NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Joe Walsh pulls out of GOP concert

CLEVELAND

Eagles keyboardist and guitarist Joe Walsh says he’s pulling out of a Cleveland summer concert he thought would be a nonpartisan event for veterans’ families because it’s actually a launch for the Republican National Convention.

Walsh says in an emailed statement he’s “very concerned about the rampant vitriol, fear-mongering and bullying coming from the current Republican campaigns.” He says he “cannot in good conscience endorse the Republican party in any way.”

The concert is scheduled for July 18. The convention is scheduled for July 18-21 at Quicken Loans Arena.

Walsh said Wednesday he’s sorry for any fans or veterans and their families he might disappoint. He promised to look at doing a veterans-related benefit concert later this year.

Wrestling star Chyna dies at 46 in Calif.

LOS ANGELES

Chyna, the tall, muscle-bound, raven-haired pro-wrestler who rocketed to popularity in the 1990s and later made the rounds on reality TV, has died, authorities said.

Police in Southern California said they were responding to a 911 call from a friend of the former World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler when they found her dead in her Redondo Beach apartment.

A friend had gone Wednesday to check on Chyna, whose real name is Joan Marie Laurer, after she had failed to answer her phone for a few days, Redondo Beach police said in a statement. The friend told the 911 operator that Laurer wasn’t breathing.

The 46-year-old Laurer was dead when officers arrived, police said.

Neither police nor coroner’s officials have released any cause of death. An autopsy was planned in the next few days.

Laurer billed herself as the “9th Wonder of the World” because her wrestling predecessor Andre the Giant already had called himself the eighth.

She was a member of the wrestling squad that dubbed itself “D-Generation X,” often wrestled against men and at one point was the WWE women’s champion. After leaving the WWE in 2001, Laurer posed for Playboy and appeared in adult films and on reality TV, including the shows “The Surreal Life” and “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.”

Laurer was a native of Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from the University of Tampa in Florida.

Vindicator wire services