NEW YORK — Run-DMC once hailed themselves as the Kings of Rock, so it's fitting that the pioneering rappers have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Run-DMC joins heavy metal band Metallica, guitarist and former Yardbirds member Jeff Beck, soul singer and guitarist Bobby Womack and doo-wop group Little Anthony and the Imperials as this year's inductee class.

Though Run-DMC wasn't among the first rap acts, they were the first to achieve widespread mainstream success, and the first to notch a platinum album with 1986's "Raising Hell." The rapping duo of Joseph "Run" Simmons and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels — plus their DJ, the late Jam Master Jay — were rap's first rock stars.

They had hits with such songs as "My Adidas" and "It's Tricky," but had their greatest success when they remade Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" with the rock act for a groundbreaking collaboration.

The induction ceremony will be in Cleveland, the home of the Rock Hall, on April 4.

MAYER, CBS NEAR DEAL ON TV SHOW

UNIVERSITY CITY, Calif. — CBS is close to a deal with pop star John Mayer for a music and variety TV show.

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler told a meeting of the Television Critics Association that the project is under development and an agreement is near. She didn't provide details.

Mayer and CBS have worked together before. In 2006, he made a cameo appearance on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," performing songs for a scene set in a Las Vegas nightclub.

Mayer, whose current hit is "Say," might also appear on next month's Grammy Awards show on CBS; he's up for five prizes. He took the best pop vocal album Grammy in 2007 for "Continuum."

'MUMMY' SLAYER, INDY JOIN FORCES

LOS ANGELES — Indiana Jones and "The Mummy" slayer are teaming up on the big screen — to battle not ancient, otherworldly baddies, but a big medical dilemma.

Brendan Fraser will join Harrison Ford for a medical drama set to begin filming in April, CBS Films announced yesterday. The untitled movie will be the first production for CBS Films, established in 2007.

Fraser will play a father who recruits the help of a medical researcher portrayed by Ford. CBS Films said the film's screenplay is inspired by "The Cure," a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geeta Anand about John F. Crowley, a former Bristol Myers Squibb executive who started his own biotech company to save his two children from a rare muscular disorder.

CANCER-STRICKEN SWAYZE ON MEND

NEW YORK — Days after checking himself into a Los Angeles hospital for pneumonia, Patrick Swayze, 56, says his condition is improving.

The actor, who is battling pancreatic cancer, tells People magazine: "I am alive and plan on continuing to stay that way. É I am almost in the clear."

Swayze checked into the hospital Jan. 9 because of a cough that he thought was the result of an infection. "I wanted to jump on it before it turn- ed into a problem," he says.

Swayze's representatives did not respond to messages seeking comment on his health.