Web posted on: Thursday, August 27, 1998 5:25:24 PM

• Chevy Chase will talk radio in NYC
• Lionel Richie has a new daughter
• Young unknown cast as Princess Diana in musical
• Cuban bands play Miami safely
• Noah Wyle considering part as a 'Pirate of Silicon Valley'

Chase

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Wake up, New Yorkers, but not too early. Chevy Chase takes over the microphone for Danny Bonaduce starting Monday for a three-day stint. However, Chase starts talking at 7 a.m. EDT, not 5:30.

Chase, who failed as a late-night TV talk show host, is filling in for Bonaduce on WBIX-FM while the former child star is on vacation. Bonaduce's regular sidekick will start the show at 5:30 a.m.

A WBIX official told the New York Post that Chase was asked to be guest host after making a good impression as a guest recently. "He said he would absolutely love to do it," the spokesman said.

Richie on the cover of his latest album "Time"

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Lionel and Diane Richie have a second child, a daughter named Sofia, to keep them "Dancing on the Ceiling." The singer's publicist, Monica Alexander, said the baby, weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces, was born at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills Monday.

The couple have a 4-year-old son, Miles, and Lionel has a 16-year-old daughter, Nicole, from a previous marriage.

Lionel was the lead singer of The Commodores; he had a string of hits after going solo in the 1980s, including "Dancing on the Ceiling," "All Night Long" and "Hello." He's preparing for a tour and promoting his latest hit single, "Stay," from his latest album "Time."

Princess Diana

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Kendra Munger, 23, who has played many musical comedy roles in regional and dinner theaters in New York and Florida, has been chosen to play her biggest part yet: She won the role of Princess Diana in an off-Broadway musical about the princess' life and death.

Writer-director Stephen Stahl said he chose Munger over hundreds of more experienced actresses who auditioned for the part in "Queen of Hearts" because she has a "fabulous" voice and "great" acting ability.

A reading of the show will be held at the Grove Street Playhouse on August 31, the first anniversary of Diana's death in a car crash in Paris. The play opens October 1 in a small off-Broadway theater for a five-week run.

The musical portrays Diana as deeply in love with millionaire Dodi Fayed, who was also killed in the high-speed crash that stunned Britain and Diana's many fans around the world.

Munger, in an interview with Reuters Television, described herself as sensitive and a little shy, like the woman she will portray.

Compay Segundo and band

MIAMI (CNN) -- Cuban-based jazz pianists Chucho Valdes and Guillermo Rubalcaba, with their bands Irakere and La Charanga Rubalcaba, took the stage at an international music industry fair Wednesday and thrilled an audience of several hundred at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

They were joined by singer Omara Portuondo and 90-year-old singer-guitarist Compay Segundo in the highest-profile concert here by Cuba-based musicians in years. Their concert had been planned for Tuesday, but a visa snarl kept all but Segundo in Cuba until barely two hours before they were due to take the stage.

Hardline exiles among south Florida's 800,000-strong Cuban community have traditionally opposed concerts in Miami by musicians based in Cuba, saying they prop up President Fidel Castro's regime with dollars earned abroad.

Segundo's performance Tuesday of mesmeric "son cubano" numbers was interrupted for about 30 minutes by an anonymous bomb threat which led police to evacuate the auditorium. No bomb was found. Protesters picketed the convention center, but there was no violence.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Leading geeks want to know: Who will star as America's prominent "Pirates of Silicon Valley"?

Variety says that Anthony Michael Hall, the star of "Six Degrees of Separation" has signed up to play Microsoft's Bill Gates. Noah Wyle of "ER" has been talking about portraying Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Joseph Slotnick, formerly of the sitcom "The Single Guy," may be cast as Jobs' partner Steve Wozniak.

The movie, a Turner Network Television venture for cable, will be about the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. Filming begins in October. but the "Pirates" title is still tentative.