Broadway cast change

New York – Broadway has its new “Frankie and Johnny.”

Rosie Perez and Joe Pantoliano will replace Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci on New Year’s Day in the hit revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” Terrence McNally’s blue-collar romance.

Perez is best known for her film roles in “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Fearless,” and Pantoliano played the recently departed Ralph Cifaretto in HBO’s “The Sopranos,” where Falco appears as Carmela Soprano.

Falco and Tucci give their last performance Dec. 29.

Recipe for unhappiness

London – Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver joined several hundred protesters to fight government plans to expand airports in southern England.

Oliver, who gained fame through his TV food show, “The Naked Chef,” opposes a proposal to build more runways at Stansted Airport north of London.

The government wants to build up to three new runways. Residents including Oliver say the plan would cause congestion and noise pollution for thousands of people in a largely rural area.

“It’s out of scale with the geography and architecture of the area and a lot of people are very, very upset, ” Oliver, 27, said. He recently bought a 16th-century manor house in his home village near Stansted.”

Prague’s favorite daughter

Prague, Czech Republic – Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the highest-ranking woman in U.S. political history, received a warm welcome in her native Prague – along with an award for her years of public service.

The Prague Society for International Cooperation presented Albright with its annual citizenship award Saturday for “international public service and understanding.”

Albright was born in Prague in 1937 in what was then Czechoslovakia. Eleven years later, her family moved to the United States to escape the country’s totalitarian communist regime.

Songwriters finally cash in

Los Angeles – Rock star Jackson Browne and two other songwriters settled a lawsuit that claimed they were underpaid for their contributions to one of the Eagles’ most popular albums.

Browne, Jack Tempchin and J.D. Souther sued Warner-Chappell Music Inc. in February for more than $10 million.

According to the lawsuit, the songwriters were supposed to be paid a fluctuating royalty rate for their contributions to “Eagles – Their Greatest Hits, 1971-1974.”

At the time of the suit, the rate was 7.5 cents per song. Instead, they have been paid only about 2.5 cents per song since 1975 for the hits they co-wrote, “Already Gone,” “Best of My Love,” “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Take it Easy,” according to the suit, which cites an audit done in 2000.

The album has sold more than 26 million copies, according to the lawsuit.