Juice Newton performs benefit concert for town

WALKER, Calif. -- Grammy Award winning singer Juice Newton sang for an audience seated on hay bales to raise money for this quiet Sierra town ravaged by two wildfires last summer.

"I was asked if I would come to do a show to try to raise the awareness, to raise some money," she said after Saturday's concert. "Of course I'd come. Why not? ... You've gotta help."

Newton, fighting a cold, sang for more than an hour to a crowd of about 200 in a dusty field a few hundred yards from where an air tanker crashed while fighting a June blaze, killing all three men on board.

A second fire in July burned 9,866 acres and forced the evacuation of the Topaz Lodge, a hotel-casino and recreational vehicle park on the California-Nevada line.

Topaz Lodge owners Bob and Rob Cashell organized the weekend concert and craft fair to raise money for the local Chamber of Commerce and to show that the fires had not wiped out the hamlet.

"We're all part of California, and we all are sensitive as to what can happen with fires" said Newton.

Actress Leoni takes hike for breast cancer

MALIBU, Calif. -- Tea Leoni has been getting little sleep raising her 3-month old son and 3-year-old daughter with former "X-Files" star David Duchovny, but she still found time -- and energy -- to take a hike for breast cancer research.

"You got to go. You got to be there. It's an amazing event," Leoni said.

She said it wasn't easy finishing the hike through several miles of the Santa Monica Mountains to support and raise funds for the Expedition Inspiration Fund for Breast Cancer Research.

"I get pretty tired," the 36-year-old actress said in a telephone interview. "The other day I forgot my son's name."

Leoni said she wants to contribute to the fight against breast cancer because she knows too many women with the disease.

"My new goal is that when my daughter is my age, breast cancer will be just something that she can talk about to her kids from history books."

Leoni and Duchovny, 41, were married in 1997.

Hip-hop headman plugs Democrat's bid

DALLAS -- Politics helped Dallas win the Hip-Hop summit.

Impresario Russell Simmons, known as the godfather of Hip-Hop, chose Dallas largely because he wanted a chance to plug Democrat Ron Kirk's Senate bid.

"It's a race we can win and it's one of the most important races coming up now," Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records, told a throng of aspiring musicians Saturday.

"He's a brother that I know can make a difference in this state and for this state," he said.

Participants cheered messages from Simmons, U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, rapper D.O.C. and the Rev. Benjamin F. Muhammad -- before rushing Simmons with samples of their own music in hopes of a record deal.

Ska band bus burns at Missouri truck stop

KINGDOM CITY, Mo. -- Members of the ska band Reel Big Fish escaped unharmed when their tour bus caught fire at a truck stop.

The six band members and three crewmen were sleeping on the bus Saturday morning when the blaze started.

The band was on its way to a show at The Blue Note in Columbia, part of a five-week tour to promote its album "Cheer Up," released in July.

Bus driver Ron Mullholland noticed smoke pouring from the bus after he bought a cup of coffee at a truck stop, and alerted the band.

Trumpet player Tyler Jones said Mullholland saved his life.

"He was nice enough to come in and say, 'Get off the bus, or you will all die,"' Jones said.

The cause of the blaze, which took about 30 minutes to extinguish, was unknown.

Coach's wife glad Winger plays her part in film

WALTERBORO, S.C. -- The wife of a high-school football coach whose life is being made into a Hollywood film says she's honored Debra Winger is going to play her on the silver screen.

"I had no idea that it would be anybody like her," said Linda Jones, wife of coach Harold Jones. "She's one of my favorites. I don't see many movies, but I've rarely missed one of hers."

Ed Harris plays the T.L. Hanna High School coach and Cuba Gooding Jr. the mentally disabled man he befriends. Shooting of "Radio," named after Gooding's character, starts Monday.

Winger, 47, returned to movies earlier this year after a six-year hiatus.

--From wire reports