Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow made her first public performance Tuesday since having breast cancer surgery in February.
The 44-year-old singer, who also underwent radiation treatment, was hired to sing at a sales presentation for My Network TV, a new broadcast network that will use her song "A Change Would Do You Good" as the theme to one of its series.
"The words are just coming back to me now," she said after flubbing some of the lyrics to her song, "Soak Up the Sun." "I knew it last night. I think the radiation went to my brain." Crow played guitar and smiled, and moved gingerly onstage, reports the Associated Press.
Despite some rustiness on the lyrics, she told the crowd of advertisers at the event: "This is the first time I've played in ages. I'm just happy to be here."
The singer, who announced that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer in February, postponed her March and April 2006 tour dates.
She has since rescheduled those shows to begin June 12 at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis. She is also scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall on May 19 as part of the Rainforest Foundation Benefit concert.
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Cowell Picks Hicks to Be Next 'Idol'
Simon Cowell poses in an undated publicity photo from files orginally released by Fox in 2005. The "America Idol" judge predicts that the gray-haired Taylor Hicks will be the next "American Idol." "I'm going to say he's the favorite, but what do I know?" Cowell told Jay Leno on NBC's "Tonight Show" Monday, May 15, 2006.
Simon Cowell predicts that the gray-haired Taylor Hicks will be the next "American Idol." "I'm going to say he's the favorite, but what do I know?" the "Idol" judge told Jay Leno on NBC's "Tonight Show" on Monday.
Cowell had earlier predicted that rocker Chris Daughtry, who was booted off "Idol" in an upset last week, would be among the show's three remaining finalists.
Instead, along with the 29-year-old Hicks, an Alabama native, the remaining contestants on the Fox program are sultry crooner Katharine McPhee and Elliot Yamin.
Cowell expects Yamin to be the next to go, resulting in a Hicks-McPhee finale on May 23-24. Though Cowell thought McPhee, 21, should have been voted off last week, he thinks she'll last one more round.
"Based on last week, absolutely she should have gone," said Cowell. "But, you know, she's got a fighting chance. I think she'll make the final, and I'll tell you why: because I'm choosing one of her songs this week."
The 27-year-old Yamin might not have Cowell's vote, but he has a fan in judge Paula Abdul.
Last week, Abdul told Teen People magazine, "I am going to be honest with you I want Elliot to win."
After performances Tuesday evening, the remaining "Idol" field of three was to be cut down to two on Wednesday (9 p.m. EDT). The winner will be crowned May 24.
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Latest Spears Photos Spark Safety Debate
In this handout photo, supplied by Elizabeth Arden, shows Britney Spears promoting her new perfume, In Control, in New York, in this file photo from May 8, 2006. "In one regard, she's done more for child safety seat awareness than anyone else in California," California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall said Tuesday, May 16, 2006. "The fact that she's a big star doesn't play into it for us." Front-page photographs in Tuesday's New York Post and New York Daily News depict the 24-year-old pregnant pop star driving her convertible Mini Cooper with 8-month-old son Sean Preston in the back, sitting in a car seat facing forward.
It's not a role she auditioned for, but pop star Britney Spears has become a poster woman for child car-seat safety.
"In one regard, she's done more for child safety-seat awareness than anyone else in California," California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall said Tuesday. "The fact that she's a big star doesn't play into it for us."
Front-page photographs in Tuesday's New York Post and New York Daily News depict the 24-year-old pregnant pop star driving her convertible Mini Cooper with 8-month-old son Sean Preston in the back, sitting in a car seat facing forward.
The photos in which Spears also sports hair curlers have sparked debate over whether the singer violated the California vehicle code.
The code states that child safety-seats must be properly installed according to federal safety guidelines which recommend that babies up to a year old and up to 20 pounds ride in them in the back seat facing backward, Marshall said.
However, the singer's publicist Leslie Sloane Zelnik said Spears was in "total compliance" with California state law.
She cited California Vehicle Code 27360, requiring that "all children under the age of 6 or weighing less than 60 pounds be in safety seats in the back seat of the car," Zelnik said in a statement Tuesday. "Having a child in the child safety-seat facing forward in the rear seat of the car is in compliance with California law."
But Marshall said the code contained "a bit of a gray area."
"The vehicle code doesn't say you have to have the baby seat in a rear-facing position," but does maintain following federal guidelines, he said. "The bottom line is that if an officer saw her, one officer could have said it was no problem, and another could have given her a citation."
In February, authorities visited Spears' home after photos showed her driving in a car with the baby on her lap, rather than in a safety seat as required by law. Spears later apologized, saying she held the boy because of an encounter with paparazzi.
Spokesman Mike Marando of the California Office of Traffic Safety said Spears, if anything, was "breaking the spirit of the intent of the law, which is keeping the child alive."
It's more dangerous in the case of a collision to seat infants facing forward in the rear of the vehicle, he said.
Other complications remain.
Car-seat manufacturers have varied instructions on the proper use and positioning of car seats, based on the weight of the child, said CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader.
Some recommend forward-facing seats, and some recommend rear-facing seats.
"I can safely say that 90 percent of folks are not using child car seats properly," she said. "If the public has any questions, they can make an appointment with a CHP office, including Britney Spears."
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Report: Nicole Kidman Says She's Engaged
This combination photo shows Keith Urban, left, and Nicole Kidman. Kidman told People magazine she and Urban are engaged Monday, May 15, 2006, after hosting a weekend gala event in New York. The story was posted on People's web site Tuesday.
Actress Nicole Kidman says she and country music star Keith Urban are engaged, according to a report on People Magazine's Web site.
"He's actually my fiance," Kidman told People Monday after hosting a weekend gala event in New York. "I wouldn't be bringing my boyfriend."
Calls after business hours Tuesday to publicists for Kidman and Urban seeking more details were not immediately returned.
The report comes just weeks after she told the Ladies' Home Journal that she still had feelings for her ex-husband, Tom Cruise.
"And I loved him. I still love him," she told the magazine earlier this month for a story in its June edition.
Kidman and Cruise were married 10 years. They divorced in 2001 and have two adopted children. Cruise recently had another child with actress Katie Holmes.
For months, marriage rumors had swirled around Kidman and Urban. The couple, both 38, were first seen together in 2005.
Kidman won a best actress Oscar in the 2002 for the film "The Hours."
Urban, a singer and guitarist from New Zealand, won a Grammy in 2005 for best male country vocal performance.
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Reports: Paul McCartney, Wife to Separate
Former members of the Beatles pop group Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Heather McCartney in this file photo dated May 29, 2003, with no location given. McCartney and his wife Heather are planning to separate, according to a newspaper report Wednesday May 17, 2006, as representatives of the couple declined to comment but said an official statement was expected later Wednesday. The couple have been married for some four years.
Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills are planning to separate, media reports said Wednesday.
Representatives of the couple declined to comment but said a statement was expected later in the day.
The former Beatle married Mills in June 2002, four years after his former wife Linda McCartney died of breast cancer. McCartney and Mills had a daughter in October 2003.
The Daily Mirror and BBC both reported the planned split.
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