Queen Latifah back to host People's Choice Awards (AP)

NEW YORK � CBS says Queen Latifah will be back again to host "The People's Choice Awards."

CBS says she will be on board for her fifth consecutive year when the awards show airs on Jan. 5 from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.

Mark Burnett will return as executive producer for his second year.

In its 37th year, "The People's Choice Awards" is voted on entirely by the public for their favorites in music, movies and television. Fans can now vote online for any of 15 suggested new categories.

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Online:

http://www.peopleschoice.com

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Paris Hilton admits cocaine possession

LOS ANGELES | Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:42pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paris Hilton pleaded guilty on Monday to cocaine possession and was fined $2,000 by a Las Vegas judge and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.

Hilton, 29, was also given a one-year, suspended sentence and warned that any new arrests in Las Vegas would result in her going to jail.

Hilton could have been jailed for up to four years on the cocaine possession charge, but she reached a plea deal with prosecutors over her arrest on the Las Vegas strip on August 28.

"The purpose of this is that you change your conduct," Las Vegas justice Joe Bonaventure told Hilton at a brief hearing.

"I assure you that Clark County Detention Center is not the Waldorf Astoria," Bonaventure added. The Waldorf Astoria in New York is part of the Hilton group of hotels founded by Paris Hilton's great-grandfather Conrad Hilton.

The sometimes actress and celebrity socialite and her boyfriend, nightclub manager Cy Waits, were stopped by police just before midnight after they said they smelled marijuana coming from their vehicle.

Hilton was charged with possessing 0.8 grams of cocaine found in a purse. The former reality TV star initially denied the purse belonged to her, resulting in an additional charge of obstructing police.

"I was in possession as well as telling the officer the purse was not mine," Hilton, dressed demurely in a silk blouse and black skirt, told the court.

Asked what drug she was carrying, Hilton answered, "Cocaine."

Hilton spent three weeks in jail in Los Angeles in 2007 for violating probation on a reckless driving charge. In July, she was briefly detained in South Africa on suspicion of marijuana possession but was released without charge.

Her lawyer, David Chesnoff, told reporters outside the Las Vegas court that Hilton was contrite "and accepts responsibility for her actions."

"She was treated like anybody else would be treated under the circumstances," Chesnoff said.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Motley Crue's Vince Neil rails at foes, bandmates in book

By Phil Wahba

NEW YORK | Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:54pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Motley Crue singer Vince Neil says he has "never really had a voice" in all the tales of his three decade career fronting the hard rock band.

But his attempts to finally set the record straight in an autobiography chronicling years of sex, drugs, plastic surgery and numerous arrests, have already landed him back in trouble.

Neil, 49, lashes out at bandmates and attempts to settle old scores with rock rivals in "Tattoos and Tequila", to be published on Thursday.

He has also set off a new feud with music manager and "America's Got Talent" and "X Factor" judge Sharon Osbourne, the wife of former Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne.

"It really sickens me today to watch everybody fawning all over Sharon Osbourne," Neil writes in the book, recalling a 1984 tour when Motley Crue opened for Ozzy and Sharon was running an especially tight ship.

"This is the most evil, s-------- woman I've ever met," he added.

Osbourne shot back with some choice words of her own.

"He (Neil) has murdered somebody in a car," Sharon Osbourne told the New York Post last week. "He crippled two other people and he is still driving drunk. And that is why I used to keep my husband away from him."

Hanoi Rocks member Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley was killed in Neil's car when Neil was driving drunk in 1984, for which he served a jail term.

Neil was arrested again in June in Las Vegas on suspicion of drunk driving, a week after he released a solo album, also called "Tattoos and Tequila" -- a set of classic rock covers.

HARSH WORDS FOR BANDMATES

Neil told Reuters he doesn't like talking about himself. But he wanted to give his side of the storied history of the band, which has sold about 25 million albums in the United States alone.

Motley Crue released a best-selling band biography called "The Dirt" in 2001.

"There's been so much written about Motley Crue. I've never really had a voice", Neil said of his autobiography.

"This was my experience with Sharon 25 years ago. She was not very kind to Motley Crue," he added in an interview.

Osbourne is not the only target.

Neil, who split from Motley Crue in 1992 and rejoined in 1997, keeps some of his harshest words for his bandmates, whom he has compared to siblings with whom he feuds.

He faulted bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee and guitarist Mick Mars for not supporting him following the 1984 car accident, and disputed their account of the events that led to his 1992 departure.

The book also seeks to settle scores with old foes such as Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose. Neil reiterates a challenge to Rose to a boxing match that he issued in 1989 after an infamous backstage brawl at the MTV Video Music Awards.

On the sleeve of his book, Neil wrote, "Old rock stars fall hard." But Neil said the hard living has been worth it -- with the exception of the shame he feels about Dingley's death

"I don't have any regrets. Anything that I've done wrong, I've learned from," Neil said.

Neil will spend the fall on tour in support of his solo album and the book. He said Motley Crue plans to start rehearsals early in 2011 for its Crue Fest 3 festival but has no immediate plans for a follow-up to its 2008 hit album "Saints of Los Angeles."

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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New TV thriller "Event" a test of viewer patience

By Barry Garron

Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:12am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - With the conclusion last season of "Lost," "24" and "Heroes," it would seem television is ripe for a new action serial. That could bode well for NBC's "The Event," which premieres Monday, particularly because its pilot asks a lot of viewers but gives back comparatively little in return.

Successful shows of this stripe walk a careful line, building suspense and mystery even as they reward viewers with answers and insight. "Event" teases viewers with an intricately plotted tale of conspiracy and terrorism, but it weaves the story from so many directions, perspectives and timelines that the episode becomes a sort of video Rubik's Cube.

Comic-Con attendees aside, the effort required to follow the story by co-executive producer/writer/creator Nick Wauters goes well beyond what most viewers might be willing to give. With its large ensemble cast and frequent flashbacks -- visiting and revisiting events that occurred from 23 minutes to 13 months in the past -- watching "Event" is like riding a contraption that is half time machine and half bumper car.

The pilot only hints at the grand arc of what is to occur. This includes a macro story with global implications and a micro tale about a normal, unsuspecting nice guy (Jason Ritter) who plans to pop the question on a Caribbean cruise but instead stumbles into a world of sabotage and intrigue. Blair Underwood plays President Elias Martinez, who discovers that the CIA is operating a detention facility in Alaska that makes Guantanamo look like a Boy Scout camp. Against the counsel of advisers, he vows to close it down. Laura Innes plays Sophia, the leader of the detainees, and apparently the mastermind behind The Event.

Ritter is goodhearted Sean Walker, who plans to propose to Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) after securing the blessing of her dad (Scott Patterson). Then strange and really bad things happen to Leila's family, and Sean's world gets more complicated than a dessert station at a midnight buffet.

As showrunner, Evan Katz, formerly of Fox's "24," knows a good deal about storytelling at breakneck speeds. In addition, executive producer Jeffrey Reiner, who directed the pilot, barely lets you catch your breath. However, unless they reward viewer trust with a few satisfying answers -- and soon -- "Event" will see a sharp decline in RSVPs.

So far, the most enjoyable part of this dizzy ride is the brilliant cast. Underwood and Ritter are entirely convincing in complicated roles. Equally impressive is the work of Innes as the tightly wound conspirator and Zeljko Ivanek as the president's straight-talking aide. Cast and producers repeatedly have said that the second episode provides many answers. Maybe, then, instead of "The Event," the pilot should be called "Eventually."

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Fashion world bids farewell to Alexander McQueen

By Paul Casciato and Cindy Martin

LONDON | Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:14am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Supermodel Kate Moss and movie star Sarah Jessica Parker were among the elite of the fashion world who attended a memorial service for British designer Alexander McQueen at St. Paul's Cathedral on Monday.

McQueen committed suicide in February aged 40 shortly after the death of his mother. He took a mix of cocaine, tranquilizers and sleeping pills before hanging himself at his London flat, an inquest concluded.

"I loved him," Moss, dressed in black and wearing dark sunglasses, told Reuters outside the cathedral where Britons have mourned such national figures as Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchill and marked the end of two world wars.

When asked to sum up McQueen's career, Parker added: "One of a kind, very ... The service was bitter-sweet - perfect."

McQueen was one of the world's most provocative and revered designers, and shows featuring his "Highland Rape" and "Dante" collections were considered classics.

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of U.S. Vogue, gave an address during which she paid tribute to the mercurial personality and design genius of a boy from the gritty east end of London who rose to the heights of A-list stardom in the fashion world.

She recalled the dramatic impact of McQueen's designs by recounting the story of his Dante collection, featuring models wearing the "bumster" trousers worn well down the hip, hitting the catwalk in New York in the late 1990s.

"One (model) turned to give me an extremely prominent close-up of her mostly naked back view," Wintour told a congregation of more than a thousand people. "Well, after that collection it was a done deal. Everybody lowered their trousers everywhere."

BJORK AND BAGPIPES

Icelandic singer Bjork, dressed in giant angel wings and a silver helmet, performed a haunting song called "Gloomy Sunday," which talks in the first person about deciding "to end it all."

Afterwards, bagpipers dressed in tartan kilts played on the stairs outside the cathedral as guests, the famous, the friends and family of Alexander streamed out into the sunshine.

"I think Alexander would have loved every minute of it," Hilary Alexander, fashion director for the Telegraph newspaper, said as she left the memorial.

Born in a working class area of London, McQueen left school at the age of 16 and gained an apprenticeship at the traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard, moving on to neighboring Gieves and Hawkes.

The former British Designer of the Year winner eventually gained a masters degree in fashion design from London's prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

McQueen had an ability to shock and his autumn/winter 1995 collection "Highland Rape" which featured disheveled looking models in torn clothing was considered a classic example.

The following year, McQueen was named head designer at the staid Paris couture house Givenchy. His first collection for the French atelier was not widely considered to be a success.

But he went on to establish his own label and become part of the Gucci stable of brands owned by French retailer and luxury goods group PPR, drawing in fans, customers and fame and earning a place at the top table of fashion.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, writing by Mike Collett-White; editing by Ralph Boulton)

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