Top Stories
Country singer Martina McBride says she will donate proceeds from the first month’s sales of her new album Greatest Hits to the American Red Cross. The Associated Press reports. The 35-year-old singer said she felt it was her duty as an American to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Secretary of State Colin Powell’s daughter has bowed out of the London production of Jitney because of security concerns, according to Reuters. Linda Powell was set to star in the play starting in October but decided and stay in the United States to be closer to her family. Jitney won several awards in New York where it ran for 18 months.
In a bid to air more appropriate shows following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, many TV stations are trying to obtain documentaries on terrorism. According to Variety, Paris production company Tele-Images has sold multiple documentaries, including Shaheed–What Makes a Suicide Bomber? and Mikdad: A Terrorist Account to numerous television stations in the United States, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Canada.
In General
Ex-Survivor Michael Skupin was forced to make a crash landing along the Lake Michigan shoreline Sunday, after his twin engine plane suffered engine failure. According to the AP, Skupin, his pregnant wife and their 3-year-old daughter had been on Mackinac Island for a Republican conference and were on their way to Detroit when they hit heavy rain and fog, keeping then from landing. No one was seriously hurt.
A contestant on the British Who Wants to be a Millionaire is denying acting as an accomplice fellow contestant Charles Ingram by coughing, Reuters reports. Tecwen Whittock admits that while he did cough, it was not a secret signal to influence Ingram’s answers. Celador Productions, the show’s producers, have withheld the prize while police investigate whether there was any foul play involved.
Gary Cole and Shelley Long will reprise their roles for TV in The Brady Bunch in the White House, Variety reports. Cole and Long also played the Bradys in The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel. Shooting is set to begin this fall in Toronto.
Prince Harry beat out Robbie Williams and soccer player David Beckham in Smash Hits magazine’s sexiest men poll. According to Reuters, nearly one million readers replied to the poll.
Nicholas Hytner has been named director of London’s prestigious Royal National Theatre, the BBC news reports. Hytner, currently directing the National Theatre production Mother Clapp’s Molly House, will take over from Trevor Nunn for a five-year term starting in April of 2003.
