newsmakers

newsmakers

Sharpton tapped as MSNBC host

NEW YORK

MSNBC has named the Rev. Al Sharpton as host of a weeknight program on the network.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after Sharpton spent several weeks as a tryout in the 6 p.m. Eastern time slot.

His new program, to be called “PoliticsNation,” will premiere Monday.

Sharpton is a well-known civil-rights activist and minister. He calls the hosting job “a natural extension of my life work and growth.”

In addition to being a guest on MSNBC throughout the network’s history, he also has served as an occasional guest host on several of its programs. He hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, as well.

The 6 p.m. hour serves as an important lead-in to MSNBC’s weeknight slate that includes Chris Matthews, Laurence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.

Last original member of Four Freshmen dies

SIMI VALLEY, Calif.

Ross Barbour, who was the last original member of the influential 1950s harmonizing group the Four Freshmen, has died in Southern California at age 82.

The current group’s manager, Dina Roth, tells the Los Angeles Times that Barbour had lung cancer and died Saturday at his Ventura County home in Simi Valley.

Barbour’s death comes three months after the death of another founding member, his cousin, Bob Flanigan. The two other founding members were Barbour’s brother, Don Barbour, and Hal Kratzsch.

The Grammy-winning Four Freshmen’s hits include “Graduation Day,” “It’s a Blue World,” “Mood Indigo,” “Day by Day,” “It Happened Once Before” and “How Can I Tell Her?”

‘Girls Gone Wild’ creator faces charge

LOS ANGELES

“Girls Gone Wild” creator Joseph Francis has been charged with assault, false imprisonment and other misdemeanor crimes over allegations he attacked a woman he met at a Hollywood club.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office says the 38-year-old video king and his driver/bodyguard are charged in a January altercation that began when three women got into his limousine outside the Supper Club.

Prosecutors say the women thought they were being driven to their car but were taken to Francis’ gated home, where a struggle occurred during which he slammed one woman’s head on a tile floor.

Francis says he has eight eyewitnesses and security-camera footage that proves he is innocent. He says the women were fighting among themselves and were asked to leave his house.

Vindicator wire services