newsmakers
newsmakers
‘Taxi,’ ‘Grease’ star Conaway dies at 60
LOS ANGELES
Jeff Conaway, who starred in the sitcom “Taxi,” played swaggering Kenickie in the movie musical “Grease” and publicly battled drug and alcohol addiction on “Celebrity Rehab,” died Friday. He was 60.
The actor was taken off life support Thursday and died Friday morning at Encino Tarzana Medical Center, according to one of his managers, Kathryn Boole. He was taken there unconscious May 11 and placed in a medically induced coma.
Conaway had been treating himself with pain pills and cold medicine while in weakened health, said Phil Brock, Boole’s business partner.
Winehouse checks into treatment
NEW YORK
A representative for Amy Winehouse says the singer has checked into a treatment program in London. Spokesman Chris Goodman said Friday that the 27-year-old songstress wants to be sure she’s ready to perform in Europe this summer.
The rep says she’ll stay at the clinic on “doctors’ advice.” It was not clear what treatment she’ll get at the Priory Clinic. It offers treatment for a range of psychiatric problems, as well as drug and alcohol addiction.
Winehouse’s breakthrough disc, 2006’s “Back to Black,” won her five Grammy Awards and helped her achieve worldwide stardom, but her music has been overshadowed by drug use and legal run-ins. Winehouse has not released much music since, but she performed a short tour in Brazil in January.
Film on bin Laden set for 2012 release
LOS ANGELES
Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s movie about the Black Ops hunt for Osama bin Laden is set for release next year. Columbia Pictures, which acquired the domestic distribution rights to the film earlier this week, says the untitled movie will come out at the end of 2012.
Bigelow and Boal each won a pair of Oscars for producing, directing and writing last year’s best picture, “The Hurt Locker.” The two began developing the film about the Black Ops’ mission to capture bin Laden in 2008.
Amy Pascal, co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, says Bigelow and Boal “have an outstanding perspective on the team that was hunting the most- wanted man in the world.”
Abdul, Cowell are in ‘honeymoon’ phase
SINGAPORE
Paula Abdul says her reunion with Simon Cowell on his new talent show is “still in the honeymoon phase.”
The 48-year-old Abdul told reporters in Singapore on Friday that Fox’s “The X Factor” will probably be “ginormous” as the two former “American Idol” judges reunite to assess would-be singing stars.
Abdul said she and Simon have “a wonderful, exquisite, challenging and frightening relationship.”
The American pop singer and dancer is in Singapore to promote a Universal Studios theme park.
“The X Factor” taped its first judging session earlier this month and will debut this fall.
Sotomayor gets $1.2M for memoir
WASHINGTON
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says she received nearly $1.2 million to write a memoir of her rise from a South Bronx housing project to the nation’s highest court.
Sotomayor reported the payment for the as-yet untitled book from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in her annual report of personal finances, released Friday for the justice and her eight colleagues.
Vindicator wire services