AUDITIONS PLANNED FOR A NEW MENUDO

Auditions planned for a new Menudo
NEW YORK -- Menudo, the popular Puerto Rican teen pop band of the '70s and '80s, is being revived.
Menudo Entertainment bought all the merchandising and property rights about a month ago from Latin record executive Oscar Lloyd, and is working with talent agencies and radio stations in its search for band members, company spokeswoman Cathy Callegari said Wednesday.
"Our aim is to target the 'tween market," Callegari told The Associated Press. "We feel there's a void there. What happens is, artists start young like Britney Spears and they get old really quick and move into a new age of fans."
Auditions for boys ages 10 to 16 are planned for this summer in the United States and Latin America. Plans are for finalists to be nationally televised and judged by a celebrity panel with worldwide viewer voting.
Five band members and two alternates will be selected.
Callegari said the new group will eventually record an album in both English and Spanish, but the boys don't need to be bilingual.
Menudo was formed in 1977. The boys were booted when they turned 16, and the group had about 30 members, including Ricky Martin.
Actress Teri Garr to headWomen Against MS
NEW YORK -- Teri Garr has been appointed the first national chairwoman of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Women Against MS program.
Women Against MS is an educational and fund-raising program that has raised about $2 million in the past five years by holding charity luncheons.
"As a mother, a person with MS and an advocate for the MS cause, I have a strong empathy for the WAMS programs and the people I met at events where I have spoken," Garr said in a statement Thursday. "I think we inspire each other to fight even harder to make MS just another footnote in history."
Garr, star of "Young Frankenstein," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Tootsie," revealed that she has multiple sclerosis in 2002, after nearly 20 years of dealing with the illness.
The 55-year-old actress received the National MS Society's Shining Star Award in 2002, the second time the award had been given. The first recipient was actress Annette Funicello.
Olsen twins share a staron the Walk of Fame
LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood got two stars for the price of one as 17-year-old twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen shared a new marker on the Walk of Fame.
The event was timed to promote their new film, "New York Minute," which opens in theaters next Friday. The star recognizes their contribution to television.
Starting as 9-month-old infants, they played the character of Michelle Tanner on ABC's "Full House" sitcom, a role they shared for nine years before branching off into home video work, where they played separate characters.
Home video sales and product sponsorships ranging from a fashion line to toothpaste have made the "Mary-Kate and Ashley" brand a billion-dollar enterprise through their company, Dualstar Entertainment. Each twin is estimated to be worth more than $150 million.
"We just want to thank everyone so much," Mary-Kate told the screaming crowd Thursday.
Today's birthdays
Actor Al Lewis is 94. Actress Cloris Leachman is 78. Singer Willie Nelson is 71. Actor Gary Collins is 66. Singer Bobby Vee is 61. Basketball executive Isiah Thomas is 43. Country musician Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks) is 42. Rock musician Chris Henderson (3 Doors Down) is 33. Actress Kirsten Dunst is 22. Country singer Tyler Wilkinson (The Wilkinsons) is 20.
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