Bowie in charge of Meltdown

London  Davie Bowie will be the host of this year’s Meltdown Festival, to be staged over two weeks in June at the South Bank arts complex next to the River Thames.

Organizers said Tuesday that the 55-year-old singer, as artistic director, will announce in the coming weeks which acts he’s chosen.

“I hope some of the ideas we come up with for performances and artists will transpire, for if they do, they will hopefully make this an inspiring and fun festival,” Bowie said Tuesday.

Bowie is the 10th guest curator for the event, which began in 1993. Past performers include Radiohead, Blur, Sonic Youth and Kylie Minogue.

Mailow scores an honor

New York  Barry Manilow writes the songs that make the whole world sing, and now those songs have earned him a spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Manilow, whose hits include “I Write the Songs,” is among this year’s inductees into the hall, along with Sting, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman, and Ashford & Simpson, the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame announced Tuesday.

The 33rd annual induction and awards dinner will be June 13 in New York.

Spacey needs some space

Berlin  Kevin Spacey says he’s taking a break from acting “for a while” to give full attention to his movie company, Trigger St. Productions.

“It can be more difficult to raise $2 million than $20 million,” which an established filmmaker can command, Spacey said Monday at the Berlin International Film Festival. “It’s my honor and responsibility to send the elevator back down.”

He was at the festival to promote “The Shipping News,” directed by Lasse Hallstrom and co-starring Judi Dench. The film is among the contenders for the festival’s Golden Bear, to be awarded Sunday.

Mrs. Bush bites back

Burbank, Calif. Â First lady Laura Bush told “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno that the president has a new twist on snacking.

Mrs. Bush greeted Leno on Monday with a pretzel the size of a small fist, telling him that her husband intends to practice “safe snacks” from now on.

President Bush choked on a piece of pretzel in January and briefly lost consciousness, hitting his head on the floor when he fell from a couch in the White House.

Pointing to the pretzel, which she said was the one her husband was snacking on at the time of the incident, the first lady told Leno that it was easy to see how the incident could have happened.

“It isn’t really a sissy pretzel,” she said.