'IDOL' WINNER'S FATHER PLANS TO FORM RECORD LABEL

'Idol' winner's fatherplans to form record label
HIGH POINT, N.C. -- After 15 years as a truck driver, the father of "American Idol" Fantasia Barrino is forming his own record label.
His company's first project will be gospel in nature and will "return to the roots" of the Barrino family, Joe Barrino said this week. He plans to collaborate with his nephews, K-Ci and JoJo, who had a hit in 1998 with "All My Life," and his sons, who are in a group called Infinity.
Barrino said he also plans to dabble in R & amp;B and country and clean up rap music, while trying to establish an entertainment industry in his family's hometown of High Point.
"The door is open. We can do everything we need to do right here. ... Let's be a Hollywood. Let's be an Atlanta. Let's be a New York. Let's be a Chicago. Why can't we do it? ... These are our plans," he said.
Barrino, who will be the company's chief executive officer, producer and arranger, is looking for a space for his studio.
Carol Channing's Tony,other awards stolen
NEW YORK -- Carol Channing's Tony Award for her performance in "Hello, Dolly!" -- and an Emmy and a Golden Globe -- were stolen from her storage unit in North Hollywood, Channing's publicist said Friday. "Ever since it happened, I've been checking eBay every day just to make sure these things haven't shown up," publicist Harlan Boll told The Associated Press. "You never know what something like that would sell for."
Boll said the unit was broken into about three months ago, and Channing later filed a police report. She has since cleared out the remaining items and taken them to a home in northern California.
Her other Tony Award, for lifetime achievement, as well as $50,000 worth of costumes and gowns, some by famed designer Bob Mackie, also were taken, Boll said. The stolen Emmy was for Channing's comedy hour with George Burns, and the Golden Globe for 1967's "Thoroughly Modern Millie."
Boll said Channing was handling the theft well. "Carol is upset, yes. She wants the awards back because they mean something to her, but she's thankful no one got hurt. In the end, they're just material things," he said.
Channing, 83, had the storage unit for about five years, since her divorce from her third husband. The items were meant to be cataloged and divided, but she got distracted writing her autobiography, "Just Lucky I Guess," and by her marriage to her junior high school sweetheart.
Notable deaths
LISBON, Portugal -- Carlos Paredes, a virtuoso of the Portuguese guitar, died Friday after a prolonged bone illness and diabetes, a retirement home said. He was 79.
Paredes started playing the 12-string Portuguese guitar when he was 4 years old. He recorded his first album in 1957, and released several works and soundtracks through 1987.
His music -- based on the roots of mournful, pensive Fado but with his own particular twist -- was considered a hallmark of Portuguese culture.
NEW YORK -- Hubert von Sonnenburg, an art scholar who cleaned and restored paintings by famed artists and worked to track down forgeries and misattributions, died July 16. He was 76.
Von Sonnenburg died of complications from cancer, according to his wife, Renate von Sonnenburg. Von Sonnenburg served as chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Paintings Conservation Studio.
Today's Birthdays
Actress Estelle Getty is 81. Actress Barbara Harris is 69. Rock musician Verdine White (Earth, Wind & amp; Fire) is 53. Model-actor Iman is 49. Cartoonist Ray Billingsley ("Curtis") is 47. Rock musician Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) is 46. Actress Illeana Douglas is 39. Country singer Marty Brown is 39. Actor Matt LeBlanc is 37. Actor Brad Renfro is 22.
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