Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

American Idol Season 8 Winner Kris Allen chats with Anne Holliday about the PBS Salute to Veterans. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

The 2011-12 Prism Series at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford promises its audiences a musical medley of North American heritage: from Native American and early settler beginnings to the Civil War to reality TV fame. The university’s premier arts series will open the season with the return of The Barter Theatre in its performance of “Civil War Voices,” at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall. In 2010, Prism audiences enjoyed The Barter Theatre’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Ticket prices for the public are $30 and $26; costs for faculty, staff and alumni are $26 and $22; students pay $13 and $11. James R. Harris based his musical on the diaries and other writings of his great-great-uncle, a young couple separated by the war, a young professor who became a lieutenant, and a freed slave working as Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker. The music arrangements by Mark Hayes include period songs such as “Dixie,” “The Yello...

Buffalo developer Carl Paladino beat Rick Lazio in the Republican gubernatorial primary to set up a November showdown with Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Paladino received Tea Party support in defeating Lazio, who had backing from the Republican Party. However, Lazio's running mate Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards won the Republican primary for lieutenant governor. Lazio and Edwards were able to keep the Conservative Party nomination for governor, meaning Edwards could run for lieutenant governor with Lazio as a Conservative and for lieutenant governor on the Republican line with Paladino. Edwards hasn't made a decision yet. US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand easily won a Democratic primary challenge from Gail Goode, a lawyer for New York City. Goode said she realized she was not considered a threat to Gillibrand, who was appointed last year to fill the unexpired term of Hillary Rodham Clinton, but ran to give voters a choice. Joseph DioGuardi won the three-way Republican primary an...

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Controversial "American Idol" contestant and former child star Joanna Pacitti has been booted off the talent show, apparently due to her past in the music business. Pacitti, 23, was put through to the Top 36 in an episode of the show broadcast on Wednesday, but her name was missing from a Fox television news release late on Wednesday on the Top 36. "It has been determined that Joanna Pacitti is ineligible to continue in the competition," the statement said, adding that Felicia Barton had taken her place. For the full story, go to Reuters .