Doris Eaton Travis Dies At 106

Doris Eaton Travis, one of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies chorus girls, who wore elaborate costumes for the series of lavish Broadway theatrical productions in the early 1900s, died at age 106, public relations firm Boneau/Bryan-Brown said. It didn’t say where or how she died.

Travis, who was from West Bloomfield, Michigan, also was a supporter of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising organization and appeared often in its Easter Bonnet Competition.

She continued to work long after her Follies days ended, with annual appearances on Broadway, a small role in a Jim Carrey movie and a memoir, “The Days We Danced: The Story of My Theatrical Family From Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond.”

Interest in the 5-foot-2 centenarian piqued after a 1997 reunion with four other Ziegfeld Follies Girls for the reopening of the New Amsterdam Theatre, where she danced about 80 years earlier.

“I was the only one who could still dance,” she said then.

That led to her involvement in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit, where she caught the eye of Carrey and director Milos Forman, who were making the movie “Man on the Moon,” about the life of comedian Andy Kaufman.

Rest In Peace Lena Horne

Entertainer Lena Horne, a show-stopping beauty who battled racism in a frustrating effort to become Hollywood’s first black leading lady and later won acclaim as a singer, has died at age 92.

Horne died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, a hospital spokeswoman said. She declined to give the cause of death.

Horne went to Hollywood in the late 1930s and while she never became a major movie star, she is credited with breaking the ground for black actresses to get bigger roles in Hollywood.

Horne had a stage persona that was mysterious, elegant, haughty and sexy and it helped her become an enchanting nightclub performer who made “Stormy Weather” her signature song.

Known as the “Negro Cinderella” early in her career, she was as complex as she was beautiful. She had a reputation for coldness and insecurity and her career frustrations led to bitterness.

With her big bright eyes, brilliant smile and light complexion, biographer James Gavin said Hollywood considered Horne “as the Negro beautiful enough — in a Caucasian fashion — for white Americans to accept.” Until then, black women had usually been cast as servants or prostitutes — roles that Horne did not want.

Dying Man Sells Advertising Space On His Urn

A Springfield, Oregon man with colon cancer who has been told he has just months to live is selling advertising space on his urn.

Aaron Jamison told KVAL-TV he hopes to raise $800 to help his wife Kristin pay for the cost of his cremation.

One friend, restaurant owner Dustin Remington, has already paid $100 for an ad. Jamison plans to hand-paint the ad on his urn.

American Mustache Institute Seeks Tax Breaks

It’s time that mustached Americans got in on the stimulus money.

At least that’s the proposal being pushed by tax policy professor John Yeutter and the St. Louis-based American Mustache Institute. The tongue-in-cheek group dubs itself “the world’s only facial hair advocacy and research organization.”

On the eve of the deadline to file income tax returns, the professor and the AMI are pushing for a $250 annual tax incentive for people with mustaches. The funds would be used for mustache grooming supplies.

The AMI said the current system “provides a disincentive for the clean-shaven to enjoy the mustached American lifestyle.”

The AMI said the stimulus money could be used not only for trimming instruments but for wax, combs and mirrors.

Woman Accepts Village Idiot Award For Hair Blaze

A woman whose hair caught fire when her hairspray-coated follicles ignited as she lit a cigarette is now a southern Indiana town’s reigning “Village Idiot.”

Dani Hamm earned the honorary title this month by getting the most votes from regulars at the Story Inn, a restaurant and bar about 15 miles east of Bloomington where she’s a bartender.

The title awarded every April comes with a $100 bar tab at the rural inn.

Hamm was driving to work in February when she lit up a cigarette and then heard a “whoosh” as her hair ignited.

She wasn’t injured because she used her hands to douse her hair, which she had coated with a liberal layer of hairspray.

Sarah Palin Drops LL Cool J

An upcoming Fox News Channel special hosted by Sarah Palin is titled “Real American Stories.”  But rapper-actor LL Cool J says his participation in the show was bogus. In response, the network has snipped him from the program.

In a Twitter posting, the entertainer wrote that Fox “lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW.”

Country singer Toby Keith was similarly caught by surprise, his publicist said.

Elaine Schock said a radio reporter contacted her seeking details about Keith’s announced appearance on Palin’s Fox News program.

“I said, ‘You’re wrong. There is no Sarah Palin special with Toby Keith on it on Fox,’” Schock said.

She said the reporter then e-mailed her the press release issued by Fox News, which said Keith would “explain the inspiration behind his song ‘Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.’”

Philippine Beauty Booted From Miss Universe Contest

The Philippines’ entry for the Miss Universe beauty pageant has been disqualified after local organisers discovered she was born overseas and out of wedlock, a contest official said.

Maria Venus Raj, 21, was set to represent her country in August and begin charity work after winning the Miss Philippines-Universe competition early this month.

But the journalism graduate was stripped of her title after the foundation that runs the local competition discovered she had been born in Qatar to an Indian man who was not married to her Filipina mother.

Her birth certificate stated she was born in the Philippines to married Filipinos.

Ricky Martin Is Livin’ La Vida Gay

Ricky Martin is no longer denying the rumors: He’s gay.

In a statement posted via Twitter in both Spanish and English, and later confirmed with his representative, Martin said: “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”

For many, the announcement will come as no surprise; the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” singer’s sexuality has been speculated about for years. But the Puerto Rican star, who got his start as a child in the teen group Menudo, never directly addressed it and was usually seen at events with beautiful women on his arm.

Martin, 38, said he decided to reveal the truth after working on his memoirs helped him realize that he had to be free with himself, and not keep any more secrets.

Chinese Theme Park Highlights Challenges Facing Dwarfs

Sitting in a valley in southwest China sits an unlikely and controversial theme park — the Little People’s Kingdom of Dwarfs.

Here, dwarfs perform in fairytale costumes for tourists, drawing both curious crowds and a fair share of criticism.

For many of the employees, the park is a rare opportunity to find work, and, as unlikely as it seems for men and women doing daily spoof performances of Swan Lake in tutus, respect.

The park, near Kunming city in Yunnan province, employs 108 dwarfs from across the country, who twice daily gather on an artificial hillside to dance and sing for tourists.

As well as a host of dwarf guardian angels, the fantasy world has a king, an army, a health department and even its own foreign ministry, and all must pretend to live in a miniature hilltop village of crooked little houses.

For 80 yuan ($11.72) — not a small sum in China — tourists can watch skits, sentimental group dances and acrobatics some may view as more than a little reminiscent of medieval freak shows now deemed politically incorrect in many parts of the world.

The show’s centerpiece, a farcical rendition of Swan Lake, sees performers both male and female dressed in pink tutus and pretending to be little swans.

Jesse James Offered Half A Million To Pose Nude For Playgirl

Jesse James, who allegedly cheated on Sandra Bullock, has been offered half a million dollars to appear nude for Playgirl.

According to E! Online, James, 40, is the latest name to be approached by the mag in recent months.

“We”ll offer him 500,000 dollars to pose in a Coney Island freak show setting,” Playgirl rep Daniel Nardicio confirmed. “We”d do a whole circus-themed freak show, with tattooed men and sword swallowers!”

If James agrees to appear in the buff, he will be following in the footsteps of Levi Johnston, the baby daddy of Sarah Palin’s grandson, reports The New York Daily News.

Meanwhile, Brigitte Daguerre, a photographer in Los Angeles, is the third woman to come forward in recent days claiming having a fling with James.

Bullock and James” marriage was first shattered last week when In Touch magazine featured an interview with Michelle (Bombshell) McGee, a tattooed model who claimed to have an 11-month affair with James.