Tom Hanks going on ‘NFL moratorium’ over Raiders move
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Tom Hanks said he’s going on an “NFL moratorium” for two years after his hometown Oakland Raiders leave for Las Vegas, but he didn’t explain what that entails.
The NFL approved the Raiders’ plan to move last month. A $1.9 billion stadium is slated to be built for the team with the help of $750 million in public money.
“You cannot take the Silver and Black, put them in an air-conditioned dome in the desert, make them play on artificial turf within a stone’s throw of the fountains of Caesar’s Palace, and call them the Raiders,” Hanks said Monday at a charity event.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Hanks told author Dave Eggers the NFL is a billion-dollar industry and NFL owners are billionaires. Yet, he said, when the owners want to build a stadium, “they expect the city taxpayers to buy the building.”
Hanks sees one positive in the Raiders’ exit: the possibility of a new baseball stadium for his Oakland Athletics.
NEW YORK (AP) – Two-time Tony Award winner James Earl Jones will soon get a third – for lifetime achievement.
The Tony Awards Administration Committee said Thursday Jones will receive the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre on June 11 at the Tony Awards.
Jones, the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa from Disney’s “The Lion King,” has won Tonys for “The Great White Hope” and “Fences.” His Broadway credits also include “On Golden Pond,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Best Man” and “The Gin Game.”