Singer Jimmy Buffett opens meeting for cousin Warren

Omaha, Neb. – Instead of legendary investor Warren Buffett, singer Jimmy Buffett opened up Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting Saturday.

The chief “parrothead” joked that as Warren’s distant cousin, he was taking over for the 76-year-old billionaire chairman and chief executive officer.

“Since blood is thicker than water, I’m your new chairman,” the singer said.

Then Jimmy Buffett sang a version of his hit song “Margaritaville” that had been rewritten to honor Berkshire Hathaway and its companies.

After the song, Jimmy Buffett introduced the Buffett the crowd was really waiting for.

Version of ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ car fetches $10M on eBay

San Jose, Calif. – A version of the General Lee – a 1969 Dodge Charger made famous in the television show “The Dukes of Hazzard” – fetched a winning bid of nearly $10 million Friday in an online auction.

If the bidder comes through with cash or financing for the $9,900,500 price, the car will be the most expensive item ever sold by eBay Inc., company spokeswoman Catherine England said.

Actor John Schneider, who played the blond heartthrob Bo Duke in the show, sold the car, which was not featured in the original show but carries the signatures of the cast.

Schneider, 47, said Friday that he expected bidding for the orange coupe, which has “01” on the doors and is emblazoned with the Confederate flag, to go for $3 million at most.

“In my wildest dreams, two people would get into a bidding war at about $2.5 million … and I would have been delighted with that. However, I’m three times as delighted as that now,” he laughed.

All the living original cast members and crew from the show, which started in 1979, signed their autographs under the hood of the car. It was also featured in the movie “Dukes Go To Hollywood,” and Schneider raced it in The Silver State Classic Challenge in Nevada.

The actor said he would use the money to help produce a sequel to his 2006 movie “Collier & Co.”

‘Borat’s’ brother composes music for Kazakh orchestra

London – The West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra chose an unusual composer to headline its London performance Friday: Borat’s real-life brother.

Erran Baron Cohen, the brother of actor Sacha Baron Cohen, composed the 16-minute piece “Zere,” which is debuting at St. James’s Church in central London.

The irony of working with a Kazakh orchestra was not lost on Baron Cohen, a trumpeter who also composed the score to his brother’s movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” In the smash comedy last year, Sacha Baron Cohen portrays a backward Kazakh television journalist.

“After I’d got over the initial shock of being rung up by someone from Kazakhstan, I thought it was a great accolade if they liked the music in the film so much that they asked me to write for a symphony orchestra,” Baron Cohen told The Daily Telegraph.

He told the newspaper his piece incorporates Kazakh folk elements and instruments and is named after the Kazakh company that sponsored the composition.