Kennedy Center Honor recipients announced

Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Mel Brooks, jazz musician Dave Brubeck and opera singer Grace Bumbry are this year’s recipients of Kennedy Center Honors, which will be bestowed at a ceremony in Washington on Dec. 6 and telecast on CBS.

The recipients will be feted by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House before the performance gala at the Kennedy Center, where each honoree will be saluted by various peers from the arts world.

Obama salutes Walter Cronkite at memorial

New York — By all accounts, Walter Cronkite would have loved the war stories swapped and memories rekindled at his memorial service. All that was missing was a bar.

Instead, there were two presidents, broadcasting royalty, a man who walked on the moon and a drummer for the Grateful Dead.

President Barack Obama called Cronkite “a voice of certainty in a world that was growing more and more uncertain,” capping a gathering of old friends and colleagues Wednesday at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. Cronkite, who defined television journalism during his reign at CBS News, died July 17 at age 92.

It was more mirthful than mournful. Celebrants spoke not only of Cronkite’s dedication to the news and instinctive understanding of his role in society, but also of his love of sailing and family and unexpected relationships — like becoming good friends with drummer Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.

Cronkite anchored “The CBS Evening News” from 1962 until 1981, a period that included the Vietnam War, the space race, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and Watergate.

During his decades at CBS, Cronkite came to be known as “the most trusted man in America.”

Keillor hospitalized after minor stroke

Minneapolis — Humorist Garrison Keillor still plans to start his new season of “A Prairie Home Companion” as scheduled in just over two weeks, despite suffering a minor stroke.

Keillor, 67, had the stroke and was admitted to Saint Marys Hospital at Mayo Clinic, said Karl Oestreich, a spokesman for the Rochester, Minn. facility. He will remain there until Friday for tests “and upon his release will resume his schedule as previously planned,” Keillor spokesman David O’Neill said.

“He is up and moving around, speaking sensibly, working at a laptop,” Oestreich said in a statement to The Associated Press.

O’Neill said in an e-mail that Keillor “is doing well and the family appreciates the warm wishes.”

It’s a boy, Sparrow, for Richie, Madden

Los Angeles — Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are setting their sights on Sparrow — not in the trees, but in the nursery.

The couple named their newborn son Sparrow James Midnight Madden.

Richie says on her Web site that Sparrow James Midnight Madden was born early Wednesday. Sparrow, who weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces, is the second child for Richie and Madden. Their daughter, Harlow, will be 2 in January.

Richie, 27, became a clothing and accessories designer after starring with Paris Hilton on “The Simple Life.” Madden, 30, fronts the band Good Charlotte and runs the DCMA Collective clothing line with his twin brother, Benji.

Lohan joins Ungaro as artistic adviser

New York — Lindsay Lohan’s high-fashion shopping habits are well documented — and now she’s putting that to work: The house of Emanuel Ungaro has hired her as artistic adviser.

The French fashion line is pairing Lohan with a new designer — Estrella Archs, formerly of Prada, Emilio Pucci and Nina Ricci — for what it’s calling a new consumer-led business model.

“A designer only-led fashion house isn’t enough, so we’re adding a super consumer who gives us a direct channel to consumers,” said Ungaro CEO and president Mounir Moufarrige.

Lohan, in a phone interview from a hotel where she said she was trying to organize her outfits, acknowledged she is a clotheshorse. “My house is like a three-story closet.”

The first joint Lohan-Archs collection will debut during Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 4, but Lohan has already started wearing some of the pieces. A Grecian, one-shoulder blue dress she wore recently is the perfect balance of sexiness and comfort, she said.

Hugh Hefner files for divorce

Los Angeles — After more than a decade of separation, Hugh Hefner is seeking an official return to his bachelor status. The Playboy founder filed for divorce on Friday from his wife and former Playmate, Kimberly.

Hefner is asking a judge to order him to pay Kimberly Conrad Hefner $20,000 a month in spousal support. That would be half of the $40,000 a month that the Playboy founder has been paying her since they separated in 1998, the records state.

He wants the monthly payments to end in two years, or after a trial on the couple’s divorce is held, whichever comes first.

Hefner has lived with three girlfriends at the infamous Playboy Mansion since 2001.

Hefner and Kimberly Conrad Hefner were married in 1989, the same year she was named Playmate of the Year. They separated in 1998. Hefner continued to live at the mansion, and Kimberly Hefner moved into a home next door with the couple’s two young sons.

The couple had two sons together, Marston and Cooper Hefner, who are now both in college. Hefner, 83, states that he has paid his sons’ school expenses and will continue to do so.

Hefner founded Playboy magazine in 1953 and has since served as its pajama-clad public face.