newsmakers

newsmakers

Rapper sentenced in tax-return case

NEWARK, N.J.

Rapper and actor Ja Rule was sentenced Monday to more than two years in federal prison for failing to file income tax returns, and said a combination of youthful inexperience, bad advice and an inability to manage fame and fortune lead to his financial troubles.

“I in no way attempted to deceive the government or do anything illegal,” he said, minutes before being sentenced in a New Jersey federal court. “I was a young man who made a lot of money — I’m getting a little choked up — I didn’t know how to deal with these finances, and I didn’t have people to guide me, so I made mistakes.”

The multiplatinum-selling artist, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, admitted in March that he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million that he earned between 2004 and 2006 while living in Saddle River. Although he pleaded guilty to three counts of unfiled taxes, he admitted he hadn’t filed for five years, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Murphy back at FX with new fall series

LOS ANGELES

An “American Horror Story” is coming to TV.

The FX channel said Monday it has ordered 13 episodes of a new drama it says has “reinvented the horror genre.” The show is from the producers of “Nip/Tuck” and “Glee.”

“American Horror Story” stars Dylan McDermott (“The Practice”) and Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”) as a couple who move their family from Boston to Los Angeles to, as FX put it, “reconcile past anguish.”

The drama also features Oscar-winning star Jessica Lange (“Tootsie,” “Blue Sky”) in her first regular TV-series role, along with Frances Conroy of “Six Feet Under”

“American Horror Story” was co-created by executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. The drama begins production in Los Angeles next week and is set to premiere on FX in October.

Stage collapse was ‘a freak situation’

TORONTO

The organizer of a Cheap Trick concert where the stage collapsed, sending thousands of fans running for cover, called the accident “a freak situation” at a press conference Monday.

Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahann said organizers had been monitoring the weather moments before a violent summer gale toppled the main stage at the festival Sunday night.

“Honestly, what we’ve been told, it was a very unusual situation. The fact that [the storm] brought that stage down and nothing else came down in the park is just a freak situation,” Monahann said.

Witnesses say Cheap Trick band members were thrown off their feet but got off the stage safely.

Associated Press