newsmakers

newsmakers

Stand-up comedian Giraldo dies at 44

NEW YORK

Greg Giraldo, a stand-up comedian who specialized in rants and insult-filled roasts, has died at age 44.

Authorities say Giraldo died Wednesday at the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., after being hospitalized days earlier.

New Brunswick police Lt. J.T. Miller says officers found Giraldo in his room at the Hyatt New Brunswick on Saturday night.

The Home News Tribune of East Brunswick reported that Giraldo had suffered a drug overdose.

It cited New Brunswick police.

Giraldo’s managers declined to comment Thursday.

Anderson Cooper trying daytime TV

NEW YORK

Anderson Cooper will launch a daytime talk show next fall while keeping his prime-time newscast on CNN.

Telepictures Productions said Thursday it has signed Cooper for a talk show that will cover social trends, entertainment and human-interest topics.

With Oprah Winfrey ending her syndicated talk show, companies in that market have been looking for new daytime personalities who will connect with an audience.

Meanwhile, CNN said Cooper has signed a multi-year contract extension for “Anderson Cooper 360,” the daily newscast that begins at 10 p.m.

The network wouldn’t reveal terms of the deal.

It’s also not known whether the daytime show will curtail Cooper’s travels to news events, a hallmark of his CNN show.

Cooper called the daytime deal “an exciting opportunity to show another side of myself.”

Pal of ‘Boardwalk’ boss dies at 89

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.

A bagman for the Atlantic City boss portrayed in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” has died.

Ed Devlin was 89 and died Monday of lung cancer in an Atlantic City-area hospital.

Devlin was featured in a Sept. 17 profile by The Associated Press detailing his teenage association with Enoch “Nucky” Johnson.

Devlin told how he got his first small tastes of vice courtesy of the boardwalk boss, running numbers and chatting up local ladies of the evening.

His wife says Devlin’s last months were among the happiest of his life, telling his stories as the show’s premiere neared.