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Hamilton Planning Return To Ice Skating

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 22, 2009

After becoming the second contestant fired from this season's "Celebrity Apprentice," 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton announced last week he is returning to his day job: ice skating.

"Skating brings out the best in me," says Hamilton, who began training again in earnest late last year and plans on making a public return to the ice in the fall.

He quit performing five years ago to help raise his family with wife Tracie and recover from a benign pituitary gland tumor diagnosed in 2004.

"I've been at home being a dad and getting older and slower," Hamilton tells People magazine. "I had been feeling physically slow and under the weather, but I feel great after skating. Why not set a goal and get back into it?"

Hoping to perform at charity events and skating exhibitions, Hamilton, 50, expects his comeback to go smoother than his experience on "Celebrity Apprentice."

After his ouster, Trump delivered a personal message, telling Hamilton it was a difficult decision firing him. "He said I just had a bad day," Hamilton says.

Metallica Tries To Blend In At Event

Invading South By Southwest, Metallica attempted to pose as one of the hundreds of smaller bands there just hoping to get a record deal.

"We're a young band from Norway and we want to get signed," Metallica frontman James Hetfield told the audience at the heavy metal band's SXSW performance Friday night in Austin, Texas.

It was a widely expected but not officially announced show at a venue that for a band like Metallica is downright minuscule, holding about 2,100 people. The band played for slightly more than an hour, performing both classics and, as Hetfield called it, "new stuff" off their 2008 album "Death Magnetic" - a disc widely considered a return to form for the 28-year-old group.

Metallica was in Austin for the day to promote the band's new "Guitar Hero" video game, to be released March 29.
Fountains Of Wayne In Trouble

A kitschy northern New Jersey landmark that spawned a popular rock band's name and served as the backdrop for a "Sopranos" episode may be in danger of closing.
Fountains of Wayne has sat on the side of Route 46 for more than 40 years, beckoning shoppers with displays of lawn ornaments, outdoor furniture and life-sized Santa Claus figures.

It served as the inspiration for the critically acclaimed band of the same name, and HBO's mob series "The Sopranos" filmed there.

The store's gates were closed Friday and the owner last week said the store's fate was still evolving.

Today's Birthdays

Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim is 79. Actor William Shatner is 78. Writer James Patterson is 62. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 61. Sportscaster Bob Costas is 57. Actor Matthew Modine is 50. Actress Reese Witherspoon is 33.

Sources: People.com, The Associated Press

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