Jordin Sparks withdraws from tour to rest voice

April 22, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

NEW YORK — Vocal problems have forced Jordin Sparks to temporarily withdraw from Alicia Keys’ tour and cancel all performances for the rest of the month, a representative for the “American Idol” champ said Monday. “All of her April activities have been postponed or canceled so she can take care of her voice properly,” 19/Jive Records spokeswoman Wendy Washington told The Associated Press.

The 18-year-old singer, whose hits include “Tattoo” and “No Air,” was scheduled to be the opening act on Keys’ tour, which kicked off over the weekend in Hampton, Va., and is scheduled to hit Pittsburgh today and Cleveland on Thursday.

Viacom, 5 studios to create new TV channel

LOS ANGELES — Viacom Inc. and five Hollywood studios are joining forces to create a television channel and video-on-demand service, the companies announced Sunday. The venture, starting in fall 2009, will show movies and television series from Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate.

It could provide competition in both programming and viewers to Time Warner’s HBO and CBS Corp.’s Showtime. Viewers will have pay-per-view access to big-budget releases from the studios, such as “Cloverfield,” “Iron Man” and “Star Trek.” Movies from the companies’ archive libraries and new TV series created by the studios also will be featured.

The combined companies have a collection of thousands of films and hundreds of TV shows. MGM owns the world’s largest modern film library, comprising titles from United Artists, Orion Pictures and other studios. Paramount has 3,500 motion pict

Today’s birthdays

Actress Charlotte Rae (“The Facts of Life”) is 82. Actress Estelle Harris (“Seinfeld”) is 76. Singer Glen Campbell is 72. Actor Jack Nicholson is 71. Singer Mel Carter is 65. Director John Waters is 62. Singer Peter Frampton is 58. Actor Ryan Stiles (“The Drew Carey Show”) is 49. Comedian Byron Allen is 47. TV personality Sherri Shepherd (“The View”) is 41. Actor Eric Mabius (“Ugly Betty”) is 37. Singer-guitarist Daniel Johns of Silverchair is 29.