NEWSMAKERS

July 13, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

NEWSMAKERS

Walters: I’m recovered from heart surgery

NEW YORK

Barbara Walters says she is “fully recovered” just two months after open-heart surgery. Walters made her first TV appearance Monday since the procedure in May to replace a faulty valve. She checked in with her fellow panelists on ABC’s “The View.”

Walters said from her Manhattan apartment that she was never in serious discomfort from the surgery. In the studio, her co-hosts marveled at her robust appearance.

The 80-year-old Walters will take the rest of the summer off. She will rejoin her comrades when “The View” begins its new season in September.

BP may fund more beach shows for Ala.

GULF SHORES, Ala.

BP’s oil money may pay for a series of free beach concerts to lure tourists to the Alabama coast, where the Gulf spill has wrecked the summer season. Jimmy Buffett gave a free show on the beach Sunday that drew thousands.

Officials say they hope to follow up with more big-name performers through the fall. Buffett performed for free, and promoters hope other artists would also donate their time. Promoters say acts may include country singers Faith Hill and Zac Brown and soft rocker Jack Johnson.

The money for staging the shows would come from funding BP gave Alabama and other Gulf states to promote tourism hurt by the oil company’s massive spill. BP’s tourism grant to Alabama was $15 million, of which $3.5 million paid for holding the Buffett concert.

Santana proposes onstage at concert

NEW YORK

Carlos Santana is smooth: The guitar god has gotten engaged after proposing onstage to his girlfriend, drummer Cindy Blackman.

The proposal came during a tour stop Friday in Tinley Park, Ill., outside Chicago. His representatives say he popped the question four songs into the concert after a Blackman drum solo. She said yes, and they sealed it with a kiss, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

The multiplatinum-selling Grammy winner ended a 34-year marriage to Deborah Santana in 2007. Blackman is a top drummer who has worked with Lenny Kravitz and Cassandra Wilson.

Oprah Winfrey film is in the works

NEW YORK

Oprah Winfrey’s quarter-century run on daytime TV may be accompanied by a TV film dramatizing her life.

Veteran producer Larry A. Thompson said Monday the planned two- or four-hour Winfrey film will be based on Kitty Kelley’s tell-all biography. Thompson optioned it for six figures.

The TV project is expected to air in September 2011, which would coincide with the end of Winfrey’s weekday talk show.

Thompson has produced TV biopics about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Sonny and Cher.

He calls himself “a huge fan” of Winfrey and says he’s shopping the project to networks he declined to specify. An unknown will likely be cast to play Winfrey.