newsmakers

newsmakers

Kidnapping survivors working on book

NEW YORK

Two of the three women held captive for a decade in a Cleveland house are collaborating with a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Washington Post reporters for a planned book about their ordeal.

In a statement issued Monday to The Associated Press, an attorney for Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus said they will work with the Post’s Mary Jordan, a Cleveland native, and her husband and fellow reporter, Kevin Sullivan. No meetings with publishers have been scheduled, although interest likely would be based on the popularity of another kidnapping survivor’s memoir, Jaycee Dugard’s “A Stolen Life.”

Negotiations for the book will be handled by Washington-based attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients have included President Barack Obama and Amanda Knox.

Filmation founder Lou Scheimer dies

LOS ANGELES

Lou Scheimer, who founded the Filmation animation studio that produced Saturday morning cartoons including “Fat Albert” and “The Archie Show,” has died. He was 84.

The Pittsburgh native behind the cartoon powerhouse died Thursday, two days before his 85th birthday, Scheimer’s wife, Mary Ann, said Sunday.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Scheimer’s company was the largest animation operation in the country in the early 1980s by number of employees.

Scheimer, who graduated with an art degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, founded the company in 1962 with a $5,000 loan from his mother-in-law and opened a one-room office in Southern California. His first big hit was “The New Adventures of Superman,” and the studio went on to work on series including “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” and “The Archie Show.”

He won a Daytime Emmy Award as a producer of the 1974-75 season of the “Star Trek” animated series.

In 1969, Filmation was sold to a cable operator that was bought by Westinghouse. Scheimer continued to head Filmation but was told to cut costs and in 1987 announced that some work would be shipped overseas.

In 1989, Filmation was bought by a French investor group that closed the company’s Woodland Hills plant and fired most employees.

Scheimer retired several years ago. He is survived by his wife, his daughter, Erika and his son, Lane.

Dolly Parton suffers minor injuries in crash

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Dolly Parton is home resting after being treated for minor injuries she suffered in a car crash she described as “a fender bender.”

Kirt Webster says Parton was already home Monday afternoon after the accident, which happened shortly before noon CDT in Nashville, Tenn. Parton says in a statement that she’s “all good. Just a little tired and sore.”

Police say the 67-year-old Country Music Hall of Fame member was riding in an SUV that was hit by another vehicle. Parton and the two others were taken to local hospitals for treatment. A news release says none of the injuries appeared serious.

Associated Press