Songwriters Hall of Fame to award Stevie Wonder

Songwriters Hall of Fameto award Stevie Wonder
NEW YORK -- Stevie Wonder has been selected as recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award by The National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The award will be presented June 10 at the 2004 awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.
"The Johnny Mercer Award goes to a 'songwriter's songwriter,'" Hal David, chairman and chief executive officer of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, said in a statement Thursday.
"I can think of no one who is more deserving of this accolade than Stevie Wonder. His music is known and loved around the world and has made a difference in the lives of so many."
Past recipients include Carole King, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, Hal David, Burt Bacharach, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Paul Simon.
Dressing up for his part?No need for Duchovny
LOS ANGELES -- Slave to women's fashion that he is, David Duchovny jokes that he wishes he could have put on a dress for the new drag-queen comedy "Connie and Carla."
"I was kind of disappointed when I saw I was going to be the literal straight guy," said Duchovny, who co-stars with screenwriter Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette in the movie. "That there wasn't going to be that scene where I come out in a dress, which I was hoping for, lobbying and campaigning for."
Duchovny plays the brother of a drag queen who finds himself oddly attracted to Vardalos' character -- a singer hiding out from mobsters by posing as a man in a drag-queen revue.
Before he became a star as FBI agent Fox Mulder on "The X-Files," Duchovny had some experience with women's clothing, playing another FBI guy on "Twin Peaks." Duchovny had a recurring role as a cross-dressing agent in the early 1990s series.
Duchovny brought in a tape of himself in women's clothes on "Twin Peaks" for his co-workers to watch while making "Connie and Carla."
"All I remember from my personal experience is that it's really uncomfortable what women have to wear," Duchovny, 43, told The Associated Press. "It's all tight, it's kind of confining. It's no fun."
Indiana town to do benefitto fix up community
WAVELAND, Ind. -- A tiny western Indiana town is organizing a concert featuring country music stars Kenny Rogers, Sarah Evans and Ricky Van Shelton to raise money to revive the community.
The town of Waveland, population about 500, will use the proceeds of the June 5 concert to repair sidewalks, install streetlights and improve playgrounds, said Brenda Jones, one of the organizers.
"We are raising funds to help this little town stay alive," she told the Tribune-Star of Terre Haute for a story Thursday. "We need streetlights and lights for the school ball fields and money to help get this town beautified."
The concert will be held at Lake Waveland, about 30 miles northeast of Terre Haute.
Today's birthdays
Actor Barry Nelson is 84. Actor Peter Mark Richman is 77. Actress-singer Edie Adams is 75. Singer Bobby Vinton is 69. Denmark's Queen Margrethe the Second is 64. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 57. Singer Gerry Rafferty is 57. Actress Ellen Barkin is 50. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 41. Rock singer David Pirner (Soul Asylum) is 40. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 39. Actor Jon Cryer is 39. Rock musician Dan Rieser is 38. Actor Peter Billingsley is 32. Actor Lukas Haas is 28.