People: Eddie Murphy will receive Mark Twain humor prize
Eddie Murphy, famous for his standup routines, films and his early breakout on “Saturday Night Live,” will be awarded the nation’s top prize for humor this year by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, officials said Thursday.
Murphy, 54, will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Oct. 18 in a show that will be broadcast nationally. The humor prize honors those who influence society in the tradition of Samuel Clemens, the writer, satirist and social commentator better known as Mark Twain.
Through his work, Murphy “has shown that like Mark Twain, he was years ahead of his time,” Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said.
Hamm involved in violent 1990 hazing
“Mad Men” star Jon Hamm took part in a violent college hazing in 1990 at the University of Texas that led to criminal charges and to the fraternity chapter permanently disbanding, according to court and school records obtained Thursday.
The Emmy-nominated actor had not previously been publicly linked to a lawsuit filed by a Sigma Nu pledge who said he was severely beaten, dragged by a hammer and had his pants lit on fire. In the 1991 lawsuit, the pledge said Hamm participated “till the very end.”
Criminal records show Hamm, now 44, was charged with hazing and received probation. A separate charge of assault was dismissed.
Representatives for Hamm and “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
None of the records were sealed, but Hamm was not famous when the incident happened and his connection to the case didn’t come to light until Star magazine reported on it this week.
Four other fraternity members were charged and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor hazing charges. The Sigma Nu chapter was shut down and never reopened on campus.
Kim Kardashian visiting Armenia
American television star Kim Kardashian has arrived in the capital of her ancestral Armenia for a visit expected to draw attention to the centennial of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians.
Armenia formally marks the killings by Ottoman Turks on April 24. Armenia calls the killings a genocide, a view widely supported by scholars, but Turkey vehemently rejects the term, maintaining that the figure is inflated and that many people on both sides died.
Kardashian is expected to visit the vast complex in Yerevan, the capital, that commemorates the victims.
Kardashian’s ancestors emigrated to the United States in the late 19th century.
The birthday bunch
Actor Max von Sydow is 86. Actor Omar Sharif is 83. Actor Steven Seagal is 64. Singer-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is 57. Rock singer-musician Brian Setzer is 56. Singer Mandy Moore is 31. Actor Haley Joel Osment is 27.