5 day forecast
People: Adele, Jake Tapper, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, Lady Gaga
-
Adele, who won six Grammys earlier this year, has been named Associated Press Entertainer of the Year.
Share with others:
Adele rolled so deep in 2012 that she's been voted The Associated Press Entertainer of the Year, the AP reports.
In 132 ballots submitted by members and subscribers of the AP, Adele easily outpaced other vote-getters such as Taylor Swift, "Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. James, the South Korean pop star Psy and the cast of "Twilight." Editors and broadcasters were asked to cast their ballot for who had the most influence on entertainment and culture in 2012.
Adele's year began in triumph at the Grammys, where she won six awards including album of the year for her sophomore disc, "21." It ended with the birth of her son in October.
Previous winners of the AP Entertainer of the Year include Lady Gaga, Betty White and Stephen Colbert.
•
Time Warner Inc.'s CNN said it hired ABC News Washington reporter Jake Tapper to anchor a weekday show, following through on news network president Jeff Zucker's pledge to create new programming, Bloomberg News reports.
Tapper will begin anchoring and serve as CNN's chief Washington correspondent early next year, Christa Robinson, a spokeswoman for CNN, said in a telephone interview. He joined Walt Disney Co.'s ABC News in 2003 and most recently served as the network's senior White House correspondent.
CNN announced Nov. 29 it hired former NBC Universal chief Zucker as it attempts to improve ratings after struggling in recent years to compete with News Corp.'s Fox News and Comcast Corp.'s MSNBC. Zucker said last month the network needed "to find new programs that will make everything better." Zucker officially begins in January.
"Jake is an exceptional reporter and communicator, and we look forward to developing a program that takes advantage of all of his strengths," CNN executive vice president Ken Jautz said Thursday in a statement.
•
Suzy Favor Hamilton is no stranger to life in the fast lane, E! News reports.
On Thursday, the former U.S. Olympic runner admitted to secretly being a Las Vegas escort.
"I realize I have made highly irrational choices, and I take full responsibility for them. I am not a victim here and knew what I was doing," the 44-year-old married mother tweeted. "I was drawn to escorting in large part because it provided many coping mechanisms for me when I was going through a very challenging time with my marriage and my life. It provided an escape from a life that I was struggling in. It was a double life."
TheSmokingGun.com reports that the former Olympian (who competed in 1992, 1996 and 2000) used the pseudonym Kelly Lundy and worked with Haley Heston's Private Collection escort service.
"As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody," Suzy tweeted. "I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression."
She added that she has "been seeking the help of a psychologist for the past few weeks and will continue to do so after I have put things together."
"I cannot emphasize enough how sorry I am to anyone I have hurt as a result of my actions and greatly appreciate the support from family," she wrote, "and those closest to me. I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter and friend."
E! News' requests for comment from Haley Heston's Private Collection were not immediately returned.
•
Miss USA Olivia Culpo was crowned as 2012's Miss Universe Wednesday night in Las Vegas, after competing against 88 other women from countries around the world, E! News reports.
"I'm dreaming, it's a dream," she said while surrounded by the other women.
Culpo claimed the title from last year's winner, Leila Lopes of Angola, after strutting in a purple and blue bikini and a red velvet gown with a plunging neckline.
"One thing I feel people don't know about me is that I'm really easy-going," the new Miss Universe explained during a pretaped segment of the show.
"Any joke, I'll get it. I mean, I think a lot of the times they think of beauty queens as almost being plastic, but I can take jokes and I can take anything. I'm just a normal person."
During the final question, Miss Universe 2010, Ximena Navarrete, asked Olivia, "What is something that you have done, that you will never do again?" Ooooh, scandalous, but Culpo kept it PG.
"First I'd like to start off by saying that every experience, no matter what it is, good or bad, you'll learn from it. That's just life," she said.
"But something I've done that I've probably regretted would be picking on my siblings growing up because you appreciate them so much more when you're older, you get closer with your family. Everybody fights with their siblings, right?! But I don't regret it."
Well, we're sure they (and Ryan Lochte) are very proud of her right now.
•
Good to her word, Lady Gaga has sent along a package of gifts to Daniel Borowy, the teenager shot on the first day of school at Baltimore's Perry Hall High School, the AP reports.
After the shooting, a grass-roots campaign attempted to catch Lady Gaga's attention-with hopes that the pop star would visit Borowy, a huge Gaga fan, in the hospital.
Although a visit wasn't to be, the pop star's people had promised to get at least something from her to him. And it happened.
Borowy's father, Milton, posted about the package on the "Lady Gaga Please Visit Daniel" Facebook page:
"I would like to start by thanking everyone for their thoughts and prayers for Daniel," He wrote. "I was waiting for an appropriate time to share this information and feel that maybe we need some good news! With that said I would like to share that he has received a package from Lady Gaga.
"It is pretty cool that someone in her position took the time to make a complete stranger happy. The package included T shirts, cd's, a personally autographed message to Danny, a picture and 2 tickets to her upcoming concert. (I believe they are front row) To see the smile on his face is overwhelming. Thank you Lady Gaga and thank you to everyone who had a hand in making this happen!!"
First Published December 21, 2012 12:00 am
