newsmakers

August 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

Jimmy Johnson will be on ‘Survivor’

NEW YORK

Former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson will be a contestant on the reality television show “Survivor” this season. CBS announced Monday the 67-year-old Johnson will be one of 20 castaways sent to Nicaragua. The premiere will air Sept. 15.

Johnson will be part of a team of 10 contestants over age 40 who will compete against a group age 30 and under.

Johnson won a college national championship at the University of Miami, then won two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys. He also coached the Miami Dolphins. Johnson is now an NFL commentator for Fox.

Stewart, girlfriend expecting a baby

LONDON

Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster have announced they are expecting their second child — and the 65-year-old rocker’s seventh. The couple said in a statement Monday that they learned the “happy news” in June as they celebrated their third wedding anniversary. Stewart and 39-year-old Lancaster have been a couple for a decade and have a 4-year-old son, Alastair.

The Rock and Rock Hall of Famer also has five children from previous relationships.

MTV selects first Twitter jockey

NEW YORK

MTV has named 23-year-old Gabi Gregg its first “Twitter jockey.” Gregg won the position Sunday night after a nationwide vote.

The TJ position is the updated version of the network’s VJ job, and Gregg will report on pop culture news using Twitter, Facebook, blogs and MTV’s website.

Gregg graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 2008, where she studied international relations and African-American studies. Gregg is the founder of the fashion blog Young, Fat and Fabulous. She was reared in Detroit and lives in Chicago.

Patricia Neal dies

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.

Patricia Neal, the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963’s “Hud” and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died Sunday. She was 84.

Neal had lung cancer and died surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard.

“She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured: with indomitable grace, good humor and a great deal of her self-described stubbornness,” her family said in a statement.

Neal already was an award-winning Broadway actress when she won her Oscar for her role as a housekeeper to a Texas father (Melvyn Douglas) battling his selfish, amoral son (Paul Newman).

Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes in 1965 at age 39. Her struggle to once again walk and talk is regarded as epic in the annals of stroke rehabilitation.

She returned to the screen to earn another Oscar nomination and three Emmy nominations.

Restraining order

SANTA MONICA, Calif.

A court commissioner has granted Jennifer Aniston a restraining order against a man authorities say traveled cross-country to try to meet the actress. Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner David A. Cowan on Monday ordered Jason R. Peyton to stay away from the actress and refrain from contacting her for three years. The actress first obtained a temporary restraining order against Peyton on July 20 after police detained him. He remains on a monthlong psychiatric hold.

Court filings claim police intervened after Peyton repeatedly showed up to Los Angeles-area locales searching for the “Friends” star. The filings say Peyton was found with duct tape, a sharp object and love letters addressed to Aniston. He has not been arrested or charged in the incident.

Vindicator wire services