Surgery silences critic Roger Ebert

People

Film critic Roger Ebert, 65, will resume writing reviews this month but will not rejoin his syndicated TV show because he's unable to speak. In a letter in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and co-host of TV's "Ebert & Roeper" said surgery in January ended in complications, and his ability to speak was not restored. Ebert said he's looking forward to his annual film festival, which starts April 23. "I will resume writing movie reviews shortly thereafter," he said. Ebert had surgery in 2006 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. He also had emergency surgery that year after a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation. He had undergone cancer surgery three times before the 2006 operation.

Turner gets religion

Ted Turner, 69, who once called Christianity a "religion for losers," Tuesday launched a $200 million joint health program with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the United Methodist Church to fight malaria in Africa. The CNN founder said his thinking on religion had evolved and he regretted his words. "Religion is one of the bright spots as far as I'm concerned, even though there are some areas ... where they've gone over the top a little," he said. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chipped in with a $10 million grant to be used to help publicize the campaign in churches.

1 more year for Grissom

One of TV's favorite science geeks, William Petersen, will return to "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" for its ninth season, the Hollywood Reporter says. Petersen, who is also the show's executive producer, has signed a one-year contract to return as Gil Grissom, but with the understanding that his role will be reduced. He reportedly will make $600,000 an episode.

Oops

Easy to crack this case

Lake Charles, La., police officers suspected a car they pulled over was stolen, so they called the registered owner and left a message. But when the owner called back, officers said, she apparently thought the message was from a drug dealer, and she was busted for allegedly trying to buy crack cocaine. "Officers put in a lot of energy to close a case, so we never mind getting one on sheer luck and stupidity," Lake Charles police Sgt. Mark Kraus said of last week's arrest.

Passages

Dr. Charlotte Tan, 84, a pioneer in treating childhood cancer and one of the country's leading pediatric oncologists during her more than 40 years at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, died of pneumonia March 22 at her Brookline, Mass., home.

Robert Sidney, 98, who choreographed for the Broadway stage, Las Vegas nightclubs, movies and television, died of pneumonia March 26 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Robert Goheen, 88, who as president of Princeton revolutionized the university by admitting its first women, pursuing minority faculty members, buttressing finances and doubling the space in campus buildings, died of heart failure Monday in Princeton, N.J.

Bill Dickinson, 82, a Democrat-turned-Republican who served in the U.S. House from Alabama from 1965 to 1993 and who championed a strong defense, died Monday at his Montgomery home after suffering from colon cancer.

Today in History

1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in present-day Florida.

1917: President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy." (Congress declared war four days later.)

1932: Aviator Charles Lindbergh and John Condon went to a cemetery in New York, where Condon turned over $50,000 to a man called "John" in exchange for Lindbergh's kidnapped son. (The child was not returned and found dead the following month.)

1986: Four U.S. passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.

2005: Pope John Paul II, who had led the Roman Catholic Church for 26 years, died in his Vatican apartment at age 84.

Today's Birthdays

Actress Linda Hunt, 63. Singer Emmylou Harris, 61. Actress Pamela Reed, 59. Actor Christopher Meloni, 47. Actor Clark Gregg, 46. Actress Jana Marie Hupp, 44. Country singer Jill King, 33. Actor Adam Rodriguez, 33. Actor Jeremy Garrett, 32. Rock musician Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5), 29.

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