newsmakers

newsmakers

RFK Jr. to marry actress Cheryl Hines

HYANNIS, Mass.

Robert Kennedy Jr. and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines are tying the knot in a wedding at the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts.

Kennedy’s cousin Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman, said the wedding is planned for this afternoon at Ethel Kennedy’s home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod. He said many members of the family are planning to attend.

The 60-year-old Robert Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and activist who lives in New York. He is son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. It will be his third marriage.

Hines has been nominated twice for Emmys for her role playing Larry David’s wife on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” She also appeared in the ABC series “Suburgatory.”

Piers Morgan, Larry King trade jabs

NEW YORK

Clearly, former CNN prime-time stars Larry King and Piers Morgan aren’t big fans of each other.

After King derided Morgan’s interview skills and called him pompous, Morgan responded on Twitter on Friday that King was a “graceless, petty little man.” Morgan’s 9 p.m. CNN show was canceled this year. He had replaced King in that time slot in 2011.

King, in an interview with WGRF in Buffalo, said he had trouble watching his successor because the interviews were all about him.

Morgan, in turn, criticized King’s ratings, posting a clip in which King famously addressed Ringo Starr as “George,” and writing, “Get over it, you daft old goat.”

Guitarist, songwriter for Alice Cooper dies

NEW YORK

Dick Wagner, the skilled guitarist who worked with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, KISS and Aerosmith and also co-wrote many of Cooper’s hits, died of respiratory failure Wednesday, his personal manager and business partner said Friday. He was 71.

Susan Michelson, Wagner’s partner in Desert Dreams Productions, said the performer died at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center in Arizona. He had been there for three weeks, Michelson said.

Wagner was born Dec. 14, 1942, and grew up in Michigan. His website said he went on tour with Reed in 1973 and joined Cooper a year later. He co-wrote the Cooper hits “Only Women Bleed,” “You and Me” and “I Never Cry.” He also worked as Cooper’s musical director.

Wagner’s website said the guitarist had many health issues, surviving two heart attacks, a stroke, a paralyzed left arm, kidney failure and diabetes.

“Dick had a huge heart, which is perhaps why it gave him so much trouble, it was simply too full of love, of music and life,” Wagner’s family and Desert Dreams said in a joint statement. “His creativity and passion will live on forever in the legacy he has left for us, in his music and his words. We have so much of him to celebrate.”

Associated Press