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'Idol' star Aiken awarded degree

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - American Idol runnerup Clay Aiken walked across a different kind of stage this weekend for a distinctive honor: his college degree.

Aiken, who vaulted from obscurity to pop music stardom, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Saturday, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in special education.

American Idol has made Aiken a recording sensation, but he was just another face in the crowd at the graduation ceremony.

"This has been an amazing year for me," Aiken said upon getting his diploma. "This is more special to me than a lot of the things that have happened to me this year, because what happens here today says something to people. This is a day that makes for all of us a statement . . . how important it is to persevere and continue to work and strive to succeed."

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Hope Lange, who starred opposite Hollywood's top actors over a decadeslong career and earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the 1957 film Peyton Place, has died, her husband said Sunday. She was 70.

Lange died Friday at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica after suffering an infection caused by an intestinal inflammation known as ischemic colitis, said her husband, Charles Hollerith.

Lange captured two Emmy awards for her role in the series The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in the late 1960s, her husband said.

Her big-screen credits included The Best of Everything in 1959 with Joan Crawford, The Young Lions in 1958 with Marlon Brando and Peyton Place with Lana Turner. More recently, she was in 1986's Blue Velvet and 1994's Clear and Present Danger.

Lange is survived by her husband, a son, actor Christopher Murray, a daughter, Patricia Murray, and two grandchildren.

NEW YORK - Facing trial on a stock-trading scandal, Martha Stewart says her legal woes have curtailed her holiday plans.

"It's the saddest holiday ever. It's an unwelcome time for me, very unwelcome," she says on CNN's Larry King Live in a taped interview scheduled to air today.

"I generally have a Christmas party but this year I'm only having a small family party."

Stewart's criminal trial on securities fraud and conspiracy charges is scheduled to begin Jan. 12.

In excerpts provided to the Associated Press, Stewart, 62, denies any wrongdoing, but said the approaching trial has caused her a lot of pain.

"You have no idea how much worry and sadness and grief it causes," she says.

Despite the ordeal, Stewart says she hasn't allowed herself to get angry.

"You can't let that get to you because then, again, your functionality, your daily chores can't get done," she said.