Singer Lou Rawls battles lung and brain cancer
Singer Lou Rawls battleslung and brain cancer
LOS ANGELES -- Singer Lou Rawls is being treated for lung cancer, and his estranged wife said he also has brain cancer and suggested his condition is dire.
"Don't count me out, brother," Rawls said Thursday night from his room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "There's been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing, and they're still jumpin' and pumpin'."
Rawls, in the interview with the Arizona Republic, said he has received alternative and traditional medical treatments for lung cancer. He said he quit his regular smoking habit 35 years ago.
The lung cancer was diagnosed a year ago and the brain cancer in May, his estranged wife, Nina, said during a marriage annulment hearing Thursday in Arizona.
"By his doctor's admission, he is not expected to live much more," she said. Rawls' attorney, Robert L. Schwartz, attended the annulment hearing, but did not discuss the singer's prognosis.
Rawls, who has lived in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 2003, said in court papers that he is trying to annul his two-year marriage and protect hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets that his wife "absconded with."
Rawls, 70, has sold more than 40 million albums and won three Grammys during a career spanning more than four decades.
Actor criticizes conceptof a black history month
NEW YORK -- Morgan Freeman says the concept of a month dedicated to black history is "ridiculous."
"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" to air tonight at 7. "I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history."
Black History Month has roots in historian Carter G. Woodson's Negro History Week, which he designated in 1926 as the second week in February to mark the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Woodson said he hoped the week could one day be eliminated -- when black history would become fundamental to American history.
Freeman notes there is no "white history month," and says the only way to get rid of racism is to "stop talking about it."
The actor says he believes the labels "black" and "white" are an obstacle to beating racism.
Freeman received Oscar nominations for his roles in 1987's "Street Smart," 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy" and 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption." He finally won earlier this year for "Million Dollar Baby."
Model returns,aids charity
WASHINGTON -- Petra Nemcova says she recently made a tearful return to modeling, but still devotes most of her time to the children's charity she established after recovering from injuries suffered in last year's tsunami.
The 26-year-old Czech supermodel and her boyfriend, Simon Atlee, were caught up in the tsunami while vacationing in Thailand. Atlee, a 33-year-old British fashion photographer, was killed. Nemcova suffered a broken pelvis.
Nemcova recounts her story in a newly published autobiography, "Love Always, Petra" (Warner Books), with co-author Jane Scovell. Proceeds will go to the Happy Hearts Fund she established last summer.
Nemcova resumed modeling in September -- punctuated by a two-day crying jag -- but said it occupies only 30 percent of her time. The rest, she said, goes to her charity, which has raised at least $1.1 million for the youngest survivors of the tsunami.
Stylist faces theft charges
ASPEN, Colo. -- An internationally known hairstylist is facing felony charges in the theft of Kevin Costner's laptop computer, which had private photos of the actor's wedding.
Pascal Bensimon, 44, surrendered to sheriff's officials last week after a 14-month investigation. He was released on $5,000 bond.
The computer contained photos of Costner's Sept. 25, 2004, wedding to Christine Baumgartner, which took place at his Aspen-area ranch.
Bensimon, who has a salon in Aspen, had been hired to style hair for some of the wedding guests.
He told the Aspen Daily News that someone put drugs into his drink at the wedding, and that he never stole Costner's $1,500 Apple Powerbook or a digital camera.
Bensimon, who was born in Morocco and raised in Israel and France, worked in salons in Paris, New York and Atlanta before moving to Aspen, according to the Aspen Times.
Costner, 50, is a veteran of such films as "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams" and "Dances with Wolves." His latest movie -- "Rumor Has It," co-starring Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine and Mark Ruffalo -- opens Christmas Day.
Today's birthdays
Television writer-producer Hal Kanter is 87. Actor Roger Smith is 73. Blues musician Lonnie Brooks is 72. Rock singer-musician Keith Richards is 62. Writer-director Alan Rudolph is 62. Movie producer-director Steven Spielberg is 59. Blues artist Ron Piazza is 58. Movie director Gillian Armstrong is 55. Movie reviewer Leonard Maltin is 55. Actor Ray Liotta is 50. Actor Brad Pitt is 42. Country singer Tracy Byrd is 39. Singer Alejandro Sanz is 37. Rapper DMX is 35. Tennis player Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is 34. DJ Lethal (Limp Bizkit) is 33. Actress Katie Holmes is 27. Singer Christina Aguilera is 25.