LOS ANGELES (AP) — Henry Gibson, the veteran comic character actor best known for his role reciting offbeat poetry on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,“ has died. He was 73.

Mary Travers, one-third of the popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary who were perhaps best known for their hit “Puff (The Magic Dragon),“ died in a Connecticut hospital after battling leukemia for several years. She was 72.

Patrick Swayze has died after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will Kanye West get his Hugh Grant moment on Jay Leno’s new show?

Winfrey is still the queen of daytime television, but the aura of invincibility is gone. The average viewership for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” slipped under 7 million last season, down 7 percent from the year before.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Actress Lauren Bacall, producer-director Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis are the first Oscar winners of the season.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ellen DeGeneres is known for being nice. But the new “American Idol” judge says she’s tough enough to be honest with the show’s contestants.

With the economy still trying to climb out of the cellar, the new broadcast television season will be leaner – but not meaner.

NEW YORK (AP) — Author Dominick Dunne, who told stories of shocking crimes among the rich and famous through his magazine articles and best-selling books including “Another City, Not My Own,“ about O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, died Wednesday in his home at age 83.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eva Longoria Parker and George Lopez will host September’s ALMA Awards celebrating Latino achievement in entertainment.

Miss Venezuela was the fairest of them all once again, winning the 2009 Miss Universe crown for the second year straight and the sixth time since the pageant’s creation.

NEWTON - Catawba County grandmother Joan Schuermeyer woke up beside heartthrob Jake Gyllenhaal last year.

A Seattle woman has sued magician David Copperfield, contending he sexually assaulted and threatened her while she was a guest on his private island in the Bahamas.

When comic book store owner Dave Luebke heard that after 67 years, the carrot-topped everyman of the comic world, Archie, was proposing to va-va-voomy rich girl Veronica instead of girl-next-door Betty, he decided to protest by selling his copy of the series’ rare first issue.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.

PEAPACK-GLADSTONE, New Jersey (AP) — The cast and crew of “Guiding Light” — U.S. television’s longest-running soap opera — have finished shooting their final scenes in a northern New Jersey town.

When Don Fraser saw Santana on TV recently, he laughed and thought to himself, “That guy was at Woodstock!“

NEW YORK (AP) — The actors made famous by writer-director John Hughes are extolling his talents after his death, calling him influential and “one of the giants” for capturing the youth market in the 1980s and ‘90s with such favorites as “The Breakfast Club,“ ‘'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Home Alone.“

CBS is bringing back the game show “Let’s Make a Deal” on Oct 5. It will replace the canceled “Guiding Light,“ which is ending on Sept. 18 after a 50-year run.

PASADENA, California (AP) — Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris said he hopes industry resistance to streamlining the television awards show next month will ease when the plan is made clear.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s the biggest movie of the summer that practically no one has seen.

If you haven’t already gone online to watch a few TV shows or movies, welcome to a shrinking minority.

VARINA, Va. (AP) — Country music legend Jimmy Dean has never once considered leaving his Virginia home — not even after a fire in April caused extensive damage to the property.

NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Seeger has never paid attention to demographics or audience segments. His message has always been about inconclusiveness as a performer.

Tony Shalhoub says that his eccentric character on “Monk” has “infected” his real-life personality.

NEW YORK (AP) — Judd Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” spawned one of the most vibrant and successful runs in American comedy — a frantic, four-year era capped by and summed up in the writer/director/producer’s latest film, “Funny People.“

Classical music tends to celebrate the glories of its past. Just think of the last concert of symphonic fare you attended; chances are it was dominated by music of master composers who died long ago. Opera also favors tried-and-true repertoire from the first decades of the 1900s and earlier.

NEW YORK—HBO scored highest among 15 networks for its representation of gay characters last season, according to a recent report.

In the early 1950s the pounding, driving wheels of a new kind of music came highballing up out of the South like a past-due locomotive.

NEW YORK - Paula Abdul’s new manager says she may not be returning to “American Idol.“