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Thursday, May 20, 2010

newsmakers

O’Brien headlines TBS sales pitch

NEW YORK

Conan O’Brien says he can’t wait to get back to having fun on television again. The comic touted his upcoming TBS talk show to an audience of advertisers Wednesday. He said it was his first time back in New York since NBC brought him in a year ago this week to promote his takeover of the “Tonight” show.

O’Brien lasted half a year before leaving rather than move his time slot to accommodate Jay Leno. He joked that his vision for the new show is to “pick up where ‘Hee Haw’ left off,” with corny jokes and old country music. His TBS show begins in November.

Taylor Swift wins BMI song of year

LOS ANGELES

Taylor Swift has gotten another honor. The country singer’s “Love Story” has won BMI’s song of the year award. The music rights organization says the 20-year-old is the youngest songwriter ever to win pop song of the year. The BMI Pop Music Awards were presented Tuesday in Los Angeles.

John Fogerty was named a BMI Icon, and Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. was honored as publisher of the year. RedOne won his first songwriter of the year award. He was honored for his work on four songs: Sean Kingston’s “Fire Burning” and Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance,” “LoveGame” and “Poker Face.”

Bret Michaels doing rehab twice a day

CHICAGO

Rocker and reality television star Bret Michaels says he’s increasing his rehabilitation to twice a day after suffering a brain hemorrhage last month. Michaels said on Wednesday’s episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” that he’s still having trouble moving his lower extremities and has neck stiffness but that “each day gets better.”

The 47-year-old Michaels was recently released from a Phoenix hospital. He was admitted to a hospital April 22 complaining of a severe headache. The Poison frontman and “Celebrity Apprentice” finalist says he still has headaches but that they’re to be expected. Michaels told Winfrey that after the hemorrhage he asked God “to let me live through this.”

Penn urges help for Haiti hospitals

WASHINGTON

Actor Sean Penn said Wednesday the biggest challenge facing post-quake Haiti is getting hospitals staffed and supplied during its current rainy season and ahead of the upcoming hurricane season.

Penn, who co-founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organization shortly after the earthquake and has pitched in at camps for survivors, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the problem requires “immediate attention” and shouldn’t be held up by bureaucratic disagreements.

“In many cases, the bureaucracy of international aid is protecting people to death,” Penn said, noting that several hospitals have closed because they have been over-scrutinized and under-supported.

The actor testified at the hearing along with administration officials, who also highlighted some of the successes made since an earthquake devastated the country in January. The disaster left 230,000 people dead and displaced more than one million.