People in the news

The latest news on today's hottest celebrities ...

HUBERT SUMLIN: Famed blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin has died of heart failure in Wayne, N.J., his agent said. He was 80.

The Chicago Tribune confirmed his Sunday death, but did not report the circumstances of it.

Sumlin is best known for his work with Chester Arthur Burnett, known as Howlin' Wolf, from the early 1950s until Burnett's death in 1976.

"He's the one that shaped that Howlin' Wolf sound," Chicago musician Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater told the Tribune. "On tunes like 'Shake for Me' and 'Smokestack Lightning' -- that was the Howlin' Wolf sound, and Hubert's guitar made it."

The New York Times noted musicians Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton have all credited Sumlin as an influence on their own music.

The Mississippi native and multiple Grammy Award nominee worked as a bandleader and vocalist, as well. His last gig was in October at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Ark., his agent, Hugh Southard, told the Tribune.

The Times said Sumlin was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008. The newspaper also noted Rolling Stone magazine recently mentioned him on a roster of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Southard said Sumlin will be buried next to his wife Willie B. "Bea" Reed Sumlin in Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery, in Homewood, Ill., the Tribune said. Bea died in 1999.

MARTIN BOYCE: Scottish sculptor Martin Boyce has won Britain's Turner Prize for modern art.

The BBC said photographer Mario Testino presented Boyce with a $39,000 check at Monday night's ceremony at the Baltic gallery in Gateshead.

Boyce, 43, beat out fellow nominees installation sculptor Karla Black, video artist Hilary Lloyd and painter George Shaw to win this year's Turner Prize.

"It's been a brilliant year to be a part of this thing," the BBC quoted Boyce as saying in his acceptance speech. "Most of all, it's been a brilliant shortlist to be part of."

The honor is bestowed upon a British artist under age 50 who is judged to have offered the year's best exhibition.

Sound artist Susan Philipsz won the award last year.

ALEC BALDWIN: Alec Baldwin's publicist has confirmed the TV star was kicked off an American Airlines flight Tuesday for playing a game on his cellphone before takeoff.

"Alec was asked to leave the flight for playing 'Words with Friends' while parked at the gate. He loves 'WWF' so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it, but he has already boarded another AA flight," the actor's representative told UsMagazine.com.

"The flight attendant on American reamed me out for playing 'Words with Friends' while we sat at the gate, not moving," Baldwin said via Twitter. "No wonder American Air is bankrupt. But, oddly, '30 Rock' plays inflight on American. The real way is United."

Baldwin has won numerous awards for his work on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock," which tapes in New York.

He was flying back to the Big Apple from Los Angeles at the time of the American Airlines incident.

CANDACE BUSHNELL: "Sex and the City" scribe Candace Bushnell has filed for divorce from ballet dancer Charles Askegard after nine years of marriage, the New York Post said.

Bushnell, 53, allegedly discovered after starting divorce proceedings that Askegard, 43, was having an affair with ballerina Georgina Pazcoguin, his frequent collaborator.

"The divorce was proceeding amicably, then Candace found out about Georgina and became very upset. She believes their affair could have gone on for some time. Humiliated, it was her idea to take the unusual step of naming Georgina as a co-respondent in the divorce papers," one unnamed insider told the newspaper.

The Post said Bushnell and Askegard have declined to comment on its story.