Cops call for Brandy charges
Actress-singer Brandy should be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter over a fatal freeway crash, the California Highway Patrol recommended Monday.
Brandy, 27, was driving a Land Rover on Interstate 405 on Dec. 30 when traffic slowed and her vehicle struck the back of Honda driven by 38-year-old Awatef Aboudihaj.
Aboudihaj’s car hit another vehicle, slid sideways into the center divider and was then hit by another car.
Prosecutors couldn’t say when they would make a decision about whether to bring a case. The charge would carry a maximum sentence of one year in county jail and a $1,000 fine.
Brandy, whose real name is Brandy Norwood, has publicly expressed condolences to the victim’s family, her publicist said. He also said Brandy wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
She began her recording career at 14 and has made five albums, winning a Grammy in 1999, and starred in the sitcom “Moesha.”
Worst face on it
Model Niki Taylor has filed a federal slander lawsuit against E! Entertainment for intentional infliction of emotional distress over a segment in the new series “Blvd. of Broken Dreams.”
The suit says producers told Taylor the show would deal with her current life, including her clothing and cosmetic lines and charitable foundation, but instead focused on her past hardships and characterized her as a celebrity “who risked everything … and lost.”
Taylor, 31, an elite model through the 1990s, was critically injured in a car accident in 2001 and underwent numerous surgeries.
Back in the pink
Bluesman B.B. King is “back to his old self” after being hospitalized with a fever.
King, 81, canceled three concerts starting last Thursday because of a 100.4-degree fever following a bout with the flu.
He was treated with antiobiotics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and kept in the hospital’s elderly acute care unit as a precaution.
Not-so-small change?
Gravel-voiced singer Tom Waits has settled a lawsuit in Germany in which he claimed an automaker and an ad agency violated his rights by imitating him in TV commercials.
Waits, who has a policy of not doing commercials, sued Adam Opel AG and the advertising firm McCann Erickson in 2005.
Proceeds from the settlement, the details of which were not disclosed, will be donated to charity, his lawyer said.
Double talk
Rocker Ted Nugent says reports that he made offensive remarks about non-English speakers during his recent performance at Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s inaugural ball are “pure, unadulterated lies.”
However, he added in a guest column in the Waco Tribune-Herald: “I will intensify my fight for a united America by demanding all Americans speak English.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Gene Hackman is 77. Actress Vanessa Redgrave is 70. Musician Phil Collins is 56. Comedian Brett Butler (“Grace Under Fire”) is 49. Actor Christian Bale is 33. Actor Wilmer Valderrama (“That ‘70s Show”) is 27. Actor Jake Thomas (“Lizzie McGuire,” “AI”) is 17.