People talk 2/5/03

Comedian starting his own Brady bunch

LOS ANGELES -- Comedian Wayne Brady has someone new to entertain -- his daughter.

Brady's actress-wife, Mandie, gave birth to the couple's first child, Maile Masako Brady, on Monday. The child weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce.

Brady, 30, stars on ABC's sketch comedy show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and hosts his own syndicated talk show.

Rehnquist to speak at dedication ceremony

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. -- Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has agreed to speak at the dedication of the Robert H. Jackson Center, named for the former Supreme Court justice whom Rehnquist served as law clerk.

Jackson, also a former U.S. Attorney General, was chief prosecuting attorney at the Nuremberg War Trials from 1952-53. He selected Rehnquist to be his law clerk while Rehnquist was at Stanford Law School in 1950.

Rehnquist, 78, is expected to discuss his experiences with Jackson and how Jackson's leadership and work continue to impact governmental power and functions.

Jackson died in 1954.

The dedication ceremony is set for May 16 in Jamestown, about 60 miles south of Buffalo.

Old Vic acquires Spacey as artistic director

LONDON -- Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey will soon be named the new artistic director of the Old Vic Theater, a newspaper reported.

The London Times said the announcement, which it labeled as a surprise, would be made as early as Wednesday, with the support of Elton John, chairman of the Old Vic Theater Trust.

The Old Vic Theater Trust bought the 185-year-old theater in 1998 when it was in danger of closing.

Spacey, 43, who won Oscars for "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty," has given a large donation to the Old Vic, and will take a post once held by Jonathan Miller and Peter Hall, the Times said Tuesday. The position is now vacant.

Neither Spacey nor his representative could be immediately reached for comment.

'Daredevil' star Affleck has redhead experience

RADNOR, Pa. -- Ben Affleck and Big Macs, perfect together.

Affleck, who stars as a blind comic-book hero in the upcoming film "Daredevil," had to dye his hair red to play lead character Matt Murdock.

"I was glad I did, except when I was wandering around in my real life with this big red Afro. I looked like Ronald McDonald," Affleck says in the Feb. 8 issue of TV Guide.

The 30-year-old actor says he admires the athletic ability of his co-star, Jennifer Garner (television's "Alias"), who performed many of her own stunts and learned how to work with martial-arts knives.

"She was really tough," said Affleck.

"Daredevil," directed by Mark Steven Johnson and also starring Michael Clark Duncan and Colin Farrell, will be released Feb. 14.-- From wire reports

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- This year's Dominican music awards will give special recognition to Puerto Rican singers Jose Feliciano and Eddie Santiago.

The Dominican Association of Art Journalists, which annually honors the best Dominican musicians, also gives international awards to foreign artists who are popular in the Dominican market.

Feliciano will be honored for "his successful career in the world of music and the ties he has kept with the Dominican Republic" by recording Dominican songs and playing regular concerts in the Caribbean country, the association said last week.

Santiago will be recognized as "one of the most important artists of romantic salsa."

The XIX Casandra Awards will be presented Feb. 24.

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SINGAPORE -- Fann Wong, one of the stars of Jackie Chan's latest movie, "Shanghai Knights," says she doesn't want a career in Hollywood.

"It's not like I need Hollywood, you know," she told the Straits Times newspaper in Saturday's editions. "Because most important, I'm Chinese and I love doing Chinese movies and TV serials."

Since shooting "Shanghai Knights," which also stars Owen Wilson, Wong has been offered comedy scripts and did a photo shoot for British GQ magazine.

The former model, best known in Singapore as a TV actress and a singer with four hit albums, said she got the role after casting agents came to Singapore looking for "a Chinese girl who could fight and speak English."

Her role was supposed to be only a "few seconds," but stretched into 45 minutes, Wong said. She plays Chan's sister and Wilson's love interest in the movie.

Wong said she didn't understand the joke behind the name of Chan's character, Chon Wang -- which sounds like famed Western star John Wayne.

"Even when the director explained it, I didn't know who John Wayne was," she said.

"Shanghai Knights," which opened in Singapore last week, is set for release Friday in the United States.

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NEW YORK -- Pete Rose is definitely getting into a Hall of Fame this year -- the Ted Williams Museum Hitters Hall of Fame.

Rose -- ineligible for the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., because of his lifetime ban from the sport -- has been selected to be inducted to the Williams Hall along with Wade Boggs, Dom DiMaggio, Tony Gwynn and Williams -- who didn't want to be honored while he was alive.

Williams died last July at 83.

The ceremonies will take place Feb. 16 in Hernando, Fla.

It was easy to select Rose, said Dave McCarthy, who became executive director of the Ted Williams Museum last October.

"People come in here and always ask, 'Why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? He has more hits than anybody," McCarthy said Friday.

The Hitters Hall of Fame began in 1995 and Shoeless Joe Jackson -- like Rose on the career banned list -- was inducted in 1998.

Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 following an investigation of his gambling. Baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti concluded Rose bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the team. Rose, who has denied he gambled on baseball, has been negotiating a possible reinstatement with commissioner Bud Selig.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The daughter of Orson Welles is suing two Hollywood studios, saying they should either pay her royalties on her father's masterpiece "Citizen Kane" or hand over the rights to the movie.

Beatrice Welles says in the lawsuit filed in federal court that a 1944 agreement discovered by an archivist appears to terminate a 1939 profit-sharing deal the filmmaker signed with RKO Pictures.

Welles' lawyer, Steven Ames Brown, said his client either owns the rights under the 1944 agreement or is owed royalties if the earlier deal is still valid.

Brown said the judge must decide whether the 1944 agreement transfers ownership rights.

The lawsuit names RKO and Turner Entertainment Co. as defendants.

Jonathan Marshall, an RKO spokesman, said the company had not yet seen Welles' lawsuit and could not comment. But he said the company would be looking to resolve the case amicably.

-- From wire reports