Peabody winners named

Honors

Thirty-five recipients of the 67th annual George Foster Peabody awards for broadcasting excellence were announced by the University of Georgia ahead of a ceremony in New York City on June 16. Among the Peabody recipients were: "Wounds of War — The Long Road Home for Our Nation's Veterans," a series of reports by ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff, and to "CBS News Sunday Morning: The Way Home" for Kimberly Dozier's piece about two women veterans who lost limbs in Iraq. Dozier and Woodruff each survived near-fatal attacks while on assignment in Iraq. Among other recipients was one with a Seattle tie, courtesy of Paul Allen's Vulcan Productions: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," NOVA/WGBH Educational Foundation and The Big Table Film Co. Awards for entertainment series went to, among others, "30 Rock," "Project Runway," "Mad Men" and "Dexter." "The Colbert Report" also won an award.

Update

"Borat" lawsuit rejected

Federal Judge Loretta Preska tossed out a defamation lawsuit brought by businessman Jeffrey Lemerond, who is shown in the movie "Borat" being chased down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Preska said the term "newsworthy" can be applied to the 2006 hit movie. The lawsuit had sought unspecified damages for Lemerond, a financial analyst shown running and yelling "Go away!" as Cohen's character, a phony Kazakh journalist, chases him in an attempt to hug strangers.

Oops

Joke ad backfires

An "in memoriam" ad about a former U.S. ambassador that was placed in The Washington Post as an April Fools' Day joke backfired. A photo of Edward M. Gabriel, a very much alive international business consultant who was the U.S. ambassador to Morocco from 1997 to 2001, topped an ad in Tuesday's Post. In language reminiscent of the movie "Brokeback Mountain," the $322.20 ad said, "Though I no longer have you as my partner, this day will always be OUR anniversary. ... I could never quit you." The ad was taken out by J. Peter Segall, a public-relations executive and lawyer. He paid for a retraction in Wednesday's Post. "He's an old friend who plays jokes on me every year, and some are hilarious," Gabriel said. "He's a good friend who went a little too far."

Passages

Nikolai Baibakov, 97, who served as Josef Stalin's oil commissar and later guided the Soviet Union's planned economy for two decades, died of pneumonia Monday in Moscow.

Today in History

1860: The legendary Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.

1882: Outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph, Mo., by Robert Ford, a member of James' gang.

1948: President Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, designed to help European allies rebuild after World War II and resist Communism.

1968: The day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "mountaintop" speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.

Today's Birthdays

Actress-singer Doris Day, 84. Actor Eric Braeden, 67. Actress Marsha Mason, 66. Singer Wayne Newton, 66. Singer Tony Orlando, 64. Actor Alec Baldwin, 50. Actor David Hyde Pierce, 49. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy, 47. Actress Jennie Garth, 36. Actress Amanda Bynes, 22.

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