Oprah Winfrey will deliver the commencement address at Harvard University's 362nd graduation ceremony on May 30, the university said Monday.
"Oprah's journey from her grandmother's Mississippi farm to becoming one of the world's most admired women is one of the great American success stories," Harvard President Drew Faust said in a statement posted to the Harvard Gazette website Monday.
"She has used her extraordinary influence and reach as a force for good in the world, with a constant focus on the importance of educational opportunity and the virtues of serving others."
Winfrey will speak at the school's "Afternoon Exercises," which also serves as the Harvard Alumni Association's annual meeting, the school said.
A drummer for country music star Kellie Pickler was seriously injured in a massive crash on Interstate 65 in Kentucky, officials said.
Gregg Lohman, 36, was airlifted from the crash site Saturday with head and neck injuries, Master Trooper Norman Chaffins of Kentucky State Police told CNN affiliate WAVE. Lohman was in critical but stable condition Sunday at a Louisville hospital.
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Bobby Rogers, an original member of Motown staple The Miracles, has died, the group's longtime front man Smokey Robinson announced Sunday. He was 73.
Robinson, Rogers and the rest of the Miracles were a cornerstone act for writer-producer Berry Gordy's infant Motown Records, putting songs such as "Shop Around," "Tracks of My Tears" and "The Tears of a Clown" on the R&B and pop charts throughout the 1960s. After Robinson left the group, the Miracles had a No. 1 hit with "Love Machine" in 1976.
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A star of the long-running TV show "One Day at a Time" has died.
Actress Bonnie Franklin died Friday due to complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 69.
Her "One Day at a Time" character, Ann Romano, was "ground-breaking," CBS said in a statement, because it "helped define and illuminate the role of single working mothers within the cultural landscape."
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Dale Robertson learned that he had Stage 4 cancer just last week, while he was being treated for pneumonia.
Robertson, whose horse expertise, Oklahoma roots and handsome looks helped him win cowboy roles in 1950s and '60s, died this week at age 89, his wife said Thursday.
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Van Cliburn, a classical pianist honored by a New York ticker-tape parade for winning a major Moscow competition in 1958, died Wednesday after a battle with bone cancer, his publicist said.
"He died peacefully in his Fort Worth, Texas, home ... surrounded by loved ones," spokeswoman Mary Lou Falcone said.
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After two drunken driving convictions in a year, singer Bobby Brown is going to jail for 55 days.
Brown, 44, has been ordered to report to Los Angeles County jail on March 20 after he pleaded guilty to charges including driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license, according to city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan.
Brown's most recent arrest came in October, when he was pulled over on Ventura Boulevard. His license had been suspended because of an earlier drunken driving charge from an April arrest.
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The lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson's three children and mother that accuses a concert promoter of contributing to the pop icon's death can go to trial, a Los Angeles judge tentatively ruled Monday.
The trial for the wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live, filed by Jackson matriarch Katherine Jackson and his children, Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson, is set for April. A final order on Monday's decision has not been issued yet.
The television broadcaster Globovision, long critical of the Venezuelan government, has been excluded from government plans to switch broadcast formats from analog to digital, Reporters Without Borders said Friday.
Globovision, which is Venezuela's sole national television broadcaster that routinely criticizes the government, "has been excluded from a new system of Open Digital Television (TDA), which the government launched on February 20 in a televised announcement that all the broadcast media had to carry," the advocacy group reported.
"Under the TDA system, all TV stations currently broadcasting by means of an analogue signal will eventually have to switch to a digitally processed signal in order to continue operating," it said.
FULL STORYA news anchor for WCBS in New York City has resigned following allegations that he choked his wife in their Connecticut home, a WCBS spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The anchor, Rob Morrison, said in a statement released Wednesday that his "family is my first and only priority right now."
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As an heir to the King of Pop, Prince Michael Jackson should not have to work, but at age 16, he has taken a gig as a reporter for "Entertainment Tonight."
After receiving an on-camera coaching session on journalism techniques from ET's Brooke Anderson, Jackson recorded his first interview. The topic: an upcoming remake of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."
FULL STORYStuart Freeborn, the "Star Wars" makeup artist who helped create Chewbacca, Yoda, Jabba the Hutt and the otherworldly creatures in the trilogy's famous barroom scene, has died, Lucasfilm said Wednesday.
He was 98.
A creature effects artist, Freeborn also worked on other film classics and was responsible for creating the apelike human ancestors in the "Dawn of Man" sequence in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Responding to the controversy about whether she sang live or lip-synced during her performance at the presidential inauguration earlier this month, Beyoncé Knowles said Thursday that she "decided to sing along with the prerecorded track."
"I did not feel comfortable taking a risk," she said.
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Actor Burt Reynolds is in intensive care in a Florida hospital, where he went for treatment of flu symptoms, one of his representatives said Friday.
Reynolds was dehydrated when he went to the hospital, and was eventually transferred to its intensive care unit, his representative Erik Kritzer told CNN.
"He is doing better at this time," Kritzer said late Friday afternoon of the 76-year-old actor. "We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular room."
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You might think of Italy's fashion capital when you hear the word Milan, but pop singer Shakira and soccer star Gerard Pique say that isn't what they had in mind when they named their baby boy.
Milan Pique Mebarak was born at 9:36 p.m. Tuesday in Barcelona, Spain, according to an announcement posted on Shakira's website.
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[Updated at 6:22 p.m. ET] Hours after a U.S. Marine Band spokeswoman said Beyonce lip-synched the national anthem during President Obama's inauguration yesterday, the Marine Corps is backpedaling.
The Marine Corps said in a statement that no one in their organization "is in a position to assess whether [Beyonce's vocal performance] was live or pre-recorded."
The conflicting reports from the Marines have yet to be clarified by a statement from Beyonce or her representatives, who have not responded to CNN's request for comment.
[Initial post, 12:57 p.m. ET] Beyonce's rendition of the national anthem at President Obama's inaugural yesterday was certainly lovely, but apparently not live.
According to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marine Band, the pop star opted to use a "pre-recording" of her rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" during inaugural ceremonies in Washington Monday.
"We don't know why the decision was made," U.S. Marine Band spokeswoman Kristen DuBois said. "She did not actually sing," DuBois added, noting Beyonce lip-synched her own voice.
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Twitter is still buzzing about rapper Lupe Fiasco’s removal from the stage during a Sunday inauguration concert in Washington.
Concert promoter @hypervocal released a statement saying Fiasco was asked to move on after a “bizarrely repetitive performance that left the crowd vocally dissatisfied.”
Fans are saying anti-Obama rhetoric contained in a song he was performing prompted his removal. We may never know for sure why Fiasco got the hook - but the lyrics to his "Words I Never Said," as posted by Reddit, might provide a clue (contains strong language).
Self-described hip-hop historian and journalist @mrdaveyd blogged about the incident, but admits he wasn’t there.
[Posted at 8:54 a.m. ET] You can now share your angst, joy and outrage in the comments section on our story that has the list of nominees.
[Posted at 8:25 a.m. ET] We are almost ready for one of my favorite times of the year: The annual throw-down over who got snubbed for an Oscar nomination (OK, fine, or the nominations themselves.)
Our colleagues over on the Entertainment side are geared up and ready to go for the announcement at 8:30 a.m. ET. You can watch the announcement, hosted by Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone, on CNN.com/live. Personally, I'm hoping he shows up as his foul-mouthed alter ego "Ted" to make the announcements, but maybe that's because I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet and I know it will amuse me.
Either way, we're all ready to give you all the movie excitement you can handle. You'll be able to find the full list of nominees, a gallery, a list of who they think should have gotten an award on CNN.com/showbiz.
And if you can wait for that, our team will be tweeting out the nominations on @CNNShowbiz. We encourage you to follow them and let know if you want to fight it out about how great "Lincoln" was or how sick you are of hearing about Anne Hathaway's performance in "Les Miserables." And go ahead, shout your love for "Argo" from the rooftops.
President Obama will be sworn in for a second term in office on Monday, January 21. Watch CNN.com Live for all your inauguration coverage.
Today's programming highlights...
8:38 am ET - Academy Award nominations announced - Will "Lincoln" be sworn in for a Best Picture nod? Is the Academy boffo for "Argo"? Could "Skyfall" surprise? Those questions and more will be answered when Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone reveal the nominees for the 85th Annual Academy Awards.
A new investigation into the death of singer Amy Winehouse found that she died of accidental alcohol poisoning, authorities in the London borough of Camden announced Tuesday. It's the same result as the original investigation, but the earlier one had to be thrown out because the coroner did not have the right qualifications.
Winehouse died at the age of 27 on July 23, 2011.
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