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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, August 13, 2009

Diamond thrilled with twin projects


Advertiser News Services

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Neil Diamond

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Tony Danza

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Neil Diamond is so excited about his two latest projects, it's as if he has twins on the way.

They're due tomorrow, when Diamond's concert DVD, "Hot August Night/NYC," lands in Wal-Mart stores and a companion hourlong TV special airs on CBS.

"Basically, I feel like an expectant father and I'm just nervously sitting around the waiting room hoping that the baby is healthy and happy," the 68-year-old entertainer said Tuesday.

The DVD, filmed during his performance at Madison Square Garden last summer, features more than two dozen songs, including classics such as "Sweet Caroline" and "Love on the Rocks."

The television special, airing at 7 p.m., includes excerpts from the DVD and footage from Diamond's recent trip home.

DANZA MAY GO TO HEAD OF THE CLASS

Yo, Philly students! Tony Danza might be teaching in a city high school this fall.

The former talk show host and star of the sitcoms "Taxi" and "Who's the Boss?" is planning to star in a new reality show called "Teach."

If approved by Philadelphia education officials, cameras would roll at Northeast High School as Danza co-teaches a 10th-grade English class.

The School Reform Commission will vote next week on allowing at least 13 episodes to be shot and broadcast on the cable channel A&E.

JURY WILL DECIDE CLAIMS IN LIBEL SUIT

A jury can decide whether the author of a best-selling book about the death of Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith defamed her lawyer by making allegations that may not be true, including that he pimped her to up to 50 men a year, a judge ruled yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin found plenty of reasons to let a jury hear the facts behind a $60 million libel lawsuit brought by lawyer Howard K. Stern against "Blonde Ambition" author Rita Cosby, a veteran television news anchor and "Inside Edition" correspondent. The lawsuit was filed less than a month after the book was published in September 2007.

The judge said the book's claim that Stern had a sexual relationship with Larry Birkhead, the father of Smith's daughter, was "nothing short of explosive. Perhaps too explosive."

Stern and Birkhead have denied any sexual relationship.

SONGWRITER WILLS CATALOG TO MUSEUM

The late Texas songwriter Cindy Walker has left an unusual and generous gift to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: Her catalog of about 500 songs, many of them pop and country classics.

The Nashville museum announced yesterday that Walker donated her share of the songs, including future royalties. Officials say it's the first donation of its kind.

Walker died in 2006. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997.