PEOPLE
NEW YORK — Henry Winkler is busy as ever these days, but the actor is still making time to write a memoir.
Celadon Books announced Wednesday that it has a deal with Winkler to tell his life story. The memoir, currently untitled, is scheduled for 2024. Winkler, 76, became famous in the 1970s as “The Fonz” on the sitcom “Happy Days” and has worked steadily ever since. His hundreds of TV and movie credits include “Arrested Development,” Parks and Recreation" and an Emmy-winning role on the HBO series “Barry.”
“I am both excited and nervous to contemplate writing a memoir, because it’s hard to remember what happened the day before yesterday. But here I go!” Winkler said in a statement,
Winkler has worked on several previous books, including “I’ve Never Met An Idiot On The River: Reflections on Family, Photography, and Fly-Fishing" and the children's series “Here's Hank” and “Alien Superstar,” for which he collaborated with Lin Oliver.
———
DETROIT — Funk legend George Clinton deceived keyboardist/songwriter Bernie Worrell and failed to share millions of dollars generated by dozens of their songs and seminal hits, according to a federal court lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Detroit's federal court by Worrell's estate asks a federal judge to declare that the late keyboardist co-owned dozens of songs, including "Give Up the Funk," "Flash Light," and "Maggot Brain," recorded during a hall-of-fame career rooted in Detroit.
The lawsuit describes an alleged pattern of deceit, manipulation and bitter fallout from a pioneering musical relationship that once led to Clinton, Worrell and other members of Parliament-Funkadelic being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. The court filing also marks the latest legal challenge by Worrell's estate since the keyboardist and producer died in June 2016 following a cancer diagnosis. He was 72.
"All of Clinton’s conduct illustrates a continued pattern of deceit, and manipulation which has resulted in Mr. Worrell, his estate, and the majority of his fellow bandmembers receiving minimal or zero compensation for the years of work they performed as members of Parliament, Funkadelic, or Clinton’s other acts," estate lawyer Daniel Quick wrote in the lawsuit.
Worrell's estate filed the lawsuit one year after a breach of contract claim ended in a New York state court when a judge ruled Clinton and his company, Thang Inc., did not have a contract with Worrell. But if there was no contract, that means Worrell co-owns the master recordings, Quick wrote.
A lawyer for Clinton is not listed in the federal court filing.
———
ATLANTA — The rapper Gunna was booked into a jail in Atlanta on a racketeering charge Wednesday after he was indicted with fellow rapper Young Thug and more than two dozen other people.
An indictment filed Monday in Fulton County Superior Court accuses Gunna, whose given name is Sergio Kitchens, of violating Georgia's anti-racketeering law. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.
The indictment alleges that Young Thug co-founded a violent street gang that committed murders, shootings and carjackings over roughly a decade and promoted its activities in songs and on social media. It includes a wide-ranging list of 181 acts that prosecutors say were committed starting in 2013 as part of the alleged racketeering conspiracy to further the gang’s interests.
———
The plot twists continue in Blac Chyna’s legal feud with the Kardashian-Jenner family.
Chyna accused the judge who oversaw her defamation case against four of the Kardashian-Jenner women of being “undeniably hostile and extremely biased” during the trial, TMZ reported, citing new court documents.
The filing comes a little over a week after Chyna was awarded no damages in the trial.
Chyna, 33, reportedly took issue with the jury instructions given by Judge Gregory W. Alarcon. The judge also barred Chyna’s mother from the courtroom after she ripped the Kardashians and Jenners in an Instagram Live video.
An attorney for the Kardashians slammed Chyna’s complaints with the judge as a “baseless effort to save face after losing at trial.”
“Their effort to make a scapegoat of Judge Alarcon is frivolous, dishonest, and deserving of sanctions,” the attorney’s statement reads.
Chyna sued Kris Jenner and daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, claiming E! didn’t give her reality show “Rob & Chyna” a second season after the women accused her of abusing her former fiancé, Rob Kardashian.
From combined wire services
