CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) — Country singer Garth Brooks told jurors Friday that he believed he had a “done deal” to honor his late mother with a women’s health center in his Oklahoma hometown, and said he still doesn’t understand how he received nothing for a $500,000 gift.

Brooks is suing Integris Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon, accusing it and its president of reneging on a pledge to build the center and name it after his mother, Colleen, who died of cancer in 1999. The center was never built, and Brooks wants his money back, plus punitive damages.

NEW YORK (AP) — At 74, Bill Cosby says he doesn’t want to dawdle.

“When you hit the 70 mark, some of your friends have been destroyed or are dead,” the comedian and activist says by phone. “You keep going, but you do have a feeling that as you’re walking forward, someone’s turning the lights out behind you.”

One of America’s most beloved and groundbreaking joke-tellers, Cosby has leveraged his fame — he is the first black actor to win a lead actor Emmy and beloved for his groundbreaking series “The Cosby Show” — to give back.

Country superstars Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire raised $500,000 for victims of recent tornados in Oklahoma.

PHOTOS: Stars’ good deeds

Shelton, a musician coach of NBC’s “The Voice,” teamed up with McEntire, his adviser on the competition series, for two relief concerts May 25 and 26 in Durant, Okla. Kelly Clarkson even made a surprise appearance at the May 26 relief show.
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The duo — both Oklahoma natives — donated all proceeds to the Tushka Disaster Relief fund.

Taylor Swift took home a slew of awards on Sunday at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, but the singer’s biggest achievement might have been the night before, when she helped raise close to $1 million for tornado victims.
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“It was so wonderful,” Swift told Access Hollywood guest correspondent Jayde Donovan about her rehearsal benefit show in Nashville, Tenn., for victims whose lives have been affected by the recent tornados.

He’s an Oscar winner. He’s a humanitarian. He looks great in a tux and in … less than a tux. We’ve loved him as a doctor and as a thief or a hitman. Action, comedy, romance — it doesn’t matter.

George Clooney is so much more than good looks and good film roles. And on the occasion of his 50th birthday, it seemed appropriate to offer up 50 of the things we love about the actor.

Sandra Bullock has donated $1 million to the Red Cross for Japan disaster relief, her rep confirms to Scoop. While other celebrities have made various gestures to encourage donation and raise money, this is the largest known donation made by a celebrity since the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

NEW YORK — More than 70 guitars belonging to British music icon Eric Clapton will go on the auction block in New York next week to raise money for his drug and alcohol treatment center in the Caribbean.

The instruments, shown at a preview on Friday, include a 2005 Fender Stratocaster Signature Model, which is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

Clapton used the instrument during the Cream Reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London in May 2005 and at Madison Square Garden in New York in October of the same year.

How’s this for spreading holiday cheer: Lil Wayne, now a free man himself after his release from prison in early November, has helped someone else get out of confinement.

The 28-year-old rapper, who served eight months in New York’s Riker’s Island on a weapons charge, has bestowed the mother of fan Ronda Austin with a wheelchair.

He writes on his website, WeezyThanxYou.com, that he came to know Ronda through a series of letters she sent him while he was serving his sentence.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Garth Brooks is going to be very busy in December.

Brooks sold more than 140,000 tickets Saturday morning and his benefit concert for Nashville flood relief ballooned from one show to nine.

“It’s great to be a part of the healing,” Brooks said in a news release.

The release says the day’s sales set a record for tickets sold in Tennessee, besting a concert held by Michael Jackson at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville that drew more than 72,000 fans.

Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony’s 2 1/2-year-old twins have made their modeling debut as the faces of Gucci’s new children’s line, according to Us Weekly.

Max and Emme appear alongside their mom in the ads. “It’s the first time I have worked with my kids in that way,” Lopez told the magazine.