People in the news

Jolie goes into hospital for birth of twins

Paris – Brangelina’s twins aren’t here yet, but the big day is drawing closer.

The seafront Lenval hospital in Nice in the south of France said Tuesday that Angelina Jolie had checked in at its Santa Maria maternity clinic to be kept under doctors’ surveillance and get some rest before she gives birth.

“There’s no urgency. It’s been planned for a long time,” said Nadine Bauer, a hospital spokeswoman. “She’s very well. Everything is fine.”

“She is not on the verge of giving birth, not at all,” she said. “It’s not for right away.”

The 33-year-old actress will almost certainly remain in the hospital until she gives birth, Bauer said. She said Jolie was admitted recently but would not say exactly when.

Jolie has said the babies are due in August, but twins are often born early. She and her partner, Brad Pitt, have four children: Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2.

The Brangelina clan has been settling into a new home in the south of France.

Boy George nixes tour after visa denial

New York – Boy George’s plans for a North American tour have run into some bad karma.

The Culture Club singer, whose given name is George O’Dowd, has canceled his summer plans after U.S. authorities denied him a visa to enter the country.

O’Dowd, 47, had planned to officially kick off his 25-city tour in Aspen, Colo., on July 10, and was to throw in a free concert at the New York City Department of Sanitation’s Family Day in August. He worked for the department in 2006 while performing court-ordered community service in a drug case.

That didn’t appear possible, though, when last week O’Dowd’s managers issued a statement saying he had been refused a visa because he’s awaiting trial in London on charges that he falsely imprisoned a man. The Sun newspaper reported in April that a 28-year-old man claimed he was chained and threatened at O’Dowd’s London flat, where he had gone to work as a photo model.

The singer, whose hits include “Karma Chameleon,” has pleaded not guilty.

Haysbert: ’24’ role may help Obama

Reno, Nev. – Dennis Haysbert likes to believe his portrayal as the first African-American U.S. president on Fox’s “24” may have helped pave the way for Barack Obama.

“If anything, my portrayal of David Palmer, I think, may have helped open the eyes of the American people,” said the actor, who has contributed $2,300 to the Illinois Democrat’s presidential campaign.

“And I mean the American people from across the board – from the poorest to the richest, every color and creed, every religious base – to prove the possibility there could be an African-American president, a female president, any type of president that puts the people first,” he said Tuesday.

Haysbert, who now stars on “The Unit” on CBS, made his comments to reporters during a teleconference call promoting the upcoming American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe.

Rape charge dropped against Poison drummer

Jackson, Miss. – A rape charge against Rikki Rockett has been dropped after authorities determined that the Poison drummer was not in the state at the time of the alleged crime.

Authorities say they are now looking for a man with a history of passing himself off as a rock musician to pick up women.

Rockett was accused of raping a woman at a central Mississippi casino in September 2007 and arrested in March. The Neshoba County district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday that the charges were dropped.

Rockett said he was in California when the rape was alleged.

“I was with my fiance watching her try on wedding dresses,” Rockett said in a Tuesday phone interview with The Associated Press from Salt Lake City, where Poison is preparing to launch a 49-date tour. “We’ve got eyewitnesses to that.”

Police arrested Rockett, whose real name is Richard Ream, at Los Angeles International Airport upon his return from a concert in New Zealand in March. The 46-year-old said he’s never been arrested before and feared his reputation would be ruined.

New York magazine founder Clay Felker dies

New York – Clay Felker, who revolutionized the magazine genre as founding editor of New York, bringing readers a smart, sassy mix of gossip and news that was replicated relentlessly across the country, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Felker died with his wife, writer Gail Sheehy, at his side at their New York City home after a battle with throat cancer, the magazine said.

“Those of us lucky enough to work in the house that he built are reminded every day of the depth of his genius,” New York Editor-in-Chief Adam Moss said. “He created a kind of magazine that had never been seen before, told a kind of story that had never been told.”

Felker’s New York became indispensable in the 1960s and ’70s for those craving the latest on the city’s social scene, inside knowledge of its business and politics, and consumer tips from its endless “best of” lists.

Editors across the country adopted Felker’s formula – co-founder Milton Glaser’s bold layout designs and the equally non-traditional “new journalism” writing style of contributors like Tom Wolfe.