Lincoln Park, in northern New Jersey, wasn’t immediately …
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is shown with an injury beneath his eye. Hilton, whose name is real is Mario Lavandeira, says he got into an argument with Fergie and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas at a Toronto nightclub early Monday and was punched outside the club by Polo Molina, the band’s manager. …
Additional marks on the side of Hilton’s head and forehead, are from pink paint he wore while attending the MuchMusic Video Awards.
Photo by: HO
Hilton sues Peas manager
LOS ANGELES - A new front has opened in the battle between Perez Hilton and the Black Eyed Peas manager accused of hitting him: a civil lawsuit.
The celebrity blogger, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, sued the Peas’ manager in Los Angeles on Wednesday for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is seeking unspecified damages of more than $25,000.
The suit states Hilton is seeking to protect his rights to free speech and claims Polo Molina attacked him because he made critical comments about the Black Eyed Peas’ new album.
Molina was arrested in Toronto early Monday after he allegedly punched Hilton following a heated argument between the blogger and Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am. He is due to appear in court on Aug. 5.
An e-mail sent to the group’s publicist was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Montgomery Gentry in Grand Ole Opry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Montgomery Gentry was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry Tuesday evening.
After singing hits “My Town and “Something to be Proud Of,” the duo received a membership award from Opry members Little Jimmy Dickens and Marty Stuart.
Troy Gentry told the audience he didn’t have the words to describe how much the induction means to him and musical partner Eddie Montgomery.
Since a 1999 debut, Montgomery Gentry has had several hits with its Southern rock style of country.
Crystal takes ‘700 Sundays’ on road
NEW YORK - Billy Crystal is taking his acclaimed stage autobiography, “700 Sundays,” on the road this fall.
“700 Sundays” was a Broadway success during the 2004-2005 season, playing to sold-out houses and winning a Tony Award for special theatrical experience.
The show will play six cities, starting with Washington on Sept. 8 to 17. The 61-year-old actor-comedian will then visit Philadelphia; Dallas; Palm Beach, Fla.; Miami; and Atlanta, where the tour will end Dec. 20.
McCartney to play benefitATLANTA - Paul McCartney is coming to Atlanta for a summer concert to benefit the city’s historic Piedmont Park.
The Piedmont Conservancy that cares for the city park said Wednesday that the 67-year-old ex-Beatle will perform in the park on Aug. 15.
The show is expected to dwarf the conservancy’s 2007 Dave Matthews Band and The Allman Brothers Band show that attracted 50,000.
Alexander pushes comedy cure for MideastJERUSALEM - “Seinfeld” star Jason Alexander told a crowd in Jerusalem on Wednesday that the search for an Israeli-Palestinian solution and the “show about nothing” that launched him to fame have one thing in common - neither seemed destined to succeed.
But just as the show managed to bounce back with comedy, said the balding actor, a solution might be found for Mideast troubles if people write and laugh with one another.
“We were canceled, we were gone, we were a distant memory and somehow we came back and eventually everybody caught on and started paying attention,” he said. “Other than that, we shed no wisdom.”
Alexander, 49, is a creator of “Imagine: 2018,” a project that asked Israeli and Palestinian high-school students to write stories about what the world might look like 10 years down the road if an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement were signed in 2008.
The group collected 50 stories from each side into a book and has made two of the stories into short films.
Author acknowledges lifting material
NEW YORK - The author of a new book about the wisdom of free products on the Web has acknowledged taking some liberties in his own work.
Chris Anderson, known for the influential business book “The Long Tail,” said he was mistaken for using passages - without attribution - that closely resembled material from Wikipedia and other sources included in his latest release, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.”
“This is entirely my own screw-up, and will be corrected,” Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote on his blog Wednesday.
Anderson’s book, coming out next month from Hyperion, includes information about the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” about the meaning of a learning curve and about other subjects for which he depended on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of user-contributed articles. The similarities were first reported by the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Judge blocks ‘Housewives’ sex tapePATERSON - One of the stars of Bravo’s television series “Real Housewives of New Jersey” went to court Wednesday to avoid getting a little more exposure than she wanted.
A judge granted Danielle Staub’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop her former boyfriend Stephen Zalewski from releasing a sexually explicit videotape and images of her.
State Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Brogan also ordered Zalewski to produce all copies of the video and pictures of Staub, and he set a hearing for July 21.
Staub, 46, also filed a lawsuit against Zalewski seeking damages for invasion of privacy, defamation and infliction of emotional distress. She claimed she was unaware Zalewski was taping her and only found out about it when someone read her a Star magazine article in which Zalewski discussed the tape.
“It sickened me,” Staub told the judge during the brief hearing.
Zalewski didn’t appear in court, and a telephone message left Wednesday at his home in Lincoln Park, in northern New Jersey, wasn’t immediately returned. It was unknown if he had retained a lawyer.
Press wire services
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