newsmakers

May 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

Philbin to have clot removed from leg

NEW YORK

Talk-show host Regis Philbin says he will have a blood clot in his calf removed next week. The 78-year-old co-host of “Live! With Regis and Kelly” says leg pain is making it difficult for him to walk. Philbin had hip replacement surgery in December and triple-bypass heart surgery in 2007. He said on Thursday’s show: “One of the things you’ve got to do when you get a new hip is continue to walk, but I can’t walk very long.” Philbin says he’ll undergo the procedure Tuesday, but gave no other details.

‘Field of Dreams’ site for sale for $5.4M

DES MOINES, Iowa

In “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner’s character builds a baseball diamond out of a cornfield after a voice tells him: “If you build it, he will come.” Well, now he can buy it and so can anyone else.

Don and Becky Lansing, the owners of the site near Dyersville where the field was built by Universal Studios, said Thursday they’re selling the property. The asking price is $5.4 million. The couple said they love the land, which has been in Don Lansing’s family for more than a century, but they’re ready to retire and give up the property.

The “Field of Dreams” is in the middle of a cornfield in eastern Iowa. The movie, released in 1989 with Costner as its star, was based on the book “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella. The site has been a popular tourist destination, with the family maintaining the baseball diamond built by Universal.

Caravaggio bones may have been found

ROME

Italian researchers say they may be close to identifying the remains of Caravaggio, the great Italian painter whose death 400 years ago is shrouded in mystery. The researchers have been studying bones found in a Tuscan town where Caravaggio died in 1610. They said Friday that carbon dating and other analyses show that one set of bones belonged to a man who died in the same period as the artist and at an age between 37 and 45. Caravaggio died at 39.

Team leader Silvano Vinceti said this same set of bones also has high levels of lead and other metals associated with painting.

The group will now conduct DNA testing, with results expected in about two weeks. Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole, Tuscany. To this day, his remains are officially missing.

Thousands mourn jazz singer Horne

NEW YORK

Thousands of mourners bid a final farewell to jazz singer and actress Lena Horne in New York City. Horne was remembered at her funeral Friday as a shy girl from Brooklyn who broke through decades of racism to emerge as a world-class entertainer and social leader. She died Sunday at age 92.

Horne’s seductive voice dazzled the world for decades with tunes like “My Blue Heaven” and “Stormy Weather.”