People
NEW YORK — Wendy Williams said she’s living in a “sober house” because of addiction struggles.
The 54-year-old talk show host tearfully revealed the information Tuesday to the audience at “The Wendy Williams Show.” She said the only other people who knew about where she was living up until her announcement Tuesday was her husband and son.
Williams said she works out after her show and then is driven by her “24-hour sober coach” to a home where she lives “with a bunch of smelly boys who have become my family.”
She said she has been addicted to cocaine in the past and never sought treatment.
Williams returned to her talk show earlier this month for the first time since December, saying she was off because of continued thyroid issues associated with Graves’ disease.
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LANSING, Mich. — In a sign of R-E-S-P-E-C-T, the Michigan Legislature is expected to back a measure designating a stretch of Detroit highway after the Queen of Soul.
The Michigan House voted 101-6 on Tuesday to designate a portion of M-10 in Detroit as the “Aretha L. Franklin Memorial Highway.” Franklin died in Detroit last year after battling pancreatic cancer.
The legislation will next go to the state Senate.
Supporters say dedicating a portion of the highway is an appropriate way to honor the musical and cultural icon, who grew up in Detroit and learned the gospel fundamentals at New Bethel Baptist Church.
The sponsor, Democratic Rep. Leslie Love of Detroit, said Franklin was a “special lady” who fought for civil rights and “gave us all a soundtrack to our lives.”
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NEW YORK — Bill O’Reilly’s next book will not be about JFK or Abraham Lincoln, but a president he knows well. Donald Trump.
Henry Holt and Company announced Tuesday that O’Reilly’s “The United States of Trump: How the President Really Sees America” will come out this fall.
The publisher is calling the book a nonpartisan and well-rounded take on Trump. O’Reilly, the former Fox host and longtime conservative, is promising “no anonymous sources and no spin.”
O’Reilly is best known for such million sellers as “Killing Kennedy” and “Killing Lincoln.” His new book will draw in part on conversations he has had with Trump, an avid Fox watcher, over the years.
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NEW YORK — The apparent suspension of Jeanine Pirro is squeezing Fox News Channel in two directions.
A prominent Muslim-American civil rights organization is calling for advertisers to boycott Fox News, while another group is petitioning to have the weekend host reinstated.
Pirro wasn’t on the air Saturday, a week after Fox publicly condemned her for comments questioning U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s loyalty because she wears a Muslim head covering. Fox hasn’t explained the former New York-area district attorney’s absence, declining to comment on “internal scheduling matters.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, this week said that advertisers should boycott Fox News until Pirro and prime-time host Tucker Carlson were fired.
Meanwhile, the lobbying group Act for America urged its members write to Fox News President Suzanne Scott to complain about Pirro’s absence.
