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Published: August 9, 2008
■ Soprano Anna Netrebko is extending her pregnancy leave and has withdrawn from performances of Puccini's La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera in December and January. Netrebko, 36, said in February that she and her fiance, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott, were expecting, and the Met said yesterday that she is due to give birth next month. "She has decided that she will need a few more weeks than originally planned to be ready for her return to the stage," the Met said. Netrebko now plans to return to performing with a revival of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met on Jan. 26 and Jan. 29, and Feb. 3 and Feb. 7.
■ Dick Clark is still Mr. New Year's Eve, but he will be sharing the title with Ryan Seacrest. Starting this December, Clark's longtime end-of-year special will be called Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest, ABC and Dick Clark Productions said yesterday. It was also announced that Seacrest will serve as co-host with Clark and as an executive producer on the broadcast for another three years, through the 2010 show ringing in 2011. New Year's Rockin' Eve will mark its 37th year on Dec. 31 and include the customary countdown to midnight from New York's Times Square.
■ Producers say that Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman will direct a play in London's West End later this year. Riflemind tells the story of a rock band getting back together 20 years after its members split up. The play is by Australian writer Andrew Upton, husband of Hollywood star Cate Blanchett. The production will star Scottish actor John Hannah, whose films include Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Mummy series. Producers said yesterday that Riflemind will open September 18th at London's Trafalgar Studios.
■ Clay Aiken, a former American Idol runner-up, is a father. He announced the birth of son Parker Foster Aiken on his Web site's blog yesterday. Aiken, who is from Raleigh, was a favorite of fans during the second season of American Idol, when he finished second to Ruben Studdard. His album Measure of a Man went double platinum in 2003, and he made his Broadway debut this spring in Monty Python's Spamalot. The baby's mother is Jaymes Foster, Aiken's friend and a record producer whom he met while performing on American Idol.
■ A founder of the country band Sugarland is suing the two current members of the band for $1.5 million. According to a lawsuit filed late last month in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Kristen Hall was to get a cut of the group's profits even after she left in 2005 for a solo career. The lawsuit says that Hall, who founded the band in 2002, has an agreement with Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush to equally share profits and losses and has been excluded from the group's profits since she left. The band's album, Love on the Inside, released last month, is No. 1 on Billboard music charts.
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