Elmo puppeteer Clash resigns following new sex claims

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind the “Sesame Street” character Elmo, resigned on Tuesday following new allegations that he had sex with an underage boy, adding to an ongoing controversy involving one of America’s most popular children’s brands.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Cecil Singleton is seeking more than $ 5 million in damages from Clash. Singleton claims he met the then-32-year-old puppeteer in 1993 in a gay chat room when he was 15.

It added that on numerous occasions over a period of years Clash engaged in sexual activity with Singleton.

The news came just a week after another man recanted his claims that Clash had sex with him when he was 16 years old.

Clash, 52, said he was leaving Sesame Workshop, the company behind the television show, after nearly 30 years with a very heavy heart.

“I have loved every day of my 28 years working for this exceptional organization. Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work Sesame Street is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer,” he said in a statement issued by his publicist, Risa B. Heller.

“I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately,” he added.

The New York-based Sesame Workshop said it was a sad day for “Sesame Street,” which premiered in 1969 and has been educating and entertaining children for decades with characters such as Elmo, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster.

“Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding Kevin’s personal life has become a distraction that none of us wants, and he has concluded that he can no longer be effective in his job and has resigned from Sesame Street,” the company said in a statement.

A representative declined further comment.

The unnamed 23-year-old man who first accused Clash recanted his claims last week, saying the relationship was consensual. His lawyers were not immediately available to comment on the lawsuit.

Clash had denied the allegations and acknowledged a past relationship with his first accuser. He added the pair were both consenting adults at the time.

“I am a gay man. I have never been ashamed of this or tried to hide it,” Clash said at the time.

Sesame Workshop said the first allegations involving Clash came to its attention in June when the earlier accuser contacted the company by email.

The Elmo character debuted on “Sesame Street” in 1979. While Clash was the third performer to animate the child-like shaggy red monster, Sesame Workshop credits him with turning Elmo into the international sensation he became.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Osterman)

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Ecstasy Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Shows Promise

Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times

ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is financing research into the drug Ecstasy.

Hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress have recently contacted a husband-and-wife team who work in suburban South Carolina to seek help. Many are desperate, pleading for treatment and willing to travel to get it.

The soldiers have no interest in traditional talking cures or prescription drugs that have given them little relief. They are lining up to try an alternative: MDMA, better known as Ecstasy, a party drug that surfaced in the 1980s and ’90s that can induce pulses of euphoria and a radiating affection. Government regulators criminalized the drug in 1985, placing it on a list of prohibited substances that includes heroin and LSD. But in recent years, regulators have licensed a small number of labs to produce MDMA for research purposes.

“I feel survivor’s guilt, both for coming back from Iraq alive and now for having had a chance to do this therapy,” said Anthony, a 25-year-old living near Charleston, S.C., who asked that his last name not be used because of the stigma of taking the drug. “I’m a different person because of it.”

In a paper posted online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Michael and Ann Mithoefer, the husband-and-wife team offering the treatment — which combines psychotherapy with a dose of MDMA — write that they found 15 of 21 people who recovered from severe post-traumatic stress in the therapy in the early 2000s reported minor to virtually no symptoms today. Many said they have received other kinds of therapy since then, but not with MDMA.

The Mithoefers — he is a psychiatrist and she is a nurse — collaborated on the study with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

The patients in this group included mostly rape victims, and experts familiar with the work cautioned that it was preliminary, based on small numbers, and its applicability to war trauma entirely unknown. A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense said the military was not involved in any research of MDMA.

But given the scarcity of good treatments for post-traumatic stress, “there is a tremendous need to study novel medications,” including MDMA, said Dr. John H. Krystal, chairman of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

The study is the first long-term test to suggest that psychiatrists’ tentative interest in hallucinogens and other recreational drugs — which have been taboo since the 1960s — could pay off. And news that the Mithoefers are beginning to test the drug in veterans is out, in the military press and on veterans’ blogs. “We’ve had more than 250 vets call us,” Dr. Mithoefer said. “There’s a long waiting list, we wish we could enroll them all.”

The couple, working with other researchers, will treat no more than 24 veterans with the therapy, following Food and Drug Administration protocols for testing an experimental drug; MDMA is not approved for any medical uses.

A handful of similar experiments using MDMA, LSD or marijuana are now in the works in Switzerland, Israel and Britain, as well as in this country. Both military and civilian researchers are watching closely. So far, the research has been largely supported by nonprofit groups.

“When it comes to the health and well-being of those who serve, we should leave our politics at the door and not be afraid to follow the data,” said Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist who recently retired from the Army. “There’s now an evidence base for this MDMA therapy and a plausible story about what may be going on in the brain to account for the effects.”

In interviews, two people who have had the therapy — one, Anthony, currently in the veterans study, and another who received the therapy independently — said that MDMA produced a mental sweet spot that allowed them to feel and talk about their trauma without being overwhelmed by it.

“It changed my perspective on the entire experience of working at ground zero,” said Patrick, a 46-year-old living in San Francisco, who worked long hours in the rubble after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks searching in vain for survivors, as desperate family members of the victims looked on, pleading for information. “At times I had this beautiful, peaceful feeling down in the pit, that I had a purpose, that I was doing what I needed to be doing. And I began in therapy to identify with that,” rather than the guilt and sadness.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 21, 2012

An article on Tuesday about using MDMA, or Ecstasy, in combination with psychotherapy to treat post-traumatic stress described incorrectly the office arrangement that a husband-and-wife team use to conduct therapy sessions using MDMA. The couple, Michael and Ann Mithoefer, hold the sessions in an office in a converted house; they do not conduct the sessions in their home office. And because of an editing error, an accompanying picture carried an incorrect credit. The photograph of the Mithoefers was taken by Hunter McRae, not by Gretchen Ertl.

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Hostess, union fail to reach deal

Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, said on Tuesday that it failed to reach a deal in mediation with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union.

The company, which operates three facilities in Illinois, including in Schiller Park and Hodgkins, said it will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for Wednesday before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

A representative of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) did not immediately respond for comment.

The ailing company, which also makes Wonder Bread and Drake's cakes, went to bankruptcy court on Monday to seek permission to liquidate its business, claiming that its operations were crippled by the bakers' strike and that winding down was the best way to preserve its dwindling cash.

But Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York urged the sides into a private mediation, prompted by a desire to protect the more than 18,000 jobs at stake.

The 82-year-old Hostess runs 33 bakeries, 553 distribution centers, about 5,500 delivery routes and 527 bakery outlet stores throughout the United States. Bakery operations ceased last week, though product deliveries to stores continued in order to sell already-made products.

The company has blamed union wages and pension costs for contributing to its unprofitably. Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn has also said the company's labor contracts have deterred would-be bidders for the company and its assets.

Aside from its unionized workforce, analysts, bankers and restructuring experts have said that a fleet of inefficient and out-of-date factories has also eaten up costs. They have said the brand names were likely to be more valuable once they were separated from the factories and sold to non-union competitors.

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CTA, union agree to tentative 4-year deal

The CTA signed a tentative labor contract Monday with its largest union, producing millions in savings that the agency's financial experts were analyzing into the night before a decision is made to table possible fare hikes next year, officials said.

CTA President Forrest Claypool last week delayed release of his proposed 2013 budget after sudden progress in contract negotiations that started almost a year ago and had stalled until recently, officials said.

Next year's budget might be released as early as Tuesday, officials said, and the labor accord appeared to ease a looming budget crisis.

The collective bargaining agreement reached with the Amalgamated Transit Union, after negotiations that extended through the weekend, includes some of the work-rule changes that CTA officials had insisted were necessary to make its operations more efficient and less costly.

For instance, the bus and rail union locals conceded to cuts in holiday overtime pay, a streamlined grievance process to deal with challenges to work-rule violations and slower wage growth for new employees, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.

The new labor pact also incorporates a stronger approach to preventive health care for workers, which will help lower costs, he said.

"Having certainty of labor costs moving forward clearly benefits the agency," Steele said.

In turn, if the tentative contract is ratified by union membership, more than 7,000 CTA bus and train operators, customer assistants and administrative workers will get annual wage increases over the four-year agreement, said Javier Perez Jr., an ATU international vice president who represents CTA bus drivers and mechanics. He did not say how much the raises would be.

There will also be a 5 percent reduction in split shifts, an unpopular arrangement under which the workday is divided into sections and workers have unpaid time off in the middle, Perez said.

For the first time, most part-time bus drivers and temporary rail flagmen will be able to choose their work schedules, officials said.

"There are improvements in quality-of-life issues that affect a good portion of our members," Perez said. He described the wage increases as "fair, given the economy and in view of things happening across the city."

Claypool had warned that fare increases and service cuts would be inevitable this past summer if the union did not give in to his call to negotiate away labor rules that have been in place for decades.

The CTA faced a $277 million deficit in its 2012 operating budget. The agency had planned to eliminate the red ink through internal belt-tightening and reductions in management and administrative staff, as well as work-rule changes for unionized employees that were projected to save the transit agency $80 million this year and $160 million in 2013.

But Claypool said he later found "one-time savings" to fill the budget hole and prevent the fare hikes and service cuts this year. He said such savings would not be available in 2013 to bail out the agency.

The last CTA fare hike was in 2009. Metra raised fares this year by an average of almost 30 percent, and it will raise the price of 10-ride tickets in 2013.

The new CTA agreement represents the first negotiated deal in years, officials said. All recent contracts were the result of binding arbitration.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the agreement "will allow CTA to continue to provide high-quality services for Chicagoans."

Robert Kelly, president of the rail workers union local, said the next step should involve "boosting morale and instilling pride" among CTA rank-and-file employees.

jhilkevitch@tribune.com

Twitter: @jhilkevitch

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Aussie rockers AC/DC’s music to be sold on iTunes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – AC/DC‘S entire catalogue, including 20 studio and live albums and three compilations will be available on iTunes for the first time worldwide, Columbia Records and Apple said on Monday.

Until now the Australian heavy metal group that was formed by two brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young, in 1973, had refused to put their music on Apple Inc’s online music store.

“AC/DC’s thunderous and primal rock and roll has excited fans for generations with their raw and rebellious brand of music, which also resonates with millions of new fans discovering AC/DC everyday,” Columbia Records and Apple, said in a statement announcing the deal.

“Their growing legion of fans will now experience the intensity of AC/DC’s music in a way that has never been heard before,” they added.

The group’s 1976 debut album “High Voltage,” its classic “Back In Black” and 2008′s “Black Ice” are among the albums available on iTunes.

All the of music has been mastered for iTunes and fans can download entire albums or individual songs.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Paul Casciato)

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Ecstasy Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Shows Promise

Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times

ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is financing research into the drug Ecstasy.

Hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress have recently contacted a husband-and-wife team who work out of their home in suburban South Carolina to seek help. Many are desperate, pleading for treatment and willing to travel to get it.

The soldiers have no interest in traditional talking cures or prescription drugs that have given them little relief. They are lining up to try an alternative: MDMA, better known as Ecstasy, a party drug that surfaced in the 1980s and ’90s that can induce pulses of euphoria and a radiating affection. Government regulators criminalized the drug in 1985, placing it on a list of prohibited substances that includes heroin and LSD. But in recent years, regulators have licensed a small number of labs to produce MDMA for research purposes.

“I feel survivor’s guilt, both for coming back from Iraq alive and now for having had a chance to do this therapy,” said Anthony, a 25-year-old living near Charleston, S.C., who asked that his last name not be used because of the stigma of taking the drug. “I’m a different person because of it.”

In a paper posted online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Michael and Ann Mithoefer, the husband-and-wife team offering the treatment — which combines psychotherapy with a dose of MDMA — write that they found 15 of 21 people who recovered from severe post-traumatic stress in the therapy in the early 2000s reported minor to virtually no symptoms today. Many said they have received other kinds of therapy since then, but not with MDMA.

The Mithoefers — he is a psychiatrist and she is a nurse — collaborated on the study with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

The patients in this group included mostly rape victims, and experts familiar with the work cautioned that it was preliminary, based on small numbers, and its applicability to war trauma entirely unknown. A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense said the military was not involved in any research of MDMA.

But given the scarcity of good treatments for post-traumatic stress, “there is a tremendous need to study novel medications,” including MDMA, said Dr. John H. Krystal, chairman of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

The study is the first long-term test to suggest that psychiatrists’ tentative interest in hallucinogens and other recreational drugs — which have been taboo since the 1960s — could pay off. And news that the Mithoefers are beginning to test the drug in veterans is out, in the military press and on veterans’ blogs. “We’ve had more than 250 vets call us,” Dr. Mithoefer said. “There’s a long waiting list, we wish we could enroll them all.”

The couple, working with other researchers, will treat no more than 24 veterans with the therapy, following Food and Drug Administration protocols for testing an experimental drug; MDMA is not approved for any medical uses.

A handful of similar experiments using MDMA, LSD or marijuana are now in the works in Switzerland, Israel and Britain, as well as in this country. Both military and civilian researchers are watching closely. So far, the research has been largely supported by nonprofit groups.

“When it comes to the health and well-being of those who serve, we should leave our politics at the door and not be afraid to follow the data,” said Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist who recently retired from the Army. “There’s now an evidence base for this MDMA therapy and a plausible story about what may be going on in the brain to account for the effects.”

In interviews, two people who have had the therapy — one, Anthony, currently in the veterans study, and another who received the therapy independently — said that MDMA produced a mental sweet spot that allowed them to feel and talk about their trauma without being overwhelmed by it.

“It changed my perspective on the entire experience of working at ground zero,” said Patrick, a 46-year-old living in San Francisco, who worked long hours in the rubble after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks searching in vain for survivors, as desperate family members of the victims looked on, pleading for information. “At times I had this beautiful, peaceful feeling down in the pit, that I had a purpose, that I was doing what I needed to be doing. And I began in therapy to identify with that,” rather than the guilt and sadness.

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Best October in 6 years for area home sales

The Chicago area's housing market last month regained the momentum it lost in September, resulting in more homes being sold than in any October since 2006.

Sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums in the nine-county Chicago area totaled 8,326 properties in October, according to figures released Monday by the Illinois Association of Realtors. While below some of the monthly sales totals recorded earlier in the year, the volume was an increase of 11.3 percent over September and 44.1 percent higher than the 5,776 homes sold in October 2011.

Within the city of Chicago, 2,009 homes were sold in October, an improvement of 8.8 percent over September and up 53.1 percent from October 2011. Condos accounted for 60 percent of the city's sales volume.

The strong sales continue to remove excess inventory for the market, which is necessary before price appreciation can truly begin. The number of homes listed for sale is at its lowest point in five years, according to Midwest Real Estate Data LLC, the local multiple listing provider. 

Meanwhile, the number of pending home sales in the Chicago area, meaning properties that are under contract but the sales have not yet closed, totaled 10,364 in October, the highest it's ever been except for April 2010 when home sales were affected by federal homebuyer tax credit programs.

For the Chicago area as a whole, the median price of a home was $153,000, the lowest it's been since March but still ahead 2.1 percent from October 2011's $149,900.  Among local counties, DuPage County was one of those that saw double-digit, year-over-year monthly appreciation, rising 11.4 percent in October, to $195,000.

Within the city, the median price rose to $175,000, up 8 percent from a year ago but again, the lowest monthly price recorded since March. In the condo market, the median price fell 8.7 percent from September, to $210,000. However, that sum was a 13.5 percent increase from October 2011.

Last month, 43 percent of sales within the city were either foreclosures or short sales.

The median is the point at which half the homes are sold for more and half for less.

"There's a great deal of end-of-the year excitement," said Zeke Morris, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors. "Typically our numbers are down in the fourth quarter but we're beginning to catch up to other markets in Illinois."

Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, a University of Illinois economist, attributed the improved sales performance to a slowly improving economy, stronger consumer confidence and continued low mortgages rates.

The monthly average commitment rate for the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the Chicago area was 3.36 percent in October, compared with 3.49 percent in September and 4.07 percent in October 2011, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Last week, Freddie Mac said average mortgage rates hit a new all-time low in its weekly survey, of 3.34 percent for a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Prosecutors: Woman wore mask as partner used stun gun on mom

Julie P. Franck, 36. Cook County Sheriff's photo (Cook County Sheriff's photo / November 18, 2012)

By Ryan Haggerty




Tribune reporter

8:34 p.m. CST, November 18, 2012

A Chicago woman pulled on a ski mask before her accomplice fired a stun gun about 15 times at a 55-year-old woman on a Bucktown street last month, allowing the pair to allegedly steal the woman's $40,000 engagement ring and $200 in cash, prosecutors said today.

The woman who wore the ski mask had good reason to conceal her identity -- the victim was her mother, prosecutors said in Cook County bond court.

Julie P. Franck was arrested Friday and charged with armed robbery in connection with the Oct. 9 attack outside her mother's home in the 1700 block of North Marshfield Avenue, according to court documents.

Cook County Judge Edward Harmening ordered Franck, who is pregnant, held in lieu of $300,000 bail. Prosecutors did not say whether the second suspect had been arrested.

A witness was able to pull off Franck's ski mask before Franck and the other suspect drove off in a Smart Car after the robbery, prosecutors said.

Franck and the other suspect are accused of stealing credit and debit cards from Franck's mother, in addition to her 3.5-carat diamond ring and cash, according to court documents.

Franck's mother was treated for her injuries at Resurrection St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital and released, according to court documents.

rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty

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Android de Google resta cada vez más mercado a Apple

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

El sistema operativo Android funciona en casi tres de cada cuatro teléfonos inteligentes vendidos en el mundo en el trimestre que acaba de finalizar en momentos en que la plataforma móvil domina el mercado, de acuerdo con los analistas de la industria de la firma IDC.

“Android ha sido uno de los principales motores de crecimiento del mercado de teléfonos inteligentes desde su lanzamiento en 2008″, dice el gerente de investigación de teléfonos móviles de IDC, Ramon Llamas.

“Cada año desde entonces, Android ha desbordado el mercado y robado participación en el mercado de la competencia”, agrega.

En las tabletas, la cuota de mercado de Apple cayó a poco más del 50%, desde el 65% que registró en el segundo trimestre, mientras Android ha ganado terreno, de acuerdo con cifras de IDC.

“Tener una gran cantidad de personas que construyen un montón de cosas que cubren una gran cantidad de rangos de precio con múltiples marcas en varios lugares hace una gran diferencia”, dice el analista de NPD Group Stephen Baker.

“La variedad es la fuerza cuando se trata de artefactos móviles”, estima.

Los pedidos de teléfonos inteligentes Android aumentaron a 136 millones de dólares, superando los del mismo trimestre del año pasado por un poco más del 90%, de acuerdo con informes de IDC.

Galaxy S3 de Samsung superó al iPhone 4S de Apple en el tercer trimestre para dar a la empresa de Corea del Sur el modelo de teléfono inteligente más vendido del mundo por primera vez, según la firma de investigación Strategy Analytics.

“El ritmo de la innovación en Android es más rápido que el de Apple”, dice el vicepresidente de computación móvil de Gartner, Ken Dulaney. “Ellos están tratando de hacerlo más fuerte, Apple está muy por detrás en esa área”.

Android se está beneficiando de ser una plataforma “open-source” que los fabricantes de aplicaciones usan gratuitamente y mejoran a medida que lo estiman conveniente, proporcionando a Google conocimientos en el camino.

Apple, por su parte, supervisa muy de cerca sus productos desde el software al hardware, e inclusive la tienda online de música, libros, juegos u otro contenido.

“Lo que se obtiene con Android es este increíble circuito de retroalimentación con los desarrolladores, fabricantes de equipos, clientes y diseñadores”, dice Dulaney.

“En Apple, si bien tienen una gran visión interna que está bien, no tienen la retroalimentación que Android tiene”, añade.

Tener miles de diferentes dispositivos Android disputándose el dinero de los consumidores es un fuerte estímulo cuando se trata de participación de mercado pero pone a los fabricantes de hardware en un escenario altamente competitivo, según Baker.

“Aparte de Samsung, no sé si otros chicos (vinculados a) Android están haciendo dinero”, estima el analista.

Google ofrece Android de forma gratuita, pero la plataforma está diseñada para hacer que sea más fácil para la gente usar servicios de Google, como el de búsqueda o de mapas, entre otros, y hallar contenido en sus tiendas en línea Google Play.

El analista de Forrester Charles Golvin estimó que parte importante del éxito coyuntural de Android tiene que ver con cambios demográficos de los compradores de teléfonos inteligentes.

Los primeros usuarios de teléfonos multifunciones apreciaban más las nuevas tecnologías que el precio, pero los dispositivos se han vuelto imprescindibles y con un costo cada vez más importante para los compradores, según Golvin.

“La gente está más inclinada hacia la plataforma Android, porque hay más posibilidades de elección y la mayoría de las opciones que da es de bajo precio”, dice.

La naturaleza abierta de Android y la variedad de modelos ofrecidos por los fabricantes de dispositivos funcionan como un “arma de doble filo”, señala no obstante el analista.

Apple lanza anualmente actualizaciones del sistema operativo móvil iOS a sus dispositivos, mientras que las nuevas versiones de Android, aunque lo hacen más a menudo, deben obtenerse a través de los fabricantes de hardware y servicios de telecomunicaciones para llegar hasta los teléfonos.

“Tú tienes esta lenta cadena de intermediarios que están retrasando la instalación del nuevo software y sus innovaciones en los dispositivos existentes en el mercado”, advierte Golvin.

Los teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas informáticas con el sistema operativo Android de Google están acaparando el mercado de dispositivos móviles y robando espacio a Apple al saciar el apetito por la innovación y los bajos precios, estiman analistas.

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Singing stars arrive for American Music Awards

Pink on a song with Lauryn Hill? The pop star hopes so.

Pink said on the red carpet of the American Music Awards that she’d like to collaborate with the acclaimed singer-rapper.

Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink, Nicki Minaj and Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe.” Boy band The Wanted is excited to see “Gangnam Style” star PSY and Colbie Caillat wants to watch No Doubt rock the stage.

The stars walking the red carpet before the AMAs were ready to take their seats as fans. Arrivals included Taylor Swift, 50 Cent, Gloria Estefan, Ludacris, Kelly Rowland, Lady Antebellum, J. Cole, Luke Bryan, the Backstreet Boys and Linkin Park.

“What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists,” said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who is nominated for favorite artist alternative rock and will perform at the show.

Carrie Underwood arrived in a magenta dress and Kerry Washington was in a banana Stella McCartney number Sunday. Heidi Klum and Ginnifer Goodwin were also on the scene.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj is the top nominee at Sunday’s American Music Awards, but the rapper-singer isn’t concerned with her four nominations.

“I don’t do music for awards,” the 29-year-old said in an interview. “It’s so crazy because people always have to remind me that I’m nominated for an award when I go to award shows.”

“I know they’re going to come. I’m sitting here looking at my awards right now,” she continued with a laugh. “I never stress it. I think of myself as ‘I’ll have a career long enough to get all those different awards.’”

In the pop/rock category, Minaj is up for favorite female artist and album for “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” She’s also nominated for favorite artist and album in the hip-hop/rap category, two awards she won last year.

Minaj isn’t up for the night’s top award, though. Rihanna, Maroon 5, Drake, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber will battle it out for artist of the year.

But the American Music Awards are all about performances, and Sunday’s show will be no exception. Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood will perform. Justin Bieber will share the stage with Minaj. Ludacris and Chris Brown will perform with Swizz Beatz. And Stevie Wonder is set to provide the soundtrack for a tribute to the late Dick Clark.

“I’m really going there to perform ‘Freedom,’” Minaj said of her new single. “I’m very, very proud of the record and I’m happy that people are going to get to hear it. I’m performing a hip-hop song on the AMAs, and I think . that’s just a big look for hip-hop.”

Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson and Usher are also among those set to sing during the three-hour program, which is to be broadcast live on ABC.

Other multiple nominees include Usher, Bieber, Drake, Maroon 5 and One Direction, who have three nods each. Perry, Underwood, Brown, Clarkson, Pitbull, fun., Gotye, J. Cole and Luke Bryan are all double nominees.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online.

The 40th anniversary show will also include the tribute to Clark, its creator.

“Dick changed the face of music back in the late ’50s,” producer Larry Klein said. “Dick is the one who made rock ‘n’ roll acceptable to come into people’s homes… We’re paying tribute to Dick because of the legacy that he’s left everybody and also the creativity of what he did on this show.”

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Follow (at)APSandy’s American Music Award updates at www.twitter.com/APEntertainment.

___

Online:

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards

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