newsmakers

newsmakers

Lohan freed from jail; next hearing is Oct. 22

LOS ANGELES

Lindsay Lohan was freed from a suburban Los Angeles jail late Friday night, well short of the nearly monthlong stay a judge had intended for the actress after a failed drug test.

Lohan was released about 11:40 p.m. after posting $300,000 bail, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said early Saturday.

Celebrity website TMZ.com reported her release just before midnight.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden Fox had ordered Lohan held without bail during a brief hearing Friday morning, But his ruling later was overturned after the “Mean Girls” star’s attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, filed a late-afternoon appeal seeking bail.

Judge Patricia Schnegg, who is an assistant supervising judge of LA’s criminal courts, issued a ruling shortly before 6 p.m., saying that since the starlet had been convicted of misdemeanors, she was entitled to bail.

The actress is not entirely free. She will be required to wear an ankle alcohol monitor and stay away from establishments that primarily sell alcohol.

She is also due back in court Oct. 22, when the judge who curtly sent her to jail will decide what her punishment will be for failing a drug test roughly two weeks after he released her early from rehab.

Sha-Na-Na reunites for one-time show

HUNTINGTON, N.Y.

The gold lam varsity jackets still fit.

Four decades after performing as the penultimate act at Woodstock (having been invited by Jimi Hendrix) and three decades after a hosting a long-running TV variety show and appearing in the movie classic “Grease,” several former members of the doo-wop singing group Sha Na Na reunited this weekend for a special one-time-only performance.

“It feels so natural that I just have not had as much fun or felt in harmony with anybody since,” said Robert Leonard, a longtime Hofstra University linguistics professor who in 1969 helped form Sha Na Na. He spent two years with the band before being offered a fellowship to Columbia Graduate School that led to a career in education.

Leonard, who sang bass and can be seen in the Woodstock movie wearing the group’s signature gold lam jacket, brought together former members of the group for a performance Saturday at a celebration marking Hofstra’s 75th anniversary. Other performers on the bill included Public Enemy, Blue Oyster Cult, Fountains of Wayne, Lisa Lisa, and hip-hop star Trey Songz

Three longtime members of Sha Na Na actually still perform more than 50 shows a year, but this is the first time that Leonard and two others, David Garrett, now a New York City businessman, and Elliot Cahn, a California entertainment attorney who once managed Green Day, were back on stage together.

British director’s film ‘Neds’ wins top award

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain

British director Peter Mullan’s film “Neds” has won this year’s top award at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival, organizers said Saturday.

The movie, a British-French-Italian co- production, is an insightful exploration of the violent upheavals of adolescence within the harsh environment of 1970s Glasgow, Scotland. It tells the story of the struggle of a young John McGill to make his mark on life.

Connor McCarron won the best-actor award for his role as McGill, an intelligent, sensitive boy eager to learn and forge a future for himself but who finds life’s chances stacked heavily against him.

Associated Press