Diamond, Streep among 5 honored by Kennedy Center (AP)

WASHINGTON – The good times never seemed so good for Neil Diamond.

Known for his songs that have become anthems at ballparks and bars, Diamond was chosen Wednesday to receive the Kennedy Center Honors this year along with some of the biggest names from Broadway, jazz, classical music and Hollywood.

Diamond will be honored with Broadway singer Barbara Cook, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, saxophonist Sonny Rollins and actress Meryl Streep for their contributions to American culture through the arts. President Barack Obama will salute the artists and others will perform in their honor at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 4. CBS will broadcast the show Dec. 27.

Diamond said he was "flying way above sea level" when heard about the honor.

"I've watched, and I've seen, and I've even dreamed that someday that would happen to me," he told The Associated Press. "But I never really believed that it would."

Diamond said he used to get distracted when people sang along with him to hits like "Sweet Caroline," which was written for presidential daughter Caroline Kennedy who hosts the show.

"But I realized pretty quickly that it was a compliment, and I had no choice in the matter anyway, so I got with the program and just learned to love it," said Diamond, who earlier this year was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He said he's planning another U.S. tour next summer after performing abroad recently.

The 70-year-old Diamond also tweeted Wednesday that he was engaged to a woman named Katie — but wouldn't tell AP who she was so that she wouldn't "change her mind."

Streep, 62, has made more than 45 movies and has won two Oscars in a career that spans from Shakespeare to ABBA with the movie "Mamma Mia!" Some of her biggest hits have come in recent years with "The Devil Wears Prada," "Julie & Julia" and "It's Complicated." In the upcoming biopic "The Iron Lady," Streep will play British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The actress said she is deeply honored by the Kennedy Center's nod and wishes her parents were alive to see it.

"All that education, allowance, tuition, voice lessons, summer jobs, scholarship application deadlines and loving care and discipline — all that they gave me, bore fruit in a way they never dreamed," she said in a statement.

George Stevens Jr., who created the honors and produces the show with his son Michael Stevens, said each of this year's honorees is the best at what they do. The heart of the show, he said, is exploring their lives through filmed tributes.

Ma is one of the best-known classical musicians, playing the cello since he was 4. He played for six U.S. presidents, including President John F. Kennedy and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at age 7 at a fundraiser to build a national cultural center that would later become the Kennedy Center. In 2009, he played at Obama's inauguration and last year was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The 55-year-old said he feels too young to be receiving such an award for lifetime achievements.

The son of Chinese parents who lived in Paris and moved to New York said some of his musical heroes have won the Kennedy Center Honors, including Mstislav Rostropovich and Leon Fleisher, so he was stunned to be joining their ranks. He said the honors are an important moment to nurture the arts each year.

"The whole nation gets together to celebrate essentially the accomplishments of the human spirit," he told AP, adding that society needs political, economic and cultural engines to succeed.

"The cultural part encompasses the arts and sciences," he said. "That's the seed for actual creativity."

Rollins, who turned 81 on Wednesday, has shared the stage with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, among others. He is one of the last surviving giants of jazz from the golden era of the late 1940s to the early 1960s.

"I definitely feel that this award is not so much for me as it is for some of the great, great jazz artists that preceded me," he said. "I'm very happy that it's an honor for jazz because I think jazz is such an important spiritual force all over the world."

As a lifelong New Yorker, Rollins would practice for hours at night on the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Manhattan and Brooklyn. He could "play as loud as I want" and avoid disturbing his neighbors.

Cook, 83, made her Broadway debut in 1951 and later was cast in Leonard Bernstein's musical version of Voltaire's "Candide," which she considers the most difficult thing she's ever sang, and Meredith Wilson's 1957 hit musical "The Music Man," for which she won a Tony.

The Beatles later recorded the song she made popular, "Till There Was You." She returned to Broadway last year for "Sondheim on Sondheim" after spending years on her own concerts and solo albums.

Cook said she cried when she received the letter informing her of the Kennedy Center Honors.

"It's a kind of validation for me, for my whole life," she said. "Because when I sing, I put my whole life, the good part, the bad part, I put that into my work."

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Kutcher, Vergara, Arnett among Emmy presenters (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Some of TV's top stars aren't just nominated for Emmy Awards; they're going to help present them.

The television academy says Emmy nominees Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Sofia Vergara and Julianna Margulies will help hand out awards at the Sept. 18 ceremony.

Poehler is a double nominee, as lead actress and producer of the comedy series "Parks and Recreation." Her husband, Arnett, is up for guest actor in a comedy for "30 Rock." Vergara is nominated for supporting actress in a comedy for "Modern Family," and Margulies is up again for an award she won last year: Lead actress in a drama series for "The Good Wife."

New "Two and a Half Men" star Ashton Kutcher and Zooey Deschanel, star of the new series "New Girl," will also present Emmys.

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Nancy Grace, Chaz Bono among "Dancing" cast (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Legal commentator Nancy Grace, Cher's daughter Chaz Bono and basketball player Ron Artest are among the celebrities taking part in the new season of "Dancing with the Stars," the network behind the show said on Monday.

The show on ABC pairs celebrities with professional dancers and makes the couples compete for support from a panel of judges and viewers at home.

Grace is a tough talking legal commentator on the CNN cable spinoff HLN, who generated controversy this year for saying "the devil is dancing" after the acquittal of Casey Anthony in Florida on charges of murdering her 2 year-old daughter.

But Grace will be doing her own dance on the show, alongside a cast list that includes former talk show host Ricki Lake, Los Angeles Lakers player Ron Artest and Chaz Bono.

Chaz Bono is the only child of singers Cher and Sonny Bono who recently underwent a female-to-male sex change which was chronicled in the TV documentary "Finding Chaz".

Another child of celebrity participating this year is singer and actress Chynna Phillips, who is the daughter of the John and Michelle Phillips from 1960s group The Mamas and the Papas, ABC said.

The other celebrities putting on their dance shoes this season will include actor David Arquette, who is the former husband of Courteney Cox, and style expert Carson Kressley.

Rounding out the list is Iraq war veteran and actor J.R. Martinez; George Clooney's ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis; former "The Hills" cast member Kristin Cavallari; Rob Kardashian, 24, the brother of reality TV stars Kim, Kourtney and Khloe; and soccer player Hope Solo.

The "Dancing with the Stars" celebrity cast was officially announced on Monday evening during the ABC reality show "Bachelor Pad." The new season begins on September 19.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Amy Winehouse among musical talents gone too soon (AP)

NEW YORK – Amy Winehouse released only two albums in her life, one of which sold more than a million copies, won five Grammys and sparked a retro soul movement that hasn't yet stopped.

The small output, in inverse relation to her outsized talent, made her death Saturday in London all the more tragic. Fans will only be able to imagine the unrecorded singles, the never-to-be concerts and the comeback album that didn't come.

It's a sadly familiar script in pop music, the history of which is checkered with greats and would-be greats snuffed out too early in life.

Almost as soon as news of Winehouse's death broke and spread across social media, fans were inducting her into the unfortunate pantheon of music talents gone too soon. Many noted that Winehouse, 27, shared the same age at death as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison.

The British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, though, realized that a meaningful commonality was being mistaken for coincidence.

"It's not age that Hendrix, Jones, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain & Amy have in common," wrote Bragg on Twitter. "It's drug abuse, sadly."

Those names were touted on the Web as the 27 Club, a ghoulish glamourizing of rock star death that makes it sound as though even in death VIPs remain behind a seductive velvet rope.

It's a term, sometimes called the Forever 27 Club, that has spawned a Wikipedia entry, an independent 2008 movie ("The 27 Club"), numerous websites and at least one book ("The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll").

The causes of death vary. Jones, the Rolling Stones guitarist, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in 1969 and was ruled dead "by misadventure." Hendrix, having mixed sleeping pills and wine, died in 1970 in a London hotel room. Joplin, also in 1970, died at Los Angeles' Landmark Hotel, with heroin the culprit. Morrison died of heart failure in 1971 in the bathtub of his Paris apartment. Cobain killed himself in 1994.

Some have claimed Cobain was aware of the so-called 27 Club. After his death, his mother, Wendy O'Connor, was understandably fed up with the concept, saying: "I told him not to join that stupid club."

The cause of Winehouse's death is not yet known. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

She long struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. Last month, she canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. She flew home, and her management said she would take time off to recover.

What's particular about Winehouse's style of rock 'n' roll excess is that it was chronicled thoroughly by the tabloids and news media and was eagerly consumed by readers.

High-quality photographs captured her poor health, the scabs on her face and marks on her arms. Videos of her landed on the Internet, like one that showed her and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty playing with newborn mice. Another showed her singing a racist ditty to the tune of a children's song. One, published by a tabloid newspaper, appeared to show her smoking crack cocaine.

Her run-ins with the law — she was cautioned by the police in 2008 for assault and in 2010 pleaded guilty to assaulting a theater manager who asked her to leave a family Christmas show because she'd had too much to drink — found headlines. So did her romances, such as her brief marriage in 2007 to music industry hanger-on Blake Fielder-Civil.

Rarely, though, were Winehouse's troubles romantic or appealing. Though a thoroughly captivating presence — all beehive and tattoos and candor — Winehouse always cut a desperate figure. Her struggles with substances and bipolar disorder (she said she declined to take medication for it) were painfully evident.

In death, her famous boast of "no, no, no" to rehab only sounds empty. The hard truths of addiction don't fit neatly into pop tunes — or morbid 27 Clubs — but play out over years of toil.

Early death typically mythologizes pop stars, inflating their reputation. Pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman, in his book "Killing Yourself to Live," wondered why "the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing."

The posthumous releases from Winehouse will surely follow, and her legacy will grow. But hopefully mythologizing will be resisted.

Winehouse's death, an unfortunate but unsurprising end to a long, public decline, might be best remembered not just as another tragic loss but as a modern portrait of how untrue those rock myths really are.

Yahoo! News

Winehouse among music talents gone too soon (AP)

NEW YORK – Amy Winehouse released only two albums in her life, one of which sold more than a million copies, won five Grammys and sparked a retro soul movement that hasn't yet stopped.

The small output, in inverse relation to her outsized talent, made her death Saturday in London all the more tragic. Fans will only be able to imagine the unrecorded singles, the never-to-be concerts and the comeback album that didn't come.

It's a sadly familiar script in pop music, the history of which is checkered with greats and would-be greats snuffed out too early in life.

Almost as soon as news of Winehouse's death broke and spread across social media, fans were inducting her into the unfortunate pantheon of music talents gone too soon. Many noted that Winehouse, 27, shared the same age at death as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison.

The British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, though, realized that a meaningful commonality was being mistaken for coincidence.

"It's not age that Hendrix, Jones, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain & Amy have in common," wrote Bragg on Twitter. "It's drug abuse, sadly."

Those names were touted on the Web as the 27 Club, a ghoulish glamourizing of rock star death that makes it sound as though even in death VIPs remain behind a seductive velvet rope.

It's a term, sometimes called the Forever 27 Club, that has spawned a Wikipedia entry, an independent 2008 movie ("The 27 Club"), numerous websites and at least one book ("The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll").

The causes of death vary. Jones, the Rolling Stones guitarist, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in 1969 and was ruled dead "by misadventure." Hendrix, having mixed sleeping pills and wine, died in 1970 in a London hotel room. Joplin, also in 1970, died in her Porsche in Los Angeles, with heroin suspected as the culprit. Morrison died of heart failure in 1971 in the bathtub of his Paris apartment. Cobain killed himself in 1994.

Some have claimed Cobain was aware of the so-called 27 Club. After his death, his mother, Wendy O'Connor, was understandably fed up with the concept, saying: "I told him not to join that stupid club."

The cause of Winehouse's death is not yet known. She long struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. Last month, she canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. She flew home, and her management said she would take time off to recover.

What's particular about Winehouse's style of rock 'n' roll excess is that it was chronicled thoroughly by the tabloids and news media and was eagerly consumed by readers.

High-quality photographs captured her poor health, the scabs on her face and marks on her arms. Videos of her landed on the Internet, like one that showed her and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty playing with newborn mice. Another showed her singing a racist ditty to the tune of a children's song. One, published by a tabloid newspaper, appeared to show her smoking crack cocaine.

Her run-ins with the law — she was cautioned by the police in 2008 for assault and in 2010 pleaded guilty to assaulting a theater manager who asked her to leave a family Christmas show because she'd had too much to drink — found headlines. So did her romances, such as her brief marriage in 2007 to music industry hanger-on Blake Fielder-Civil.

Rarely, though, were Winehouse's troubles romantic or appealing. Though a thoroughly captivating presence — all beehive and tattoos and candor — Winehouse always cut a desperate figure. Her struggles with substances and bipolar disorder (she said she declined to take medication for it) were painfully evident.

In death, her famous boast of "no, no, no" to rehab only sounds empty. The hard truths of addiction don't fit neatly into pop tunes — or morbid 27 Clubs — but play out over years of toil.

Early death typically mythologizes pop stars, inflating their reputation. Pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman, in his book "Killing Yourself to Live," wondered why "the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing."

The posthumous releases from Winehouse will surely follow, and her legacy will grow. But hopefully mythologizing will be resisted.

Winehouse's death, an unfortunate but unsurprising end to a long, public decline, might be best remembered not just as another tragic loss but as a modern portrait of how untrue those rock myths really are.

Yahoo! News

Garth Brooks among 2011 Songwriters Hall inductees (AP)

NEW YORK – The Songwriters Hall of Fame has honored the likes of Garth Brooks, Leon Russell and Allen Toussaint at its annual gala in New York City.

Amid the famous faces, some of Thursday night's inductees weren't so familiar — that is, until you heard the songs they penned.

Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly might be able to walk the streets in anonymity, but they've written some famously catchy hits, including Madonna's "Like a Virgin," Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," Whitney Houston's "So Emotional," and The Pretenders "I'll Stand By You."

"It was pretty risque at the time," Kelly said of the Madonna song. "It took us about a month to finally, accidentally fall into what it ended up."

John Bettis, who wrote Madonna's hit, "Crazy For You," along with hit songs for the Carpenters, Diana Ross, and The Pointer Sisters, was another inductee. He wrote "Human Nature" for Michael Jackson, which Skylar Grey performed at the event.

Bill Medley, of The Righteous Brothers fame, was there to present Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil with the Johnny Mercer Award. The married duo wrote the mega-hit, "You Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."

"We were just lucky that they wrote that song for us," Medley said.

The song has had more than 14 million airplays, and still going strong.

As for the show, artists joined inductees on stage. Key performances included Dwight Yoakam performing "Superstar" with Russell; Boz Scaggs and Toussaint doing "What Do you Want the Girl to Do"; and Trisha Yearwood doing a Hal David Medley.

Chaka Khan sang Ashford and Simpson's "I'm Every Woman," and rapper Drake performed his hit, "Best I Ever Had."

Billy Joel inducted Brooks, and later performed a duet of Brooks 1991 hit, "Shameless," which was written by Joel. Brooks was ecstatic.

"You talk about songwriters, there's one of the greatest songwriters of all time," Brooks said of Joel. And he's taken a day out of his life to do this, I feel very lucky."

Joel loves the idea of other artist recording his material, but claims he never intended to be a rock star.

"I don't even like my own voice, I don't. I don't think I'm a good singer. I think I'm a good songwriter," Joel said.

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Shakira: Chavez's guitar among 6 signed in Caracas (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia – The Colombian singer Shakira says she learned after the fact that one of six guitars she signed at a concert in Venezuela made its way to President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez had thanked Shakira for the red guitar over the weekend, suggesting he believed it was a gift.

But Shakira's press office says in a statement that during her March concert, the artist "signed 6 guitars at the request of the event's organizers." It added she learned Monday that "one of them was sent to the President's office."

Shakira's office says it hopes "acts like this contribute to continue uniting the citizens" of Colombia and Venezuela.

Information Minister Andres Izarra had said the guitar had been sent by "the people who organized her concert."

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Shakira: Chavez's guitar among 6 signed in Caracas (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia – The Colombian singer Shakira says she learned after the fact that one of six guitars she signed at a concert in Venezuela made its way to President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez had thanked Shakira for the red guitar over the weekend, suggesting he believed it was a gift.

But Shakira's press office says in a statement that during her March concert, the artist "signed 6 guitars at the request of the event's organizers." It added she learned Monday that "one of them was sent to the President's office."

Shakira's office says it hopes "acts like this contribute to continue uniting the citizens" of Colombia and Venezuela.

Information Minister Andres Izarra had said the guitar had been sent by "the people who organized her concert."

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Lady A, Aldean among first CMT Awards performers (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Country star Jason Aldean is not only the top nominee at this year's CMT Music Awards, he'll also be performing.

Fellow nominees Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland are also among the first performers announced for the show.

This marks the 10th anniversary of the fan-voted awards show. It will air live on Wednesday, June 8, from Nashville. Until then, fans can pick their favorites on CMT.com through June 7.

Aldean has four nominations, including a nod for video of the year. Lady A, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland have three nominations each and are competing against Aldean for the top prize. Urban is up for two awards, including male video of the year and CMT performance of the year.

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Online:

http://www.cmt.com

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Lady A, Aldean among first CMT Awards performers (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Country star Jason Aldean is not only the top nominee at this year's CMT Music Awards, he'll also be performing.

Fellow nominees Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland are also among the first performers announced for the show.

This marks the 10th anniversary of the fan-voted awards show. It will air live on Wednesday, June 8, from Nashville. Until then, fans can pick their favorites on CMT.com through June 7.

Aldean has four nominations, including a nod for video of the year. Lady A, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland have three nominations each and are competing against Aldean for the top prize. Urban is up for two awards, including male video of the year and CMT performance of the year.

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Online:

http://www.cmt.com

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Ricky Martin Among Top Winners at 2011 GLAAD Media Awards

Ricky Martin's interview with Oprah last year -- during which he talked about coming out of the closet to set an example for his twin sons about the importance of telling the truth -- helped earn him two big honors at the 22nd annual GLAAD Media Awards.

The prizes were presented in 25 categories by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on Saturday, during a ceremony in New York City hosted by Bravo's Andy Cohen.

Martin won the Vito Russo Award, named for the late GLAAD co-founder, and bestowed on high-profile members of the LGBT community for contributions in combating homophobia. The singer, 39, was also cited for Outstanding Talk Show Episode for his appearance on Oprah's daytime series.

"Ricky coming out was a game changer for many gay and transgender Latino children, who for too long, did not have many out gay people to look up to," GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios said.

Russell Simmons won the Excellence in Media Award; among his contributions to LGBT rights, the hip-hop mogul wrote an open letter to the U.S. Senate urging the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and implored New York's governor to keep supporting marriage equality.
TV shows that won accolades included '30 Rock' (praised for 'Outstanding Episode' in a series without a regular LGBT character), 'True Blood' (named 'Outstanding Drama Series') and 'Anderson Cooper 360' (winner of 'Outstanding TV Journalist-Newsmagazine,' for its series 'Gay Teen Suicides).

There are 32 categories in all, and the remainder of the prizes will be awarded in ceremonies later this spring in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

For her guest role on 'Glee,' and her outspoken support of Sean Hayes (whose ability to succeed in a heterosexual role was doubted by a Newsweek columnist in 2010), Kristin Chenoweth will receive the Vanguard Award in May. The prize is for media stars who demonstrate tolerance and increase understanding of the gay community; past winners include Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, Charlize Theron, Antonio Banderas, Eric McCormack, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli and Kathy Griffin.


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