Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas and musician and actress Laura Marano have been added as celebrity judges for the 2017 Miss America competition. Pageant officials made the announcement Monday.
The two will join NBA team owner and businessman Mark Cuban, actress Sara Foster, singer-songwriter Cole Swindell and former Miss America Sharlene Wells Hawkes.
Douglas was the first all-around Olympic gold medalist in U.S. history to earn a spot on a second Olympic team. She also is one of two American gymnasts to win gold medals in back-to-back Olympics.
Marano played Ally in the Disney Channel's "Austin & Ally" show and will release a new album this year. The pageant finale will be broadcast live from Atlantic City on ABC on Sept. 11, hosted by Chris Harrison and Sage Steele.
Aretha cancels 'due to doctors' orders'
Aretha Franklin is canceling some upcoming concerts to rest up. The 74-year-old singer said in a statement Monday that "due to doctors' orders I will have to cancel a few concerts for the next month or so," including an Aug. 26 show at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia. Franklin is canceling two performances at New York City's Radio City Music Hall: She'll skip "Tony Bennett Celebrates 90" on Sept. 15 and a solo show on Sept. 23. The Queen of Soul said she should be back on the road in November.
German hero: Berlin's mayor has inaugurated a memorial to a hero: a plaque commemorating David Bowie's time in the then-divided city in the late 1970s. Mayor Michael Mueller recalled Bowie's "special relationship" with Berlin as he unveiled the plaque Monday at the building where Bowie lived from 1976 to 1978. The singer died in January at 69; the sidewalk outside the house on a busy street in the city's Schoeneberg district turned into a makeshift shrine in the subsequent weeks. Bowie's albums "Low" and "Heroes" were made in West Berlin. The plaque quotes the refrain from the latter's title track — "We can be heroes, just for one day."
in memory: Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans, whose illustrious career included playing with jazz greats like Miles Davis and whose solos have figured on numerous film scores, has died. He was 94. Born in Brussels, Thielemans had his first international breakthrough in 1950 when he joined Benny Goodman on a European concert tour. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1952, joining Charlie Parker's All Stars. He also played with other jazz greats, including Ella Fitzgerald, and mainstream stars like Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Billy Joel. His harmonica solos figure on many film scores, including "Midnight Cowboy," and on "Sesame Street."
Associated Press
