Kid Rock Sentanced To A Year Probation

Kid Rock has been sentenced to a year's probation and fined $1,000 for his role in a fight at a suburban Atlanta Waffle House last fall.

The DeKalb County solicitor's office said the 37-year-old was also sentenced Monday to six hours of anger management counseling and 80 hours of community service.

The entertainer, whose real name is Robert J. Ritchie, pleaded no contest to one count of simple battery. Four counts of battery were dropped.

Ritchie's tour bus stopped at the Waffle House about 5 a.m. on Oct. 21 after a performance in downtown Atlanta. An exchange of words with a customer escalated into a fight that spilled from the restaurant into the parking lot.

Ritchie and five members of his entourage were arrested. They appeared with him in court, and two of them pleaded no contest and received similar sentences of probation and community service. The judge dropped charges against the other three.

"After viewing the videotape, it was decided that they weren't involved," said Artealia Gilliard, spokeswoman for Solicitor-General Robert D. James Jr.

Ritchie's attorney, Darryl Cohen, said Tuesday that Ritchie was "not terribly unhappy" with the outcome although he believed he was not at fault.

"I think my client is satisfied," Cohen said. "He would have liked to have tried it. He came within a hairbreadth of going to trial."

Steven Adler: Another Arrested With Drugs

Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler has been arrested in Hollywood for alleged drug possession.

Los Angeles police spokesman Richard French says the 43-year-old Adler was arrested around 4 a.m. Friday by officers called to a home where a man reportedly was creating a disturbance and refusing to leave.

Adler was booked for investigation of possessing narcotics, being under the influence and for an outstanding warrant.

He was jailed on $45,000 bail.

Adler has a long history of drug use. He performed on the early Guns N' Roses albums but was later fired.

Spears Working On New Album

Britney Spears is working on a new album, her label said on Wednesday, as the U.S. pop star seeks to rebound from a period of troubling behavior and hospital stints for psychiatric evaluations.

Spears, 26, has spent much of the past 18 months in the headlines for an ugly divorce, losing custody of her two sons, rehab treatment, and erratic behavior like shaving her head and attacking a photographer's car with an umbrella.

But in the past six months Spears father Jamie has taken over management of her personal and business affairs and she has also been mentioned as a possible Emmy award nominee for two guest appearances on U.S. television series "How I Met Your Mother."

Now her manager, Larry Rudolph, and label, Jive Records, said in a statement that Spears, one of the world's most successful pop stars of the early 2000s, "is spending her summer in the recording studio, working on a brand new album."

"She's working with a team of top-notch producers and songwriters and we're very excited about what she's accomplished so far. No album release date has been confirmed yet," the statement said.

Spear's last album, "Blackout," debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last November, but quickly slid down the chart.

Spears and her former backup dancer Kevin Federline, 30, were divorced last summer after two years of marriage. The couple have two children together, Sean Preston, 2-1/2, and James Jayden, 22 months, and have started mediation sessions to work out custody and avoid a trial set for August.

Bon Jovi Rocks For Free

Bon Jovi rocked Central Park, New Jersey style.

The rock group gave a free concert Saturday night on the park's Great Lawn, delighting tens of thousands of fans who sang along with the lyrics on a glorious summer evening.

The band opened with "Livin' on a Prayer" and belted out songs including "Born to be my Baby," "Lost Highway," and "Runaway."
Jon Bon Jovi, for one, was relieved that a long tour was winding down.

"It's good not to call room service. I can tell you that, you know?" the singer said before the concert. "It feels real good not to dial 9 to get a cup of coffee. For me that was very nice this morning. But what a way to end up.

"We started 10 nights in New Jersey and ended up with the biggest show of the year in New York at Central Park on the Great Lawn. It's very rarified air, you know? We know there are only a half a dozen shows that have ever been on this grass."

New York City officials gave away 60,000 tickets for the concert. Some 50,000 people were expected to attend. The free tickets were reportedly being hawked by scalpers on eBay for as much as $1,500 a pair.

Bon Jovi said that drama did not put a damper on the show.

"No. I mean look, it's all behind us at this point," he told The Associated Press. "So we did what we could for our fans and for the people of New York and wanted to share a beautiful Saturday summer night with them."

Hundreds of fans lined up early — in some cases as many as six hours before the show's 8 p.m. start.

For some, it was a family affair. Josephine Ribaudo-McGrane, 34, of Queens, arrived at 1 p.m. wearing a well-worn Bon Jovi concert T-shirt she bought in 2006. She came with her mother, 12-year-old son, 8-year-old daughter, an adult sister and her best friend.

"They've gotten me through a lot of rough times," she said, adding that her iPod is stocked with 200 Bon Jovi songs. "I don't think there's a song that I don't like."

The show was billed as a prelude to the Major League Baseball All-Star game at Yankee Stadium. The game on Tuesday will mark the final season at the Bronx ballpark. A new stadium is being built.

The band joins other greats who have performed on the Great Lawn, including Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand and Pope John Paul II. Garth Brooks also performed at the park's North Meadow.

Bon Jovi performs at Madison Square Garden on Monday and Tuesday as part of its "Lost Highway" tour. Those shows require paid admission.

The quartet has been rocking for more than two decades and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Smashing Pumpkins Plan Anniversary

The Smashing Pumpkins will play a host of shows in the coming months to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

According to the group's Website, the Billy Corgan-fronted band will visit "mostly smaller-sized venues" during an August run featuring "unique sets and songs."

So far the only date announced is August 9 at the Venue in Hammond, Ind. Come November, the Pumpkins will anniversary shows at bigger venues in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and additional cities to be announced.

Another run of dates focusing on the band's debut 1991 album, "Gish," are on tap for early 2009, with cities to be announced.

Eminem Still Outta Control

He might be MIA, but that doesn't stop trouble from finding Eminem.

A man has filed a lawsuit against the Oscar and Grammy-winning "Lose Yourself" rapper for an alleged incident that took place in a bathroom of a Detriot strip club two years ago.

Miad Jarbou says Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, punched him July 13, 2006, at Cheetah's On the Strip Gentlemen's Club. No charges were filed at the time.

Jarbou is seeking more than $25,000 in damages.

Madam Marie Dead

Fortune teller Madam Marie, a figure of rock 'n' roll mythology thanks to Bruce Springsteen, has died. She was in her mid-90s.

Sally Castello tells the Asbury Park Press that her great-grandmother, Marie Castello, died Friday. The psychic reader and adviser began telling fortunes on the Asbury Park Boardwalk in New Jersey in the 1930s.

Madam Marie became famous in 1973 when Springsteen paid homage to her in the song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."

His lyric, "Did you hear, the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do," cemented her fame.