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The beer will no longer flow at theWursthaus, a German restaurant that has been serving up sauerbraten and schnitzel in Harvard Square since 1917.
The owners of the Wursthaus restaurant in Cambridge say their creditors have forced them to close after nearly 80 years of continuous operation. The owner, Frank N. Cardullo, bought the restaurant from the previous owners in 1943.
Creditors forced the shutdown Wednesday, after the business defaulted on the terms of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Mr. Cardullo's son, Frank R. Cardullo, attributes the restaurant's failure primarily to the changing tastes of customers and excessive debt. The Harvard Square eatery also was hurt by the 1992 closure of a Wursthaus in Hyannis that the elder Cardullo also owned.
The younger Cardullo said he has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the restaurant's landlord -- Cambridge Savings Bank -- to allow him to take over operations.
The Cambridge restaurant had sales of more than $3 million a year in the early to mid-1980s, a figure that fell to less than $1 million last year.
The younger Cardullo also said diners may be more health conscious now than in previous years. "Basically there were no changes in the modus operandi to address the food tastes of the '90s, the health consciousness of the 90s. He steadfastly stuck to his menu that had worked in the '80s (but) that was no longer in vogue," he said.
Located right in the center of Harvard Square, the Wursthaus has been a popular gathering spot for the Harvard community and also attracted many celebrities over the years. Its menu featured traditional German food and a imported beers from around the world.
When talk turns to the great days of jazz, drummer Max Roach knows the score. He was there, and he's more than glad to pass both his memories and his talents on to a new generation.
Mr. Roach, 72, spent Wednesday working with young musicians in the Kansas City (Mo.) Institute for Jazz Performance and History. The program exposes students ages 12 to 18 to jazz legends such as Mr. Roach. "I love it," he said. "Oh, yeah. I simply love it."
Mr. Roach is one of several musicians conducting special one-day courses for 65 students attending monthlong classes at the institute.
When talk turned from music to musicians, Mr. Roach told students how Miles Davis became enthralled with Charlie Parker.
"I remember Miles hitting me once," Mr. Roach said. "'Did you see the way Parker stood up?"' Mr. Roach said, imitating Mr. Davis. "A few seconds later, Miles said, 'You see the way Parker sat down?' I had to tell Miles not to hit me any more. But that was the kind of effect Parker had on people."
Aerosmithhas fired its manager of 12 years. Tim Collins had been credited with helping to resuscitate the band's career and get its members off drugs.
Starting in the mid-1980s, the band bounced back to become one of the highest-paid rock acts. It has a $50 million contract with Sony.
Mr. Collins said he was fired Wednesday during a meeting with band members at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston.
"They're great entertainers, but I had a definite vision, and they told me ... that they don't share that vision," Mr. Collins said.
He said band members did not want to support his social causes such as lobbying for sobriety and First Amendment rights. Band members also said they were annoyed that he told them to record more songs for an album they thought was finished.
The stars of "Friends" and NBC in a fight over money? Nah. It's just "a very friendly negotiation," saysMatthew Perry.
The reports that Mr. Perry and his five co-stars have threatened to quit if they don't get huge raises are greatly exaggerated, he says.
"We're not on strike," Mr. Perry told TV Guide in the Aug. 10 issue. "There never was a phone call where we said we're not coming back unless we get this."
Mr. Perry, who plays the wisecracking Chandler on the hit series, says that no matter what the result of the high-stakes negotiations, he thinks all six cast members will be back Aug. 12 to resume production.
The "Friends" gang, little known when the series first aired two seasons ago, has reportedly asked for $100,000 each an episode, up from $22,500.
"This is just a normal renegotiation. Period. A very friendly negotiation," Mr. Perry said.
Tom Cruiseis suing a German magazine for $60 million for calling him a sterile man with "a zero sperm count."
The "Mission Impossible" star said in Los Angeles that Bunte magazine fabricated quotes and passages that questioned his virility. A spokesman for Bunte publisher, Burda Publications, said the company stands by the story.
Mr. Cruise's lawyer, Bert Fields, says the actor's career depends on his fans' "willingness to believe that he does or could possess the qualities of the characters he plays."
Mr. Cruise, 34, also "feels strongly that people who are sterile should not be reviled or subjected to ridicule for that condition," according to court documents.
Mr. Cruise is married to actress Nicole Kidman. They have two adopted children, a young son and daughter.
The first wife of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry lost another appeal to reap profits from spinoff series from the syndicated space show.
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to give Eileen Roddenberry a hearing to appeal a lower court ruling that said she was entitled only to a share of the profits from the original series.
The ruling, upholding the 2nd District Court of Appeal's April decision, is a multimillion-dollar victory for Mr. Roddenberry's estate, administered by his widow, actress Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Mr. Roddenberry died in 1991.
The 1969 divorce settlement involving Eileen Roddenberry, crafted after the series had been canceled after three seasons, gave her half of the couple's "future profit participation income." The meaning of the phrase was at the center of the court battle.
Eileen Roddenberry has received $13.8 million for the revival of the original series, but nothing from a cultlike revival that has led to six movies, an animation series and three spinoff programs including "Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager."
Give James Bond a speeding ticket? Hardly.
Bond -- actually actor Pierce Brosnan -- has been spotted zooming around Idaho, where he's been filming a movie for the last four months, in the same BMW Z3 convertible he used in his 007 flick "GoldenEye."
He's been pulled over four times but it appears he's gotten off without a ticket every time.
"They got me good but treated me well," Mr. Brosnan said. Which officers nabbed him remains a mystery -- most local police won't admit to letting the star off easy.
"I know of some occasions that (it looked like) he was exceeding the speed limit," Shoshone County Lt. Spike Angle said. "But I had no radar where I was."
Besides, "it would be hard to hold back," Lt. Angle joked. "That car's sweet."
Lt. Angle said he stopped Mr. Brosnan for driving without license plates but let him go after he produced the proper paperwork.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Sherry Lansing, one of the most successful female executives in Hollywood, became the first to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lansing, chair of Paramount's Motion Picture Group, received her star on her 52nd birthday Wednesday.
Lansing, a former Los Angeles schoolteacher, began acting in movies in 1970, but soon was lured behind the cameras. She oversaw such productions as "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "The China Syndrome" while working at Columbia. She also has served as the president of 20th-Century Fox and founded her own independent company with Stanley R. Jaffe.
Her other films include "Fatal Attraction," "The Accused," and "Indecent Proposal."
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STAUNTON, Va. (AP) – Actress Catherine Anne Christianson, who once had a role on the ABC soap opera "One Life To Live," had battled depression and talked of suicide before plotting to have her husband killed, according to court papers.
Ms. Christianson, who played a character named Jane on the daytime drama for three months in 1991, was arrested July 24. Prosecutors said she was videotaped offering a hit man $20,000 to kill her husband, Rich Chittum.
A court report quotes a housekeeper as saying the 39-year-old actress was "fragile," depressed and suicidal.
Ms. Christianson, who was being held in jail, could face 20 years in prison if convicted.
Chittum filed for divorce the day after her arrest and obtained sole custody of their 2-year-old son, William.
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BURBANK, Calif. (AP) -- Mexican actor Eduardo Lopez Rojas, who starred in the film "Mi Familia" and appeared in "Romero," is in stable condition after surgery to avoid a leg amputation.
The 59-year-old, who suffers from diabetes, was hospitalized July 24 at Providence-St. Joseph's Medical Center when poor blood circulation and gangrene cost him his right toe and may cause him to lose a portion of his right leg. A 21/2-hour surgery performed Tuesday, if successful, would restore circulation and prevent the need for amputation.
Lopez has starred in more than 60 films, mainly Mexican productions. In 1976, he received an Ariel, Mexico's equivalent of the Oscar, for his work in the movie "Actas de Marusia."
He was taping "La Historia de Quien Soy," or "The Story of Who I Am," a radio show on Hispanic-American families, when he fell ill.
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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- The Duchess of York, better known as Fergie, has written children's books and even resorted to fashion modeling to help pay off her debts.
Now she's been hired to hook up a cable TV service to the 100,000th customer of Foxtel, a service owned in part by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Foxtel won't say how much it's paying the divorced wife of Prince Andrew to officiate at Friday's plugging-in ceremony at a suburban Sydney home. But News Corp.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper speculated that she'll receive $80,000 as well as first-class air tickets and accommodation.
Fergie, who arrived in Melbourne on Thursday, also plans to visit her sister, who lives in Australia, and to take a short vacation.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- LaToya Jackson's husband and manager paid the Genovese crime family $1,500 a month to protect the singer, FBI documents reveal.
The payoffs were made to shield Jackson from mentally disturbed fans and possible shakedowns by other crime families, law enforcement sources told the Daily News, citing secret FBI papers.
According to the documents, Jackson's husband, Jack Gordon, started paying the protection money in 1994. The payments continued until at least last year.
The 39-year-old entertainer, the estranged sister of pop superstar Michael Jackson, filed for divorce in Las Vegas in May after a troubled six-year marriage. She accused her husband of beating her with a bottle "because I refused to perform" in a European concert.
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