Author: Erin Carlson

Robin Roberts says she’ll return to Good Morning America next week after suffering a health setback while on vacation in Florida.

The GMA co-host re-joined George Stephanopoulos in February after nearly six months off the air to battle to fight  myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare bone marrow and blood disorder. She received a bone marrow transplant last September.

“Last week, in the middle of my Key West vacation, I began not to feel well. Nothing serious, just under the weather. I contacted my doctors and flew back to NYC. They felt it best to admit me into the hospital for a few days,” Roberts said Thursday in a post on Facebook. 

STORY: Robin Roberts on Her Cancer Battle, the Lowest Moments and Why GMA Is No. 1

“Seems my young immune system needed a little boost to fight off ‘opportunistic infections.’ My doctors assured me that this was NOT because I was working or doing too much, too soon. It’s extremely common, post bone marrow transplant, to have complications. I’m blessed that mine have not been severe. I’m feeling MUCH better, and will relax at home for the rest of the week. I’ll be back on GMA next week…as my sweet momma would say: ‘Good Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise!'”

Roberts, 52, who made THR‘s 2013 list of The 35 Most Powerful People in Media, also addressed her absence in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, writing: “My heart continues to go out to the remarkably strong people of Boston. We stand by you now and always. It saddens me that I haven’t been able to join my colleagues in covering this important story.”

Whether or not he’s spinning a yarn, Russell Brand — whose off-the-cuff observations and lack of a filter make him the perfect late-night guest — has a way of making you think he’s telling the unvarnished truth.

The comic actor riffed on Tom Cruise and Scientology during his Tuesday night guest appearance on Conan, pronouncing to big laughs: “Firstly, he’s a glorious man and he’s very kind and sweet. That’s what you say if you want to continue to work in the film industry.”

STORY: How Scientology Seduced Tom Cruise

Brand, who starred opposite Hollywood’s most famous Scientologist in 2012’s Rock of Ages, said he was interested in learning more about the religion from Cruise on set. “So every so often I’d say things like, ‘Oh, Tom, sometimes I’m a bit lost in life’ … ‘Tom, I wish I had a way of thinking more positively about the future.’ That man had no interest in getting me in Scientology at all.”

Lamented Brand: “If there’s a cult that don’t want me, I want to know why!”

(A theory? Russell’s mouth might be too big for David Miscavige to muzzle.)

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President Obama at a press conference after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Although Jay-Z suggests in his “Open Letter” diss track that President Obama approved the rap mogul’s controversial trip to Cuba with Beyonce, Obama answers: “We’ve got better things to do.”

“I wasn’t familiar that they were taking the trip,” the president says in an interview with Today‘s Savannah Guthrie that aired Wednesday on the NBC morning show. “My understanding is I think they went through a group that organizes these educational trips down to Cuba. You know, this is not something the White House was involved with. We’ve got better things to do.”

As previously reported, the Treasury Department had fully authorized Jay-Z and Beyonce’s recent visit to the impoverished island as an educational and cultural exchange. As photos emerged of the celebrity power couple touring Havana, Sen. Marco Rubio and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida issued stern letters of complaint. Responding to critics in a rap response posted online, Jay-Z rhymed: “Obama said, ‘Chill you’re going to get me impeached.’ You don’t need this s–t anyway, chill with me on the beach.”

STORY: Networks Cautious in Boston Bombing Coverage After Recent Mistakes

In his sitdown with Guthrie, taped before Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, Obama also addressed subjects he would most certainly categorize among his “better things to do”: getting bipartisan support for gun control and immigration legislation. (On Wednesday, the Senate is scheduled to vote on a plan that expands background checks on firearms purchases.)

“I feel personally responsible the same way I hope every parent out there feels responsible for all our kids,” Obama said of curbing gun violence following the Sandy Hook school shooting. “The key thing for me, is every once in a while we are confronted with an issue that should transcend politics.”

On Tuesday, Obama met with Sens. Charles Schumer and John McCain to give his seal of approval on a bipartisan plan that would tighten the country’s borders while easing the process for illegal immigrants to become citizens.

“I think the political engines of the party and blogs, et cetera, force people into taking more extreme positions publicly than they actually believe privately,” he told Guthrie. “I’m willing to try anything. As I’ve said, I’m willing to wash folks’ cars and walk their dogs if I can get some legislation passed.”

See more of Obama’s Today interview, where he discusses Hillary Clinton‘s possible presidential bid as well as his “teaching moment” over those off-the-cuff remarks on Kamala Harris‘ appearance, in the video below.