In the news

Pleshette to guest star on '8 Simple Rules'

Suzanne Pleshette will guest star on 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter when the show returns to ABC next month.

Pleshette, late of NBC's Good Morning, Miami, will play Cate Hennessy's (Katey Sagal) mother in the hourlong episode, which will air Nov. 4. The show will follow the Hennessy family as it tries to cope with the news of father Paul's (John Ritter) unexpected death.

Ritter died Sept. 11 after collapsing on the 8 Simple Rules set while working on the season's fourth episode. ABC decided to continue with the series and aired Ritter's final three episodes at the start of this season to very strong ratings.

In the show's return, Cate's recently separated parents - Pleshette and James Garner - will put their differences aside and try to help Cate and her three kids deal with Paul's death. Garner will have a recurring part in the show; it's unclear how long Pleshette will be with the show.

Two young Cuban dancers plan to ask for political asylum after they defected while the Cuban National Ballet waited to perform this weekend in Daytona Beach.

Gema Diaz, 21, and Cervilio Amador, 20, slipped away from the dance company and jumped in a taxi to West Palm Beach on Saturday, a day before they were to perform in Don Quixote.

The pair met with an immigration attorney in Coral Gables on Wednesday, preparing to officially request political asylum.

Amador said Wednesday that the ballet company's tours through the United States and Europe inspired him to defect.

"I began to see how people around the world live, what their individual capacities can achieve in an atmosphere of freedom," Amador told El Nuevo Herald.

The pair was still listed on the Cuban National Ballet's roster on its Web site as of Friday.

The ballet company is on a seven-week, 20-city tour and now is in New York. The company performed in Tampa on Oct. 10.