Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan headline Prince tribute concert

THERE HAVE BEEN a lot of concerts over the years for causes but not that many for dead music icons.

Of those, the most famous (and successful) are The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (1992), The Concert for George (2002) for George Harrison and the more problem-plagued Michael Forever (2011) for Michael Jackson.

Thursday night in Minnesota, music stars came out for Prince.

Prince's sister Tyka Nelson described the concert at the sold-out Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul as a public memorial to her brother, who died in April at his Paisley Park recording complex.

Nelson said that fans of her brother are grief-stricken, and that made the celebration of Prince's life and music "so, so important." She said there "definitely" will be future concerts.

Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan were among featured performers. Also on the bill were Tori Kelly, Anita Baker, Doug E. Fresh, Prince's ex-wife, Mayte Garcia, and members of Prince's inner circle, including Morris Day & The Time.

John Mayer had bowed out, citing a "change of schedule."

How do you have a Prince tribute with no guitarists?

Bob Dylan

has become the first musician in the 115-year history of the Nobel Prize to win the prize in literature. He was honored for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Dylan, who gave the world "Like a Rolling Stone," "Blowin' in the Wind" and dozens of other standards, now finds himself on a list that includes Samuel Beckett, Toni Morrison and T.S. Eliot, whom Dylan referred to in his epic song "Desolation Row."

But Dylan, who penned quotable lyrics such as "The times they are a-changing" and "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," never wrote a lyric that said, "They just throw their fedoras/wherever the floor is/and start doing horas."

That was Allan Sherman.

Dylan had no immediate comment about the Nobel. He was playing Las Vegas.

Although this was one of those rare times when Americans have actually heard of the Literature winner, Trainspotting novelist Irvine Welsh wasn't impressed. He called the prize "an ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies."

* In other Nobel news, Conan O'Brien will host the Nobel Peace Prize concert.

The annual event is set for Dec. 11 in Oslo, Norway. Halsey will perform. Previous entertainment has ranged from Mary J. Blige to Paul McCartney.

Maybe they're saving a little money this year.

This year's peace prize was awarded to Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian president, who has worked to end that nation's civil war, which has lasted more than five decades and killed more than 200,000 people.

Alas, earlier this month, Colombians rejected Santos' peace deal, which had taken more than four years to negotiate and then surprisingly went down 50.22 percent to 49.78 percent.

That's for you people who don't think your vote matters.

Former Penn football star

Gavin O'Connor

(

Miracle

,

Warrior

), said his new directorial effort,

The Accountant

(see review on Page 30), was a challenge because it "had these different genres that were running concurrently through it, and the tone of the movie was unlike anything I'd done before. But that's why I wanted to do it."

O'Connor told Tattle Hollywood correspondent Jerome Maida that he wanted to make the movie intense, but fun.

"Whatever fun Ben and I could find in it, working with the writer, we did. Ben did a lot of research on his character," who is functionally autistic.

"It's entirely realistic," O'Connor said. "We had so many educators and teachers and specialists and we watched documentaries ... Then we met with high functioning autistic men ... And of course all of these guys act slightly differently ... They are called neurotypicals.

"My goal was to change people's perspectives when they look at someone with autism."

*

Michael B. Jordan

,

Danny Glover

and

Michael K. Williams

take on the issue of racial bias in police shootings with a simple new Public Service Announcement message: "Black is not a weapon."

The four-minute, black-and-white PSA features the actors up against a wall to a soundscape of news reports, TV commentators and 911 calls about police encountering black men. At one point, the screen goes dark to the sound of bullets.

Also appearing are TV personalities Van Jones and Marc Lamont Hill, artists Sophia Dawson and Sydney G. James and rapper Mysonne. The PSA is called "Against the Wall."

Musician and civil-rights activist Harry Belafonte, whose social justice organization, Sankofa, partnered with directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz to create the video, also narrates.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

gensleh@phillynews.com

215-854-5678 @DNTattle