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CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who in 2003 revealed she was the biracial daughter of segregationist U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, died on Monday at age 87, her attorney said. Washington-Williams, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of natural causes at a care home in Columbia, South Carolina, said lawyer Frank Wheaton. Washington-Williams was born in 1925 to a black teenage girl who worked as a maid in Thurmond's parents' home when Thurmond was 22. ...
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VIENNA (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger credited his simple upbringing amid the lakes and hills of Austria for a recent conversion to fully fledged green activism, the latest stage in his varied career. The former body-builder, star of the "Terminator" action films and governor of California grew up in Thal, a small village in the Austrian province of Styria, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 21. "Growing up in my house, we knew about sustainability before it was hip. We called it 'necessity'," Schwarzenegger told an environmental conference he hosted in Vienna this week. ...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a court to find R&B singer Chris Brown in violation of his probation because they say community service records stemming from his 2009 assault on girlfriend Rihanna contain "significant discrepancies." Brown is scheduled to appear at a hearing on Wednesday in Los Angeles, at which time a judge could decide to revoke the "Don't Wake Me Up" singer's probation. But Brown's attorney, Mark Geragos, told Reuters the allegations are "scurrilous, libelous and defamatory." "The prosecution has lost their collective minds," Geragos said. ...
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Beyonce Knowles can't seem to leave the house without catching flak from somebody these days. First, the "Halo" singer was criticized last month for her less-than-live performance of the National Anthem at Barack Obama's inauguration. Now, Knowles has attracted the ire of animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for wearing leather during her halftime performance at Sunday's Super Bowl. ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan and her music entrepreneur husband, Emilio, are developing a new Broadway show based on their lives, the show's producer said on Tuesday. The couple is working with the Nederlander Organization on the show that will trace their lives from leaving Cuba to international stardom. "The Estefans' journey of success, led by raw talent and passion, is captivating as it drove them from relative obscurity to global sensations," Jimmy Nederlander, the organization's president, said in a statement announcing the deal. ...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Prosecutors charged a 12-year-old boy on Thursday with making a false emergency call that sent police swarming to the home of actor Ashton Kutcher in a "swatting" prank. The name of the boy, who was arrested by Los Angeles police in December, was withheld due to his age. He was scheduled to be arraigned in a juvenile court in Los Angeles on Friday. The trend toward placing false emergency calls is known as "swatting" because SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) officers often are sent to the purported crime scenes. ...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Grammy host LL Cool J called it a "death in our family" and it was he who suggested starting the Grammy Awards show last year with a prayer for Whitney Houston. Behind the scenes, Grammy Awards producers had worked all night to re-shape the music industry's biggest night just 24 hours after the drowning death of the troubled superstar in a Beverly Hills hotel. Producers and musicians tell the tale in a one-hour TV special "The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in the Family" to be broadcast on CBS on Saturday on the eve of this year's Grammy Awards ceremony. ...
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