TV, movie and music news | News Briefs

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Archive: December 2011 (41-50 of 80)

Dec 18 2011 10:46 AM ET

Met Opera performer hospitalized after fall during 'Faust'

Categories: Health

Mezzo-soprano Wendy White has been hospitalized after falling about eight feet from a platform to the stage during a performance of Charles Gounod’s Faust at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The Met Opera says White is in stable condition and undergoing further tests. Her injuries do not appear to be serious.

White was performing the role of Marthe in Saturday’s performance. Met spokesman Peter Clark said in a statement that White fell as she entered backstage during Act III onto a platform that is connected to the scenery. The opera did not say how she fell.

A black curtain was brought down and intermission announced. White was seen by the house doctor and taken by ambulance to the hospital. The performance resumed with Theodora Hanslowe substituting in the role of Marthe.

Dec 17 2011 02:16 PM ET

'Dancing With the Stars' winner J.R. Martinez expecting first child

by Nuzhat Naoreen

Categories: Celebrity Babies!

Dancing With the Stars winner J.R. Martinez is expecting his first child with girlfriend Diana Gonzalez-Jones, People reported today. ”We found out just last week it’s a girl and we are over the moon,” Martinez said.

Martinez, an Iraq war vet, first met Gonzalez-Jones in 2008, when he joined the cast of All My Children to play Brot Monroe. At the time, Gonzalez-Jones was working as an assistant to the daytime drama’s executive producer. The pair started dating last year.

Earlier this year, Martinez and teammate Karina Smirnoff won the 13th season of Dancing With The Stars, beating out a roster of celebrity contestants including Rob Kardashian and Chaz Bono.

Dec 17 2011 01:18 PM ET

Singer Cesaria Evora, the Barefoot Diva, dies

by Associated Press

Categories: In Memoriam, Music

Image Credit: RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images

Cesaria Evora, who started singing as a teenager in the bayside bars of Cape Verde in the 1950s and won a Grammy in 2003 after she took her African island’s music to stages across the world, died Saturday. She was 70.

Evora, known as the “Barefoot Diva” because she always performed without shoes, died in the Baptista de Sousa Hospital in Mindelo, on her native island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde, her label Lusafrica said in a statement on its website. It gave no further details. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 17 2011 10:29 AM ET

Slim Dunkin murdered in Atlanta

by Associated Press

Categories: Crime, In Memoriam, Music, Music Biz

Atlanta police say the rapper Slim Dunkin was gunned down Friday evening in a city music studio as he was preparing to record a video. Police Maj. Keith Meadows said the rapper, whose real name is Mario Hamilton, was fatally shot in the chest after getting into an argument with another individual. He was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 16 2011 05:52 PM ET

Alyson Hannigan pregnant again

by Laura Hertzfeld

Categories: Celebrity Babies!

Image Credit: Glenn Harris/PR Photos

How I Met Your Mother star and Buffy alum Alyson Hannigan is pregnant with her second child with husband Alexis Denisof, People reported today. Hannigan and Denisof are also the parents of 2 year old Satyana. Hannigan will be seen on the big screen in the latest American Pie film, American Reunion, due out in 2012.

Dec 16 2011 04:18 PM ET

Phil Spector to take appeal to U.S. Supreme Court

by Associated Press

Categories: Crime

A lawyer for imprisoned music legend Phil Spector is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, arguing his constitutional rights were violated by the trial judge.

Attorney Dennis Riordan contends that Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler became a witness for the prosecution by offering his opinion on an expert’s testimony.

The filing was expected to reach the court Friday. It cites the prosecution’s use of the judge’s videotaped comments and his picture during prosecution summations.

The same arguments were made to state appellate justices, who refused to consider them because of a belated filing. They upheld Spector’s second-degree murder conviction in the death of actress Lana Clarkson.

The California Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Spector is serving 19 years to life in prison.

Dec 16 2011 02:31 PM ET

Etta James in 'final stages of leukemia,' says manager

by Lanford Beard

Categories: Health

EW has confirmed that iconic soul singer Etta James’s health has taken a turn for the worst. It’s been a year of medical hardship for 73-year-old James. According to Lupe De Leon, her manager of 30 years, “Etta has a terminal illness. She’s in the final stages of leukemia. She has also been diagnosed with dementia and Hepatitis C. She’s in a home right now and mostly sleeps. She is under the care of a live-in doctor from Riverside Community Hospital and two others who have placed her on oxygen. Her husband is with her 24 hours a day, and her sons visit regularly. We’re all very sad. We’re just waiting.”

De Leon mentioned James’s most recent release, The Dreamer, saying, “It’s ironic because she sounded so vibrant and powerful on it. It was only recorded two and a half years ago.” James will forever be remembered for her legendary 1961 recording of “At Last,” the song President Barack Obama chose for his first dance with wife Michelle at the 2009 inauguration festivities.

Dec 16 2011 11:44 AM ET

'Captain America' co-creator Joe Simon dies

by Associated Press

Categories: In Memoriam

Image Credit: Titan Books/AP Images

Joe Simon, who along with Jack Kirby co-created Captain America and was one of the comic book industry’s most revered writers, artists and editors, has died at age 98. Simon’s family relayed word of his death Thursday, posting a short statement on Facebook and telling the Associated Press through a spokesman that Simon died Wednesday night in New York City after a brief illness. “Joe was one of a kind,” said Steve Saffel, of Titan Books, a Simon friend who worked with him on his recent autobiography, Joe Simon, My Life In Comics. Saffel said that Simon, born in Rochester, N.Y., in 1913, “lived life on his terms and created incredible things in the process. It was a privilege to know him and to call him my friend.” READ FULL STORY »

Dec 16 2011 06:53 AM ET

Christian Bale blocked from visiting Chinese activist

by Associated Press

Categories: Politics

Batman star Christian Bale, in the midst of promoting a film he made in China that some critics have called propaganda, was physically stopped by government-backed guards from visiting a blind activist living under house arrest — with a CNN crew in tow to record the scuffle. CNN posted footage of the confrontation on its website Friday.

The run-in and publicity is likely to cause discomfort in China’s government-backed film industry, which hopes Bale’s movie The Flowers of War will be a creative success at home and abroad. The star’s actions are sure to focus attention on the plight of Chen Guangcheng, guarded around the clock by thugs who have blocked dozens of reporters and fellow activists trying to see him in the past. Bale was to leave China on Friday and his representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 15 2011 12:16 PM ET

Duggars hold memorial for baby Jubilee Shalom

by Lanford Beard

Categories: Celebrity Babies!, In Memoriam

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, joined by their 19 children, held a memorial service for baby Jubilee Shalom yesterday, reports People. The child, who would have been the Duggars’ 20th, was stillborn on Dec. 11. In a tragic stroke, the doctor’s appointment when Michelle discovered her baby no longer had a heartbeat was the day after youngest child, Josie Brooklyn, turned 2 years old. Josie had been a particularly problematic pregnancy for Michelle, who suffered pre-eclampsia and was forced to deliver at 25 weeks when Josie weighed only 1.6 pounds.

“I feel a great sorrow and grief, and yet at the same time I have a peace in my heart,” Michelle affirmed. “I know that in the days and weeks to come there will be other things that I will walk though, and grief that will come, and there will be times that we will worship and sing praises. I know that God will allow me to continue to release the emotions that I will release.”