People talk 7/30/03

Madonna, Elliott join campaign for the Gap

NEW YORK -- For its new fall ad campaign, the Gap gave Madonna and Missy Elliott a pair of corduroy pants and several tops to customize to their individual styles.

Each had a big M embroidered onto the back pocket of her pants. "Lady M" was silkscreened down one of the legs of Madonna's light-blue, low-rise cuffed cords. Elliott decorated her pants with studs, attached a gray hoodie sweat shirt to a corduroy jacket and had an airbrushed portrait of herself added to a plain white T-shirt.

Rebecca Weill, director of public relations for the Gap, said the company sought out Madonna and Elliott because they're fashion fans who are willing to take chances. "We knew we wanted the campaign to have an optimistic youthful energy, something that would appeal to our more adventurous customers," she explained.

Elliott brought her own monogrammed jewels to the photo shoot; Madonna wore a borrowed diamond wallet chain by Neil Lane and several diamond bracelets, together valued at $5 million.

Rapper charged with profanity in Jamaica

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica -- Jamaican rapper Sean Paul has been charged with using profanity during a performance at Montego Bay's Reggae Sumfest last week.

Paul's performance Thursday night was laced with expletives, police commander Newton Amos said Monday. Authorities served him with a summons under a law prohibiting people from using profanity in public.

He's scheduled to appear in court Wednesday in Montego Bay, police said. Paul was not immediately available for comment.

The rapper, whose hits "Get Busy" and "Like Glue" are in the top 20 of the Billboard singles chart, was served with the summons shortly after he left the stage, police said. The maximum fine is $20 or community service.

At last year's music festival, rappers Ja Rule and Snoop Dogg were summoned to appear in court for similar offenses, but they ignored the orders and left the island shortly after their performances.

Ray Charles postpones tour for hip treatment

LOS ANGELES -- Acute hip discomfort has forced music legend Ray Charles to postpone upcoming concert dates, his publicist said.

Charles, 72, has had cartilage problems around the joint and was diagnosed and undergoing treatment in Los Angeles, spokesman Jerry Digney said Monday.

The singer has won 13 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. He also was one of the original inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

The postponements affect 14 concerts starting with a scheduled appearance Wednesday in Worcester, Mass., Digney said. Charles expects to resume his national tour with late summer and fall concert dates beginning Aug. 22 at Harrah's Casino in Escondido.

Charles has recorded several classic songs, including "I Got a Woman," "What'd I Say" and "Georgia On My Mind."

Actress invokes 'pay or play' provision in lawsuit

LOS ANGELES -- Oscar-nominated actress Diane Lane has sued a movie production company for about $2.7 million, alleging it failed to finance a film she was slated to star in or sign up Bruce Willis as her co-star.

In the lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court, Lane alleges that Intermedia Film Equities USA agreed to pay her $3.5 million regardless of whether the movie entitled "Me Again" was made -- a provision known in the film industry as "pay or play."

Lane, 38, claims Intermedia made three payments to her in June, totaling some $833,000, but has failed to pay any more, leaving a balance of about $2.7 million.

She alleges Intermedia initially tried to reassign the film and her contract to another studio, but eventually agreed to pay her off.

Lane, who was nominated for best actress at this year's Academy Awards for playing an adulterous housewife in "Unfaithful," is seeking attorneys' fees and other court costs as well as the balance due on her contract.-- From wire reports

Vanessa Williams going to 'Boomtown'

LOS ANGELES -- Vanessa Williams liked the idea of joining the NBC drama "Boomtown" even though it means being away from her New York-based children while shooting the show in Los Angeles.

Williams has signed on to appear as Detective Katherine Pierce in 10 of the season's first 13 episodes of the sophomore series that airs Fridays this fall.

"It's a time in my life where I think that I have the flexibility to fly back and forth and try to balance the kids in New York, flying back there for them and working hard out here," she told the Television Critics Association last week.

"My nanny's been with me for 13 years. She went to high school with me. She's an extended part of my family. My parents still live back in New York. So it's a constant juggle, but that's my life."

Williams, 40, has three children from her first marriage. She has a young daughter with her second husband, Rick Fox of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he has a son from a previous relationship.

Fox, 33, is busy with his own acting career. He plays the love interest of Gloria Reuben in the Lifetime series "1-800-Missing" debuting Aug. 2.

Williams said she isn't worried about her husband being in someone else's arms.

"I've met Gloria. She's lovely and he gets really into his part. He's more concerned about making sure the lines are nailed," she said.

Williams' movie credits include "Shaft," "Eraser" and "Soul Food."

Bainwol picks up torch for recording industry

NEW YORK -- The recording industry named GOP political veteran Mitch Bainwol its head lobbyist, giving music companies a direct channel to Senate Republicans.

As chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America beginning Sept. 1, Bainwol will oversee an industry beleaguered by declining sales and rampant piracy through Internet file-swapping services.

He replaces Hilary Rosen, who said she was leaving the organization where she'd served as chief executive since 1998 for personal reasons.

Bainwol, who recently opened his own consulting firm, was briefly the chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and before that the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which raises money to get Senate Republicans elected. He also was chief of staff to former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., for nearly a decade.

Although the RIAA has focused much of its anti-piracy energies in the courts, it will have an advocate familiar with Capitol Hill when Congress considers copyright and other legislation related to the digital revolution.

"Mitch brings to the RIAA the consummate insider's understanding of political nuance in Washington," Roger Ames, chairman and chief executive of Warner Music Group, said in a statement Monday.

Such ties are fairly common for prominent lobbyists, said Mike Godwin, senior technology counsel for Public Knowledge, a Washington public interest group.

"A lot of trade associations are working on the assumption that they are going to be dealing directly with the party in power, and they are making choices of who to lead them based on that," Godwin said.

Republicans are in charge of Congress and through their committee chairmen set the nation's legislative agenda.

SNL comedian will star in his own show

LOS ANGELES -- Tracy Morgan is taking his act from late night to prime time.

The comedian recently left "Saturday Night Live" after seven seasons to star in "The Tracy Morgan Show," a proposed comedy about a hardworking family man that isn't yet on NBC's fall schedule.

Morgan recalled how his big break on "SNL" affected his family and friends in the Bronx.

"My whole life became a series of calming everybody down," he told the Television Critics Association last week. "They were on my front door. It was like hitting Lotto.

"I had to really get my family up out of the 'hood first. With the second check, we were gone. We live in a nice Jewish neighborhood. Quiet with our music, no gunshots, all that stuff. It's a positive effect on us. Some people tripped, but they're all right now."

Morgan recently moved his wife and three sons, ages 17, 16 and 11, to Los Angeles, where the new show is taped.

His character runs an automotive repair shop, a change from the outrageous characters and celebrity impressions he did on "SNL."

"This character gets to show people in the public that I'm a dad. They get to see the struggle," he said. "I grew up in a broken home, so this is what it would have been like if my dad would have stayed with my mom. This is what I wanted to see and I'm proud of it."

Tom Jones named to Gaming Hall of Fame

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Singer Tom Jones and Harrah's chairman Phil Satre were inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame at the new Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.

It was the first time in the event's 15-year history that the ceremony was held outside Las Vegas, and it coincided with the 25th anniversary of casino gambling in Atlantic City and the opening of the $1.1 billion Borgata.

"Our trip to Atlantic City is long overdue, don't you think?" Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, asked the crowd Saturday night.

Satre, 53, was a lawyer in private practice representing Harrah's in 1978 when he was sent to Atlantic City to gauge the reaction to the first casino to open there, Resorts International.

"I could see and I could count," Satre recalled. "I could see the mobs of people at Resorts and I could count the number of major population centers within 200 miles of Atlantic City."

Satre went on to become Harrah's president in 1984 and later was named chief executive officer. He presided over an era in which the company grew from a two-casino operation into a $4 billion company that operates 26 casinos in 13 states.

Jones made his first appearance in Atlantic City at Resorts in 1978. The 63-year-old singer said he'd continue to sing in casinos for as long as he could.

Premier Native American artist donates art collection

TSAILE, Ariz. -- Artist R. C. Gorman celebrated his 72nd birthday by donating a large collection of his art to a library at a Navajo college.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. were among 200 guests present Saturday for the occasion, which also marked the opening of the R. C. Gorman Library Collection at the Ki yaa anni Library at Dine College.

"We are celebrating the premier Indian artist of all time, the Picasso of American Indians," Richardson said. He signed a proclamation declaring Sunday as R. C. Gorman Day in New Mexico.

Shirley spoke of the importance of education and the role the new library would play in that process.

The collection consists of art, books, awards, mementos and sculptures.

"R.C. Gorman's collection unveils to the world the beauty of Navajo culture through his paintings and books," Richardson said.

-- From wire reports