Grapevine: Fan works to protect Betty White from 2016

DSO to perform Prince hits for New Year’s Eve

Want to party like it’s 1999 this New Year’s Eve? The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will ring in the New Year by performing Prince’s top hits. Detroit Public Television will livestream the concert at Orchestra Hall starting at 10 p.m. But if you want to go in person to watch conductor Brent Havens lead adaptations of “Little Red Corvette,” “Purple Rain” and “Raspberry Beret,” tickets start at $70. Tickets for drinks and an 8 p.m. dinner prepared by DSO executive chef Kyle Hanley are also available for $250. Purchase tickets at dso.org/nye.

Patti Smith to give Royal Oak Music Theatre concert

Friday is punk icon Patti Smith’s 70th birthday, but it’s her fans that are getting the gift. Promoters announced this week that Smith will perform at the Royal Oak Music Theatre March 11. Tickets, $45-$75, will go on sale at noon Friday (pre-sale began Wednesday for those eligible). According to the venue, the concert will pay homage to her debut album “Horses,” released in 1975. She’ll perform the seminal punk album in its entirety. Back in the ’70s she performed under the name the Patti Smith Group, and the March 11 concert will feature two members of that lineup: Lenny Kayne and Jay Dee Daugherty. Longtime band member Tony Shanahan is also on board. Smith recently made international news for performing Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” in Stockholm, Sweden, earlier this month as part of the 2016 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but opted not to attend and receive the honor. Smith is a Chicago native, but married the late Fred “Sonic” Smith of the Detroit band MC5 and spent much of the 1980s with him in St. Clair Shores raising their two children.

South Carolina seeks to protect Betty White from 2016

David Bowie. George Michael. Leonard Cohen. Prince. Gene Wilder. Muhammad Ali. Gordie Howe. We can all agree, 2016 was a brutal year for celebrity deaths. After news of Carrie Fisher’s passing Tuesday, one South Carolina man took matters in his own hands in an attempt to protect 94-year-old Betty White from 2016. Demetrios Hrysikos set up a GoFundMe page to raise $2,000 to be White’s personal body guard. “I will fly to wherever Betty White is and keep her safe till Jan 1, 2017,” he wrote on the page. “Now, assuming she doesn’t want a strange Greek standing guard outside her door all monies will be donated to the Spartanburg little theater to help craft new stars of stage and screen to carry (the) mantle of the legends that have left is this year.” Hrysikos ended up exceeding his goal. As of noon Wednesday, the effort raised nearly $2,500. No word from White if she wants a man standing guard outside her door.

Zach Galifianakis welcomes a second son

Comedian ZachGalifianakis’s wife, Quinn Lundberg, gave birth to their second child, Rufus Emmanuel Lundberg, on Nov. 7, E! News reported. The delayed news of the birth isn’t that unusual for the “Between Two Ferns” host, given he waited a year to reveal the gender of his now 3-year-old son. “We have a boy!” he said on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2014. “I think fatherhood is just the greatest thing.” Galifianakis, 47, has been married to Lundberg since 2012.

Compiled by Stephanie Steinberg

Melody Baetens contributed

ssteinberg@detroitnews.com

Thursday’s birthdays

Mary Tyler Moore , 80

Jon Voight , 78

Ted Danson , 69

Jude Law , 44

Diego Luna , 37