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People in the news

By United Press International

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

PHYLLIS DILLER: Pioneering female standup comedian Phyllis Diller died in Los Angeles at age 95, her agent said.

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The comedian who created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, was recovering from a fall and had been sick the last few months.

She died Monday surrounded by her family, Fred Wostbrock told NBC News. He did not release the cause of her death.

"It is a great loss," he told the network. "She was a true pioneer and the first lady of standup. She paved the way for Chelsea Handler, Roseanne Barr, Joan Rivers and Ellen DeGeneres. She was the best -- the first female standup to play Vegas. She was on Broadway, she made movies, she did it all."

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WILLIE NELSON: Country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson had altitude troubles but no hospitalization for breathing problems, his daughter said in explaining why he canceled a fundraiser near Denver.

"The papers have apparently blown things out of proportion," Amy Nelson told the Los Angeles Times Monday.

"He did cancel the [Colorado] show because he did not feel that he could give an adequate vocal performance in the high altitude," she said. "He had gone to the hospital a couple days before to treat an injury on his leg from a bicycle accident. Perhaps that's where the hospital reference got mixed in. Or maybe people just panicked, as they usually do when he cancels a show."

The event to support the Dumb Friends League was to have been in Castle Pines Village, about 20 miles south of Denver. The unincorporated community lies 6,000 to 6,500 feet above sea level along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

The Denver-based league is an animal shelter and humane society.

Nelson, 79, "feels much better, and no other tour dates are being postponed," Amy Nelson told the Times.


TONY SCOTT: An autopsy was to be performed in Los Angeles on "Top Gun" director Tony Scott amid a report by ABC News he had inoperable brain cancer.

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Scott, 68, who jumped 185 feet to his death into Los Angeles Harbor from a suspension bridge around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, left a note with his wife's and other loved ones' contact information in his Toyota Prius, parked on the bridge, the Los Angeles Times and celebrity news Web site TMZ reported.

That information led authorities to a suicide note in his office, the Times said. The note's contents were not revealed.

A source close to Scott told ABC News the respected director had inoperable brain cancer.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office declined to comment on the ABC report.


WYNONNA JUDD: Wynonna Judd postponed Canadian concerts next week after her husband Michael "Cactus" Moser was injured in a South Dakota motorcycle accident, the U.S. country music singer said.

Judd said she would reschedule the concerts in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Aug. 21; Regina, Saskatchewan, Aug. 22; Carlylye, Saskatchewan, Aug. 24 and Llyodminster, Saskatchewan, Aug. 25.

Her next concert after that is in Peshawbestow, Mich., about 20 miles north of Traverse City, Aug. 30.

Moser, 55, of Nashville, was riding a motorcycle on State Highway 16 in the isolated Black Hills mountain range Saturday when he crossed the center line and hit the driver's side door of a southbound Chevrolet Malibu driven by Michael Bruce, 59, of Rapid City, the South Dakota Highway Patrol said.

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Moser was airlifted to Rapid City Regional Hospital with injuries police Lt. David Berkley said were serious but not life-threatening, the Rapid City Journal reported.

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