The Copa must move

The Copa must move
NEW YORK -- The Copacabana, the famed nightclub that entertained the smart set with a young Frank Sinatra in the '40s and was the inspiration for Barry Manilow's signature song in the '70s, is looking for a new home again.
Its third incarnation, on a commercial block on West 34th Street, has been condemned by the city to make way for an extension of a subway line. Owner John Juliano doesn't have a lease signed yet on a new location, but he has until July 1 before he has to be out.
"We aren't closing," he said. "It's hurting our business, all this talk of us closing. I mean, maybe we have to renovate a new space. That may take some time, but we're coming back."
The Copa has endured change before. Since it first opened in 1941 on the fashionable East Side, it has morphed from the glitziest nightspot in town to a disco on the West Side, the scene of Manilow's 1978 song "Copacabana," and now to a catering business and thumping hip-hop and salsa club.
Urban thanks fans
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Keith Urban praised his wife, Nicole Kidman, and thanked his fans for their support during his three-month stay at a rehab center for alcohol abuse treatment, in a video posted on his Web site.
Urban entered the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Oct. 19 for what he thought would be a 30-day stay.
The 39-year-old country singer, who has publicly acknowledged a former addiction to cocaine, said he decided to stay for three months because he realized that learning to abstain was only part of the process to recovery.
"Learning about abstinence was one thing, but then there was all this other area of my life to start learning about, and so 30 days became 60, and 60 days became 90, and with each week that passed I found myself really learning how to surrender," he said.
Today's birthdays
Actress Chita Rivera is 74. Singer Anita Pointer is 59. Rock singer-musician Patrick Simmons (The Doobie Brothers) is 57. Rock musician Danny Federici (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) is 57. Rock singer Robin Zander (Cheap Trick) is 54. Princess Caroline of Monaco is 50. Actress Mariska Hargitay is 43. Actress Tiffani Thiessen is 33.