Suit claims racial discrimination by ABC's 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette'

Footballers Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson are spearheading a class-action racial discrimination suit in federal court against ABC and producers of the network's megahits, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, says the Hollywood Reporter. The suit says The Bachelor, which has been on for 16 seasons, and its sister show, which premieres its eighth season in May, have never once featured a person of color.

ABC has declined comment.

Bachelor exec producer Mike Fleiss last year told Entertainment Weekly, "We always want to cast for ethnic diversity, it's just that for whatever reason, they don't come forward. I wish they would."

No kidding?

E L James' steamy saga Fifty Shades of Grey, about an innocent college girl and her billionaire twisted tryster, was the product of a "midlife crisis," the author confided in an interview with NBC correspondent Michelle Kosinski on the Today show.

Levon Helm on his cancer

Levon Helm, drummer and singer for the Band, is "in the final stages of his battle with cancer," his wife Sandy and daughter Amy write on his website.

"Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey," they write. "Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration."

— Dan DeLuca

Philly to Boston, Pulitzer style

Boston Globe movie critic Wesley Morris, who won a Pulitzer for criticism on Monday, grew up in West Oak Lane, went to Girard College, and graduated from Yale University in '97.

His proud mother, Judith Anderson of Blue Bell, said her son, now 36, had always been interested in movies as a youngster. "I think he got that from me," she said. "I've always loved music, theater, all the arts."

Morris was honored for his "pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office." He was cited for his reviews of Drive, Water for Elephants, and The Help, and an essay on Apple founder Steve Jobs. "I'm over the moon," his mom said.

Di Piero's $100K poetry prize

Philly native W.S. Di Piero will be presented with the prestigious, and big, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize at a ceremony June 11 at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. The $100,000 award is given "to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition," the org says in a statement. "R.P. Blackmur once said that great poetry 'adds to the stock of available reality,' and that's certainly true of W.S. Di Piero's work," said Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry mag. "He wakes up the language."

Temple to honor Larry Magid

Philly native and Electric Factory Concerts cofounder Larry Magid will be awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from his alma mater Temple University during its 125th Commencement Ceremony on May 10 in the Liacouras Center.

He's "surprised and humbled, but extremely honored," he tells us. "My career started 50 years ago this month as a student at Temple, booking bands for fraternity parties and many other things. Its amazing to me that the things you learn in school you keep applying to your life. It never ends."

This article contains information from Inquirer wire services and websites. Contact "SideShow" at sideshow@phillynews.com.