newsmakers

newsmakers

Hirsch’s neighbors oppose turbine

DENNING, N.Y.

Some residents of a town in New York’s Catskill Mountains are trying to stop actor Judd Hirsch from building a 177-foot wind turbine on his property.

Dozens of Hirsch’s neighbors in the town of Denning have signed a petition opposing the “Taxi” star’s plan for a turbine on his 96-acre property.

Richard Benktwitt lives in a log house about a mile from Hirsch. He told The New York Times that the turbine “would ruin the beauty of the location.”

The 78-year-old Hirsch told the Times that his neighbors’ fears are “baloney.” He says the wind turbine’s generator will cut his electricity bill to zero.

Another neighbor, Barry Schaefer, said he is in favor of alternative energy, but he worries that the turbine will be noisy.

McGraw, Hill return to Vegas

LAS VEGAS

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill brushed off tabloid divorce rumors as they powered into an encore run of “Soul2Soul,” a Las Vegas Strip residency that drew sellout crowds in its first season and is scheduled for 10 select weekends through April.

The country-music royals sat close and bantered with each other before a doubleheader of shows Friday at the Venetian resort, telling reporters they’ve outlasted split rumors that started from the first weeks of their 17-year marriage.

“I wish people would stop buying that stuff, and I wish they’d just stop printing that stuff,” Hill said of the tabloids. “Happy is good. I don’t know why happy can’t be a story.”

The show, which squeezes the electricity of an arena production into a 1,800-seat theater with a live band, is a tag team of hits drawn from two decades of their separate, stellar careers. McGraw saunters across the stage with an electric guitar slung across his back, face half-hidden in the shadow of a black cowboy hat as he drawls “Real Good Man.”

“He has this charisma and this unexplainable presence. It’s magnetic, and it’s incredible,” Hill said about her husband, whose current hits, including “Southern Girl,” follow a laundry list of nearly three dozen chart-toppers. “I just feel like an amateur every single night.”

Associated Press