Breslin files last column

New York — Opinionated and outspoken to the last.

In his last regular column, published in Newsday on Tuesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jimmy Breslin said he was so sure Democratic nominee John Kerry was going to win the presidential race easily that he wasn’t even going to stay up to watch the election returns on television.

“So I go to bed with total confidence. … And I leave today as the only one in America who from the start was sure John Kerry would win by a large margin,” Breslin wrote.

Breslin, a New York fixture, has been writing about the city for four decades. He had been producing three columns a week for Newsday, and the paper said that he would still be contributing from time to time.

Rap synching

New York — Looks like today’s pop acts rarely take the “live” in Saturday Night Live seriously.

Just one week after Ashlee Simpson lip-synched on the show, Eminem was found guilty of the same offense, reports The New York Post.

“He was singing ‘Mosh’ and you could tell he was lip-synching,” said a source. “The track was just a bit ahead of his lips and he put the mike down at one point but the track kept going.”

Eminem’s rep said he was merely trying to “duplicate the sound on his album. He had a vocal track on for double vocal effect on the first song, to make it more powerful. Lots of hip-hop artists do that. Tupac Shakur did it.”

Haitian peace effort

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean visited Haiti, his homeland, to try to help end a wave of violence that has left at least 79 people dead, including several police officers and two street gang leaders.

The singer met with community and gang leaders in Bel Air Sunday as gunshots rang out. The neighborhood, filled with supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has become a flash point for violence.

Jean said he planned to talk to all sectors of Haitian society during his four-day visit to promote dialogue and plans for a peace concert in December.

Cos makes money for cause

Amherst, Mass. — The University of Massachusetts has entertainer Bill Cosby — one of its most famous graduates — to thank for helping raise $1.5 million for a new program aimed at giving scholarships to students from the poorer communities around the university.

A bulk of the money comes from a benefit concert that Cosby gave at his alma mater Friday.

Chancellor John Lombardi said the first scholarships would go to students in Springfield and Holyoke schools that already have partnership agreements with the university.

If the program is successful, it will be open to students from other poorer communities in the region, he said.