NEW YORK - "Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland has had a kidney transplant after a lifetime of pain and fatigue. The 21-year-old actress, who plays big-eyed teenager Haley Dunphy on the hit ABC comedy, told ABC's "Good Morning America" for a report aired Monday that she had the surgery in April. At age 9, she was diagnosed with abnormal kidney development. The condition often left her exhausted or in pain. But as her health grew worse, she began seeking an organ donor. Her father, actor Edward James Hyland, was a match.
She says she tells her dad "It's weird -- I've got your kidney in me." She plans to spend the show's summer hiatus recovering from her surgery.
On GMA, she told about how it was to work while feeling ill. "If you're sick you still go to work and in between takes you sit down or you lay your head down or something," she said, explaining that she'd dealt with her health needs in character.
"I try to make it so that Haley's always sitting down. If you notice she's sitting down a lot, texting, or like leaning on something, texting."
She's teamed with the George Lopez Foundation as a youth ambassador. The comedian is also a kidney transplant recipient. Hyland's secret struggle also is reported in the current issue of Seventeen magazine.
Duluth's Dylan Fest starts this weekA concert to benefit the restoration of Duluth's old armory will kick off this year's Duluth Dylan Fest. Violinist Scarlet Rivera will headline Friday night's concert at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Weber Music Hall. Rivera performed on Bob Dylan's "Desire" album and was part of his Rolling Thunder Revue. The "Desire in Duluth" concert will benefit the Armory Arts and Music Center. The group hopes to restore the armory as a community event center. It was at that armory that a young Robert Zimmerman watched Buddy Holly perform one of his last shows before he died in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959. The second annual Duluth Dylan Fest runs from Friday through Saturday, May 26. Hibbing celebrates Dylan Days May 24-27. Dylan was born in Duluth on May 24, 1941, and grew up in Hibbing.
DESPERATE, NO MORE: There was nothing desperate about this finale. ABC's "Desperate Housewives" concluded its rocky, racy and macabre eight-season run with a tidy, affectionate send-off. Suffice it to say, everyone seems destined to live happily ever after. At least, with the exception of Karen McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten), the cranky but lovable senior who was battling cancer. But she dies peacefully at home, the way she wanted, with a favorite Johnny Mathis record serenading her.
