NaijaNewsFlash

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British vegetarian rock singer Morrissey's concert in Los Angeles next week will be a little more meaty than the former Smiths frontman had initially hoped. The longtime animal rights activist said earlier this week he had urged the Staples Center arena to close the concessions of fast-food chain McDonald's and to halt the sale of meat by other outlets at the venue for his March 1 performance there. ...

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - An Arkansas Crime Lab preliminary autopsy confirmed country music singer Mindy McCready's death was a suicide from a single gunshot wound to the head, the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said on Wednesday. McCready, 37, whose career was overshadowed by substance abuse and suicide attempts, was found dead on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon beside her boyfriend's dead dog. Officials have said she shot the dog. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Palestinian filmmaker on his way to the Academy Awards said on Wednesday he was held at Los Angeles International Airport and threatened with deportation before being allowed into the United States. Emad Burnat, whose "5 Broken Cameras" is competing for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category, said U.S. immigration officials took him, his wife and 8-year-old son aside when they arrived in Los Angeles from Turkey on Tuesday evening. "Immigration officials asked for proof that I was nominated for an Academy Award ... ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar nominees who don't end up with a coveted gold statuette at the Academy Awards on Sunday won't go home empty handed after all. Los Angeles-based marketing firm Distinctive Assets will be handing out its annual "Everyone Wins at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag", valued at more than $45,000, to the talented and well-dressed "losers," the company said on Tuesday. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Joe Garagiola, the Major League baseball veteran best known for his affable personality and quick wit as a sports commentator, game show host and even late-night television personality, retired from broadcasting on Wednesday. Garagiola, 87, who made his Major League debut with his hometown team, the St. Louis Cardinals, in 1946 and ended his baseball career nine seasons later with the New York Giants, embarked on a much longer broadcasting career in 1955. ...

(Reuters) - Wolfgang Puck may be the world's best-known celebrity chef — he certainly was one of the first in the U.S. — and at 63, he is busier than ever. Puck oversees a global empire of restaurants (including his flagship, Spago, in Beverly Hills), popular lines of canned and frozen food, and his designer cookware, all balanced with television and radio appearances and seemingly nonstop travel. ...

(Please note that this story contains strong language in paragraphs 10 and 21.) LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Shia LaBeouf is taking a cue from his former co-star Alec Baldwin and using Twitter to defend his actions - in this case his split from "Orphans" on Broadway. The show, which begins previews in less than a month, was to be the "Transformers" star's Great White Way debut. In a brief statement Wednesday, the actor's departure was attributed to those pesky "creative differences. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lady Gaga said she has undergone surgery to repair an injured hip that forced the pop singer last week to cancel the remainder of her concert tour. The "Born This Way" singer thanked fans in a blog post on her littlemonsters.com fan website on Thursday, saying the setback was "just a bump in the road." "As they wheeled me into surgery...I thought about all of your pain and perseverance, your unique family situations, school environments, health issues, homelessness, identity struggles," wrote Lady Gaga, who often engages with her fans about their personal problems. ...