Man arrested at Brad Pitt's LA home

A man who identified himself as a freelance reporter was arrested outside the Los Angeles home of Brad Pitt, police said.

A housekeeper called police around noon Wednesday after she saw a car blocking the actor's driveway, Officer Karen Smith said.

The man got out of the car and asked which house belonged to Pitt, the housekeeper told officers.

The 25-year-old reporter was arrested for investigation of trespassing and taken into custody on a "private person's arrest," Smith said. It will be up to the housekeeper to decide whether to press charges.

Neither Pitt nor his partner, Angelina Jolie, were home at the time.

New season starts for Spears' TV show

At least one Jamie Lynn Spears mystery is over.

The younger Spears sister's popular TV character is back at her fictional California boarding school, although the pregnant 16-year-old star of the children's show "Zoey 101" is continuing to stay out of the limelight herself.

"Zoey 101" concluded its third season last month, shortly before Spears, younger sister of Britney Spears, announced she was pregnant with her teenage boyfriend's child. The show has continued to air in repeats since then, with little fanfare from the network, leading to speculation that its fourth season might be shelved.

"The new season is under way. It premiered last night," Nickelodeon spokeswoman Marianne Romano told The Associated Press on Monday.

Filming of the show's fourth season, which was planned to be its last even before Spears became pregnant, was completed last summer.

The third season ended with a cliffhanger episode in which Spears' Zoey Brooks moves to England with her parents, only to learn that her longtime school friend Chase is in love with her.

The new season begins with another plot twist in which Chase (played by Errol Flynn's grandson Sean Flynn) persuades his family to send him to school in England, learning afterward that Zoey has returned and professed her love for him.

Spears, who once helped promote the show heavily, has kept a low profile since announcing that she is pregnant, and that Casey Aldridge is the father.

"She is on hiatus," her publicist, Holly Shakoor, said Monday.

Britney's paparazzo lover trying to sell home videos for $2 million

London, Jan 27 (ANI): Britney Spears' on-off paparazzo lover Adnan Ghalib has reportedly recorded six deranged video diaries of the troubled pop star and is hoping to sell them for a whopping 2 million dollars.

The British born photog has been filming the 'Toxic' star's bizarre antics following her recent breakdown, and is planning to sell the clips to the highest bidder.

Ghalib believes that he'll net over 2 million dollars by exposing the fallen pop princess.

However, a source who claims to have seen four of the six recordings, revealed that the videos are like something out of a horror movie.

"It's like something out of a horror movie. Britney spends the whole time ranting, raving and weeping. It's not entertainment," News of the World quoted the source, as saying.

"Adnan is just determined to wring as much out of Britney as possible before their relationship burns out.

"But these videos are a step too far. They're sinister and disturbing and show Britney at her very lowest," the source added.

Clip one shows the 26-year-old mother of two sitting on her bed wearing a nightie and talking about herself in the third person as well as rambling about her childhood.

She's heard saying: "When Britney was a child, she had to work really hard. When she was 13 years old, she won all the beauty pageants."

The second clip shows the singer wrapped in a white bath towel, again perched on the edge of the bed. Talking to thin air, mumbling: "Britney has an angel looking out for her, don't you, angel?"

And, clip 3 shows Britney talking to Adnan, who's holding the camera, and calling him by his pet name Bubba.

She smiles: "I'm really happy. Bubba's here for me now. It's all good."

Ghalib, 35, is still withholding clips 4 and 5, but clip 6, which was reportedly filmed last week, shows Britney crying hysterically after a night out.

With mascara running down her face, she wails: "Britney wants to live. I'm not crazy. I miss the kids and I did love Kevin."

"Adnan's sunk lower than ever. He's proved himself to be a manipulative rat by making these tapes and he's convinced they're worth at least 1 million pounds," the source said. (ANI)

Coens win for 'No Country for Old Men'

Joel and Ethan Coen won the top prize from the Directors Guild of America on Saturday for "No Country for Old Men," giving them the inside track for the same honor at the Academy Awards — assuming the Oscars go on amid the writers strike.

"Oh, we get two of them," Ethan Coen said when he and his brother were presented with their trophies.

The Coens were only the second two-person team to win the Directors Guild honor, following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for 1961's "West Side Story."

"Ethan and I have a bookshelf in our office where we keep various plaques and such that we've gotten over the years that we call our ego corner," Joel Coen said.

When brother Ethan is having a bad day, he goes over with Windex and silver polish and "spit shines his medals for an hour or two," Joel Coen said. "It makes him feel better. This is a really big one, in every respect. It's going to keep him busy."

As with Martin Scorsese, who as last year's winner for "The Departed" presented the award to the Coens, the Directors Guild winner almost always goes on to win the same prize at the Oscars.

The fate of the Oscars remains uncertain, though. Writers, who have been on strike for nearly three months, have refused to work on some major awards shows, among them the Golden Globes, whose ceremony was scrapped for lack of stars.

The Coens' former cinematographer, Barry Sonnenfeld, also was a guild winner. Sonnenfeld, whose films include the "Men in Black" series, won a small-screen prize, receiving the award for television comedy for directing an episode of "Pushing Daisies."

"Mad Men" earned the TV drama honor for Alan Taylor, while Yves Simoneau won the TV movie award for "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

Other TV winners included Glenn P. Weiss for musical variety for "The 61st Annual Tony Awards"; Bertram Van Munster for reality programming for "The Amazing Race"; Paul Hoen for children's programs for "Jump In"; and Larry Carpenter for daytime serials for "One Life to Live."

Asger Leth won the documentary honor for "Ghosts of Cite Soleil," his portrait of two brothers who are gang leaders in a notorious Haitian slum.

Unlike other major honors, such as Sunday night's Screen Actors Guild Awards, the DGA ceremony is untelevised, making it a more laid-back gathering of Hollywood's elite and shielding it from some of the attention the industry's labor strife has brought to other ceremonies.

The Golden Globes banquet was canceled after stars made clear they would stay away in support of the Writers Guild of America strike, and the Oscars may face the same dilemma come Feb. 24.

Still, the writers' strike did cast a pall over the directors' big night, even though their guild last week negotiated a new contract after just days of meetings with producers. A fair number of Directors Guild members also belong to the writers union, whose strike has shut down TV shows and postponed movies, throwing thousands in the entertainment industry out of work.

Hal Holbrook, nominated for the supporting-actor Oscar for Directors Guild nominee Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," said before the Directors Guild awards that the "strike is becoming really dangerous. They're losing their homes. ...

"All I can hope is since we all have to share in producing anything — from the studio to the actors to the camera person to the costume lady, whatever, the set dresser — we all share," Holbrook said.

Many in Hollywood hope the Directors Guild deal will help resuscitate talks between writers and producers, whose negotiations broke down Dec. 7, a month after guild members walked off the job.

Dan Glickman — who heads the Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood's top trade group — said before the directing awards that the union's new contract "offers a very good template for the other guilds," which could jump-start the labor impasse in time to let the Oscars go on.

"I sure hope so. The Oscars are kind of the link between the world of consumers and the world of entertainment," Glickman said. "I mean, a billion people or more watch the Oscars, and so it would be a real shame if we weren't able to keep that precedent, that history of this event going."

Winners, presenters and host Carl Reiner generally ignored Hollywood's labor problems during the Directors Guild ceremony, keeping the tone celebratory. There were only a few passing references to contract negotiations.

___

On the Net:

Directors Guild: http://www.dga.org/

Ledger's funeral arrangements a mystery

Details about funeral arrangements for actor Heath Ledger remained secret as his body was taken from a Manhattan funeral home.

Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said Friday the arrangements "will continue to be kept private at the family's request."

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his government would do whatever was needed to help the family bring back the 28-year-old Ledger's body to Australia.

His body was moved from the police-barricaded funeral home amid a swarm of cameras and reporters at about 4 p.m. Friday. Meanwhile, police insisted they have no interest in interviewing actress Mary-Kate Olsen, who was the first person a masseuse called after finding an unresponsive Ledger in a Manhattan apartment Tuesday.

In her first comment since the Australian-born actor's death, Olsen issued a statement that read: "Heath was a friend. His death is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with his family during this very difficult time."

Police said the masseuse who found Ledger's body spent nine minutes making three calls to the "Full House" actress before dialing 911 for help, then called Olsen a fourth time after paramedics arrived. At some point during the flurry of calls, Olsen, who was in California, summoned her personal security guards to the apartment to help, police said.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said investigators interviewed everyone at the scene, each of whom was cooperative. That eliminated "any need to interview Miss Olsen," he said.

Ledger's family placed a death notice in The West Australian, a newspaper based in his hometown of Perth, remembering him as "the most amazing 'old soul' in a young man's body."

The actor's sister, Kate, said she could "hardly breathe" as she tried to write her tribute. "We were the ultimate soul mates," she said.

"You were so many things to so many people, but to me you were just my little brother."

The cause of Ledger's death will not be known for at least a week, after medical examiners complete toxicology tests. Authorities suspect a possible drug overdose. Several prescription drugs were found in the Manhattan apartment where Ledger's body was found.

Britney engaged to photog beau?

London, Jan 26 (ANI): It looks like things have taken a serious turn between Britney Spears and paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, as the singer was spotted wearing a ring.

The 'Toxic' hitmaker was seen showing off a ring on her engagement finger while she popped out for a bite to eat on the night of Dec 25, reports The Sun.

Her on and off boyfriend Ghalib was nowhere to be seen, though, instead Spears was flanked by former assistant Carla.

Recently, Ghalib had jumped to support Spears insisting that the pop star is neither crazy nor suicidal.

In an interview on US TV, the 35-year-old photographer said that Britney would never harm herself or her kids because she loves them more than anything else. (ANI)

South Korea holds breath as singer drops trousers

An ageing South Korean crooner stunned a live, national TV audience on Friday by dropping his trousers and saying he was ready to prove he had not been castrated or dismembered in a love quarrel.

Na Hoon-a, who can still fill concert halls with legions of his middle-aged fans, spoke at a packed news conference to deny rumors he had been castrated or had his penis cut off by a Japanese "yakuza" gangster.

Media reports have said the gangster was angry the 60-year-old singer had a fling with one of his favorite South Korean actresses.

"Do I have to show you, or would you just believe me?" Na asked.

Saying he was ready to prove he had not been damaged "down there," he jumped on a table, slightly lowered his pants and was revealing his underwear when the live TV broadcast cut away, with surprised reporters heard shrieking in the background.

Internet sites were quickly flooded with office workers who had put their assignments on hold to gather around TV sets and housewives who found new excitement in daytime programming wanting to know the results -- which were inconclusive.

Na, whose act draws the same sorts of audiences as British singer Tom Jones, pulled his pants back up and did not expose himself.

Na's story has been the fodder of popular daily newspapers that traffic in celebrity gossip over the past several days.

"He should have just gone all the way to prove the rumors are false and sue all the reporters that started it," one Korean said in an Internet discussion board.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Lee Jae-won; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and David Fogarty)

Ledger had 6 types of prescription drugs

Six different types of prescription drugs were found in Heath Ledger's apartment — including anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills — though the cause of his death won't be known for several days after a preliminary autopsy Wednesday came back inconclusive, authorities said.

A rolled-up $20 bill was also found on the floor near the Australian actor's bed, but lab tests detected no traces of drug residue. Police also said no illegal drugs were found in the apartment.

Among the prescription medications found were pills to treat insomnia and anxiety, and an antihistamine, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Three of the drugs were prescribed in Europe, the sources said. Ledger had recently been filming in London.

The $20 bill was found on the floor near Ledger's bed, and New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said lab tests found nothing to indicate it had been used to snort drugs.

The actor was found dead Tuesday by his housekeeper and a massage therapist — lying naked and face-down on his bed, police said. The pills were found in bottles in Ledger's bedroom and bathroom, and police said the death was caused by a possible drug overdose and appeared to be accidental.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, said that the autopsy on the 28-year-old actor was inconclusive and that more would be known in about 10 days, when more tests were completed.

Police said Ledger probably died Tuesday between 1 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. At 1 p.m., the housekeeper went into his bedroom to change a light bulb, saw him sleeping and heard him snoring.

At 2:45 p.m., the massage therapist showed up for Ledger's appointment, knocked on his door and got no answer. She later noticed Ledger was unconscious and called actress Mary-Kate Olsen, whose number was programmed into Ledger's cell phone, to seek advice.

Olsen said she would send over her private security. In the ensuing moments, the massage therapist realized that Ledger might be dead, called Olsen again, then called 911. Paramedics — and Olsen's security people — arrived minutes later.

News of the death stunned relatives, fans and colleagues.

"Working with Heath was one of the purest joys of my life," said Ang Lee, who directed Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain." "He brought to the role of Ennis more than any of us could have imagined — a thirst for life, for love and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him. His death is heartbreaking."

Lee Daniels, who produced the critically acclaimed "Monster's Ball," in which Ledger starred, strongly disputed any notion that Ledger had a drug problem.

"The definition of substance abuse is really up to one's perspective," Daniels said. "I didn't see him as a drug addict. I saw him as someone who enjoyed life. I know drug addicts; he was not a drug addict."

He said that he saw Ledger a couple months ago and that he was in great spirits. "He was in a good mood, he was in a great place ... he was excited about living in New York."

Before moving to Manhattan, Ledger lived in Brooklyn with then-girlfriend Michelle Williams in a four-story, sage-green brownstone with a black wrought-iron fence. Yellow tulips with red stripes were among the bouquets left by well-wishers Wednesday.

At the Brawta Caribbean Cafe two blocks from the residence, owner Jennifer Ewers said Ledger was a frequent guest who always ordered jerk chicken, rice and beans, and sorrel.

"He was a perfect gentleman. He comes in here with his hoodie on, reads a book, and gives you a peace sign," she said. "He was always with his daughter, playing hide-and-seek among the plants, or on his skateboard, peeking his head in."

Fans left flowers and candles Wednesday outside Ledger's apartment in the tony SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan on Wednesday. Khaled Ali, 41, a stage manager for a Broadway show, dropped off a candle on his way to work, saying he and fellow cast members were devastated.

"I felt a connection with him as an actor, as a fellow in the theater community," he said. "With `Brokeback Mountain' he touched me personally in telling the story of my community. It was very touching."

Ledger was known for grueling, intense roles that became his trademark after he got his start in teen movies like "10 Things I Hate About You." Thereafter, he avoided the easy path in favor of roles that forced him to bury his Australian accent and downplay his leading-man looks: the tormented gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain"; a drug addict in "Candy"; an incarnation of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."

Playing the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie "The Dark Knight" may be his final finished performance.

Ledger split last year from Williams, who played his wife in "Brokeback." The two had a daughter, the now 2-year-old Matilda. Wednesday evening, Williams and Matilda returned to their Brooklyn home from Trollhattan, Sweden. The 27-year-old actress had been shooting scenes for the film "Mammoth," said Martin Stromberg, a spokesman for film production company Memfis Film.

"She received the news at her hotel late last night," Stromberg said, adding he had not spoken to the actress after she learned of Ledger's death.

A day after Ledger's death, at least six TV satellite trucks were parked on the block or around the corner from his Manhattan apartment, with a stream of TV reporters doing their standups. There were bouquets, letters and candles piled in front of the building.

A handwritten letter on plain white paper anchored by votive candles read:

"Heath, how could anyone hate 10 things about you. We couldn't find one bad thing about you. God bless your soul, you're in our prayers."

___

Associated Press writers Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Clare Trapasso contributed to this report.

Michal Jackson owes thousand of dollars to Wyclef Jean

London, Jan 22 (ANI): Rapper Wyclef Jean has revealed that pop star Michael Jackson owes him thousands of dollars.

The former Fugee, who had collaborated with Jackson a decade ago, said that he has not yet received his payment from the pop icon.

“Michael owes me money,” The Sun quoted him as saying.

“After Mike did Blood On The Dancefloor I went into the studio with him.

“We did a couple of sessions. When I’m in the studio I’m very specific. I’m very tough in the studio,” he added.

The 35-year-old singer said that it hasn’t paid for a long time and wishes to get in touch with him.

“It was a long time ago now, but I still haven’t been paid. Mike knows the money he owes me. I just wish he’d get in touch,” he said. (ANI)

Heath Ledger found dead in NYC at age 28

Heath Ledger, the talented 28-year-old actor who gravitated toward dark, brooding roles that defied his leading-man looks, was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, facedown at the foot of his bed with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said.

There was no obvious indication that the Australian-born Ledger had committed suicide, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the SoHo apartment that is believed to be the home of the "Brokeback Mountain" actor, Browne said. The massage therapist and a housekeeper found his naked body at about 3:30 p.m. They tried to revive him, but he was already dead.

"I had such great hope for him," said Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's vengeful father in "The Patriot," in a statement. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss."

Outside the Manhattan building on an upscale street, paparazzi and gawkers gathered, and several police officers put up barricades to control the crowd of about 300. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black bodybag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a medical examiner's office van.

As the door opened, bystanders snapped pictures with camera phones, rolled video and said, "He's coming out!"

An autopsy was planned for Wednesday, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was an award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on big-money parts. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain." During filming, he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, now 2-year-old Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.

It was a shocking and unforeseen conclusion for one of Hollywood's bright young stars. Though his leading man looks propelled him to early stardom in films like "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale," his career took a notable turn toward dramatic and brooding roles with 2001's "Monster's Ball."

Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement: "We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident. This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family's privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known."

In the Australian city of Perth, where Ledger was born and raised, his father called the actor's death "tragic, untimely and accidental."

"He was (a) down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving, unselfish individual, extremely inspirational to many," Kim Ledger said, reading from a prepared statement. "Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life."

Ledger eschewed Hollywood glitz in favor of a bohemian life in Brooklyn, where he became one of the borough's most famous residents. "Brokeback" would be his breakthrough role, establishing him as one of his generation's finest talents and an actor willing to take risks.

Ledger began to gravitate more toward independent fare, including Lasse Hallstrom's "Casanova" and Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm," both released in 2005. His 2006 film "Candy" now seems destined to have an especially haunting quality: In a particularly realistic performance, Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend, played by Abbie Cornish.

But Ledger's most recent choices were arguably the boldest yet: He costarred in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan — as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

And in what may be his final finished performance, Ledger proved that he wouldn't be intimidated by taking on a character as iconic as Jack Nicholson's Joker. Ledger's version of the "Batman" villain, glimpsed in early teaser trailers, made it clear that his Joker would be more depraved and dark.

Curiosity about Ledger's final performance will likely stoke further interest in the summer blockbuster. "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said this month that Ledger's Joker would be wildly different from Nicholson's.

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."

Ledger told The New York Times in a November interview that he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told the newspaper. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which worked for only an hour, the paper said.

Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his Manhattan neighborhood, where he used to shop at a home and children's store. Michelle Vella, an employee there, said she had frequently seen Ledger with his daughter — carrying the toddler on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her.

"It's so sad. They were really close," Vella said. "He's a very down-to-earth guy and an amazing father."

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 to a mining engineer and a French teacher and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 in a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You." Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, `You're crazy,' my parents were like, 'Come on, you have to eat.'"

World pays last respects to Everest conqueror Hillary

Sherpas, mountaineers and a grateful nation mourned Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary at a state funeral Tuesday, more than half a century after he first stood on the roof of the world.

Thousands of mourners packed the church in Auckland, lined the streets as his coffin was driven by or watched on giant screens across New Zealand to pay their last respects to a man Prime Minister Helen Clark called a colossus.

The funeral was beamed around the world, including Antartica where Hillary also led the first expedition to the South Pole by vehicle.

It was not, however, broadcast live in Nepal, contrary to earlier reports, because of the time difference.

At the start of the ceremony, Sherpa representatives laid Buddhist mourning scarves over the coffin, draped in a New Zealand flag and bearing the ice axe he used during his epic 1953 ascent.

Afterwards, the casket was borne out of the church through an honour guard of mountaineers, their ice picks held aloft in salute.

Pupils from Sir Edmund Hillary College performed a special Maori challenge, or haka, before the cortege drove to a private family cremation along streets lined with thousands of applauding bystanders.

Clark said Hillary, who died on January 11 of a heart attack at the age of 88, was "the most famous New Zealander of our times."

"Sir Ed described himself as a person of modest abilities," she added. "In reality he was a colossus, he was our hero.

"How privileged we were to have that living legend with us for 88 years."

She was among some 600 guests inside St Mary's church along with Hillary's widow June, son Peter and daughter Sarah, and the eldest son of the Nepalese guide who accompanied him on his Everest expedition.

"I think Dad was a real people's hero," Peter Hillary, a mountaineer in his own right who has twice scaled Everest, told mourners.

"He was real, he was the genuine article."

The Sherpa people from Nepal's Himalayan region reminded mourners that the lanky former beekeeper meant as much to them as to New Zealanders.

In the years after he and Sherpa Norgay Tenzing stood on the summit of the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) peak on May 29, 1953, Hillary opened a foundation to build schools and medical facilities in the impoverished region.

The Himalayan Foundation built or supported 63 schools, two hospitals, a dozen medical clinics, bridges and miles of trails, and provided safe drinking water, said Norbu Tenzing Norgay, the eldest son of Hillary's companion.

It epitomised the true meaning of giving, Norbu said.

"His love and dedication towards the Sherpas was like a parent for a child, absolutely unconditional," he said.

"When the Sherpas heard the news of his death, their grief spiralled into mourning only comparable to the loss of a parent."

The head of the Himalayan Trust, Ang Rita Sherpa, described Hillary as "a man with a big heart" and a "second father."

"His loss for us is bigger and heavier than Mount Everest."

High-level political and diplomatic representatives from around the world joined in the funeral service in the wooden, gothic-style church alongside the four surviving members of the 1953 expedition.

No member of the British royal family was present, in what some New Zealand and British newspapers had labelled a snub, although a royal memorial service is due to be held for Hillary at Windsor Castle near London in April.

Hillary's feat has always been closely linked with Elizabeth II -- it was announced on the day of her coronation on June 2, 1953, and she knighted him soon after.

It is thought his ashes may be scattered on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, after he said in one of his autobiographies that he would like to be "washed gently ashore maybe on the many pleasant beaches near the place where I was born.

"Then the full circle of my life will be complete."

'Newhart' actress Suzanne Pleshette dies

Suzanne Pleshette, the husky-voiced star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died at age 70.

Pleshette, whose career included roles in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and in Broadway plays including "The Miracle Worker," died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein, also a family friend.

Pleshette underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006.

"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.

Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role — from the first show — in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history.

It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics.

"If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show.

Born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City, Pleshette began her career as a stage actress after attending the city's High School of the Performing Arts and studying at its Neighborhood Playhouse. She was often picked for roles because of her beauty and her throaty voice.

"When I was 4," she told an interviewer in 1994, "I was answering the phone, and (the callers) thought I was my father. So I often got quirky roles because I was never the conventional ingenue."

She met her future husband, Tom Poston, when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "The Golden Fleecing," but didn't marry him until more than 40 years later.

Although the two had a brief fling, they went on to marry others. By 2000 both were widowed and they got back together, marrying the following year.

"He was such a wonderful man. He had fun every day of his life," Pleshette said after Poston died in April 2007.

Among her other Broadway roles was replacing Anne Bancroft in "The Miracle Worker," the 1959 drama about Helen Keller, in New York and on the road.

Meanwhile, she had launched her film career with Jerry Lewis in 1958 in "The Geisha Boy." She went on to appear in numerous television shows, including "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Playhouse 90" and "Naked City."

By the early 1960s, Pleshette attracted a teenage following with her youthful roles in such films as "Rome Adventure," "Fate Is the Hunter," "Youngblood Hawke" and "A Distant Trumpet."

She married fellow teen favorite Troy Donahue, her co-star in "Rome Adventure," in 1964 but the union lasted less than a year. She was married to Texas oilman Tim Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000.

Pleshette matured in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the Disney comedies "The Ugly Dachshund," "Blackbeard's Ghost" and "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin." Over the years, she also had a busy career in TV movies, including playing the title role in 1990's "Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean."

More recently, she appeared in several episodes of the TV sitcoms "Will & Grace" and "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter."

In a 1999 interview, Pleshette observed that being an actress was more important than being a star.

"I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."

Lohan to visit morgue as punishment

Lindsay Lohan is about to see dead people.

In June, the 21-year-old actress will visit a morgue as part of her punishment for misdemeanor drunken driving.

"She's gonna see bodies. We'll have anywhere from 20 to 25 people in the class and she's treated like any other individual," Los Angeles County Coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter said Friday.

Lohan's attorney, Blair Berk, appeared at a hearing Thursday to report to a judge on Lohan's progress toward fulfilling the terms of her plea bargain. The actress was not required to appear.

Lohan has completed her rehabilitation and served 80 hours of community service with the American Red Cross, Berk said Friday.

Lohan was arrested twice last year on DUI charges and pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges. She served 84 minutes in jail as part of the plea deal.

A program to show drivers the real-life consequences of drinking and driving requires offenders to spend four hours at the morgue and four hours at a hospital emergency room. Lohan spent the required time in the hospital in December, Berk said.

The morgue visits "include a walk-through of the service floor where autopsies are taking place along with the processing of the deceased. They also wind up seeing deceased people in our crypt," Winter said.

The coroner's office conducts 20 to 30 autopsies a day. What they see is "whatever's going on at the time, whether it be a victim of a homicide or suicide, a traffic accident or a natural death with no doctor," Winter said. "It's to show 'em what reality is."

Japan's Prince Akishino visits Indonesia

Japan's Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko met with Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Saturday as they began a week-long visit to the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Prince Akishino, Emperor Akihito's second son, is scheduled to attend the celebrations marking 50 years of Indonesian-Japanese diplomatic relations in Jakarta on Sunday.

"The president appreciates the Emperor sending the prince because this is an honour for Indonesian-Japanese relations," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told reporters.

The prince will visit the ancient Central Java city of Yogyakarta and surrounding areas, meet the area's Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, and visit historic Prambanan and Borobudur temples, the Japanese embassy website said.

The 42-year-old prince will stay in the country until January 24.

Japan occupied Indonesia from 1942 until the end of World War II, seizing control from Dutch colonial forces. Indonesia declared independence in 1945 but then spent four years fighting before the Dutch acknowledged the declaration.

'I saved lives after 9/11': Tom Cruise

Washington, Jan 18 (ANI): A new video of Tom Cruise has surfaced on the Internet, however this time the actor is not lauding his Scientology beliefs, but taking credit for saving lives after 9/11.

The 2004 footage shows the Mission Impossible star calling the Environmental Protection Agency liars for saying the air was clean after 9/11.

The actor also recounted his experience of finding a Scientology detox center for relief workers after the disaster and proudly notes he didn’t ask permission from the city officials to do so.

"The [Environmental Protection Agency] came out and said the air was clean. Of course, as a Scientologist you go, that's a lie. Outright lie. Liar. Fine," the Usmagazine.com quoted him, as saying in the video.

"Finally you say, dammit, just go there and do it. Put it there, let's go, here's the money, let's go. Let's just get one person treated. I can't sleep another night.

"[Scientologists] have tools that we can apply to ourselves and apply to others. You're gonna get improvements. Period,” he added. (ANI)

4 paparazzi arrested for chasing Britney - Ya

Four paparazzi have been arrested for reckless driving while chasing Britney Spears' car in the San Fernando Valley. Los Angeles police Lt. Mario Munoz said officers observed several cars following a white Mercedes-Benz around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in Mission Hills.

The cars were following Spears' car too closely and traveling at unsafe speed. They also made several unsafe lane changes, authorities said.

Munoz said officers stopped the Mercedes, interviewed Spears and released the 26-year-old pop star after verifying her driver's license.

But the four photographers in the cars chasing her were booked for investigation of reckless driving.

Disgraced Olympic hero Jones waits to tell son about prison sentence

Disgraced American Olympic hero Marion Jones said she hasn't told her young son that she is going to jail for lying to law enforcement officials about using steroids and a check-fraud scheme.

Jones was speaking on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Wednesday, less than two months before she is expected to begin serving a six months prison sentence.

"I put myself in a position to have somebody else determine my immediate future," said Jones, who also has a younger son and spoke via a satellite link.

"I made that decision. I have to live with it, my family has to live with it. With the grace of God we will get through it and come out even better at the other end."

Jones and her lawyers had hoped she would receive a probation-only sentence.

"I made a mistake," she told American talk show host Winfrey. "I made a choice, at the time, to protect myself, to protect my family. And now I've paid the consequences dearly."

Jones, 32, pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal agents over a steroid distribution scandal involving California laboratory BALCO and her role in a check-fraud scam.

Jones was also sentenced to two years' supervised release and 400 hours of community service.

Jones must submit herself into custody by March 11 to begin serving the sentence.

Jones said she hopes others will learn from her missteps.

"I want people to understand that, you know, everybody makes mistakes. ... I truly think that a person's character is determined by their admission of their mistakes and then beyond that, what do I do about it?" Jones said.

"How can I change the lives of people? How can I use my story to change the life of a young person?"

Jones' tearful confession to doping after years of denials was followed by Jones returning the three gold medals and two bronze medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Jones captured gold in the 100- and 200-metres at Sydney and helped the 4x100m relay to gold as well. She was also a five-time world champion.

But now, Jones has had all results since September 1, 2000, stricken from the records and has been banned by the IAAF, although she has retired from competition.

Jones lied to federal agents three times, starting in November of 2003 when asked about her connections to the BALCO steroid scandal.

In August and September of 2006, Jones was questioned about a check fraud scheme involving sprinter Tim Montgomery, who himself was banned and stripped of a 100m world-record run based on evidence collected in the BALCO probe.

Paris Hilton enjoys new raunchy photoshoot

Washington, Jan 16 (ANI): Paris Hilton certainly didn’t seem to mind posing for a raunchy new photoshoot, for she not only got paid, she also got to lock lips with a sexy male model.

The saucy photoshoot for sports label Fila was shot in Los Angeles and required the 26-year-old heiress to snog the model.

The shoot was set aboard a luxury yacht in the Marina Del Rey area and Paris went through eight outfit changes, including one microscopic bikini.

All through the shoot, the socialite was heard listening and singing along to Britney Spears’ Greatest Hits CD.

“She was singing along to all of Britney’s songs like Toxic and ‘Oops I Did It Again. She knew all the words. She even shouted out ‘I love Britney’ at one point to the photographer. She looked incredible and was really enjoying herself. The model was hot too - a spitting image of Ashton Kutcher,” The Sun quoted an onlooker, as saying.

The multi Millionairess has a reputation of dating models and was recently romantically linked to Swede Alex Vaggo and was engaged to fashion model Jason Shaw from mid-2002 to early 2003. (ANI)

Matthew McConaughey going to be a dad

Matthew McConaughey is going to be a dad.

The actor and his girlfriend, Brazilian model Camila Alves, are expecting a baby, publicist Alan Nierob said Tuesday.

McConaughey made the announcement on his Web site.

"Got some blessed news ... a celebration of life and bounty ... a newborn concieved (sic) ... yes, my girlfriend Camila and I made a baby together," McConaughey wrote.

Alves, who is three months along, is doing well, the actor wrote.

"We are stoked and wowed by this miracle of creation and this gift from God, and so excited for the adventure that will come in raising this child, being a mother and a father," he said.

McConaughey goes on to say, "Wish us the best, keep us in your prayers, and God bless evolution."

McConaughey, a Texas native, has appeared in films including "The Wedding Planner" and "Sahara" and was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2005.

His latest film, "Fool's Gold," is to be released next month.

Paris Hilton named as Harvard University's 'Woman of the Year'

Washington, Jan 15 (ANI): Socialite Paris Hilton is off to Harvard University, and no, it is not for studies, but because she is being named as the University’s Woman of the Year.

According to the New York Post’s Page Six, the Simple Life star will be stopping by the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution on 6 February (08) during a promotional tour for her new movie The Hottie and the Nottie.

She will be picking up her award from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club the very next day.

Ladies who have won the Women of the Year award in the past include Scarlett Johansson, Halle Berry and Sarah Jessica Parker. (ANI)

Hillary Duff slams lip-syncing reports

Washington, Jan 15 (ANI): Hillary Duff’s camp has hit out at reports that the singer/actress was caught lip-syncing during a concert stop in Mexico over the weekend.

In a video clip captured during a stop on her 2008 Dignity tour in Monterrey, Mexico, the Lizzie McGuire star is caught bending over the microphone and singing into it, but her voice can’t be heard.

However, Duff’s rep has slammed the reports, putting all the blame on faulty equipment.

"She was not lip-synching. It was faulty equipment. There was no sound coming out, but she was singing,” E! Online quoted the rep, as saying.

According to the rep, the singer was relying on local sound equipment rather than her usual equipment, and her microphone was accidentally set to mute for the first few seconds of her performance.

The Cinderella Story star does her own singing in concert, the rep insisted.

Duff’s “Dignity” tour is scheduled to continue in Mexico before moving to Brazil and Australia in the coming weeks. (ANI)

Spears due in court for major hearing

Britney Spears' effort to regain visitation rights with her two small children is back on the court docket for what an attorney described Sunday as "the most significant hearing in the case so far."

Police and emergency medical technicians who were summoned to her home Jan. 3 in a standoff involving her refusal to return the boys to her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, will testify Monday, probably behind closed doors, his lawyer said.

"I don't know if she will be there," Mark Vincent Kaplan told The Associated Press, but he suggested she would have to appear in person if she wants to press her request to see her children. "You can't phone this one in."

If Spears comes to court, Kaplan said she would be expected to testify. "She will have the opportunity to persuade the court that she can have some visitation under monitored conditions," he said.

Phone and e-mail messages requesting comment from Spears' attorneys Sunday afternoon were not immediately returned.

Kaplan said he knew it was only a temporary measure when he obtained emergency court orders two weeks ago granting sole physical and legal custody to Federline.

"These are very, very draconian orders," Kaplan said. "Because of that the court wanted to have a hearing to give her and her attorneys the opportunity to refute some of the declarations."

"No judge likes making orders terminating a person's involvement with their kids," Kaplan said.

Meanwhile, police were preparing for a media frenzy in the downtown civic center if Spears appears, issuing warnings Sunday that vehicle and pedestrian violations would lead to citations.

Kaplan said that if Spears comes to court, he would like to cross-examine her on the events of Jan. 3.

Police were called by a court appointed monitor when Spears refused to hand over Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2, to Federline's security guard and locked herself in a room with one of the boys.

Spears was taken to a hospital in an ambulance chased by photographers and was placed on an involuntary hold on grounds she was a danger to herself or others. Spears left Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a day and half later.

The day after the incident, Kaplan presented papers to Commissioner Scott Gordon who awarded sole legal and physical custody of the boys to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights.

Kaplan said if visitation is restored, it would be under more restrictions than those originally imposed by Gordon.

One expert in family law agreed that the hearing provides Spears her only hope of resuming visits with her children before a custody trial scheduled for April.

"Usually, when someone has the threat of losing their children, they'll do anything to get their children back," said Lynn Soodik, who predicted visitation rights could be restored if Spears appears and offers an explanation.

"This is not a punishment for her," Soodik said. "It's what's in the best interest of the children. The judge has to carefully weigh their safety versus not seeing their mother. It's drastic to have no contact with their mother."

Soodik said Gordon could order monitored visitation in a location away from Spears' home "in some kind of setting where the judge can assure that she wouldn't be able to lock the kids in a room with her."

Christina Aguilera has baby boy

Christina Aguilera has given birth to a boy, the pop singer announced on her Web site Sunday.

"Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman are proud to announce the birth of their son Max Liron Bratman," the brief message said. "He is a beautiful, healthy baby boy."

The baby was born Saturday night and weighs 6 pounds, 2 ounces. Aguilera, 27, was "resting and doing well," according to the message on her Web site, http://www.christinaaguilera.com/.

Aguilera said that Saturday was "a very joyful and special day for Jordan and I."

There was no immediate response Sunday to several calls seeking additional comment from Aguilera's representatives.

Aguilera and Bratman married in 2005. The four-time Grammy Award winning singer has said she learned she was pregnant during her recent "Back to Basics" tour.

Richie, rocker Madden welcome baby girl

"The Simple Life" just got more complicated for Nicole Richie: She's a first-time mom.

Richie, 26, gave birth Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to a daughter named Harlow Winter Kate Madden, People magazine reported on its Web site.

The father is Richie's 28-year-old boyfriend, Joel Madden, of the rock group Good Charlotte.

"We are very blessed she's healthy and beautiful and so good already," Madden told People on Saturday. "We are very happy."

Calls to the couple's representative at Handprint Entertainment, Richie's publicist and the hospital were not immediately returned Saturday.

Richie, the socialite daughter of singer Lionel Richie, is perhaps best known for costarring with Paris Hilton in the reality show "The Simple Life."

Last year, she spent 82 minutes in jail after being convicted of driving under the influence of drugs. She was arrested in December 2006 after witnesses reported seeing her Mercedes-Benz SUV headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank.

Hannah Montana caught using body double

The body double was only on stage for a few seconds, and the switcheroo was relatively innocuous. But since it involved the "Hannah Montana" show — the sold-out tour for which tickets have been scalped for hundreds of dollars — even the use of a brief stand-in for its star, 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, was enough to cause plenty of buzz when video of the switch was posted on the Internet.

"This tour is such a phenomenon everybody is trying to find some angle to write about it," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar, the trade publication that tracks tours. "This tour was the phenomenon of 2007 and it's still going strong in 2008."

A video posted on YouTube shows the 15-year-old entertainer, who stars on the hit Disney TV show "Hannah Montana," onstage as her character, dancing and singing onstage with a group of dancers and the Jonas Brothers, also on the "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus 'Best of Both Worlds'" tour.

During the song, someone ushers her offstage via a trap door. Immediately, another girl dressed like the character "Hannah" in the same pink trench coat with blonde hair covering her face dances around, runs up stairs on the stage set and then quickly leaves the stage.

While the double is holding a microphone for her less than a minute, the girl motions like she is singing. However, a rep for Miley said the switch was only for costume purposes.

"To help speed the transition from Hannah to Miley, there is a production element during the performance of 'We Got the Party' incorporating a body double for Miley," according to statement from the public relations firm PMK, which represents Miley.

"After Hannah has completed the featured verse on the duet with the Jonas Brothers, a body double appears approximately one to two minutes prior to the end of the song in order to allow Miley to remove the Hannah wig and costume and transform into Miley for her solo set. Other than during this very brief transitional moment in the show, Miley performs live during the entirety of both the Hannah and Miley segments of the concert."

Some fans were supportive, but others decried the body double as fakery. But Bongiovanni, who said the use of body doubles is not uncommon in touring shows, said there was nothing dishonest about it.

"It takes a few moments at least to change costumes, and they are trying to do it to give you the almost 'David Copperfield gee-whiz' effect," he said. "There are absolutely laws of physics that prevent you from doing gee-whiz things without some hocus-pocus."

Miley's "Hannah Montana" tour is one of the nations hottest tours, selling out within minutes when tickets went on sale last fall. While some lucky fans were among them, some were ticket brokers who have resold tickets for hundreds, even thousands of dollars on Web sites.

Some parents were willing to pay up to satisfy their children; others complained about the difficulty of getting tickets. And one parent did the unthinkable, helping her 6-year-old daughter write an essay claiming her father died in Iraq in order to win a contest for concert tickets. The prize was stripped away once the truth was revealed.

Miley has released two albums under the "Hannah Montana" brand, both of which have sold more than two million copies.

Dennis Quaid angry over hospital error

Dennis Quaid and his wife denounced the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center over a "lack of candor" about medical errors they believe caused their newborn twins to receive overdoses of a blood thinner.

The couple said they were particularly upset to learn from a state investigation that their babies were given dosages of heparin that were 2,000 times stronger than what was prescribed.

The report's findings released Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health conflict with the hospital's initial report that the children each received one vial containing 10,000 units per milliliter of heparin instead of the common dosage of 10 units per milliliter. The report found that the children actually received two of the vials.

"We find it outrageous and totally unacceptable that we are learning for the first time... exactly what transpired," the actor and his wife, Kimberly, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

"We were told by upper Cedars-Sinai administration that our children had received only one 10,000 unit dose of heparin when in fact they had received two 10,000 unit doses over an 8-hour period that we now know of. The hospital's lack of candor has left us with the uneasy feeling that we may never know the whole story," the statement said.

The hospital has previously issued an apology to the patients' families and said it has taken steps to provide more training to staff and review all policies and procedures involving high-risk medication.

The state report describes the cases of three, unidentified patients. All recovered, but two needed a drug that reverses the effects of heparin.

The Quaid family's representatives previously confirmed the newborns' involvement. The twins, born Nov. 8 to a surrogate mother, were at Cedars-Sinai for treatment of an infection.

The 20-page report said the hospital overdosed three children with heparin, a high-risk medication used to prevent clotting in intravenous tubes, on Nov. 18.

It found that the mishandling of the drug put pediatric patients in "immediate jeopardy," meaning it has caused, or was likely to cause, "serious injury or death to the patients who received the wrong medication." The report faulted the hospital for its "deficient practices" in giving the drug.

A call to a hospital spokeswoman early Thursday was not immediately returned.

Cedars-Sinai's chief medical officer, Michael L. Langberg, said in a statement that the state's review confirmed the hospital's own internal findings about the error and that the hospital had cooperated fully with the investigation.

The investigation also found the hospital did not adequately educate staff about the safe use of heparin and that nurses and pharmacy technicians did not check labels on the vials and did not keep adequate records of when it was used.

The lapses began when two pharmacy technicians mistakenly delivered 100 vials of the high-concentration heparin to the pediatric unit.

The Quaids have sued Baxter Healthcare Corp., the Illinois-based makers of heparin, accusing the firm of negligence in packaging different doses of the product in similar vials with blue backgrounds. In February, Baxter Healthcare Corp. sent a letter warning health care workers to carefully read labels on the heparin packages to avoid confusion.

Woman says she was traumatized by Lohan

A woman who was in the car that Lindsay Lohan chased before being arrested says the incident caused emotional trauma and cost her thousands of dollars in doctors' bills and a well-paying job.

Tracie Rice was in a car driven by Michele Peck, the mother of Lohan's assistant who had recently quit, when Lohan trailed them to the Santa Monica Police Department headquarters during a pre-dawn July chase. Peck told police she was being chased by a sport utility vehicle, and police later determined Lohan was the driver.

In August, Rice filed a lawsuit against Lohan for emotional distress. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and payment of medical and other expenses related to emotional distress.

According to papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in late December, Rice spent about $7,000 on medical bills, including a therapist who charges $175 per visit, and lost her $60,000 per year job because of the incident.

Rice said she thought she was being carjacked when an SUV, driven by Lohan, pursued them at high speed, putting her and Peck "at extreme risk of death or injury," until they arrived at the police station and were met by officers with guns drawn.

Calls to Lohan's attorneys after business hours Tuesday were not immediately returned.

Lohan served 84 minutes in jail on Nov. 15 as part of a plea deal on misdemeanor drunken-driving and cocaine possession charges.

Lohan is facing another lawsuit because of an October 2005 accident that injured a busboy, Raymundo Ortega, who is seeking $200,000 in damages for negligence from Lohan and The Ivy, the trendy Beverly Hills restaurant where she ate before the June crash.

In September, Ortega's attorney, Robert G. Klein, asked the court to amend the lawsuit to include Lohan's company, Crossheart Productions Inc., because it owns the vehicle she was driving. But in papers filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court, Klein dropped that part of the lawsuit.

Lohan spent about two months at a drug and alcohol treatment program in Utah last year.

She was videotaped taking a swig from a bottle of champagne at a New Year's Eve party in Capri, Italy.

Her attorney later said the 21-year-old called her sponsor immediately and recommitted herself to staying sober.

Police impound Britney Spears' car

Britney Spears' car was impounded after police found it abandoned on the street.

Police said Spears was driving Monday night when she had a flat tire on Sunset Boulevard sometime before 8 p.m.

"She left it unattended and it was blocking traffic, so it was towed," Officer Karen Smith, a police spokeswoman, said Tuesday of Spears' car.

Police said it was unlikely the 26-year-old pop star will be ticketed because the car was disabled when it was left in the street.

"She probably will have to pay to get her car out of the impound lot," Smith said.

Spears was hospitalized last week after an hours-long standoff at her home that was triggered by a custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the couple's two young sons. A court commissioner took custody of her children from Spears the next day.

The singer has had a series of problems involving her car in recent months. In October, she ran over a photographer's foot.

Dr. Phil criticized for Britney brouhaha

Dr. Phil's public brand of tough love sometimes makes him tough to love, particularly among mental health professionals who are accusing television's self-help guru of making an uncalled-for house call on Britney Spears this week.

Although Dr. Phil — whose full name is Phillip McGraw — announced Monday that he is shelving plans for a show on Spears' latest breakdown, some in the mental health community say just showing up at her hospital room last week was going too far.

"It's true people sometimes need to be placed under involuntary mental health treatment because they can't take care of themselves," veteran psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Sugar said of the 26-year-old Spears. "But there's a difference between being detained involuntarily for psychological treatment and being forced to endure Dr. Phil involuntarily."

Spears, who appeared to have enough trouble already, saw McGraw barge into her life Saturday when he showed up at her room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as she was about to be discharged. She had been taken there Thursday after an hours-long standoff with police that was triggered by her custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

A court commissioner on Friday gave Federline full custody of sons, 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston.

McGraw said he was invited to the hospital by Spears' family.

Sugar, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, crisis and emergency service for the University of Southern California, said that isn't good enough. Late adolescent or not, he said, Spears is still an adult who has the right to decide who she lets into her hospital room.

In a statement posted on his Web site Monday, McGraw said he had hoped to film a show this week that might help other families facing the same troubles as Spears.

That's assuming, of course, they have been in and out of rehab in recent months, arrived in public in short skirts and no underwear, shaved their heads bald, run over a photographer's foot, banged up a car in a parking lot and left without notifying the owner, and attacked another car with an umbrella.

But in the end even McGraw, never to shy to blurt "What were you thinking?" to a troubled guest, seemed to agree that putting Spears or her family and friends in front of the cameras wasn't wise.

"Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping," he said on his Web site. He didn't say whether he planned to do a show later, and a spokeswoman for the show declined to elaborate.

"Certainly I think it's a good idea to stop that show dead," said Dr. Richard Harding, professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina. "This isn't the time to be exploiting anybody and making examples out of anybody."

UCLA sociologist Julie Albright, an expert in family therapy, agreed with Harding that while McGraw's sometimes bellicose approach can be helpful under the right circumstances, Spears is in perhaps too fragile an emotional state for it.

"It looks as though her behavior has been unraveling for some time now. Frankly, it's reached a point of being pretty frightening," she said, adding that Spears should be on a suicide watch.

"People may have thought it was entertaining or funny, but really it's a cry for help, and I hope people around her will respond and get her the help she needs," Albright said.

Also, Albright said, the tough-love therapy that McGraw practices is really only the first of many steps therapists must take to change destructive behavior. What's more, she said, it really only works when the recipient is receptive.

"It's hard to do therapy or intervention in a half-hour or one hour-spot," she said. "They have these longer interventions that they follow up with. That's where important change will occur, not necessarily in the one-hour sound bite of a show."

Still, at least one pop psychologist couldn't fault McGraw for trying.

"I'm sure Dr. Phil does not want to exploit her. He has all this experience in helping people get over problems," said Dr. Joyce Brothers, who herself has been dispensing psychological advice to TV viewers for more than 30 years.

But Brothers, who like McGraw has a Ph.D. in psychology, acknowledged that key for any therapist is getting the person to listen to them.

"He has a lot to offer," Brothers said of McGraw. "But only to the person who wants it."

Report: Spears released from hospital

Television's "Dr. Phil" McGraw said Britney Spears was released from a hospital Saturday but still needs psychological help, the syndicated programs "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" reported in a press release.

The troubled pop star was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by paramedics Thursday night after police were called to her home because of a dispute involving the two sons she had with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

"My meeting with Britney and some family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention," McGraw told the programs.

"She was released moments before my arrival and was packing when I entered the room. We visited for about an hour before I walked with her to her car. I am very concerned for her," he said.

McGraw planned to talk more about Spears on his daytime talk show this week, the press release said.

Responding to an e-mail request for further comment from McGraw, a "Dr. Phil" publicist referred The Associated Press to his statement posted on the etonline.com Web site.

Medical center officials have had no comment on Spears, and authorities have given no full explanation of why she was hospitalized.

The incident at Spears' home lasted several hours. A Los Angeles police spokeswoman said Friday that officers at the scene determined that paramedics "needed to be called" but it was unclear why.

A message seeking comment from Spears' attorneys at the law firm Trope and Trope was not immediately returned Saturday.

At an emergency hearing Friday, a court commissioner suspended Spears' right to visit sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1. The commissioner also gave sole physical and legal custody to Federline.

Previously, Federline had temporary custody and Spears had court-monitored visitation.

The court set another hearing for Jan. 14.

Spears and Federline married in October 2004. Her life has spiraled downward since their divorce in July. She has been photographed without underwear and appeared to be drunk and out-of-control in public. She shaved her head, beat a car with an umbrella and spent a month in rehab.

Spears, strike loom over film gala

Britney Spears' hospitalization and concerns over whether the continuing Hollywood writers strike would keep next week's Golden Globes ceremony off the air dominated red-carpet chatter at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival gala.

As honorees made their way through the media gauntlet Saturday at the year's first major entertainment-award event, many initially chirpy interviews quickly careened into talk about prospects for next week's Golden Globes broadcast.

"It's always sad when a program may have to be canceled," John Travolta, who was honored with an Ensemble Performance Award, told AP Television. "If it doesn't happen, we'll postpone it and do it another time."

A Globes telecast became increasingly unlikely after Friday's announcement by the Screen Actors Guild that its nominated members would not cross the Writers Guild of America's planned picket lines to get to the event.

The actors guild, which represents most of the Globes' 72 acting-category contenders, made its announcement after the writers guild failed to reach a a so-called "interim agreement" with the award show's producers.

The fate of the Globes telecast should be clearer Monday, following a scheduled announcement by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the awards and hosts the show.

Many Globe nominees were in Palm Springs collecting statuettes from the film festival, including Daniel Day-Lewis (Desert Palm Achievement Award), Ellen Page (Chairman's Vanguard Award) and Travolta's "Hairspray" co-star Nikki Blonsky (Rising Star Award).

Blonsky said she was hoping and preparing for a last-minute resolution that would permit actors to attend the Globes.

"A girl's gotta cover her back and have a dress, just in case," she said.

French actress Marion Cotillard said she would not cross the picket line although she is not an actor's guild member because she believes writers deserve a greater share of the proceeds from productions they work on.

"I think that everyone involved in a project should share the benefit of it," said Cotillard, who received Palm Springs' Breakthrough Performance Award and is a Globe nominee for her performance in "La Vie en Rose."

The fate of Britney Spears was the other red-hot topic on the Palm Springs red carpet. The troubled pop star was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by paramedics Thursday night after police were called to her home because of a dispute involving her two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Television show psychologist "Dr. Phil" McGraw said Spears was released from a hospital Saturday but still needs psychological help, according to syndicated celebrity news programs "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider."

"I feel bad, you know, because everyone kind of judges her and splatters her business everywhere," said Page, who appeared in the film "Juno." "No one goes, 'Why is this happening?' They just judge and judge and judge. It's too bad."

Amanda Bynes, who acted in "Hairspray" and TV's "What I Like About You," said she sympathized with Spears.

"I think that this business just does weird things to people, and I think that it's sad," Bynes said. "They get wrapped up in the hoopla and the hair and the makeup, the shopping, the paparazzi and the trying to be famous. That's not what it's about. It's about doing what you love."

Other Palm Springs honorees in attendance included Sean Penn (Director of the Year), Halle Berry (Desert Palm Achievement Award) and "Into the Wild" actor Emile Hirsch (Rising Star Award). The 19th Annual Palm Springs Film Festival continues through Jan. 14.

Lawyer says Lohan back on sobriety track

Lindsay Lohan rang in the New Year drinking champagne in Italy, her lawyer says, but is "back on track" in terms of sobriety. A video obtained by The Associated Press shows Lohan, who spent much of 2007 in and out of rehab, taking a swig from a champagne bottle while in Capri, Italy.

"After being handed a champagne bottle while on a dance floor in Italy on New Year's Eve and drinking from it, the good news is that Lindsay immediately stopped, called her sponsor, and got herself back on track," her attorney, Blair Berk, said Thursday in a statement. "There is no magic cure here."

"Unfortunately, Lindsay has to share her `one day at a time' with the entire world," Berk said.

Lohan, 21, was in Italy to receive an award at the Capri Hollywood International Film Festival.

Lohan pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges in two arrests earlier in the year.

As a result, she served 84 minutes in jail in November. She also was sentenced to three years' probation, required to complete an 18-month alcohol-education program and spend 30 days in a residential rehabilitation clinic.

Lohan's screen credits include "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday."

Britney Spears deposed in custody case

Britney Spears finally appeared Thursday for a deposition in her child-custody battle with Kevin Federline, her ex-husband's lawyer said. Spears was deposed for just 14 minutes, attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told reporters after the 26-year-old singer left.

Paparazzi sprinted after Spears, who was wearing a hot pink dress and sunglasses, as she drove away from the Century City office tower in a white Mercedes-Benz. Security guards dashed across the driveway to keep photographers on the sidewalk.

Spears called in sick for a Dec. 12 court-ordered deposition, but was photographed that day driving with a friend. She also didn't show up for a session Wednesday, Kaplan said.

Spears' attorneys from the firm Trope and Trope filed a court motion Wednesday asking to be relieved due to a "breakdown" in communication with their client.

Kaplan said Spears' attorneys were present for what became a very abbreviated session.

"The deposition proceeding did go forward today. It was scheduled for 9:45 to 11:45," Kaplan said. "However, it wasn't able to commence until 11:32."

"You can imagine in 14 minutes there's not a lot of time to develop questions," he said.

Kaplan said another deposition will be scheduled.

Spears' representatives didn't speak to reporters outside the office building.

Spears and Federline, 29, have been wrangling over custody of their sons, 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden James.

Federline has temporary custody of the children because Spears, who has limited visitation rights, has defied court orders. The two were married in October 2004 and divorced in July.

Hasselbeck returns to `The View' Monday

Elisabeth Hasselbeck will return to ABC's "The View" on Monday, and she'll bring along her infant son, Taylor Thomas.

Hasselbeck, 30, has been on maternity leave from the popular New York-based daytime talk show since Oct. 23.

She gave birth to Taylor Thomas on Nov. 9 at an Arizona hospital. Her husband, Tim Hasselbeck, is a quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. The couple have a 2-year-old daughter, Grace.

The conservative co-host's first day back at "The View" will include "a big ticket item giveaway" for the studio audience and a full hour of "Hot Topics," show spokesman Karl Nilsson said Thursday.

"I miss my Republican pal," said co-host Joy Behar.

Co-hosts of "The View" also include Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd.

Hasselbeck is "never shy about expressing her view, so `Hot Topics' will be getting a whole lot hotter — especially with the upcoming presidential election," ABC said.

Suit on Rick James' music rights settled

The estate of Rick James has settled a lawsuit claiming that a music publishing company collected money from licensing his songs without permission.

The estate's attorney, Jennifer J. McGrath, announced the settlement in court Thursday. A trial was to begin Jan. 7.

Dozens of James' compositions, though not the late funk singer's biggest hit, "Super Freak," were involved in the suit, filed in March in Superior Court.

It accused California-based Brooklyn Music Publishing Group Inc. of collecting money from European music publishers and making new foreign deals without authority.

Messages left Monday for McGrath and Brooklyn Music attorney Vincent Chieffo were not returned.

The damages sought were not specified, and the terms of the settlement were not disclosed in court documents.

Grammy winner James was 56 when he died in 2004 of heart failure.