Daly says NBC gave him ultimatum to return

Los Angeles – For Carson Daly, the phrase “the show must go on” has taken on a whole new significance.

“An ultimatum was put in front of me,” Daly told the Los Angeles Times of his decision to return to host NBC’s “Last Call With Carson Daly” during a continuing writers’ strike. “It was, ‘Put a new show on Dec. 3 or 75 people are fired. What’s your answer?'”

Daly said he quickly decided he couldn’t live with putting loyal staffers out of work, the newspaper reported Monday. When asked who at NBC delivered the ultimatum, Daly said it was his “immediate bosses” but wouldn’t be more specific.

Messages left with an NBC spokeswoman seeking comment Monday were not immediately returned.

Since Daly’s return, other network late-night hosts Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have all announced plans to return next month.

But Daly received the most criticism, partly because he was first to return to the air during the strike, now in its eighth week.

Will Smith angry at Scottish newspaper

Los Angeles – Will Smith is angry over celebrity gossip Web site articles that he said misinterpreted a recent remark he made in a Scottish newspaper about Adolf Hitler.

In a story published Saturday in the Daily Record, Smith was quoted saying: “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.'”

The quote was preceded by the writer’s observation: “Remarkably, Will believes everyone is basically good.”

Over the weekend, dozens of celebrity gossip Web sites posted articles about the comment, many saying that Smith believed that Hitler was a “good” person.

“It is an awful and disgusting lie,” Smith said in a statement Monday provided by his publicist. “It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation.”

“Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet,” read the statement.

Toby Keith, family win wrongful death suit

Purcell, Okla. – Toby Keith, his mother and his siblings have been awarded $2.8 million in damages in the 2001 collision that killed the country music star’s father.

A jury returned the verdict against Elias Rodriguez and Pedro Rodriguez, operators of Rodriguez Transportes of Tulsa, and the Republic Western Insurance Co.

According to evidence presented at trial, a charter bus owned by the Rodriguezes was “in urgent need” of brake repairs before H.K. Covel was killed in the March 2001 accident on Interstate 35, said attorney Greg Dixon, who represented Keith’s family.

The Rodriguezes had been advised of the brake problem before Covel’s truck crossed the center median and struck the bus, he said.

The family initially suspected Covel suffered a medical condition that caused the truck to veer out of control. It later learned another vehicle had bumped the truck and filed a wrongful death lawsuit to clear Covel’s name, Dixon said.

The verdict was returned last week.

“The jury found no fault on the part of Mr. Covel in the wreck that claimed his life,” Dixon said.

Martha Stewart built nativity scene in prison

Charleston, W.Va. – The Christmas season brought Martha Stewart one fond memory of her stay in a West Virginia prison.

On the Christmas Day episode of her television show, Stewart showed off ornate clay forms of the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary, three camels and others she sculpted at a pottery class at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W.Va.

“Even though every inmate was only allowed to do one a month, and I was only there for five months, I begged because I said I was an expert potter – ceramicist actually – and could I please make the entire nativity scene,” she said.

Her creations were all fired and glazed at the prison. She completed the effect with tiny artificial palm trees imported from Germany by a New Jersey distributor.

Stewart was imprisoned in 2005 for lying about her sale of ImClone stock.

John Legend home for Christmas for concert

Springfield, Ohio – Grammy-winning R&B artist John Legend returned to his hometown to headline a small Christmas Eve benefit concert of local artists at his high school alma mater.

Legend, 28, performed in the “Coming Home Christmas Benefit Concert” along with R&B, gospel and rock talents, including the Springfield North and Springfield South high school choirs.

“Springfield has a lot of talent,” said Legend, who performed to a sold-out crowd of 1,200 at North High. “And the concert is a nice variety that represents the diversity of Springfield.”

Proceeds from the concert, which was the brainchild of Legend’s brother Vaughn Anthony Stephens, go to the Jason Collier Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Collier, an NBA player and Springfield Catholic Central alumnus, was 28 when he died from a sudden heart rhythm disturbance in 2005.

Legend said he met Collier in high school and called his death tragic.