Daryl Lorette Cafe

Award-winning singer Whitney Houston dies at age 48 - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer and actress Whitney Houston, winner of six Grammy Awards including record of the year for "I Will Always Love You" and album of the year for "The Bodyguard," has died at age 48, a spokeswoman for the singer said.

"Unfortunately it is true," said spokeswoman Jill Fritzo.

A Beverly Hills police officer told reporters at a briefing that emergency assistance received a call from the Beverly Hilton at around 3:20 p.m. PST, and the singer was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.

"She has been positively identified by friends and family that were with her at the hotel, and next of kin have already been notified," Lieutenant Mark Rosen told reporters.

No other details were immediately available.

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Mafioso and murderer tackle Shakespeare in new film - Yahoo! News

BERLIN (Reuters) - Drug dealers, a Mafioso and a murderer are cast in the roles of Caesar, Brutus, Cassius and others in "Caesar Must Die," a docu-drama about inmates at a tough Italian prison who take on a Shakespeare tragedy.

The movie, which has its world premiere at the Berlin film festival on Saturday, was shot at the Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, some of it in the high security wing.

Directed by veteran Italian film makers Vittorio and Paolo Taviani, "Cesare Deve Morire" might equally be called "Shakespeare can set you free" as prisoners mentally escape the confines of their cells, at least fleetingly.

And Shakespeare's themes of power, corruption, murder and vengeance in "Julius Caesar" naturally resonate with performers who are serving sentences ranging from 14 years to life.

"They were in their world but at the same time they had lines of Shakespeare which talked about murder and betrayal ... about power and bosses, and we thought may be we can include their realities in the play," Vittorio told reporters in Berlin.

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Gary Busey files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES, Feb 8 (TheWrap.com) - Apparently, taking part in "Celebrity Wife Swap" wasn't Gary Busey's ticket to financial security.

"Lethal Weapon" star Busey filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Tuesday, revealing debts that far outweigh his assets.

In the papers, the actor -- born William Busey -- indicates that he has $50,000 or less in assets -- while his liabilities are somewhere in the $500,000 to $1 million range.

Busey, 67, lists various lawyers, the IRS, Wells Fargo bank, Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center, and a storage company as entities that he might owe money to.

Carla Loeffler, who filed suit against Busey in November for allegedly tackling her at the Tulsa airport, is also listed among potential creditors.

A statement provided to TheWrap by Busey's manager says that the filing is "the final chapter" in a years-long process of getting his affairs in order after "past unfortunate choices, associations, events and circumstances that visited themselves upon this great American icon."

The statement also likens Busey to "great American institutions" such as General Motors and American Airlines, which have also found themselves in difficult financial straits lately.

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Zsa Zsa kept behind closed doors at birthday party - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After what feels like an eternity, but is actually just a few minutes, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt emerges from a white door into the foyer of the old-fashioned Bel-Air mansion that he shares with his wife of 25 years, former glamour queen Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The self-proclaimed German prince is holding up a chocolate birthday cake he says was a gift from celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Smoke from the expunged candles jabbed into the small cake is still drifting in the air.

Surrounded by paintings and photographs depicting Gabor when she was an infamously sassy Hungarian actress, a few dozen guests quietly sip champagne and mingle in the common areas of the home overlooking the twinkling lights of Los Angeles.

But Gabor is nowhere to be seen — apparently celebrating her 95th birthday behind closed doors on this chilly Monday evening. Von Anhalt presented the cake to his bedridden beloved out of sight from the partygoers who had gathered for the occasion. He parades it around the room as he greets his guests.

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No cause of death yet for L.A. artist Mike Kelley: coroner - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles County Coroner's examiners have completed an autopsy on the body of artist Mike Kelley but have not yet determined a cause of death pending further tests, a spokesman said on Friday.

A friend found Kelley, 57, dead in the bathtub of his home in the Los Angeles suburb of South Pasadena on Tuesday and authorities have said they were investigating the case as a possible suicide.

Los Angeles County Coroner's spokesman Lt. Larry Dietz said the additional tests likely included toxicology, which could take six to eight weeks to complete.

Kelley, an influential contemporary artist based in Los Angeles, was last seen alive on Sunday. Authorities say no suicide note was found in the home and there was no evidence of foul play.

Born in a suburb of Detroit in 1954, Kelley was a founding member of the band Destroy All Monsters in the mid-1970s before moving to California and attending the California Institute of the Arts.

Kelley, who worked in music, film, performance, drawing, sculpture and installations, was also credited with advocating for other artists and writing extensively about the subject.

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US, Australian filmmakers die in helicopter crash - Yahoo! News

SYDNEY (AP) — Award-winning American cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said Sunday.

Police said two people — an Australian pilot and an American passenger — died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles (156 kilometers) north of Sydney, but did not immediately release the victims' identities. Australia's ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter when it crashed.

National Geographic and "Titanic" director James Cameron confirmed the victims' identities in a joint statement that said "the deep-sea community lost two of its finest" with the deaths of the two underwater documentary specialists.

David Bennett, president of Australia's South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the pair had set off to film a documentary when they crashed.

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Actor Ben Gazzara dead at 81 - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Ben Gazzara, known for his brooding tough-guy presence in dozens of films, television shows and stage productions over his long career, died of pancreatic cancer on Friday at a Manhattan hospital, his lawyer said. He was 81.

A three-time Tony nominee for his stage work, Gazzara made his big break into films with his role as an accused killer in Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Murder."

He went on to work with numerous high-profile Hollywood directors, including John Cassavetes, with whom he collaborated on several films, including the 1976 gangster drama "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie."

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'Star Trek' actor Brooks charged with DUI in Conn. - Yahoo! News

WILTON, Conn. (AP) — A lead actor on the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" television series has been charged with driving under the influence in Connecticut.

Avery Brooks is set to be arraigned in state court in Norwalk next week in connection with his arrest last weekend in Wilton, a wealthy suburb about 50 miles northeast of Manhattan. He played Capt. Benjamin Sisko on the 1990s "Star Trek" series and had the role of Hawk on "Spenser: For Hire" in the 1980s.

Local police say they pulled over the 63-year-old Princeton, N.J., resident shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday after receiving a complaint about his driving.

It's not clear if Avery has a lawyer. He's due in court on Feb. 9.

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Actor who was Mr. Pitt on 'Seinfeld' dies at 77 - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ian Abercrombie, a veteran British stage and screen actor whose TV roles included Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on "Seinfeld" and the voice of Chancellor Palpatine in the animated TV series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," has died. He was 77.

A website statement from LucasArts said Abercrombie died Friday. A friend, Cathy Lind Hayes, told the Los Angeles Times that Abercrombie died at a Los Angeles hospital from complications of kidney failure and recently had been diagnosed with lymphoma.

"Though he played a villain on our show, you would be hard pressed to meet a kinder person," said Dave Filoni, a supervising director for "Clone Wars." ''He loved to laugh and his sense of humor always lightened our record sessions. I will miss his stories, I will miss his performances, and I will miss his contribution to our show."

Abercrombie began his career as a dancer and made his American stage debut in a 1951 production of "Stalag 17."

He appeared in the film "Army of Darkness" and on such TV shows as "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "Birds of Prey," in which he played Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler.

He also voiced the worldly owl Ambrose in the animated movie "Rango" starring Johnny Depp.

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Blues singer Etta James remembered in Los Angeles - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of mourners gathered at a Los Angeles-area church on Saturday to remember rhythm-and-blues singer Etta James, saying she overcame great personal and professional hurdles to sing "the times that she lived."

During a two-hour service that featured performances by pop stars Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera, the Rev. Al Sharpton eulogized James as a woman who rose from a tough childhood and poured her pain into her music.

Aguilera performed a version of "At Last," James' show-stopping hit and best-known song.

James died at 73 at a Riverside, California, hospital on January 20 from complications of leukemia, prompting numerous tributes from artists and musicians who were influenced by her work, including Mariah Carey and Aretha Franklin.

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