Leno plans free show for workers laid off from DHL

April 22, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

WILMINGTON, Ohio — Jay Leno is planning another free “Comedy Stimulus” show for people hurt by layoffs, this time in an Ohio community losing thousands of DHL shipping jobs.

The NBC “Tonight” show host announced on Monday’s program that he would perform May 10 in Wilmington, about 30 miles southeast of Dayton.

DHL Express announced last year that it planned to pull out of Wilmington Air Park, meaning a loss of 8,000 jobs. The company revealed Friday that the new home for its international shipping hub in the U.S. would be Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, more than 50 miles away.

Earlier this month, Leno gave two free performances in Detroit.

Chan faces backlash after comments about Chinese

HONG KONG — Jackie Chan’s comments that freedom may not be good for China were taken out of context, his spokesman said Tuesday, while Facebook users and Chinese scholars condemned the veteran actor on the Internet in a spreading backlash.

The 55-year-old star of the “Rush Hour” action comedies caused a huge uproar after he told a business forum Saturday that it may not be good for authoritarian China to become a free society.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” Chan said Saturday, adding freedoms in his native Hong Kong and Taiwan made those societies “chaotic.” Taiwan, which split from China in 1949, is democratic, and Hong Kong, a former British colony now ruled by China, enjoys some free elections.

“I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want,” he said.

Hong Kong and Taiwanese legislators lashed out at the comments, with some accusing Chan of insulting the Chinese race.

Today’s birthdays

Actress Charlotte Rae (“The Facts of Life”) is 83. Actress Estelle Harris (“Seinfeld”) is 77. Singer Glen Campbell is 73. Actor Jack Nicholson is 72. Director John Waters is 63. Singer Peter Frampton is 59. Actor Ryan Stiles (“The Drew Carey Show”) is 50. Comedian Byron Allen is 48. Actor Eric Mabius (“Ugly Betty”) is 38.