Two men ordered to stay away from Britney Spears

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A judge on Tuesday ordered Britney Spears' former self-styled manager Sam Lutfi to stay away from the pop star for three years, after the singer's father accused Lutfi of trying to undermine the conservatorship Spears lives under.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aviva Bobb also issued the same order to attorney Jon Eardley, who has presented himself as Spears' lawyer.

Lutfi and Eardley, whose attorneys argued that the order was unwarranted, were told to stay at least 100 yards (meters) away from Spears, her family and her homes.

The three-year order extends an existing mandate against Lutfi and Eardley that Bobb issued earlier this year.

A court placed Spears under a conservatorship last year, after she was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation. Her father, Jamie Spears, says his control over her affairs enabled Spears to launch her ongoing "Circus" tour.

An attorney for Jamie Spears had argued that Lutfi and Eardley continually bothered the 27-year-old singer, and that Eardley filed legal motions on her behalf even though he did not officially represent her.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Twin joy for Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Matthew Broderick are expecting twin girls born to a surrogate, according to People magazine.

"Sex and the City" star Parker, 44, and actor husband Broderick, 47, already have a six-year-old son together, James Wilkie.

People quoted a representative as saying the couple were "happily anticipating the birth of their twin daughters later this summer with the generous help of a surrogate. The entire family is overjoyed."

Broderick and Parker married in 1997.

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Mr. T called for jury duty

CHICAGO – Pity the prospective juror named Mr. T.

He showed up for jury duty, then was dismissed after hours of down time — which he used to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

Mr. T was called for jury duty at Cook County Circuit Court on Monday. The Chicago native said he enjoyed fulfilling his civic responsibilities, even though he found — like countless others — that hours can pass before a judge decides to dismiss you.

He showed up for jury duty in camouflage pants, a T-shirt and a longer version of his usual Mohawk haircut.

Mr. T is best remembered for the 1980s TV series "The A-Team" and as Clubber Lang in "Rocky III," which his catch phrase come from: "I pity the fool."

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Britney's ex-manager forced to stay away from star

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The ex-manager of pop star Britney Spears must stay away from the singer and her family for three years a Los Angeles judge ruled Tuesday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aviva Bobb's order bars former Spears guru Sam Lutfi and the attorney Jon Eardley from coming within 100 yards of the singer and her sons until April 2012.

The court had already issued a temporary order against Lutfi and Eardly in January. Lawyers for Spears father Jamie, who controls his daughter's estate, alleged the two men had caused the singer emotional distress.

Jamie Spears and lawyer Andrew Wallet were appointed conservators of the star's estate last year in the wake of the singer's much publicized mental health scare when she was admitted to hospital in Los Angeles.

Jamie Spears alleged Lutfi and Eardley had tried to undermine the court ordered conservatorship established last year.

Britney Spears endured a torrid period following her 2006 divorce from ex-husband Kevin Federline, attracting a string of lurid headlines in the tabloid media which culminated in her admission to hospital.

Since then however the singer has gradually got her career back on track, releasing a chart-topping album and beginning her first concert tour in five years last month.

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Eric Bana documents his first love: his muscle car

NEW YORK – Eric Bana has shared the screen with various leading ladies. The only one who really got his motor running? A Ford GT Falcon coupe.

"She's definitely the most tempting," laughed Bana in an interview Tuesday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Bana has brought his directorial debut "Love the Beast" to Tribeca. A documentary about his abiding connection to his first car, it's a 25-year-old love story for the 40-year-old Australian actor dating back to his teenager years in Melbourne.

Bana is a serious racer and often competes professionally in Australia — including in the grueling five-day Targa Tasmania Rally. The film follows Bana racing his beloved car — nicknamed "the Beast" — in the 2007 Targa Tasmania, in which he crashed on the fourth day. (Bana emerged uninjured along with his co-driver.)

The film may sound like a vanity project, but it unfolds as an examination of how people develop deep emotional bonds with inanimate objects. In the film, Bana refers to his muscle car as a constant in his life and a "campfire" around which he and his friends gather.

"I hate the term `passion project,'" Bana says. "To me, it's like, what, directors don't normally make projects that they're passionate about? A passion project for me is going motor racing. Going motor racing with cameras is not a passion project."

Bana ("Munich," "Hulk") decided to make "Love the Beast" — which took three years to finish — in part because he was frustrated by car films that never spoke to him emotionally.

"I feel like it's a film I made on behalf of car people, not for car people," says Bana. "As personal as it is and as much of me as it is, the audience seem to make it about themselves."

The film doesn't yet have distribution in North America; he's hoping to find a deal at Tribeca. "Love the Beast" includes appearances from fellow automobile enthusiast Jay Leno and TV guru Dr. Phil, who analyzes Bana's emotional attachment to his car.

Bana, who lives in Australia with his wife and two children, says he's enjoying the dichotomy of looking for an audience for the modest "Love the Beast" while starring in some of the year's biggest films.

After Tribeca, he flies to Los Angeles for the premiere of "Star Trek," in which he plays villain Nero. He later will star in Judd Apatow's "Funny People" and the romance "The Time Traveler's Wife."

He hopes that once the films are out, he'll turn to repairing his cherished car, which is still badly damaged from the accident. It lies in his garage, Bana says, "just a big, piled wreck waiting for my time and attention."

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Another celebrity leaves `Dancing' country

LOS ANGELES – Chuck Wicks is leaving the "Dancing With the Stars" ballroom.

The country singer and his professional dance partner (and real-life girlfriend) Julianne Hough were eliminated from the ABC dance-off Tuesday.

Wicks had improved steadily throughout the season, earning praise from the judges for his "hip action" and fun-loving attitude. Judges loved their cha-cha Monday, with Carrie Ann Inaba insisting, "You are definitely in the game." Wicks also appeared in a group dance, which ended with him and his fellow male dancers in black leotards and white tights.

The 29-year-old musician came into Tuesday's results show with a solid 51 points out of 60, but fans failed to keep him afloat.

Viewer votes are combined with judges' scores to determine which couple is eliminated each week.

"To all the critics that thought we weren't going to last: We did it," Wicks said after learning his fate. "Now I'm going to go out on tour and enjoy doing what I love, and that's country music."

The week's low scorer, Melissa Rycroft, escaped elimination. She missed Monday's show because of a rib injury and earned just 21 out of 30 points from judges for a taped rehearsal performance.

"It shows you how many fans Melissa has," Wicks said, adding, "I think the team dance did us in."

Tuesday's results show also included a performance by Robin Thicke and the continuation of the new professional dance competition: Four pro dancers are vying for viewer votes and a spot on the next season of "Dancing With the Stars."

Besides Rycroft, four celebrity contestants remain: Rapper Lil Kim, rodeo champ Ty Murray, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and actor Gilles Marini.

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Beyonce skives off Vienna art museum tour

VIENNA (AFP) – US pop star Beyonce has angered a high-brow art museum in Vienna by sending a look-a-like to her own special personal tour of the museum, while she went shopping, according to newspaper reports here Wednesday.

Tabloid dailies Oesterreich and Heute said the R&B diva had been due to visit the Albertina, one of the Austrian capital's most famous museums which attracts around one million visitors each year.

Recent visitors include Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Nicolas Cage.

But Beyonce, who gave a concert in Vienna on Tuesday, decided to skive off and do some shopping instead, sending a look-a-like to the museum and be photographed with Albertina director, Klaus Albrecht Schroeder, according to the reports.

The museum was understandably put out and said it would protest to the star's management.

"What a cheek," Albertina spokeswoman Verena Dahlitz told the Austrian news agency APA.

"We were a little doubtful yesterday, but weren't really sure. It could have been her," Dahlitz said, adding that fans were apparently duped, too.

Beyonce's concert in Vienna met with very mixed reviews and was only half-full, according to Oesterreich.

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Berlusconi's wife goes public over his eye for ladies

ROME (AFP) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's penchant for pretty women is a source of "suffering" for his wife, she wrote in an open letter published Wednesday.

"I want it to be clear that I and my children are the victims and not accomplices in this situation. We must put up with it and that makes us suffer," Veronica Lario wrote.

The letter, the second such public outburst from Lario, dealt mainly with Berlusconi's choices of candidates from his People of Freedom party to stand in European Union elections set for June.

Some are reportedly pretty young women with no political experience.

"The presence of pretty women in politics is neither a plus or a minus," said Lario, a 52-year-old former stage actress who is 20 years Berlusconi's junior.

"But behind the facade of curvy feminine beauty, what is even more serious is (Berlusconi's) impudence and lack of reserve ... that offend the credibility of all women," said Lario, adding: "especially those who have always been in the front lines defending their rights."

"Someone wrote that all this is no more than some extra fun for the emperor," Lario wrote. "I agree, what is in the papers is shameless rubbish, all in the name of power."

Lario is rarely seen in public with Berlusconi, a flamboyant self-made billionaire with whom she has had three children.

Berlusconi, a cruise ship crooner in his younger days, is renowned for verbal gaffes of all kinds, including sexist remarks.

Two Italian lawmakers last month filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights "because of his repeated statements that offend female dignity," according to Anna Paola Concia of the left-wing Democratic Party.

In January 2007, Berlusconi issued a public apology to Lario after she learned through the press of his verbal dalliance with a pretty young lawmaker.

"Please forgive me, and take this public testimony ... as an act of love, one among many," he said after Lario wrote a letter to the daily La Repubblica demanding his contrition, which she said he had failed to show in private.

Lario also had a comment Wednesday about Berlusconi's presence at a birthday party in Naples for a pretty 18-year-old.

"I was very surprised to learn that, because he didn't come to any of his children's 18th birthday parties, even though he was invited."

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Hong Kong man guilty over celebrity sex pics

HONG KONG (AFP) – A Hong Kong computer technician was found guilty Wednesday of illegally distributing more than 1,000 photos of singer Edison Chen performing sex acts with a string of starlets, a report said.

The images were plastered across the Internet last year, causing a huge scandal, forcing Chen to flee to his childhood home of Canada and damaging the careers of several of the stars involved.

Sze Ho-chun, an employee of computer shop Elite Multimedia, was found guilty after a five-day trail on three counts of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain for himself or another, broadcaster RTHK said.

Sze had copied 1,300 sex photos from Chen's laptop when the Canadian-born singer-actor brought it in for repairs in 2006.

The prosecution said that the 24-year-old saved 1,300 sex photos of Chen and other local celebrities on a compact disc which he then passed to another of his customers.

The images began spreading online in February last year and sparked one of the city's biggest sex scandals.

The photos, which Chen has admitted taking himself, showed him in compromising positions with celebrities including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan.

The incident caused a storm in the celebrity-obsessed city and prompted Chen to leave for Canada and announce he was withdrawing from the entertainment business in Hong Kong.

The 28-year-old Chen had been one of Asia's biggest entertainment stars. He recorded 16 albums under the EEG (Emperor Entertainment Group) label, of which the latest is 2007's "Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself."

Before his retirement Chen had a cameo role in the 2008 Batman movie "The Dark Knight," and a voice-over in the Cantonese version of the animated children's movie "Shrek."

Both Cheung and Chung have gone public in recent months criticising him.

Chung, whose career as half of Canto-pop duo Twins has collapsed since the scandal, said she had contemplated suicide when the photos appeared.

Hong Kong triads, apparently angered by the scandal's damage to the city's entertainment industry, have allegedly offered a 110,000 US dollar reward for the star's right hand, according to local media reports.

Chen refused to return to Hong Kong to testify. Instead, in an unusual move, the court in Sze's trial convened in Canada to take Chen's evidence.

Magistrate Tong Man called Sze's crime "serious" and said a jail sentence was inevitable, according to RTHK.

Sze was remanded in custody and is expected to be sentenced on May 13.

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Ashanti set to make her stage debut in 'The Wiz'

NEW YORK – Ashanti (AH'-shaun-tee) is going down the Yellow Brick Road to Oz.

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter will make her stage debut this summer as Dorothy in a revival of "The Wiz," the soul-tinged version of the classic L. Frank Baum story. The musical will play June 12 through July 5 at New York City Center as part of its "Encores! Summer Stars" series. Opening night is June 18.

"The Wiz" has a book by William F. Brown and a score by Charlie Smalls.

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Donald Trump, Barbara Walters together again on TV

NEW YORK – Celebrity feuds can't last forever when there is publicity to be had. Just ask Donald Trump and Barbara Walters.

Trump is booked to appear next Tuesday on Walters' daytime show "The View." He will promote a book and the season finale of "The Apprentice."

Trump gets publicity, while Walters lands an attention-getting guest during a ratings sweeps month.

He hasn't been on the show since he got in the middle of Rosie O'Donnell's ugly exit from "The View" two years ago. He told reporters that Walters had said that she was happy O'Donnell had been fired, which Walters denied publicly.

The two broke the ice when Trump appeared on Walters' satellite radio show a few weeks ago.

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Michelle Obama on People's annual beauty list

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – US First Lady Michelle Obama scored a rare accolade for a political spouse by being named on celebrity magazine People's annual list of the world's 100 most beautiful people on Wednesday.

Obama, who has been hailed as a style icon by fashionistas around the world since her husband was elected President, was named in the list alongside A-listers such as Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and Christina Aguilera.

"I had a father and a brother who thought I was beautiful, and they made me feel that way every single day," Michelle Obama told People.

"I grew up with very strong male role models who thought I was smart and fast and funny, so I heard that a lot. I know that there are many young girls who don?t hear it. But I was fortunate."

People Magazine does not rank its annual list, but actress Christina Applegate graces the cover of this week's issue.

Previous cover girls of the most beautiful issue have included Drew Barrymore, Kate Hudson and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Among other new faces on the list this year was Indian actress, Freida Pinto, star of Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

"The beauty of life is that it takes turns that are sometimes bigger than your wildest dreams," Pinto was quoted as saying by the magazine.

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Michelle Obama joins People "most beautiful" list

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate made the cover of People magazine's 100 most beautiful people issue on Wednesday in a list that welcomed newcomers U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and "Twilight" heart-throb Robert Pattinson.

Pattinson's vampire-loving co-star Kristen Stewart, teen music idols Nick and Joe Jonas and "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel also made the coveted list for the first time, in the celebrity magazine's annual issue that hits newsstands on Friday.

Applegate, 37, the star of the U.S. TV show "Samantha Who?," won admiration for going public last year about her breast diagnosis and later underwent a double mastectomy.

The actress, who has since undergone reconstructive breast surgery, told People in an interview it was hard to look at herself naked.

"You don't look the same anymore and you never will. A part of you is gone. ... It's a decision that you made to save your life," she said. It was Applegate's third appearance on the People list.

Michelle Obama, who has achieved celebrity status and has wowed the world as a fashion icon, made the list for the first time.

"I had a father and a brother who thought I was beautiful, and they made me feel that way every single day," Obama told the magazine.

"I grew up with very strong male role models who thought I was smart and fast and funny, so I heard that a lot. I know that there are many young girls who don't hear it. But I was fortunate," she added.

Also included in a "Barack's Beauties" section were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others.

Pattinson, 22, who has a huge teen girl following after appearing in the "Twilight" movie blockbuster, said he didn't quite understand his heartthrob status.

"I don't get it. It's funny, you look the same for years and no one ever mentions it. Then suddenly it's a big deal," he told People.

The 100 list also included old favorites George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry. Some of the celebrities, including actress Eva Mendes and supermodel Cindy Crawford appeared in a "Stars Without Makeup" section in which they were photographed wearing no make-up for their close-ups.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Cynthia Osterman)

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Book Talk: Geeks are the new chic, says author Garth Sundem

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Move aside, good looking. Geeks are the new chic, according to self-proclaimed geek Garth Sundem who has just released his second book about geekiness.

Sundem, a math whiz and English professor, had written over 20 educational books before turning to a subject he knew well -- geekiness -- with a growing number of geeks proudly going public as their idols, who include Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs, rose to the top.

"I am extremely geeky and I am painfully self-aware of it," Sundem told Reuters. "I was always in the math club and the chess club and the jazz band."

Sundem's latest book, "The Geek's Guide to World Domination: Be Afraid, Beautiful People," compiles 314.15 facts -- which is a decimal computation for pi -- in a compendium of usable and totally useless bits of information that geeks would relish.

These nuggets range from five useful phrases in Klingon and how to make chain-mail armor, to strategies for sudoku and how to program a Universal Remote Control.

This followed on from Sundem's first geek book, "Geek Logik: 50 Foolproof Equations for Everyday Life," that used algebra to take the guesswork out of life.

Sundem, who lives with his wife and two children in California, spoke to Reuters about life as a geek author:

Q: Were you always a geek?

A: "Yes. I think it was in my genes. My father was president of the American Accountancy Association and my mother had a PhD in psychotherapy. What chance did I have?"

Q: But geeks are now cool, you argue?

A: "Yes. Geeks used to be defined by what they couldn't do but they are now defined by what they can do. A geek is someone who is so passionate about something that it pushes to the side their ability to function socially. Sure, techies and science geeks are the classics but I know beer-making geeks, fantasy football geeks, all sorts of geeks."

Q: Is it easier being a geek now?

A: "I think it is because geeks now can connect, they are online and have support groups and they find they are not alone. Culturally we've gotten geekier. It's an information age. Even the cool kids are on Facebook which should be geeky but it's not! Look at Hollywood: in movies back in the 1980s like National Lampoon we would laugh at the geeks. Now we laugh with them."

Q: When did the change happen?

A: "I felt like I woke up and geeks were cool. I think that geek empowerment was brought by the Internet where geeks could unite and rise up as one. What really has happened is that the world has come to depend on information and geeks control the information."

Q: What was your favorite factoid for the book?

A: "That's hard. I had the chance to brainstorm whatever I thought rocked like the WWE stars of the 1980s and cool parasitic adventure and really cool scientific factoids like the mathematics of church bell ringing. What I hoped to do was expand the breadth of geekery. We happen to be passionate about all this information."

Q: Any more geek books in the pipeline?

A: "I have one called "Brain Candy" and it will be everything cool about the mind. I am in my writing cave now and when I am not, I'm hanging out with my two children and my Labrador."

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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Police to return 1.4M dlr jewelry in Rihanna case

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Los Angeles police will return 1.4 million dollars worth of jewelry being worn by pop star Rihanna when she was allegedly attacked by boyfriend Chris Brown, a lawyer said Wednesday.

An attorney for Rihanna said the Los Angeles Police Department had agreed to photograph the gems and return them to the designers who had lent them to the singer ahead of the Grammy Awards in February.

The jewelry had been held by police since the attack and logged as evidence, Rihanna's attorney Donald Etra told a court hearing.

Brown, 19, earlier this month pleaded not guilty to felony charges of attacking Barbados-born "Umbrella" singer Rihanna on February 8.

The incident shocked the music world and left Rihanna nursing cuts and bruises to her face, forcing her to cancel a scheduled performance at the Grammys in Los Angeles later that day.

Brown is charged with felony counts of assault and making criminal threats. If convicted on all counts, Brown could face a sentence ranging from probation to four years and eight months in state prison, officials have said.

A preliminary hearing has been set for May 28.

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Banks at NYC stalking trial: Fear changed my life

NEW YORK – Supermodel-turned-TV host Tyra Banks, facing the man accused of stalking her, testified Wednesday that she feared for her safety when she learned he had entered the New York City building where she tapes her show.

Banks, 35, said her staff would not let her leave the building on March 18, 2008, because defendant Brady Green, a stranger to her, had shown up.

"I was about to leave and a bunch of people from my staff were saying, like, 'No, you can't leave.' They said he was in the building," Banks testified.

Banks said that her staff had previously shown her Green's photograph, told her he had threatened one of her employees and was "somebody I should watch out for."

When police arrived, the former Sports Illustrated cover girl said, "I told them I was scared. I didn't know what to do. How do I live my life when I leave this building? I had never experienced anything like this before."

Police arrested Green, of Dublin, Ga., in a McDonald's near Banks' studio in Manhattan's Chelsea section.

Police said he told them that he had come from Los Angeles on a bus to see Banks and that "we had a thing together."

Green, 38, is on trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on misdemeanor charges of stalking, harassment and criminal trespass.

He is accused of repeatedly calling Banks' studio, in addition to showing up there, and sending her flowers and letters.

Green faces as many as 90 days in jail if convicted by Judge James Burke, who is hearing the case without a jury.

Calm and smiling frequently as she testified, Banks said security "has changed significantly" around her and her workplaces because of Green.

She said that her company has hired more security staff and that her studio audiences are vetted more thoroughly.

Banks said she is now followed everywhere by security guards, even when she runs and exercises outdoors. She said that even though she is a public person, "I don't live that kind of sheltered, protected life. I like to walk around."

Assistant District Attorney Sean McMahon asked Banks whether Green's behavior made her fearful.

"I don't fear for my life," the statuesque TV host said. "I fear for my safety. I fear for the safety of my staff and for my family. And I fear for the safety of people in my vicinity, who I'm with."

On cross-examination, Green's lawyer, Jeffrey Berman, portrayed his client as an overly zealous fan of talk shows in general and Banks in particular. He noted that Banks' Web site encouraged fans to write to her.

Berman's questions also stressed that Green never tried to contact Banks at her homes, never contacted her family and never asked her to marry him.

Green was expected to testify in his own defense later in the day.

Banks is executive producer and host of two popular TV shows, "America's Next Top Model" and "The Tyra Banks Show."

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