newsmakers

newsmakers

‘American Pie’ brings $1.2M at auction

NEW YORK

Singer-songwriter Don McLean’s original manuscript and notes to “American Pie” sold at auction Tuesday for $1.2 million.

McLean offered his wistful anthem that asks “Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died?” at Christie’s.

The auction house said two people vied for the 16-page manuscript, one in the room and one on the phone. The winning bid went to the collector in the room who wished to remain anonymous.

The eight-minute-long “American Pie” was released in 1971 and was a No. 1 U.S. hit for four weeks in 1972.

ABC news breaks NBC’s winning streak

NEW YORK

NBC’s “Nightly News” lost the weekly ratings competition for the first time since 2009 — and for the first time since anchor Brian Williams was suspended in February for telling a false story about his reporting from the Iraq War.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” with David Muir averaged 8 million viewers last week, or 84,000 more than NBC’s newscast, with Lester Holt as the substitute anchor. NBC had won 288 consecutive weeks in the ratings.

In prime-time last week, the Easter Sunday premiere of “A.D., The Bible Continues” on NBC was a Top Ten show with 9.7 million viewers. That was, however, a million viewers less than the original “The Bible” miniseries, also produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, had on the History network last year.

Also on Easter, ABC’s traditional airing of the movie “The Ten Commandments” reached 6.9 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Actor who played ‘Hazzard’ sheriff dies

RALEIGH, N.C.

The prolific character actor best known for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on “The Dukes of Hazzard” has died. James Best was 88.

His wife of 29 years, Dorothy Best, said Tuesday that Best died Monday night in hospice care in Hickory from complications of pneumonia.

Best starred on the television series that ran from 1979 to 1985. He was the lawman futilely chasing the Duke brothers, often in the company of his droopy-faced basset hound, Flash. He used a battery of catch phrases in the role, as well as a memorable laugh that was comically villainous.

During a wide-ranging career spanning several decades, he also acted in movies including “The Caine Mutiny” and “Rolling Thunder,” and he appeared on television shows including “Gunsmoke and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Comedy genius Stan Freberg dies at age 88

LOS ANGELES

Stan Freberg, the writer and comedian who lampooned American life in “The United States of America” and other landmark comedy albums and was hailed as the father of the funny commercial, has died at age 88.

Freberg’s wife, Hunter, says the humorist died Tuesday at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica.

Although his face may not have been as recognizable as other comedians’, Freberg’s influence was arguably as great, if not more so. That was thanks in part to a huge body of work that influenced generations.

Associated Press