Kim Spradlin wins 'Survivor'
LOS ANGELES, May 14 (UPI) -- Kim Spradlin, a 29-year-old Texan, has been declared the winner of "Survivor: One World" in Upolu, Samoa.
She took home the $1 million top prize on Sunday night's 24th "Survivor" season finale.
Sabrina Thompson, 33, from New York was the survival competition show's runner-up, and Chelsea Meissner, 26, from Charleston, S.C., was the second runner-up.
Aubrey O'Day eliminated from 'Apprentice'
NEW YORK, May 14 (UPI) -- Singer-actress Aubrey O'Day has become the latest star eliminated from the business-themed competition series "The Celebrity Apprentice" in New York.
Comedian Arsenio Hall and recording artist Clay Aiken are the last two contestants and will compete in next week's finals.
The last man standing will receive a $250,000 check to be given to a designated charity.
'Desperate Housewives' wraps up 8-season run
LOS ANGELES, May 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. nighttime soap opera "Desperate Housewives" ended its eight-season run with a 2-hour season finale.
The Emmy Award-winning show, which ended Sunday night, was created by writer-producer Marc Cherry and boasted an ensemble cast led by Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria.
Other stars who appeared on the series were Nicollette Sheridan, Steven Culp, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Mark Moses, Andrea Bowen, Jesse Metcalfe, Doug Savant, Alfre Woodard, Kyle MacLachlan, Dana Delany, Neal McDonough, Drea de Matteo, Vanessa Williams and Kathryn Joosten.
The Salt Lake Tribune said Cherry was inspired to create his show about unhappy, upper-middle-class suburbanites after he and his mother Martha saw a news story on TV about a woman who drowned her children.
"I turned to her and said, 'Gosh, can you imagine a woman being so desperate that she would hurt her own children?'" the Tribune reported Cherry said shortly before "Desperate Housewives" made its debut. "And my mother took her cigarette out of her mouth and turned to me and said, 'I've been there.'"
Cherry told the newspaper aspects of several of the characters are based on his mother, particularly the passive-aggressive perfectionist Bree, played by Marcia Cross. He also said he has been happy to work out his own personal issues through the show.
"I adore my mom," he said. "Without my mother, there would be no 'Desperate Housewives.'"
Cissy Houston supports reality show
LOS ANGELES, May 14 (UPI) -- Cissy Houston, the mother of late American singer Whitney Houston, told friends she is in favor of a new Lifetime docu-series about her family.
Sources close to Cissy told TMZ she has said she hopes "The Houston Family Chronicles" will "help with the healing process" by "keeping the family as one."
She also reportedly said she thinks the show will be a good opportunity for Whitney's 19-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina to kick off her music career.
Lifetime reportedly has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of "The Houston Family Chronicles."
Also expected to appear on the show along with Cissy and Bobbi Kristina are Whitney's sister-in-law and manager Pat Houston, her husband Gary and their daughter Rayah.
Whitney Houston, a Grammy Award-winning pop music icon, accidentally drowned in a hotel bathtub Feb. 11 after using cocaine, authorities said. She was 48.
