. It includes fountains, aqueducts, moats, a lake and vineyards that produce an organic wine distributed worldwide.

Pitt and Jolie may be Miraval's first movie stars in residence, but Miraval has seen its share of rock stars. The estate includes a studio which has hosted the likes of Sting, the Cranberries and Pink Floyd, who recorded tracks for "The Wall" album there.

Wife of entertainer Bill Murray files for divorce

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The wife of entertainer Bill Murray has filed for divorce after nearly 11 years of marriage, alleging he abused her and is addicted to marijuana and alcohol.

Jennifer Butler Murray filed divorce papers May 12 in Charleston County. She owns a home on Sullivans Island, S.C., where she lives with the couple's four children.

The complaint was first reported by The Post and Courier of Charleston. It also alleges frequent abandonment by the former "Saturday Night Live" star.

Bill Murray's attorney, John McDougall, wouldn't comment on the allegations, but said the entertainer "is deeply saddened by the breakup of his marriage."

"He and his wife made loving parents and they are committed to the best interests of their children," McDougall said.

Jennifer Murray's attorney, Robert Rosen, said he had no comment.

The couple signed a prenuptial agreement, which was filed as an exhibit with the divorce papers, before they married in 1997. As part of the agreement, both waived their right to alimony or support if the marriage broke up. However, Murray agreed to pay $7 million to his ex-wife within 60 days of a final divorce decree.

The complaint, which doesn't specify instances of Murray's alleged marijuana or alcohol use, alleges he would often leave without telling his wife and says he "travels overseas where he engages in public and private altercations and sexual liaisons."

It also alleges Murray physically abused his wife and last November "hit her in the face and then told her she was `lucky he didn't kill her.'"

The documents obtained by The Post and Courier were sealed by the court last week.

Murray, the star of movies such as "Ghostbusters," "Caddyshack" and "Groundhog Day," is a co-owner of the Charleston RiverDogs minor league baseball team.

The 57-year-old actor earned an Oscar nomination for his role in "Lost in Translation."

"Star Trek" theme composer Alexander Courage dies

LOS ANGELES - Alexander "Sandy" Courage, an Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated arranger, orchestrator and composer who created the otherworldly theme for the classic "Star Trek" TV show, has died. He was 88.

Courage died May 15 at the Sunrise assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, his stepdaughter Renata Pompelli of Los Angeles, said Thursday. He had been in poor health for three years.

Over a decades-long career, Courage collaborated on dozens of movies and orchestrated some of the greatest musicals of the 1950s and 1960s, including "My Fair Lady," "Hello, Dolly!" "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Gigi," "Porgy and Bess" and "Fiddler on the Roof."

But his most famous work is undoubtedly the "Star Trek" theme, which he composed, arranged and conducted in a week in 1965.

"I have to confess to the world that I am not a science fiction fan," Courage said in an interview for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's Archive of American Television in 2000. "Never have been. I think it's just marvelous malarkey. ... So you write some, you hope, marvelous malarkey music that goes with it."

Courage said the tune, with its ringing fanfare, eerie soprano part and swooping orchestration, was inspired by an arrangement of the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon" he heard as a youngster.

"Little did I know when I wrote that first A-flat for the flute that it was going to go down in history, somehow," Courage said. "It's a very strange feeling."

Courage said he also mouthed the "whooshing" sound heard as the starship Enterprise zooms through the opening credits of the TV show.

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry later wrote lyrics to the tune, which were never sung on the show but entitled him to half the royalties, Courage said.

Among the many other projects Courage worked on was the 1987 TV special "Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas," for which he won an Emmy for musical direction.

He and Lionel Newman shared Academy Award nominations for their adapted scores for 1964's "The Pleasure Seekers" and 1967's "Doctor Dolittle."

A friend and colleague of movie composers John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, he also provided the orchestration for such movies as "The Poseidon Adventure," "Jurassic Park," "Basic Instinct" and "The Mummy" and supplied arrangements for the Boston Pops while Williams was conductor in the 1980s and early 1990s.

For "Star Trek" he composed music for only a few episodes, in addition to the theme and the music for the pilot. But that theme was reprised in the TV sequel "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and in the "Star Trek" movies.

Courage was born Dec. 10, 1919, in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey. After graduation from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., in 1941, Courage enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

After the war, he became a composer for CBS radio shows and then became an orchestrator and arranger at MGM.

Beginning in the 1960s he composed music for TV shows, including "The Waltons," "Lost in Space" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," although the only themes he created were for "Star Trek" and "Judd For the Defense."

Steven Tyler goes to rehab for 'quiet environment'

LOS ANGELES - Steven Tyler checked into a rehab facility in search of a "safe environment" to recover from several foot surgeries and physical therapy, the Aerosmith frontman said in a statement Thursday.

Tyler said the surgeries were to correct long-time foot injuries resulting from his physical performances as the singer for the blues-rock band.

"The doctors told me the pain in my feet could be corrected but it would require a few surgeries over time," Tyler said in the statement. "The 'foot repair' pain was intense, greater than I'd anticipated. The months of rehabilitative care and the painful strain of physical therapy were traumatic. I really needed a safe environment to recuperate where I could shut off my phone and get back on my feet."

The 60-year-old was known for heavy drug and alcohol abuse in the 1970s and early 1980s, but completed rehabilitation in 1986, after which Aerosmith enjoyed a successful revival.

'Carol Burnett' star Harvey Korman dies at 81

LOS ANGELES - Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing Saddles," died Thursday. He was 81.

Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said. He had undergone several major operations.

"He was a brilliant comedian and a brilliant father," daughter Kate Korman said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "He had a very good sense of humor in real life. "

A natural second banana, Korman gained attention on "The Danny Kaye Show," appearing in skits with the star. He joined the show in its second season in 1964 and continued until it was canceled in 1967. That same year he became a cast member in the first season of "The Carol Burnett Show."

Burnett and Korman developed into the perfect pair with their burlesques of classic movies such as "Gone With the Wind" and soap operas like "As the World Turns" (their version was called "As the Stomach Turns").

Another recurring skit featured them as "Ed and Eunice," a staid married couple who were constantly at odds with the wife's mother (a young Vickie Lawrence in a gray wig). In "Old Folks at Home," they were a combative married couple bedeviled by Lawrence as Burnett's troublesome young sister.

Korman revealed the secret to the long-running show's success in a 2005 interview: "We were an ensemble, and Carol had the most incredible attitude. I've never worked with a star of that magnitude who was willing to give so much away."

Burnett was devastated by Korman's death, said her assistant, Angie Horejsi.

"She loved Harvey very much," Horejsi said.

After 10 successful seasons, Korman left Burnett's show in 1977 for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later. "The Harvey Korman Show" also failed, as did other series starring the actor.

"It takes a certain type of person to be a television star," he said in that 2005 interview. "I didn't have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. ... Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I'm fine."

His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks' 1974 Western satire, "Blazing Saddles."

"A world without Harvey Korman — it's a more serious world," Brooks told the AP on Thursday. "It was very dangerous for me to work with him because if our eyes met we'd crash to floor in comic ecstasy. It was comedy heaven to make Harvey Korman laugh."

He also appeared in the Brooks comedies "High Anxiety," "The History of the World Part I" and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It," as well as two "Pink Panther" moves, "Trail of the Pink Panther" in 1982 and "Curse of the Pink Panther" in 1983.

Korman's other films included "Gypsy," "Huckleberry Finn" (as the King), "Herbie Goes Bananas" and "Bud and Lou" (as legendary straightman Bud Abbott to Buddy Hackett's Lou Costello). He also provided the voice of Dictabird in the 1994 live-action feature "The Flintstones."

In television, Korman guest-starred in dozens of series including "The Donna Reed Show," "Dr. Kildare," "Perry Mason," "The Wild Wild West," "The Muppet Show," "The Love Boat," "The Roseanne Show" and "Burke's Law."

In their '70s, he and Tim Conway, one of his Burnett show co-stars, toured the country with their show "Tim Conway and Harvey Korman: Together Again." They did 120 shows a year, sometimes as many as six or eight in a weekend.

Korman had an operation in late January on a non-cancerous brain tumor and pulled through "with flying colors," Kate Korman said. Less than a day after coming home, he was re-admitted because of the ruptured aneurysm and was given a few hours to live. But he survived for another four months.

"He fought until the very end. He didn't want to die. He fought for months and months," said Kate Korman.

Harvey Herschel Korman was born Feb. 15, 1927, in Chicago. He left college for service in the U.S. Navy, resuming his studies afterward at the Goodman School of Drama at the Chicago Art Institute. After four years, he decided to try New York.

"For the next 13 years I tried to get on Broadway, on off-Broadway, under or beside Broadway," he told a reporter in 1971.

He had no luck and had to support himself as a restaurant cashier. Finally, in desperation, he and a friend formed a nightclub comedy act.

"We were fired our first night in a club, between the first and second shows," he recalled.

After returning to Chicago, Korman decided to try Hollywood, reasoning that "at least I'd feel warm and comfortable while I failed."

For three years he sold cars and worked as a doorman at a movie theater. Then he landed the job with Kaye.

In 1960 Korman married Donna Elhart and they had two children, Maria and Christopher. They divorced in 1977. Two more children, Katherine and Laura, were born of his 1982 marriage to Deborah Fritz.

In addition to his daughter Kate, he is survived by his wife and the three other children.

Earle Hagen, 88: Wrote, whistled 'Andy Griffith' theme

LOS ANGELES–Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote the jazz classic "Harlem Nocturne" and composed memorable themes for The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy, The Mod Squad and other TV shows, has died. He was 88.

Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for The Andy Griffith Show, died Monday night at his home in Rancho Mirage, his wife, Laura, said Tuesday. He had been in ill health for several months.

During his long musical career, Hagen performed with the top bands of the swing era, composed for movies and television and wrote one of the first textbooks on movie composing.

He and Lionel Newman were nominated for an Academy Award for best music scoring for the 1960 Marilyn Monroe movie Let's Make Love.

For television, he composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes, pilots and TV movies, including theme songs for That Girl, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

"He loved it," his wife said. "The music just flowed from him, and he would take off one hat and put on another and go on to the next show."

Hagen enjoyed the immediacy of the small screen, he told the American Society of Musicians Arrangers & Composers in 2000.

"It was hard work, with long hours and endless deadlines, but being able to write something one day and hear it a few days later appealed to me," he said. "Besides, I was addicted to the ultimate narcosis in music, which is the rush you get when you give a downbeat and wonderful players breathe life into the notes you have put on paper."

Born July 9, 1919, in Chicago, Hagen moved to Los Angeles as a youngster. He began playing the trombone while in junior high school.

"The school actually furnished him with a tuba and his mother made him take it back," his wife said.

He became so proficient that he graduated early from Hollywood High School and at 16 was touring with big bands. He played trombone with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey and arranged for and played with Ray Noble's orchestra.

He and Newman wrote "Harlem Nocturne" for Noble in 1939. It has been covered many times since and served as the theme music for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer television series in 1984.

In 1941, Hagen became a staff musician for CBS but the next year he enlisted in the military.

After the war, he worked as a composer and orchestrator for 20th Century-Fox studios on dozens of movies, including another Monroe classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

In the 1950s, he and Herbert Spencer formed an orchestra partnership that also wrote music for television, including scoring the Danny Thomas hit Make Room for Daddy.

Later, he worked as musical director for producer Sheldon Leonard, sometimes working on as many of five shows a week.

One of his more notable TV scoring efforts was for the 1960s adventure series I Spy, starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.

Because the show used exotic locations worldwide, Hagen often included ethnic touches in the incidental music, among them hiring Greek musicians to play for some episodes that took place in Greece. On other locations, he collected ethnic music to mix with western music back in Hollywood.

After retiring from TV work in 1986, Hagen taught a workshop in film and television scoring.

He also wrote three books on scoring, including 1971's Scoring for Films, one of the earliest textbooks on the subject. His 2002 autobiography was titled Memoirs of a Famous Composer – Nobody Ever Heard Of.

Besides his wife, Hagen is survived by his sons, Deane and James, both of Palm Desert; stepchildren Rebecca Roberts, of Irvine, Richard Roberts of Los Angeles and Rachael Roberts of Irvine; and four grandchildren. His first wife, Elouise Hagen, died in 2002 following 59 years of marriage.

Appreciation: Pollack's smart and complex films

LOS ANGELES - Sydney Pollack had the rare ability to use his acting experience as adeptly behind the camera as he did in front of it.

He won Academy Awards for best picture and best director for the epic "Out of Africa," but the former student of legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner also turned up on screen in everything from his own productions to television's "The Sopranos" and "Will & Grace."

Think of his scene-stealing performance in 1982's "Tootsie," which he also directed, playing the exasperated agent of Dustin Hoffman's cross-dressing soap star — and that was the first time Pollack had acted on film in 20 years. And of course there was his pull-no-punches supporting role as an old-school lawyer in last year's best-picture nominee "Michael Clayton," which he also co-produced.

Along the way, Pollack, who died Monday of cancer at age 73, used his unique relationship with acting — and Hollywood's finest actors — to craft a career of smart, complex, high-quality films.

Whether they were thrillers like "Three Days of the Condor" and "Absence of Malice," romances like "The Way We Were" and "Out of Africa," or even "Tootsie" — an unusual comedy for a director who clearly had heady ideas — Pollack's movies stirred something within his audiences.

You couldn't just sit there and watch passively; Pollack challenged you to feel, to respond, to walk out a little different than when you walked in.

With typical candor and humor, Pollack joked during a discussion at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival that he enjoyed appearing in other people's films because it was "an excuse to spy on other directors."

"Directors are very territorial," he said. "They're like lions, urinating on every corner of the stage."

And he worked with some of the best: The list of fellow filmmakers who've directed him includes Woody Allen ("Husbands and Wives"), Robert Altman ("The Player") and Stanley Kubrick ("Eyes Wide Shut").

The list of actors he directed, meanwhile, plays like the red carpet on Oscar night: Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Nicole Kidman, Barbra Streisand and — seven times — Robert Redford. He drew equally strong performances from men and women, and the assured, straightforward nature of his directing style always allowed their work to shine through.

Even his films that weren't exactly commercial successes — "Sabrina" and "Random Hearts," both with Harrison Ford — at least had Pollack's trademark star power.

In all these various vestiges, several traits immediately and repeatedly emerged: intelligence and class.

"Out of Africa" (1985), perhaps Pollack's best-known film, oozed both. The sweeping tale of a woman's tragic love in colonial Kenya earned him both of his Oscars as well as Academy Awards for screenplay, cinematography, score, sound and art direction. It's the kind of complex, classic romance Oscar voters have long favored. But more than two decades later, it still stands up beautifully for both its lush imagery and relevant politics.

In accepting his Academy Award, Pollack was quick to praise the film's star, Streep, who was nominated for best actress but didn't win. "I could not have made this movie without Meryl Streep," Pollack said. "She is astounding — personally, professionally, all ways."

Toward the end of his life, it only made sense for him to team up in a production company with another Oscar-winning director, the late Anthony Minghella, who shared his love for quality material ("The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Cold Mountain"). And fittingly, the last movie Pollack directed paired him with yet another influential figure, architect Frank Gehry, the subject of his 2006 documentary, "Sketches of Frank Gehry."

If this critic had to pick a favorite among Pollack's many films, though, it would be an early one: 1969's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" It was only his fifth movie, but earned Pollack his first Academy Award nomination for best director. The story of a grueling dance marathon during the Depression helped make a serious actress of Fonda, who was best known at that point for the campy "Barbarella." But while she was clearly the star, the film was a provocative portrait about a cross-section of disparate people who share a dream and struggle to keep it alive.

In the years that followed, Pollack clearly shared his dreams with many superb actors, to wonderful effect.

"Most of the great directors that I know of were not actors, so I can't tell you it's a requirement. On the other hand," Pollack once said, "it's an enormous help."

Sydney Pollack dies of cancer at age 73

LOS ANGELES - Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay who achieved commercial success and critical acclaim with the gender-bending comedy "Tootsie" and the period drama "Out of Africa, has died. He was 73.

Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by family, said his publicist, Leslee Dart. He had been diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago, Dart said.

Pollack, who occasionally appeared on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of Hollywood's best actors in a long career that reached prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.

"Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act," actor George Clooney said in a statement issued by his publicist.

"He'll be missed terribly," Clooney said.

Last fall, Pollack played Marty Bach opposite Clooney in "Michael Clayton," a drama that examines the life of fixer for lawyers. The film, which Pollack co-produced, received seven Oscar nominations, including best picture and a best actor nod for Clooney. Tilda Swinton won the Oscar for supporting actress.

Pollack was no stranger to the Academy Awards. In 1986, "Out of Africa" a romantic epic of a woman's passion set against the landscape of colonial Kenya, captured seven Oscars, including best director.

Over the years, several of his other films, including "Tootsie" and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" got several nominations, including best director nods.

Pollack's movies frequently had some of Hollywood's best actors: "Absence of Malice" with Sally Field and Paul Newman, "The Yakuza" with Robert Mitchum, "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford, and "The Firm" with Tom Cruise, among others.

In later years, he devoted increasing time to acting, appearing in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives," Robert Altman's "The Player," Robert Zemeckis' "Death Becomes Her," and Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."

Pollack's recent producing credits include "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain." His last screen appearance was in "Made of Honor," a romantic comedy currently in theaters, where he played the oft-married father of star Patrick Dempsey's character.

In recent years, Pollack produced many independent films with filmmaker Anthony Minghella and a production company Mirage Enterprises.

The Lafayette, Ind. native was born to first-generation Russian-Americans.

In high school, he fell in love with theater, a passion that prompted him forego college and move to New York and enroll in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.

"We started together in New York and he always excelled at everything he set out to do, his friendships and his humanity as much as his talents," Martin Landau, a longtime close friend of Pollack's and an associate from the Actor's Studio, said through spokesman Dick Guttman.

Studying under Sanford Meisner, Pollack spent several years cutting his teeth in various areas of theater, eventually becoming Meisner's assistant.

After appearing in a handful of Broadway productions in the 1950s, Pollack turned his eye to directing, where he would ultimately leave his biggest mark. But Pollack, who stood over six feet tall and had a striking presence on the screen, never totally gave up acting.

At the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, Pollack said "Tootsie" star Dustin Hoffman pushed him into playing the actor's exasperated agent.

Pollack said Hoffman repeatedly sent him roses with a note reading, "Please be my agent. Love, Dorothy," — a reference to the lead character's female persona, Dorothy Michaels. At that point, Pollack hadn't acted in 20 years.

"Most of the great directors that I know of were not actors, so I can't tell you it's a requirement," he said. "On the other hand, it's an enormous help."

In the 1982 movie, Hoffman plays an out-of-work actor who pretends to be a woman to land a role on a soap opera.

"I didn't think anyone would believe him as a woman," Pollack said. "But the world did, they went crazy."

Pollack is survived by his wife, Claire; two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel; his brother Bernie; and six grandchildren.

Comedic TV star dies at 86

LOS ANGELES -- Dick Martin, the zany half of the comedy team whose "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catch-phrases as "Sock it to me!" has died. He was 86.

Martin, who went on to become one of television's busiest directors after splitting with Dan Rowan in the late 1970s, died Saturday night of respiratory complications at a hospital in Santa Monica, family spokesman Barry Greenberg said.

"He had had some pretty severe respiratory problems for many years, and he had pretty much stopped breathing a week ago," Greenberg said.

He was surrounded by family and friends when he died just after 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

"Laugh-in," which debuted in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it. Rather than relying on a series of tightly scripted song-and-dance segments, it offered up a steady, almost stream-of-consciousness run of non-sequitur jokes, political satire and madhouse antics from a cast of talented young actors and comedians that also included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley and announcer Gary Owens.

Presiding over it all were Rowan and Martin, the veteran nightclub comics whose standup banter put their own distinct spin on the show.

Like all straight men, Rowan provided the voice of reason, striving to correct his partner's absurdities. Martin, meanwhile, was full of bogus, often risque theories about life, which he appeared to hold with unwavering certainty.

Against this backdrop, audiences were taken from scene to scene by quick, sometimes psychedelic-looking visual cuts, where they might see Hawn, Worley and other women dancing in bathing suits with political slogans, or sometimes just nonsense, painted on their bodies.

"Laugh-In" astounded audiences and critics alike. For two years the show topped the Nielsen ratings, and its catchphrases-- "Sock it to me," "You bet your sweet bippy" and "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall's" -- were recited across the country.

Stars such as John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were delighted to make brief appearances, and even Richard Nixon, running for president in 1968, dropped in to shout a befuddled sounding, "Sock it to me!" His opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, was offered equal time but declined because his handlers thought it would appear undignified.

The two were both struggling actors when they met in 1952. Rowan had sold his interest in a used car dealership to take acting lessons, and Martin, who had written gags for TV shows and comedians, was tending bar in Los Angeles to pay the rent.

Although their early gigs in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley were often performed gratis, they donned tuxedoes for them and put on an air of success.

"We were raw," Martin recalled years later, "but we looked good together and we were funny."

They gradually worked up to the top night spots in New York, Miami and Las Vegas and began to appear regularly on television.

In 1966, they provided the summer replacement for "The Dean Martin Show." Within two years, they were headlining their own show.

The novelty of "Laugh-In" diminished with each season, however, and as major players such as Hawn and Tomlin moved on to bigger careers, interest in the series faded.

After the show folded in 1973, Rowan and Martin capitalized on their fame with a series of high-paid engagements around the country. They parted amicably in 1977.

"Dan has diabetes, and his doctor advised him to cool it," Martin told The Associated Press at the time.

Rowan, a sailing enthusiast, spent his last years touring the canals of Europe on a houseboat. He died in 1987.

Martin moved onto the game-show circuit, but quickly tired of it. After he complained about the lack of challenges in his career, fellow comic Bob Newhart's agent suggested he take up directing.

Soon he was one of the industry's busiest TV directors, working on numerous episodes of "Newhart" as well as such shows as "In the Heat of the Night," "Archie Bunker's Place" and "Family Ties."

Born into a middle-class family in Battle Creek, Mich., Martin had worked in a Ford auto assembly plant after high school.

After an early failed marriage, he was for years a confirmed bachelor. He finally settled down in middle age, marrying Dolly Read, a former bunny at the Playboy Club in London. Survivors include his wife and two sons, actor Richard Martin and Cary Martin.

At Martin's request there will be no funeral, Greenberg said.

Martin lost the use of his right lung when he was 17, something that never bothered him until his final years, when he required oxygen 18 hours a day.

Arriving for a party celebrating his 80th birthday, he fainted and was treated by doctors and paramedics. The party continued, however, and he cracked, "Boy, did I make an entrance!"

Original Rush drummer dies

TORONTO - Fans around the world are expressing their sorrow over the death of drummer John Rutsey, a co-founding member of the seminal rock band Rush.

Rutsey, who left the group after recording their first album in 1974, died last week in Toronto from complications stemming from a lifelong battle with diabetes.

His family announced the death in newspaper notices. He was 55.

Rutsey co-founded Rush with lead singer Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson in 1968, but left the group for health reasons.

He was replaced by drummer and lyricist Neil Peart just before the group's first U.S. tour.

On the Rush website, Lee and Lifeson say they fondly recall their early days with Rutsey and say that he will be deeply missed.

"Those years spent in our teens dreaming of one day doing what we continue to do decades later are special," they state.

"Although our paths diverged many years ago, we smile today, thinking back on those exciting times and remembering John's wonderful sense of humour and impeccable timing."

The family has requested donations be made in Rutsey's memory to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Meanwhile, online condolences poured in from Rush fans around the world, with responses to one newspaper notice including messages from Australia, Germany, the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

"You were the ORIGINAL drummer in the greatest band in the world," writes Douglas Walsh of Metairie, La.

"If not for YOU, who knows what would have happened! Although you may not have known it, you were loved and respected by all Rush fans and the band themselves. God bless ya man! Drum on!"

Inside Ashlee and Pete's Wedding

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz got hitched Saturday night under tents and amid tight security, but E! News has an insider's account of the top-secret wedding ceremony and reception.

The ceremony was held in the backyard of parents Joe and Tina Simpson, decorated in an Alice in Wonderland theme.

"It was magical and beautiful," says the guest, who termed the whole affair "The Joe Simpson Show."

After escorting Ashlee down the aisle, Joe Simpson regaled the 100-plus guests with funny and touching stories of his daughter before performing the brief ceremony himself. The elder Simpson got choked up throughout the ceremony, as did Ashlee and Jessica. "They were all crying," says the source. "It was very moving."

Seeming to acknowledge the challenges of marrying into the Simpson family, at one point Joe quipped, "Pete is a very patient guy."

Ashlee wore an ivory Monique Lhuillier gown with a veil for the ceremony, while the bridesmaids were draped in black Vera Wang numbers. The men wore black tuxes with skinny black ties. Guests had been asked to wear dark clothing, and most everyone did, with attire ranging from black jeans and sports coats, to fancy black tuxes and dresses.

The reception and dinner followed.

Jessica and Tony Romo sat at the wedding party table, but the guest observes, "Jessica did not look happy the entire night. She just wasn't her bubbly self. She was very subdued and she and Tony barely interacted the entire night, except for some dancing at the end.

"You could tell she was really happy for her sister, but that maybe she was a little bit sad that things aren't working out as well for her."

Jessica did, however, give a very emotional, off-the-cuff speech toast, saying that Pete and Ashlee's relationship "has inspired me to love again" and spoke very affectionately of her little sister.

"She apologized for not writing anything more formal," the guest says, "but it was very much from the heart."

Wentz's brother also gave a toast.

The guest says that for a wedding of two musicians it subdued, with a deejay and no band. "It was weird. No one was dancing. There was like nobody on the dance floor until after they cut the cake, and then people finally danced." After taking photos, the bride livened up and slipped into a "sexy black party dress" and danced. "She managed to hide her pregnancy pretty well," the source says. "She really didn't look pregnant."

Guests were required to check their cell phones and cameras outside the tent. "You could step out and make a call, but you had to check the phone in before returning back inside. It wasn't a big deal. Everyone there gets it." The reception did experience some drama. At one point later in the night, Ashlee lost one of her diamond earrings. "Pete got on the mic and told everyone to look for the earrings," the guest says. "He said they cost more than the entire wedding!" Within a few minutes, a guest found the missing baubles.

By about 1:30 a.m., the reception had died down and most guests had left. "It was beautiful. It was truly intimate and friends and family only. It wasn't a Hollywood wedding at all," says the attendee.

Guests were given a parting gift: a red box containing a cookie inscribed "Eat Me."

Shania Twain splits from husband

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Canadian country star Shania Twain has separated from her husband of 14 years, reclusive record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, People magazine reported on Thursday.

It quoted a spokesman as saying, "This is a private matter and there will be no further comment at this time." Twain, 42, and Lange, who is in his late 50s, have a a 6-year-old son named Eja.

The marriage between the sexy singer and the secretive Svengali famed for his work with such metal acts as AC/DC and Def Leppard, was an unlikely -- but highly lucrative -- partnership.

Lange produced Twain's three blockbuster albums, which have each sold more than 10 million copies in the United States. The glossy efforts, complemented by steamy video clips, crushed the barrier separating country and pop.

Like many men, Lange was entranced by one of Twain's videos, the first of many in which she showed off her famed belly button. He called her persistently, and they agreed to collaborate professionally. Six months after they eventually met, they married in December 1993.

Unlike many superstar producers, Lange has not given an interview in decades and is rarely photographed. He did not even appear in the official wedding photo Twain distributed to the media.

But his fingerprints were all over Twain's huge trilogy of albums, 1995's "The Woman in Me," 1997's "Come on Over," and 2002's "Up!" More arena rock than traditional country, the albums were packed with catchy hooks and lyrics celebrating female empowerment.

The couple avoided the spotlight by dividing their time between a chateau near Geneva and a luxury farmhouse in New Zealand.

Postage stamp puts Sinatra back in the spotlight

NEW YORK - Frank Sinatra competed against 50,000 others — and won.

That's how many annual proposals are made for new U.S. postage stamps. The late crooner's face appeared on one of them Tuesday, with Frank Sinatra Jr. on hand to honor his father's memory.

"When we have the U.S. Postal Service making the announcement that there are 50,000 suggestions per year, out of which 20 are selected — if that isn't the very embodiment of the American Dream, well, I don't know what is," Sinatra Jr. said at a ceremony in Manhattan.

"He was a fellow off the streets of Hoboken, N.J.," he said.

The 42-cent Sinatra stamp went on sale Tuesday in New York, Las Vegas and Hoboken, where Sinatra was born. New York and Las Vegas were among his favorite haunts.

His daughter Tina Sinatra joined Postal Service governor James Bilbray in a dedication ceremony Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The entertainer died 10 years ago this week.

James Garner hospitalized after minor stroke

LOS ANGELES - James Garner, who was hospitalized late last week after suffering a minor stroke, is doing well and should be going home shortly, the veteran television and film star's publicist said Tuesday.

The star of such TV shows as "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files" went to the hospital after becoming ill at home Friday, said his publicist, Jennifer Allen.

"He's still in the hospital but my understanding is he is doing well and will be going home soon. When, exactly, we have not been told yet," Allen told The Associated Press.

Garner, who turned 80 last month, rose to prominence in the 1950s as the star of "Maverick," playing a wry riverboat gambler who was quicker with a quip than a gun and, unlike his Western counterparts, was faster still to run from trouble than to face it. The show aired from 1957 to 1962 but Garner, who was nominated for an Emmy as Bret Maverick, left in 1960 to pursue a film career.

He has appeared in such films as "The Children's Hour," "Victor/Victoria," "The Great Escape" and was nominated for an Oscar in 1985 as the small-town pharmacist opposite Sally Field in "Murphy's Romance."

Garner returned to television full-time in the mid-1970s, playing Jim Rockford, a modern-day private detective who, like his "Maverick" character, also was not afraid to run instead of fight. He won an Emmy for the role in 1977.

Garner also reprised his Maverick role in the short-lived "Bret Maverick" series in the 1980s.

More recently, he played Katey Sagal's father in the sitcom "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter." Garner joined the cast in 2003 after John Ritter, who played Sagal's husband, died during the show's second season.

Biographer: Country superstar Eddy Arnold dies at 89

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A biographer for country music superstar Eddy Arnold says the singer has died at the age of 89.

Belmont University Professor Don Cusic says Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville Thursday morning. Arnold was just days short of his 90th birthday.

Arnold's mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" — a crossover hit on the pop charts in 1965 — made him one of the most successful country singers in history.

He became a pioneer of "The Nashville Sound," also called "countrypolitan," a mixture of country and pop styles.

He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. The following year he was the first person to receive the entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Association.

Asbury Park's Stone Pony to host Federici memorial

ASBURY PARK, N.J. - Friends and fans of keyboardist Danny Federici will gather at the famous Stone Pony nightclub Wednesday evening to pay tribute to the original E Street Band member who died at 58 Thursday after a three-year battle with melanoma.

Federici had performed with Bruce Springsteen since the late 1960s and became a stalwart in the E Street Band as Springsteen emerged from the Jersey shore club scene to achieve international stardom.

Stone Pony house promoter Kyle Brendle said those attending would have the opportunity to share their memories of Danny and would be invited to contribute to a memorial fund set up in his memory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

E Street Band mamber Danny Federici dies at 58

NEW YORK (AP) — Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.

Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.

According to published reports, Federici last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.

Springsteen concerts scheduled for Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed after news of Federici's death.

He was born in Flemington, N.J., a long car ride from the Jersey shore haunts where he first met kindred musical spirit Springsteen in the late 1960s. The pair often jammed at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park, N.J., a now-defunct after-hours club that hosted the best musicians in the state.

It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band.

By 1969, the self-effacing Federici — often introduced in concert by Springsteen as "Phantom Dan" — was playing with the Boss in a band called Child. Over the years, Federici joined his friend in acclaimed shore bands Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom and the Bruce Springsteen Band.

Federici became a stalwart in the E Street Band as Springsteen rocketed from the boardwalk to international stardom. Springsteen split from the E Streeters in the late '80s, but they reunited for a hugely successful tour in 1999.

"Bruce has been supportive throughout my life," Federici said in a recent interview with Backstreets magazine. "I've had my ups and downs, and I've certainly given him a run for his money, and he's always been there for me."

Federici played accordion on the wistful "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from Springsteen's second album, and his organ solo was a highlight of Springsteen's first top 10 hit, "Hungry Heart." His organ coda on the 9/11-inspired Springsteen song "You're Missing" provided one of the more heart-wrenching moments on "The Rising" in 2002.

In a band with larger-than-life characters such as saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bandana-wrapped guitarist "Little" Steven Van Zandt, Federici was content to play in his familiar position to the side of the stage. But his playing was as vital to Springsteen's live show as any instrument in the band.

Federici released a pair of solo albums that veered from the E Street sound and into soft jazz. Bandmates Nils Lofgren on guitar and Garry Tallent on bass joined Federici on his 1997 debut, "Flemington." In 2005, Federici released its follow-up, "Out of a Dream."

Federici had taken a leave of absence during the band's tour in November 2007 to pursue treatment for melanoma, and was temporarily replaced by veteran musician Charles Giordano.

At the time, Springsteen described Federici as "one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years. We all eagerly await his healthy and speedy return."

Besides his work with Springsteen, Federici played on albums by an impressive roster of other artists: Van Zandt, Joan Armatrading, Graham Parker, Gary U.S. Bonds and Garland Jeffreys.

Veteran Disney animator Ollie Johnston dies at 95

LOS ANGELES - Ollie Johnston, the last of the "Nine Old Men" who animated "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Fantasia," "Bambi" and other classic Walt Disney films has died. He was 95.

Johnston died of natural causes Monday at a long-term care facility in Sequim, Wash., Walt Disney Studios Vice President Howard E. Green said Tuesday.

"Ollie was part of an amazing generation of artists, one of the real pioneers of our art, one of the major participants in the blossoming of animation into the art form we know today," Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney and director emeritus of the Walt Disney Co., said in a statement.

Walt Disney lightheartedly dubbed his team of crack animators his "Nine Old Men," borrowing the phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's description of the U.S. Supreme Court's members, who had angered the president by quashing many of his Depression-era New Deal programs.

Although most of Disney's men were in their 20s at the time, the name stuck with them for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps the two most accomplished of the nine were Johnston and his close friend Frank Thomas, who died in 2004 at age 92. The pair, who met as art students at Stanford University in the 1930s, were hired by Disney for $17 a week at a time when he was expanding the studio to produce full-length feature films. Both worked on the first of those features, 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Johnston and Thomas and their families became next-door neighbors in the Los Angeles suburb of Flintridge, and during their 45-minute drive to the Disney Studios each day, they would devise fresh ideas for work.

Johnston worked as an assistant animator on "Snow White," became an animation supervisor on "Fantasia" and "Bambi" and animator on "Pinocchio."

He was especially proud of his work on "Bambi" and its classic scenes, including one depicting the heartbreaking death of Bambi's mother at the hands of a hunter. That scene has brought tears to the eyes of generations of young and old viewers.

"The mother's death showed how convincing we could be at presenting really strong emotion," he remarked in 1999.

Johnston's other credits included "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan" "Lady and the Tramp," "Sleeping Beauty," "101 Dalmatians," "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats," "Robin Hood" and "The Rescuers."

"(People) know his work. They know his characters. They've seen him act without realizing it," said film historian Leonard Maltin. "He was one of the pillars, one of the key contributors to the golden age of Disney animation."

After Johnston and Thomas retired in 1978, they lectured at schools and film festivals in the United States and Europe and co-authored the books "Bambi; the Story and the Film," "Too Funny for Words," "The Disney Villains" and the epic "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life." They were also the subjects of the 1995 documentary "Frank and Ollie," produced by Thomas' son Ted.

The pair's guide to animation is considered "the bible" among animators, said John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar animation studios and Johnston's longtime friend.

Oliver Martin Johnston Jr. was born on Oct. 31, 1912, in Palo Alto, Calif., where his father was a professor at Stanford. He once noted that he and Thomas "were bound to be thrown together" at the university, as they were two of only six students in its art department at the time. When not in class, they painted landscapes and sold them at a local speakeasy for meal money.

Johnston had planned on becoming a magazine illustrator but fell in love with animation.

"I wanted to paint pictures full of emotion that would make people want to read the stories," he once said. "But I found that here (in animation) was something that was full of life and movement and action, and it showed all those feelings."

Johnston was honored with a Disney Legends Award in 1989 and, in 2005, he was the first animator honored with the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony.

He was also a major train enthusiast. The backyard of his Flintridge home boasted a hand-built miniature railroad, and Johnston restored and ran a full-size antique locomotive at a former vacation home in Julian, Calif.

Johnston's wife of 63 years, Marie Worthey, died in 2005. Johnston is survived by sons Ken and Rick and daughters-in-law Carolyn Johnston and Teya Priest Johnston. The Walt Disney Studios is planning a life celebration for Johnston. Funeral services will be private.

Heston left cinematic, political mark

LOS ANGELES - Nancy Reagan was heartbroken over Charlton Heston's death. President Bush hailed him as a "strong advocate for liberty," while John McCain called Heston a devotee for civil and constitutional rights.

Even Michael Moore, who mocked Heston in his gun-control documentary "Bowling for Columbine," posted the actor's picture on his Web site to mark his passing.

Heston, who died Saturday night at 84, was a towering figure both in his politics and on screen, where his characters had the ear of God (Moses in "The Ten Commandments"), survived apocalyptic plagues ("The Omega Man") and endured one of Hollywood's most-grueling action sequences (the chariot race in "Ben-Hur," which earned him the best-actor Academy Award).

Better known in recent years as a fierce gun-rights advocate who headed the National Rifle Association, Heston played legendary leaders and ordinary men hurled into heroic struggles.

"In taking on epic and commanding roles, he showed himself to be one of our nation's most gifted actors, and his legacy will forever be a part of our cinema," Republican presidential candidate McCain said in a statement that also noted Heston's involvement in the civil-rights movement and his stand against gun control.

Heston's jutting jaw, regal bearing and booming voice served him well as Marc Antony in "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra," Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy," John the Baptist in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and an astronaut on a topsy-turvy world where simians rule in "Planet of the Apes."

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life," Heston's family said in a statement. "We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather with an infectious sense of humor. He served these far greater roles with tremendous faith, courage and dignity."

The actor died at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife, Lydia, at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said. He declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details Sunday.

One of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Heston's work dwindled largely to small parts and narration and other voice roles from the 1980s on, including an uncredited cameo as an ape in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes."

In 2002, near the end of his five years as president of the NRA, Heston disclosed he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.

The disclosure was soon followed by an unflattering appearance in Moore's 2003 best documentary winner "Bowling for Columbine," which took America to task for its gun laws.

Moore used a clip of Heston holding aloft a rifle at an NRA rally and proclaiming "from my cold, dead hands." The director flustered the actor in an interview later in the film by pressing him on his gun-control stance. Heston eventually walked out on Moore.

Moore's Web site, http://www.michaelmoore.com, on Sunday featured a photo of Heston, the date of his birth and death and a note from the actor's family requesting that donations be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund in lieu of flowers.

There was no other reaction on the site from Moore about Heston's death. Moore did not immediately respond to e-mail and phone requests seeking comment.

Like fellow conservative Ronald Reagan, Heston served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. Former first lady Nancy Reagan said in a statement that she was heartbroken to hear of his death.

"He was one of Ronnie's and my dearest friends," she said. "I will never forget Chuck as a hero on the big screen in the roles he played, but more importantly I considered him a hero in life for the many times that he stepped up to support Ronnie in whatever he was doing."

Bush — who in 2003 presented Heston the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor — called Heston a "man of character and integrity, with a big heart."

Decades before his NRA leadership, Heston was a strong advocate for civil rights in the 1960s, joining marches and offering financial assistance.

Civil-rights leaders in Los Angeles held a moment of silence in Heston's memory Sunday after an unrelated news conference.

Heston had contributed and raised thousands of dollars in Hollywood for Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement, said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Round Table.

"We certainly disagree with his position as NRA head and also his firm, firm, unwavering support of the unlimited right to bear arms," Hutchinson said. But, he added, "Charlton Heston was a complex individual. He lived a long time, and certainly, there were many phases. The phases we prefer to remember were certainly his contributions to Dr. King and civil rights."

Fans remember Heston for some of the most epic moments on film: Parting the Red Sea as Moses in "The Ten Commandments," cursing his self-destructive species as he stumbles on the remnants of the Statue of Liberty in "Planet of the Apes," tearing hell-bent through the chariot race in "Ben-Hur."

"Ben-Hur" earned 11 Oscars, the most ever until 1997's "Titanic" and 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" tied it.

Born Charles Carter in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, Heston grew up in the Michigan wilderness, where his father operated a lumber mill.

Heston took up acting after serving in the Army during World War II. He took his professional name from his mother's maiden name, Charlton, and the last name of his stepfather, Chester Heston, whom she married after his parents' divorce.

After his movie debut in two independent films by a college classmate, Heston was put under contract by producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca"). Cecil B. DeMille cast him as the circus manager in "The Greatest Show on Earth" and then as Moses in "The Ten Commandments."

He followed with Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," William Wyler's "The Big Country" and the sea saga "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" before "Ben-Hur" elevated Heston to the top of Hollywood's A-list.

His later films included "Earthquake," "El Cid," "The Three Musketeers," "Midway" and "Soylent Green."

In recent years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.

He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Heston also feuded with liberal Edward Asner, one of his successors as Screen Actors Guild president. In a statement Sunday, Asner said Heston "was a worthy opponent and certainly helped create work for a lot of actors."

When Heston stepped down as NRA president, he told members his time in office was "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."

Heston and his wife had a daughter, Holly Ann, and a son, Fraser Clarke, who played the infant Moses in "The Ten Commandments."

In the 1990s, Heston's son directed his father in several TV and big-screen films, including "Treasure Island" and "Alaska."

The Hestons celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.

Film legend Charlton Heston dead at 84

LOS ANGELES - Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.

The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."

Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."

With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked.

Publicist Michael Levine, who represented Heston for about 20 years, said the actor's passing represented the end of an iconic era for cinema.

"If Hollywood had a Mt. Rushmore, Heston's face would be on it," Levine said. "He was a heroic figure that I don't think exists to the same degree in Hollywood today."

The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.

In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."

Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."

Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time.

He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.

Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the midcentury. "Ben-Hur" won 11 Academy Awards, tying it for the record with the more recent "Titanic" (1997) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). Heston's other hits include: "The Ten Commandments," "El Cid," "55 Days at Peking," "Planet of the Apes" and "Earthquake."

He liked to the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:

Andrew Jackson ("The President's Lady," "The Buccaneer"), Moses ("The Ten Commandments"), title role of "El Cid," John the Baptist ("The Greatest Story Ever Told"), Michelangelo ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"), General Gordon ("Khartoum"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra"), Cardinal Richelieu ("The Three Musketeers"), Henry VIII ("The Prince and the Pauper").

Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film archivist. He had the title role in "Peer Gynt" in 1942 and was Marc Antony in Bradley's 1949 version of "Julius Caesar," for which Heston was paid $50 a week.

Film producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca") spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to see what it's like."

Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, "Dark City," a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager in the all-star "The Greatest Show On Earth," named by the Motion Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952. More movies followed:

"The Savage," "Ruby Gentry," "The President's Lady," "Pony Express" (as Buffalo Bill Cody), "Arrowhead," "Bad for Each Other," "The Naked Jungle," "Secret of the Incas," "The Far Horizons" (as Clark of the Lewis and Clark trek), "The Private War of Major Benson," "Lucy Gallant."

Most were forgettable low-budget films, and Heston seemed destined to remain an undistinguished action star. His old boss DeMille rescued him.

The director had long planned a new version of "The Ten Commandments," which he had made as a silent in 1923 with a radically different approach that combined biblical and modern stories. He was struck by Heston's facial resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses, especially the similar broken nose, and put the actor through a long series of tests before giving him the role.

The Hestons' newborn, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the infant Moses in the film.

More films followed: the eccentric thriller "Touch of Evil," directed by Orson Welles; William Wyler's "The Big Country," costarring with Gregory Peck; a sea saga, "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" with Gary Cooper.

Then his greatest role: "Ben-Hur."

Heston wasn't the first to be considered for the remake of 1925 biblical epic. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson had declined the film. Heston plunged into the role, rehearsing two months for the furious chariot race.

He railed at suggestions the race had been shot with a double: "I couldn't drive it well, but that wasn't necessary. All I had to do was stay on board so they could shoot me there. I didn't have to worry; MGM guaranteed I would win the race."

The huge success of "Ben-Hur" and Heston's Oscar made him one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He combined big-screen epics like "El Cid" and "55 Days at Peking" with lesser ones such as "Diamond Head," "Will Penny" and "Airport 1975." In his later years he played cameos in such films as "Wayne's World 2" and "Tombstone."

He often returned to the theater, appearing in such plays as "A Long Day's Journey into Night" and "A Man for All Seasons." He starred as a tycoon in the prime-time soap opera, "The Colbys," a two-season spinoff of "Dynasty."

At his birth in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, his name was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Mich., where his father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Growing up in the Michigan woods with almost no playmates, young Charles read books of adventure and devised his own games while wandering the countryside with his rifle.

Charles's parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory plant superintendent in Wilmette, Ill., an upscale north Chicago suburb. Shy and feeling displaced in the big city, the boy had trouble adjusting to the new high school. He took refuge in the drama department.

"What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people," he said in a 1986 interview. "In those days I wasn't satisfied with being me."

Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a radio-gunner in the Aleutians.

In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke, and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek acting jobs. Finding none, they hired on as codirectors and principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, N.C.

Back in New York, both Hestons began finding work. With his strong 6-feet-2 build and craggily handsome face, Heston won roles in TV soap operas, plays ("Antony and Cleopatra" with Katherine Cornell) and live TV dramas such as "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Of Human Bondage."

Heston wrote several books: "The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976," published in 1978; "Beijing Diary: 1990," concerning his direction of the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" in Chinese; "In the Arena: An Autobiography," 1995; and "Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years of American Filmmaking," 1998.

Besides Fraser, who directed his father in an adventure film, "Mother Lode," the Hestons had a daughter, Holly Ann, born Aug. 2, 1961. The couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.

In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.

He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigated the company for releasing an Ice-T album that purportedly encouraged cop killing.

Heston wrote in "In the Arena" that he was proud of what he did "though now I'll surely never be offered another film by Warners, nor get a good review in Time. On the other hand, I doubt I'll get a traffic ticket very soon."

Here is a partial list of some of Charlton Heston's films:

"Peer Gynt," 1942

"Julius Caesar," 1949

"Dark City," 1950

"The Greatest Show on Earth," 1952

"The Savage," 1952

"Ruby Gentry," 1952

"The President's Lady," 1953

"Pony Express," 1953

"Arrowhead," 1953

"Bad for Each Other," 1953

"The Naked Jungle," 1954

"Secret of the Incas," 1954

"The Far Horizons," 1955

"The Private War of Major Benson," 1955

"Lucy Gallant," 1955

"The Ten Commandments," 1956

"Three Violent People," 1957

"Touch of Evil," 1958

"The Big Country," 1958

"The Buccaneer," 1958

"The Wreck of the Mary Deare," 1959

"Ben-Hur," 1959

"El Cid," 1961

"The Pigeon That Took Rome," 1962

"Diamond Head," 1963

"55 Days at Peking," 1963

"The Greatest Story Ever Told," 1965

"Major Dundee," 1965

"The Agony and the Ecstasy," 1965

"The War Lord," 1965

"Khartoum," 1966

"Counterpoint," 1968

"Planet of the Apes," 1968

"Will Penny," 1968

"Number One," 1969

"Julius Caesar," 1970

"Beneath the Planet of the Apes," 1970

"The Hawaiians," 1970

"The Omega Man," 1971

"Call of the Wild," 1972

"Antony and Cleopatra," 1972 (also director)

"Skyjacked," 1972

"Soylent Green," 1973

"The Three Musketeers," 1974

"Airport 1975," 1974

"Earthquake," 1974

"The Four Musketeers," 1975

"The Last Hard Men," 1976

"Midway," 1976

"Two-Minute Warning," 1976

"The Prince and the Pauper" (or "Crossed Swords)," 1977

"Gray Lady Down," 1978

"Mountain Man," 1980

"The Awakening," 1980

"Mother Lode," 1982 (also director)

"Solar Crisis," 1990

"Almost an Angel," 1990

"Wayne's World 2," 1993

"Tombstone," 1993

"True Lies," 1994

"In the Mouth of Madness," 1995

"Alaska," 1996

"Hamlet," 1996

"Hercules," 1997

Seinfeld unhurt after Hamptons car wreck

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. - Jerry Seinfeld was in a harrowing rollover wreck but was unhurt after the brakes on one of his vintage cars failed.

Seinfeld was driving alone when the brakes on his 1967 Fiat BTM stopped working Saturday evening, East Hampton Town Police Chief Todd Sarris told the New York Post. Seinfeld tried the emergency brake, to no avail, and then swerved to keep the car from careering into an intersection, Sarris said.

The two-door sedan flipped over and came to a stop just yards from the highway, Sarris said, adding that the comic's maneuver "probably avoided a very serious accident."

The wreck was attributed to mechanical failure, and no summonses were issued, Sarris said. Seinfeld, 53, did not require medical attention and returned to his East Hampton home.

"He was a little shocked when he walked in and it started to dawn on him what happened," his wife, Jessica, told the Post.

The comedian took the crash in snide.

"Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do," the Post quoted him as saying. "It is not something I plan to make a habit of."

The sitcom star, who co-wrote, co-produced and starred in last year's animated "Bee Movie," is also an auto aficionado. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in November that his favorite car in his collection is a 1955 Porsche Spyder.

Richard Widmark dies at 93

HARTFORD, Conn. - Richard Widmark, who made a sensational film debut as the giggling killer in "Kiss of Death" and became a leading man in "Broken Lance," "Two Rode Together" and 40 other films, died at his home in Roxbury after a long illness. He was 93.

Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said he died Monday. She would not provide details of his illness and said funeral arrangements are private.

"It was a big shock, but he was 93," Blanchard said.

Widmark earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role in the 1947 thriller "Kiss of Death." He played Tommy Udo, who delighted in pushing an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs to her death. It was his only Oscar nomination.

"That damned laugh of mine!" he told a reporter in 1961. "For two years after that picture, you couldn't get me to smile. I played the part the way I did because the script struck me as funny and the part I played made me laugh. The guy was such a ridiculous beast."

Actress Shirley Jones, who appeared with Widmark and James Stewart in "Two Rode Together" and became a good friend, said she was devastated about Widmark's death.

"He was a down-to-earth guy, and I respected him for that," Jones said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "He was a real guy, but he was such a wonderful actor."

A.C. Lyles, a producer with Paramount Pictures, worked with Widmark on the 1975 western "The Last Day."

"Dick was just one of the nicest guys I ever worked with: very, very professional, very, very prepared and he couldn't have been more cooperative," Lyles said.

"He would have little comments to make during rehearsal about a scene and it was never a suggestion that would enhance him," he said. "It was always to enhance someone else in the scene and I thought that was very courageous of him."

A quiet, inordinately shy man, Widmark often portrayed killers, cops and Western gunslingers. But he said he hated guns.

"I know I've made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence," he remarked in a 1976 Associated Press interview. "I am an ardent supporter of gun control. It seems incredible to me that we are the only civilized nation that does not put some effective control on guns."

Widmark was born Dec. 26, 1914, in Sunrise, Minn., where his father ran a general store, then became a traveling salesman. The family moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., Henry, Ill., and Chillicothe, Mo., before settling in Princeton, Ill.

"Like most small-town boys, I had the urge to get to the big city and make a name for myself," he recalled in a 1954 interview.

"I was a movie nut from the age of 3, but I don't recall having any interest in acting," he said.

But at Lake Forest College, he became a protege of the drama teacher and met his first wife, drama student Ora Jean Hazelwood. Their daughter, Ann, became the wife of baseball immortal Sandy Koufax.

Two years out of college, Widmark reached New York in 1938 during the heyday of radio drama. His mellow Midwest voice made him a favorite in soap operas, and he found himself racing from one studio to another.

Rejected by the Army because of a punctured eardrum, Widmark began appearing in Broadway plays in 1943. His first was a comedy hit "Kiss and Tell." He was appearing in the Chicago company of "Dream Girl" with June Havoc when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year contract. He almost missed out on the "Kiss of Death" role.

"The director, Henry Hathaway, didn't want me," the actor recalled. "I have a high forehead; he thought I looked too intellectual." The director was overruled by studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck, and Hathaway "gave me kind of a bad time."

An immediate star, Widmark appeared in 20 Fox films from 1957 to 1964. Among them: "The Street with No Name," "Road House," "Yellow Sky," "Down to the Sea in Ships," "Slattery's Hurricane," "Panic in the Streets," "No Way Out," "The Halls of Montezuma," "The Frogmen," "Red Skies of Montana," "My Pal Gus" and the Samuel Fuller film noir "Pickup on South Street."

In 1952, Widmark starred in "Don't Bother to Knock" with Marilyn Monroe. He told an interviewer in later years:

"She wanted to be this great star but acting just scared the hell out of her. That's why she was always late — couldn't get her on the set. She had trouble remembering lines."

"But none of it mattered. With a very few special people, something happens between the lens and the film that is pure magic. ... And she really had it."

After leaving Fox, Widmark's career continued to flourish. He starred (as Jim Bowie) with John Wayne in "The Alamo," with James Stewart in John Ford's "Two Rode Together," as the U.S. prosecutor in "Judgment at Nuremberg," and with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas in "The Way West." Also: "St. Joan" (as the Dauphin), "How the West Was Won," "Death of a Gunfighter," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Midas Run" and "Coma."

"Madigan," a 1968 film with Widmark as a loner detective, was converted to television and lasted one season in 1972-73. It was Widmark's only TV series.

He also was in some TV films, including "Cold Sassy Tree" and "Once Upon a Texas Train."

In later years, Widmark appeared sparingly in films and TV. He explained to Parade magazine in 1987: "I've discovered in my dotage that I now find the whole moviemaking process irritating. I don't have the patience anymore. I've got a few more years to live, and I don't want to spend them sitting around a movie set for 12 hours to do two minutes of film."

Hazelwood died in 1997 and Widmark married Blanchard in 1999.

Sara Evans Primed for Hitchin'

After taking a tumble the first time, Sara Evans is ready to get right back on that marital horse.

The country singer is engaged to radio host Jay Barker, Evans' rep, Lori Genes, told People on Monday.

"The couple are enjoying their engagement and look forward to their upcoming nuptials," Genes said.

The betrothed duo, who started seeing each other sometime before Thanksgiving, have not yet set a date. This will be the second trip down the aisle for both.

Evans, 37, has three children from her first marriage, and Barker, who went through a divorce last summer, has four.

Barker, a former star quarterback at the University of Alabama who helped lead his team to a national championship in 1992, presides over the morning show The Opening Drive on WJOX-AM in Birmingham.

Evans' 13-year marriage to erstwhile politico Craig Schelske officially ended in September after one of the uglier he-said, she-said battles in recent memory. Their union came to a grinding halt in October 2006 while Evans was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.

And at least in part because the "Suds in the Bucket" songstress opted to quit the show midseason, her pending divorce became home-page news.

The miscellaneous mudslinging included allegations of infidelity from both sides, including a since-retracted accusation from Evans that Schelske had an affair with their nanny. Meanwhile, Schelske at one point filed court documents demanding his spouse cop to at least 11 extramarital affairs, claiming she messed around with, among others, her Dancing partner Tony Dovolani.

When a judge signed off on their divorce on Sept. 28, the warring pair agreed to drop their respective accusations and wipe the slate clean. Evans, who got to keep the family's abode in Nashville, was ordered to pay $600,000 in alimony. Schelske was given the deeds to their two residences in Oregon.

Beatles' friend Neil Aspinall dies at 66

NEW YORK - Neil Aspinall, a longtime friend of the Beatles who managed their business enterprises and helped make the group a moneymaking phenomenon decades after they split up, has died. He was 66.

Aspinall's death was announced Monday in a statement from surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, and the band's Apple Corps Ltd. company.

Aspinall died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he had been receiving treatment. The exact date of his death was unclear.

He was a childhood friend of McCartney and Harrison in Liverpool, England. While he didn't contribute musically, he played several key roles in support of the Beatles, most notably as the head of their Apple Corps business, which oversaw the commercial concerns of the group, including licensing.

"I've known Neil many years and he was a good friend. We were blessed to have him in our lives and he will be missed," Starr said in a statement Monday.

Aspinall was the Beatles' first road manager and would drive them to gigs in his van. He later became their personal assistant, and in 1968, he took over the management of Apple Corps.

As head of Apple Corps, Aspinall was executive producer of the hugely successful "Beatles Anthology" album and was behind other successes, including the "Beatles One" album and the recent Cirque du Soleil production "Love," which has been a hit in Las Vegas.

"As a loyal friend, confidant and chief executive, Neil's trusting stewardship and guidance has left a far-reaching legacy for generations to come," the band's statement said.

Aspinall stepped down from Apple Corps last year.

He is survived by his wife, Suzy, and five children, who were with him when he died.

Oscar-winning actor Paul Scofield dies

LONDON - Paul Scofield, a commanding stage and screen actor indelibly stamped on filmgoers' minds as the doomed philosopher-statesman Sir Thomas More in "A Man For All Seasons," has died at age 86.

Agent Rosalind Chatto said Thursday that Scofield died in a hospital near his home in southern England. He had been suffering from leukemia and died Wednesday.

Scofield won an Academy Award and international fame for the 1966 film "A Man For All Seasons," in which he played the Tudor statesman and author of "Utopia" executed for treason in 1535 after clashing with King Henry VIII.

But he followed that breakthrough with relatively few film roles. Scofield was a stage actor by inclination and by his gifts — a dramatic, craggy face and an unforgettable voice likened to a Rolls-Royce starting up or the sound rumbling out of low organ pipes in an ancient crypt.

"He had a charisma, a hypnotism, a kind of spell that he cast on an audience, which was an extraordinary thing to negotiate as a young actor," said Simon Callow, who performed alongside Scofield in the play "Amadeus" in 1979. "He was an absolutely towering actor."

Judi Dench, who appeared with Scofield in Kenneth Branagh's film of "Henry V" in 1989, remembered him as "a great friend and a great man."

Even Scofield's greatest screen role was a follow-up to a play — the London stage production of Robert Bolt's "A Man for All Seasons," in which he starred for nine months. Scofield then turned in a performance in the 1961 New York production that won him extraordinary reviews and a Tony Award.

"With a kind of weary magnificence, Scofield sinks himself into the part, studiously underplays it, and somehow displays the inner mind of a man destined for sainthood," Time magazine said.

Actor Richard Burton, once regarded as the natural heir to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud at the summit of British theater, said it was Scofield who deserved that place. "Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield's," he said.

Scofield's infrequent films included Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance"; "Henry V," in which he played the king of France; "Quiz Show," Robert Redford's film about a 1950s TV scandal; and the 1996 adaptation of Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible."

"Quiz Show" brought Scofield a second Oscar nomination, this time as best supporting actor. He played Mark Van Doren, the famed author and poet whose son, Charles, was the key figure in the scandal.

Scofield was an unusual star — a family man who lived almost his whole life within a few miles of his birthplace in southern England and hurried home after work to his wife and children. He didn't seek the spotlight, gave interviews sparingly and, at times, seemed to need coaxing to venture out even onto the stage he loved.

But, he insisted in The Sunday Times in 1992: "My reclusiveness is a myth. ... I suppose I'm not wildly gregarious. Yes, I've turned down quite a lot of parts. At my age you need to weed things out, but the idea that I can't be bothered anymore with acting — that's quite absurd. Acting is all I can do. An actor: That's what I am."

Scofield reportedly had been offered a knighthood, but declined.

"It is just not an aspect of life that I would want," he once said. "If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr.?"

In 2001, however, he was named a Companion of Honor, one of the country's top honors and limited to 65 living people.

His temperament, too, was unexpected in an actor who remained at the very top of his profession.

"It is hard not to be Polyanna-ish about Paul because he is such a manifestly good man, so humane and decent, and curiously void of ego," said director Richard Eyre, former artistic director of Britain's National Theatre. "All the pride he has is channeled through the thing that he does brilliantly."

David Paul Scofield was born Jan. 21, 1922, son of the village schoolmaster in Hurstpierpoint, eight miles from the southern coast of England. When he married actress Joy Parker in 1943, they settled only 10 miles to the north, in the village of Balcombe.

Scofield trained at the Croydon Repertory Theater School and London's Mask Theater School before World War II. Barred from military service during the war for medical reasons, he toured in plays to entertain troops and acted in repertory in factory towns around the country.

All through the 1940s, he worked repertory and in London and Stratford in plays ranging from Shakespeare and Shaw to Steinbeck and Chekhov.

In his 20s and 30s, he worked with director Peter Brook, touring as Hamlet in 1955. The collaboration included the stage adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory" in 1956, which Gielgud regarded as Scofield's greatest performance.

Scofield's huge success with "A Man for All Seasons" was followed in 1979 by another great historical stage role, as the thwarted composer Salieri opposite Callow's Mozart in Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus."

His later stage appearances included "Heartbreak House" in 1992 and the 1996 National Theatre production of Ibsen's "John Gabriel Borkman."

He is survived by his wife and children.

Writer Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome for years, died at 1:30 a.m. in his adopted home of Sri Lanka after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

The 1968 story "2001: A Space Odyssey" — written simultaneously as a novel and screenplay with director Stanley Kubrick — was a frightening prophesy of artificial intelligence run amok.

One year after it made Clarke a household name in fiction, the scientist entered the homes of millions of Americans alongside Walter Cronkite anchoring television coverage of the Apollo mission to the moon.

Clarke also was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

His non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment.

"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer."

From 1950, he began a prolific output of both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes publishing three books in a year. He published his best-selling "3001: The Final Odyssey" when he was 79.

A statement from Clarke's office said that Clarke had recently reviewed the final manuscript of his latest novel. "The Last Theorem," co-written with Frederik Pohl, will be published later this year, the statement said.

Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956, "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986.

When Clarke and Kubrick got together to develop a movie about space, they used as basic ideas several of Clarke's shorter pieces, including "The Sentinel," written in 1948, and "Encounter in the Dawn." As work progressed on the screenplay, Clarke also wrote a novel of the story. He followed it up with "2010," "2061," and "3001: The Final Odyssey."

In 1989, two decades after the Apollo 11 moon landings, Clarke wrote: "2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."

Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989.

Born in Minehead, western England, on Dec. 16, 1917, the son of a farmer, Arthur Charles Clark became addicted to science fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" at Woolworth's. He read English writers H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and began writing for his school magazine in his teens.

Clarke went to work as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.

It was not until after the World War II that Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London.

In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system.

But it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications — an idea whose time had decidedly not come.

Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched.

Clarke married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children.

He moved to the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka in 1956 after embarking on a study of the Great Barrier Reef.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, discovered that scuba-diving approximated the feeling of weightlessness that astronauts experience in space. He remained a diving enthusiast, running his own scuba venture into old age.

"I'm perfectly operational underwater," he once said.

Clarke was linked by his computer with friends and fans around the world, spending each morning answering e-mails and browsing the Internet.

At a 90th birthday party thrown for Clarke in December, the author said he had three wishes: for Sri Lanka's raging civil war to end, for the world to embrace cleaner sources of energy and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings to be discovered.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke once said he did not regret having never followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit.

"One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King."

Oscar winner Minghella dies at 54

LONDON - Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain" into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54.

Minghella's publicist, Jonathan Rutter, said the filmmaker died Tuesday morning at London's Charing Cross Hospital of a hemorrhage. He said Minghella was operated on last week for a growth in his neck, "and the operation seemed to have gone well. At 5 a.m. today he had a fatal hemorrhage."

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who became friends with Minghella after the filmmaker directed a Labour Party election ad in 2005, said he was "really shocked and very sad."

"Anthony Minghella was a wonderful human being, creative and brilliant, but still humble, gentle and a joy to be with," Blair said. "Whatever I did with him, personally or professionally, left me with complete admiration for him, as a character and as an artist of the highest caliber."

"The English Patient," the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche. Based on the celebrated novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, the movie tells of a burn victim's tortured recollections of his misdeeds in time of war.

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Minghella said the film was the pinnacle of his career at the time: "I feel more naked and more exposed by this piece of work than anything I've ever been involved with."

He said too many modern films let the audience be passive, as if they were saying, "We're going to rock you and thrill you. We'll do everything for you."

"This film goes absolutely against that grain," he said. "It says, `I'm sorry, but you're going to have to make some connections. There are some puzzles here. The story will constantly rethread itself and it will be elliptical, but there are enormous rewards in that.'"

Minghella (pronounced min-GELL'-ah) also was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay for the movie and for his screenplay for "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

His 2003 "Cold Mountain," based on Charles Frazier's novel of the U.S. Civil War, brought a best supporting actress Oscar for Renee Zellweger.

The 1999 "The Talented Mr. Ripley," starring Matt Damon as a murderous social climber, was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. It earned five Oscar nominations.

Among his other films were "Truly, Madly, Deeply" (1990), and last year's Oscar-nominated "Michael Clayton," on which he was executive producer.

Minghella also turned his talents to opera. In 2005, he directed a highly successful staging of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at the English National Opera in London — choreographed by Minghella's wife, Carolyn Choa. The following year, he staged it for the season opener of New York's Metropolitan Opera. It was the first performance of the Met's new era under general manager Peter Gelb.

Minghella was recently in Botswana filming an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." It is due to air on British television this week.

The book is the first in a series about the adventures of Botswanan private eye Precious Ramotswe; a 13-part television series was recently commission by U.S. network HBO.

Jeff Ramsay, press secretary to Botswanan President Festus Mogae, called Minghella's death a "shock and an utter loss."

He said the director had been coming to the country ahead of the detective film and learning about Botswana.

Ramsay said Minghella had told him how he had been forced to shoot "Cold Mountain" in Romania and that it had "seemed wrong." He said this made the director "more sure that the film could only be shot in Botswana."

Born the second of five children to southern Italian emigrants, Minghella came to moviemaking from a flourishing playwriting career on the London "fringe" and, in 1986, on the West End with the play, "Made in Bangkok," a hard-hitting look at the sexual mores of a British tour group in Thailand.

He worked as a television script editor before making his directing debut with "Truly, Madly, Deeply," a comedy about love and grief starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman.

Producer David Puttnam told the BBC that Minghella was "a very special person."

"He wasn't just a writer, or a writer-director, he was someone who was very well-known and very well-loved within the film community," Puttnam said. "Frankly he was far too young to have gone."

Minghella is survived by his wife; his actor son, Max Minghella; and his daughter, Hannah.

Abba drummer found dead in his garden

MADRID, Spain - A former drummer for the Swedish pop band ABBA was found dead with cuts to his neck in the garden of his house on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Police said Monday an autopsy showed it was an accident.

A neighbor found the body of 62-year-old Ola Brunkert on Sunday evening at his house in a coastal area outside the eastern town of Arta, a Civil Guard spokesman told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

He said an autopsy was carried out and confirmed initial investigations. "It was an accident," he said.

The spokesman said Brunkert hit his head against a glass door in his dining room, shattering the glass and cutting himself in the neck. He managed to wrap a towel around his neck and left the house to seek help, but collapsed in the garden.

Brunkert lived in the coastal apartment complex of Betlem in the municipality of Arta, in the eastern part of Mallorca.

Brunkert had lived in Arta for around 20 years. His wife, Inger. died less than a year ago, an Arta municipal official told the AP. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the case.

ABBA band member Benny Anderson told Swedish daily Expressen he was sad to hear of the drummer's death. "It is tragic," he said.

Band member Bjorn Ulvaeus added that Brunkert had been "one of the best."

"I remember him as a good friend when we worked together in the mid-1970s. He was a very creative musician who contributed a lot when we toured together and worked in the studio," Ulvaeus told Expressen.

According to ABBA's official Web site, Brunkert and bass player Rutger Gunnarsson were the only musicians to appear on all ABBA albums.

Brunkert first played with ABBA on the group's first single, "People Need Love," and toured with the band in 1977, 1979 and 1980.

He had been a jazz drummer and a member of the blues band Slim's Blues Gang, before joining pop group Science Poption in the mid-1960s.

ABBA, with the four regular members Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Ulvaeus and Andersson, was one of the world's most successful bands, with album sales of more than 370 million. The group has not performed together since 1982, but continues to sell nearly 3 million records a year.

Halle Berry has baby girl

NEW YORK - Halle Berry doesn't just play a mom in movies anymore.

The 41-year-old actress had a baby girl Sunday, and "is doing great," her publicist Meredith O'Sullivan told People.com, the Web site of People magazine. It is her first child.

The father is 32-year-old model Gabriel Aubry. The two met while shooting a Versace ad in Los Angeles two years ago.

Berry told Oprah Winfrey on her show last year that playing a mother in her latest movie, "Things We Lost in the Fire," helped convince her that motherhood was for her.

"I think it validated that I was meant to be a mother because every day I dealt with the character as a mother and thinking as a mother," Berry said. "It let me know that I must be a mother."

Berry won the best-actress Oscar for 2001's "Monster's Ball." She also won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for 1999's "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge."

Berry had said she and Aubry don't plan to marry, but feel fully committed to each other.

Ed McMahon recovering from neck injury

LOS ANGELES - Former "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon broke his neck in a fall last year and was recovering after two surgeries, his publicist said Thursday.

Susan DuBow said the fall happened last March. She said she did not believe McMahon was at his Beverly Hills home when it happened.

"It's been a tough year, but I'm working hard in rehab and doing the best I can to get through it," the 85-year-old McMahon said in a statement.

DuBow said she was not allowed to release any further information for legal reasons. McMahon was recently seen walking around at a public event in a neck brace.

McMahon is perhaps best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick for decades on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson." He worked with Carson on the game show "Who Do You Trust?" in 1957 and was known for never failing to laugh at Carson's quips.

McMahon's trademark opener for each "Tonight" show was: "And now h-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!" followed by a small bow toward the star.

In March 2005, McMahon fell at his home in a gated community in Beverly Hills. He suffered mild concussion and received several stitches for a gash in his forehead.

McMahon also was co-host with Dick Clark of the "Bloopers" shows and he has made regular appearances on The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.

Private funeral planned for Healey

TORONTO - Plans are underway to organize a public memorial for late Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey.

Healey's widow, Cristie, says details have yet to be finalized and that she appreciates the condolences and kind thoughts that have been sent her way. The renowned guitarist and bandleader died Sunday at age 41 following a battle with cancer.

Cristie Healey says a private funeral service will be held but that details are not being released.

She praised the guitar hero as "a loving husband and a committed family man."

In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to Daisy's Eye Cancer Fund, an international children's charity.

"We would like to thank our family, friends and Jeff's fans for their condolences and kind thoughts at this most difficult time," Healey said Tuesday in a release.

"Jeff's music touched many people on many different levels. More importantly, in his personal life, Jeff was a loving husband and a committed family man, generous and kind, extremely down to earth, and a loyal friend. Jeff had a determination that he brought to all aspects of his life, and this was an inspiration to all that knew him. Now we need to say our goodbyes in private; however, we respect the public need to participate in celebrating Jeff's life and music and we are planning a public memorial, with details to follow."

Healey was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, retinoblastoma, as a child, resulting in his loss of sight and predisposing him to other cancers later in life.

Jeff Healey's death shocking: bandmate

TORONTO - Acclaimed jazz and rock guitarist Jeff Healey was remembered Sunday as a musician of rare ability who had a wicked sense of humour and a generous nature as fans and bandmates mourned his death at age 41, following a battle with cancer.

Bandmates of Canadian rock and jazz legend Jeff Healey were among those shocked by the news of his death Sunday.

Healey died Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital surrounded by family and a bandmate, Colin Bray.

Bray, the bass player with Jeff Healey's jazz Wizards and the frontman's long-time friend, said he and many others expected the guitarist to rally from this latest illness.

"I don't think any of us thought this was going to happen," Bray said in a telephone interview. "We just thought he was going to bounce back as he always does."

Healey had battled with cancer since the age of one when a rare form of retinal cancer known as Retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight.

Bray said Healey had been hospitalized for a week and that his advanced lung cancer made his final hours difficult.

Healey had undergone numerous operations in recent years to remove tumours from his lungs and leg.

Bray and fellow bandmate Gary Scriven remembered their frontman as not only a world-class musician but an incredibly strong person with the capacity to motivate those he worked with.

Scriven called Healey inspirational and praised the boundless enthusiasm that allowed him to continue performing live only four weeks before his death.

"He drew his strength from somewhere, I don't know where, but it spread among the band and flowed into the audience," Scriven said.

Healey rose to stardom as the leader of the Jeff Healey Band, a rock-oriented trio that garnered a Juno award, international acclaim and platinum record sales with the 1988 album "See the Light."

But Bray and Scriven said Healey's true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his last three albums with the Jazz Wizards.

Healey's guitar prowess was characterized by a unique playing-style that saw him lay the instrument across his lap.

It led him to share stages with such rock luminaries as George Harrison, Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King, but Bray said jazz allowed him to exercise his other instrumental talents such as trumpet and drums.

Healey's love of jazz also led him to host radio shows on the CBC and a local Toronto station where he spun long-forgotten numbers from his personal collection of over 30,000 vinyl records.

But Bray said his "best friend" saw himself first and foremost as an entertainer and said Healey seemed to derive therapeutic benefits from playing live shows.

Recalling Healey's weakened condition at his final performance on Feb. 2 in Sarnia, Ont., Bray said Healey seemed to draw strength as the set progressed.

"At the end of it, I can't believe how much better he looked. It was like blood to him."

Healey's death came weeks before the release of his first rock album in eight years.

"Mess of Blues" is slated for a North American release on April 22.

Healey is backed on the album by the resident band at Jeff Healey's Roadhouse, the blues club he founded and named after a 1989 Patrick Swayze movie in which he appeared.

The album features two live tracks recorded in the last few months of his life.

The Grammy-nominated musician is survived by his wife Christie and two children; daughter Rachel, 13 and son Derek, 3.

Funeral and memorial arrangements have not yet been announced.

Diablo Cody pays the price of fame, too

NEW YORK — Being the most famous stripper-turned-screenwriter in the world isn't always as pleasant as it may sound.

Diablo Cody, whose blog-to-riches fairy tale culminated in an Academy Award win for "Juno," has spent the past few months dominating a tiny little niche of Hollywood stardom: the celebrity writer. Not even wordsmith heavies Paul Haggis, Wes Anderson or Charlie Kaufman have stood in a spotlight so bright — but then, none of them had the allure of a pole-dancing past, punkish attitude or surprising smash-hit, Oscar-worthy pregnancy comedy.

And in Cody's case, there's a downside: The very things that make her star unique are suddenly being panned and scrutinized. From tabloid newspapers to well-trafficked celeb- and media-sniping blogs, Cody's meteoric rise has made her something of a target.

The first-time scriptwriter from Lemont, Ill., demonstrated her no-nonsense, rebellious personality last week when she took to her MySpace blog to vent about the $1 million diamond-laced shoes designed for her by Stuart Weitzman to wear on Oscar's red carpet.

"They're using me to publicize their stupid shoes and NOBODY ASKED ME," wrote Cody, who ultimately wore gold flats. "I would never consent to a lame publicity stunt at a time when I already want to hide."

Cody, who has been unapologetic and candid about her colorful life, drew praise in the blogosphere for her remarks at the time. But in the days that followed, Weitzman told the celebrity Web site TMZ that Cody actually selected the shoes herself, and bloggers (and subsequent commenters) had their fun calling her out for what they saw as diva behavior.

The New York Post chose a picture of Cody for its after-Oscars cover that prominently featured her bikini-clad stripper tattoo. The headline: Who's Tat Girl! And on Tuesday, Photos of a scantily clad Cody surfaced on the Web site Egotastic — nothing new, considering she's posted scantily clad photos of herself before.

With her Oscar firmly in hand, Diablo is laying low for now. She is "out of town," spending her time writing — and won't be available for media interviews "for the foreseeable future," her representative, Craig Bankey, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the Web site Something Awful posted three pages of a fake Cody screenplay called "Quotey" that mocked the hipster wordplay she showcased in "Juno," which had the oft-mocked line: "Honest to blog?"

And right before the Oscars, New York comedian Jackie Clarke released a video impersonation of Cody, complete with the writer's trademark black bob. In it, Clarke-as-Cody quipped: "Hey, did I ever tell you I used to be a stripper?"

"Everybody was ... rallying behind her before `Juno' hit $125 million at the box office, and now comes the inevitable backlash where they see her selling out to Hollywood," observed Tom O'Neil, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times' "The Envelope" Web site.

"She always seemed like a rebel, a social rebel who now seems to have cashed in and joined the club. And I think what we're witnessing is resentment to that," said O'Neil, who noted that Cody's raunchy backstory likely proved irresistible to Hollywood types who don't get a chance to show their bohemian, darker sides in public.

O'Neil called Cody's rise a "naughty Cinderella" story. Cody, whose real name is Brook Busey, caught the eye of manager Mason Novick after he found her sexy blog while surfing for porn online several years ago. She wrote a memoir about her year as a stripper in Minneapolis — and whipped up "Juno" on a laptop at a Starbucks in a Target store.

Cody's new projects include the Steven Spielberg-produced "The United States of Tara" for Showtime, featuring Toni Collette as a mom with split personalities, and the horror film "Jennifer's Body," which counts "Juno" director Jason Reitman among the producers. She's also taking a turn as a backpage pop-culture columnist for the magazine Entertainment Weekly.

"She was wooed by Hollywood from the start to join them," O'Neil said. "And once she did, then they exalted her. She became the ultimate epitome of Hollywood's free spirit."

Movie critic Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer thinks potshots against Cody are rooted in jealousy.

"She deserves what she has coming to her," Wilonsky said. "This is not accidental and it's not undeserved. Anyone who says otherwise is just a would-be screenwriter with a movie script sitting in their desk that nobody has any interest in."

New York magazine recently published a chart showing "Juno" as experiencing "backlash to the backlash": "Almost everyone we know hates it," the magazine said. "So much so that others are now hating on the haters."

One of those haters is the mag's film critic, David Edelstein, who has professed to be "almost alone" — among critics, anyway — "in disliking" the dramedy.

"A lot of people I know have problems with the film because they think it's not the way a 16-year-old girl talks," Wilonsky said. "That's probably right to some extent. It's not meant to be a documentary."

O'Neil said the trick for Cody now is to deal with the pressure to match the success of "Juno."

"She's got to deliver," he said. "She's got to prove that all of this adulation is not just about her, but was really about her work."

The self-deprecating, yet self-promoting It Screenwriter seems as awed by her good fortune as her fans and detractors.

"I've always been a writer, I've always been a storyteller, but I never thought about screenwriting," Cody said after her Oscar victory. "I grew up in the Midwest, you don't know any screenwriters. It didn't seem like a realistic career possibility."

And until now, neither did the fame — and all of its pitfalls — that came along with it.

Anderson seeks to annul 2-month marriage

LOS ANGELES - Court documents show that Pamela Anderson is seeking an annulment, rather than a divorce, from husband Rick Salomon. The actress is seeking to annul the two-month marriage based on fraud. No other details were available, and Anderson's publicist did not immediately return an e-mail request for comment Tuesday.

In court papers filed in Los Angeles on Friday, Anderson asked the court not to award spousal support and to keep her and Salomon's income and property separate. On Monday, Anderson filed a request to have a retired judge handle the annulment proceedings — a common practice in celebrity split-ups as it keeps matters private and out of the court.

Anderson and Salomon, both 40, were married Oct. 6 in Las Vegas and separated Dec. 13. He's best known for making a sex videotape with then-girlfriend Paris Hilton and was previously married to actress Shannen Doherty.

Anderson was previously married to singer Kid Rock and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.

Canadian folksinger Willie P. Bennett dies

Canadian folksinger Willie P. Bennett has died at his home in Peterborough, Ont.

Bennett's official website confirmed on Sunday that the Juno Award-winning singer passed away peacefully at age 56 on Friday.

No cause of death has been given, but Bennett suffered a heart attack last year.

Bennett nabbed a Juno for Best Solo Roots and Traditional Album for 1998's Heartstrings, his first solo recording in nine years.

Many well-known musicians collaborated on the album. They included Bruce Cockburn, Melanie Doane, Stephen Fearing and members of Prairie Oyster.

Born in Toronto on Oct. 26, 1951, Bennett emerged on the folk scene as a songwriter and performer in the late 1960s at Rochdale College.

He played at universities, clubs and coffee houses throughout southern Ontario in the 1970s and 1980s.

Bennett's song, White Line, was recorded in 1973 by singer David Wiffen and in later years was covered by other artists, such as Jonathan Edwards and Pure Prairie League.

Bennett also co-wrote the song Goodbye, So Long, Hello with Russell deCarle of Prairie Oyster. It was named the 1990 Canadian Country Music Association's Song of the Year.

His contributions to Canada's folk scene were highlighted in 1996 when Fearing, Colin Linden and Tom Wilson formed Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, a group named after Bennett's 1978 album.

They recorded a tribute album to Bennett, using 14 of his songs.

STEVE GERBER PASSES AWAY

After a battle with pulmonary fibrosis, acclaimed and beloved writer Steve Gerber died on Sunday from complications due to his condition. The news was confirmed by a close acquaintance. He was 60 years old.

Gerber was a comics fan all his life, having started the fanzine Headline in his early teens, and eventually finding work as a writer at Marvel in the early ‘70s, working under Roy Thomas. Amid the work that was coming out of Marvel at the time, Gerber found his own, unique voice which often mixed the usual superhero tropes with satire, commentary and an absurdist sense of humor. During his early days at Marvel, Gerber is best remembered for writing The Defenders and Man-Thing, and of course, creating Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown and having notable runs with many Marvel characters, from Shanna the She-Devil to the Guardians of the Galaxy, Son of Satan, and Tales of the Zombie. In many ways, Gerber was 1970s Marvel. It was his unpredictable, groundbreaking work and strong desire to stray from the beaten path throughout the ‘70s that made Gerber a role model for the next two-plus generations of comic book and other writers, including Michael Chabon and Glen David Gold.

After leaving Marvel in 1979, Gerber became something of a journeyman in comics, putting in time with some of DC Comics heroes, but most notably, being present at the forefront of the “independent revolution” of the 1980s. When it came to “mainstream” superhero comics of the time, Gerber was as loud a voice (or louder) advocating change and modernization as the legends of the day such as his friend and colleague, Frank Miller.

Many of Gerber’s larger plans did not come to fruition and, like many creators at the time who found that comics had seemingly passed them by, Gerber turned his attention to animation and television in the ‘80s, writing for Dungeons and Dragons, Transformers, Star Trek: The Next Generation (“Contagion”), G.I. Joe and Thundarr the Barbarian, which he created.

Following up on his independent work from the ‘80s, Gerber was one of the founders of Malibu’s Ultraverse, and for a period, found a home writing a handful of Image Comics titles. Gerber’s work throughout the ‘90s was an eclectic mix, always quirky and always very personal.

More recently, Gerber returned to Marvel to write a Howard the Duck miniseries for its MAX imprint. He had also recently returned to DC, where he had created the acclaimed series Hard Time for the publisher’s failed DC Focus line. Since that time, Gerber had largely taken up residence in the DC Universe’s more “mystical” side, writing the Dr. Fate story which was contained in the Countdown to Mystery miniseries.

Recently on his blog Gerber had been keeping his friends and fans appraised of his condition. In an interview about Dr. Fate here at Newsarama in September, Gerber discussed his health with characteristic frankness and humor, saying:

“It’s just a fact of life, it’s something I have to deal with. Naturally, I’d be very happy if there were, you know, a ‘cure’ for this, but there isn’t. I’ve got fibrosis of the lungs, and it’s a