People
PHILADELPHIA — Queen Latifah is “unable to accept” an award named for a pioneering opera singer, citing personal reasons.
The Marian Anderson Award made the announcement on its website. The organization wasn't more explicit, and Queen Latifah's spokeswoman did not immediately return an email Friday.
The award is given in Philadelphia to critically acclaimed artists for their humanitarian work. Anderson was the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.
Past winners have included Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou and Quincy Jones.
Born Dana Owens, Queen Latifah won a Grammy for her 1994 album “Black Reign” and earned an Oscar nomination for her role in 2002's “Chicago.”
The organization says its Nov. 20 awards gala will be rescheduled, and it “hopes to honor Queen Latifah in the future.”
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NEW YORK — Danielle Spencer, who played the tattletale little sister Dee Thomas on the 1970s TV series “What's Happening!!,” is home in Virginia recuperating from emergency brain surgery after a series of health setbacks.
Spencer, who had been working as a veterinarian, was released from a hospital Oct. 4 after surgery for a bleeding hematoma, a result of a 1977 car accident that killed her stepfather, Tim Pelt, as he shielded her from harm. She can speak just slightly and must use crutches to walk, said a spokesman, Jason Hardy.
The 53-year-old Spencer began suffering symptoms in 2004, when she was confined to a wheelchair and did a long stint in rehab to learn how to walk again. In 2014, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy, Hardy said.
The ABC sitcom, which aired from 1976 to 1979, followed the lives of three working-class teens in the Los Angeles neighborhood Watts. Spencer played the sister of one, Roger “Raj” Thomas. She also appeared in a sequel, “What's Happening Now!!”
