newsmakers

April 30, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

‘Thelma Lou’ robbed in North Carolina

MOUNT AIRY, N.C.

The actress who played Thelma Lou on “The Andy Griffith Show” was robbed in the town that inspired the show’s idyllic Mayberry setting, after moving to the area to avoid big-city crime.

Betty Lou Lynn had her wallet stolen at a shopping center in Mount Airy, the birthplace of Andy Griffith.

The Mount Airy News reports that police arrested Shirley Walter Guynn of Cana, Va. He’s being held in Surry County Jail on a $10,000 bond. It was not immediately clear Thursday if he has a lawyer.

In an earlier interview with the newspaper, the 83-year-old Lynn said she moved to Mount Airy after being robbed three times in Los Angeles. In the TV series, Thelma Lou was the girlfriend of Deputy Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts.

Cameron helps build 3-D camera for Mars

PASADENA, Calif.

“Avatar” director James Cameron is helping to build a high-resolution 3-D camera on the next-generation Mars rover.

The camera will be mounted atop Curiosity, the next rover mission to Mars set for launch next year.

Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scaled back its plans in 2007 to mount a 3-D camera atop Curiosity because the upcoming flagship mission to Mars was consistently over budget and behind schedule.

But Cameron lobbied NASA administrator Charles Bolden for inclusion of the 3-D camera during a January meeting, saying a rover with a better set of eyes will help the public connect with the mission. Bolden was convinced.

Birkhead, daughter at Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

Larry Birkhead’s whirlwind romance with Anna Nicole Smith took off at the Kentucky Derby in 2004. Now he’s making a return visit.

Birkhead brought his and Smith’s 31/2-year-old daughter, Dannielynn, to the Kentucky Derby Museum for a Derby week homecoming trip. Their first stop was a fashion exhibit at the museum featuring a pink, sequined V-neck dress worn by Smith to the 2004 Derby.

Birkhead, a Louisville native, held his squirming daughter as she reached out to touch her mother’s dress, one of two lent to the museum by Birkhead He later called it a bittersweet moment.

Smith, a model and actress, died in Florida of an accidental medication overdose in 2007. Birkhead eventually proved his claim that he is Dannielynn’s father through a DNA paternity test.

Handwritten Lennon lyrics to be sold

NEW YORK

For the right price, some lucky Beatlemaniac will be able to own the lyrics to the final song on the classic Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to the Beatles classic “A Day in the Life” are being auctioned in June, Sotheby’s announced Thursday. The double-sided sheet of paper features Lennon’s edits and corrections in his own hand — in black felt marker and blue ballpoint pen, with a few annotations in red ink.

It is expected to fetch between $500,000 and $700,000 when it is sold in New York on June 18.

Rolling Stone magazine listed “A Day in the Life” at No. 26 in its compilation of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and “Sgt. Pepper” won four Grammy awards in 1968.