Yoko Ono released from hospital after suffering flu symptoms

hYoko Ono released from hospital after suffering flu symptoms

NEW YORK

Yoko Ono’s son says his mother has been released from a New York City hospital after being treated for flulike symptoms.

Sean Ono Lennon said on Twitter on Saturday afternoon that his mother was home and “running around as usual.”

The 83-year-old artist-singer is the widow of John Lennon of The Beatles. She spent the night at Mount Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan. Her representative told The Associated Press that Ono went to the hospital Friday night on the advice of her doctor.

Screenwriters face own ‘OscarsSoWhite’ drama

LOS ANGELES

Screenwriter Alyson Fouse was working on a sequel for the “Bring It On” movie franchise when the studio asked for changes.

“They wanted the black girl to be more ghetto, for want of a better word,” Fouse recalled. “I said that’s fine, we’re doing a cheerleader comedy, so stereotypes are what’s funny. But I want the other side of that, too. I want a girl who’s not ghetto.”

The African-American writer was able to create a black teen from a posh private school, a rare victory in an industry that makes scant room for those of color or their perspective. “OscarsSoWhite,” the hashtag protest over this year’s all-white slate of nominees, is applicable to the original and adapted screenplay categories as well (with “Inside Out” writer Ronnie del Carmen an exception).

“There just isn’t a lot of diversity within the core of people who are coming up with stories and developing characters,” said Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hunt also has charted writers’ employment for a decade for the Writers Guild of America, West, and sees “very little progress. To the extent there has been progress, it tends to be in front of the camera and very little behind the camera.”

That’s despite the growing colorization of America, with the transition to a nonwhite majority predicted within three decades. The expanding TV universe has been more agile in adjusting to the demographic change than movies, with ethnic and gender diversity in shows ranging from CW’s “Jane the Virgin” to Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” and awards have followed.

Cops: Rapper Stew Deez fired gun outside club

PATCHOGUE, N.Y.

Police say rapper Stew Deez has been arrested and is accused of firing a gun outside of a concert venue on Long Island.

Suffolk County police say the rapper, whose real name is Steward House, was arrested Friday on reckless endangerment and weapons possession charges. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

Investigators say House, of Cleveland, fired a gun into the air as a group of people fought in the back parking lot of The Emporium in Patchogue after a performance there.

Police said the crowd dispersed when the shots rang out. No one was injured.

Newsday reported that Stew Deez was traveling as the opening act for Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

Associated Press