newsmakers

newsmakers

Hijuelos novel set for posthumous release

NEW YORK

A novel completed by Pulitzer Prize winner Oscar Hijuelos shortly before his death last year will be published in the fall of 2015.

Grand Central Publisher announced Wednesday it has acquired Hijuelos’ “Twain and Stanley Enter Paradise,” based on the friendship between Mark Twain and the explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley. Grand Central will also publish Hijuelos’ “Another Spaniard in the Works,” a short story about a musician who meets John Lennon in 1980, the year the ex-Beatle was shot dead by a deranged fan. In the ’60s, Lennon had published a book of humorous writings and drawings called “A Spaniard in the Works.”

Hijuelos was best known for “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” a 1989 novel about Cuban musicians that won the Pulitzer.

Contract dispute delays ‘Big Bang’

NEW YORK

Production on a new season of “The Big Bang Theory” is being delayed because of a contract dispute with its top actors.

The Warner Brothers Television studio, which makes television’s most popular comedy, said that Wednesday’s scheduled first day of work after the summer hiatus was postponed. There’s no word on when “The Big Bang Theory” team will be back at work.

The CBS series is heading into its eighth season, and the studio is trying to hammer out new deals with actors Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar.

Contract disputes aren’t unusual at popular, long-running TV series, and CBS Entertainment Chairman Nina Tassler seemed to take it in stride when asked about the negotiations two weeks ago.

“I just love being able to answer these questions year after year, primarily because we have successful shows,” she said. “And when you have successful shows, you have renegotiations. We’re feeling very confident that everything will work out. These deals manage to get done somehow miraculously year after year.”

CBS had no additional comment on the negotiations Wednesday.

Killer of Grammer’s sister denied parole

DENVER

A man who raped and killed Kelsey Grammer’s sister nearly 40 years ago has been denied parole after the actor testified against his release.

A prison spokeswoman said Wednesday that Freddie Glenn’s parole request has been denied for now.

Glenn, who is serving a life sentence, was convicted of killing Karen Elisa Grammer after kidnapping her from a Colorado Springs Red Lobster restaurant where she worked in 1975. He also was convicted of killing two men in separate slayings.

The Denver Post reports Glenn was tearful at times as he apologized during Tuesday’s parole hearing. He was 18 at the time of Karen Grammer’s death and said he thinks he deserves a second chance.

Kelsey Grammer says he accepted Glenn’s apology, but endorsing his release would be a “betrayal of my sister’s life.”

Associated Press