Jackson Boffo, Sci-Fi Master Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/02/2001 at 06:06 PM EDT

GONE: Two all-star shows honoring Michael Jackson sold out five hours after tickets went on sale this week -- despite ticket prices that ranged from $45 to $2,500. Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash has been added to the all-star lineup of the Sept. 7 and 10 performances at New York's Madison Square Garden . . . DIED: Master science fiction writer Poul Anderson, 74, author of "Genesis," "Tau Zero" and other commercial and critical successes, died Tuesday at his northern California home of complications related to prostate cancer. He was a former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and a winner of three Nebula Awards and seven Hugo Awards . . . ENGAGED: Actor Laurence Fishburne, 40, announced on Wednesday's "Tonight" show that he and actress Gina Torres ("Any Day Now") are engaged to be married. Torres, who originally trained to be an opera singer, was in the audience at the time he broke the news. He did not name the day . . . TREATED: Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth, who turns 101 on Saturday, received a blood transfusion Wednesday at a London hospital where she was being treated for anemia. She reportedly walked into the hospital on her own two feet -- wearing one of her trademark fancy hats. "There is no cause for alarm," said her private secretary, Sir Alistair Aird . . . HURT: Rocker and former soap hunk Rick Springfield, 51, suffered a broken arm when he fell 10 to 15 feet in front the audience while performing a stunt on Tuesday during his "EFX Alive" show at Las Vegas's MGM Grand hotel-casino. A spokeswoman for the hotel said he was treated at a Vegas hospital and released and then went to see an L.A. orthopedist. His understudy is filling in . . . DISMISSED: "Disturbing the peace in a thoroughly thoughtless manner" charges against Austrian actor Hubert "Hubsi" Kramar, who allegedly arrived at a Vienna society ball last year dressed as the late fascist dictator Adolf Hitler, have been dropped. A small claims court reportedly upheld Kramar's argument that he was satirizing the presence of current Austrian Prime Minister Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party.