Cee Lo Green has quit as a coach on The Voice. The singer-songwriter-actor announced on Wednesday’s Ellen DeGeneres Show that he won’t be returning “at all.” He already was taking a break from the sixth season of the NBC talent competition, which begins airing Monday. But Green told DeGeneres that he plans to continue his relationship with NBC, with which he has a development deal. NBC confirmed Green’s departure from the show and expressed hopes to work with him on future projects. Green was one of the original coaches when The Voice premiered in 2011. He appeared in seasons one through three, as well as season five. Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Usher and Shakira will serve as coaches for the coming season.
To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee has settled the federal lawsuit she filed against a museum in her south Alabama hometown over its sale of souvenirs featuring her name and the title of her book, court documents show. An attorney for the Alabama native filed a motion Tuesday in federal court in Mobile saying Lee had reached an agreement with the Monroe County Heritage Museum in Monroeville. The settlement notice came days after a judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit, filed in the fall, that said the museum uses Lee’s name and the title of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel without compensating her. The document did not provide details on the settlement, and a lawyer for the museum, Matthew Goforth, declined to comment Wednesday. He cited the terms of settlement negotiations. An attorney for Lee did not immediately return a message seeking comment. A judge would have to approve any settlement. Lee, 87, has had a stroke and lives in Monroeville after years of splitting time between the town of 28,000 and New York. Lee’s lone published novel, released in 1960, tells the story of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, his two children and the struggle against racial prejudice and injustice in the Jim Crow South. Considered a modern classic, the book was turned into a movie of the same name starring Gregory Peck.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/20/2014