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Brown’s art has neighbors seeing red

Neighbors are angry at singer Chris Brown’s street art painted outside his Los Angeles home. (Associated Press)
Neighbors are angry at singer Chris Brown’s street art painted outside his Los Angeles home. (Associated Press)
From Wire Reports

Grammy-winning musician Chris Brown’s neighbors are unhappy with the art he’s chosen to have painted along the curb of his Hollywood Hills home. A neighborhood group said the grimacing, sharp-toothed, red-eyed goblins painted along a retaining wall have been scaring local children, and is an eyesore to boot.

“There are lots of babies, lots of children, and they’re literally frightened. It’s like devils on the wall – big scary eyes and big scary teeth, and just the whole vibe is not what we’re used to,” said Patti Negri, president of the Hollywood Dell Civic Association.

L.A. city code officials responded to complaints about the monster art and cited Brown $376 for unpermitted and excessive signage. Under city ordinances, it’s illegal to create murals on most private properties.

Brown has been ordered to remove the goblin paintings within 30 days, but his attorney Mark Geragos said the musician is not backing down. “They are trying to suspend the First Amendment,” Geragos said.

Little Richard’s boyhood home spared

Officials in Macon, Ga., have decided to move the boyhood home of Little Richard to spare it from a highway construction project. On Saturday, meanwhile, the 80-year-old singer received an honorary degree from Mercer University.

Born Richard Wayne Penniman, Little Richard grew up in Macon’s Pleasant Hill community. That’s a neighborhood that was later divided by the construction of Interstate 75. The “Tutti Frutti” singer’s boyhood home faced possible demolition to make room for a planned expansion of the interchange where I-75 meets Interstate 16.

City officials said the home will be relocated to a lot near the Pleasant Hill community garden. At its new location, the house will be used as a neighborhood resource center.

The birthday bunch

Composer Burt Bacharach is 85. Musician Steve Winwood is 65. Actress Lindsay Crouse is 65. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 63. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 63. Country singer Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn is 58. Actor Ving Rhames is 54. Actor Emilio Estevez is 51. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 47.