Singer Tony Bennett ends touring with Alzheimer’s
Bennett, who learned he has Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, canceled a run of concerts planned for later this year and won’t be returning to touring, his manager son Danny Bennett told Variety in an interview.
“There won’t be any additional concerts,” Danny Bennett said. “This was a hard decision for us to make, as he is a capable performer. This is, however, doctors’ orders ... We’re not worried about him being able to sing. We are worried, from a physical stand point, about human nature. Tony’s 95,” he said. Bennett, best known for his signature ballad “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” made his two last live performances last week at Radio City Music Hall in New York with Lady Gaga in a show called “One Last Time.”
The duo recorded a second album of classic duets between 2018and 2020that will be released in October. A video showing them recording the single “I Get a Kick Out of You” was released last week and showed the 18-time Grammy Award winner in good form.
“He has short-term memory loss. That, however, does not mean that he doesn’t still have all this stored up inside of him. He doesn’t use a Teleprompter. He never misses a line. He hits that stage, and goes,” his son said of the Radio City concerts.
Former ‘SNL’ star Sanz is accused of sexual assault
Comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Horatio Sanz is accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old in 2002, according to a lawsuit filed in New York on Thursday. The plaintiff — referred to as Jane Doe — chose not to disclose her identity in the filing because, according to the lawsuit, she was a minor at the time of the alleged nonconsensual sexual contact.
In 1999, when she was 14years old, the alleged victim “started posting on various online websites, message boards and chat rooms about ‘SNL,’ ” the lawsuit says. In January 2000, Sanz and one of his colleagues emailed the girl, and thereafter Sanz “began his process of grooming Plaintiff,” including an October 2000 in-person meeting after a taping of the show, according to the lawsuit. Sanz is accused of engaging with the minor on AOL Instant Messenger in 2001and steering those “conversations to discuss sex, sexual experiences, sexual activities, sexual fantasies, (and) masturbation” with the then-16year-old, and “continued to solicit inappropriate photographs” of her.
In May 2002, the lawsuit alleges Sanz sexually abused the then-17-year-old by “kissing her, groping her breasts, groping her buttocks and digitally penetrating her genitals forcibly and without plaintiff’s consent” at and after “SNL” parties. Sanz’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, denies the claims made against his client, referring to them in a statement as “categorically false.”