Nashville’s best showcased

Brooks, Yearwood on hand to honor writers

Trisha Yearwood is accompanied by her husband, Garth Brooks, as she sings "Wind Beneath My Wings," a song written by Larry Henley, as Henley is inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Trisha Yearwood is accompanied by her husband, Garth Brooks, as she sings "Wind Beneath My Wings," a song written by Larry Henley, as Henley is inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

NASHVILLE — Kim Wil­liams hes­i­tated only slightly when asked who he thinks has been the best in­ter­preter of his songs be­fore the start of the Nash­ville Song­writ­ers Hall of Fame in­duc­tion cer­e­mony.

“That’s tough, but I’d say it would have to be Garth Brooks be­cause I wrote them with him,” Wil­liams said. “He was part of the songs, too, be­fore he sang them. We had so much fun writ­ing to­gether.”

They had a load of fun to­gether Sun­day night, too.

Brooks and his wife Tr­isha Year­wood were on hand to help cel­e­brate this year's in­duct­ees — Wil­liams, Tony Arata, Mary Chapin Car­pen­ter, and Larry Hen­ley. Brooks sa­luted Wil­liams and Arata, while Year­wood paid trib­ute to Car­pen­ter and Hen­ley, the writer of the en­dur­ing hit “The Wind Be­neath My Wings.”

“Over 200 art­ists have recorded ‘The Wind Be­neath My Wings,’ so it's kind of how do you do a new twist?” Year­wood said be­fore the cer­e­mony. “And with Chapin, I've just known her a long, long time, so it was a no-brainer when she asked me.”

Brooks sang “New Way To Fly,” “Papa Loved Mama,” and “Three Wooden Crosses” to Wil­liams, then sang Arata's “The Dance.”

The Nash­ville Song­writ­ers As­so­ci­a­tion In­ter­na­tional also gave out its yearly song­writ­ing awards. 

Tay­lor Swift won the song­writer/art­ist of the year award for the fifth time in six years and re­mains at 22 that award's young­est win­ner. 

Dal­las David­son was named song­writer of the year. And Dolly Par­ton’s en­dur­ing hit “I Will Al­ways Love You,” which reached No. 1 again this year af­ter Whit­ney Hous­ton’s death, was named song of the year.

DeVito, Per­l­man split

LOS ANGELES — Danny DeVito and Rhea Per­l­man are break­ing up.

A spokes­man for DeVito says the cou­ple is sep­a­rat­ing af­ter 30 years of mar­riage. 

DeVito and Per­l­man mar­ried in 1982 and have three adult chil­dren. The cou­ple worked to­gether on TV's Taxi from 1978 to 1982.

To­gether, the cou­ple es­tab­lished the pro­duc­tion com­pany Jer­sey Films, which counts Pulp Fic­tion, Erin Brock­ov­ich, and Out of Sight among its cred­its.

DeVito stars in TV's It's Al­ways Sunny in Phil­a­del­phia. Per­l­man is best known for her long-run­ning role on Cheers.

‘Switched’

NEW YORK — Play­ing a deaf teen on the ABC Fam­ily drama Switched at Birth has put Katie Le­clerc on Hol­ly­wood's ra­dar.

“I was act­ing for about 10 years be­fore I got Switched, the 25-year-old ac­tress said in a re­cent in­ter­view. “It was all mi­nor things, noth­ing of note. And when I went into the au­di­tion for Switched, I was aware of the po­ten­tial and that this is some­thing that could re­ally launch me.”

Le­clerc plays Daphne Vasquez, a teen who lost her hear­ing as a child af­ter a bout with men­in­gi­tis. Daphne was switched as a new­born in the hos­pi­tal with an­other baby. She grew up with a sin­gle mother in a work­ing-class neigh­bor­hood while the other child grew up in a wealthy fam­ily with two par­ents and a brother.

Since the pre­miere of Switched at Birth last year, Le­clerc has landed roles on The Big Bang The­ory and CSI, a sci-fi film, the lead in an up­com­ing Hall­mark Chan­nel movie, and a part on a Web se­ries called Syn­the­sized Life.

She was fa­mil­iar with Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage be­fore play­ing Daphne. Her sis­ter has an in­ner ear dis­or­der called Men­iere's Dis­ease that can cause hear­ing loss and ver­tigo. Le­clerc learned ALS in high school and re­al­ized af­ter­ward that she also has Men­iere's.

Switched at Birth airs Mon­days.