Entertainment News
May 10, 2008Everywhere they go, "American Idol" contestants attract a crowd of admirers, well-wishers, gushy handmade signs and screams fit for a vintage Beatle. But when it comes to feting finalists, home is where the "I (heart) you" is.
In what's become an annual "Idol" rite of passage, the remaining three contestants - David Archuleta, Syesha Mercado and David Cook - headed to their respective hometowns Friday for a dose of family and the inevitably intense local rah-rah routine, showing just how stirred up communities get when one of their own shines on TV's biggest stage.
CLEARWATER, Fla. - A judge in Florida says the 17-year-old son of wrestler Hulk Hogan must serve eight months in jail for reckless driving.
Nick Bollea was led off to begin his sentence immediately after Friday's ruling. When he's released, he will be on five years' probation and lose his driving privileges for three years.
LAS VEGAS - Toni Braxton's return to the stage on the Las Vegas strip has been pushed back for at least another month.
A spokeswoman for Harrah's Entertainment says the target date to resume "Toni Braxton: Revealed" at the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel is now June 6.
YONKERS, New York - Singer Mary J. Blige is establishing a foundation to help women develop careers and gain self-confidence.
Blige, whose current album is "Growing Pains," and Steve Stoute, who founded a youth-oriented brand consulting firm, say they're setting up the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now.
LOS ANGELES - She's not just fast. She's very fast.
Meet Daphne, the speedy new character on NBC's "Heroes," who plans to give the show's superhumans - especially time traveller Hiro and his sidekick, Ando - a run for their money when she debuts on the popular NBC series' upcoming third season, which went back into production last week.
NEW YORK - Forget the Empire State Building.
Some New York tourists are eager to see the city's other landmarks: Carrie's stoop, Charlotte's gallery and that restaurant where Samantha threw a martini in a boyfriend's face.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says California must increase tax incentives to movie and television studios as a way to keep them from moving their productions out of state.
He says incentives being offered by other states are luring studios away and costing California tens of thousands of jobs.
ATLANTA - Even though Raven-Symone can now add movie producer to her long list of accomplishments, some people still perceive her as just a little girl.
But the former "That's So Raven" star is trying to show she's graduated from the child phenom role and has more substance to her than the animated character that's still endlessly shown, via reruns, on the television screen.
CHICAGO - Until the last minute, it still wasn't clear that it would go ahead. But after nearly six years of delays, R. Kelly's child pornography trial finally got under way Friday as the court began selecting a jury.
About 150 potential jurors packed into the courtroom to hear the judge read the 14-count indictment against the 41-year-old R&B superstar, who is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl as young as 13.
LOS ANGELES - Near as Lee Pace can tell, the best way to scare audiences away is to tell them how good something is.
"I think people are really cautious about important movies," said Pace, who stars in "The Fall," opening Friday. "If you're told, 'There's an important movie coming out,' people would rather chew glass than go see it."
NEW YORK - Uma Thurman responded to French cosmetics giant Lancome's lawsuit against her with one of her own Friday, taking their contract dispute over the use of her name and face in an advertising campaign to federal court.
The "Kill Bill" star said in her lawsuit that Lancome Parfums et Beaute & Cie boosted its worldwide sales and enhanced its "prestige, stature and bargaining power" by helping retailers and others use her name and likeness in advertising and promotions after her contract expired.
WASHINGTON - Barbara Walters says she refuses to engage in a debate with Star Jones, who accused her of revealing a past affair with a senator just to sell books.
Walters said despite the public rift, she prefers to hold onto the good times the former co-hosts shared on "The View."
BERLIN - Berlin's Holocaust memorial played host to an open-air concert on Friday, with musicians spread out across the field of concrete slabs and performing a modern experimental piece.
The Kammersymphonie Berlin twice performed composer Harald Weiss' sombre 17-minute piece "Vor dem Verstummen" ("Before Silence Falls") to mark the third anniversary of the monument's opening to the public.
PHOENIX - Authorities say DMX has been arrested on drug and animal-cruelty charges in Phoenix following an overnight raid on the rapper's house.
The Maricopa County sheriff's office says the 37-year-old, whose real name is Earl Simmons, at first tried to barricade himself in his bedroom. He came out as a SWAT team entered during the early-morning raid Friday.
NEW YORK - Rapper Foxy Brown has pleaded guilty to menacing a neighbour with her cell phone last year. She avoided jail based on time already served.
The two women got into a fight July 31, 2007, over Brown blasting her car stereo outside their Brooklyn apartment building.
TORONTO - Here are the top 10 television programs in Canada, with viewer numbers, for the week of April 28-May 4:
LOS ANGELES - A judge has reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit March 21 after determining the family missed a state deadline for bringing a claim against the city and two former police officers. The lawsuit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, then moved to federal court.
ROME - Italy has reached a verbal agreement with a U.S. museum in Cleveland for the return of artifacts Rome says have been looted or smuggled out of the country, a government lawyer said Friday.
Talks between Italy and the Cleveland Museum of Art are near their final stage, said lawyer Maurizio Fiorilli, who has helped negotiate the return of Italian antiquities from several other U.S. museums.
