Sharing ‘47 percent’ right for bartender
The bartender working the private fundraiser where Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made his comments about “47 percent” of Americans said he didn’t make the secret recording as a political partisan.
In his first public interview, Scott Prouty told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz that he lost sleep and struggled for weeks before deciding to release the recording to the magazine Mother Jones. But Prouty said he thought it was important that people heard Romney and knew what he was really thinking.
In the video, Romney tells donors paying $50,000 apiece that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government, see themselves as victims and believe the government has a responsibility to care for them. Romney’s critics used the video to argue that he was out of touch with average Americans.
Exhaustion puts Asner in hospital
Actor Ed Asner, who has been touring the country performing a one-man show for more than three years, has been hospitalized with exhaustion, according to his publicist, Charles Sherman.
Sherman told the Associated Press that the 83-year-old Asner was taken off stage at the Marquette Pavilion in Gary, Ind., on Tuesday night. Asner was taken by ambulance to a Chicago-area hospital where he was “resting comfortably” and was expected to be released later Wednesday, according to Sherman.
He said the actor, best known for his roles in TV’s “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spinoff “Lou Grant,” has been touring the nation portraying President Franklin D. Roosevelt in “FDR” for 3 1/2 years.
‘Moonshiners’ star is arrested
A star of the Discovery Channel show “Moonshiners” has been arrested for public intoxication. Police in Danville, Va., announced Tuesday they had arrested Steven Ray Tickle – known on the show by his surname – at a convenience store on March 7.
Police said they received a report of a man sitting in the parking lot of Charley’s Stop and Shop drinking, and they saw Tickle with an open container and smelling of alcohol. The 35-year-old Tickle was released from the Danville City Jail later that day.
“Moonshiners” follows people making the illegal brew. The show’s website describes Tickle as “a hard working still hand who loves moonshine.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Michael Caine is 80. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 80. Movie director Wolfgang Petersen is 72. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 68. Comedian Billy Crystal is 65. Actress Grace Park is 39. Singer-musician Taylor Hanson (Hanson) is 30. Actor Jamie Bell is 27.