Felled by congestive heart failure on Christmas morning, James Brown used his final breaths to tell longtime manager Charles Bobbit, "I'm going away tonight," the New York Daily News reports. "I didn't believe him," Bobbit relates, adding that a short time later, Brown sighed three times, closed his eyes and died. Per the News, fellow music legend Little Richard remembers Brown as "an innovator, an emancipator, an originator... Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown." Adds Public Enemy's Chuck D, "To this day there has been no one as funky. No one's coming even close." Noting the singer's most holy final day of life, the Rev. Jesse Jackson says, "He was dramatic to the end.... He would have it no other way."
read more
Hal Sparks, Wayne Brady, Lucy Lawless and Carly Patterson, Celebrity Duets
You've seen them dance. You've seen them lose weight. You've even seen them ice-skate. Now it's time for celebrities to grab a mike and start singing. The contestants on Fox's Celebrity Duets will have a little help from well-known recording artists such as Clint Black, Macy Gray and Chaka Khan, so we're hoping the audience will be spared the torture of another William Hung. But with Simon Cowell wearing the executive-producer hat, anything is possible.
The show (premiering Aug. 29) is hosted by Wayne Brady and features eight celebrity "nonsingers" — wrestling champion Chris Jericho, actress Lea Thompson, Queer Eye lifestyle expert Jai Rodriguez, Xena's Lucy Lawless, actor Cheech Marin, Olympian gymnast Carly Patterson, Fresh Prince's Alfonso Ribeiro and comedian Hal Sparks. The warbling wannabes will be competing for $100,000, to be donated to the
read more
Little Richard is a big get for Simon's Celebrity Duets.
As reported earlier this week, Lucy Lawless, Cheech Marin, WWE champ Chris Jericho, Olympian Carly Patterson, Fresh Prince's Alfonso Ribeiro, Queer Eye's Jai Rodriguez, Hal Sparks and Back to the Future's
read more
Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll and director Taylor Hackford
While Taylor Hackford is best known for directing dramas like An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil's Advocate and Ray, his documentaries may be some of his most interesting work. After getting his start as an investigative reporter for public television in Los Angeles, the silver-bearded cineaste went on to helm 1987's
read more
Macon, Ga., Mayor Jack Ellis is asking local businesses to cough up an estimated $75,000 to pay for a concert by homegrown celeb Little Richard Saturday.... ER grump Eriq La Salle has signed a year-long development deal with CBS, Variety reports…. NBC has yanked Inconceivable for the week and, if we're lucky, forever.... Funnyman Nipsey Russell has died at the age of 80. A fixture on the game-show circuit, the cancer victim also struck gold as the Tin Man opposite Michael Jackson in The Wiz.
read more
