newsmakers

newsmakers

Billy Ray Cyrus in Broadway debut

NEW YORK

Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus is making his Broadway debut in “Chicago.”

The singer of “Achy Breaky Heart” and father of Miley Cyrus is detouring from his Nashville roots in taking on the role of criminal lawyer Billy Flynn for a seven-week engagement beginning Nov. 5.

Cyrus starred with his daughter in the hit TV series “Hannah Montana” and has acted in TV movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel. Cyrus also has hosted country music’s “Nashville Star” and was a competitor on “Dancing With The Stars.”

Other celebrities to join the “Chicago” cast have included Sofia Vergara, Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Ashlee Simpson, Usher, Huey Lewis, Michael C. Hall and Jerry Springer.

Carnegie Medals for books revealed

ANAHEIM, Calif.

Anne Enright’s novel “The Forgotten Waltz” and Robert Massie’s biography “Catherine the Great” have won the first Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in literature.

The American Library Association announced the awards Monday at its annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. The Carnegie awards for fiction and nonfiction are the first adult prizes ever sponsored by the association, which also manages the top honors for children’s literature, the John Newbery and Randolph Caldecott medals.

Enright and Massie each will receive $5,000. In its announcement, the library association praised Enright’s “supple prose” and Massie’s “compulsively readable” style.

Vindicator wire services