July 22, 1999
Web posted at: 4:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT)

• Woodstock performers, ticket-holders shut out of hotels
• Welch marries Beverly Hills restaurateur
• Mercury, Cyrus 'breaky' up
• 'Ragtime' actor returns to stage after mistaken arrest

ROME, New York (CNN) -- Anyone planning to attend or perform at Woodstock '99 who hasn't booked a hotel room yet is probably out of luck. Every room within a 12- to 15-county radius of Rome, New York is said to be taken.

Promoters say they've sold 170,000 tickets to the three-day rock festival at the former Griffiss Air Force Base. Between the musicians, concert-goers and people attending the induction ceremonies Sunday at the Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown, there are no accommodations to be had.

Those who did get rooms are paying for it. At the Paul Revere Motor Lodge, for example, rooms that normally cost $70 a night were going for $275, manager Juergen Ritz said. And there's a waiting list of around 180.

It's the same story downtown at the Quality Inn. "It's more than sold-out," said general manager Larry Daniello, who had a waiting list of 400 names.

Even performers Ice Cube, Alanis Morissette and Sugar Ray were turned away because they called too late, he said.

BEVERLY HILLS, California (CNN) -- Raquel Welch has a new husband.

She exchanged vows with restaurant owner Richard Palmer on Saturday at her Beverly Hills home. The couple had dated for about two years and became engaged last September. Palmer owns the Mulberry Street Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills, and a chain, Richie's Neighborhood Pizza stores.

"It was a small, private ceremony with only close family and friends," said Jackie Becher, the actress' publicist, who added that she didn't know whether they'd made plans for a honeymoon yet.

It's Welch's fourth marriage and Palmer's second.

She has two children -- Damon and Tahnee -- from husband No. 1, James Westley Welch.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Mercury Records has cut loose country music performer Billy Ray Cyrus. But his manager insists that's no reason to worry.

"There is interest in Los Angeles as far as film and TV, but that will never take over Billy's career," Al Schiltz says. "His first priority is music."

The 37-year-old Cyrus shot to fame in 1992 with "Achy Breaky Heart," a single that crossed over to the pop charts and helped sell 9 million copies of his first album, "Some Gave All." His sales have slipped to about 136,000 with his latest release, "Shot Full of Love."

The breakup was amicable, Mercury Nashville president Luke Lewis says.

"It is with a great deal of respect for an artist who brought a lot of success to this label that I make this announcement, allowing Billy Ray to pursue other career options," Lewis says.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- "Ragtime" star Alton Fitzgerald White returned to Broadway Wednesday, five days after the black actor was mistakenly arrested on drug charges and strip-searched by police.

At the curtain call, the cast joined the audience in applauding White, whose character's life on stage is changed when he is harassed by white firemen because he is black.

White said he was on his way to the bank last week when he spotted several police officers in front of his building in Manhattan. He recalled opening the door for the officers, who said they were looking for four men in white T-shirts. Police have said they found a kilogram of cocaine in the lobby and arrested White, who was wearing a white T-shirt, along with five other men.

He was taken to a stationhouse and missed a performance. He said he was held even after police realized he was not involved in the crime.

>Police called the arrest a case of mistaken identity and have apologized to White. He insists he was arrested because he is black. The incident came amid controversy over the practice of racial profiling, in which police allegedly stop people solely because of their race.

He compared his experience to that of his character Coalhouse Walker in the the musical, which is set in 1906. In "Ragtime," after Coalhouse is humiliated and the woman he loves is killed, he becomes a militant revolutionary.

Although he said he was still angry about his arrest, White said: "I can let my anger fester and make me feel worse, or change it into confidence and fearlessness."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.