Nas and Kelis performed at Club Tryst at Wynn Las Vegas on Friday night as a part of an ESPN/Hennessy shindig. Ciara, Chamillionare and Jermaine Dupri also joined the husband-and-wife team for the festivities. ...

James Brown's children have reached an agreement with his partner Tomi Rae Hynie on where the late singer's remains will be put to rest, The Associated Press reports. A lawyer for Hynie said the resting place is being kept confidential at the request of Brown's children, and that the burial may take place within the next few days. ... Busta Rhymes is considering a deal that would allow him to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and remain free after rejecting a separate deal that would keep him in jail for six months on two assault charges, AP reports. The rapper could plead guilty to third-degree assault and receive a conditional discharge for allegedly beating his former driver. In the other case, Rhymes is being accused of assaulting a fan. ...

Look up "Britney's hair" on eBay and you'll get a few dozen results, some even promising the "1,000 percent genuine" article. But when the Tarzana, California, hair salon where Britney Spears got buzzed posted the locks for sale, eBay canceled the auction, prompting the creation of the BuyBritneysHair.com site. "This is it, the opportunity of a lifetime," begins the announcement on the sparsely designed page. "You can be the proud owner of Britney Spears' hair, extensions, the Omega clipper used to cut it all off and even the can of Red Bull she was drinking at the time. You also get her blue Bic Lighter." The seller is accepting "serious" offers via e-mail, and has set a starting bid of $1 million. ...

Kim Mathers sounded off on Eminem on a Detroit radio show Friday, saying that just thinking of the man she married twice makes her sick. "He's an absolutely horrible person, and he gets worse every day," she said during an interview on WKQI-FM's "Mojo in the Morning" show. "I vomit in my mouth whenever I'm around him or I hear his name." Eminem, who has targeted his ex-wife in his lyrics, issued a statement responding to her comments: "It's a shame that I've moved on and Kim hasn't. Her ongoing press campaign is doing nothing but harm to the children, and for that I feel truly sorry. For their sake I wish she would stop." ...

Foxy Brown could face jail time in New York following her run-in with police at a beauty shop in Florida, a New York City Department of Probation spokesperson said. The rapper -- who is currently serving a three-year probation sentence for assaulting Manhattan nail-salon employees -- was arrested in Pembroke Pines, Florida, last week for an altercation with a beauty-shop employee and resisting arrest. According to the NYC's Department of Probation, Brown violated two stipulations of her sentence -- traveling out of the state without permission from her sentencing judge and being arrested. Brown's lawyer, New York State Senator Jack Sampson, claimed that his client did receive permission to travel outside the state for several performances. Sampson said that as of press time, he had not been contacted by Brown's probation officer regarding any violations. ...

"American Idol" vocal coach Debra Byrd has created a DVD called "Vocal Help Now!" due March 5. Kelly Clarkson, Kimberly Caldwell and Anthony Fedorov are among the guests on the DVD. ... Fedorov, meanwhile, has been tapped to star in "The Fantasticks," the world's longest-running off-Broadway musical. His run as Matt begins May 1. ... Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina documentary has earned the director a George Polk Award, AP reports. The director won the documentary-TV honor for "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." ...

LCD Soundsystem have aligned dates for a tour to support their forthcoming March 20 release, Sound of Silver. The Grammy-nominated electronic experimentalists kick off the fun March 30 in New York with a two-day stint at the Bowery Ballroom, then return to the same city May 14 to bring the jaunt to a close at Webster Hall. ... Beastie Boys, Arcade Fire, Björk and Interpol are among the 50 acts confirmed to appear at the sixth annual Sasquatch! Music Festival, to be held May 26-27 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. Others on the bill include Spoon, M.I.A., Bad Brains and the Hold Steady. Tickets for the fest go on sale March 3 at 10 a.m. ET. ... Tori Amos has pegged May 1 as the release date for her ninth studio album, American Doll Posse. Her world tour in support of the LP embarks May 28 in Rome, with the full itinerary to be announced shortly. ...

Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern may soon be on the same team. Satellite radio competitors XM (which hosts Winfrey's channel) and Sirius (home of Howard 100) announced Monday that they intend to merge, creating a single satellite radio network with the $13 billion deal. The agreement must be approved by shareholders as well as the Federal Communications Commission before it can move forward. XM and Sirius said they hoped to finalize the deal by the close of 2007, but FCC Chairman Kevin Martin warned that the companies face a "hurdle," noting that the FCC ruled against allowing a single company to own the only two satellite licenses in a prior decision. ... The murder trial for record producer Phil Spector will be televised, a judge ordered Friday. Variety reports that Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler, who noted in his decision that "public scrutiny is a good thing," said, "There's going to come a time that it will be commonplace to televise trials. If it had not been for Simpson, we'd be there now," he said, referring to the controversy surrounding TV coverage of O.J. Simpson's murder trial. Spector is charged in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. Jury selection, which begins March 19, will not be broadcast.

02.16.2007

Foxy Brown was arrested at a Pembroke Pines, Florida, beauty-supply store on Thursday, The Miami Herald reports. Police said Brown -- who was booked on charges of battery and resisting arrest and was held overnight on $1,500 bond -- spat on and threw hair glue at Hayssam Ghoneim, an employee of Queen Beauty Supply, who asked the rapper to leave the store as it was closing for the night. Authorities tracked down Brown, who had left the shop by the time police responded to the store's 911 call, and asked her to return to the store as part of a criminal investigation. Brown refused, according to the report, and struggled with an officer. No injuries were listed on the police report, but Ghoneim plans to press charges, according to the Herald. The rapper was sentenced in October to three years probation and mandatory anger-management classes in connection with a 2004 altercation at a New York nail salon. ...

In other legal news, Nicole Richie was charged Friday (February 16) with misdemeanor driving under the influence, The Associated Press reports. The charges stem from her December 11 arrest after 911 callers reported her car heading in the wrong direction on a Los Angeles freeway. She was found alone in her SUV, stopped in a car-pool lane and was arrested after failing a field sobriety test. In addition to the single count, the case contains an allegation that Richie had a prior misdemeanor DUI conviction in June 2003. The California vehicle code specifies that if convicted of DUI twice within 10 years, a person can be sentenced to between 90 days and a year in jail; fined between $390 and $1,000; and have driving privileges suspended. The complaint alleges Richie was under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and an unspecified drug when she was arrested. Arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. ...

Justin Timberlake is expanding his William Rast clothing line. The label's new collection for women will now include outerwear, dresses, silk tops and cashmere sweaters, while the new men's line will add outerwear, blazers and leather to the established denim collection. "To be affiliated with this clothing line means a lot to me," Timberlake said in a statement. "We are taking the William Rast label to the next level and will continue to deliver excellence." ... Don't set your TiVo for a Michael Jackson episode of "American Idol" just yet. According to "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe and a spokesperson for the singer, reports that Jackson will appear on the talent competition are inaccurate. "It's not true, is what I can say, just not true," Lythgoe said in an interview with Television Weekly. So what is really in store for "Idol" fans? The producer hinted that "the biggest thing that's happened to 'Idol' in five years" was a couple of weeks away, but would only explain that "it does include 'American Idol,' and it does include America." ...

A Los Angeles judge has granted 20th Century Fox's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two fraternity brothers featured in the film "Borat" on the grounds that the film is protected as free speech based on matters of public concern, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The suit, filed by two South Carolina students in November, alleged that the filmmakers provided the plaintiffs with alcohol and tricked them into making racist and sexist comments. The men sought damages, claiming their actions on camera caused embarrassment. An earlier motion by the plaintiffs to cut their scene from the film was denied. ... Ricky Martin headlined George W. Bush's presidential-inauguration ball back in 2001, but the singer has apparently changed his mind about the U.S. leader, delivering a one-finger salute while singing his name in the song "Asignatura Pendiente" at a concert in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last Friday. "My convictions of peace and life go beyond any government and political agenda," Martin explained in a e-mailed statement on Thursday, "and as long as I have a voice onstage and offstage, I will always condemn war and those who promulgate it." ...

Cameron Diaz has been awarded "substantial" damages from the publishers of The National Enquirer, according to an AP report. Diaz sued British-based American Media Inc. after the tabloid printed stories in May 2005 that the actress had been spotted in a "smooching session" with a married producer working on her MTV show "Trippin'." At the time, Diaz complained about the article, and photographs claiming to be evidence of the affair were removed from the Enquirer's Web site. The lawsuit has now been settled out of court, and the terms of the agreement are confidential. In a statement read in London's High Court on Friday, the magazine "apologized unreservedly" for making the claims, and "entirely accepts that the allegations were without foundation and ought never to have been published." ...

Federal agents removed boxes of belongings from the Orlando, Florida, home of Lou Pearlman, best known as the manager behind Backstreet Boys and 'NSYNC, on Thursday. AP reports that the former boy-band mogul, now a restaurateur who owns an entertainment complex in Orlando, has had three of his companies overtaken by a court-appointed receiver earlier this month. Florida's Office of Financial Regulation alleges that Pearlman has been milking millions from investors while running a bogus savings program for 15 years. ... The word karaoke may mean "empty orchestra" in Japanese, but a South Korean woman turned it into something quite substantial while setting a new world record this week. Picking up the mic to encourage her husband during his battle with a brain tumor, Kim Seok-ok, 52, sang for 59 hours and 48 minutes, exceeding the previous German record by 36 minutes. Afforded a five-minute break each hour, Seok-uk refused to sit while singing, claiming that true karaoke singers would never accept a chair. More than 1,000 songs later, she dropped to the floor a record-holder on Valentine's Day. "Life may be painful," Kim told AP, "but face the challenge." ...

Ian Astbury has announced that he'll no longer be working with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of the Doors, and will instead focus all of his energies fronting his own band, the Cult. Astbury toured with the surviving members of the Doors, under the moniker Riders on the Storm, for the last four years, and just wrapped up a sold-out European tour. "I have decided to move on and focus on my own music and legacy," he said in a statement. "I have enjoyed performing and sharing the stage with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger immensely. I have learned a great deal from the both of them, and it certainly has expanded my abilities as a performer. This has been a difficult decision to make but I feel I would be holding them back as well as myself if I did not depart at this time." There's no word yet on what this means for the future of Riders on the Storm.