Last performance

New York — Peter Allen is signing off after 29 years as announcer of the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts.

Allen is retiring after having completed the Met’s 2003-04 broadcast season on April 24.

“Except for my marriage, the broadcasts — and preparing for them — have been the richest experience of my life. I’ll miss them and the many helpful friends I’ve been lucky enough to work with,” the 84-year-old said Tuesday. “But the broadcasts are demanding, and it’s probably best for them and me to sign off while I’m ahead.”

Allen, a Toronto native, took over as host in January 1975 after Milton Cross, the broadcast’s original announcer since 1931, died suddenly.

Oprah’s guru defends McDonald’s

Little Rock, Ark. — The fitness guru who trimmed Oprah Winfrey and is riding his bicycle across the country to promote health and wellness is sticking up for his sponsor, McDonald’s.

Bob Greene is biking 3,000 miles over 36 days as part of the fast-food restaurant’s “Go Active!” challenge. Greene said that those who criticize McDonald’s — like Morgan Spurlock, director of the new documentary “Super Size Me” — are just taking cheap shots at the restaurant.

“It’s the movie coming out or lawyers,” Greene said Monday during a rest stop in a McDonald’s parking lot. “Those things just don’t have teeth.”

A little help for the teacher

New York — Selma Litowitz laughed, and for that, Jon Stewart is still grateful.

The “Daily Show” host is promoting a two-CD compilation by singer-songwriters to benefit the ParkinSong Foundation. It was set up by the children of Litowitz, Stewart’s former English teacher who has Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative nerve condition.

Stewart was a self-confessed smart aleck while in high school in Lawrence, N.J., and most of his teachers were constantly telling him to pipe down.

Not Mrs. Litowitz.

“She was very patient, she was very understanding,” Stewart recalled in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. “She was the only one who made me feel that there was some kind of useful skill behind what I was doing.”

Tough to see

Hong Kong — Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan said he was deeply moved after digging up land mines for a week during a recent trip to Cambodia to raise awareness about the issue there.

Chan, a newly appointed U.N. goodwill ambassador, spent three days in Cambodia in late April, visiting land mine explosion victims and HIV/AIDS patients.

Chan said he wasn’t afraid, but “for a week, whenever I had a dream, I dreamt about digging (up) land mines.”

“A child could go to buy milk and return without legs,” he said.