Sanjaya: ‘I’m not just a musician, I’m an entertainer’

New York – Sanjaya Malakar is so famous, he can’t walk anywhere without getting noticed.

“It’s really weird. I mean, I’m just Sanjaya from Seattle,” the 17-year-old “American Idol” cast-off said Monday on “Live With Regis and Kelly.”

“It’s paparazzi (who) get at you,” he said, “and fans come up and try to give you hugs and get autographs. I would love to just be able to hug everyone and give autographs and take pictures, but you can’t.”

Malakar was voted off the Fox talent competition last week after a long and unlikely run in which he outlasted better singers and captivated millions of TV viewers with his goofy charm and ever-changing hairdos.

He wants to be a triple threat: singer, actor and model.

“Like, I really – what I want to do is experience the whole entertainment business because, I mean, I’m not just a musician, I’m an entertainer,” Malakar said.

Laura Dern recalls year out of work after kissing role

New York – Ten years after they kissed on the “Ellen” show, Ellen DeGeneres and Laura Dern reunited Monday on DeGeneres’ syndicated talk show to reflect back on the smooch and its aftermath.

DeGeneres, 49, made pop-culture history in 1997 by coming out of the closet in real life while her sitcom character did likewise. In her character’s coming-out episode, Dern shared a smooch with the comedian during a guest stint on the ABC series as a lesbian love interest.

Dern, 40, recounted Monday how she couldn’t get an acting job for more than a year afterward. “There was certainly backlash, I guess, (that) we all felt from it,” she told DeGeneres, who said she was sorry and “had no idea” that Dern was snubbed in Hollywood.

Not getting work felt “awfully terrifying,” recalled Dern, who said she’s grateful for the “extraordinary experience and opportunity” to be a part of the groundbreaking episode, which also guest starred Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore and Melissa Etheridge.

Cheech Marin donating digital prints of art collection

Los Angeles – Cheech Marin is donating copies of works from his Mexican-American art collection to some of the nation’s best-known museums and universities.

Recipients include the Smithsonian, UCLA, the San Antonio Museum of Art, where the collection debuted in 2001, and Marin’s alma mater, California State University, Northridge.

The 60-year-old actor-comedian says he’ll donate 50 sets of high-quality digital prints of “Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge,” which has been on tour for about five years.

Marin has voiced roles in animated films such as “Cars” and “Oliver & Company.” His acting credits also include roles in the “Spy Kids” movies and the TV series “Judging Amy” and “Nash Bridges.”

Pulitzer-winning writer David Halberstam killed in car crash

San Francisco – David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who chronicled the Washington press corps, the Vietnam War generation and baseball, was killed in a car crash early Monday, a coroner said. He was 73.

Halberstam, a New Yorker, was a passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said.

The accident occurred around 10:30 a.m., and the driver of the car carrying Halberstam identified him as the victim, Foucrault said. A call to Menlo Park police wasn’t immediately returned.

“Looking at the accident and examining him at the scene indicated it’s most likely internal injuries,” Foucrault said.

Halberstam spoke Saturday at a UC Berkeley-sponsored event on the craft of journalism and what it means to turn reporting into a work of history.