NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Smollett indicted on 16 counts related to reported attack

CHICAGO

A grand jury in Chicago indicted “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs.

The Cook County grand jury indictment filed Thursday says he made a false report about an offense.

The Cook County State’s Attorney charged Smollett on Feb. 20 with one count of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.

Smollett told police in late January that he was physically attacked by two men in downtown Chicago while out getting food from a Subway restaurant at 2 a.m. The actor said the men shouted at him, wrapped a rope around his neck and poured an “unknown substance” on him. Police said Smollett, who is black and gay, told detectives the attackers also yelled he was in “MAGA country,” an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan that some Trump critics have decried as racist and discriminatory.

After an investigation, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett recruited two men to stage the attack because he was upset with his pay on the Fox show. Smollett has denied playing a role in the attack.

Whoopi Goldberg says she nearly died from pneumonia

NEW YORK

Whoopi Goldberg says she nearly died from pneumonia.

Appearing Friday in a video that aired on ABC’s “The View,” Goldberg told the audience she had pneumonia in both lungs.

Goldberg said: “I came very, very close to, ah, leaving the Earth.” She appeared in good condition but said she is still not moving around as fast as she’d like.

The 63-year-old thanked the audience for their good wishes and said she can’t wait to return to “The View.”

Goldberg has been absent from the talk show, which she co-hosts, since Feb. 6. She did not say when she’ll be back.

Jan-Michael Vincent, who starred in ‘Airwolf,’ dies at 73

Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, the “Airwolf” television star whose sleek good looks belied a troubled personal life, has died. He was 73.

A death certificate shows that Vincent died of cardiac arrest Feb. 10 in an Asheville, N.C., hospital. The certificate signed by a doctor says he died of natural causes, and no autopsy was performed.

It wasn’t clear why it took several weeks for news of the death to surface before it was first reported Friday by TMZ. Messages left at phone listings for Vincent and his wife weren’t immediately returned Friday.

Born in 1945 in Denver, Colo., Vincent starred in such films as 1972’s “The Mechanic” and 1978’s “Hooper.”

Associated Press