Entertainment Briefs Feb. 11, 2010
Lil Wayne gets jail reprieve
NEW YORK — Rap star Lil Wayne has gotten a temporary reprieve from jail — for dental surgery.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper’s sentencing in a New York City gun case was postponed Tuesday, because he needs to finish a string of recent surgeries before he goes to jail.
Lil Wayne, one of music’s biggest sellers and rap’s hottest stars, is poised to spend as much as a year in jail under a plea deal, though good behavior could shave that to as little as eight months.
Sentencing now is scheduled for March 2. Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said it wouldn’t be put off any further.
The diminutive rapper, his hair in dreadlocks, said nothing at a brief court session Tuesday afternoon. He left in a black SUV, flanked by fellow rapper Birdman and others.
Defense lawyer Stacey Richman said Lil Wayne was headed home to Miami for dental work Friday. She declined to specify his malady.
“It is a medical situation that, like (it would for) any of us, has to be addressed,” she said outside court. She said the rapper had planned to take care of it before Tuesday, but his dentist had been out of the country doing charitable work.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon didn’t fight the rapper’s request to push back his sentencing, saying she had spoken to the dentist.
Lil Wayne, 27, pleaded guilty in October to a charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, admitting he illegally had a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun on his tour bus in July 2007. Police found the weapon when they stopped the bus after a Manhattan concert.
Last week, Lil Wayne reinforced his place in rap’s pantheon with a commanding performance at the Grammy Awards ceremony. His latest album, “Rebirth,” was released Feb. 2.
Meanwhile, he is preparing himself for jail, his lawyer said.
“He’s a strong man,” she said.
Beyonce, Keys shoot music video
RIO DE JANEIRO — Grammy Award-winning singers Beyonce and Alicia Keys are filming a music video in Rio de Janeiro.
Sheri Ladner is a publicist with RCA Music Group, which includes Keys’ label, J Records. She says the singers are shooting a video for their duet “Put It In a Love Song.” The song is from Keys’ recently released album “The Element of Freedom.”
Brazilian television on Tuesday showed the singers performing together in front of cameras in the Morro da Conceicao shantytown. Ladner says the video will have scenes recorded at several locations across Rio.
Keys already filmed one segment in Rio’s Dona Marta slum. That shantytown became renowned worldwide after Michael Jackson went there to film the 1996 video “They Don’t Care About Us.”
Palin’s grandson’s father in Playgirl
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The teen father of Sarah Palin’s grandson is featured on the cover of the upcoming print version of Playgirl magazine — sporting nothing but a sultry gaze.
The nude photos of Levi Johnston — the 19-year-old former fiance of Palin’s daughter — were a huge hit last fall on the magazine’s Web site. The publisher expects the same results with other photos from the same shoot running in the newly resurrected print version available Feb. 22 on newsstands.
Johnston fathered a son with ex-fiance Bristol, the 19-year-old daughter of the former Republican vice presidential candidate who resigned as Alaska’s governor last summer. The young couple broke up after the birth of their son, Tripp, in late 2008.
Magazine spokesman Daniel Nardicio says the spread includes an interview with Johnson, who discussed his strained relationship with the Palins.