NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Chris Brown granted joint custody of daughter in Texas

HOUSTON

A judge has granted R&B singer Chris Brown joint custody of his young daughter in Texas.

A judge in Houston on Friday agreed with Brown’s request to share custody of the toddler, Royalty, with the child’s mother, Nia Guzman.

Brown’s attorney, Mark Geragos, says Guzman previously had primary custody of the girl, who was born about 16 months ago in Houston.

Brown must continue monthly child-support payments of $2,500. Guzman had sought $15,000 per month.

Dickie Moore, 1930s child star, dies at 89

NEW YORK

Dick “Dickie” Moore, a saucer-eyed child star of the 1930s who appeared in “Our Gang” comedies, gave Shirley Temple her first screen kiss and was featured in many major Hollywood productions, has died. He was 89.

Helaine Feldman, a senior staff member at Dick Moore & Associates Inc., confirmed that Moore died Monday in Connecticut.

Though not as famous as Temple or Mickey Rooney, Moore was a veteran of dozens of films, many of them top-drawer productions directed by such greats as Cecil B. DeMille (“The Squaw Man”), Ernst Lubitsch (“Heaven Can Wait”) and Josef von Sternberg (“Blonde Venus”).

He also wrote a 1984 book about the child-star business, called “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: But Don’t Have Sex or Take the Car.”

He was a member of producer Hal Roach’s “Our Gang” (“Little Rascals”) troupe in 1932-33.

Former B.B. King aide sues 3 of his daughters

LAS VEGAS

A former personal aide to B.B. King is suing three of the late blues legend’s daughters in Las Vegas over their allegations that King was poisoned before he died in May.

Myron Johnson’s civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Clark County District Court accuses Karen Williams, Patty King and Rita Washington of seven causes of action including defamation, slander, libel and conspiracy.

Patty King declined to comment Friday. Williams didn’t immediately respond to messages.

Washington said she hadn’t seen the lawsuit but she thought it was a product of a dispute between Williams and Johnson, who are half siblings.

“We knew it was just going to be a mess as everything unfolds,” Washington said.

Johnson, who isn’t B.B. King’s son, was employed by and traveled with the musician and King’s longtime business agent, LaVerne Toney.

Johnson was at King’s bedside when King died May 14 in hospice care at home in Las Vegas at age 89.

The Clark County coroner said King died of natural causes attributable to age and a longtime battle with Type 2 diabetes.

Associated Press