People in the news

Nicole Kidman in minor car crash during filming

Los Angeles – Nicole Kidman was taken to a hospital after the Jaguar she was in crashed early Thursday during downtown shooting of the science fiction thriller “The Invasion,” police said.

Kidman, 39, was examined at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and then released a short time later. Paramedics were called to examine Kidman for injuries before she was taken to the hospital, police said.

“Nicole Kidman was in the vehicle at the time of the accident and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. She was released shortly thereafter,” Warner Bros. said in a statement.

No other actors were involved in the scene at the time of the accident, the studio said.

Keith Urban to kick off U.S. leg of tour in June

Nashville, Tenn. – Keith Urban will launch the North American leg of his world tour June 8 in Phoenix, marking his return to U.S. concert stages after undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the road, to reconnecting with everyone and to doing what it is that I love to do,” he said in a statement released Thursday. “To finally be able to present the songs from ‘Love, Pain (& and the whole crazy thing)’ live is something that I’ve been looking forward to doing since recording the album.”

Other stops on the 33-city North American tour include San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Dallas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Memphis, St. Louis, Houston and several other cities, according to the release.

‘Idol’ finalist Chris Daughtry to perform free concert

Greensboro, N.C. – “American Idol” finalist Chris Daughtry will perform a free concert March 23 in downtown Greensboro.

Greensboro Coliseum officials organized the show as a prelude to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament games on March 24 and 26, and they hope the concert helps the city’s bid to host the 2012 women’s Final Four.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 people are expected to attend the concert.

Over the past year, Daughtry, 27, has gone from a local musician based in nearby McLeansville to a fourth-place “Idol” finish and a top-selling album.

Sawyer hopes to awaken U.S. to poverty at home

New York – ABC News is airing a special today on struggling families in Camden, N.J., because many Americans see more images of what poverty looks like overseas than in their own country, Diane Sawyer said Thursday.

The anchorwoman’s 9 p.m. CST report, “Waiting on the World to Change,” contrasts the lives of children in a small city considered among the nation’s most dangerous with those in the nearby prosperous suburb Moorestown.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen what poverty looks like in our own country,” said Sawyer, who spent a night with two of the three Camden families profiled in the show, which was a year and a half in the making.

The featured youngsters are Ivan, a kindergartner who, with his mother and younger brother, are frequently homeless and spent months sleeping together on a single chair; Moochie, a 6-year-old girl who’s a bright student weighed down by her father’s alcoholism and parents’ incessant arguing; and Billy Joe, a high school senior living with his father and five siblings in a home that frequently has no power.

Trumpeter sentenced to year in prison for tax evasion

Chattanooga, Tenn. – Grammy-winning trumpeter Phil Driscoll was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in prison for using his gospel music ministry in an income-tax evasion scheme.

U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier allowed Driscoll 45 days to report to prison and agreed to decide by that deadline on Driscoll’s request to remain free while he appeals his conviction.

In June, a jury found Driscoll, 58, guilty on charges of conspiracy and tax evasion from 1996 through 1999.

The indictment accused Driscoll and his wife, Lynne, of scheming with Lynne Driscoll’s mother, bookkeeper Chris Blankenship, to avoid reporting personal income totaling more than $1 million.