By David Beasley

ATLANTA |
Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:15am EDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Grammy Award-winning rapper T.I. is once again out of federal prison and in a halfway house, his attorney said on Friday.

The Atlanta entertainer, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was released August 31 from a federal prison in Arkansas where he was serving an 11-month sentence on weapons possession and drug charges.

T.I. was assigned to a halfway house in Atlanta for the last month of his sentence. But shortly after leaving Arkansas, the rapper was returned to a federal prison in Atlanta because officials had an “issue” with his ride on a luxury bus from Arkansas to Atlanta, attorney Steve Sadow said.

Prison officials believed T.I. was conducting business on the bus, Sadow told Reuters on Friday.

“But we provided them with information that he wasn’t actually conducting business on the bus,” the attorney said.

On Thursday, T.I. was transferred from prison to the Atlanta halfway house, Sadow said. The entertainer is scheduled to be released September 29.

He was sentenced in October 2010 to 11 months in prison for violating the terms of his probation on federal gun charges after he was arrested on suspicion of possessing the drug ecstasy.

It was his second stint behind bars in three years.

T.I.’s career began as a rapper in 2001, but he then branched out into other areas of the music and film industry, finding success both as a producer and actor.

Cable channel VH1 said last month that it had teamed up with the 30-year-old “Got Your Back” singer for a 10-episode series that will follow his readjustment to life outside prison and the making of a new album. The series is due to premiere on December 5.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Greg McCune)

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LOS ANGELES |
Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:55pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Charlie Sheen and Warner Bros are close to a settlement on the actor’s $100 million lawsuit against the studio over his firing from “Two and a Half Men,” a source with knowledge of the situation said on Monday.

Sheen, who has been sounding contrite in recent days regarding his troubles with the makers of his old television show, sued Warner Bros in Los Angeles Superior Court in March and the case has been in arbitration.

A Warner Bros. spokesman said no final deal has been reached and declined to comment further. Sheen’s lawyer was not immediately available to comment.

Sheen was the highest-paid actor on U.S. television for the role of womanizing bachelor Charlie Harper. But he was fired after several trips to rehab and for publicly insulting creator Chuck Lorre and makers Warner Bros. Television.

In the months afterward, Sheen posted videos in which he claimed he was always winning while others were losing, boasted he had “tiger blood” and toured a live show called “My Torpedo of Truth: Defeat is Not an Option.” The show met with mixed results.

But in the last few days, he seems to be on a tour of contrition, culminating in his appearance at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, U.S. TV’s top honors.

“From the bottom of my heart, I wish you nothing but the best for this upcoming season,” he said, addressing the cast and creators of the revamped comedy in front of a TV audience of more than 12 million people. “We spent eight wonderful years together, and I know you will continue to make great television.”

Sheen told “Today” show host Matt Lauer last week that he regrets claiming he had “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA,” calling them jokes and metaphors that he never really believed. He told Jay Leno that he would have fired himself, given his behavior.

The reports of a settlement came hours before the premiere on Monday of “Two and A Half Men” starring newcomer Ashton Kutcher, and a Comedy Central roast of Sheen.

The case is Sheen et al v. Lorre et al, Los Angeles Superior Court, No. SC111794.

For Sheen: Martin Singer of Lavely Singer.

For Lorre et al: Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Aldisert.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

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LOS ANGELES |
Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:07pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Dolores Hope, the wife of late entertainer Bob Hope, died on Monday of natural causes at the age of 102, a family spokesman said.

Hope, a singer who put her career on hold after her marriage, died in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles, said spokesman Harlan Boll. Bob Hope, her husband of almost 70 years, died in July 2003 at the age of 100.

Dolores Hope had a singing career in New York before she met her entertainer husband and married him. Together, they moved to Los Angeles so he could pursue a career in film and television.

The couple raised four children and Dolores often accompanied Hope on his many visits to entertain U.S. troops overseas.

At the age of 83, she revived her singing career, recording several albums and performing with Rosemary Clooney. She made her last visit to U.S. servicemen at age 84, during the 1991 Gulf War, when she performed “White Christmas” from the back of a truck in the Saudi desert.

Bob Hope is among the most beloved U.S. entertainers of the 20th Century. He got his start on vaudeville, worked on radio, acted in movies where he was perhaps best known for his road films with Bing Crosby, and in later years appeared in numerous TV specials. Hope would frequently mention his marriage to Delores on TV talk shows.

Like her husband, Delores Hope was a keen golfer and received multiple awards for her humanitarian work, especially for causes that benefited the poor.

She leaves two children, three grandchildren and a great grandson.

Boll said funeral services would be private and Dolores would be buried next to her husband at the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at the San Fernando Mission outside Los Angeles.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND |
Sun Sep 18, 2011 6:04pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Prosecutors will not file assault charges against “Lost” actor Matthew Fox regarding an incident where he allegedly punched a female bus driver, a City of Cleveland spokesperson said on Saturday.

Fox was detained and handcuffed by Cleveland police about three weeks ago after witnesses told police he punched Heather Bormann, the driver of a private party bus, multiple times in the chest, stomach and groin.

Bormann, 29, brought an initial complaint against Fox on August 30, two days after the alleged attack.

Asked about the decision, her attorney, J. Norman Stark, said Bormann was not told directly by prosecutors that charges will not be pursued and instead found out from media reports.

“This was an unprovoked attack on a woman, with no provocation, by a man,” Stark told Reuters. “According to Ohio law, that is assault.”

Stark says he has pictures of injuries Bormann sustained from the incident and believes that Fox is receiving “preferential treatment because he is who he is – an actor.”

Bormann, a single mother of three, filed a civil suit against Fox on Tuesday asking compensation for “aggravated felonious assault and battery and the infliction of intentional emotional distress.”

She is asking for compensation in access of $25,000.

Stark said he has not heard from Fox or anyone whom he could confirm is representing the actor.

“I hope this matter will be settled …. and she would like an apology,” Stark said. “If he had just sent a dozen roses or something like that, this would have been all over.”

Fox was not immediately available for comment on Saturday.

(Editing by Peter Bohan)

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LOS ANGELES |
Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:38pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fine art, jewelry and Hollywood memorabilia owned by Tony Curtis — including the yachtsman jacket he wore in “Some Like It Hot” — brought in over $1 million on the auction block on Saturday, more than twice the presale estimates.

Curtis, who enjoyed a 60-year career in show business before his death in 2010 at age 85, appeared in more than 100 films and received an Oscar nomination for the 1958 drama “The Defiant Ones.” He was an art lover and painter as well.

The estate items on sale at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills featured property Curtis acquired throughout his life, from the time he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II to the 2000s. The presale estimate on the collection was $500,000.

Highlights included the Andy Warhol “Some Like It Hot” shoe lithograph, signed by Warhol to Curtis around 1955, which sold for $53,125; the “Some Like It Hot” yachtsman jacket, which sold for $46,875; and a signed Marc Chagall colored lithograph, which raised $23,125.

Collectibles on offer also included earthenware vases by Pablo Picasso, which fetched $20,625, and a sterling silver cigarette case from the John Kennedy/Lyndon Johnson inauguration, which sold for $6,875.

Curtis’ Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque brought in $10,000.

Among Curtis’ most memorable movies were the Billy Wilder comedy “Some Like It Hot,” co-starring Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. His credits include “Spartacus,” “The Boston Strangler” and “The Defiant Ones,” in which he played a white prison escapee who is chained to a black man, portrayed by Sidney Poitier.

While his Hollywood career was glamorous, Curtis’ personal life was racked by turmoil and change. He was married five times. His first and most famous wife was actress Janet Leigh.

A portion of the proceeds from the auction will benefit Shiloh Horse Rescue, a charitable organization founded by Curtis and his wife, Jill, that rescues and rehabilitates abused, neglected and slaughter-bound horses.

(Writing by Sheri Linden; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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