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For The Record: Quick News On Paris, Daughtry, 'American Idol,' Tyrese, Beyonce, J. Lo, GN'R & More

Hilton pleads not guilty to DUI charges; Daughtry plan dates; 'Idol' audition itinerary announced.

Paris Hilton's attorney entered not guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence on behalf of the heiress Tuesday (January 9), The Associated Press reports. Hilton, who was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in September, was not required to appear at Los Angeles County court for the arraignment. She was formally charged with one count of driving under the influence and one count of driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or above, and a judge scheduled a January 23 pre-trial hearing. If Hilton is convicted, the first-time offender would likely face a fine and enrollment in an alcohol program, according to prosecutors. ...

Daughtry, the band led by "American Idol" finalist Chris Daughtry, have begun eking out dates for their upcoming tour. The rockers get the party started January 28 at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, then hit Los Angeles and San Francisco soon after that. They will be on the road through April, at least. ... On the subject of "Idol," auditions for the new season of the hugely popular program will start airing next week. The two-part season premiere will feature the Minneapolis auditions on January 16 and the Seattle tryouts the following day. Auditions from Memphis, Los Angeles and more cities will air January 23 through February 6. While you've got your day-planner open, expect the first results show to happen February 22. ...

An attorney representing Tyrese's girlfriend has issued a statement on his client's behalf, blasting reports that the singer assaulted her last week. Los Angeles police responded to a domestic dispute at the couple's apartment Thursday morning, and police were told the R&B singer had punched his girlfriend, who is three months pregnant with his child, in the arm and leg. "Reports that Tyrese punched my client in the arm, thigh or anywhere else are false," attorney Paul Berra said in the statement. "It is true, Mr. Gibson and his girlfriend had been arguing. She became very emotional and distressed during the argument and called 911 in an attempt to get a mediator. Mr. Gibson, frustrated, left the home. My client, Mr. Gibson's girlfriend, who is 11-weeks pregnant, then became more upset and began throwing up. When the paramedics arrived, concerned about the baby, they took her to the hospital. Fortunately, she was fine. Once at the hospital, she was asked by a nurse whether she had been assaulted. She said, 'No.' She was then asked what her pain level was on a scale of zero to 10. She said, 'Zero.' She then discharged herself. Mr. Gibson and his girlfriend are very much still in love, together and excited about their [expected] child. She is quite saddened that this event was so distorted." Tyrese wasn't charged in the assault, but police said they would still like to interview him as part of their investigation into the incident. ...

Want to be a dancer on Beyoncé's upcoming world tour? You've got a little more time to play with. The Chicago final auditions for the contest will happen February 10-11, not January 27, as previously reported. ... Jennifer Lopez, Terrence Howard, Dane Cook and others have joined the long list of presenters for the Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony will air live on NBC Monday at 8 p.m. ET. ... A Mick Wall-penned biography of Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose is due in stores May 4. The former Kerrang! magazine writer's "Axl Rose - The Unauthorized Biography" features interviews with bandmembers before GN'R hit it big, and is being described by publisher Sidgwick & Jackson as "a no-holds-barred study of the troubled life and turbulent career of the group's singer and leader." The tome will examine Axl's childhood abuse, his run-ins with the law and his Chinese Democracy odyssey. ... The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Sunday that the GN'R frontman is in Sin City, putting the finishing touches on the band's long-awaited album, which is slated for a tentative March 6 release. The paper claims Rose is laying down the final vocals for Chinese Democracy at the recording studio at the Palms hotel. ...

It's been exactly one year since Howard Stern debuted on Sirius Satellite Radio, and in that time, the company has added more than 2.7 million new subscribers -- up to 6 million from 3.3 million. Stern's Howard 100 channel will replay his inaugural Sirius show Tuesday, followed by the "Best of 2006 Top 10 Countdown Special," which replays the best moments of the year as determined by fan votes. "It's been a great year and the show is better than ever," Stern said in a statement. "We've delivered on the promise of satellite radio; I can do whatever I want and say whatever I want." Reuters reports that Sirius presented Stern with a bonus worth nearly $83 million on Tuesday as a thank you for surpassing subscriber goals. ... Mastodon have unveiled a side-scrolling video game inspired by the Atlanta metalers' latest album, Blood Mountain. In the online game, one assumes the role of a burly warrior and collects diamonds while avoiding dangerous creatures like wolves, all to collect the various pieces of a key that unlocks the one and only Blood Mountain. Fans can play along at WarnerReprise.com. ...

The dates for the No Fear Music Tour, featuring headliners Killswitch Engage, have been revealed. The trek -- which also includes DragonForce, Chimaira and He Is Legend -- gets under way February 21 in Philadelphia, with dates scheduled through April 8 in Chicago. ... With the exception of a brief, odd cameo at the Grammy Awards in February, funk legend Sly Stone has been largely off the map for much of the past 30 years. That hiatus might be ending soon, though, according to an article in The Los Angeles Times. The reclusive singer and bandleader isn't scheduled to perform with the new Family Stone band on Saturday at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California -- which is not the same group he led in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but features several members of his extended family. But the 62-year-old singer has been writing new songs for an album due this summer on his own PhattaDatta record label. ... Hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari has composed a song that features Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech playing in the background. Ben-Ari will perform the tune Sunday at a Washington, D.C., Love of Israel gala honoring Ambassador of Israel to the United States Daniel Ayalon. ...

"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, a founding member of 1960s country-rock forerunners the Flying Burrito Brothers, died Saturday in Petaluma, California, AP reports. He was 72. The pedal-steel guitarist -- who was also a stop-motion animator, an Emmy-winning visual-effects artist and composer of the "Gumby" TV series theme song -- had been living with Alzheimer's disease. Kleinow's last recording with Burrito Deluxe, a band he founded in 2000, will be released next month. ... Animator Iwao Takamoto -- who created Scooby-Doo and directed the 1973 animated film "Charlotte's Web" -- died of heart failure in Los Angeles on Monday, AP reports. He was 81. The Los Angeles native learned the art of animation while being held at an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II, and was later hired by Walt Disney Studios despite his lack of formal training. Takamoto, who went on to work for Hanna-Barbera, lent his hand to classics including "Cinderella," "Lady and the Tramp" and "The Flintstones."


1.8.2007

Diddy hosted a birthday bash for basketball player Gilbert Arenas in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, according to The Associated Press. Busta Rhymes, the Game, T.I. and Lil Wayne performed at the event, which was held at the nightclub Love. ...

Hundreds of dancers turned up at a Houston audition on Saturday, trying out for a part in Beyoncé's world tour. Thirty semifinalists were selected from the Houston auditions and will face off with selected dancers from four other cities -- earlier auditions were held in Los Angeles and Atlanta last month, with tryouts in New York (Thursday and Friday) and Chicago (January 27) to come. Once all tryouts are complete, Beyoncé and choreographer Frank Gaston will review the tapes and narrow the field to 40 dancers who will accompany the singer on tour. ...

Jay-Z has joined the esteemed ranks of phthalo, Prussian and cornflower by lending his name to a blue hue, AP reports. The rapper teamed up with General Motors to unveil a GMC Yukon Denali concept vehicle painted "Jay-Z Blue" -- a deep, reflective cobalt -- at a North American International Auto Show pre-event in Detroit on Saturday. ... Barbados native Rihanna was named Female Entertainer of the Year at the Barbados Music Awards on Friday. "I am always delighted to win awards," the singer said in an interview with AP, "but it's especially great to win awards at home." Rihanna also scored prizes for best album (A Girl Like Me) and best song ("Unfaithful"). ...

With drummer David Silveria on temporary hiatus and a new album to record, Korn have enlisted 56-year-old veteran drummer Terry Bozzio (Steve Vai, Richard Marx) as his fill-in. While not an official member of the band, Bozzio will hammer the drums for its forthcoming LP and may even tour with the group in support of the disc. According to Korn's management, "they are currently writing and rehearsing with [Bozzio] and things are going well." The spokesperson emphasized that Silveria is still Korn's official drummer, but added that, for the moment, the bandmembers "aren't looking too far into the future." ... Bloc Party will promote their new album, A Weekend in the City, due February 6, with a North American tour kicking off March 11 in Seattle and wrapping up March 31 in New York. Albert Hammond Jr. of the Strokes is opening on select dates. ...

Perhaps growing tired of ducking interviews, holing themselves up in abandoned churches and flying to Budapest to record songs with a full orchestra, the Arcade Fire are taking the concept of guerilla marketing to new levels of ridiculousness. Last month, they debuted "Intervention," a song from their hotly anticipated new album Neon Bible, via a mysterious toll-free phone number. And this weekend, they used a bizarre pseudo-infomercial posted on YouTube to announce the track list and release date for Bible, as well as give fans previews of several songs on the record. In the spot, "Juno-Award-winning guitarist" Richard Reed Parry -- wearing a paper mask, clutching a megaphone in one hand and the Arcade Fire's Juno Award (sort of the Canadian Grammy) for Songwriters of the Year in the other -- announces that the band's new disc will hit U.S. stores on March 6. He then fires up an oscillating fan as song titles and sound clips from Bible fly by. At the end of the spot appears the full track list for the 11-song album, which includes the first single, "Black Mirror"; "Keep the Car Running"; "Ocean of Noise"; and a reworked version of "No Cars Go," which first popped up on their self-titled 2003 EP. Fans can also hear "Black Mirror" at frontman Win Butler's journal on the Arcade Fire Web site. ...

Elvis Presley would have turned 71 on Monday (January 8), but another living legend has his own milestone to celebrate: David Bowie and his 60th birthday. Bowie was reportedly going to spend the day at his apartment in downtown New York, according to Agence France Presse, but his wife Iman told England's Daily Mirror that "he's not freaking out" about the milestone. ... Former "You Hear It First" artist Matt Costa is kicking off 2007 by hitting the road with G. Love. The trek starts Friday in Nashville and wraps February 3 in West Hollywood, California. ... The reunited Sebadoh will launch their first tour in 14 years February 26 in San Diego. The trek, featuring Lou Barlow, Eric Gaffney and Jason Loewenstein, ends April 16 in Tucson, Arizona.

Marilyn Manson and his wife of a year, model and burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese, are calling it quits, AP reports. Von Teese (born Heather Sweet) cited irreconcilable differences in papers filed December 29 in Los Angeles Superior Court. The couple married November 28, 2005, and separated on Christmas Eve, according to court documents. ... Dave Matthews will guest star as a virtuoso pianist with a brain disorder on an episode of the Fox series "House, M.D." that will air in March. Matthews plays a man who suffered a severe neurological impairment -- and ended up with a great musical talent -- as the result of an accident when he was 10 years old. Matthews' character comes to House (Hugh Laurie) with cerebral bleeding, and the doctor attempts to get to the root of the problem while determining the origin of the brain rewiring responsible for his musical gift. ... Tiger Army and the Almost have been added to the lineup for this summer's Warped Tour. They join Bad Religion, Paramore, Cute Is What We Aim For, Big D and the Kids Table, K-os and the Fabulous Rudies on the festival's bill. ...

"American Idol" alum Constantine Maroulis joins the cast of the off-Broadway show "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well Living in Paris" on Tuesday. "It's funny because people are like, 'Oh, he's an actor now?' " Maroulis told MTV News. "But they don't realize I've been doing this a very long time. I studied at the Boston Conservatory. I was in [a touring production of] 'Rent' long before Idol.' " Maroulis said that he wasn't that familiar with Brel before he signed on to do the show, but now hopes he can bring the late singer/songwriter -- who he called "a genius that people in this country don't know" -- to a new audience. "It's truly some epic stuff," he said. "It's very underground. He was, in the '60s, doing some crazy stuff. More like a folk singer, poet. ... [Brel] was as big as Bob Dylan in Paris in the '60s." ... Alabama hardcore outfit Haste have broken up following an extended hiatus. "This has been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives, but we have all come to the point where it is time to move on," the band said in a statement posted on its MySpace page. "A simple thank you does not express the gratitude we feel for everyone who has supported us over the years. Haste has been a huge part of all of our lives and we are all very sad to see it go, but it is time to have some closure to this part of our lives." Haste formed in 1995, and released three albums -- the most recent being 2003's The Mercury Lift.

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