People talk 5/31/02

British tabloids publish photographs of Clinton

LONDON -- Two British tabloids carried photographs Thursday showing Chelsea Clinton being helped from a London nightclub by her boyfriend.

The Sun and the Daily Mail both published several photos suggesting the 22-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had too much to drink at the Embassy Club.

"Bill's girl is going ... going ... gone!" The Sun said in a headline on page 25. It was divided around three photos showing an apparently wobbly Chelsea Clinton being helped by Ian Klaus, another American studying at Oxford University.

The Daily Mail reported that Chelsea Clinton first tried to leave the club around 3 a.m. with a coat over her head, then lost control as she stumbled and was held up by Klaus and other friends on the way to the car.

Diana Ross enters drug, alcohol rehab

LOS ANGELES -- Diana Ross has entered a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center before she begins an international summer tour, her spokesman said Thursday.

The singer-actress voluntarily entered the Promises center in Malibu about 10 days ago "to clear up some personal issues," Paul Bloch said.

"She wants to be in great shape because she is someone who feels a sense of responsibility to her family and her fans," he said, reading from a prepared statement.

Bloch said he did not know when Ross would be released or the specific problem for which she was receiving treatment.

Ross, 58, was scheduled to begin her tour on June 26 in Germany. Bloch said the performances would not be postponed.

"She'll be touring," he said. "She'll be doing the great show she always does."

Rodman's dice rubbing ends out of court

CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Dennis Rodman reached an undisclosed settlement with a Las Vegas casino worker after appealing an $80,000 jury award to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Randall Jones, lawyer for the former NBA star, said he could not comment on the terms of the deal Wednesday. Michael Koning, the lawyer who represented James Brasich, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Brasich claimed he was humiliated during an October 1997 dice game at the Mirage in Las Vegas when Rodman rubbed dice on his head, chest, stomach and genitals.

Internet sale of Haggard country album stopped

FREDERICKSBURG, Texas -- A Central Texas concert promoter hoping to sell an unreleased Merle Haggard album on the Internet for $325,000 has been ordered to surrender the cassette.

Kathy Schroeder said at a pretrial court hearing Wednesday that she already gave Haggard the studio recording of him singing classics by Nat "King" Cole, Hoagie Carmichael and others.

But Haggard witnesses familiar with the recordings said the tape that Schroeder turned over was not the missing cassette that reportedly is worth $1 million or more, according to Thursday's editions of the San Antonio Express-News.

Haggard filed a lawsuit against Schroeder earlier this month, claiming theft and illegal conversion of his tape.

Schroeder organized an Oct. 27 concert in which Haggard was to star. According to court papers, the 65-year-old Haggard didn't make the show because he was sick, but his tour bus full of musicians and substitute performers did. The lawsuit says that when the bus returned to California, a cassette tape was missing that had been on board when Schroeder stopped by for a visit -- one of four copies circulated among Haggard's musician colleagues.

--From wire reports