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RECUPERATING: Dick Clark returned to his Malibu beachfront home Wednesday, more than seven weeks after what was described as a minor stroke, the Associated Press reports. The American Bandstand star, 75, was released from a Burbank hospital and will continue recuperating at home, publicist Paul Shefrin said. Shefrin wouldn't discuss the impact of the stroke, but did say that Clark "was very touched by the outpouring of support, not only from the celebrity world but from the people on the streets of New York" – where, for the first time in 32 years, Clark was unable to host his New Year's Rockin' Eve.
CHARGED: Murder Inc. founder Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, whose labels artists include Ashanti and Ja Rule, was charged on Wednesday with laundering more than $1 million in drug money from a multistate crack and heroin operation allegedly headed by Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff. Federal prosecutors said Gotti, his brother and business partner, Chris Lorenzo, and their associates accepted frequent deliveries of McGriff's drug cash at their Manhattan offices. McGriff, already in prison on a gun violation, was charged with drug dealing, racketeering and three murders. Gotti and his brother were released on $1 million bonds Wednesday afternoon after pleading not guilty in federal court in Brooklyn.
REVEALED: A Pennsylvania prosecutor investigating a fondling allegation against Bill Cosby that allegedly took place in his suburban Philadelphia home said on Wednesday that the accuser's yearlong delay in coming forward, and their contact in the past year, weighed in the comedian's favor, AP reports. Authorities interviewed Cosby, 67, on Wednesday and expect to know in two weeks whether they will bring charges, Montgomery County district attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said at a news conference. He added that Cosby and his attorney "have been fully cooperative without delay or hesitation."
DIED: Philip Johnson, 98, considered the dean of American architecture, died Tuesday at his New Canaan, Conn., home, known as Glass House, for its see-through structure. A formidable force in his field, Johnson designed such iconic monuments as New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Seagram Building and AT&T headquarters, which featured a Chippendale facade. He is survived by his companion of 45 years, David Whitney, reports The New York Times.
PUNISHED: The entire staff of New York radio station WQHT's show Miss Jones in the Morning was taken off the air Wednesday after broadcasting a song that ridiculed victims of the tsunami in South Asia, the radio station said. Deejay Tarsha Nicole Jones, who uses the on-air name Miss Jones, and her team were suspended indefinitely, according to publicist Lizzie Grubman, who declined to say whether Jones would feature in another show at a later date. The piece used racial slurs to describe people swept away in the disaster, made jokes about child slavery and people watching their mothers die. Rick Cummings, president of Emmis Radio, which owns WQHT (also known as HOT 97), said: "What happened is morally and socially indefensible."
DROPPED: Tennessee prosecutors will not pursue rape charges against Barbershop and Kangaroo Jack actor Anthony Anderson, 34, and film director Wayne Witherspoon, 43, who previously had charges against them dismissed, AP reports. The two stood accused of attacking a 25-year-old female extra last summer on the set of the Sundance Film Festival success Hustle & Flow. But a judge threw out the case last fall, saying testimony by the accuser was some of the most suspicious he had heard in 20 years. The accuser's former boyfriend reportedly testified at a preliminary hearing that she told him that she was falsely making her claim toextract money from Anderson and Witherspoon.
