NEWSMAKERS
NEWSMAKERS
Theron’s not leaving the US due to racism
LOS ANGELES
Charlize Theron isn’t leaving the United States over racism concerns. But the white South Africa-born actress, who has adopted a black daughter and son, says: “I am constantly concerned about the safety of my kids. I don’t know a parent who’s not.”
Theron was quoted in an Elle magazine interview published last week saying that she wouldn’t travel to parts of the United States with her family due to worries over racism, and that she had thought about leaving the country to keep her children safe.
The 42-year-old actress and producer said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that her comments were “taken to the extreme” in media reports.
Pro wrestling great Sammartino dies
PITTSBURGH
Bruno Sammartino, professional wrestling’s “Living Legend” and one of its longest-reigning champions, has died. Sammartino was 82.
Family friend and former wrestling announcer Christopher Cruise said Sammartino died Wednesday morning and had been hospitalized for two months.
Sammartino was wrestling’s biggest box-office draw in the 1960s and 1970s and held the World Wide Wrestling Federation championship for more than 11 years (4,040 days) over two title runs.
He was born in Italy, and his family immigrated when he was a child to Pittsburgh, where he learned how to become a pro wrestler.
Sammartino’s family fled a Nazi invasion of his village in Italy, and he hid with his mother in a mountain called Valla Rocca during the German occupation. They eventually joined his immigrant father in Pittsburgh in 1950.
The promotion now known as WWE said Sammartino sold out Madison Square Garden, known as the mecca of professional wrestling, 187 times over his career.
Sammartino and WWE had a bitter falling out in the late 1980s that lasted until the company’s greatest star accepted his induction into the Hall of Fame in 2013. He was inducted by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Sammartino defeated Buddy Rogers in just 48 seconds to become the second-ever WWE Champion in front of nearly 20,000 fans May 17, 1963, at the old Madison Square Garden. He held the title until 1971.
Associated Press