Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Barbara McNair, the pioneering black singer-actress who hosted her own TV variety show and starred with Sidney Poitier in the early 1970s, has died. She was 72. McNair died on Sunday in Los Angeles after a battle with throat cancer, her sister, Jacqueline Gaither, said. “She was very family oriented,” Gaither said. “She was more than just a star or a famous personality. She was a person of her own.” Gaining fame in the 1960s as a nightclub singer, McNair graduated to film and television as opportunities were opening up for black women late in the decade. She made her Hollywood acting debut in 1968 in the film, If He Hollers, Let Him Go. She later starred with Elvis Presley in his 1969 film Change of Habit and as Poitier’s wife in the 1970 film They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! She found movie acting “a more rewarding kind of work than singing,” she told the Washington Post in 1969. “When I’m working in a club, I must go from one song to another rapidly and I don’t have much time to express my...

Kylie Minogue was forced to pull out of a performance with U2 due to exhaustion. The diminutive pop princess, who has beaten breast cancer, after being diagnosed with the illness in May 2005, was due to join the Irish rockers on stage on Monday as a thank you for frontman Bono performing a duet with her on the second night of her resumed “Showgirl Homecoming” tour in Sydney. However, Kylie, who is still not fully fit following an intensive programme of chemotherapy, had underestimated just how physically demanding the two-and-a-half-hour performances would be and was forced to grudgingly cancel her appearance. A source told Britain’s The Sun newspaper, “Kylie called Bono to explain that she had worn herself out. She is really feeling the physical effects of her return to the stage. He told her to spend Monday resting, get her energy levels fully restored and relax. It wasn’t a problem at all. Everyone realises Kylie is putting herself through the mill for the tour.” Kylie’s tour has ch...