Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will be investigated by Fox and National Geographic Networks after allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled against him. Patheos.com published accounts Thursday from two women who say that Tyson behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner with them. Tyson was host of Cosmos on Fox in 2014 and a new edition of the series was to air on National Geographic next year. Tyson has not commented publicly and an email request for comment to his representative was not immediately returned. In a statement the producers of Cosmos said: “The credo at the heart of Cosmos is to follow the evidence wherever it leads. The producers of Cosmos can do no less in this situation.” They said they will conduct a thorough investigation. Meanwhile Fox and National Geographic said Friday evening that they only recently learned of the allegations and were reviewing the allegations. ■ Kid Rock’s profane comments on live TV have gotten him booted from leading the Nashville Christmas Parade. Instead, parade organizers have invited James Shaw Jr., the man hailed as a community hero for wrestling a gun away from the attacker during a Nashville Waffle House shooting in April that killed four people and injured four others. On Friday, Kid Rock used a vulgarity to describe Joy Behar during an interview Friday on Fox & Friends. He did the interview from his bar in Nashville, where he swigged bourbon while tending bar on camera and said he had been drinking coffee and Irish cream liqueur. “God forbid you say something a little wrong; you’re racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, this that and the other. People need to calm down, get a little less politically correct,” Kid Rock said. “And I would say, you know, love everybody. Except, I’d say screw that Joy Behar b***h.” Multiple Fox & Friends personalities apologized on air afterward. Kid Rock apologized for the language, but “not the sentiment.” Several parade organizers announced later Friday that the parade will no longer feature Kid Rock, who had volunteered to be the grand marshal. Shaw, who has become a national figure after his heroics in the spring, has accepted the invitation, according to a spokesman for the group of organizers. “Parade organizers feel that the grand marshal should personify the spirit of the Nashville community,” read the statement from organizers Piedmont Natural Gas, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, and Tennessee Holiday Productions.