HOLLYWOOD - Top Story
Grammy winning R&B singer R. Kelly was arrested in Florida today on child pornography charges after investigators said they found 12 photographs of a nude girl at the singer's home, The Associated Press reports. He is being held at a Miami-Dade county jail on $12,000 bond. Kelly, whose first name is Robert, is already facing child pornography charges in Illinois. He has been out on bond and awaiting trial on 21 counts of child pornography in Chicago on charges stemming from a videotape authorities say shows him having sex with a 13-year-old girl. Kelly has denied that charge.
Celebs
According to a report by the Bloomfield Township, Mich., police, Aretha Franklin did not cooperate with authorities investigating a fire that destroyed her 10,000-square-foot mansion on Oct. 25. The police document says officers were rebuffed repeatedly while trying to interview Franklin--who is not a suspect--after the fire occurred, Reuters reports. On the morning of the fire Franklin twice told detectives by phone that she was "too tired" to talk and would call back, according to the report. When she didn't call back, detectives left a message and were contacted by her attorney, who said Franklin declined to be interviewed because she "was upset with the way this matter was being handled." A publicist for the 60-year-old singer, however, said in a statement last week that Franklin and her attorneys have been "cooperative from the very beginning." Bring on the junk food! Renée Zellweger, who won a Golden Globe award for her performance in Chicago, says she is prepared to gain weight to reprise her comic role as Londoner Bridget Jones in The Edge of Reason, the sequel to 2001's popular Bridget Jones's Diary. "I'm ready, willing and able," the 33-year-old actress told the London Times. "Bridget's a character I really identify with. I'll put the weight back on with pleasure." Zellweger gained about 20 pounds to play the role of Bridget in the first film.Pop singer Anastacia said Tuesday that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, Reuters reports. "My doctor was insistent that I have a mammogram (during a routine checkup last week) even though it was not required," the 29-year-old singer said in a statement. "He saved my life." Anastacia, whose debut album, Not That Kind, was released in 2000 and became an international hit, also suffers from Crohn's disease, a chronic intestinal illness she was diagnosed with at age 13.DVD
Warner Bros. announced Tuesday that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be released on home video April 11. According to Variety, the studio will release the DVD version of the film in many countries on the same day, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Chamber of Secrets has grossed more than $800 million at theaters worldwide.
Tube
Fox Broadcasting Co. will debut some of its new shows in the summer instead of fall, the AP reports. "One of the lessons that reality television has taught us is that summer is a really good time to launch big franchises," said Fox chairman Sandy Grushow. "It's a better time than all six networks launching within the same week or two in late September." Besides reality-based shows, the network will also launch new comedies and dramas in the summer, but new episodes of its more established shows such as 24 and Malcolm in the Middle will debut after the baseball season.
Music
Although oldest Bee Gee Barry Gibb had said the band would go on as a tribute to brother Maurice, who died in Miami earlier this month, Maurice's twin Robin said Tuesday the Bee Gees are finished. "In Maurice's name we would respect that and not be the Bee Gees any more," Robin told Britain's GMTV television show. "Anything (Barry and I) do, we will do together, but it'll be as brothers and not under the name of the Bee Gees." Capitol Records announced that Lisa Marie Presley will release her first solo album, To Whom It May Concern, in stores April 8, People.com reports. Presley, who first signed a deal with Capitol in 1998, wrote all the songs on the CD. According to a press release, Presley's songs will run the gamut from "the brutal self-analysis of 'S.O.B.,' with its sinewy rock imprint, to the broken-hearted loss of 'Nobody Noticed It.'.... And in the dusky textures of 'Lights Out,' she hauntedly [sic] confronts the dark side of her heritage."DMC of the rap group Run-DMC said that although no arrests have been made nearly three months after the killing of DJ Jam Master Jay, he's glad police haven't given up on the investigation. "You know a lot of people think that cops are the enemy and they really don't care. But the police that are working on Jay's death are doing an excellent job," said DMC, whose real name is Darryl McDaniels, in an interview with MTV News Tuesday. "You got hope that if the cops don't catch them, the streets will."
