Michelangelo self-portrait?

Michelangelo self-portrait?

VATICAN CITY — The restoration of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel may have produced a special prize — a previously unknown self-portrait of the artist.

Chief Vatican restorer Maurizio De Luca said Thursday that the face of a man on horseback in the artist’s “The Crucifixion of St. Peter” could well be the artist, though he told AP Television News that nobody will ever know “with absolute certainty that the face is Michelangelo’s.”

Richie: Festival a comfort

NEW ORLEANS — When the Essence Music Festival kicks off in New Orleans today, singer Lionel Richie says the celebration of black music and culture will provide some comfort after Michael Jackson’s death.

Richie, a longtime friend of the pop superstar’s, says going to New Orleans for Essence is a homecoming of sorts that will give him and others comfort and a chance to regroup.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Kurtwood Smith (“That ’70s Show”) is 66. Country singer Johnny Lee is 63. Writer Dave Barry is 62. Actress Jan Smithers (“WKRP In Cincinnati”) is 60. Talk show host Montel Williams is 53. Country singer Aaron Tippin is 51. Actor Tom Cruise is 47. Actress Yeardley Smith (“The Simpsons”) is 45. Keyboardist-guitarist Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies is 40. Actor Grant Rosenmeyer (“Oliver Beene”) is 18.