Rather to speak as Kent State remembers May 4 shootings

Rather to speak as Kent State remembers May 4 shootings

KENT

Journalist Dan Rather will speak at Kent State University in May on the anniversary of the fatal Vietnam protest shootings.

His appearance coincides with the May 4 site being dedicated as a National Historic Landmark.

The school says the former “CBS Evening News” anchor will reflect on his experiences covering major news over five decades.

The announcement of Rather’s visit comes after Kent State said it wouldn’t let white nationalist Richard Spencer speak at the school when it remembers the day Ohio National Guard members fired into a crowd and killed four students in 1970.

The university said it couldn’t accept the request to rent space for Spencer because that time in May is too busy with the end of the academic year.

Spencer’s representatives are threatening to sue.

Won’t you be his neighbor? Tom Hanks to play Mister Rogers

NEW YORK

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood for Tom Hanks, who’ll star as Mister Rogers in the upcoming biopic “You Are My Friend.”

TriStar Pictures announced Monday it has acquired worldwide rights to the film, to be directed by “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” filmmaker Marielle Heller.

The film will focus on the friendship between the host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and journalist Tom Junod. Junod reluctantly agreed to profile Fred Rogers only to find “his perspective on life transformed.”

Production will begin in September, with a 2019 release expected.

Rogers died in 2003 at age 74.

Sharp drop in ratings for Grammys this year

NEW YORK

The television audience for Bruno Mars’ dominating night at the Grammy Awards was a sparser one than music’s big night has seen for nearly a decade, and a steep decline of 24 percent from the program a year earlier.

The Nielsen company estimated Monday that 19.8 million people watched the Grammys, compared with 26.1 million last year. It was the Grammys’ smallest audience since 19 million watched in 2009.

This year’s show suffered from a lack of star power, with big-selling artists Adele, Beyonce and Taylor Swift absent from the stage. It was billed going in as a big night for rap, and while that may be music’s most popular style now, it may have been off-putting for some casual music fans.

The viewership decline was notable compared with other awards shows recently. The most recent Golden Globes and Oscars telecasts were down 4 percent from the previous year, while last September’s Emmys viewership was roughly the same as the year before, Nielsen said.

Associated Press