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Buena Vista Social Club pianist laid to rest

HAVANA - Pianist Ruben Gonzalez, who charmed fans the world over as part of the Buena Vista Social Club band, was remembered for the Cuban essence of his music Tuesday, one day after succumbing to respiratory and kidney failure. He was 84.

Mr. Gonzalez "represented a synthesis of what is Cuban in all of its expressions, as well as mastery on the piano," said Maria Elena Vinueza, director of music for Casa de las Americas, Cuba's center of Latin American culture.

More than 100 of Mr. Gonzalez's family members and friends traveled to Havana's historic Colon Cemetery Tuesday afternoon for his funeral.

Glen Campbell pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges of assault and drunken driving in a hit-and-run collision near his Phoenix home.

Campbell waived his right to a preliminary hearing and pleaded before Judge Gregory H. Martin in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Campbell, 67, was accused of kneeing an officer after he was arrested Nov. 24 for allegedly striking another car and leaving the scene. Nobody was hurt.

He pleaded innocent to a felony aggravated assault charge and misdemeanor charges of extreme drunken driving, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has revived its annual movie awards because of a court decision allowing studios to resume sending special video copies of films to voters.

The Los Angeles critics probably will announce their picks for best picture, actor, actress and other honors within 10 days to two weeks, Jean Oppenheimer, the group's president, said Tuesday.

The group had called off its honors after top studios and their trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America, banned DVDs and videotapes that had become a staple of Hollywood's awards season.

The MPAA said bootleggers have obtained copies of those screeners and used them to make pirated copies.