News

The concert, which will include performances by Ronnie Milsap and Taylor Swift, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Mellon Arena, Uptown.

Tickets cost $49.50-$59.50. Details: 412-323-1919.

-- Kellie B. Gormly

Trolley Museum to close for season

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum will close for the season on Tuesday, to re-open on March 2.

Today and Monday, visitors can come to the museum to take trolley rides and see the seasonal Trolleys and Toy Trains exhibit. The museum -- located at 1 Museum Road in Chartiers, Washington County, is open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. today, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday.

Details: 724-228-9256 or www.pa-trolley.org.

-- Kellie B. Gormly

Actors nominated for director's award

Actors Edward James Olmos and Charles S. Dutton are among five nominees for a Directors Guild of America Award in the movies for television category.

Olmos, an Oscar nominee for his role in 1988's "Stand and Deliver," was nominated for directing Time Warner Inc.'s HBO movie "Walkout."

Dutton, an Emmy-winning actor, was nominated for directing an episode of the CBS Corp.-owned Showtime cable channel's "Sleeper Cell."

Other nominees are Randa Haines for TNT's "The Ron Clark Story," Walter Hill for the AMC miniseries "Broken Trail" and Peter Markle for A&E's "Flight 93."

The award will be presented Feb. 3.

-- The Associated Press

Harper Lee attends 'Mockingbird' staging

Reclusive author Harper Lee attended a Montgomery, Ala., high school play based on her book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," on Wednesday, then met with students who appeared in the production.

The production brought together about 60 students from the almost all-white Mountain Brook High and all-black Fairfield High Preparatory School.

The 80-year-old Lee was invited as a special guest to be honored by education and arts officials. Famous for prizing her privacy, she rarely speaks to reporters, though she does occasionally meet with students.

The author has not published another book since "Mockingbird," which remains a best-seller even decades after its publication in 1960.

-- The Associated Press

Marcia Cross put on precautionary bed rest

Marcia Cross, who is expecting twins in April with her stockbroker-husband, Tom Mahoney, has been put on bed rest, her spokeswoman said Wednesday.

"This is a precautionary measure only," publicist Heidi Slan said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. She declined to give further details.

Producers of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," in which Cross, 44, stars as the persnickety Bree, have decided to move production at the end of this week to the actress' Los Angeles home for two days, according to a story posted on TV Guide's Web site.

A call to a spokesman for "Desperate Housewives" wasn't immediately returned.

Cross, whose character isn't pregnant, had planned to film only two more shows following the Feb. 11 episode, because it was becoming too difficult to hide her pregnancy, TV Guide reported.

-- The Associated Press

Award presenters won't get gift baskets

The Golden Globe gift basket is no more.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the annual Golden Globe Awards, announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to satisfy past tax obligations on the plush gift packages given to awards-show presenters.

The end result: No such swag will be handed out at this year's show, to be held Monday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, said HFPA president Philip Berk.

"The academy set the example and we followed suit," Berk told The Associated Press, referring to the film academy.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in August that it had paid back taxes on its bountiful Oscar booty bags -- typically packed with jewelry, electronics, spa packages and four-star getaways -- and would no longer thank show presenters with swanky gifts. No alternative thank-you gifts are planned, Academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger said.

To prevent individual celebrities from receiving back-tax bills, the HFPA absorbed taxes for gifts given through 2005. Presenters who accepted gifts at the 2006 Golden Globes will get tax forms in the mail, Berk said.

Last year, Golden Globe presenters got gift boxes worth more than $20,000. Each package included a $2,000 gym membership, a $1,200 diamond pendant, an $865 Chopard watch and a $475 camera phone, plus handbags, MP3 players and a slew of gift certificates.

-- The Associated Press

Matthew Fox reveals dark side

Matthew Fox, who plays the heroic Dr. Jack Shephard on ABC's castaway drama "Lost," has a dark side.

"I'm a liar and a cheat and a thief and the ultimate manipulator. ... I tell lies every day, man," the 40-year-old actor says in the February issue of Men's Journal magazine. "And when I say I'm phenomenally manipulative, I am."

"I really enjoy social boozing, and what I enjoy about it is when people I know and care about say and do things they normally wouldn't say or do," he tells the magazine. "To make that happen, I'll instigate anything."

Fox also enjoys skinny-dipping, something he does, he says, because he's comfortable in the nude.

"As for the skinny-dipping, when I was a kid there wasn't a huge delineation in our family between having clothes on or not having clothes on," he says.

"And the reason I have so much fun doing it now is people are so shocked by it, and, like, 'Oh, my God, Fox just took his clothes off!' But, I mean, just how long ago was it that we were all wandering around in loincloths?"

-- The Associated Press

Jey Leno to voice character in 'Igor'

Jay Leno gets to be king in the upcoming animated feature "Igor."

The "Tonight" show host will be the voice of King Malbert, ruler of Malaria, in the saga of a mad scientist's hunchbacked assistant who dreams of winning the annual Evil Science Fair, Exodus Film Group said Wednesday.

The movie, scheduled for release in the fall of 2008, also will feature Jennifer Coolidge, Jeremy Piven, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese and Christian Slater.

Leno's voice also has been heard in the animated movies "Cars," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," and "Robots."

-- The Associated Press

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News