The music world is poorer in the absence of Cash
Kris Kristofferson says he still grieves the loss of his friend Johnny Cash. “It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year,” Kristofferson said from his home in Hawaii. “It’s still painful that he’s gone. I think about him a lot.”
Kristofferson contributes to a new Country Music Television special “Controversy: Johnny Cash vs. Music Row,” which airs tonight at 8 as part of a “Man in Black Weekend.”
The show explores the uneasy relationship between the country music establishment and the singer, who died on Sept. 12, 2003.
After a lull in his career in the 1970s and ‘80s, he found success with a series of albums he recorded with rap/rock producer Rick Rubin, reaching a new, younger audience.
After winning a Grammy, Cash and Rubin put together a now infamous full-page music industry trade ad that showed Cash flipping off the Nashville music establishment.
“He was unlike anybody else,” Kristofferson said. “He was absolutely his own person. He went his own way and spoke his own words.”
Did doctors fail to follow the rules?
The family of the late John Ritter has sued a Burbank, Calif., hospital, accusing it of negligence in the death of the 54-year-old actor.
When Ritter went to the emergency room in September 2003 complaining of chest pain, nausea and vomiting, he was misdiagnosed as having a heart attack, the suit alleges. He died of a tear in his aorta.
Ritter, who came to prominence in 1977 as Jack Tripper on the hit series “Three’s Company,” made a successful return to sitcoms in 2002 with “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.”
Come on, she’s just a kid, man
Lauren Bacall bristled on British television this week when an interviewer referred to Nicole Kidman, her 37-year-old co-star in the new film “Birth,” as “a legend.”
“She’s not a legend,” said Bacall, 79, who plays Kidman’s mother in the movie. “She’s a beginner. What is this ‘legend?’ She can’t be a legend at whatever age she is. She can’t be a legend; you have to be older.”
Web-slinger’s gal cuts the cord
Kirsten Dunst, already a seasoned actor at age 22, says she’s estranged from her mother, Inez, for pushing her into acting at age 3.
“I would never do this to my child — start them out as a child actor,” the “Spider-Man” co-star told Allure magazine. “Being a child is complicated enough, and then you add all this other stuff.
“My mom and I are going through a separation right now,” she added. “It’s all about each of us letting the other one go. It’s even more complicated than the normal mother-daughter stuff.”
They’re just small fish in a big school
Teen multimedia titans Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen begin studies this week at New York University, where they’re just two of 4,275 incoming members of the Class of 2008 (though presumably the only ones with their own brand of toothpaste).
Bret Nolan Collazzi, editor in chief of Washington Square News, the campus daily newspaper, said he’s heard of some twin spottings but added that the former “Full House” stars are hardly causing a stir.
“I guess it’s all part of the New York attitude of not gawking,” Collazzi said.
The birthday bunch
Movie director Brian De Palma is 64. Drummer Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead) is 61. Actor Scott Patterson (“Gilmore Girls”) is 46. Actress Kristy McNichol is 42. Actress Virginia Madsen (“American Dreams”) is 41. Actress Roxann Dawson (“Star Trek: Voyager”) is 40. Musician Moby is 39. Singer Harry Connick Jr. is 37. Rapper Ludacris is 27.