Free Republic

Actress and former model Peggy Lipton, who rose to stardom in the late 1960s on the counterculture police series “The Mod Squad” and later starred on TV’s “Twin Peaks,” has died. Her death from cancer was announced Saturday by Kidada and Rashida Jones, her daughters from a marriage to famed music producer Quincy Jones. “She made her journey peacefully with her daughters and nieces by her side,” Lipton’s daughters said in a statement to The Times. “We feel so lucky for every moment we spent with her.” Born in New York on Aug. 30, 1946, Lipton began modeling at age...

In the chats, Jones was candid about his feelings about Taylor Swift (“We need more songs, man. F—ing songs, not hooks.”), Paul McCartney (“the worst bass player I ever heard”) and Michael Jackson (whom he called “greedy”), among others. Jones also said Jackson was a song stealer. Jones produced the legendary “Thriller” album in addition to producing Jackson’s “Bad,” and “Off the Wall.”

...“All I’ve ever done is tell the truth,” says Jones, seated on a couch in his palatial Bel Air home, and about to dish some outrageous gossip. “I’ve got nothing to be scared of, man.”... ...You just mentioned the Clintons, who are friends of yours. Why is there still such visceral dislike of them? What are other people not seeing in Hillary, for example, that you see? It’s because there’s a side of her — when you keep secrets, they backfire. Like what secrets? This is something else I shouldn’t be talking about. You sure seem to know a lot....

THERE IS nothing new under the sun, says the Good Book, and the plea for a Cabinet-level secretary of arts and culture is no exception. That plea comes most recently from composer-producer Quincy Jones, who has long wanted the United States to establish a national ministry of culture akin to those in Italy, Germany, or France. "The next conversation I have with President Obama is to beg for a secretary of arts," he said in a radio interview shortly after the presidential election. Culture and the arts are "just as important as military defense," Jones argues, and a federal arts...

A call for President-elect Barack Obama to give the arts and humanities a Cabinet-level post -- perhaps even create a secretary of culture -- is gaining momentum. By yesterday, 76,000 people had signed an online petition, started by two New York musicians who were inspired by producer Quincy Jones. In a radio interview in November, Jones said the country needed a minister of culture, like France, Germany or Finland has. And he said he would "beg" Obama to establish the post. Listening in New York, Jaime Austria, a bass player with the New York City Opera, and Peter Weitzner,...

The construction crew refers to it as "The Mobile Home." Others say it looks like a Star Wars diner. A shuttle pod on stilts. At night, the futuristic gleaming silver-and-glass structure on the southern bank of the Arkansas River actually resembles a guitar fret board. Elvis lives. "A glorified house trailer," former President Bill Clinton joked at a luncheon here yesterday to kick off the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. "That's me. I'm a little red and a little blue." (snip) And what better site to store his legacy — tarnished or not — than a scruffy,...