newsmakers

newsmakers

City expects swell of visitors for music fest

TROY, Ohio

A small southwest Ohio city is bracing for more than 40,000 visitors for a music festival headlined by the British folk-rock band Mumford and Sons.

Troy was among hundreds of towns that applied to be two-day stops on the band’s North American tour. Organizers hope the festival this weekend will generate an economic impact of $15 million to $20 million for the area.

The Dayton Daily News reports the band’s sold-out show will be at the high-school stadium. Several stages and vendors will be set up in an area stretching across the Great Miami River and its levee, where special permission was granted to let people camp.

A city official says tour producers gave Troy $155,000 for extra police and firefighter duties, along with public works and insurance costs.

Zeta-Jones and Douglas ‘taking some time apart’

NEW YORK

A spokeswoman for Catherine Zeta-Jones says the actress and her husband, Michael Douglas, “are taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage.”

Publicist Cece Yorke said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday that there would be no further comment. A phone call to a representative for Douglas wasn’t immediately returned.

People magazine, citing unnamed sources, first reported that Zeta-Jones and Douglas had decided to spend time apart.

Zeta-Jones, 43, and Douglas, 68, were married in 2000. They have two children. He battled throat cancer in 2010 and made headlines this summer when he spoke out about one potential cause, oral sex.

Sting’s wife to star in off-Broadway show

NEW YORK

Actress and producer Trudie Styler, the better half of pop singer Sting, will star this fall in a new off-Broadway adaptation of Anton Checkov’s “The Seagull.”

Producers said Wednesday that Styler will portray the fading actress Irina Arkadina in the Culture Project’s version of the classic work adapted by Thomas Kilroy and directed by Max Stafford Clark. This version will be set in late 19th-century Ireland.

Previews begin Oct. 3, and opening night is set for Oct. 13.

Vindicator wire services