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MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) – Punk-pop princess Avril Lavigne has married a fellow Canadian singer-songwriter, according to published reports.

Lavigne married Deryck Whibley, the guitarist and front man for the band Sum 41, on Saturday at a private estate near Santa Barbara, People magazine reported on its Web site.

The young rockers had a mostly traditional ceremony, the magazine said.

The usually shabby Lavigne wore a Vera Wang gown, carried white roses and was walked down the aisle by her father as Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” played.

Lavigne, 21, and Whibley, 26, exchanged vows under an awning covered in white flowers.

Messages left by The Associated Press for Lavigne’s label, Nettwerk Management, were not immediately returned Sunday.

The pair have been dating since early 2004 and bought a house in Los Angeles later that year. They became engaged in Venice, Italy, in 2005 while Lavigne was on a European tour.

Lavigne is working on her third album and recently gave voice to the possum Heather in the film “Over the Hedge.”



PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino had to be persuaded to play herself in a television movie about her hardscrabble life.

“Life Is Not a Fairy Tale,” to air Aug. 19 on Lifetime, is inspired by the R&B singer’s autobiography about dropping out of high school and becoming an unwed mother at 17.

“I didn’t think it was going to be tough going back playing myself, but it was because I had to relive those moments,” Barrino told the Television Critics Association’s summer meeting Friday.

“At the end, I began to cry and I said, ‘I went through all those things, but I know why I share my life.’ I’m thankful that I was able to do it.”

A rape scene was particularly unnerving for Barrino, who initially told director Debbie Allen she wouldn’t do it.

“She talked to me, and she helped me out a lot,” Barrino said. “The good part about it is her son played the part.

“He was so warm and funny. I said, ‘If you touch me, I’m going to punch you.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to punch you back.’ So it made it a whole lot easier for me.”

Barrino was the third season winner of “Idol” and released her debut album “Free Yourself” in 2004.





DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – Cliff Robertson was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The actor, who grew up in La Jolla, Calif., would wash airplanes and clean engines as a teenager in hopes that a pilot would give him a ride and a lesson.

In 1969, he organized an effort to fly food and medical supplies into Biafra, which had declared independence from Nigeria. And in 1978, he organized a similar effort for famine-stricken Ethiopia.

“Gliding is my Walden Pond,” said Robertson, 80, who most recently reprised his role as the avuncular Uncle Ben Parker in the upcoming “Spiderman 3.”

Others enshrined included Bessie Coleman, the first black American to earn a pilot’s license, and Robert White, the first person to fly six times the speed of sound.

Film producer Tony Bill served as master of ceremonies at the enshrinement event.

Bill, 65, who has been a pilot for 50 years, directed “Flyboys,” which opens Sept. 29 and is about the birth of aerial combat during World War I. He won an Oscar for best picture in 1973 for producing “The Sting.”

The aviation hall was founded in 1962 in Dayton, the hometown of the Wright brothers, and later established by Congress. Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first of 186 enshrinees.



LOS ANGELES (AP) – J.J. Abrams, the co-creator of “Lost” and director of “Mission: Impossible 3,” has signed deals with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., officials said Saturday.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the Los Angeles Times reported the two multiyear deals combined are worth at least $55 million, which makes the 40-year-old writer-producer one of the industry’s most highly paid.

Abrams has been at Walt Disney Co.’s Touchstone Television studio, where he based his production company, Bad Robot Productions, and created several ABC series.

“The executive teams at both of these companies understand what we’re building at Bad Robot, and I can’t wait to get to work,” Abrams said in a release.

One of the first projects being developed under the five-year arrangement with Paramount is the revival of the “Star Trek” series. His production company also will help make a slate of movies budgeted under $25 million.

“I have nothing against larger budget films, but as someone who’s worked in television, I know that some pretty powerful stories can be told for somewhere under $200 million,” Abrams said.

In television, Bad Robot has signed a six-year deal with Warner Bros. and will produce new projects for the studio.

“J.J. is a unique and extraordinary talent that I have admired from a distance for many years,” said Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television. “Fortunately, with time and patience we were able to entice him over to Warner Bros. Television.”

The deal allows him at least 35 percent of what’s known as the “back-end,” or the revenue from DVD sales, Internet downloads and syndication sales.



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Veteran Grand Ole Opry star Porter Wagoner underwent surgery to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm and is expected to make a full recovery, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

Wagoner had the surgery Friday and will remain in the hospital for several days, said Darlene Bieber, a spokeswoman for the country music radio show.

He was hospitalized after he became ill at his home Friday morning.

Wagoner, 78, famous for his rhinestone suits, helped launch the career of Dolly Parton by hiring her as his duet partner in 1967. His hits include “Carroll County Accident” and “A Satisfied Mind.”

Wagoner missed his scheduled performance Friday night at the Opry, where he’s sung since 1957.

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