newsmakers

newsmakers

Poll: Most don’t find Paula Deen racist

LOS ANGELES

Corporate America may be running away from Paula Deen as fast as it can, but ordinary viewers are sticking with the deposed chef, a new poll says.

Seventy-one percent of respondents said they did not believe that Deen was a racist, according to the online survey from search engine Ask.com.

And nearly two-thirds believe that another network will pick up Deen, who was dumped by the Food Network after scandal engulfed her last month.

A court deposition surfaced in which Deen admitted using the N-word.

Deen initially apologized in a series of statements and videos but emerged defiant in a subsequent interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today,” proclaiming: “I is what I is.”

A long list of companies severed ties with her, including Wal-Mart Stores and Kmart.

But many fans seem to believe that Deen’s former partners are blowing the incident out of proportion.

Man finds, returns Steve Martin’s wallet

WILKES-BARRE, Pa.

Steve Martin is known as a wild and crazy guy, but he’s also a lucky one: A stranger found his wallet on a Pennsylvania street and returned it to the entertainer.

Martin apparently lost his wallet while bicycling before performing Tuesday night in Wilkes-Barre. Will Beekman, programming director at the concert hall where Martin performed, says a man working on a city street found the wallet. He knew Martin’s bluegrass show was in town, so he contacted the concert hall to say he’d found it.

Beekman says Martin insisted on thanking the man in person, but he wasn’t sure whether the man got a reward. The wallet had Martin’s driver’s license and credit cards but no cash.

Beekman says he didn’t get the man’s name.

Part of James Dean’s high school collapses

INDIANAPOLIS

Part of the eastern Indiana high school where James Dean first was exposed to acting has collapsed.

Fairmount clerk- treasurer Jo Ann Treon says the southeast corner of the shuttered Fairmount High School gave way about 3 a.m. Wednesday in the town about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis. She says there are concerns that another section of the 115-year-old building could collapse next.

Dean grew up on a farm near Fairmount and performed at the school in plays that fueled his interest in acting. After graduating in 1949, he headed to California and then New York, before landing iconic roles in the films “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Giant” and “East of Eden.”

The actor achieved posthumous stardom after his 1955 death at age 24 in a California car crash.

Judge: Shirt not ‘Situation’ violation

MIAMI

A federal judge in Florida says Abercrombie & Fitch Co. didn’t violate trademark rules by producing a shirt playing on the nickname of Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of TV’s “Jersey Shore.”

Sorrentino’s company sued the clothing company in 2011 over its shirt containing the phrase “The Fitchuation.” Sorrentino claimed that amounted to trademark infringement and other violations of his nickname, which is based on his abdominal muscles.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge John O’Sullivan recently ruled for Abercrombie and tossed the case. O’Sullivan concluded that the company marketed the shirt as a parody and that Sorrentino’s company didn’t start selling its own shirt until later. And the judge found the products are not the same and thus can’t confuse consumers.

“Jersey Shore” ran on MTV for six seasons, ending last December.

Vindicator wire services