One of the minds behind Kickstarter is coming to town to give would-be entrepreneurs a (friendly) kick in the pants. Yancey Strickler, who co-founded the online fundraising platform that has brought $388 million to 75,000 creative projects and counting, will speak at a free event at Walker Art Center at 7 p.m. Thursday. Also on hand will be local artists and designers who got their projects funded, including comic-book maker Joshua Nite, and John Harris, who created a game called "Flapjacks and Sasquatch." Strickler, who said the average contribution is $25, credits the platform's success to keeping it "a place where ideas become reality just because somebody wants to make them, not because they fill some market niche."
KRISTIN TILLOTSON
WCCO Radio host heading to Minneapolis WCCO Radio (AM 830) afternoon host John Williams is getting more neighborly with his Twin Cities listener base, moving from Chicago and leaving his radio gig in that city, the stations announced. Since April 2010, Williams had been hosting his WCCO show from the studios of WGN Radio (AM 720). Starting Jan. 2, he'll be positioned behind the WCCO microphone in downtown Minneapolis from 3-6 p.m. Williams, 53, is in his second stint at WCCO. He was WCCO's midday host from 1993-97, then left for WGN in his native Chicago. John and Brenda Williams are the parents of two adult sons, one of whom attends the University of Minnesota.
PAUL WALSH
SUING: An attorney for Tom Cruise said he filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against the publishers of Life & Style magazine for articles that said the actor has abandoned his 6-year-old daughter Suri.
The suit challenges statements on the cover of the July 30th Life & Style, which said: "Suri in Tears, Abandoned by Her Dad," and the Oct. 1 issue of In Touch, which had a photo of Suri with the words, "Abandoned by Daddy." Suri's mother, actress Katie Holmes, filed for divorce from Cruise in June. "Enough is enough," said Cruise's lawyer Bertram Fields. Lindsay Ferraro, a representative for Bauer Publishing Company, declined to comment on the suit.
SINGING THEIR PRAISES: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is jealous of South Korean rapper PSY. The U.N. chief joked that he felt overshadowed by the star, whose video " Gangnam Style" has scored over half a billion views on YouTube. "Until two days ago someone told me I am the most famous Korean in the world. Now I have to relinquish. I have no regrets," Ban said. The two lavished praise on each other at U.N. headquarters, with Ban even risking a few of PSY's trademark dance moves. "So now you have first and second famous Korean in the same building," PSY said. "For all the Koreans [Ban] is the guy, you know, in everyone's heart in Korea, the best among the best. To be here and he knows me ... is so touching."
