Criss goes from guest on 'Glee' to heartthrob

AP, NEW YORK, May 2: Darren Criss isn't even officially a full-time cast member on "Glee," yet he's one of the most popular stars on the Fox TV show.

The actor made his debut last fall as Blaine Anderson, a gay student at Dalton Academy where Chris Colfer's character Kurt transfers after being bullied out.

Criss performed a version of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" that quickly became one of the show's most popular performances to date. Viewers were smitten, and the 24-year-old was quickly written into most of the season's episodes.

Now, fans can get an extra dose of Criss on the new album "Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers."

The Associated Press: Your performances are so popular on "Glee." What's it like to be on an album?

Criss: They're all incredible songs, so I really enjoyed them all. I worked super hard. If people are enjoying them I'm glad because it's not something that I took lightly, so I'm really happy that, you know.

AP: What would you like to see on "Glee" that hasn't happened yet?

Criss: I would really love it to start in the summer because I want to see what these kids are up to when they're not in school. ... I just want to see a little bit of summer jobs and it kind of opens up a whole lot of things. I always joke that everyone in "Glee" is like family-less. No one has parents, no one has brothers or sisters ... like any time they have a concert or something, the parents never come, I guess. No one really cares. No one's driving them home afterward. I don't know how they're gettin' around. They're like 15, 16 years old (laughs).

AP: When did you realize your first appearance on the show was a big deal?

Criss: I don't watch a lot of TV. I'm really busy so I wasn't really feeling it. I was living in my little crappy apartment. It was really dirty. Nothing really manifested itself in an immediate way. I still had laundry to do, bills to pay. ... Any successes it may have garnered it didn't hit me (laughs) at all so it was this very intangible thing. People were like, "It's doing really well" and I was like, "OK, great."

AP: Are you getting recognized a lot?

Criss: It depends where I go. ... If it happens, I'm happy to address it, because I consider myself very fortunate. You know, at least I didn't release a — that you know of — a sex tape, or I haven't done anything illicitly terrible where you know, I'm sort of cowering in shame. It's something that I'm really proud of and I should be so lucky and if someone wants to talk to me about it, "Hell yeah."

AP: Do you have plans to release a solo album?

Criss: I was kind of at a crossroads right before I started "Glee." I was literally about to throw in the towel with acting because music was proving itself sort of more mentally, spiritually and financially lucrative. I started a theatre company in Chicago, Team StarKid, and my EP "Human" started doing really well (it charted on Billboard) and that was gonna be my life. ... "Glee" has both empowered and complicated that whole process. Whatever album I was about to put out got put aside for a little bit. ... It'll happen eventually.

Rev. Al Sharpton renews vows for Carey, Cannon

AP, NEW YORK, May 2: A day after becoming parents to twins, Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon renewed their vows with a hospital ceremony conducted by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Saturday was the couple's third anniversary — and also the day when Carey gave birth to a girl and a boy in Los Angeles. On Sunday, Sharpton blessed the babies, and also presided over a ceremony where the couple renewed their vows.

Cannon tweeted words of thanks to the civil rights activist and said: "Yep we just had a wedding in the hospital!"

Sharpton tweeted that Carey looked "great" and that the babies are beautiful.

New `Judge Judy' deal keeps show on until 2015

AP, LOS ANGELES, May 2: Television's "Judge Judy" is keeping her hand firmly on the gavel through 2015.

Judy Sheindlin signed a new multiyear deal to stay with the long-running syndicated program that last season ranked No. 1 in daytime, CBS Television Distribution said Monday.

"I am thrilled with the opportunity to continue this exciting second career," Sheindlin, 68, said in a statement.

A former judge in New York, the tart-tongued Sheindlin presides over small-claims cases on her program that's in its 15th season.

"Judge Judy" had been renewed until 2013 before the new agreement was reached. The deal comes as Oprah Winfrey prepares to wrap up her talk show after 25 years, leaving Sheindlin and other daytime stars to jockey for position. Winfrey's cable channel, OWN, launched in January.

Sheindlin had publicly toyed with the idea of ending her show in 2013, but "Judge Judy" remains a strong draw. In the 2009-10 season, it ranked No. 1 among daytime series and became the first program in a decade to outdraw "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Sheindlin is "at the top of her game," said John Nogawski, president of CBS Television Distribution, the show's syndicator. She's been the most-watched TV judge since her show's 1996 debut.

She was hospitalized overnight in Los Angeles in late March for undisclosed reasons but said "all is well" after she was released.

In a 2006 interview, Sheindlin said, "The truth is, you're really supposed to know when to say goodbye in any job you're in. I hope that I'll know."

Charlie Sheen tours tornado damage in Alabama

AP, TUSCALOOSA, Ala., May 2: Actor Charlie Sheen says he is organizing a relief event for tornado victims in Alabama.

After a tour of the decimated Alberta neighborhood in Tuscaloosa, Sheen told The Associated Press on Monday he was working with local officials to organize a benefit. He said a date has not been set.

Sheen says he wants to give the area "money, hope, faith and healing." The former "Two and a Half Men" star says he is shocked by the extent of the damage.

Sheen was planning to spend the day in Tuscaloosa meeting with residents and first responders. He posed for photographs with police officers and National Guard soldiers.

He was traveling with one of his so-called "goddesses" and former major league baseball player Todd Zeile.

Icon Ralph Stanley releases heavenly new album

AP, NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 2: At 84 and approaching his 65th year on the road, few things have slowed down for Ralph Stanley — especially his recording style.

"We didn't have a bit of trouble," Stanley said of his latest album, "A Mother's Prayer." "I never have had trouble recording."

Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys laid down the 14 tracks on his first album in five years in about 10 hours total over two days — from conception to arrangement to recording.

"It's kind of spontaneous, in a way that kind of puts an edge to it," said James Alan Shelton, Stanley's guitarist. "We didn't rehearse a minute for that record — just went in the studio, worked `em up on the spot and put `em down. And I bet you none of them would've been over two or three takes at the most."

What emerges is an at times uplifting batch of sacred songs that are made all the more powerful by Stanley's voice — always an amazing tool made even more so by time. When he opens the album with the line "Oh, Lord, have mercy on this weary soul of mine," it has the ring of authenticity that Stanley has always mastered in his decades as a member of The Stanley Brothers, with his brother Carter, and on his own.

His a cappella versions of "John the Revelator" and "Prince of Peace" harken back to his powerful rendition of "O Death," the song on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack that introduced him to his widest audience in decades.

On "Lift Him Up, That's All" Stanley sings over Shelton's quiet guitar line with devastating effect.

"I've heard people say Ralph sounded old when he was a young man and now he sounds ancient," Shelton said. "That's probably true."

Stanley hasn't recorded an album since 2005's "A Distant Land to Roam: Songs of the Carter Family." Reworkings of gospel and religious music have long been a part of his repertoire. But it took finding the title track to spur Stanley down a path to an album made up completely of sacred songs.

Some of the songs from "A Mother's Prayer," released in April, have their roots in 19th century Appalachia and Stanley serves as a bridge from those mostly forgotten times and tunes to the present.

"I went back to older times really, if you know what I mean," he said. "I wanted it to sound that way. Most of them are really not songs that I've been singing for a long time. I've gathered them up from different people. I liked them and thought I could sing them pretty good, and I needed material so I got to lookin' for it. I think it's some of the best I've ever had."

Like those songs, Stanley has stood the test of time. He'll reach his 65th anniversary on the stage in October and he's never abandoned his hard-touring ways. He'll do 100 to 120 shows this year with the band, which ranges in age from 18-year-old grandson Nathan Stanley to the 50-year-old Shelton.

Stanley, who received a pacemaker earlier this year, may have turned his attention to heaven for this album, but he has no intention of visiting any time soon.

"I'd just like people to know I don't have any set time to retire," Stanley said. "I plan to play on as long as I'm able and the Good Lord's willing."

Shelton figures that's going to be a while.

"Believe it or not he's still the toughest guy on that bus," the guitar player said. "I guarantee you he'll be the last one standing."