As she captivated the audience at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom on May 8, one of the largest ever for “VH1 Storytellers,” it was clear that Ms. Scott wasn’t going to just run down her extensive catalog of soulful music. Instead, she was creating something new with each song. Before her smooth rendition of “Come See Me,” the songstress, now wearing a collared shirt and big glasses with wavy black hair, informed everyone that she was a world traveling PhD recipient. The scholar was obviously uptight, until a man came along and changed all that. Her glasses soon came off and Scott began to sing “Crown Royal,” with so much energy that she almost started scatting in the tradition of jazz greats at the end.

By the time she got to “Cross My Mind,” Jill Scott had everyone in the room wrapped around her finger. Backed by a 15-piece band, the singer’s show flowed effortlessly. This time donning a short bob, the R&B star sang two unique versions of “Quick” before taking her time with “The Fact Is (I Need You).”

But it was an anxious bride to be who delivered “The Way You Love Me” and “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat).” Singing the last lines in Spanish, she hit operatic notes as only someone deeply in love could. In a long flowing black dress, Scott re-emerged one final time to take the audience to the highest heights with “Love Rain,” “Golden,” and “I’m So Blessed.” “I woke up in the morning feeling fresh to death, I’m so blessed,” she sang, as the crowd rose to their feet.

In the short span of one night, Jill Scott managed to embody many different women. Her seamless transitions were complemented by vibrant renditions of songs that her fans love. By the end of her VH1 Storytellers performance, premiering on May 21 on 11 pm EST, the singer felt like an old friend.

TMZ

LiL Hines – Party No More is a Major Hit

He joined “The Andy Griffith Show” in 1964 when Jim Nabors, portraying Gomer Pyle, left the program. Goober Pyle, who had been mentioned on the show as Gomer’s cousin, thus replaced him.

“At that time, we were the best acting ensemble on TV. The scripts were terrific. Andy is the best script constructionist I’ve ever been involved with. And you have to lift your acting level up to his; he’s awfully good.”

In a statement released through the funeral home, Griffith said, “George Lindsey was my friend. I had great respect for his talent and his human spirit. In recent years, we spoke often by telephone. Our last conversation was a few days ago … I am happy to say that as we found ourselves in our eighties, we were not afraid to say, ‘I love you.’ That was the last thing George and I had to say to each other. ‘I love you.’” Although he was best known as Goober, Lindsey had other roles during a long TV career. Earlier, he often was a “heavy” and once shot Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke.”

His other TV credits included roles on “MASH,” ”The Wonderful World of Disney,” ”CHIPs,” ”The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour,” ”The Real McCoys,” ”Rifleman,” ”The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” ”Twilight Zone” and “Love American Style.” Reflecting on his career, he said in 1985: “There’s a residual effect of knowing I’ve made America laugh. I’m not the only one, but I’ve contributed something.” He had movie roles, too, appearing in “Cannonball Run II” and “Take This Job and Shove It.” His voice was used in animated Walt Disney features including “The Aristocats,” ”The Rescuers” and “Robin Hood.” Lindsey was born in Jasper, Ala., the son of a butcher. He received a bachelor of science degree from Florence State Teachers College (now the University of North Alabama) in 1952 after majoring in physical education and biology and playing quarterback on the football team.

After spending three years in the Air Force, he worked one year as a high school baseball and basketball coach and history teacher near Huntsville, Ala.

In 1956, he attended the American Theatre Wing in New York City and began his professional career on Broadway, appearing in the musicals “All American” and “Wonderful Town.”

He moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s and then to Nashville in the early 1990s.

“There’s no place in the United States I can go that they don’t know me. They may not know me, but they know the character,” he told The Tennessean in 1980.

At that time, he said the Griffith show “was the first soft rural comedy with a moral.”

“We physically and mentally became those people when we got to the set.”

He did some standup comedy — ending the show by tap and break dancing.

One of his jokes:

“A football coach, holding a football, asks his quarterback, ‘Son, can you pass this?’ The player says, ‘Coach, I don’t even think I can swallow it.’”

Lindsey devoted much of his spare time to raising funds for the Alabama Special Olympics. For 17 years, he sponsored a celebrity golf tournament in Montgomery, Ala., that raised money for the mentally disabled.

The University of North Alabama awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1992, and he was affectionately called “Doctor Goober” by acquaintances after that.

Hollis said the slim 13 percent drop from Friday to Saturday reflects great word of mouth, as well as the fact that all segments of the audience are turning out, including families. Roughly 52 percent saw it in 3D. The tentpole played evenly in terms of age, with 50 percent of the audience under the the age of 25 and 50 percent over. Couples made up 55 percent, families 24 percent and teens 21 percent. Males represented 60 percent of the audience. Avengers — which assembles marquee Marvel superhero characters Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) — earned an A+ CinemaScore. IMAX theaters reported record business, generating north of $15 million in ticket sales domestically to tie with Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the biggest opening weekend in the circuit’s history. IMAX expects to finish the weekend with a worldwide cume of $31.2 million. Avengers is the first Marvel title marketed and distributed by Disney since buying Marvel. Paramount distributed Marvel’s previous films and, in exchange for ending its output deal early with Marvel, will receive a mininum of $115 million in distribution fees for Avengers and next summer’s Iron Man 3. Avengers was the only wide release of the weekend.

For many years, Brown’s touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown’s death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. James Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 from heart failure after becoming ill on December 23 and being hospitalized for hours. James Brown is buried in Beech Island, South Carolina.