Farrow tours Central African Republic to highlight crisis

Bangui, Central African Republic – Shaking hands with droves of cheering street children, Mia Farrow began a weeklong tour of the Central African Republic on Saturday to draw attention – and aid – to one of the world’s forgotten crises.

The 62-year-old actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador will visit some of the 150,000 people displaced by the nation’s simmering conflict and tour northern towns recently ravaged by fighting close to the borders with Chad and Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.

“It’s called a forgotten crisis, a forgotten humanitarian crisis, but forgotten implies that it was once remembered,” Farrow told The Associated Press in an interview in the country’s capital of dirt roads and tumbledown, tin-roofed buildings. “I’m not sure it was in anyone’s consciousness … it’s undetected.”

More than a year of instability in the impoverished nation’s northeast boiled over into a rebellion in October in which insurgents captured several towns. French-backed government troops recaptured the towns in early December, but they have been accused of burning villages to flush out insurgents.

An impoverished country, the Central African Republic has been wracked by coups and army mutinies since independence from France in 1960.

Stiller, Meara receive star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Los Angeles – Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, his wife of more than 50 years, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday for their respective careers.

Their children – actors Ben Stiller and Amy Stiller – and actor Jason Alexander joined the couple as they were presented with the 2,328th star.

Stiller portrayed the father of Alexander’s character, George Costanza, on the long-running NBC comedy “Seinfeld.” He plays a cantankerous father-in-law on CBS’ “The King of Queens.”

Meara has been nominated four times for an Emmy, including for outstanding lead actress for a drama for her title role in the short-lived 1975 CBS legal drama “Kate McShane.”

Stiller and Meara were members of the improvisational company The Compass Players, then started an act that led to 36 appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and countless nightclub and theater appearances.

Robert De Niro brings ‘Shepherd’ to Berlin festival

Berlin – Robert De Niro said his fascination with the Cold War led him to direct the CIA saga “The Good Shepherd,” which screened Saturday at the annual Berlin film festival.

The film – shut out of all the top Oscar nominations – was among 22 movies competing for the top Golden Bear award in Berlin. “Shepherd” traces the origins of the CIA through the eyes of a fictionalized agent, played by Matt Damon.

De Niro, who made his directorial debut 13 years ago with “A Bronx Tale,” said he was attracted to “Shepherd” by the “sweeping scope” of the script by Eric Roth and a fascination with the period itself.

“I’m fascinated by the Cold War. I’m a child of the Cold War,” he told reporters, recalling visiting the divided Berlin as a child. “That whole period and the intelligence world – all that stuff is fascinating.”

He his goal was to avoid being judgmental.

“I didn’t want to criticize,” he said. “I put the things down in as straightforward, direct, honest a way as I could.”

The movie focuses on the personal toll on Damon’s character, Edward Wilson, who neglects his wife, played by Angelina Jolie, and son as he resolutely pursues his espionage career.

De Niro, 63, said he saw parallels between the CIA tale and the Mafia world of many of the films that made him famous.

“There’s a definite similarity to both secretive organizations,” he said, though he added, “Edward Wilson’s family is more dysfunctional than the Italian families that I can remember.”

Coroner: Accidental drug mix killed R&B singer Levert

Cleveland – R&B singer Gerald Levert’s death last fall was an accident caused by a fatal combination of prescription narcotics and over-the-counter drugs, a coroner said.

The drugs in his bloodstream included the narcotic pain relievers Vicodin, Percocet and Darvocet, along with anxiety medication Xanax and two over-the-counter antihistamines, Geauga County Coroner Kevin Chartrand said. The official cause of death was acute intoxication, and the death was ruled accidental.

Chartrand said his office received a report Thursday from the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office, which conducted the autopsy.

Levert, 40, son of O’Jays singer Eddie Levert, died Nov. 10 in his suburban Cleveland home. He was a member of the R&B trio LeVert, whose hits included “(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind” and “Casanova.” He sold millions of albums and had numerous hits over his career.

Andy Gibson, a family spokesman, said Levert was taking the pain medication because of chronic pain from a lingering shoulder problem and surgery in 2005 to repair a severed Achilles tendon. The autopsy revealed that Levert had pneumonia.

Levert also took Xanax for anxiety attacks, Gibson said.