LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Millions of students all across the country are headed back to school, and that includes some knowledge-seeking TV and movie stars. Among the celebrities who are hitting the books this fall: Singer/actress Tatyana Ali will study at Harvard. Claire Danes will be at Yale, while fellow actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is taking time off to study so he can get into Yale. And Ben Savage has been accepted to Stanford and will attend in '99.
Kellie Martin, who attends Yale, says her fellow celebrities will get no special treatment. "I am so humbled there," she says. "I mean, people say things and I'm just like, 'Wait, let me think about that for a few minutes before I try to respond to you.' I'm always put in my place there."
Got some advice for these college-bound celebs? Go to the boards!
LONDON (CNN) -- One of Helen Mirren's pivotal co-stars in the Royal National Theater's staging of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" is refusing to work with her, but she's not taking it personally. The co-star is a California king snake that has slithered away and cannot be found.
The reptile was to play in the climactic scene in which Cleopatra, played by Mirren, commits suicide by pressing a snake to her bosom to administer a fatal bite. While the snake's owners are still searching for it, the show must go on. Another snake that has played the Egyptian asp in rehearsals is being used in the production.
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PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- The City of Brotherly Love might not be known for country music, but the Philadelphia is nonetheless celebrating Garth Brooks Week. The mayor of Philadelphia declared the occasion in honor of the country superstar, who sold out six shows -- 120,000 tickets -- at the First Union Center in a record 3.5 hours.
Brooks, who's on tour with Trisha Yearwood, was presented with a small model of the Liberty Bell and a personalized Philadelphia Flyers jersey Tuesday. "Nine years ago you never dreamed it could get this big, but for some reason it keeps evolving, which I'm thankful for," Brooks said before Tuesday night's show. "It might be over with tomorrow, but for tonight I want to dance."
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Tara Dawn Holland, aka Miss Kansas, as she is crowned Miss America 1997
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ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (CNN) -- Three judges for this year's Miss America Pageant who have ties to Oklahoma have been ousted from their positions, a move pageant officials hope will prevent claims of favoritism. "We know the judges would do it fairly," Leonard Horn, chief executive of the Miss America Organization, said Tuesday. "But we don't want anyone to think Miss Oklahoma was chosen or not chosen based on being from Oklahoma." Horn said the move was in response to complaints from an unnamed source.
Allegations of favoritism arose following last year's pageant, when Kate Shindle won the crown. Shindle's father had served on the Miss America Organization board of directors. He resigned before his daughter won Miss Illinois and the right to compete in Atlantic City, but his ties nevertheless riled some contestants.
In other Miss America news, Horn is preparing to step down as CEO of the long-running beauty pageant. His successor, named Tuesday, is to be Robert Beck, the former executive director of the U.S. Soccer Federation. Beck will assume his new role shortly after the 1998 Miss America Pageant telecast on September 19.
