Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Janet Jackson will join her brother Michael and the Jackson 5 as members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, earning induction Thursday along with Stevie Nicks and the top fan vote-getter, Def Leppard. Radiohead, the Cure, Roxy Music and the Zombies will also be ushered in next spring at the 34th induction ceremony March 29 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Jackson’s induction comes after her third time as nominee, and many saw it as overdue, given her prowess as a hitmaker with “All For You,” “That’s the Way Love Goes,” “Nasty,” “Together Again” and “What Have You Done For Me Lately.” Her career has suffered from the fallout after the infamous 2004 Super Bowl appearance where her bare breast was briefly exposed. Jackson became eligible for the rock hall in 2007 and wasn’t nominated until 2016. The Roots’ Questlove, in a social media post earlier this year, said her exclusion had been “highly criminal.” He cited the influence of her 1986 album Control, which he said set off the New Jack Swing trend. “This was no one’s kid sister,” he wrote.
■ Ellen DeGeneres said in an interview that she came close to turning down a contract extension for her long-running talk show through 2020 before ultimately accepting it. The comedian has considered retiring from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which she’s hosted since 2003, and has received mixed advice from her wife and brother about what to do, she told The New York Times. DeGeneres, 60, said she has gone back and forth on what to do moving forward. Her brother — fellow comic Vance DeGeneres — has urged her to keep doing the show, while her wife, Arrested Development actress Portia de Rossi, feels that she would remain successful if she pursued other options. “She gets mad when my brother tells me I can’t stop,” DeGeneres told The Times of de Rossi. While de Rossi suggested a podcast or radio gig as other mediums where DeGeneres could go, DeGeneres expressed interest in doing a movie. DeGeneres voiced the title character in the 2016 animated flick Finding Dory, reprising the role from 2003’s Finding Nemo. “I just think she’s such a brilliant actress and stand-up that it doesn’t have to be this talk show for her creativity,” de Rossi told the newspaper.