TV son says painful to watch Bill Cosby face allegations

Pharrell, Sam Smith, John Legend to perform at Grammys; Anne Hatheway heading to the stage this spring; Blur frontman writes Alice in Wonderland musical, Israel arrests man for stealing Madonna songs. New Kids on the Block ready to school boy bands; Family of comedian killed in Tracy Morgan Wal-Mart crash settles claim.

Warner, who played Cosby’s son Theo in the hit 1984-1992 sitcom The Cosby Show, told Billboard magazine that the comedian has been an important mentor and friend to him. The Washington Post via Getty Show more

Malcolm-Jamal Warner says it’s difficult to see Bill Cosby face allegations of sexual assault.

Warner, who played Cosby's son Theo in the hit 1984-1992 sitcom The Cosby Show, told Billboard magazine that the comedian has been an important mentor and friend to him.

The 44-year-old Warner didn’t directly address the allegations made by at least 15 women, citing a lack of first-hand knowledge.

But he said that it’s as painful to watch Cosby face the allegations as it is to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, “whether true or not”.

“The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people,” Warner said. “What he’s done for comedy and television has been legendary and history-making. What he’s done for the black community and education has been invaluable. That’s the Bill Cosby I know.”

Cosby, 77, has not been charged with a crime and through his attorney has denied allegations, some of them dating back decades, that he drugged and assaulted women.

The Billboard interview with Warner, a Grammy nominee for his work on Robert Glasper's Black Radio 2, was published online Wednesday.

Pharrell, Sam Smith, John Legend to perform at Grammys

One sings about being Happy, the other croons about being sad: Pharrell and Sam Smith will perform at the Grammys next month.

The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that Usher and Miranda Lambert also will take the stage at the February 8 show in Los Angeles. Common and John Legend will perform their Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated song, Glory, from the movie Selma.

Smith, Pharrell and Beyonce are the Grammy leaders with six nominations apiece. They will battle Beck and Ed Sheeran for the top prize, album of the year.

Previously announced performers include Madonna, AC/DC, Ariana Grande, Eric Church and Sheeran.

*AP

Anne Hathaway heading to the stage this spring

Anne Hathaway will be playing something a little different this spring – an Air Force fighter pilot in a one-woman stage show.

The Public Theater said Wednesday that the Academy Award-winner will star in George Brant's play Grounded starting April 7. It's about a pilot who is reassigned to operate a military drone.

The visionary director Julie Taymor, behind the beauty of The Lion King, will direct.

Hathaway, who won an Oscar in Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, returns to the Public for the first time since she played Viola in a 2009 Shakespeare in the Park production.

*AP

Blur frontman writes Alice in Wonderland musical

Blur frontman Damon Albarn has written the score for a musical version of Alice in Wonderland, which re-imagines the classic tale of a girl's fantasy world in the Internet era.

The wonder.land musical will premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July before heading to London's National Theatre later in the year and the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in 2016.

The National Theatre, announcing wonder.land as it revealed its upcoming season, said the musical would offer a modern, high-tech twist to Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in which young Alice falls into a rabbit hole and discovers a strange new universe.

In wonder.land, written by Moira Buffini, the girl Aly is bullied at school but goes online as Alice and finds self-confidence in a world of virtual reality and struggles to discern what is real.

“I’m fascinated by the idea of going down a rabbit hole, the otherworldliness and what that might mean,” Albarn said in a statement.

Albarn previously experimented with virtual reality by creating the band Gorillaz, whose members were imaginary even if the music was real.

Albarn, 46, became one of the most identifiable faces of Britpop as the frontman of Blur in the 1990s but has since experimented widely in format and has written two operas, Dr Dee and the Chinese-inspired Monkey: Journey to the West.

*AFP

New Kids on the Block ready to school boy bands

The Boston-based veteran group, which announced a summer tour with TLC and Nelly this week, said contemporary boy bands should check out their live concerts to learn from the experts.

“As far as boy bands, you know, we dance, we perform,” said Joey McIntyre, 42. “I mean, I hate to sound like an old fogey, but these kids don’t know what they’re missing nowadays because we got to sing and dance for our supper, you know what I mean, and we love to do that,”

“So maybe a few kids could come to the show and see how it’s done.”

The Main Event tour kicks off May 1 in Las Vegas.

In the last few years, boy bands have resurged, with One Direction leading the pack, followed by 5 Seconds of Summer. Others, from The Wanted to Mindless Behavior, have also had success.

Donnie Wahlberg, 45, said the decades-long bond between New Kids on the Block and their fans makes it worthwhile.

“I would rather have the credibility of thousands of fans and have them be happy,” Wahlberg said. “That’s what we’ve learned and that’s why we’re still here. We keep it alive because it stays alive between us and our fans. It’s a real relationship now.”

Wahlberg and McIntyre, along with bandmates Danny Wood and brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, began playing together more than 30 years ago.

*AP

Family of comedian killed in Tracy Morgan Wal-Mart crash settles claim

The family of a comedian killed in a New Jersey Turnpike crash that seriously injured Tracy Morgan last summer has settled a wrongful-death claim with Wal-Mart.

The out-of-court settlement between Wal-Mart Stores and the estate of James McNair is the first stemming from the June 7 crash, in which a Wal-Mart truck slammed into a limo van carrying Morgan and others home from a show in Delaware.

Morgan, the former Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock star, suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident, according to his lawyer. Criminal charges against truck driver Kevin Roper are pending in state court in New Jersey.

McNair, 62, grew up with Morgan in Brooklyn and was a friend and mentor to him over the years.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, but McNair family attorney Daryl Zaslow said the company “caused extensive damage” to the family, the company accepted responsibility and “more than stepped up to the plate and took care of this family”, Zaslow said.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, was working toward settlements with others injured in the accident.

“We know there is nothing we can do to change what happened to Mr McNair,” Buchanan said. “We’re committed to doing what’s right.”

*Associated Press