Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Former Republican presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee quickly resigned from the board for the Country Music Association Foundation when his election was swiftly criticized in the music community. On Wednesday, Huckabee was announced as a new member of the board of directors for the charitable arm of the association that runs the annual CMA Awards and the CMA Festival. The foundation’s chairman, Joe Galante, praised Huckabee for his “policy experience with education reform” in a news release Wednesday. Within 24 hours of the announcement, a prominent artist manager sent a letter to the foundation calling Huckabee’s election “grossly offensive” because of Huckabee’s political opinions and associations with the National Rifle Association. Jason Owen, who leads Sandbox Management representing artists such as Little Big Town, Faith Hill and Kacey Musgraves, said in the letter that his clients would no longer support the foundation. Owen and his husband have one child and are expecting more, but Owen said that Huckabee has made it clear that his family is not welcome. In his resignation letter, Huckabee called his critics bullies but said he was resigning to end “unnecessary distraction” to the foundation. “If the industry doesn’t want people of faith or who hold conservative and traditional political views to buy tickets and music, they should be forthcoming and say it,” Huckabee wrote. “Surely neither the artists or the business people of the industry want that.”
■ President Donald Trump and Alec Baldwin — his chief impersonator — traded online barbs Friday, each describing the other as causing “agony,” the latest salvos in an ongoing feud between the commander in chief and the actor. Trump, who has long grumbled about the way he is portrayed by Baldwin on Saturday Night Live, wrote: “Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch.” In a final dig, the president said Baldwin’s performance wasn’t as good as comedian Darrell Hammond, who portrayed Trump on Saturday Night Live for years before Baldwin took over in September 2016. “Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!” Trump tweeted. Baldwin responded in a series of tweets, including: “Agony though it may be, I’d like to hang in there for the impeachment hearings, the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride.” He added that he was “Looking forward to the Trump Presidential Library” and suggested that it would contain a live Twitter feed and “a little black book w the phone numbers of porn stars.”