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Eagles to perform at CMA Awards

The Eagles will perform during this fall's Country Music Association Awards for the first time, a nod to the success of their new single, How Long, on country radio.

The song is from the group's first new studio album in 28 years, Long Road out of Eden, which will be released next month. The single is No 26 and rising on the Billboard country chart.

"From the early '70s this group has defined country rock, and more than three decades later they are still creating music that resonates with our audience," said CMA chief operating officer Tammy Genovese.

The 41st annual awards show airs on November 7 from Nashville on ABC. Other artists scheduled to perform include George Strait, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, Keith Urban, Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood. The Eagles share a long kinship with the country music industry.

Silverman discusses Spears jokes

Sarah Silverman is still responding to the negative reaction to her Britney Spears jokes at the MTV Video Music Awards. "The joke that everyone was upset about me calling the kids 'adorable mistakes' was the most innocuous joke," the 36-year-old comedian tells the US Weekly magazine in the latest issue. "It never occurred to me that would be deemed hurtful or over the line."

Says Silverman: "I don't want to get into feuds with girls half my age. I'm in it to be funny and not for the drama. It's embarrassing."

Silverman, known for her deadpan delivery and winsome depravity, drew criticism earlier this month when she followed Spears' much-panned VMA performance with an off-color monologue taking aim at the troubled singer and her two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline. "They are the most adorable mistakes you will ever see," Silverman said of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1.

Silverman also joked that Spears, at 25, had already accomplished in her life everything she ever will.

Sutherland arrested for drunk driving

Kiefer Sutherland, who stars in the hit TV thriller 24 as a secret agent with nerves of steel, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving on Tuesday, hours before he was due to be honored by a Canadian actors' union.

The arrest comes as the Canadian performer, 40, the son of actor Donald Sutherland, remains on probation for driving under the influence in a previous case that landed him in a court-ordered treatment program for alcohol abuse.

Los Angeles police said they stopped Sutherland's car near the boundaries of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood shortly after 1 am after he was seen making an illegal U-turn.

A breath test found him to be over the legal blood-alcohol limit, and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, a police spokeswoman said.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/27/2007 page18)