People: Kiss can’t make up for rock hall honor
Kiss won’t rock and roll all night – or at any point during the day, either – when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, the band said Sunday. The 40-year-old group is unable to agree on which lineup should perform during the April 10 ceremony in New York City, and has decided not to play.
The dispute concerns whether original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss would join Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in a live performance, or whether the current lineup of Stanley, Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer would play instead.
In a message on its website, Kiss said it won’t perform with any lineup, calling it “an emotional situation where there is no way to please everyone.”
“Our intention was to celebrate the entire history of Kiss and give credit to all members, including longtime present members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, and additionally Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr all who have made this band what it is, regardless of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame’s point of view,” the band wrote on its website. “Although Kiss has moved forward far longer without them, Ace and Peter are at the very foundation of what we have built and this would all be impossible had they not been a part of it in the beginning.”
CNN ending Piers Morgan’s show
CNN’s prime-time talk show “ Piers Morgan Live” is coming to an end, the news channel said Sunday.
Piers Morgan, who succeeded Larry King in the 9 p.m. time slot three years ago, was drawing lackluster ratings. In contrast, King had a 25-year run on CNN.
The airdate for Morgan’s last show has yet to be determined, CNN said in a statement.
Morgan is a former U.K. tabloid editor who reinvented himself as a TV personality with stints as a judge on “Britain’s Got Talent” and its U.S. spinoff, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” and as a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
He hosted BBC’s “You Can’t Fire Me, I’m Famous,” and did interview shows and documentaries for ITV.
The birthday bunch
Actor Abe Vigoda is 93. Actor Dominic Chianese (“The Sopranos”) is 83. Actor Barry Bostwick is 69. Singer-producer Rupert Holmes is 67. Actor Edward James Olmos is 67. Musician George Thorogood is 64. Actress Debra Jo Rupp (“That ’70s Show”) is 63. Singer Michelle Shocked is 52. Actor Billy Zane is 48. Actor Wilson Bethel (“Hart of Dixie”) is 30.