newsmakers

April 24, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

Girl says SpongeBob helped her save a life

LONG BEACH, N.Y.

A 12-year-old Long Island girl is crediting “SpongeBob SquarePants” for teaching her how to help her choking friend. Miriam Starobin and her best friend, Allyson Golden, were in music class Tuesday when Allyson began choking on her gum. Allyson turned red and started kicking her legs. Miriam — with thoughts of SpongeBob and the gang — flew into action and performed the Heimlich maneuver, and the gum popped out.

In one episode of Nickelodeon’s animated series, SpongeBob retrieves a clarinet lodged in Squidward’s throat. In another, Patrick revives Squidward after he swallows a fork.

Etheridge tells Oprah: Separation was mutual

CHICAGO

Musician Melissa Etheridge says her separation from her partner, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge, was mutual. On Friday’s episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Etheridge told Winfrey the separation was “as mutual as those things can be.” She also called the breakup “sad.” The 48-year-old singer calls 35-year-old Tammy Etheridge “a wonderful woman and an incredible mother” and said “she’ll always be in my life.” The couple announced their separation April 15. They had a commitment ceremony in Malibu, Calif., in 2003. Tammy Etheridge gave birth to twins — a son, Miller, and a daughter, Johnnie Rose — in 2006. The couple used an anonymous donor from a sperm bank.

Artist’s children end dispute over estate

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

The adult children of pioneering fantasy artist Frank Frazetta have resolved an ugly dispute over control of their elderly father’s body of work. Frazetta is renowned for his work on characters including Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian. His children have been tussling over an estate estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars, filing dueling lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Florida. The artist said in a statement Friday there’s been a settlement.

The feuding became public in December when police caught Frazetta’s son, Frank Frazetta Jr., breaking into his father’s museum in the Poconos with a backhoe. Police say he tried to remove 90 paintings insured at $20 million. Frazetta Jr. says he was trying to safeguard the paintings from his scheming siblings.