People talk

MTV to air chronicle of Gideon Yago in Iraq

NEW YORK -- MTV News correspondent Gideon Yago, who previously traveled to Kuwait to report on how the war was affecting young people there, is now sharing his experiences with the youth in Baghdad. "Diary of Gideon in Iraq" is scheduled to premiere at 9:30 p.m. Jan. 14 on the cable music channel. The special chronicles Yago's two-week trip to Baghdad, in which he interviewed young Iraqis and talked to American soldiers still stationed there.

Governor to hold country-music gala

JACKSON, Miss. -- Country music singers Kenny Rogers, the Gatlin Brothers and Steve Azar will entertain guests at Gov.-elect Haley Barbour's Jan. 12 inaugural gala. Tickets to the invitation-only event at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson range from $40 each for floor-level seats to $25 for mezzanine and upper-level seating. While the gala and the Jan. 13 inaugural ball require tickets, other events will be free and open to the public.

What's hot, what's not, according to The Post

WASHINGTON -- Watch out, Clay Aiken and Spike Jonze. The Washington Post says you're out and Barry Manilow and Sofia Coppola are in. The Post's Style section's traditional New Year's Day In and Out list also says Donatella Versace has been supplanted by Dutch designers Viktor and Rolf; the Segway scooter by the Honda Ruckus; Bachelors by Average Joes; and "flash mobs" by Howard Dean mobs. Other Outs: overscheduled kids, tiny dogs and saying something is "ne plus ultra," or the ultimate. Other Ins: unrestricted playtime, hairless cats and saying something is "sui generis," or unique.-- From wire reports

Woody Allen wants role in heist film

NEW YORK -- Consider it a New Year's resolution for Woody Allen. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker says he wants to act in, but not direct, a film about a New Year's 1972 robbery at the Pierre Hotel, the Daily News reported in Thursday's editions. According to the paper, Allen said he's talked to actor John Cusack about the project. The film would be based on a book called "The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort" by Ira Berkow. In the 1972 robbery, five men in tuxedoes tied up 16 Pierre Hotel employees and took several million dollars in cash and jewelry.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Willie Nelson plans to debut an anti-war ballad he wrote Christmas Day at a fund-raising concert Saturday for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich at Austin Music Hall. Nelson said he planned to record "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth" this week in Nashville, Tenn., and rush-release it as a single. Nelson said he supports Kucinich, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, because of the four-term Ohio congressman's support of family farmers. The 70-year-old country star wrote this new song at the Lake Elsinore, Calif., home of his in-laws.

-- From wire reports

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ATLANTA -- The son of late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson was arrested New Year's Eve on charges he sold marijuana to an undercover officer.

Maynard Holbrook Jackson III, 32, was taken into custody at a house in the city's Inman Park neighborhood, police Sgt. John Quigley said. He was accused of selling undercover police $150 worth of marijuana, or about 25 grams, which is a little less than an ounce. He was taken to the Fulton County Jail to await a bond hearing.

Quigley said Jackson was cooperative during the arrest.

Jackson is a drummer at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta. At the time of his father's death last June, he worked with the American Voters League, an organization his father started to encourage young people to vote.

His father was elected as the city's first black mayor in 1973 and served three terms in all.