Entertainment briefs 6/30/16

Jessica Williams leaving 'Daily Show'

NEW YORK -- Jessica Williams is leaving as a correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" this week after four years. But she's not straying far. The network said Williams will be concentrating on a new scripted show she's developing for Comedy Central. That development deal was announced this spring for a show Williams will write and star in. The Los Angeles-bred comic, now 26, was the youngest on-air person at "The Daily Show" when she joined.

'Rabbit Fall Asleep' author has new book

NEW YORK -- The author of the million-selling bedtime story "The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep" is hoping to find the same magic with the story of an elephant. American and British divisions of Penguin Random House announced Swedish author and behavioral scientist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin's "The Little Elephant Who Wants to Fall Asleep" will come out in October. "The Rabbit Who Wants to Falls Asleep" initially was self-published and became a word-of-mouth hit even before Penguin Random House acquired it in 2015. With the new book, Ehrlin is drawing upon "child-tested, parent-approved techniques" for getting kids to sleep, the publisher said.

CNN's Kohn writing a book on civility

NEW YORK -- CNN political commentator Sally Kohn, who has heard a lot of trash talk in her job, is working on a book about the benefits of civility. Algonquin Books, a division of Workman Publishing, said Kohn's book is tentatively titled, "Mean: How Being Nicer Than Average Can Save Humanity." Publication is scheduled for spring 2018. Algonquin said Kohn will draw on conversations with a range of experts to explore an increasingly nasty culture and the thin line between hostility and "vicious brutality."

-- From wire reports