News anchors return from Haiti

Anchors back from Haiti

All three network news anchors returned from Haiti over the weekend and anchored their evening newscasts from New York on Monday evening, a sign that the intense coverage of the earthquake’s wreckage is abating.

But even though NBC’s Brian Williams, ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’ Katie Couric have left Port-au-Prince, the broadcast and cable news networks still have large contingents in Haiti reporting on the aftermath.

ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC each have half a dozen correspondents and dozens of other producers in the field, a sizable commitment. CNN has 10 on-air reporters there, including anchor Anderson Cooper.

-- Matea Gold Stars to hold Haiti benefit

George Clooney says the “Hope for Haiti” benefit for victims of the earthquake in Haiti will include performances from Bono, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys.

Clooney said that more than 40 celebrities are expected to attend Friday’s event, which Clooney and Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean will host. It will be broadcast on more than a dozen broadcast and cable networks.

The show will benefit the Red Cross, UNICEF, Oxfam America, Partners in Health and Jean’s Yele Haiti Foundation.

-- associated press Musicians strike in Cleveland

Musicians called a strike at the Cleveland Orchestra, rejecting a 5% pay cut.

The action by Local 4 of the American Federation of Musicians resulted in the cancellation of a chamber concert at Indiana University on Monday night.

Median musician pay in Cleveland in 2009 was $140,200, the orchestra said, which would drop to $134,100 in the first year of a new contract. Benefits include 10 weeks of paid vacation.

Full pay would be restored in the second year of the contract and increase 2.5% in the third, according to the orchestra. Its board said that it’s disappointed by the strike, which affects 101 musicians.

The orchestra’s endowment fell by $27 million, or 22%, to $97.2 million in the year ended in June.

-- bloomberg news Poe as a young, healthy man

Edgar Allan Poe’s fertile imagination has endured for more than 150 years -- and so has his pale, death-haunted image, with his sunken eyes, a trim mustache and unruly mop of curly hair.

However, scholars say Poe looked far more vigorous, perhaps even dashing, in his earlier years than he does in the well-known series of daguerreotypes taken in his final years.

The more robust Poe is captured in a small watercolor by A.C. Smith, one of just three surviving portraits of the author, which will be shown publicly for the first time Saturday and is expected to fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction.

Poe sits at a desk with pen and paper in hand, seemingly at the height of his creative powers. His upper lip is clean-shaven, though he sports long, bushy sideburns.

“It actually represents Poe as he appeared to his contemporaries -- a handsome, sophisticated young man on the rise,” said Cliff Krainik, the owner of the portrait and a Poe scholar. “The daguerreotypes show him in his rather dissipated state, where he has gone through the difficulties of his life.”

-- associated press Ailing Hopper wants divorce

Bedridden actor Dennis Hopper said Monday that he was seeking a divorce from his fifth wife while fighting what one of his children called “a hell of a battle” against prostate cancer.

The unusual filing was made Thursday. Hopper, 73, and Victoria Duffy have a 6-year-old daughter, Galen. Hopper has three other children from previous marriages.

In a statement, Hopper was quoted as saying: “I wish Victoria the best, but only want to spend these difficult days surrounded by my children and close friends.”

Hopper, perhaps best known for directing and starring in the 1969 cult classic “Easy Rider,” was diagnosed with cancer last September. A family friend said he has recently embarked on a new course of chemotherapy.

-- reuters ‘Carmen’ tickets set Met record

The Metropolitan Opera’s live, high-definition telecast of Bizet’s “Carmen” to movie theaters has set a record with 240,000 viewers.

Saturday’s performance starring Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna sold an estimated 140,000 tickets for 700 screens in North America and a 100,000 more for 300 screens in 37 countries in Europe and Latin America, the company said. The total topped the Met’s previous mark of 197,000 last March 7 for Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”

-- associated press