Names in the news

Distressing news from Melissa Etheridge. According to her rep, the 43-year-old… Distressing news from Melissa Etheridge. According to her rep, the 43-year-old singer-songwriter has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has canceled forthcoming concerts to undergo surgery. Publicist Marcel Pariseau said the cancer was discovered early and the star has been receiving treatment. She said she expects a “speedy and complete recovery” from the impending surgery.

“I am fortunate to be under a wonderful doctor’s care and thankful that this was caught early,” Etheridge said in a statement. No more details on the surgery or when the singer expects to be back on the road.

SPEARS MAKES IT LEGAL

The divine union between America’s sweetheart, Britney Spears, and her nobody of a sometime-backup dancer, Kevin Federline, is legal. The couple filed a California marriage license.

But Spears has broken up with her longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, who is credited with (or, depending on your P.O.V, bitterly blamed for) discovering the singer when she was 13. Rudolph says the split is amicable, telling People mag that Spears’ move was a “declaration of independence.”

Meanwhile, Saturday is Brit and Kev’s three-week wedding anniversary. We send them love and express admiration at the staying power of this, Brit’s most durable marriage to date.

MANSON TO TIE THE BAT

We told you there was a rash of celeb weddings. This one is slightly less pretty. The New York Post says the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost reports that charm-challenged shock-rocker Marilyn Manson will wed his sweetheart, burlesque dancer Dita von Teese (clever name, that), next month in Deutschland.

Manson, 35, is castle-shopping: They want the affair to have gothic flair (and we bet no one will be allowed to dress in white).

THE QUEEN OPENS UP

America’s got a long way to go to eradicate racism, “Taxi” star Queen Latifah says. In a “60 Minutes” interview to be aired on CBS Sunday, Latifah tells Bob Simon, “Every time I try to flag down a cab and it goes past me and picks up that white lady instead of me, that’s racism.”

It’s worse at stores, where she’s treated as a potential thief and a “nobody” until some customer or clerk recognizes her: “Oh, now I’m somebody. Now, you going to stop following me around this damn store.”

THE OTHER ELECTION

Showtime’s reality show “American Candidate” is wrapping up. That’s the show in which the audience goes through all the angst, boredom, anger and manipulation of a real election just to choose a fake president. Sunday, the winner will be announced.

Right now, the race is between Park Gillespie, 38, and Malia Lazu, 26. The winner gets cash and a chance to make an idiot of him or herself by proclaiming his or her “message” to the nation. The show, some pundits say, blurs the line between Hollywood and Washington, between politics and make-believe.

They may have failed to notice that politicos are as narcissistic and obsessed with their image and looks as most Tinseltown starlets, who in turn love to pontificate about their political beliefs in the same breath as they squeal about turn-ons and turn-offs.

(Wire services contributed to this report.)

(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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