Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Vegas headliner Fred Travalena dies
LOS ANGELES — Impressionist Fred Travalena, a headliner in Vegas showrooms and a regular on late-night talk shows with his takes on presidents, crooners and screen stars, has died in Los Angeles. He was 66.
Publicist Roger Neal says Travalena died Sunday at his home in the Encino area after a recurrence of the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that first surfaced in 2002.
Travalena was known for the sheer volume of celebrities he imitated, leading to the nicknames “The Man of a Thousand Voices” and “Mr. Everybody.”
His act included presidents from Kennedy to Obama, musicians from Frank Sinatra to Bruce Springsteen and actors from Marlon Brando to Tom Cruise.
The Bronx native started his career in Las Vegas in 1971.
Court refuses to block digital video recorder
WASHINGTON — Hollywood studios and television networks lost their bid Monday for the Supreme Court to block the use of a new digital video recorder system that could make it cheaper and easier for viewers to record shows and watch them when they want, without commercials.
The justices declined to hear arguments on whether Cablevision Systems Corp.’s remote-storage DVR violates copyright laws.
For consumers, the action means that Cablevision and perhaps other cable-system operators soon will be able to offer DVR service without need for a box in their homes. The remote storage unit exists on computer servers maintained by a cable provider.
Industry experts say the new technology could put digital recording service in nearly half of all American homes, about twice the current number. That’s what has movie studios, TV networks and cable channels worried. DVRs allow viewers easily to skip past commercials.
The studios and networks contend that the service is more akin to video-on-demand, for which they negotiate licensing fees with cable providers.
The Obama administration, which urged the court not to hear the case, said the ruling by the federal appeals court in New York in favor of Cablevision was correct.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a judge’s ruling that Cablevision, rather than its customers, would be making copies of programs, thereby violating copyright laws.
The Screen Actors Guild, songwriters, music companies, Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the NCAA all sided with the networks and studios in asking for high-court review.
Today’s birthdays
Singer Lena Horne is 92. Actress Nancy Dussault is 73. Singer Glenn Shorrock of the Little River Band is 65. Jazz bassist Stanley Clarke is 58. Guitarist Hal Lindes of Dire Straits is 56. Actor David Alan Grier is 53. Actor Vincent D’Onofrio is 50. Actress Monica Potter is 38. Actress Lizzy Caplan (“Mean Girls”) is 27. “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino is 25.