newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Vanilla Ice Goes Amish’ to debut

NEW YORK

The DIY television network is proving a comfortable home for rappers turned renovators.

“Vanilla Ice Goes Amish” will debut on the network this year. Network executive Burton Jablin says the former rap star will live with an Amish community in Ohio to learn how they do construction. Vanilla Ice already has a renovation series on the network that will return for its fourth season this fall.

Reverend Run of Run DMC will have a series next year starring with his wife and three children as they renovate their home.

Keeping with the music theme, DIY also will feature Daryl Hall next year as he renovates a farmhouse in Connecticut.

Police: Madonna’s brother resists arrest

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.

Authorities say pop star Madonna’s brother needed nine stitches to his forehead after he resisted arrest in a public bathroom in northern Michigan.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that police were called Sunday night when 56-year-old Anthony Ciccone refused to leave the bathroom at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center.

Police say an officer tried to arrest Ciccone on an outstanding warrant for trespass.

He confronted the officer, who brought him to the ground. Ciccone’s face hit the floor, and he required stitches.

Police say Ciccone’s blood-alcohol level was 0.40 percent.

Under Michigan law, 0.08 percent is drunk.

Germany: Bieber’s monkey going nowhere

BERLIN

German customs authorities said Tuesday that Justin Bieber’s monkey is going nowhere for now even though the singer apparently has asked that it be removed from an animal shelter where it is staying and be placed in a zoo.

Mally, a 17-week-old capuchin monkey, was seized by customs authorities March 28 when Bieber failed to produce the required papers after landing in Munich while on tour.

Bieber has until May 17 to provide Mally’s paperwork, Meister said.

TV reporter fired for using profanity on air

BISMARCK, N.D.

A weekend news anchorman for a North Dakota television station says he was fired after he opened his first broadcast with obscenities.

A.J. Clemente says on Twitter that KFYR-TV of Bismarck fired him Monday.

The NBC affiliate said in an earlier statement that Clemente was suspended after the Sunday evening broadcast.

General manager Dick Heidt says he cannot discuss the incident because it’s a personnel matter.

The station posted an apology online, and co-anchorwoman Van Tieu also apologized during the 10 p.m. newscast.

Vindicator wire services