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Showbuzz
Web posted on:
Friday, January 01, 1999 2:24:06 PM EST
Today's buzz stories:
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"Thriller"
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LONDON (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's landmark 1983 video "Thriller" has been chosen by music fans as the best pop video ever made, according to poll results released Friday by the VH1 music channel. The video, which depicts Jackson and a band of dancers turning into ghouls, monsters and the undead, defeated Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Take On Me" by A-Ha.
"It was the first time an artist had considered the pop video as a legitimate art form. And people have been copying it ever since," said a spokesman for the channel, after almost 100,000 viewers phoned in for the poll. The video was released to incredible hype, which included a documentary on the making of "Thriller."
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Shakespeare
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LONDON (CNN) -- William Shakespeare on Friday was voted the British person of the Millennium in a radio poll. The Bard beat out Sir Winston Churchill, England's first printer William Caxton, 17th-century Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, naturalist Charles Darwin and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, who were also contenders on a short list of six. An estimated 45,000 listeners took part in the poll, deciding that the 16th century playwright and poet had made the biggest contribution in the last 1,000 years.
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The Hollywood Walk of Fame
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HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- The Hollywood Walk of Fame stars dedicated to Tom Hanks, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Shirley Temple, Tina Turner, Phyllis Diller and Andy Garcia are getting a face-lift. Tree roots and the rumbling of traffic on Vine Street have damaged the sidewalk shrines to the actors.
Repairs will begin next week as part of a $250,000 renovation of the sidewalk, Hollywood's most popular tourist attraction. "We owe it to our honorees to keep their terrazzo trophy in pristine condition," Hollywood's honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, said Thursday. The money for the renovation comes from star dedication ceremonies and fund-raising events.
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Locklear
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(CNN) -- Heather Locklear has a new focus: family. The 37-year-old actress who plays corporate vixen Amanda Woodward on "Melrose Place" tells USA Weekend that becoming a mother 15 months ago has changed her priorities. She says she now takes three-day weekends to spend more time at home with baby Ava and husband Richie Sambora, the guitarist for Bon Jovi.
Locklear says she and Sambora can barely stand to be apart from their child. "We'll go out together, to dinner, and both say, 'We miss our baby. We have to go see our baby.'"
Locklear has been starring on "Melrose" for seven years, and is now co-producer. She says that though she has previously flirted with feature films, she is content to stick with nighttime soaps. "If it can go somewhere else later, that's great," she says. "And if it doesn't, I can't complain."
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Grant
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NASHVILLE (CNN) -- Amy Grant and husband Gary Chapman are splitting up after 16 years of marriage. The announcement came Wednesday.
Grant, 38, began her career in contemporary Christian music in the late 1970s and crossed over to the pop charts in the 1980s with hits such as "The Next Time I Fall," a duet with Peter Cetera that hit number one. Chapman, a Christian music artist, has since 1996 been the host of "Prime Time Country," a talk show on The Nashville Network. Grant and her husband have three children.
Reuters Limited contributed to this report.
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