NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

‘Young and the Restless’ actor St. John dead at 52

LOS ANGELES

Kristoff St. John, who played the struggling alcoholic and ladies’ man Neil Winters for 27 years on “Young and the Restless,” has died. He was 52.

Los Angeles police were called to his home Sunday, and his body was turned over to the coroner. The cause of death was not immediately available Monday.

St. John had played Neil Winters on the CBS soap opera since 1991, earning nine daytime Emmy nominations. He won a Daytime Emmy in 1992 for outstanding younger actor in a drama series and won 10 NAACP Image Awards.

His business-guy character wended his way through romances, deaths of loved ones and other daytime travails that descended into alcoholism, until his character went to rehab.

St. John announced in September that he was engaged to model Kseniya Mikhaleva.

“So early.....so early,” she wrote in her Instagram Stories. “Why you are leave so early????Why...you are always in my heart.”

St. John was twice married and divorced and was the father of a son and two daughters. His 24-year-old son, Julian, died in 2014. On Jan. 21, St. John retweeted: “Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them.”

Liam Neeson admits he wanted to kill after friend was raped

LONDON

Liam Neeson has said he is ashamed to admit he had violent thoughts about killing a black person after learning that someone close to him had been raped.

In an interview published Monday, Neeson said that after being told the attacker was black, he “went up and down areas with a cosh [stick or truncheon]” hoping a black person “would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.”

“It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that,” Neeson said.

Many social media users expressed shock at his admission, accusing Neeson of racism.

Demi Lovato deletes Twitter account over 21 Savage backlash

LOS ANGELES

Singer Demi Lovato has deleted her Twitter account after criticism that she was laughing at memes about 21 Savage.

The Grammy-nominated rapper was taken into federal immigration custody in the Atlanta area early Sunday. An official says the rapper is a British citizen who overstayed his visa, and he also has a felony conviction.

Lovato had tweeted: “So far 21 savage memes have been my favorite part of the Super Bowl.” She later clarified she wasn’t laughing “at anyone getting deported.”

The rapper Wale tweeted he didn’t get the joke, and rapper Migos wrote it wasn’t funny.

Some users thought it was wrong for others to criticize Lovato, who was hospitalized in July after a drug overdose.

Associated Press