ATLANTA – Facing fallout from a recent arrest, T.I. raised money Sunday for his family’s new Alzheimer’s disease charity and explained how the idea for it took shape during a previous period of legal trouble.
The rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Cottle, held a luncheon for the foundation called “For The Love Of Our Fathers,” which honors their fathers’ battles with Alzheimer’s disease.
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The Grammy winner would not talk about his arrest last month on suspicion of drug offenses, but said the inspiration for the foundation came in the aftermath of his 2007 arrest on weapons charges.
“It’s very, very personally close to our family,” said T.I., who served seven months in prison for the firearms offenses. “And while I was, you know, while I was going through my … period of hiatus, Tameka had the idea of … starting this foundation. And I thought it was an outstanding idea.”
Cottle’s father, Charles Pope, has Alzheimer’s, an irreversible neurological disorder that causes its victims to lose their memory, become disoriented and suffer personality changes. No cure is known. T.I. said his father and grandmother also had the disease when they died.
The couple said the charity will raise funds for disease research and possibly offer relief to caregivers.
Levine returns to conduct Boston Symphony Orchestra
BOSTON – James Levine has returned to the stage as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Levine had back surgery in the spring and missed the orchestra’s summer series at Tanglewood.
Welcomed back by a standing ovation Saturday night, he placed his hands over his heart to show his thanks.
Levine led an all-Wagner program of orchestral and vocal excerpts, with help from bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.
This will be Levine’s seventh season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is also music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
Updike readers convene to celebrate his legacy
READING, Pa. – Rabid fans of the “Rabbit” novels met over the weekend in the author’s former eastern Pennsylvania stomping grounds for the first international conference of the John Updike Society.
The conference is at Alvernia University in Reading, where the acclaimed chronicler of American suburbia was born. Updike was raised in nearby Shillington. He wrote more than 60 books, won Pulitizers for “Rabbit Is Rich” and “Rabbit at Rest,” and also won two National Book Awards.
James Plath, professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the idea of such a society was nixed by the author while he was alive, but took off when he died last year at the age of 76.
Facebook movie gets face time
LOS ANGELES – Movie fans are spending some face time with a story about the founders of Facebook.
“The Social Network,” a drama about the quarrelsome creation of the online juggernaut, debuted as the No. 1 weekend film with $23 million.
The Sony release from director David Fincher traces the history of Facebook from Harvard University, where computer whiz Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his best friend (Andrew Garfield) launched the site, through its meteoric rise with half a billion members.
The film also follows the nasty legal fight as Zuckerberg is sued by his friend, along with three other students who claim he stole their idea.
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