Lifestyle

Donna Summer, one of the most recognizable voices of the disco era, has died after a battle with cancer. She was 63.

With the success of her career-defining, 17-minute orgasmic disco epic “Love to Love You Baby,” Summer was once known as “The Sex Queen of the ‘70s.” But she didn’t seem to enjoy her time on the throne, according to a profile from The Washington Post archives. “That’s an image I have been plagued with,” she told the Post in 1978.

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In this file picture taken on July 30, 2009, singer Donna Summer performs on stage in Berlin. Disco legend Donna Summer died in Florida aged 63 on May 17, 2012 after a battle against cancer. (MARC MUELLER - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

D.C. musical legend Chuck Brown died Wednesday at the age of 75, and the remembrances have been pouring in on Twitter , in makeshift memorials around town and on local radio airwaves.

As Mike DeBonis noted Wednesday, a public memorial is very likely but hasn’t yet been announced. D.C. residents have already gotten a head start — fans honored Brown last night in front of the Howard Theatre, near the stretch of Seventh Street NW named for the “Godfather of Go-Go” and where he was to perform next month.

A lawsuit against Skechers will prevent the company from making health-related claims about their Shape-Ups, Tone-Ups, and the Skechers Resistance Runner athletic shoes, which (surprise!) do not help you lose weight, tone muscles or fight heart disease without even going to the gym. More important, it will prevent customers from committing crimes against fashion.
This undated handout image provided by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shows and advertisement for Skechers fitness shoes. (AP - AP)

This could mean the end of these Kardashian-endorsed clunky, orthopedic-inspired shoes at last — because who would buy them knowing that they not only do nothing for your health, but also make your feet look like crudely drawn cartoons (Shape-Ups, I’m looking at you)? Though Skechers stands by its claims, it will pay $40 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission, most of which will go toward consumer refunds. The company is also prohibited from making unsubstantiated health claims about its shoes.

D.C. lost its most recognizable musical icon on Wednesday when Chuck Brown , the “Godfather of Go-Go,” passed away at the age of 75. It was Brown who, in the 1970s, created the genre that came to be the capital’s indigenous sound and penned one of its most enduring hits, “Bustin’ Loose.”

The Post has covered Brown’s career extensively, but here are four must-read highlights from the archives.

‘Bustin’ Loose’: Chuck Brown’s Driving Up the Record Charts

(Editor’s Note: Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday is reporting from Cannes. Check back on Style Blog from now through May 24 for updates from the film festival and follow her on Twitter @annhornaday).

It’s difficult to get veterans of the Cannes Film Festival genuinely excited about a star sighting – famous movie actors being as common as tiny yipping dogs on the city’s famed Croisette, where most of the festival takes place.

But it’s always special when Bill Murray shows up – probably because he says Yes so rarely to the myriad filmmakers who approach him for their movies. He was in Cannes on Wednesday for the world premiere of “Moonrise Kingdom,” a precocious coming-of-age love story that launched the festival, and that marked Murray’s sixth collaboration with Anderson. “It’s an honor to be asked back,” Murray told a packed press conference after a morning screening of the film, which received a smattering of applause when it ended, sending those aforementioned jaded critics and reporters into the Grand Palais with soothed and satisfied smiles. (“Moonrise Kingdom” opens in theaters on June 1.)