Entertainment
Cleo Laine, British Jazz Singer & Tony-Nominated Theater Actress, Dies at 97

Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain’s greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97.
The Stables, a charity and venue Laine founded with her late jazz musician husband John Dankworth, said Friday (July 25) it was “greatly saddened” by the news that “one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away.”
Monica Ferguson, artistic director of The Stables, said Laine “will be greatly missed, but her unique talent will always be remembered.”
Laine’s career spanned the Atlantic and crossed genres: She sang the songs of Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg and Robert Schumann; she acted on stage and on film, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde.
Laine’s life and art were intimately bound up with band leader Dankworth, who gave her a job and her stage name in 1951, and married her seven years later. Both were still performing after their 80th birthdays. Dankworth died in 2010 at 82.
In 1997, Laine became the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight.
“It is British jazz that should have received the accolade for its service to me,” she said when the honor was announced. “It has given me a wonderful life, a successful career and an opportunity to travel the globe doing what I love to do.”
Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927. Her father, Alexander Campbell, was a Jamaican who loved opera and earned money during the Depression as a street singer. Despite hard times, her British mother, Minnie, made sure that her daughter had piano, voice and dance lessons.
She began performing at local events at age 3, and at age 12 she got a role as a movie extra in The Thief of Bagdad. Leaving school at 14, Laine went to work as a hairdresser and faced repeated rejection in her efforts to get a job as a singer.
A decade later, in 1951, she tried out for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, and succeeded. “Clementina Campbell” was judged too long for a marquee, so she became Cleo Laine.
“John said that when he heard me, I didn’t sound like anyone else who was singing at the time,” Laine once said. “I guess the reason I didn’t get the other jobs is that they were looking for a singer who did sound like somebody else.”
Laine had a remarkable range, from tenor to contralto, and a sound often described as “smoky.”
Dankworth, in an interview with the Irish Independent, recalled Laine’s audition.
“They were all sitting there with stony faces, so I asked the Scottish trumpet player Jimmy Deuchar, who was looking very glum and was the hardest nut of all, whether he thought she had something. ‘Something?’ he said, ‘She’s got everything!’”
Offered 6 pounds a week, Laine demanded — and got — 7 pounds.
“They used to call me ‘Scruff’, although I don’t think I was scruffy. It was just that having come from the sticks, I didn’t know how to put things together as well as the other singers of the day,” she told the Irish Independent. “And anyway, I didn’t have the money, because they weren’t paying me enough.”
Recognition came swiftly. Laine was runner-up in Melody Maker’s “girl singer” category in 1952, and topped the list in 1956 and 1957.
She married Dankworth — and quit his band — in 1958, a year after her divorce from her first husband, George Langridge. As Dankworth’s band prospered, Laine began to feel underused.
“I thought, no, I’m not going to just sit on the band and be a singer of songs every now and again when he fancied it. So it was then that I decided I wasn’t going to stay with the band and I was going to go off and try to do something solo-wise,” she said in a BBC documentary.
“When I said I was leaving, he said, ‘Will you marry me?’ That was a good ploy, wasn’t it, huh?”
They were married on March 18, 1958. A son, Alec, was born in 1960, and daughter Jacqueline followed in 1963.
Despite her happy marriage, Laine forged a career independent of Dankworth.
“Whenever anybody starts putting a label on me, I say, ‘Oh, no you don’t,’ and I go and do something different,” Laine told The Associated Press in 1985 when she was appearing on stage in New York in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Her stage career began in 1958 when she was invited to join the cast of a West Indian play, Flesh to a Tiger, at the Royal Court Theatre, and was surprised to find herself in the lead role. She won a Moscow Arts Theatre Award for her performance.
Valmouth followed in 1959, The Seven Deadly Sins in 1961, The Trojan Women in 1966 and Hedda Gabler in 1970.
The role of Julie in Jerome Kern’s Show Boat in 1971 provided Laine with a show-stopping song, “Bill.”
Laine began winning a following in the United States in 1972 with a concert at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. It wasn’t well-attended, but The New York Times gave her a glowing review.
The following year, she and Dankworth drew a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall, launching a series of popular appearances. Cleo at Carnegie won a Grammy award in 1986, the same year she was a Tony nominee for The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
A reviewer for Variety in 2002 found her voice going strong: “a dark, creamy voice, remarkable range and control from bottomless contralto to a sweet clear soprano. Her perfect pitch and phrasing is always framed with musical imagination and good taste.”
Perhaps Laine’s most difficult performance of all was on Feb. 6, 2010, at a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the concert venue she and Dankworth had founded at their home, during which Laine and both of her children performed.
“I’m terribly sorry that Sir John can’t be here today,” Laine told the crowd at the end of the show. “But earlier on my husband died in hospital.”
Laine said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 that the secret of her longevity was that “I was never a complete belter.”
“There was always a protective side in me, and an inner voice always said, ‘Don’t do that — it’s not good for you and your voice.’”
Laine is survived by her son and daughter.
Entertainment
No ‘Good’ Deed Goes Unpunished for Ariana Grande’s Glinda in Final ‘Wicked: For Good’ Trailer

In the final trailer for Wicked: For Good, Ariana Grande‘s character learns that a big price comes with being Glinda the Good.
Released on Wednesday (Sept. 24) — about two months before the Wicked sequel finally premieres in theaters on Nov. 21 — the preview shows how the blonde leading lady wrestles with her new role as Oz’s spokeswoman, as Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba attempts to expose the Wizard’s evil agenda while living in hiding. At first, Glinda is “obsess-ulated” with the gorgeous gown, tiara and mechanical flying bubble her public-facing life affords her — but everything quickly comes crashing down when she realizes that she’s on the wrong side of history, and that she just might be too late to save her former schoolmate from the wrath of Oz’s brainwashed citizens.
“I’m a public figure now, people expect me to …,” Glinda tells Elphaba at one point, with Dorothy’s fallen house and the Yellow Brick Road visible in the background.
“Lie?” the green-skinned witch cuts in, to which Glinda says defensively, “Be encouraging.”
Grande’s character is less sure of herself when she is confronted by Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero, who accuses, “You can’t resist this.”
“Who could?” Glinda asks, to which the Winkie prince replies, “You know who could.”
Arriving one year after the first Wicked hit theaters and shattered movie-musical box-office records, For Good will serve as the film adaptation of the second act of the Broadway musical on which the live-actions are based. The soundtrack will also drop on Nov. 21, complete with two brand new songs sung by Grande and Erivo.
As revealed when the tracklist dropped a week prior to the new trailer, the title of Glinda’s bonus song is “The Girl in the Bubble,” while Elphaba’s added balled is called “No Place Like Home.”
Watch the final trailer for Wicked: For Good above.
Entertainment
Priscilla Presley Says That Leaving Elvis Presley Was ‘The Only Way to Survive’ in New Memoir ‘Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis’

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Priscilla Presley was with Elvis Presley for around 14 years before they split; however, the pair had known each other for years before they wed in 1967.
The time in between and following Priscilla and Elvis’ divorce was a tough spot for Priscilla, and one she wasn’t super open about — that is, until now. In her new memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, the actress shares the difficult but inspiring journey beyond the walls of Graceland post-split with the King, choosing to put herself and her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, first.
A hardcover version of the book is now on sale and can be purchased now on Amazon for $22.38, while paperback will run you $32. A Kindle version retails for $15.99. If you’re a superfan of Priscilla and the Presley family, you can also snag a signed version of the memoir via Barnes & Noble for $32. The piece makes a great gift for the avid Elvis collector in your life. If you’d rather listen to the memoir, we won’t judge, you can do so with Audible via a subscription which costs $7.95 a month, a price tag less than a physical copy.
Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis
A new memoir by Priscilla Presley.
If you didn’t know, Priscilla met Elvis when she was just 14 and he was 24. The singer was serving in the U.S. Army in 1959 in Germany. The pair remained romantically connected for years, even with distance between them and in 1967, they were wed in a simple and very secret ceremony in Las Vegas. While their separation in 1973 was painful for Priscilla, this novel highlights why it was so important for the Naked Gun star to leave.
It seems that Priscilla lost touch with herself throughout her relationship with Elvis. Leaving allowed her to find herself again. Through the book, we are treated to snippets of Priscilla’s life pre- and post-Elvis and how she had to reinvent herself a second time as the single mother after the performer’s death in 1977.
Today, we are taken through how Priscilla was able to transform Graceland into an international destination and helped guide the development of Elvis Presley Enterprises, turning the King’s legacy into a full-on business. If you are an Elvis fan, this gives readers a unique perspective on his life, as told by his ex-wife. It also gives Priscilla’s story more context for those who aren’t too familiar with her life and career.
Entertainment
Calvin Harris’ Ex-Business Manager Denies $22M Fraud Claims: ‘Categorically False’

Calvin Harris‘ former longtime business manager is firing back against bombshell fraud claims, saying he never stole from anybody and that the Scottish DJ willingly agreed to invest in his Los Angeles real estate development project.
Thomas St. John, an entertainment industry-focused accountant who runs the eponymous firm Thomas St. John Group, is currently wrapped up in thorny arbitration proceedings with his former client Harris (Adam Wiles). He’s accused of abusing his access to Harris’ accounts in order to fund his side venture: the construction of a recording studio and office space complex in Hollywood.
Harris claims that St. John tricked him into investing $22.5 million in the project, known as CMNTY Culture Campus, which he says turned out to be a “complete boondoggle” that he “has not received a single penny in return for” — while suggesting that St. John pocketed much of the money for himself.
However, a representative for St. John says in a new statement that the allegations are “categorically false.” The rep denies that St. John engaged in any self-dealing, adding that Harris is one of nine above-board investors who “knowingly signed investment agreements” to get involved in CMNTY Culture.
“Not a single dollar has been misappropriated, all investor entitlements remain intact, and the project continues to advance within the normal entitlement timeline,” says St. John’s rep in the Tuesday (Sept. 23) statement. “We will continue to take every necessary step to set the record straight and to ensure that these malicious, bad-faith attacks are recognized for what they are: entirely without merit.”
While CMNTY Culture was initially designed to house a recording studio and office space, St. John has since shifted the plans and is now developing a residential apartment complex on the same tract of land in Hollywood. According to his rep, the project is proceeding apace and “is expected to approach a $1 billion valuation” upon completion.
“While the entitlement process has naturally taken longer than initially projected due to unprecedented interest, macroeconomic conditions and significant city red tape, it remains firmly within its promised schedule and is now on the verge of securing final entitlements, an important milestone that will unlock substantial value,” adds St. John’s rep.
Thomas St. John Group has offices in Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam and Stockholm. The management firm’s U.S. arm recently filed for bankruptcy, citing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent in L.A. and multiple pending legal actions.
One creditor listed in the firm’s bankruptcy papers is Philip Lawrence, a songwriter and producer who made his name collaborating with Bruno Mars. Lawrence used to be a client of St. John’s and at one point invested $10 million from the sale of his catalog into CMNTY Culture Campus, according to court filings in Lawrence’s own personal bankruptcy case.
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