Pop icon Michael Jackson and Canadian singer Leonard Cohen will headline a group of talent receiving lifetime achievement awards at the Grammys next month, organizers announced on Thursday.
The late King of Pop, a 13-time Grammy winner, and singer-songwriter Bobby Darin will be receiving the prestigious prize posthumously during a Los Angeles gala on Jan. 30, on the eve of the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Other awardees include classical pianist Andre Previn, country legend Loretta Lynn, jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and blues musician David “Honeyboy” Edwards.
“This year’s honorees are a prestigious group of diverse and prominent creators who have contributed some of the most distinguished and influential recordings,” Recording Academy president and
chief executive Neil Portnow said in
a statement.
“Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and
will continue to influence generations to come.”
Montreal-born Cohen, 75, will receive the Grammy nod in honor of a career spanning four decades during which he recorded 18 albums, including collaborations with Elton John, Neil Diamond, Iggy Pop and Willie Nelson. He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
Previn, also a conductor and composer, has won 10 Grammys for his work with some of the world’s most recognized orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. He also composed the operas A Streetcar Named Desire and Brief Encounter.
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor called on Friday for Pope Benedict to step down over a government report that said Church leaders covered up widespread sexual abuse of children for 30 years.
The Vatican issued a statement on Friday saying the pope felt “outrage, betrayal and shame” over the scandal and would write to the Irish people about sexual abuse.
But O’Connor, who once inflamed Catholic sensibilities by ripping up a picture of Benedict’s predecessor Pope John Paul II on live television, said in a letter published in a British newspaper earlier on Friday that the pope had remained silent on child abuse for
too long.
“I demand the Pope stand down for his contemptible silence on the matter and his acts of non-co-operation with the inquiry,” O’Connor wrote in a letter to the Independent newspaper.
“Popes have had no problem voicing their opinions when we wanted contraception or divorce,” O’Connor said. “No problem criticizing The Da Vinci Code. No problem criticizing Naomi Campbell for wearing a bejeweled cross.
“Yet when it comes to the evils done by pedophiles dressed as priests they are silent. It is grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented. They stand for nothing now but evil.”
Pop legend Elton John is selling off thousands of articles of his clothing, including outrageous outfits from his concerts, in a London shop as part of a charity fund-raiser.
John, and his partner David Furnish, officially inaugurated the shop at Covent Garden in the heart of the capital at a ceremony Friday evening, in an event they are calling “Out of the Closet.”
Proceeds of the sale, the fifth he has organized, will go towards the singer’s AIDS charity.
“We always get a fantastic response from the public,” said John.
“I think the idea that the items we all buy and enjoy can help someone in dire need, particularly at this time of year, really strikes a chord.”
Shoppers will be able to buy some of the costumes he has used in the course of his musical career, such as pairs of the singer’s sky-high platform shoes and the out-sized spectacles.
Prices range from US$16 to US$3,252 and the items were made by designers such as Versace and Prada.
A court on Friday threw out a bid to suspend the medical licenses of two doctors accused of illegally supplying late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith with powerful drugs.
Los Angeles judge David Wesley denied a motion from the California Attorney General’s office to curtail the work of doctors Khristine Eroshevich, 62, and Sandeep Kapoor, 41.
The two doctors are charged along with Smith’s longtime companion and attorney, Howard Stern, with conspiracy and other counts stemming from her death from an accidental drug overdose in February 2007.
The judge noted that there had been “years of investigation” and said it had been eight months since the doctors were charged.
“I don’t see the ... urgency,” Wesley added, saying it would be a “very drastic step.”
Stern, Eroshevich and Kapoor are accused of conspiring to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to Smith from 2004 until her death at the age of 39 in a Florida hotel room.
Eroshevich and Kapoor each face six felony counts, including unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance, prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.
Stern is charged with 11 felony counts, including prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict, obtaining a prescription for opiates by deceit, fraud or misrepresentation and conspiracy to commit a crime.
All three accused have strenuously denied the allegations.
They will next appear in court on Feb. 5.
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