Names and faces

Ringo Starr answers questions at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Saturday, April 18, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Ringo Starr answers questions at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Saturday, April 18, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Ringo Starr was ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a little help from one of his famous friends. The onetime mop-topped drummer who kept the beat for the Beatles was inducted as a solo artist Saturday night during a ceremony jammed with scintillating performances and touching moments. Starr was the last of the Beatles to be inducted for his individual work, getting in after bandmates Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. Starr was inducted along with Green Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, soul singer-songwriter Bill Withers, guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and The “5” Royales. The 74-year-old Starr was inducted by McCartney, who said he could count on Starr to have his back on every song. “You don’t have to look with Ringo,” McCartney said. “He’s there.” Starr was joined on stage by Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh for “It Don’t Come Easy” before McCartney went out to play bass for “A Little Help From My Friends.” The evening concluded, as it always does, with an all-star jam, this time to “I Wanna Be Your Man.” HBO will broadcast the event May 30.

Ben Affleck requested that the PBS documentary series Finding Your Roots not reveal he had a slave-owning ancestor, according to emails published online by whistleblower site WikiLeaks. The information didn’t appear on the program. In separate statements, PBS and Henry Louis Gates, host of the show that traces the ancestry of well-known guests, said they didn’t censor the slave-owner details. They said more interesting ancestors emerged and that Gates chose to highlight them in October’s segment featuring Affleck. “For any guest, we always find far more stories about ancestors on their family trees than we ever possibly could use,” Gates said. Affleck’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. In the email chain, Gates asks Sony Pictures co-chairman and chief executive Michael Lynton for advice on how to handle Affleck’s request. After going back and forth, the two seem to decide censoring the information is a bad idea, with Gates writing July 22 that if the public learned of it, “It would embarrass him and compromise our integrity.”

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