Eddie Van Halen donates guitars LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rocker Eddie Van Halen has donated 75 electric guitars to Los Angeles-area high schools as a way to inspire music in kids. ADVERTISING Tricia Steel of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation
Eddie Van Halen donates guitars
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rocker Eddie Van Halen has donated 75 electric guitars to Los Angeles-area high schools as a way to inspire music in kids.
Tricia Steel of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation says the Van Halen lead-guitarist came with the brand-new guitars this week, saying he wanted them used in schools and not sold.
The nonprofit Los Angeles foundation has distributed the guitars to seven schools serving mostly low-income students that needed them to replace broken instruments or build music enrollment.
Schools were not told where the guitars came from until they arrived, and then they were advised to keep them under tight lock and key.
Locklear released from L.A. hospital
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Actress Heather Locklear was released Friday from a hospital after she was treated in the intensive care unit for an unknown ailment.
She was discharged in the afternoon, Los Robles Hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman told The Associated Press. The 50-year-old “Melrose Place” actress was hospitalized Thursday.
The hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks said earlier in the day that Locklear was medically stable and being cared for one-on-one in the ICU. Paramedics transported her from her home in Westlake Village, 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Locklear has been hospitalized several times over the years. In 2009, she pleaded no contest to reckless driving after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription medication.
Locklear also starred in such TV series as “Dynasty” and “T.J. Hooker.”
Her engagement to “Melrose Place” co-star Jack Wagner recently ended. She was previously married to Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, and they have a daughter together.
Annie Potts takes on new ABC role
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Former “Designing Women” star Annie Potts is connecting with her TV and family roots in the new ABC series “GCB.”
Potts plays a Dallas socialite in the prime-time comedy-drama also known as “Good Christian Belles.” She says she sees a lot of “my beloved Dixie Carter” in the show. Carter, who died at age 70 in 2010, starred with Potts in CBS’ “Designing Women” sitcom that aired from 1986 to 1993.
Potts told the Television Critics Association on Tuesday that her “GCB” character, Gigi, also reflects Potts’ own mother. Series executive producer Robert Harling is a longtime friend of Potts and called her mom, Dot, “magnificent.”
Potts’ mother died a year ago. With a smile, Potts said they can use all her stories in “GCB.”
The series, which debuts March 4 on ABC, also stars Kristin Chenoweth, David James Elliott and Leslie Bibb.
Bibb plays Amanda, a former teenage “mean girl” who goes home to mom (Potts) after her marriage breaks up and has to readjust to a tough world of money and gossip.
The “GCB” title is a cleaned-up version of “Good Christian Bitches,” the 2008 novel by Kim Gatlin that inspired the series. Harling said the series is a “love letter to Texas” and is about a faith-based group of people but not any particular religion.
