STAR-STUDDED DINNER: Retired baseball standout Alex Rodriguez and actress Jennifer Lopez set tongues wagging across central Arkansas after the circulation of a photo of the couple dining at Arthur's Prime Steakhouse in Little Rock last Monday night. The photo featured the couple posing with the restaurant's owner, Jerry Barakat. The couple's appearance there was covered on ET Online in an article titled, "Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Appear Happier Than Ever During Romantic Dinner Date in Arkansas."
So what did the pair have for dinner?
"Mansion salads, [they] split A. Rod's favorite steak Wagyu tomahawk, and she literally loved the cream corn," Barakat told Paper Trails via email.
No official word on why the pair were in town. But back in 2014, car dealer Steve Landers confirmed that he was then in negotiations to establish an auto group with Rodriguez and former National Basketball Association player Karl Malone. That deal has yet to come to pass. Landers did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
EARLY ARRIVAL: Little Rock resident Elizabeth Findley Shores' book, Earline's Pink Party: The Social Rituals and Domestic Relics of a Southern Woman, is being released April 18 by its publisher, The University of Alabama Press. Shores, an Alabama native who wrote the book based in her grandmother, will speak about the book May 6 at the Terry Library in Little Rock.
MUSIC TO HIS EARS: Singer-songwriter David Lynn Jones of Hardy scored a $2.1 million judgment in U.S. District Court in Batesville after a jury decided West Plains Bank and Trust Co. sold his recording equipment and master recordings of more than 100 of his songs, then valued at $35,000, without his permission or cause. Jones' items were sold by the bank after he gave them to his friend Bobby Roberts to convert from analog tapes to a digital format. Roberts defaulted on a loan with the bank, and the bank sold the items at a 2011 auction. The items eventually were sold back to Jones by the buyer for the auction price of $430, but Jones contended that he missed out on profits from the digital music boom at the turn of the 21st century. Jones wrote "Living in the Promiseland," a No. 1 hit for Willie Nelson in 1986. Between 1987 and 1994, Jones released four studio albums and charted four singles, including the 1987 hit "Bonnie Jean (Little Sister)," which peaked at No. 10.
IN THE BIG LEAGUES NOW: Northern Arkansas' Mountain Home (population 12,284) has been chosen to host the 2017 Babe Ruth League 13-year-old World Series in August. The Babe Ruth League has a number of divisions, including one for 13-year-olds on a standard baseball diamond.
TRAGIC TALE: The murder of central Arkansas Realtor Beverly Carter, 50, is recounted on the Investigation Discovery cable channel's show Web of Lies. The episode, which airs at 7 p.m. Tuesday, will include Carter's family members, one of her friends, a police officer who investigated the case and a witness.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 607-0675 or lindashaymes@gmail.com
SundayMonday on 04/09/2017