People: Obama to honor Field, King, others
Actress Sally Field and author Stephen King are among luminaries set to receive a National Medal of Arts or a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.
Obama will bestow the honors on 18 people and three institutions during a White House ceremony Thursday.
Field, of Los Angeles, is receiving an arts medal for showing dignity, empathy and fearlessness in performances that have touched audiences worldwide, as well as for showing those same qualities in her off-screen advocacy for women, LGBT rights and public health.
King, of Bangor, Maine, is also receiving an arts medal for combining storytelling with analysis of human nature, and for thrilling readers through decades of work.
The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities were created by Congress in 1965 to provide grants to support artistic excellence and creativity, and to advance the understanding and appreciation of history, literature, philosophy and language. Both independent agencies are celebrating their 50th anniversaries this year.
O’Donnell drops no-contact order
A request from Rosie O’Donnell’s teenage daughter to lift a no-contact order with the man accused of sending her obscene images was granted Friday by a New Jersey judge.
The judge agreed to lift the order barring contact between Chelsea O’Donnell and 25-year-old Steven Sheerer, according to a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Chelsea O’Donnell was 17 when Sheerer was arrested last month; she now is 18.
Superior Court Judge Wendel Daniels, in Toms River, also reduced Sheerer’s bail to $10,000 with an option to pay 10 percent. It was previously set at $40,000 with no 10 percent option.
Sheerer’s attorney Robert Tarver said in a telephone interview Friday that the relationship between Sheerer and Chelsea O’Donnell was consensual and began on the dating website Tinder where she identified herself as 19. Tarver said his client did not know she was 17 until after the images were sent.
“She came to me on her own,” Tarver said in reference to Chelsea O’Donnell’s request that the judge lift the order. “She wants to make things right.”
Tarver said Sheerer has pleaded not guilty.
Sheerer was arrested at his Barnegat home and is accused of having inappropriate online communications with Chelsea O’Donnell.
The birthday bunch
Comedian JoAnne Worley is 80. Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 72. Actress Swoosie Kurtz is 71. Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 57. Actress Rosie Perez is 51. Rhythm and blues singer Macy Gray is 48. Rock singer Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries) is 44. Actor Idris Elba is 43. Rapper Foxy Brown is 37.