PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Mel B shares more in memoir, aims to help abuse survivors

Spice Girl Mel B is releasing an expanded version of her 2018 memoir, sharing more details about her personal life, which she hopes will help survivors of domestic abuse.

The British singer and television personality, born Melanie Brown, has added three new chapters to “Brutally Honest,” which looked back on her childhood, meteoric rise to fame and marriage to her ex Stephen Belafonte, who she said had been abusive toward her. He denied the claims.

“It's now 2024 and a lot has happened since (the book's release) … I got my MBE for campaigning and spreading awareness about domestic abuse. I am engaged. I bought my first house and I've done a lot of healing with my relationships,” Brown, 48, told Reuters.

“I wanted to give survivors that hope and that honesty that ‘you know what, I'm going through it too still, just like you are. So don't give up.' ”

Brown, a patron of the charity Women's Aid, became a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women.

“It's given me more of a purpose. It's like an extension of girl power because I've been screaming girl power since I was 19, and then for 10 years I was very girl powerless and now I'm speaking my truth,” she said of her campaigning against domestic abuse.

Burnett recalls ‘awful’ experience performing on TV before Elvis

Elvis Presley is a tough act to follow – or, as Carol Burnett once learned, to precede.

The television legend, 90, stopped by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday and chatted about one of her previous times at the Ed Sullivan Theater: when she appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on the same episode as Presley. This was when Presley was in the Army, and “they did a whole big thing” with him, she explained. Unfortunately for Burnett, she went on before Presley, so audience members were anxious to see the singer and had no interest in her.

“Nobody wanted to see me,” she recalled. “‘Elvis! Where the hell is Elvis? We want to see Elvis!' I bombed. Oh my God. It was terrible. It was awful.”

On the bright side, Burnett met Presley that night and got his autograph for her sister. “He was very sweet,” she told Colbert.