Buzz Briefs: Snoop Dogg, Laila Ali
Australia Welcomes Snoop Dogg, Provided He Behaves
Rapper Snoop Dogg has been granted a visa to enter Australia for a concert tour, the immigration department announced Friday after finishing a full character assessment of the entertainer.
The department had earlier expressed concern about Snoop Dogg's criminal record but took into account the fact that he had traveled to Australia three times without incident.
"In making this decision, the department weighed his criminal convictions against his previous behavior while in Australia, recent conduct - including charity work - and any likely risk to the Australian community," the immigration department said in a statement.
It said the rapper, whose birth name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., has committed to doing charity work with at-risk youth during his visit to Australia.
The rapper's Australia tour with Ice Cube and Thugs-N-Harmony is due to kick off in October.
Snoop Dogg visited Australia in 1998, 2006 and early 2007 without incident. He withdrew a visa application last May after failing to pass the character requirements one month after pleading no contest to gun and drug charges in the United States.
It's A Boy For Laila Ali & Curtis Conway
Laila Ali and husband Curtis Conway are parents of a baby boy.
Curtis Muhammad Conway was born Aug. 26, Ali announced on her Web site Thursday.
The couple's first child is named after his father and Ali's - Muhammad Ali.
Ali, 30, had planned to have a natural, home birth. But her publicist, Thea Ellis, said: "There were some surprises during labor that altered Laila's birth plan." She declined to elaborate, except to say: "Mom and baby are both healthy and happy."
"Mama and baby are resting," Ali wrote on her Web site, where she blogged throughout her pregnancy.
Rival Movie Critic Hits Ebert During Film Festival
Film critic Roger Ebert on Thursday confirmed that a fellow critic yelled at him and whacked him on the knee with a program during a movie screening at the Toronto Film Festival last weekend, but said incident was "blown out of proportion."
"It has been blown out of proportion. It is of little interest," Ebert said in a column posted Thursday on the Web site of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been a critic since 1967.
Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years and was left unable to speak, did not name the other critic involved in the incident. But he said an account published in the New York Daily News that named the other man as rival New York Post movie critic Lou Lumenick was "truthful."
Lumenick did not return an e-mail from The Associated Press after business hours on Thursday.
Saturday's incident began, Ebert said, when he could not see subtitles for the film "Slumlord Millionaire" because the man sitting in front of him was leaning into the aisle.
"In my medical condition I cannot speak, I tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and gestured him to move over a little. He said, 'Don't touch me!' and remained in position. I tapped him lightly again. 'He said - don't touch me!' He leaned further into the aisle, as if making a point of it. I tapped him a third time, and he jumped up and whacked me on the knee with whatever it was," Ebert said.
Ebert wrote that he tapped the man a fourth time, "just to show I wasn't intimidated." The man was later moved to another seat.
"This whole matter was embarrassing, because it drew attention to me and invited pity, which makes me cringe," said Ebert, former host of the syndicated show "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper."
While Ebert said he thought the man was wrong for blocking his sight line, the Pulitzer Prize winner said he felt sorry for him.
"He had no idea who was behind him when he smacked me," Ebert wrote. "Now it looked like he was picking on poor me. I have had my problems, but I promise you I am plenty hearty enough to withstand a smack, and quite happy, after the smack, to tap him again."
Ebert ended the column with, "I had to see those subtitles. There was no pain. The incident is over. Peace."
"Blue Collar Comedy's" Ron White Arrested For Drugs
Ron White of the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" was late to a sold-out performance on Florida's Treasure Coast - but he had a good excuse.
The Vero Beach Police Department arrested the 51-year-old comedian Wednesday on charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. White, whose comedy album is titled "You Can't Fix Stupid," was booked at the Indian River County Jail shortly after 6 p.m. and released about two hours later on $1,000 bail.
His publicist, Kathe Nelson, says he went straight to the show after being released from jail. The show was delayed about an hour.
One of White's most famous routines includes a joke about being booked into a Texas jail under the alias "Tater Salad."
"Milkshake" Singer Kelis & Wife Of Nas Cleared Of Disruption Charges
Singer Kelis has been acquitted of all charges in an incident in Miami where she was accused of disrupting a police operation by rushing toward the officers while screaming racial profanities at them.
Authorities were talking to some men in March 2007 in the South Beach nightclub district when they said Kelis Rogers-Jones rushed toward them and said one of the men was her husband, Nas, according to the arrest report. She was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence, but a jury acquitted her of the charges Thursday.
The singer, best known for her chart-topping single, "Milkshake," married rapper Nas in 2005.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the singer said she was happy justice prevailed and hopes this "sheds light on the fact that wearing a uniform and carrying a badge does not allow you to act above the law."