People: Billy Joel honor sparks road debate
A street through Billy Joel’s hometown of Hicksville, New York, may someday bear his name but a group of New York lawmakers, for now at least, like the Route 107 signs just the way they are.
The proposed honor for the Piano Man is being held up over a difference of opinion over a simple question: Should the state name things after people while they are still alive?
“It’s more of a philosophical discussion. … I don’t think it has anything to do with Billy Joel,” said Sen. Jack Martins, a Long Island Republican who introduced a bill last year to name a stretch of road in Hicksville for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. “This is a man who has sold 150 million albums and still lives in the area.”
But lawmakers are clearly not of one New York state of mind.
“It’s a posthumous honor,” argued Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat. “It’s so future generations know about their contributions. Obviously, people today are fully aware who Billy Joel is.”
Both the state Senate and the Assembly need to approve the bill before the quarter-mile roadway that’s home to restaurants, strip malls and a small community park can be renamed “Billy Joel Boulevard.”
Jolie sees Myanmar’s work conditions
Actress Angelina Jolie has joined Myanmar’s opposition leader and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, in sitting down with female workers to learn more about their dire conditions. Jolie, who is a special envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, is on a four-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation.
During her meeting Saturday with the factory workers on the outskirts of an industrial zone in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, Jolie and Suu Kyi witnessed first-hand the conditions the women live in, mostly low-cost hostels. Jolie also toured inside the factory.
It is Jolie’s first visit to Myanmar, which only recently emerged from decades of military rule.
Italy impounds Snoop Dogg’s cash
Snoop Dogg has had another run-in with European authorities.
Italian financial police said they stopped the rapper at the Lamezia Terme airport in Calabria on Saturday with $422,000 in cash, well above the limit that can legally be transported across EU borders undeclared. The incident comes less than a week after Snoop Dogg was briefly stopped in Sweden on suspicion of drug use after a concert near Stockholm.
Financial police confirmed a report by the Italian news agency ANSA that half of the cash was impounded under Italian anti-money laundering codes. In such cases, the balance is returned minus any fine set by magistrates. Travelers within the European Union are required to declare 10,000 euros ($11,000) or more in cash.
The birthday bunch
Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 78. Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 72. Actress Joanna Cassidy is 70. Actress Kathryn Harrold is 65. Actor Butch Patrick (TV: “The Munsters”) is 62. Rock music producer/drummer Butch Vig (Garbage) is 60. Actress Victoria Jackson is 56. Actress Apollonia is 56. Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 51. Writer-actor-director Kevin Smith is 45. Actor Edward Furlong is 38.