O'Brien to Dartmouth grads: Failure is freeing (AP)

HANOVER, N.H. – Conan O'Brien, a Harvard alumnus, had some teasing criticism for another Ivy League school Sunday.

Speaking at Dartmouth's graduation, he joked that the school had an inferiority complex. Pointing to the section of tree trunk he was standing behind, he said, "You don't even think you deserve a real podium — it looks like you stole it from the set of `Survivor: Nova Scotia' or that a bear would use at an AA meeting."

The school gave O'Brien an honorary doctorate of arts. He praised the 1,700 graduates for earning their degrees, then boasted that "Dartmouth is giving me the same degree for interviewing the fourth lead in `Twilight.'"

O'Brien's run as host of NBC's "Tonight Show" was unexpectedly cut short last year amid sagging ratings and NBC's need to find a home for Jay Leno, whose stint in prime-time was a flop. On Sunday, O'Brien deemed failure as "a catalyst for invention."

"There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized," said O'Brien, now host of the late-night show "Conan" on TBS. "Whether you fear it or not, true disappointment will come but with disappointment comes clarity, conviction and true originality."

Speculating that some graduates' majors or career paths may have changed during their time at Dartmouth, he told them that "whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change and that's OK," said O'Brien. And with a characteristic poker face, he added, "For many of you, your sexual orientation has changed. For some of you it changed since I began my speech. I know mine has."

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Man fakes mugging to cover for failure to get Oprah tickets (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Hollywood Reporter) – A 44-year-old Canadian man says he concocted a lie that he was mugged so he wouldn't have to tell his wife that he had no tickets to Oprah Winfrey's final show.

Robert Spearing faces felony charges for telling police that two men roughed him up in Chicago and took the coveted tickets.

According to local reports, he later confessed to making up the story because he was afraid to tell his wife that they had traveled all the way to Chicago without tickets. He told police he faked his injuries by cutting his own forehead with a rock and scraping his hands on the sidewalk.

Spearing was charged with one count of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. He is due for another court hearing next Tuesday.

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

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Mummified Playboy Playmate died of heart failure (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A former Playboy Playmate whose mummified body was found in her dilapidated Beverly Hills home last month, died of heart failure, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

Yvette Vickers, a B-movie actress who was named Playboy's Miss July in 1959, was found dead at her home on April 27 after evidently being undiscovered for up to a year.

Joyce Kato, an investigator with the Los Angeles county coroner's department, told the Times she died of natural causes "due to arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease," or heart disease caused by a hardening of the arteries.

Several calls made to the coroner's office to confirm the report went unanswered on Saturday.

A neighbor found Vickers' body after her suspicions were aroused by old letters and cobwebs in the mailbox. The house was packed with boxes, and at least one window was broken. A space heater was running in the upstairs room where the body was lying on the floor

Vickers, born Yvette Vedder in Kansas City, Missouri, would have been 82 when her body was found. She was briefly married twice during the 1950s.

Her film credits include 1958's "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and 1959's "Attack of the Giant Leeches." Her last feature role was in a 1990 horror called "Evil Spirits."

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Peter Henderson)

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