Rowling to testify

Author J.K. Rowling is eager to tell a judge this week that one of her biggest fans is in fantasyland if he believes a "Harry Potter" encyclopedia he plans to publish does not violate her copyrights. The showdown between Rowling and Steven Vander Ark is scheduled to last most of the week in US District Court in Manhattan. Rowling is scheduled to testify today in a trial that is sure to generate huge interest among Harry Potter fans and the public. Her lawyer has arranged with the judge to have a private security guard for Rowling in the courtroom and for the author to spend breaks in the seclusion of a jury room - away from any diehard Potter fans in attendance. The trial comes eight months after Rowling published her seventh and final book in the widely popular Harry Potter series. Rowling is actually a big fan of the Harry Potter Lexicon website that Vander Ark runs, but she draws the line when it comes to publishing the book and charging $24.95. One of her lawyers, Dan Shallman, on Friday told Judge Robert P. Patterson, who will hear the trial without a jury, that Rowling "feels like her words were stolen." (AP)

"Prom Night," a remake of the 1980 slasher flick that stars Brittany Snow, took in $22.7 million to debut as the weekend's No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates. Opening in second place was "Street Kings," a cop drama starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker that took in $12 million. The new movies bumped Boston-filmed "21," which fell to third place with $11 million after two weekends at No. 1. The weekend's other new wide release, "Smart People," opened at No. 7 with $4.2 million. "Smart People" stars Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, and Thomas Haden Church in a comic drama about a crusty English professor and his oddball family and associates. Box office doldrums continued, with the top 12 movies taking in $82.6 million, down 16 percent from last year. (AP)

Britney Spears was involved in a minor traffic accident late Saturday, but no one was injured and no vehicles were damaged, authorities said. Spears was driving her 2008 Mercedes on the eastbound Ventura Freeway in Los Angeles at about 8:20 p.m. when the mishap occurred, said California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball. Spears was in stop-and-go traffic when her car struck a 2006 Nissan in front of her that had stopped. The CHP took a report and no one was cited. Website TMZ reported that officers administered a sobriety test on Spears, which she passed. (AP)

Ivana Trump is hitched - again. The ex-wife of real estate mogul Donald Trump wore a pastel pink-and-gold wedding dress when she tied the knot Saturday evening with Italian entrepreneur Rossano Rubicondi, the Palm Beach Post reported. The wedding took place at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's opulent seaside mansion in Palm Beach. The estate also hosted the billionaire's wedding to Slovenian model Melania Knauss in 2005. Donald Trump, whom Ivanka divorced in 1990, attended, as did their children. Also among the almost 600 guests expected were hotel heirs Rick and Kathy Hilton, the parents of Paris; and singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka. Trump, 59, and Rubicondi, 36, have been together for about six years, her spokeswoman Catherine Saxton said. This is her fourth marriage. (AP)

Matchbox Twenty has canceled a performance at a large rodeo event out of concern for the animals. Lead singer Rob Thomas confirmed that the band is pulling out of its July 18 show at Wyoming's Cheyenne Frontier Days, which bills itself as the world's biggest outdoor rodeo. "We ask that [fans] please understand that it would be impossible for us to put ourselves in the position of making money from what we believe to be the mistreatment of animals," according to a statement from Thomas posted Saturday on the band's website. The Grammy-winning band is still scheduled to perform this summer at the North Dakota State Fair, which includes rodeo events. (AP)