Larry Hagman has been diagnosed with cancer.
The 80-year-old actor is famous for playing J.R. Ewing on Dallas. In a statement on Friday, he said: “As J.R. I could get away with anything — bribery, blackmail and adultery. But I got caught by cancer.”
Hagman declined to specify what kind of cancer he has contracted, but the actor said it’s “a very common and treatable form.”
He plans to continue working on a new reboot of Dallas for TNT, which begins production today.
The new Dallas focuses on the Ewing offspring as they clash over the future of the family dynasty. The original prime-time soap opera aired on CBS from 1978 to 1991. Hagman underwent a liver transplant in the mid-1990s.
Said Hagman: “As we all know, you can’t keep J.R. down!”
Meanwhile, Sonic Youth co-founders Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon have separated after 27 years of marriage and the future of the noise-rock band is uncertain, its label’s parent company said on Saturday.
Sonic Youth, including indie rock pioneers Moore and Gordon, will go ahead with its South American tour next month as planned, Catherine Herrick, a spokeswoman for Beggars Group, the owner of the band’s Matador label, said in a statement.
The couple, “married in 1984, are announcing they have separated,” the statement said. “Plans beyond that [November] tour are uncertain. The couple has requested respect for their personal privacy and does not wish to issue further comment.”
Sonic Youth’s tour has five dates, starting with a Nov. 5 show in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and concluding on Nov. 14 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Gordon, 58, and Moore, 53, co-founded the quartet in 1980 in New York amid the so-called “no wave” movement.
Moore and Lee Ranaldo were on guitars and Gordon played bass. Drummer Steve Shelley joined later.
The pair first met when Gordon played in a band named CKM.
“I guess it was love at first sight,” she said in the 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life.
Moore and Gordon live in Northampton, Massachusetts, with their daughter, Coco, 17, who is a singer with the local band Big Nils.
Sonic Youth’s 16th record was The Eternal in 2009.
From alt pioneers to derivative drivel: Lady Gaga has won an injunction stopping the makers of an online children’s game from promoting an animated character called Lady Goo Goo, the company involved said on Friday.
British company Mind Candy is behind the Moshi Monsters Web site, which allows children to adopt a virtual pet monster.
Its characters include Lady Goo Goo, a sunglasses-wearing blonde baby who appears in The Moshi Dance, a video that became an online hit after it was posted on YouTube in June.
The company had planned to release the song as a single, but this week’s British High Court ruling bars it from “promoting, advertising, selling, distributing or otherwise making available to the public” any work involving Lady Goo Goo.
Law firm Mishcon de Reya confirmed that it had represented Lady Gaga in the case, but did not give further details.
Mind Candy founder Michael Acton Smith said the ruling was “a huge disappointment.”
“It was all done in the name of fun, and we would have thought that Lady Gaga could have seen the humor behind this parody,” he said.
Oliver Smith, an intellectual property lawyer with Keystone Law, said the judgment’s impact on other musical spoofs and tribute acts would likely be limited.
“English trademark law allows parody songs and tribute bands, but not if the names are too similar and one takes unfair advantage of the other’s goodwill,” he said.
In other news about accusations of wrongdoing, actress Hilary Swank is donating her fees for attending a controversial event in Chechnya to charity after criticism from human rights groups.
A spokeswoman for the two-time Oscar winner said on Friday that Swank would give her personal appearance fees to various charitable organizations.
Swank has said she “deeply regrets” taking part in a birthday celebration in the Chechen capital Grozny last week for regional strong Ramzan Kadyrov, who is accused of orchestrating human rights violations.
Human Rights Watch urged Swank and other celebrities who attended the event to return any money or gifts.
Swank said this week she was unaware of Kadyrov’s policies, which human rights group say promote fear, abductions and executions of those involved in Chechnya’s Islamist insurgency.
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