Newsmakers

Newsmakers

Penning memoir

LONDON

The wife of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is writing a behind-the-scenes memoir about life in 10 Downing St.

Sarah Brown told followers on social networking site Twitter that she had agreed to write the book for publisher Ebury. Its working title is “Behind the Black Door.”

The publisher said Monday the book would tell readers what it’s like “to shop with Special Branch [detectives]” and “cope with a bad hair day when Carla Bruni’s in town.”

Brown, a former public relations executive, married Britain’s then-Treasury chief in 2000. He became prime minister in 2007 and left office in May. The couple have two sons, 6-year-old John and 3-year-old Fraser.

The book is due to be published in March.

Fight over Coleman estate

SALT LAKE CITY

Gary Coleman’s friend and former manager will give up the fight to be appointed the special administrator of his estate, his attorney said Monday. A hearing on Coleman’s estate was scheduled later in the day in Provo.

Attorney Kent Alderman told The Associated Press that Dion Mial will no longer seek to be appointed special administrator of Coleman’s estate because a more recent will has surfaced.

Mial was named in Coleman’s 1999 will and was informally appointed by a state court as the estate’s special administrator. But that appointment was challenged by Coleman’s ex-wife, Shannon Price.

She is named in a 2007 handwritten note by Coleman that’s intended to amend any earlier wills and name Price as the sole heir. Monday’s hearing is intended to settle that dispute.

On Friday, an attorney for Coleman’s former girlfriend, Anna Gray, filed documents with the court saying she was named in a 2005 will.

Price and Gray each say they should be responsible for administering the estate of the “Diff’rent Strokes” star and deciding what happens to his remains. Coleman stated in both wills that he wanted to be cremated.

Stalker sentenced

LOS ANGELES

A man who stalked Ryan Seacrest was sentenced Monday to two years in state prison and ordered to stay away from the host of “American Idol” for 10 years.

Chidi Benjamin Uzomah Jr., 26, received the maximum sentence after previously pleading no contest to stalking. Uzomah did not speak during the sentencing hearing.

Superior Court Judge John S. Fisher rejected a defense request to sentence Uzomah to probation.

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