Sonny Bono

* 1935: Born Salvatore Bono in Detroit Feb. 16. Family moves to Inglewood when he is seven. Attends but does not graduate from Inglewood High School. * 1950s: Works variety of odd jobs including truck driver and waiter. His professional music career began as singer and songwriter at Dig Records, owned by R&B legend Johnny Otis. First marriage ends in divorce after one child, Christy.

The members of U2 - Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. - are the recipients of the 25th Palm Springs International Film Festival's Sonny Bono Visionary Award. The group will be present to accept the honor named after the founder of the film festival at the awards gala Saturday at the Palm Springs Convention Center, a spokesman for the event said. The film festival runs Friday through Jan. 14. "We normally present the Sonny Bono Visionary Award to a director, but for the 25th anniversary we wanted to take the occasion to celebrate U2, a visionary group and the world's premier rock band, for their unparalleled humanitarian work against extreme poverty, disease and social injustice," said festival chairman Harold Matzner in a statement.

Sonny Bono, the former mayor of the desert resort, said he will announce his candidacy for Congress this week. Bono said he will announce Tuesday that he is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat of Rep. Al McCandless. "This is the best job for me," Bono said Sunday. McCandless, a Republican, declared last week that he will not seek a seventh term.

A small article in the Jan. 10, 1990, Los Angeles Times heralded the opening of the first Palm Springs International Film Festival, founded by then-mayor and former pop star Sonny Bono. "The mayor's first event is a modest beginning, with no world premieres, no film market and few stars scheduled to attend," stated the article. "But the event does boast a wide range of international pictures including the opening night feature 'Cinema Paradiso.' " That Italian drama directed by Giuseppe Tornatore won the festival's first Audience Award and went on to win the foreign-language film Oscar a few months later.

After the birth of his fourth child, Mayor Sonny Bono said he felt as if he had gone through labor himself. Bono's wife, Mary, gave birth Saturday to 7-pound, 10-ounce Chianna Maria at Desert Hospital, the entertainer-turned-local politician said. "Mary is doing fine, the baby is doing fine," he said. "I feel great. I'm tired for Mary, because I watched the whole deal. I know why they call it labor now."

Former entertainer Sonny Bono claims in court documents that he and his family have been stalked for seven years by a man who has made death threats and asked for money. Bono, a former mayor of Palm Springs, has filed a petition seeking an injunction against James Hamlin, whom police describe as a transient with emotional problems. The petition, filed this month in Riverside County Superior Court here, claims Hamlin has bothered the Bonos since 1986. A hearing was set for May 25 in Palm Springs.

Sonny Bono, who rose to fame singing 1960s hits with then-wife Cher, has decided to run for mayor of Palm Springs in 1988. "I like it here. I'm a businessman," said Bono, who runs Bono's, a restaurant and tennis complex in the desert community. "But there's an attitude problem. We need to grow," he said. "My goal is to make this the desert French Riviera--the playground for Los Angeles and California. This is one of the great glamour capitals in the world."

In a tribute to his incongruous life, congressman Sonny Bono, who entered the public eye in a bobcat vest and matching boots more than 30 years ago, was buried Friday with a 21-gun military salute and a passionate eulogy by his former wife and partner, Cher. "This is probably the most important thing I have ever done in my life," Cher told a filled church, choking back tears. "And I know he's somewhere, loving this."

It was understandable if Sonny Bono was smiling like a proud papa on stage Thursday night at the opening of the Palm Springs Convention Center. As he sang "The Beat Goes On"--and other songs he made popular two decades ago with Cher--daughter Chastity was with him. A film student at New York University, Chastity, 18, was making her professional singing debut with her father as part of a "Rockin' the Night Away" concert that was taped for an album and TV special, both due in March.

It doesn't look much like the threat to the Cannes Film Festival that Sonny Bono promised his Palm Springs constituents last spring, but the high-profile mayor will host a film festival in the desert community in January. Among the more than 40 films lined up for the Jan. 10-14 event are two of the hits of this year's Cannes festival--Canadian director Denys Arcand's "Jesus of Montreal" and Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso." The festival will also host the U.S.

Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande of Palm Desert on Tuesday launched his long-expected campaign to try to unseat freshman Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Palm Springs). “I have seen firsthand how overreaching government policies are hurting California families,” said Nestande during a news conference at his Palm Desert campaign headquarters. “This government shutdown is the perfect example of why Washington needs fresh voices and perspective to move our country forward.” In an indication that this race will be hard fought by the national campaign arms of both major parties, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee promptly issued a statement Tuesday criticizing Nestande as a "tea party" candidate and a "Sacramento insider" who opposes "reasonable solutions that help hardworking families.

Singing advice, Hollywood gossip, fashion tips: You'd go to Cher for many things, but detailed driving directions might not be one of them. Yet on a recent evening in the back seat of a limousine traveling down Sunset Boulevard, that's precisely what she was providing to a chauffeur uncertain of how to get to Soho House in West Hollywood. A taping on the Eastside for next year's Academy Awards had gone long, and the singer was running late in rush-hour traffic for a party celebrating her new album.

Chaz Bono has starred in his own documentary ("Becoming Chaz"), appeared on reality TV (ABC's "Dancing With the Stars") and authored a book ("Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man"). He's now expanded his resume by appearing onstage in a short musical parody of the cult movie "Road House" at the Celebration Theatre near West Hollywood. "Road House: The Rock Opera" is a short -- about a half-hour long -- send-up of the 1989 Patrick Swayze movie.  Bono plays the role of Tinker, originally played by actor John Young. A spokesperson for the stage production said that Bono sings in the show.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) on Friday conceded defeat in her Coachella Valley congressional race against Democratic emergency room doctor Raul Ruiz. "Today, I called Dr. Ruiz and congratulated him on his impressive victory. Dr. Ruiz will do a fine job if he is guided as well by the people of the congressional district as I was. Please give him the opportunity to succeed," Bono Mack said in a statement. Ruiz said he thanked Bono Mack for her dedicated public service when the two spoke Friday, and he assured voters that he would strive to represent everyone in the district, no matter their party affiliation.

"Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe has listed his Beverly Hills Post Office-area home at $2.2 million. The Mediterranean main house and guesthouse have 2,000 square feet of living space, including three bedrooms and three bathrooms. A stone hot tub sits on a hill above the home. Listing details describe the backyard as a garden of Eden. How appropriate since Metcalfe, 32, played teen gardener John Rowland on "Housewives" from 2004 to 2009. He starred in the films "John Tucker Must Die" (2006)

A Palm Springs estate once owned by the late singer and politician Sonny Bono and his wife, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, has come on the market at $3,995,000. The nearly 6,648-square-foot main house and two guesthouses sit on 1.5 gated acres with a tennis court and swimming pool. The main house has three bedroom suites for a total of six bedrooms and 71/2 bathrooms including the 1,599-square-foot and 742-square-foot guesthouses. Bono, who died in 1998 at 62, was known for such hit songs as "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On" as part of the '60s duo Sonny and Cher.

Sonny Bono wants you, babe. Wants you, that is, if you happen to own an insurance company or a bank or some other business that you might consider moving to Palm Springs. (Sorry, he's not interested in those traditional, clunky old factories that make parts of Los Angeles seem so . . . well, unglamorous, but he'd consider a nice clean high-tech company.) Palm Springs, it seems, wants to bulk up its tax base. Put a little muscle on its economy.

Their names are seen by more people than the names up in lights on movie marquees. Unfortunately, they usually got there the hard way--by dying. In its waning hours, the state Legislature added another Californian to the list of those who have freeway interchanges named for them: Sonny Bono. Senate concurrent resolution 99 decreed that a freeway interchange in Moreno Valley will henceforth bear the name of the crooner-turned-congressman who died in a 1997 skiing accident.

Even for those who believe in an afterlife, it is difficult to imagine the circumstances under which Christopher Columbus, Rosa Parks and Sonny Bono would find themselves hanging around together. After discussing the obvious--thank God Cher's on tour again--what on Earth would they talk about? Well, perhaps their mutual ownership of Interstate 10.

My Super Bowl Diary: Day Three NEW ORLEANS--Some people might think I'm not hip because I don't know that much about music and don't know anything about the rock band You-Two, which will be performing at halftime of Super Bowl 36. But I'm willing to learn.