Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - It was shaping up as the best of both worlds for pop culture phenomenon Miley Cyrus, who came into Saturday night’s 21st annual Kids Choice Awards with nominations for favorite singer and favorite actress.

Cyrus, whose television series “Hannah Montana” was also nominated for favorite show, was scheduled to perform at the awards program, singing “Girl’s Night Out” from her hit album “Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus.”

Also scheduled to take the stage was the Naked Brothers Band.

“I’m curious to see Miley Cyrus perform. She’s such a phenomenon and I’ve never seen her live so I’d kind of like to see what all the hype is about,” said Quddus Philippe, a former host of MTV’s “Total Request Live,” who was among the celebrities scheduled to walk the show’s orange carpet.

Cyrus won last year’s favorite TV star award but Beyonce captured the favorite singer trophy. The two were nominated again this year, along with Fergie and Alicia Keys. (more…)

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SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor’s said Friday it may raise the ratings of Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. based on the company’s performance. The rating agency said it placed its Sotheby’s ratings, including the company’s BB+ corporate credit rating, on CreditWatch with positive implications. “This action reflects the company’s recent good performance due to a strong worldwide auction market and the successful implementation of its strategic initiatives,” said David Kuntz, an S&P credit analyst, in a statement.

Copyright © 2008 MarketWatch, Inc.

source: foxbusiness.com

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NEW YORK - Madonna wants the media to leave Britney Spears alone. “They need to step off,” she told the “Yo on E!” satellite radio show. “For real … Let’s go save her.”

Madonna, 49, said her daughter, Lourdes, 11, feels the same way.

“She knows Britney, (but) she doesn’t really watch TV or read gossip stuff,” the pop star said in the interview. “I think she sort of gets the drift of what’s going on, and I think she feels very protective of Britney.”

Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie have a son, Rocco, 7, and are raising a Malawian boy they want to adopt.

“He’s the life of the party,” she said of David, who she brought home from Africa in 2006. “He loves music, he’s an amazing dancer. … He’s a character.”

She said caring for David is no different from her raising her biological children: “I thought it was gonna be, but it feels the same to tell you the truth.” (more…)

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HOUSTON (Reuters) - Grammy-winning Tejano music star Emilio Navaira’s chances of survival are improving, his doctor said on Wednesday, following a crash this week in which he was thrown through the windshield of his tour bus.

“I feel optimistic that he will not die,” Dr. Alex Valadka said at a news conference. “He’s done about as well as can be expected.”

Navaira, 45, had been in grave condition following Sunday’s early morning crash, and Valadka had said there was “a chance he may not make it.” The neurosurgeon cautioned on Wednesday that something adverse might still happen to Navaira.

“He can still take a turn for the worse,” he said.

Valadka led a team of surgeons who removed a hand-sized portion of Navaira’s skull on Tuesday to reduce pressure from a bruise forming on the left side of the singer’s brain.

The operation was the second surgery to relieve pressure on the brain after the bus Navaira was driving crashed into a concrete highway barrier in the Houston suburb of Bellaire, Texas.

Navaira remained unconscious in critical condition at Memorial Hermann hospital. He is expected to stay in the intensive care unit for up to two weeks. (more…)

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Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO - After nearly 19 years of marriage, Robin Williams and his wife are getting divorced.

Marsha Garces Williams filed a petition for dissolution of marriage on March 21 in San Francisco Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.

The two met when Garces Williams worked as a nanny for Williams’ son Zachary, whom he had with his previous wife, Valerie Valardi.

Robin and Garces Williams also have two children together, Zelda and Cody. (more…)

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NEW YORK - Britney the Trainwreck showed how she can still be Britney the Performer. Britney Spears made her much-hyped guest appearance Monday night’s “How I Met Your Mother,” submersing her tumultuous personal life and portraying a sweet-natured receptionist, Abby, with a crush on unlucky-in-love Ted (Josh Radnor).

Problem is: Ted only has eyes for Abby’s boss Stella (Sarah Chalke), a dermatologist. Ted’s goal: to win a date by his 10th session with Stella. Nothing’s working.

Finally, he figures: “The receptionist — that’s my way in.”

So he brings Abby coffee in a bid to impress Stella, but it charms Abby even more. During one visit, Abby trails him and Stella into an office to deliver a book — a self-help tome called “The Power of Me” — that he left behind in the waiting room.

The 26-year-old pop star, who previously was on a 2006 episode of “Will and Grace,” appeared fresh-faced and relaxed, capably filling the small role. She was also the host and musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” in 2000. (more…)

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Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has called for caution ahead of the Champions League last-16, second leg tie against Olympiakos on Wednesday. The Blues are favourites to progress after a 0-0 draw a fortnight ago.

But Lampard said: “I think they will be a danger to us at Chelsea. The game is difficult and it is not over yet.

Lampard was a substitute for the first leg at Olympiakos

“We didn’t score away so if we concede now we’ll put ourselves under pressure. They are strong on the counter, so maybe they’ll try to nick a goal.”

Lampard believes Chelsea did not make the most of the opportunities in Greece and does not want his team to pay the price for not scoring an away goal.

He added: “The 0-0 was a decent result but it was a great opportunity to go and get an away goal. We didn’t threaten as much as we could have done.

“It would have helped up to have scored an away goal but we didn’t get that, so we have to make sure that we are very concentrated at home.”

Manager Avram Grant says he is not worried about the prospect of losing - even though it could potentially cost him his job at Chelsea. (more…)

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Sandile Waka-Zamisa

Pietermaritzburg - A pensioner collapsed and died of fright on Monday after a gun accidentally went off inside the central post office in Pietermaritzburg while people were queuing for grants.

A security guard dropped his .38 Special revolver and it went off - scaring the pensioners. Nora Mazibuko, 68, from Bulwer collapsed and died on the scene.

Terrified senior citizens scrambled for safety.

Police spokesperson Henry Budhram said the bullet did not hit anyone.

Mazibuko’s daughter, Philisiwe Mazibuko, who was waiting for her mother outside, said the elderly woman died immediately.

“I went inside soon after the sound and I found my mother lying down. She had stopped breathing, it happened so suddenly, I couldn’t believe she was gone,” she said.

Paramedics were called, but Mazibuko was already dead. The exact cause of her death has not been determined.

“At this stage an inquest will be carried out to determine the exact cause of Mazibuko’s death and a case of negligent discharging of a firearm is being investigated against the security officer,” said Budhram.

Temperatures reached 36°C in Pietermaritzburg on Monday and Mazibuko had been waiting in the long queue in the scorching sun outside for more than five hours before finally reaching the door to the post office.

Source: news24.com

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AKRON, Ohio — Staring out at more than 100 empty seats in the small downtown auditorium, Marion Wagner looked quizzically at the podium and its state-of-the-art sound system. “Do I really need to talk into a microphone if there’s hardly anybody here?” she asked.

Wagner, a regional director for the National Organization for Women, had driven seven hours from Indianapolis to speak here last week along with half a dozen other prominent feminists in a last-ditch effort to exhort female voters to get behind the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“The issue that’s not being talked about in this campaign is the blatant sexism,” Wagner said, her words echoing off the granite walls. “There are some people who promote Barack Obama because they want anybody but a woman. Would they like a white man instead of a black man? Of course. But they’ll take a black man over a woman. I never thought, in 2008, that we’d still be dealing with this.”

Although women have been the dominant force in the Democratic race, making up nearly six in 10 voters in caucuses and primaries, things have not gone the way Wagner and other feminist supporters of Clinton expected. The same campaign they once celebrated as a sign of tremendous progress, with its promise of the first female president in the nation’s history, has instead reinforced their impressions of gender inequity. (more…)

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