People: So much for that big Whoopi to-do
When the government of one of the world’s poorest countries learned that Whoopi Goldberg had taken a DNA test showing her ancestors hailed from there, they saw it as an opportunity to burnish their reputations.
So leaders of the West African country of Guinea-Bissau wrote a letter that was hand-delivered to the U.S. Embassy.
It began: “Your Excellency Hoppy Goldberg, it is with great euphoria that the government of Guinea-Bissau … learned of your ancestral origins. … The news has awoken in each and every one of us a deep sense of fraternity.”
It ended with a simple request: Please come visit our country.
But Goldberg never got the letter, her rep says. And “due to the fact that she hosts a live daily radio show from New York and does not fly, it would not be possible for her to travel to West Africa in the foreseeable future.”
Goldberg took the test last year as part of a PBS special on prominent black Americans that also traced Oprah Winfrey‘s roots to Liberia.
Open-and-shut case
Singer R. Kelly missed a court appearance on child pornography charges this week after undergoing surgery for a burst appendix.
His lawyer said the 40-year-old R&B star had the operation Sunday and was still in the hospital at the time of Wednesday’s hearing.
Kelly is accused of enaging in videotaped sex acts with an underage girl.
A Spector spectacle?
The judge in the murder case against music producer Phil Spector says he’s leaning toward allowing the trial to be televised.
The 67-year-old Spector – famed for creating the “wall of sound” recording technique that revolutionized rock music – is charged with killing actress Lana Clarkson in his suburban L.A. mansion in 2003. Jury selection is scheduled to begin March 19.
One more idled
Another “American Idol” contestant has apparently run afoul of the show’s producers.
On Tuesday’s episode, viewers saw Dallas singer Akron Watson get the green light to go to Hollywood. But Watson, who was busted for marijuana possession in 2003 – which he says he told producers about – was later disinvited.
In previous seasons, contestant Corey Clark, who claimed to have a romantic relationship with judge Paula Abdul, was disqualified after producers learned he had been arrested for assaulting his 15-year-old sister, and semifinalist Frenchie Davis was packing for having posed topless for a Web site.
The insulted triumph, dog
While some “American Idol” contestants might fear judge Simon Cowell‘s criticism, Bucky Covington says he’s grateful for it.
“Because of him being mean, millions of people watch that show,” says Covington, last year’s eight-place finisher, whose debut album comes out April 17. “So I say ‘thank you’ for being mean. You turned on a lot of people to this show, and because of that a lot of great things happened to me.”
The birthday bunch
News correspondent Roger Mudd is 79. Singer Carole King is 65. Actor Joe Pesci is 64. Actress Mia Farrow is 62. Country singer Travis Tritt is 44. Actor David Gallagher (“Seventh Heaven”) is 22. Actress Camille Winbush (“The Bernie Mac Show”) is 17.