WWII reality cartoonist dies at 81
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Bill Mauldin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who portrayed World War II reality laced with humor, died Wednesday. He was 81.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Bill Mauldin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who portrayed World War II reality laced with humor, died Wednesday. He was 81.
LOS ANGELES -- A Superior Court judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit brought by more than 175 writers who alleged that television networks, Hollywood studios and talent agencies discriminate against those over 40. In a decision disclosed this week, Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr. ruled some of the alleged violations occurred outside the statute of limitations and that the writers first must prove their claims on an individual basis before they can show an industrywide pattern of discrimination.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A bronze statue of Sheriff Andy Taylor and his son, Opie, from "The Andy Griffith Show" will be installed in Raleigh's Pullen Park. The statue commemorates the walk to a fishing hole that Taylor, played by Andy Griffith, and Opie, played by Ron Howard, took in the opening credits of the popular television show.
People scramble about. Voices come from the backroom where books are packaged. Artwork is brought out for the exhibit opening the next day. The music stops suddenly as an answering machine plays one of its current messages. The caller, as it turns out, is inmate David Hammer. The message he leaves isn't what one might expect. It's a message of gratitude. Hammer thanks the volunteers of the "Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project" (MPPP) for providing him and other inmates books to read as they serve their time.
MOSCOW -- American financier Boris Jordan said Tuesday he intends to resign as head of Russia's NTV television less than two years after assuming control of the network in a battle marked by accusations of Kremlin meddling.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Two segregated film crews, one black and one white, used the perspective of race to create a documentary centered on the dragging death of a black man by three whites five years ago in Jasper, Texas.
LOS ANGELES -- More Simon Cowell barbs, more sponsor plugs and maybe the worst singer ever given national exposure will be part of "American Idol" when it returns tonight.
New York -- Al Hirschfeld, whose graceful, fluid caricatures captured the essence of performers from Charlie Chaplin to Jerry Seinfeld, died Monday. He was 99.
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- During a private funeral service that mixed humor and emotion, Bee Gees member Maurice Gibb was remembered as a man who celebrated life. About 200 friends and family, including singer Michael Jackson and other celebrities, attended the service Wednesday for the Bee Gees keyboardist and bass player. Gibb, 53, died early Sunday, shocking his bandmate brothers, family, friends and fans of the pop trio best known for '70s hits like "Stayin' Alive" and "More Than A Woman."
An experimental story line drenched with violence, hysteria and mystery hallmarks "Howie the Rookie," which opens this week. Variety has called it "a brutal, bitterly funny and surprisingly tender evening of theatre."
LONDON -- Gwyneth Paltrow and Elaine Stritch are among the nominees for the 27th annual Laurence Olivier Awards, London's equivalent of the Tonys. But the starriest show of the season -- David Hare's "The Breath of Life," with the country's leading theatrical Dames, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith -- received no nominations Thursday.
Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" will play at the John Waldron Arts Center as part of its 10th Anniversary Performance Series. The play opens today and runs three weekends with shows at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and two Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Directed by Bloomington Playwrights Project Artistic Director Richard Perez, the show, which is set in the relative peace of post World War II small town America, will be held in the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium.
DETROIT -- The concerto was penned by one of the great composers and written specifically for one of the world's pre-eminent violin instructors. It was to be played on an instrument of unparalleled quality. It didn't happen. Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto was completed in 1878 and written for Leopold Auer, a famed Russian violinist and instructor who also was the owner of a renowned Stradivarius built in 1690.
LONDON -- More Muggles mania is expected after J.K. Rowling's publishers announced that her fifth book about wide-eyed junior wizard Harry Potter will be published in Britain, the United States and several other countries on June 21.
The days of truly blind dates are over. Now Internet users can google their way through cyberspace to uncover personal details about almost anyone who has surfed the Web.
The heart of the Bloomington Playwrights Project building isn't related to theater. Instead, the lobby houses the Bellevue Gallery, a co-op exhibit space for Bloomington area artists. "In this town, there are very few places to get work shown," said Betty Sander, Gallery treasurer. "It's a bunch of artists who want to show their work."
LOS ANGELES -- The biggest winners turned out to be MIA at the 30th annual AMAs, including Eminem, winner of a leading four American Music Awards. Others absent when their names were called at Monday night's American Music Awards were the bands Creed and the Dixie Chicks, who won two awards apiece.
WASHINGTON -- The leading trade associations for the music and technology industries, which have been at loggerheads over consumers downloading songs on the Internet, have negotiated a compromise they contend will protect copyrights on movies and music without new government involvement.
LOS ANGELES -- Audiences ignored the critics and propelled the Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher comedy "Just Married" to the top of the weekend box office.
HONG KONG -- At a groundbreaking ceremony for Hong Kong Disneyland, top executives of Walt Disney Co. said Sunday they were confident their first theme park on Chinese soil will draw millions of visitors a year despite the global economic downturn.