AP Entertainment

Prostate cancer couldn't keep Dennis Hopper away from the Breeders' Cup on Saturday. The 73-year-old actor and artist attended the Breeders' Cup in support of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, the official charity of the year-ending thoroughbred championships Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Southern California. It was revealed last month that Hopper had been diagnosed with cancer, although he said Saturday he's been battling it for the past nine years. He's started a new, experimental treatment at the University of Southern California that he says he hopes will help. "It has great promise," Hopper said. "Everything's good right now." Hopper recently canceled ... Read Full Story

The Honolulu Symphony said Friday it's canceling concerts for the rest of the year and filing for bankruptcy, citing a big drop in donations. The symphony, the oldest in the nation west of the Rocky Mountains, said it has $1 million in debt and doesn't have enough money to support operations into November and beyond. The Honolulu Symphony Society's board of directors voted to file for Chapter 11 protection at a special meeting on Oct. 30. Papers will be submitted to court next week, spokeswoman Kristin Jackson said. Ticket sales have generally been OK, though weak at some recent events. Even so, ticket revenue ... Read Full Story

Nick Counter, a longtime negotiator for Hollywood producers who led the studios through two grueling writers' strikes last year and in 1988, has died. He was 69. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers says Counter died at a Los Angeles hospital on Friday. Counter served as the group's president for 27 years and negotiated more than 300 collective bargaining agreements with entertainment industry guilds and unions on behalf of movie studios, television networks and independent producers. Current AMPTP President Carol Lombardini says Counter's ability to find consensus at the bargaining table led to a sustained era of labor peace. His family says ... Read Full Story

Art D'Lugoff (Duh-LOO'-guhf), who owned the famed Village Gate nightclub in New York City, has died. He was 85. D'Lugoff died Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital. His brother, Burt D'Lugoff, said a cause of death was not yet known. D'Lugoff opened the Greenwich Village club in 1958. He hired blacklisted singers Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger and fired Dustin Hoffman as a waiter. Hoffman, then a struggling actor, later said he was so distracted by the performers that he neglected customers. Other performers included jazz greats John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. The Village Gate closed in 1994. Beside his brother, D'Lugoff is ... Read Full Story

A federal judge has temporarily blocked two music-sharing Web sites from selling songs by The Beatles and other artists for 25 cents apiece. U.S. District Judge John F. Walter on Thursday blocked the sites BlueBeat.com and Basebeat.com and their owners from selling copyrighted songs by The Beatles and others. Music company EMI Group filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday seeking the injunction. Neither site was online Friday. EMI claims the Web sites have infringed on its copyrights to numerous artists' songs, including The Beach Boys, Coldplay and Lily Allen. The Web site's attorney opposed EMI's injunction request, saying the sites are selling an altered ... Read Full Story