People talk 4/3/03

Rap band Linkin Park's new release at top spot

NEW YORK -- Linkin Park's latest release has made a meteoric rise to the top of the album chart, debuting at the No. 1 spot.

"Meteora" sold more than 810,000 copies during its first week in stores, according to industry figures released Wednesday.

The rap-rock band's first album, "Hybrid Theory," was the top seller of 2001 with 4.8 million copies sold.

Debuting in second place was the new Celine Dion album, "One Heart," which sold nearly 432,000 copies in its first week.

Ozzy relieved that his wife has beaten cancer

LONDON -- Sharon Osbourne is free of cancer after months of treatment, her rock star husband, Ozzy, said.

Ozzy Osbourne said he still feared his wife would become ill again, and added that he was emotionally overwhelmed last year when her illness coincided with the success of their MTV reality show.

"She's got no cancer in her body now, they tell me, but there's always a chance of it coming back," Ozzy Osbourne told the music magazine Kerrang! "She's doing great, but I must confess that I'm still worried about her."

Sharon Osbourne, 50, announced last year that she was undergoing treatment for colon cancer, which she allowed cameras from "The Osbournes" to document. The hit reality series follows the daily misadventures of the couple and two of their three children, Jack and Kelly.

"With Sharon's cancer and the success of the TV show, I lost it last year, I just freaked out," the 54-year-old Osbourne said. "I think I had something like a nervous breakdown -- my nervous system just imploded. This is all too much for me sometimes."

Singer Braxton delivers baby boy Sunday

LOS ANGELES -- Singer Toni Braxton and her husband have another son.

"They are doing great, both mother and baby are resting comfortably," her publicist, David Brokaw, said Tuesday.

Diezel Ky Braxton Lewis was born Sunday at an Atlanta-area hospital. He's the second child of Braxton, 34, and her 32-year-old husband, Keri Lewis. They also have a 1-year-old son, Denim.

The Grammy-winning singer met Lewis when his band, Mint Condition, accompanied her on a concert tour.

-- From wire reports

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Marshall Tucker Band plan to play a May 1 concert organized as an alternative to the Dixie Chicks, who will be opening their United States tour at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville that day.

Radio talk show host Mike Gallagher proposed the concert as a way for fans to protest remarks that Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines made about President Bush during the European leg of the trio's tour.

"Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," Maines told a London audience last month. The singer since has apologized, but the anti-Chicks sentiment has spread rapidly.

The South Carolina House of Representatives even got involved in the fracas by adopting a resolution asking the band to play a free concert for the troops and their families as a way of apologizing.

Gallagher says people attending his concert who have Dixie Chicks tickets will sit in a special VIP section and attend a VIP reception.

All proceeds from the Marshall Tucker Band concert will buy food for military families and military communities, he said.

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NEW DELHI, India -- The Rolling Stones have arrived in India, after canceling their first-ever concerts in China because of a mystery disease.

The flu-like illness has infected more than 1,800 people worldwide, killing at least 75, mostly in Asia.

The band arrived with an entourage of 150 in the southern city of Bangalore late Tuesday on its "40 Licks" tour.

They'd been scheduled to perform Tuesday in Shanghai and Friday in Beijing, but changed their minds because of travel warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

These are just the latest shows the veteran rockers have canceled in their "40 Licks" tour because of the disease -- severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. They performed in Singapore earlier this week, but scrapped two weekend concerts in Hong Kong.

The Rolling Stones are now scheduled to play Friday in Bangalore, Monday in Bombay, India's financial hub, and April 10 in Bangkok, Thailand.

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NEW YORK -- Alan Brinkley, a historian and winner of the National Book Award, has been named provost of Columbia University.

Brinkley, 53, has taught at Columbia since 1991, and is the head of the university's history department.

"Throughout his career, Alan Brinkley has shown an unwavering commitment to academic excellence," Columbia President Lee Bollinger said Tuesday. "He is one of the most distinguished historians in the United States and a superb teacher."

As provost, Brinkley will be responsible for appointing the committees that determine tenure for professors at Columbia and Barnard College. He will replace Jonathan Cole, who has served as Columbia's provost since 1989.

Brinkley specializes in 20th-century American history. He won a National Book Award for 1982's "Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and the Great Depression."

Brinkley, who is the son of David Brinkley, the television commentator, received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a doctoral degree from Harvard University.

'Clerks' actor Mewes ordered to drug rehab

FREEHOLD, N.J. -- Jason Mewes, who played a pot-smoking slacker in Kevin Smith films including "Clerks" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," has been ordered to complete drug rehabilitation or face jail.

Mewes, 28, who failed to report for a court hearing stemming from a 1999 heroin conviction, had a warrant issued for his arrest in December 2001.

On Tuesday, he surrendered and pleaded guilty to probation violation charges. He admitted failing to report to his probation officer, take drug tests or undergo counseling. He also admitted leaving the state without permission and lying to his probation officer.

Superior Court Judge Michael D. Farren ordered Mewes to begin treatment within 10 days at Discovery House, a rehabilitation center in Marlboro.

Mewes, a Highlands native now living in Hollywood, Calif., must complete the program before he's allowed to leave New Jersey, Farren said.

If he violates his parole again, he faces up to five years in prison.

Mewes, who didn't speak during the hearing, declined comment afterward.

-- From wire reports

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BOSTON -- Ted Williams' daughter is coming to town to run in the Boston Marathon and help the Red Sox Hall of Famer's favorite charity.

Claudia Williams will run in the April 21 race to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which had close ties to her father.

"I remember visiting the Jimmy Fund Clinic with him and seeing how sensitive he was with the kids and the impact his visit had on them," she said recently. "I want to give something to the cause that my father felt so strongly about."

Williams said she took up running to deal with the grief of her father's death.

The Red Sox traditionally play at home on race day, a state holiday, starting the game at 11 a.m. so fans filing out of Fenway Park can watch the marathon's lead runners go through Kenmore Square.

The two Boston fixtures also are linked through Dana-Farber.

Williams will participate in the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, a program in which runners agree to raise at least $2,000 in pledges for charity.

The Jimmy Fund, another Dana-Farber charity, has been the primary beneficiary of Red Sox philanthropy since 1953. Ted Williams was a frequent visitor to the children's wards, and he continued to support efforts to cure cancer until his death last July at 83.