Rowling sues publisher

March 1, 2008

Billionaire Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling would feel "exploited" if a fan's unofficial encyclopedic companion to the boy wizard series was published, she said in court papers made public on Thursday. Steve Vander Ark has written "The Harry Potter Lexicon" - a 400-page reference book based on his popular fan website (hp-lexicon.org). Rowling and Warner Bros. are suing RDR Books, which planned to publish the book last November. (Reuters)

Naomi Campbell (inset) was released yesterday from the Sao Paulo hospital where she underwent abdominal surgery. The 37-year-old British supermodel, a frequent visitor to Brazil, was admitted for an emergency operation Monday. "She recovered very well from her surgery," said Mirtes Bogea, a spokeswoman for the Sirio Libanes hospital. "Doctors signed her release and she left in the afternoon in a helicopter that someone sent to pick her up." Bogea declined to provide further details. On Tuesday, the model's publicist said she had been hospitalized "to have a small cyst removed." (AP)

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am yesterday released another star-studded music video in tribute to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama - this one is titled "We Are the Ones." Backed by a simple vocal refrain of "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!," stars such as Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillippe, Kerry Washington, George Lopez and others explain why they support the Democratic senator, while others such as Macy Gray croon the candidates' last name to the will.i.am-penned melody. The song is a follow-up to his video "Yes We Can." (AP)

Police are no longer investigating Amy Winehouse on suspicion of attempting to interfere with a court case involving her husband, her spokesman said yesterday. The 24-year-old singer is no longer required to return to a police station for further questioning, her spokesman said in a statement. Meanwhile, Winehouse's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, appeared in a London court yesterday on charges of attacking a pub landlord and later conspiring with him to withdraw as a witness at the trial. Fielder-Civil pleaded not guilty. He is due in court next month. (AP)

A Broadway actor who played the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" was sentenced yesterday to 60 days in jail and three years probation for sexual encounters with a 15-year-old drama student. James Barbour pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a minor as part of a plea deal, admitting he fondled the student when she visited him alone backstage in his dressing room in June 2001, while he was starring in "Jane Eyre." The actor also acknowledged that the teen visited him the next month at his Upper West Side Manhattan apartment where more sexual contact occurred. He told a Manhattan judge he knew then that she was 15. (AP)

"They're pretty down on Britney and Paris and all of that. They think that's very 'yuck.'" -Barack Obama, explaining to Us Weekly that his two daughters are fans of Hannah Montana and Beyoncé