Danny Sugerman dies of cancer at 50
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Danny Sugerman, manager of the Doors and the co-author of a best-selling Jim Morrison biography, died in Los Angeles of lung cancer complications. He was 50.
Sugerman died Wednesday, RollingStone.com reported Friday.
At age 14 he began answering the Doors' fan mail and was later promoted to management associate and then manger.
Later, he worked as technical advisor on Oliver Stone's 1991 film, "The Doors," which portrayed the group's hedonistic lifestyle.
In 1980 he co-wrote the Doors biography, "No One Here Gets Out Alive," with music journalist Jerry Hopkins.
After Morrison died in 1971, Sugerman managed Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboard player Ray Manzarek and drummer John Densmore.
"He was a fine, good and decent man," Manzarek told Rolling Stone. "Smart as a whip with a very high IQ. I've known him since he was 14-years-old, and he gradually developed into one of the new breed of Jewish-American Buddhists. His heart was in the heavens and he is now in the light with the Buddha and Jim Morrison."
Sugerman is survived by his wife, Fawn (formerly Fawn Hall), his brother, Joseph, and his sister, Nan.
'Surreal Life' may pull surreal scene
NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Network execs are debating whether to leave in a shot of a urinating actor in Sunday's "The Surreal Life" on VH1.
Two-thirds of the way through the show, a nude Verne Troyer, the pint-size actor who plays Mini Me in the "Austin Powers" movies, rides a scooter into a room and, oblivious to his surroundings or the cameras, promptly relieves himself in a corner.
A copy of the segment was sent to critics, the New York Daily News said Friday.
"We're still sort of playing with how that looks on television," VH1 executive Jeff Olde said. "That may come out."
"The Surreal Life" is a reality show that puts a group of celebrities in a home in California for two weeks where they live, eat and play.
Accused killer says actress killed self
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Music producer Phil Spector told police he fatally shot an actress by "accident," but later claimed she committed suicide, testimony shows.
A Los Angeles County grand jury also heard three women testify that Spector had threatened each of them with a gun, according to the documents, the Los Angeles Times said Friday.
Spector, who did not testify before the grand jury, now contends actress Lana Clarkson fatally shot herself in his home on Feb. 3, 2003.
Spector, 64, has pleaded not guilty. He could face life in prison if convicted.
The five volumes of transcripts of secret grand jury proceedings leading up to Spector's indictment for murder on Sept. 27 were made public after The Times won a legal challenge to their closure.
The transcripts offer the first detailed view of the nature and extent of the state's case against Spector, and they show that he allegedly implicated himself in the crime.
Waitress testifies in Robert Blake trial
VAN NUYS, Calif., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A woman who served actor Robert Blake before his wife was shot to death outside a California restaurant said he seemed in shock after the slaying.
Blake, 71, is charged with one count of murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait and two counts of soliciting former stuntmen to kill his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, 44.
Waitress Robyn Robichaux of Vitello's Italian Restaurant had served the couple dinner May 4, 2001, Court TV reported Friday.
"It frightened me. I thought he was having a heart attack," Robichaux testified Thursday. She said the "Baretta" star returned to Vitello's to summon medical help for his wife as she died in a car outside of died of gunshot wounds.
"He aged 50 years in 10 or 15 minutes," Robichaux said. "The color had left his face, he was white as a sheet, and he was out of breath."
Blake is under house arrest on $1.5 million bond and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
