The soulful singer Janiva Magness won entertainer of the year at the 2009 Blues Music Awards in Memphis.
The Michigan native also won best contemporary female artist at Thursday’s show.
Buddy Guy won three awards: contemporary blues album, contemporary male artist and album of the year for Skin Deep. Blues legend B.B. King took home two honors: traditional male artist and best traditional blues album for One Kind Favor. Eden Brent won acoustic artist of the year and best acoustic album for Mississippi Number One. Kenny Neal won song of the year for Let Life Flow.
Actress Mia Farrow, ailing after almost two weeks on a hunger strike, announced on Friday that British billionaire Richard Branson would take over her protest in solidarity with people in Sudan’s Darfur region. A spokesman for Farrow said her health had deteriorated in the past few days and her doctor requested that she end the liquids-only fast she began 12 days ago to protest at Khartoum’s expulsion of more than a dozen aid agencies from Darfur.
Perhaps she could take a lesson from British actor Christian Bale, whose powers of persuasion are legendary. He forced a rewrite of upcoming action movie Terminator Salvation, because his star had grown too big for the small role of John Connor he chose, the filmmakers said on Friday. Director McG, whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, said he had the disconcerting experience of going to England to convince Bale to play central character Marcus Wright in the man versus machines film, only to have Bale tell the director he wanted to play Connor instead.
Fugitive film director Roman Polanski failed to persuade a Los Angeles judge on Thursday to formally reject an attempt to have a 1978 sex case against him dismissed because of misconduct by prosecutors. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza said he could not consider the case unless Polanski, who fled the US for France after pleading guilty to rape, showed up in his court.
A civil jury says Snoop Dogg didn’t hit a man who came up
on stage during a 2005 concert near Seattle.
The rapper wasn’t in court Friday when the jury’s verdict cleared him of civil assault and battery claims. The jury did find that Richard Monroe Jr suffered serious injuries during the concert and awarded him US$449,400 in damages to be paid by a record label, another performer and others involved in the concert.
The damages awarded were substantially lower than the US$22 million Monroe sought when he sued the rapper in 2006.
Jurors found that Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, doesn’t personally owe Monroe anything.
During two weeks of testimony, jurors were repeatedly shown a video of a melee that Monroe said left him unconscious, badly bruised and nearly naked.
Monroe’s attorney, Brian Watkins, said jurors did believe his client’s contention that Snoop Dogg’s people were involved in a savage beating.
“We’re very pleased that the jury found that this incident was not something to be taken lightly,’’ Watkins said.
Responsibility for paying the judgment falls on Doggystyle Records, which Snoop Dogg founded; rapper Soopafly, whose real name is Priest Brooks; and other unnamed parties.
While Snoop Dogg was not present for the verdict, he attended part of the trial and testified, denying that he struck Monroe.
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