NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Marvel Comics plans wedding for gay hero

PHILADELPHIA

Wedding bells will ring this summer for Marvel Comics’ first openly gay hero, super speedster Northstar.

The New York-based publisher said Tuesday that Canadian character Jean-Paul Beaubier will marry his beau, Kyle Jinadu, in the pages of “Astonishing X-Men” No. 51, due out June 20.

Northstar revealed he was gay in “Alpha Flight” No. 106 in 1992. He was one of Marvel’s first characters to do so.

Marjorie Liu is writing the series.

Houston’s daughter probed for gambling

LAS VEGAS

Casino regulators are investigating whether the 19-year-old daughter of late pop singer Whitney Houston gambled at a Las Vegas Strip resort.

State Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that investigators are checking if Bobbi Kristina Brown played slot machines at the MGM Grand, and whether casino employees knew.

The legal gambling age in Nevada is 21. Underage gambling is a misdemeanor, and resort owner MGM Resorts International could face fines.

Hip Hop Hall’s home

NEW YORK

Organizers say the Hip Hop Hall of Fame Museum has found a home in midtown Manhattan.

The Wall Street Journal says the plans also include a restaurant, arcade, concert lounge, television studios, marquee, community and corporate rooms and a gift shop.

The company’s business development manager, Bobby Fisher, says the address won’t be released until July because the deal is still being wrapped up.

Van Halen will return, says singer in video

LOS ANGELES

Van Halen will be back, lead singer David Lee Roth promises, and when the band returns, it may be bringing along some extra heavy machinery.

In a video the band has posted, it doesn’t appear that Roth is using one of his colorful rock ’n’ roll metaphors when he tells fans to expect a “super-sized monster-truck rally Van Halen tractor-pull sort-of-event” when the band eventually reschedules its 30-plus postponed tour dates. No clue as to what that means, but he says it will happen as “soon as the band learns to speak Australian.”

The reformed ’70s hard-rock heavyweights will return home to Los Angeles with a June 1 show at Staples Center.

Burnett’s new book

NEW YORK

Carol Burnett’s next book will likely inspire tears along with laughter.

The beloved actress and comedian has an agreement with Simon & Schuster for a memoir about her daughter, Carrie Hamilton, who died of cancer in 2002 at age 38.

Vindicator wire reports