Wrigley suspends ads featuring Chris Brown

hWrigley suspends ads featuring Chris Brown

LOS ANGELES — Wrigley says it’s suspending ad campaigns featuring Chris Brown as its spokesman for Doublemint gum.

The company stopped short of saying it will drop the troubled R&B star completely. A company statement expresses concern about what it calls “serious allegations made against Chris Brown.” He was arrested Sunday night on a charge of battery on a woman, and canceled his Grammy performance.

Wrigely said it would suspend any current advertising or any related marketing until the situation is resolved.

Grammy Awards get boost in viewership

NEW YORK — Music sales may be low, but interest in music isn’t, at least according to ratings for the Grammy Awards.

Nielsen Media Research says that Sunday’s ceremony was seen by at estimated 19.1 million people. That’s about 2 million more viewers than for last year’s show and higher than it’s been for three of the past four years.

Among young viewers ages 18 to 34, ratings were up 23 percent. Last year’s Grammy Awards, with 17.2 million viewers, was the least-watched Grammys since the awards were first televised by CBS in the mid-1970s.

Usher’s wife recovers after surgery in Brazil

NEW YORK — A representative for Usher says the singer’s wife, Tameka Raymond, is recovering from surgery in Brazil.

Publicist Simone Smalls says Raymond “is in stable condition after suffering complications from routine surgery in Brazil. Her husband Usher is with her at the hospital.”

No further details were provided. In her statement, Smalls says “the family requests privacy at this difficult time.”

Usher was supposed to be one of the performers at music mogul Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party Saturday night, but he had to back out for what Davis called a serious family illness.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Robert Wagner is 79. Singer Roberta Flack is 72. Singer Jimmy Merchant of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers is 69. Actress Laura Dern is 42. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 37. Actress Elizabeth Banks (“Scrubs”) is 35. Singer Eric Dill (The Click Five) is 27. Keyboardist Ben Romans of The Click Five is 27. Actress Emma Roberts (“Unfabulous,” “Nancy Drew”) is 18.