So does this defeat put Ken’s career in jeopardy?
Maybe Ken Jennings isn’t so tough after all. The “Jeopardy!” brainiac met his match this week, losing a three-day tournament of champions – and the $2 million top prize – to Brad Rutter of Lancaster, Pa.
Rutter was hardly intimidated by Jennings’ record 74-game winning streak last year. He beat Jennings in all three individual games, and his final total of $62,000 easily eclipsed Jennings’ $34,599.
A former record store clerk, Rutter won more than $1 million on “Jeopardy!” in 2002 and whipped several other former champions to earn the right to face Jennings. He is host of his own local quiz show in Pennsylvania.
Knowing he was about to lose, Jennings wrote “Go Brad” as part of his final answer in the game televised Wednesday.
The defeat could bruise the Utah resident’s mystique, especially since he is trying to turn his trivia prowess into a career – with his own board game, book and Comedy Central game show in the works.
Garth goes for the gold
Garth Brooks stole the show Wednesday night at the “Legends in Bronze” country music extravaganza when he got down on one knee in front of 7,000 fans and proposed to fellow country star Trisha Yearwood.
She said yes, and the crowd went wild.
Ten larger-than-life bronze statues honoring country stars were unveiled during the event at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, Calif., including one of Brooks.
They’re not affair-weather friends
Angelina Jolie says in a new interview that she “thinks the world” of Brad Pitt – but never slept with him.
“We got on great,” Jolie says of her “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” co-star in the July issue of Marie Claire.
However, she adds: “To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not, could not look at myself in the morning if I did that.”
Pitt, 41, separated from Jennifer Aniston in January after 4 1/2 years of marriage. When photos surfaced of him walking on a beach in Africa with Jolie and her 4-year-old son, the tabloids took it as proof of a romance.
Well, at least he showed
Comedian Dave Chappelle, who abruptly left filming for Comedy Central’s “The Chapelle Show” last month and flew off for a spiritual retreat in South Africa, has been spotted back in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio.
But a Chappelle spokesman declined to speculate on when he might return to the show, and Comedy Central still says it doesn’t expect new episodes this season.
It was just a word-robe malfunction
Motley Crue is suing NBC for banning the group from all of the network’s shows because frontman Vince Neil used an obscenity on the live New Year’s Eve broadcast of the “Tonight Show.”
The suit accuses NBC of violating the band’s free-speech rights and hurting its record sales.
“We have a right to be treated in the same way as other artists who have made the same mistake,” bassist Nikki Sixx said.
The birthday bunch
Actor Christopher Lee is 83. Musician Ramsey Lewis is 70. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. is 69. Actor Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”) is 50. Singer Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxsie and the Banshees) is 48. Actress Peri Gilpin (“Frasier”) is 44. Actor Todd Bridges (“Diff’rent Strokes”) is 40. Actor Paul Bettany (“A Beautiful Mind”) is 34. Rapper Andre 3000 (OutKast) 31. Rapper Jadakiss is 30. Actor Ethan Dampf (“American Dreams”) is 11.