Top Story
Nell Carter, best known for her ’80s sitcom Gimme a Break! as well as her illustrious stage career, died Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 54. The singer-actress, who suffered from diabetes, collapsed in her home and was found by one of her 13-year-old sons, spokesman Roger Lane told The Associated Press. Carter had also undergone brain surgery in 1992 to remove an aneurysm. Although most know Carter from her long-running TV series that ran from 1981-1987, Carter‘s first love was the stage, where she won a Tony for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ in 1978. Before her death, Carter was in rehearsals for a musical version of Raisin in the Sun called Raisin, scheduled to open next month in Long Beach, Calif.
Celebs
Following in the footsteps of celebrity ex-couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, Entertainment Weekly.com reports new parents Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have filed a similar $15 million lawsuit against the cosmetics company Sephora for allegedly using their likenesses without consent for a Valentine’s Day ad promotion in 2001 that featured several celebrity couples. The complaint states the couple wasn’t even aware of the unauthorized use of their images until Kidman and Cruise filed their suit against Sephora last September.
Nicolas Cage‘s former security guard was convicted of stealing a $45,000 watch and two cases of rare Scotch from the actor, according to the TV show Celebrity Justice. The watch and all but one bottle were returned.
People.com reports actor Taye Diggs, 32, tied the knot Jan. 11 with longtime girlfriend, actress-singer Idina Menzel, 31, at the Round Hill resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It is the first marriage for both.
Movies
The Berlin International Film Festival announced their lineup Wednesday. The 22 films include the Chinese-German co-production Mang Jing (Blind Shaft) and Michael Winterbottom‘s In This World. Entries will compete for the festival’s coveted Golden Bear award. The festival runs Feb. 6-16.
MGM and DreamWorks are coming together to do a remake of the 1968 comedy The Party, with Jay Roach (Austin Powers In Goldmember) set to direct. The original movie starred Peter Sellers about an accident-prone Indian actor who is mistakenly invited to an A-list Hollywood party and destroys everything in sight.
Variety reports Miramax Films acquired the distribution rights for the indie film The Station Agent, currently making a splash at the Sundance Film Festival. Peter Dinklage plays a dwarf who chooses a life of isolation and spends his time pursuing his passion for trains, but becomes drawn into the lives of two other loners played by Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is set to star in a remake of Walking Tall for MGM. The original 1973 story followed Buford Pusser (played by Joe Don Baker), a sheriff who rids his small Southern county of corruption mostly by using a two-by-four. The updated version will have The Rock returning from serving in the military to find his small town corrupted by drugs and violence. And yes, he’ll also be using a formidable two-by-four to make his point.
Tube
Wheel of Fortune‘s likable host Pat Sajak is getting his own talk show. Called Pat Sajak Weekend, it’ll premiere on the Fox News Channel starting in the spring, AP reports. “I enjoy exercising my interviewing muscles and I look forward to having the chance to do that every weekend,” Sajak said in a statement.
Music
The soundtrack to the new hit musical Chicago sailed to No. 4 on the album charts in its first week of release, breaking up the otherwise monotonous record sales so far this season. Chicago sold 83,000 units for the week ending Sunday, according to data issued by Nielsen Soundscan on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
