Top Story
Oprah Winfrey and actor James Earl Jones will lead a prayer service on Sunday at New York’s Yankee Stadium to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The two-hour service, called “A Prayer for America,” will start at 3 p.m. According to Reuters, singer/actress Bette Midler will sing “Wind Beneath My Wings,” while country singer Lee Greenwood will perform “God Bless America.” Tenor Placido Domingo, the Harlem Boys and Girls Choir and the Amor Artis Choir and Orchestra will also perform at the service.
Deaths
Master violinist Isaac Stern died Saturday of heart failure in a New York hospital, The Associated Press reports. Known as one of the greatest string players of his generation, Stern, 81, was president of Carnegie Hall for more than forty years, and worked to improve productions and programs.
In General
Paul McCartney is planning a concert to benefit New York City firefighters following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The former Beatle is now scouting venues for the concert, Reuters reports. McCartney said in a statement, “I also have a connection there, because my father was a fireman in Liverpool during World War II.”
Millions of dollars worth of art by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Joan Miro and Roy Lichtenstein was damaged or destroyed by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, AP reports. It is not yet known whether the works, reportedly worth about $10 million, are salvageable. Glimpses of Lichtenstein‘s 30-foot sculpture “Modern Head” have been seen on TV news clips covered with dust and debris.
The 39th edition of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s revered New York Film Festival kicks off Friday. The festival opens with Jacques Rivette‘s Va Savoir! and closes on Oct. 14 with Jean-Luc Godard‘s In Praise of Love. The festival will also feature work form Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, Japanese director Shohei Imamura and Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. According to filmlinc.com, most films will screen in the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Walter Reade Theater and the Avery Fisher Hall.
Miss Oregon Katie Harman was crowned Miss America 2002 Saturday in Atlantic City, AP reports. Harman, 21, was the first Oregon participant ever to win the pageant. A speech communications major at Portland State University, Harman promised to do what she can to help the nation recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The event was hosted by Tony Danza, who appealed to viewers for donations to the September 11th Fund, a charity set up in wake of the attack.
Yasmine Bleeth, who was arrested last Wednesday after police found syringes and cocaine inside the rental car she crashed into a highway median in Romulus, Mich., was reportedly on a 36-hour cocaine binge, according to PageSix.com. Bleeth was with boyfriend Paul Cerrito at the time, whom she met in the Malibu rehabilitation center, Promises. Vicki Cerrito, Paul’s mother, runs a strip club in Warren, Mich., called Jon-Jon’s.
