People talk 03/17/03

Eminem dives into hometown performance

DETROIT -- Eminem took the stage, and his hometown fans went wild.

"Detroit! If you had one shot," the rapper began as the audience repeated the words to "Lose Yourself," the Academy Award-nominated song from his film "8 Mile."

Eminem was in town Thursday to celebrate the DVD release of "8 Mile." It hits stores Tuesday after earning nearly $116 million last year at the box office.

Joining Eminem at the party were the Detroit-based rap group D12.

"8 Mile," directed by "L.A. Confidential" filmmaker Curtis Hanson, chronicles an amateur rapper's frustrations with stage fright and his family's poverty.

Near the end of his brief appearance, Eminem leaped backward into the crowd. He was mobbed, losing his hat and bandanna, and was pulled back on stage by security guards.

Johnson denies rumors of money laundering

LOS ANGELES -- Actor Don Johnson says bank statements found in his car listing $8 billion in transactions weren't his -- and he is in no way involved in money laundering.

Johnson told CNN's Larry King on Friday that the papers, discovered by German customs officials in November when he crossed the border from Switzerland, belonged to potential investors with whom he was discussing a movie project.

The former "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges" star said he might sue a German tabloid and other media that published stories last week alleging he was involved in illegal activities.

"They perpetuated this story of money laundering based on no evidence, based on no investigation, and it's caused me an unbelievable grief, unbelievable grief," he said, adding that banks closed two of his accounts because of the story.

"My son called me crying," said Johnson, 53. "It's been terrible. This has been one of the most difficult weeks of my life."

Johnson said he was returning to Germany from a meeting in Switzerland when the officials made a routine check of his car.

Customs spokesman Wolfgang Schmitz said the officials returned the papers after making copies and are continuing to review them. He said there was no indication of any illegal transactions.

Johnson said he thought nothing of the incident at the time.

"I signed some autographs, we joked around," he said of the time he spent with customs officials.

Haggard gets back missing tape of music

AUSTIN, Texas -- Country singer Merle Haggard has retrieved an audiotape of some of his unreleased music from a woman he sued for allegedly stealing the cassette from his tour bus in 2001.

Kathy Schroeder denied stealing the tape, which she tried to auction on eBay for $325,000. Haggard dropped his lawsuit after getting the tape back. Other terms of the settlement were not made public.

Schroeder, a concert promoter, said a singer left the tape at her house and she tried to sell it to recover an estimated $80,000 she lost when Haggard canceled an October 2001 appearance. She has sued the singer over the cancellation.

Dixie Chick comment inspires radio boycott

DALLAS -- Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, is finding out that sometimes saying you're sorry doesn't make much of a difference.

Radio stations nationwide are boycotting the Dixie Chicks, even though Maines publicly apologized for telling a London audience last Monday: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

Maines is a Lubbock native.

In her apology Friday, Maines said: "As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect."

The words didn't carry much weight with listeners in Maines' home state and elsewhere.

"We've had a huge listener reaction and movement against the statements," said Paul Williams of KPLX-FM in Dallas-Fort Worth, the nation's fifth largest radio market.

In Kansas City, Mo., WDAF-AM set trash cans outside its offices for listeners to toss their Dixie Chicks CDs. Its Web site displayed more than 800 listener e-mails, most of them in support of the station's boycott.

After more than 250 listeners called Friday to complain about Maines' comments, WTDR-FM in Talladega, Ala., dropped the Dixie Chicks.

"The emotion of the callers telling us about their fathers and sons and brothers who are overseas now and who fought in previous wars was very specific," said Jim Jacobs, president of Jacobs Broadcast Group, which includes WTDR.

The Dixie Chicks are in Europe promoting their recent release "Home," which won a Grammy last month for Best Country Album. The group is scheduled to kick off the U.S. leg of its "Top of the World Tour" on May 1 in Greenville, S.C.

-- From wire reports