Ludacris finally performed for East Tennessee State University students after weeks of arguments with city officials.
The concert had been scheduled at city-owned Freedom Hall Civic Center, but Johnsonville, Tenn., City Manager Pete Peterson rejected the contract because he had security concerns.
School officials allowed the event to be held in the ETSU Memorial Center, where an estimated 5,000 people showed up for the performance.
“Ya heard it took a lot to get (me) here, right?” the 28-year-old rapper asked the crowd after his first song Thursday night.
Many students thought the city rejected the contract because Ludacris’ songs include profanity, references to drugs, violence and misogyny.
The folks who keep the world supplied with Elvis T-shirts and coffee mugs have a new project in the works – an Elvis Presley license plate.
Not a fake license plate, mind you, but one sanctioned by the state of Tennessee.
Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. can move ahead with its plan when 1,000 orders for the plates are assured. The state requires that minimum number of sales to approve a so-called specialty license plate, which costs $35 more than a regular tag.
If approved, the Elvis license plates would be available only for cars registered in the state of Tennessee.
Proceeds would go to the Regional Medical Center, the Memphis region’s main publicly supported hospital and home of the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center.
Jay Leno and his chief “Tonight Show” writer, Joe Medeiros, have written a joke book for kids, to benefit the families of law-enforcement officers killed on the job. Proceeds from the book, “How to Be the Funniest Kid in the Whole Wide World (or Just in Your Class),” will go to Concerns of Police Survivors Inc.
Is the book funny? Leno says he tested it on real kids. One of the jokes: “What does Homer Simpson use to make bread? Dough!”
“Kids really think that’s funny,” Leno said. He added, “I’m in a business where people throw money at you. (Police are) in a business where people shoot at you. It’s just a way of saying thanks.”
An auction of Beach Boys memorabilia was canceled after representatives of the band said the items had been stolen from a North Hollywood warehouse.
The band’s record company learned of the auction planned by London-based Cooperowen when the items appeared on the Internet, said Edwin McPherson of Brother Records, the band’s corporate entity.
The 28 lots of items included original sheet music by Brian Wilson and Mike Love.
Caleb Carr, author of the historical novel “The Alienist,” is running for a county legislative seat in the Hudson Valley.
The Cherry Plain resident is one of four people running for two seats in the Rensselaer County legislature.
Best known for writing the best seller about a murder investigation in late 19th-century New York City, Carr also has written extensively on historical and military subjects.
Carr said he wants to bring his knowledge of homeland security to county government.
Carr told the Times Union of Albany he doesn’t mind if his literary fame doesn’t carry over to the largely rural area where he lives. “It’s absolutely fine with me,” he said. “Book authors are kind of the low end of celebrity.”
-From wire reports
Anna Nicole noses into pet-food fracas
Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith says her three dogs are boycotting pet-food maker Iams in an advertisement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, according to the Associated Press.
According to PETA, the group claims that dogs were mistreated and even killed in an Iams laboratory. Iams denies the allegations.
“We work with a number of well-respected officials from animal-welfare groups, like the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States,” an Iams spokesman said. The ad will appear on PETA’s website this week and will be seen on billboards during the winter.
