Rocker Tom Petty
insists he's not retiring
Looks like Tom Petty won't back down after all.
The veteran rocker says he's not retiring, despite a Rolling Stone article in July that suggested otherwise.
Petty said 2006 was one of the most rewarding years in his career, and he expects the ride to continue in 2007.
“You never know how things are going to turn out, and I didn't see this year coming,” Petty told the Los Angeles Times for a story published Sunday. “But maybe next year will be even better.”
Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, recently earned two Grammy nominations for their latest album, “Highway Companion.”
Their 30th anniversary tour was a sellout and included a triumphant homecoming to Gainesville, Fla., where the band formed in the 1970s. Petty was offered the key to the city.
Spears falls asleep in
Las Vegas nightclub
Britney Spears finally appears to be acting like a new mom.
The pop princess, who recently made headlines for a rash of less-than-motherly hard partying, fell asleep in a Las Vegas nightclub early Monday shortly after leading the New Year's Eve countdown, her manager said.
“By about one o'clock, she was just done, so we took her out,” Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told The Associated Press Monday. “She was not drunk. She was just tired and falling asleep.”
Rudolph denied reports circulating on gossip Web sites that Spears, 25, collapsed shortly after midnight and was carried out by bodyguards. The star was hired to host the festivities at Caesars Palace's PURE nightclub.
Frustration is why Oprah says she built school
Frustrated with just donating money to charities, Oprah Winfrey says she built a school for poor girls in South Africa because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help.
“I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check,” she told Newsweek magazine. “At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.”
Winfrey spent five years and $40 million to build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg.
The school for 12- and 13-year-old girls has 28 buildings on 22 lush acres.
The school includes huge fireplaces in every building, a yoga studio, indoor and outdoor theaters and a beauty salon. People criticized her, saying the school is too lavish for such an impoverished country.
“These girls deserve to be surrounded by beauty, and beauty does inspire,” she told the magazine. “I wanted this to be a place of honor for them because these girls have never been treated with kindness. They've never been told they are pretty or have wonderful dimples. I wanted to hear those things as a child.”
- From wire reports
Looks like Tom Petty won't back down after all.
The veteran rocker says he's not retiring, despite a Rolling Stone article in July that suggested otherwise.
Petty said 2006 was one of the most rewarding years in his career, and he expects the ride to continue in 2007.
“You never know how things are going to turn out, and I didn't see this year coming,” Petty told the Los Angeles Times for a story published Sunday. “But maybe next year will be even better.”
Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, recently earned two Grammy nominations for their latest album, “Highway Companion.”
Their 30th anniversary tour was a sellout and included a triumphant homecoming to Gainesville, Fla., where the band formed in the 1970s. Petty was offered the key to the city.
Spears falls asleep in
Las Vegas nightclub
Britney Spears finally appears to be acting like a new mom.
The pop princess, who recently made headlines for a rash of less-than-motherly hard partying, fell asleep in a Las Vegas nightclub early Monday shortly after leading the New Year's Eve countdown, her manager said.
“By about one o'clock, she was just done, so we took her out,” Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told The Associated Press Monday. “She was not drunk. She was just tired and falling asleep.”
Rudolph denied reports circulating on gossip Web sites that Spears, 25, collapsed shortly after midnight and was carried out by bodyguards. The star was hired to host the festivities at Caesars Palace's PURE nightclub.
Frustration is why Oprah says she built school
Frustrated with just donating money to charities, Oprah Winfrey says she built a school for poor girls in South Africa because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help.
“I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check,” she told Newsweek magazine. “At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.”
Winfrey spent five years and $40 million to build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg.
The school for 12- and 13-year-old girls has 28 buildings on 22 lush acres.
The school includes huge fireplaces in every building, a yoga studio, indoor and outdoor theaters and a beauty salon. People criticized her, saying the school is too lavish for such an impoverished country.
“These girls deserve to be surrounded by beauty, and beauty does inspire,” she told the magazine. “I wanted this to be a place of honor for them because these girls have never been treated with kindness. They've never been told they are pretty or have wonderful dimples. I wanted to hear those things as a child.”
- From wire reports