newsmakers

newsmakers

Carrie Underwood wins video of the year

NASHVILLE, TENN.

Carrie Underwood’s awesome week got off to a roaring start at the CMT Music Awards.

Underwood won top honor video of the year Wednesday night for “Blown Away,” capping the evening with an emotional tribute to Oklahoma tornado victims before taking the fan-voted award for the second year in a row.

Miranda Lambert and Florida Georgia Line were the night’s top winners with two awards apiece.

“The good Lord has been very good to me — well, to all of us in this room — for a very long time,” Underwood told the crowd after the win.

The night belonged to Lambert and FGL before Underwood’s flourish at the finish.

The duo of Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley won breakthrough video and duo video of the year on their breakthrough hit “Cruise,” then performed a remixed version of the song with rapper Nelly to close the show.

The breezy, easy-grooving “Cruise” pushed the duo to country stardom last year. Their remix with Nelly moved into the top five on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop songs list this week, making it the rare country crossover hit and an early candidate for song of the summer.

Attorney: Paris Jackson hospitalized but OK

LOS ANGELES

Paris Jackson is “physically fine” after an apparent suicide attempt Wednesday morning at the Jackson family’s Calabasas home.

Jackson family attorney Perry R. Sanders Jr. released a statement asking the media to respect the family’s privacy.

“Being a sensitive 15-year-old is difficult no matter who you are. It is especially difficult when you lose the person closest to you. Paris is physically fine and is getting appropriate medical attention. Please respect her privacy and the family’s privacy,” he said in the statement.

Sources said Paris Jackson was rushed to a hospital early Wednesday morning.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department would say only that they responded to a “medical emergency” on the block where the Jackson family lives in Calabasas in the San Fernando Valley. The LA County Fire Department described the call as a “possible overdose” and said a patient was taken to a hospital.

One source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Los Angeles Times that the patient was Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris.

Wayne Newton moving out of Las Vegas estate

LAS VEGAS

With a bitter legal fight nearly over, “Mr. Las Vegas” Wayne Newton is moving from his estate of 45 years, “Casa de Shenandoah,” to another mansion about a mile away.

The downsizing from a 40-plus-acre spread to a $3 million mansion and several adjacent properties is taking place this week, the crooner’s sister-in-law, Tricia McCrone, and Newton publicist Kevin Sasaki said Wednesday.

“There’s room for all his animals — the peacocks, the horses and Charlie the penguin,” McCrone said of the properties that she said include a main mansion, a guest house and four other homes on about 20 acres.

Olbermann named baseball-show host

NEW YORK

Keith Olbermann is getting back into broadcasting.

Turner Sports said Wednesday it is hiring Olbermann to host its baseball studio show for the postseason. He will team with Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley.

Olbermann most recently did a political show at Current TV before he had a falling-out with his bosses. While generally acknowledged to be a smart and witty broadcaster, off-screen battles with executives have kept him jumping to different jobs.

Whedon: Shakespeare informs superheroes

NEW YORK

Some might find it strange that Joss Whedon’s first movie since “The Avengers” — his 2012 megahit about a team of Marvel Comics superheroes — is an independent adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” But it makes perfect sense to him. The man who created TV hits such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and its spinoff “Angel” says his dramas all have a bit of the Bard in them.

“When you’re working in Marvel Comics — whether it’s comics or the cinematic universe — you’re cribbing from Shakespeare,” Whedon said in a recent interview. “The big themes, the big emotions, it’s kings, and betrayal and love and tragedy and that good stuff, and even in the way I write, any time you get to write about an Asgardian, there’s going to be a touch of the Elizabethan in there.”

Though “Much Ado” debuts in theaters Friday, Whedon’s focus is already on “Avengers 2” — due out in 2015 — and his upcoming Marvel-based TV series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” which premieres on ABC this fall.

Vindicator wire services