Singer faces the music; straight talk from Wahlberg
OLD STORY, NEW EDITION Back in a Canton courtroom yesterday, R&B singer Bobby Brown was ordered to pay his child support on time or risk spending three months in jail. Norfolk Probate and Family Court Judge Paula Carey warned Whitney Houston's hubby he really needs to start making timely payments to Kim Ward, mother of two of his children, ages 14 and 12. (Brown, you'll recall, spent a night in jail in March before finally ponying up $63,500 in overdue dough.) "Those are my kids," Brown said outside the courthouse. "I plan to take care of them no matter what. My kids have to live right. And I am their father, no matter what." Probation officer Jerry DeLuca said Brown had let health insurance for the children lapse and hadn't created an educational trust fund for the kids, as he promised to do three months ago. He said Brown had applied for life insurance but was turned down. "I don't know why," the singer said, "maybe they don't think I'm going to live long." (Contacted yesterday, Jack Dolan, spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers, said the vast majority of people who apply for life insurance get it. "A common reason for [being denied]," he said, "could be very poor health or a job or hobby that's extremely dangerous." Hmmm.) Brown spoke only briefly with reporters before being whisked by attorney Phaedra C. Parks and bodyguards to a waiting black Chevy Suburban idling in a handicapped parking space. Brown saidhe'll be back in Boston tomorrow to shoot the final two daysof the reality series he's pitching.
MARKING MARK Before he was an actor or underwear model, Mark Wahlberg was a miscreant. "Yeah, I've done a lot of bad stuff, and I got a lot of friends spending the rest of their lives in jail," Wahlberg said before a screening this week of "Juvies," a new documentary about the juvenile justice system. (The "Boogie Nights" star, whose rap sheet includes arrests for assault, as well as some memorable racist and homophobic rants, is the narrator and executive producer of "Juvies.") "I could probably go into [the prisons in] Walpole, Concord, and Norfolk and know 50 guys in each place." At 33, the bad behavior's behind him, but, surrounded at Sanders Theatre by family, friends, and even a few of his former probation officers, Wahlberg acknowledged it wasn't easy going straight. "Not being one of the guys was far more difficult than getting into a gang," he said. "I'd, of course, prefer to keep my past in the past, but this is important stuff to talk about."
A NEW ROLE Not content to be just an actress, Minnie Driver has signed a deal with Cambridge-based Rounder Records to put out a record. On the disc, Driver, who starred in "Good Will Hunting" and briefly dated Matt Damon, is backed by members of Jakob Dylan and Pete Yorn's bands. According to a Rounder flack, Driver wrote all of the songs on "Everything I've Got in My Pocket" (except for a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart"), and sings in a style that's described as "sultry and bittersweet." The CD, on Rounder's Zoe imprint, hits stores in September.
NOT SO 'EASY'? Filmmaker Jane Weinstock had to leave the West Coast at 6 a.m. yesterday to make it to Nantucket last night to show her new movie, "Easy" at the Nantucket Film Festival. "I'm told Nantucket's quite nice. It's just so difficult to get to," Weinstock said. "Easy" is billed as an "unconventional romantic comedy," and stars Marguerite Moreau ("Runaway Jury," "Helter Skelter"), Brian F. O'Byrne (who won a Tony last week for his performance in "Frozen"), and Naveen Andrews (who starred in "The English Patient" as Juliette Binoche's lover). . . . And since we've mentioned O'Byrne, it's worth noting that the producers of "Frozen" include Spring Sirkin, Frederick Zollo, and Nick Paleologos, all of Boston.
REPLACEMENT Brookline native Matt Ellis has been named news director at CBS4 and UPN38, replacing Peter Brown, who announced his resignation in March. Ellis has been assistant news director since last June.
Globe correspondent Tyrone Richardson contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or 617-929-8253. 