PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Aretha Franklin’s body has been transported from a Detroit museum that hosted two days of public viewings of the Queen of Soul, the next step in a journey leading up to her funeral Friday.

Workers carefully moved Franklin’s polished bronze casket from the rotunda of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and loaded it into a 1940 Cadillac LaSalle hearse.

Journalists from the Associated Press were allowed to document the casket’s movement Wednesday night after the public viewing concluded. Wednesday’s viewing attracted thousands of fans and mourners and was the last chance for the public to directly pay their respects to the late Queen of Soul.

A private viewing was scheduled for Thursday.

Franklin’s invitation-only funeral

Alec Baldwin pulls out of Thomas Wayne role in upcoming ‘Joker’

Alec Baldwin has withdrawn from the role of Bruce Wayne’s father, Thomas, in the “Joker” movie.

Baldwin told USA TODAY on Wednesday that “I’m no longer doing that movie,” citing “scheduling” issues.

“I’m sure there are 25 guys who can play that part,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin, 60, had been cast to join Joaquin Phoenix, who will play the titular DC Comics arch villain in the “Joker” solo project, to be directed and cowritten by “Hangover” director Todd Phillips.

Robert De Niro, “Deadpool 2” breakout star Zazie Beetz and “GLOW” actor Marc Maron have already been cast in the gritty standalone story due out Oct. 4, 2019.