NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Bret Michaels, girlfriend call off their engagement

NEW YORK

Bret Michaels and longtime girlfriend Kristi Gibson have called off their engagement.

Michaels’ publicist, Joanna Mignano, said Monday that the couple have separated.

Michaels and Gibson have dated on and off for about 18 years. They got engaged in 2010. They have two daughters, Raine Elizabeth and Jorja Bleu.

Michaels was the vocalist for the band Poison. He also appeared in his own VH1 reality show.

Michaels was treated in 2010 for a brain hemorrhage. Last year, he underwent a procedure to close a hole in his heart.

Author used fake Dylan quotes

NEW YORK

A staff writer for The New Yorker has resigned and his best-selling book has been halted after he acknowledged inventing quotes by Bob Dylan.

Jonah Lehrer released a statement Monday through his publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, saying that some Dylan quotes appearing in “Imagine: How Creativity Works” did “not exist.” Others were “unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes.”

Lehrer said he acknowledged his actions after being contacted by Michael Moynihan of the online publication Tablet Magazine, which earlier Monday released an in-depth story on the Dylan passages in “Imagine.”

“I told Mr. Moynihan that they [the quotes in question] were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said,” Lehrer wrote in his statement.

Houghton Mifflin said in a statement that Lehrer had committed a “serious misuse.” Listings for the e-book edition of “Imagine” will be removed and shipments of the physical book have been stopped. “Imagine,” published in March, has sold more than 200,000 copies, according to Houghton Mifflin. It has spent 16 weeks on The New York Times’ hardcover nonfiction bestseller list and ranked No. 105 on Amazon.com as of midday Monday.

More record ratings for Olympics on NBC

NEW YORK

Another day, some more record Olympic ratings for NBC.

The Nielsen company said that NBC’s prime-time coverage of the Olympics on Sunday was seen by 36 million people. That’s the largest audience ever for the second night of competition for an Olympics taking place outside the United States. Three nights in a row, including Friday’s opening ceremony, NBC set viewership records.

NBC is averaging 35.8 million viewers in prime time over the three nights, up from the 30.6 million for the same period in Beijing.

Vindicator wire reports