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People in the news

By United Press International

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

DOYLE BRAMHALL: Dallas-born blues singer, drummer and songwriter Doyle Bramhall Sr. has died, his family said. He was 62.

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The Houston Chronicle confirmed his death Saturday, but said the cause was not disclosed.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed friend as saying Bramhall had suffered pneumonia.

Bramhall was the drummer for blues great Lightning Hopkins and a frequent collaborator with Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Among the songs he helped make hits are "The House is Rockin'," "Life by the Drop," "Dirty Pool," "Wall of Denial," "Scratch-N-Sniff" and "Tightrope," the Chronicle noted.

Bramhall is survived by a son, Doyle II, who is singer and guitarist for the band Smokestack.


GEORGE CLOONEY: Hollywood actor George Clooney says he was in such pain after a 2005 spinal injury he thought "I can't exist like this" and briefly considered ending his life.

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Clooney was hurt while making the movie "Syriana," for which he earned the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

The Hollywood Reporter said the actor has since undergone surgery and is feeling much better, although he sometimes suffers headaches.

"I was at a point where I thought: 'I can't exist like this. I can't actually live,'" Clooney told Rolling Stone magazine about how he felt shortly after he sustained his injury.

"I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches where it feels like you're having a stroke, and for a short three-week period, I started to think, 'I may have to do something drastic about this,'" he recalled.

"You start to think in terms of, you don't want to leave a mess, so go in the garage, go in the car, start the engine. It seems like the nicest way to do it but I never thought I'd get there. See, I was in a place where I was trying to figure out how to survive."

Clooney's latest film "The Descendants" is to open Wednesday.


KASEY & VIENNA: California advertising executive Kasey Kahl announced via Twitter he has broken up with his "Bachelor Pad" Season 2 co-star Vienna Girardi.

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Girardi is a marketing representative who previously got engaged to Jake Pavelka on the Season 14 finale of "The Bachelor." Pavelka and Girardi ended their engagement in June 2010.

"Yes vienna and I have split. It's been 5 weeks now. I can't fake it anymore. I will always love, be there for her, and wish her the best," People.com quoted Kahl as saying on Twitter Sunday.

"@KaseyRKahl will always be my best friend, but yes we have split. No idea what the future holds for us but we will always remain friends," Girardi said in her own online message.

No reason was given for the breakup.


'DOCTO R WHO:' David Yates says he is developing a film based on the classic British science-fiction television series "Doctor Who."

The director of the last four movies in the Harry Potter franchise told Daily Variety he is collaborating with Jane Tranter, head of BBC Worldwide Productions, on the "Doctor Who" project.

Yates and Tranter previously worked together on several British series such as "The Way We Live Now" and "State of Play."

"We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right," Yates told the entertainment industry trade newspaper. "It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena."

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The TV show initially ran from 1963 to 1989, then was revived in 2005.

Yates said the movie will not follow the show's story lines, but will, instead, stand alone.

"[The show's writer-producers] Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch," Yates said.

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