People in the news

Obama delivers top 10 ‘promises’ on Letterman

New York – Sen. Barack Obama is making some campaign promises we can be pretty sure he won’t keep.

Appearing Thursday on the “Late Show With David Letterman,” the Democratic presidential candidate delivered a tongue-in-cheek list of his top 10 campaign promises, including a pledge to rename the 10th month of the year “Barack-tober.”

Also on the list is a vow to “appoint Mitt Romney secretary of lookin’ good” and another to “put Regis on the nickel.”

And the No. 1 campaign promise?

“Three words: Vice President Oprah.”

Winehouse enters rehab facility for drug addiction

London – More rehab for Amy Winehouse? Yes, yes, yes.

The jazz-pop diva best known for refusing to enter drug rehab in her hit song entered a treatment facility Thursday. The announcement came just days after the 24-year-old was pictured in British tabloid The Sun inhaling fumes from a small pipe. Police are investigating.

“Amy decided to enter the facility today after talks with her record label, management, family and doctors,” Universal Music Group said in a statement. The statement indicated Winehouse still planned to attend and perform at the Grammys, to be held Feb. 10 in Los Angeles. She is nominated for six Grammy Awards for her “Back to Black” album.

In the album’s most popular song, “Rehab,” she references her struggles, singing: “They tried to make me go to rehab/ I said no, no, no.”

Will Ferrell committed to Irish heritage

Dublin, Ireland – Will Ferrell has received the James Joyce award – but concedes he’s no literary expert.

“As I perused my leatherbound volumes of ‘Ulysses,’ ‘Finnegans Wake,’ ‘Dubliners,’ ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,’ standing in my mahogany library, a lot of feelings ran across my mind. Like: ‘Damn, I should have read these books,'” Ferrell deadpanned in front of more than 1,000 University College Dublin students Wednesday night.

Ferrell, 40, has just spent two weeks traveling throughout Ireland goofing around with his dad, Lee, and brother Patrick.

They spent time tracing family roots in the ancestral County Longford of the Ferrells, and his deepening sense of Irishness was evident as he arrived at the university clad in a snug-fitting Irish rugby jersey, shorts and cap.

“I’m so committed to my Irish roots that I intend to continue wearing this outfit upon my return to the United States,” Ferrell told his audience. “I will also continue to drive on the left-hand side of the road. Will it be dangerous? Yes. Is it illegal? Highly. But that’s just how committed I am.”

The Joyce award, run by the university’s Literary and Historical Society, has been bestowed on a wide range of politicians and celebrities, including U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, former South African President F.W. de Klerk and former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.