Restraining orders extended for 'scared' Spears

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A judge has extended restraining orders against three people, including

Britney Spears' former manager and an ex-boyfriend, in order to hear more testimony in the case.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aviva K. Bobb continued the hearing Wednesday until April 1, when attorneys for Spears' father plan to offer more witnesses about why lengthy restraining orders are necessary.
The lawyers are seeking orders against Spears' former manager Osama "Sam" Lutfi, her ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and attorney John Eardley. The attorneys contend the three conspired to break up the conservatorship and that Lutfi repeatedly tried to reach Spears.
Bobb has already heard testimony from three witnesses, including Spears' father, a security guard and her hairdresser, Roberta Romero, who testified Wednesday that the pop superstar told her she was scared of Lutfi.
Romero also said Spears' comments came after Lutfi repeatedly sent her text messages in late December. She said Lutfi was trying to get her to convey messages to the singer, including that he was making efforts to "free" her.
Romero, who has worked as Spears' stylist for more than a year, said the singer told her to tell Lutfi to leave them alone. Romero and Spears notified the singer's security staff about Lutfi's text messages.
Romero said she only spoke to Lutfi once, weeks before Spears' security became involved. She said he was not threatening over the phone, but that the singer told her to avoid her former friend.
"She told me she's scared of him and not to talk to him," Romero said.

Report: Chris Brown taking anger management classes

Chris Brown has begun taking anger management classes, the New York Daily News reports.
"Chris doesn't actually have to go by law," a source informs the newspaper. "But he believes it will make him look better to the public, and he wants to try to get in a few classes before March 5."
According the Daily News, Brown began taking the classes on Monday in Glendale, Calif., after his recently hired publicist, Michael Sitrick, made the suggestion.
Brown's first date before a judge to discuss the alleged assault on Rihanna is scheduled for March 5.

Pop star Stevie Wonder celebrated at White House

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama thanked Stevie Wonder for creating "a style that's uniquely American" as he presented the singer-songwriter the nation's highest award for pop music.
Obama, who called Wonder the soundtrack of his youth, gave the star the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an East Room tribute Wednesday that featured Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Wonder himself. The president joked that the group was "the most accomplished Stevie Wonder cover band in history."
Wonder was emotional at times, thanking Obama for the award and reflecting on what his election as the first black president means to the United States.
"What is truly exciting for me today is that we truly have lived to see a time and a space where America has a chance to again live up to the greatness that it deserves to be seen and known as, through the love and caring and the commitment of a president — as in our president, Barack Obama," he said.
Wonder cited Martin Luther King Jr., his faith and his mother during an acceptance speech that flowed into a set of Obama's favorite songs. The Grammy-winning musician — he has 25 of the awards — joked that he looked forward to writing more love songs — perhaps a soundtrack for "you know, maybe I'll be a part of creating some more of those babies."
Obama praised Wonder's decades-long career and a style that has blended pop and funk, R&B and gospel.
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"Stevie has always drawn on the incredible range of traditions in his music and, from that, he's created a style that's at once uniquely American, uniquely his own, and yet somehow universal," Obama said. "Indeed, this could be called the American tradition — artists demonstrating the courage, the talent to find new harmonies in the rich and dissonant sounds of the American experience."
First lady Michelle Obama spoke in more personal terms, calling Wonder "one of the world's greatest artists." She recalled how she and her grandfather would listen to Wonder's albums together.
"He'd blast music throughout the house and that's where he and I would sit and listen to Stevie's music together — songs about life, love, romance, heartache, despair. He would let me listen to these songs over and over and over and over again," she said.
The first album she bought was Wonder's "Talking Book," and she and Barack Obama used "You and I" as their wedding song.
President Obama said he was lucky to have already loved Wonder's music when he first met his mate.
"I think it's fair to say that had I not been a Stevie Wonder fan, Michelle might not have dated me, we might not have married," Obama said, with his wife sitting in the front row. "The fact that we agreed on Stevie was part of the essence of our courtship."
Although the president is a well-known fan — Wonder performed at his nominating convention in Denver last summer and at a Lincoln Memorial concert before his January inauguration — the Library of Congress had decided to honor Wonder before Obama won the election.
The Gershwin Prize honors George and Ira Gershwin and is given for lifetime achievement in popular music. Paul Simon claimed the nation's first prize in 2007.
Wonder's performance will be broadcast Thursday on PBS stations as part of a White House series on the arts.

James Brown exhibit opens while museum plans await

James Brown exhibit opens while museum plans await02/26/2009 7:00 AM, APJames Brown knew all along that he wanted to open a museum to inspire people — especially the poor — to pursue their dreams. So he carefully saved all his belongings, from glittering suits and glossy shoes to the comb he used to neatly sculpt his hair.
The soul singer who died in 2006 says so himself in a new exhibit at South Carolina State University that showcases the attention he paid to his roots, his eclectic tastes and his showman's image.
"I'm going to make a James Brown museum because I want people to know that a young kid really has a chance to make it. And the only way they have a chance to make it is if he has somebody around to look at," Brown says as he combs his hair on a video displayed at the exhibit.
Brown, who died of heart failure at 73, grew up poor during segregation in a rural county of South Carolina and rose to stardom with hits like "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "Please, Please, Please."
Since his death, attorneys for his family and the trust he established for poor children have haggled over how to divide his estate. That fight has delayed plans supported by some of the family to turn his Beech Island home into a museum and site for his mausoleum, along the lines of Elvis Presley's Graceland estate.
In the meantime, many of Brown's belongings are being shown for the first time at the historically black college, chosen because of Brown's support for civil rights and education. The free display opened Feb. 20 and runs until Sept. 1.
Fans get their first look at a tattered bathrobe and the crystal-studded suits Brown wore as he shimmied, split and glided across stages worldwide. While the exhibit skirts Brown's run-ins with the law, daughter Deanna Brown explained to The Associated Press during a recent tour that the robe was torn in a tussle with police during her father's 2004 arrest on criminal domestic violence charges.
The suit Brown wore to the Atlanta hospital where he died and the one he had laid out for the next day are also displayed, along with the hair curlers he used to form his signature pompadour.
"Each item tells a story of a struggle and or an accomplishment in his life, be it at home or be it traveling the world," Deanna Brown said as she recently walked through the exhibit, wiping away tears. "When you think of how poor dad was, where he came from — poor as you can imagine — and for his collection to be seen as historical, it shows magnitude."
The Godfather of Soul's public life is shown in photos with figures like Elton John and late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Other artifacts show the eclectic tastes of his private life, like his Asian and Native American artifacts, the telescope he used for his amateur astronomy hobby, and some somber reminders of his heritage: elephant tusks, bits of cotton plants and rusted slave chains that he kept in a closet.
"He said he always wanted to remember where he came from," museum director Ellen Zisholtz said.
Even photos of Brown's home reveal something of his complex, larger-than-life personality. He built his mansion around a smaller home he had purchased earlier, creating a unique layout, Zisholtz said.
Brown's family has big plans for preserving his legacy and his daughter said interest in the museum has come from around the world.
"There are people who can't even speak English that love James Brown. They can say, 'I feel good,'" Deanna Brown joked.
"So, we are hoping that one day it can really be a historical James Brown tour and everything that he was about could be explored."
___

Def Leppard returns to road, but may take break

Def Leppard has become a fixture on the touring circuit over the last few summers, and this year is no different. The classic rock group plans to go out on the road again, this time with Poison and Cheap Trick.
But frontman Joe Elliott says the tour, which kicks off June 23 in Camden, N.J., could be the last chance for fans to catch them for a while.
"This will be our fifth year in a row where we've toured the summer in the states, and I seriously do think that it's time for us to not do it next year, because I'm a firm believer in you don't want to do it too much — people start taking you for granted," Elliott said in an interview Wednesday.
"For me, next year is more of a case of gathering stock and maybe a writing a bit of music, getting prepared for another record."
Def Leppard has been a popular tour during its summer runs, and has teamed up with other classic bands like Foreigner, Journey, Bryan Adams and Cheap Trick for co-headlining tours — packages that Elliott believes gives fans "value for your money. It's an absolute no-brainer."
And with the ever-sinking economy, it may make even more sense this year.
"Come the summertime, the rules are going to be different ... nothing stays the same anymore," he said. "All we're trying to do is take the path of least resistance, if you like, for what we think is a fair way of doing it. We've got a good ticket price, we've got a good lineup. For the kind of music that we make, it's a show made in heaven, really."
Some people might be surprised to find Poison and Def Leppard on the same bill, after Elliott was perceived as having made disparaging remarks about the glam metal band last year. But he said the controversy was blown out of proportion.
"The supposed fight that we had with Poison wasn't a fight at all. It was taken out of context by a foreign journalist," he said. "I've spoken with (Poison's) Bret Michaels, and he totally gets that it was taken totally out of context, and we don't have a problem with any of these guys, never have been."
Def Leppard is best known for classics like "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Photograph," but last year put out their first CD of new material in six years, "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge." Elliott said it was crucial for the band to keep putting out new music.
"I can't live my life with my past being my future, just going out there and consistently playing some kind of nostalgia show," he said. "I have to be able to walk on stage and say, 'This is a song from my new album,' or I can't do it."
But he doesn't complain about singing well-worn hits.
"We haven't gotten to the stage yet where we are bored of doing any one song," he says. "When you go on stage and you play that song in front of 20,000 in Madison Square Garden ... it's like your life rushing before you."
Tickets for the summer tour go on sale next week.

Andy Samberg hopes people flock to 'Lonely Island'

When Andy Samberg was a kid, one of his most frequently played CDs wasn't by a musical act, but by his comedic hero, Adam Sandler.
"Sandler's first album, I probably listened to like a million times," Samberg, in a recent interview, said of Sandler's 1993 CD "They're All Gonna Laugh at You!"
"It's like summer camp for me, discovering that with all my friends. ... It was truly inspirational."
Samberg hopes to have a similar affect on people with this month's release of "Incredibad," a new CD/DVD he released with his writing partners Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, childhood friends collectively known as The Lonely Island. While the Lonely Island may not be a household name, the clips the group has produced for "Saturday Night Live" have become viral sensations, like " ... in my Pants" and " ... in a Box," which featured a memorable appearance by Justin Timberlake.
Those songs are included on "Incredibad," along with a DVD with shorts from the show, as well as new material.
"I think if you're into what we do, we're delivering on that in spades," said Samberg.
It was the Lonely Island's digital short film, "Lazy Sunday," that lit the spark for Samberg's white-hot career. When "Saturday Night Live" aired it in December 2005, Samberg was a goofy 27-year-old rookie, basically unknown to even the show's most devout fans. Within a week, the video — a geeky, hip-hop paean to "The Chronicles of Narnia" — was viewed more than a million times on the Internet. Since then, the Lonely Island's shorts, like Natalie Portman's "Natalie's Rap," have become instant Internet hits (Their new single, "I'm On a Boat" featuring T-Pain has topped iTunes' music video chart).
The new CD/DVD features their greatest hits as well as new collaborations with top stars like Jack Black, Norah Jones, and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.
"We just sat down at the beginning and were like, 'Whose careers can we ruin?' And then we just picked names out of a hat," Taccone joked.
"It's all people that we're just huge fans of, so, we're thrilled that they're on there," Schaffer said. "And every time I hit play on a song, it's like, us, us and I'm like, 'Eh, Eh' and then they come on and I'm like, 'Hey!' Because we're just fans of those people."
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Pop star Stevie Wonder celebrated at White House

Pop star Stevie Wonder celebrated at White House02/26/2009 9:00 AM, APPresident Barack Obama thanked Stevie Wonder for creating "a style that's uniquely American" as he presented the singer-songwriter the nation's highest award for pop music.
Obama, who called Wonder the soundtrack of his youth, gave the star the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an East Room tribute Wednesday that featured Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Wonder himself. The president joked that the group was "the most accomplished Stevie Wonder cover band in history."
Wonder was emotional at times, thanking Obama for the award and reflecting on what his election as the first black president means to the United States.
"What is truly exciting for me today is that we truly have lived to see a time and a space where America has a chance to again live up to the greatness that it deserves to be seen and known as, through the love and caring and the commitment of a president — as in our president, Barack Obama," he said.
Wonder cited Martin Luther King Jr., his faith and his mother during an acceptance speech that flowed into a set of Obama's favorite songs. The Grammy-winning musician — he has 25 of the awards — joked that he looked forward to writing more love songs — perhaps a soundtrack for "you know, maybe I'll be a part of creating some more of those babies."
Obama praised Wonder's decades-long career and a style that has blended pop and funk, R&B and gospel.
"Stevie has always drawn on the incredible range of traditions in his music and, from that, he's created a style that's at once uniquely American, uniquely his own, and yet somehow universal," Obama said. "Indeed, this could be called the American tradition — artists demonstrating the courage, the talent to find new harmonies in the rich and dissonant sounds of the American experience."
First lady Michelle Obama spoke in more personal terms, calling Wonder "one of the world's greatest artists." She recalled how she and her grandfather would listen to Wonder's albums together.
"He'd blast music throughout the house and that's where he and I would sit and listen to Stevie's music together — songs about life, love, romance, heartache, despair. He would let me listen to these songs over and over and over and over again," she said.
The first album she bought was Wonder's "Talking Book," and she and Barack Obama used "You and I" as their wedding song.
President Obama said he was lucky to have already loved Wonder's music when he first met his mate.
"I think it's fair to say that had I not been a Stevie Wonder fan, Michelle might not have dated me, we might not have married," Obama said, with his wife sitting in the front row. "The fact that we agreed on Stevie was part of the essence of our courtship."
Although the president is a well-known fan — Wonder performed at his nominating convention in Denver last summer and at a Lincoln Memorial concert before his January inauguration — the Library of Congress had decided to honor Wonder before Obama won the election.
The Gershwin Prize honors George and Ira Gershwin and is given for lifetime achievement in popular music. Paul Simon claimed the nation's first prize in 2007.
Wonder's performance will be broadcast Thursday on PBS stations as part of a White House series on the arts.