Looks like Lil’ Kim is headed for the big house
GRAMMY-WINNING RAPPER Lil’ Kim was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in prison and fined $50,000 for lying to a federal grand jury. Kim (aka Kimberly Jones) told the grand jury she did not notice two of her friends at the scene of a 2001 shootout outside a Manhattan radio station.
“At the time I thought it was the right thing to do, but I now know it was wrong,” she said Wednesday.
“I have worked hard my entire life for everything I have, everything I have accomplished. … I’m a God-fearing, good person.”
While many rappers have served time in prison, Lil’ Kim, who was convicted in March, is the first big-name female artist to do so.
The sentence was less than the 20-year maximum she could have gotten and the nearly three-year term prosecutors sought.
U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch said he had considered the public perception of sending a young black entertainer to prison for longer than Martha Stewart, who served five months and remains under house arrest.
Sorry, it’s still not Justin time
Justin Timberlake‘s debut as a big-screen star may be delayed because of a legal snafu.
Timberlake appears with Bruce Willis in “Alpha Dog,” based on the true story of a marijuana-dealing L.A. gang that turns murderous.
But lawyers for the gang’s kingpin, accused murderer Jesse James Hollywood, are arguing that the movie’s release will make it difficult for him to get a fair trial.
The more the merrier for Jolie
Angelina Jolie is adopting another child, this time an orphaned Ethiopian baby girl.
Jolie visited the Horn of Africa nation last week to file her adoption request, accompanied by “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” co-star Brad Pitt and her 3-year-old son, Maddox, whom she adopted in Cambodia.
She said on People magazine’s Web site that the child’s name is Zahara Marley Jolie, and that she and Maddox are “very happy to have a new addition to our family.”
Spielberg joins a select list
The Polish city of Krakow has recognized Steven Spielberg for his efforts to preserve parts of the former ghetto where he filmed much of “Schindler’s List.”
Spielberg was named a prestigious “Patron of Culture” for 2004 in a ceremony Tuesday. The director donated $40,000 to preserve the former Pod Orlem pharmacy, whose owner risked his life to help Jews of the ghetto.
The pharmacy owner, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, was the only non-Jew who remained in the ghetto during the entire Nazi occupation. He provided food and medicine to the Jewish population and helped some residents escape.
Nobody can spin it like Beckham
Among the British dignitaries on hand in Singapore this week to lobby for London’s selection as the site of the 2012 Olympics – a bid that proved successful Wednesday – was soccer star David Beckham.
While he isn’t an Olympian (Britain doesn’t enter qualifying for the Olympic soccer tournament because it doesn’t have a united soccer federation), Beckham lent enormous publicity to the effort.
“That’s one thing about our country, in the big competitions it comes together like no other country has ever come together,” he said.
The birthday bunch
Bandleader Doc Severinsen is 78. Country singer Charlie Louvin is 78. Drummer Ringo Starr is 65. Actor Joe Spano is 59. Actress Roz Ryan (“Amen”) is 54. Actor Billy Campbell is 46. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 42. Actress Jorja Fox is 37. Actress Cree Summer (“A Different World”) is 36. Actor Troy Garity (“Barbershop”) is 32.