Wesley Snipes still hopes to avoid jail

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 7, 2010 10:59pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Wesley Snipes said on Tuesday he was upset about going to prison but still hopes to avoid jail time on tax-related convictions as his lawyer seeks a U.S. Supreme Court review of Snipes' case.

Appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live," Snipes' attorney, Daniel R. Meachum, pointed out what he believes are irregularities in the case against the star of the "Blade" action movies, and said he plans to file legal documents with the Supreme Court seeking a review of the case.

Snipes, 48, was convicted in 2008 in an Ocala, Florida court for willful failure to file tax returns from 1999 through 2001. Each of the misdemeanor counts carried a maximum one-year prison term. Snipes was found not guilty on five other counts.

Meachum also said he has appealed a Florida judge's denial of a new trial and the judge's failure to interview a juror who has come forth with claims that Snipes was convicted despite reservations by some members of the jury.

Absent any new rulings, Snipes is expected to surrender to federal officials on Thursday and begin a three-year term in a Pennsylvania prison.

"Any man would be nervous if his liberty was at stake," Snipes told King when asked about going to jail. "Right now, I'm more upset and disappointed that the system seems to not be working for me."

But Snipes held out hope that he might avoid time in prison. "We still have prayers out there, Larry, and we believe in miracles. Don't send me up the river, yet," he said.

Among claims made by Snipes and his attorney were that the jury was predisposed to convict him before the trial started and that because a key witness is an alleged felon he is untrustworthy in proving Snipes intended to break the law.

Snipes also singled out the media for what he said was misreporting the facts in the case.

"It's been presented as though I'm worthy of this kind of punishment (but) I've been a law abiding citizen ever since I grew up in the Bronx in New York," Snipes said.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Chris Wilson)

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Oprah Winfrey feared launching OWN network

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 7, 2010 5:06pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey said launching her own cable TV network in 2011 has been the scariest thing she has ever done.

"I have never felt such fear in all my life...I was afraid of failing...I was afraid it wouldn't be what 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' has been, and has meant, for all these years," she told her own magazine "O" in an interview.

"What I realized is that I've never been afraid before. Not with any decision I've ever made," Winfrey added.

Winfrey's OWN:Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture between her company Harpo Inc and Discovery Communications, launches on January 1. The lifestyle and female-oriented cable network will be available in 80 million homes on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel.

Winfrey, 56, regarded as one of the most influential women in America, has said she will end her top-rated daily chat show in ABC in May 2011 after 25 years.

In her interview for the January edition of "O" magazine, Winfrey said she dreamed up the OWN network as far back as May, 1992.

The line-up for the new network includes a reality series about Britain's Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, a daytime chat show from Rosie O'Donnell and a behind-the-scenes look at Winfrey's final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show".

Advertisements for OWN began running in movie theaters last week with a theme song by Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am called "OWN It!"

Winfrey described OWN in her magazine as "a channel where people will see themselves, and their ideals and their values and their hopes, see their struggle, see who they are through the lives of others -- in a real way that enriches them."

O'Donnell, the controversial celebrity whose OWN show will start in the fall of 2011, told "O" magazine it would be "about real people and real issues...I envision the show being full of love and laughter."

Ferguson, the scandal-hit British royal whose reality program "Finding Sarah" will make its debut in mid-2011, said she hoped that by doing the show "I'll feel a peace I haven't felt in my whole life, free from my mind tormenting and judging and calling me names."

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Leonardo DiCaprio attacker gets two years in jail

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 7, 2010 8:08pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who pleaded no contest to smashing a glass into actor Leonardo DiCaprio's face at a party five years ago was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison.

Aretha Wilson, 40, was given credit for the nearly one year already spent in jail and with time off for good behavior, she may be behind bars for about six more months, her attorney said outside the Los Angeles courtroom where she was sentenced.

The attorney, Freddy Sayegh, told reporters Wilson was pleased with the outcome, and a prosecutor said DiCaprio was happy the case was resolved before it went to a full trial.

Last month Wilson, a Canadian citizen, pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in the attack on June 17, 2005.

She and DiCaprio were both at a party in the Hollywood Hills. At a pre-trial hearing this past summer, a witness testified that Wilson was cursing at one of DiCaprio's friend when she hit the actor with a wine glass, opening a wound near his neck and ears that required 17 stitches to close.

Sayegh told reporters that after Wilson serves her remaining time in jail, she will be turned over to federal officials and deported to Canada.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Paul Reiser makes 'unusual suspect' for music album

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES | Tue Dec 7, 2010 2:57pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - You wouldn't know it when he talks because he jokes about it, and even his partner admits she investigated his claim before she believed it.

But comedian Paul Reiser, famous as a stand-up comic and star of 1990s TV sitcom "Mad About You," is a classically trained pianist, composer and recently he released his first album with British singer/songwriter Julia Fordham, called "Unusual Suspects."

The title seems appropriate.

He is an American TV star known for cracking jokes. She is a singer who in the late 1980s made U.K. record charts with songs such as "Happy Ever After." Yet, pair them up and they seem as comfortable as the black and white keys of a piano.

"Sometimes you just have to go with your instinct, and it did look a bit peculiar on paper, but it just had this really authentic and natural flow to it," Fordham told Reuters about their collaboration.

Reiser's characterization is a bit different.

"I wanted to drag Julia's career down," he joked in a joint interview. "She was doing so well, why not sully the water."

She laughs, as does he, and the truth is that, at least in person, the pair -- she the singer and writer of lyrics; he the composer of music melody and rhythm -- seem quite like a fit.

"Unusual Suspects" was released in November, featuring 10 contemporary arrangements for songs with titles such as "You Keep Me on My Feet," "Fine," "Stolen Kiss" and "Minefield."

Fordham showcases her sultry voice and wide vocal range, and Reiser puts his skills on the piano to work. He describes the songs as being melancholy and bittersweet, yet she says that in each, there lingers a sense of hope.

"Unsung Heroes," which is getting some support among fans, speaks to the losses endured by families of military men and women fighting wars overseas.

WAITING TO BREAK OUT

"Under every funny guy there's a melancholic chap longing to break out," said Fordham.

"And by the same token, in every beautiful chanteuse, there is Shecky Greene inside. Jerry Lewis lives inside," countered Reiser.

All teasing aside, Reiser, 53, studied music in college and learned about composition for the piano, but on summer breaks comedy was his gig. And he soon found himself making audiences laugh at his jokes.

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