Alabama country music star Jeff Cook suffering from Parkinson’sJeff Cook of the country music group Alabama said on Tuesday he has the nervous system disorder Parkinson’s disease and will be stepping back from touring with the band. Cook, 67, who plays fiddle and guitar, said he was diagnosed four years ago with the disease, which robs sufferers of balance and causes tremors.Reports: Janet Jackson splits with husband three months after birth of sonPop star Janet Jackson has split up with her Qatari businessman husband just three months after giving birth to her first child, according to media reports. People magazine, Us Weekly and Entertainment Tonight all said sources had confirmed that Jackson, 50, and Wissam Al Mana had broken up after five years of marriage.U.S. box office: ‘Boss Baby’ beats up on ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’The Smurfs may be feeling kind of blue. The cuddly creatures’ once-promising film franchise is looking awfully creaky after “Smurfs: The Lost Village” stumbled at the domestic box office this weekend. The Sony release opened to a negligible $14.1 million. The film was an attempt to reinvigorate the series after 2013’s “The Smurfs 2” racked up a disappointing $347.5 million on a hefty $105 million budget. It’s a fall from quite a height. The first film, 2011’s “The Smurfs,” had showed such promise, grossing $563.7 million globally, but interest in the big screen adventures of the creatures has waned with each sequel.Serialized documentaries ineligible for Oscars in rules shakeupMultipart documentary series will be ineligible for the Oscars, organizers said on Friday as part of a new list of awards rules, just a few months after ESPN’s serialized “O.J.: Made in America” won the Oscar for best feature documentary. The change will affect any multipart and limited series documentaries that would have attempted to qualify for next year’s Oscar, a spokesperson for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said.YouTube tweaks ad strategy to curb content stealingAlphabet’s YouTube said on Thursday it would place ads on channels only if they reach 10,000 views as it tries to weed out people who make money on the site by stealing content from other sources. The video streaming service also said once a video channel crosses the threshold, it would review the content to see if it qualifies for the placement of ads.
Related Articles
History marked
May 22, 1926 Establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National ParkPresident Calvin Coolidge signed a bill establishing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The idea to establish the park in North Carolina and Tennessee originated in […]
Entertainment briefs
‘Fate of the Furious’ Rides to Third Straight No. 1 while ‘Latin Lover’ Tops Tom Hanks in ‘The Circle’It has become a familiar story “The Fate of the Furious” is, once again, the box […]
Up, Up and Away!
FUQUAY-VARINA The sky was a kaleidoscope over eastern Wake County for Memorial Day weekend. The annual Freedom Balloon Fest, put on by Project Uplift USA, Raleigh Jaycees and WRAL, welcomed an estimated 80,000 visitors […]