Josh Grossberg Tue Jan 22, 6:06 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - The Prodigal Son is on the rebound.

Nate Dogg, the rapper who's collaborated with the likes of Eminem, 50 Cent and his similarly monikered cousin Snoop Dogg, was hospitalized last month in California after suffering a mild stroke but is now on the road to recovery, according to his reps.

Early reports indicated that the 39-year-old emcee, whose real name is Nathaniel Hale, might have had a heart attack Dec. 19, when he was admitted to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. He emained there through the Christmas holiday.

But the hip-hopster's manager, Rod McGrew, has clarified that Dogg suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body and affected his nervous system, including his sense of touch and ability to walk.

"Time will tell everything, obviously," his manager told MTV News. "The doctor can only guess what the outcome will be.  But based on situations with similar people his age, and based on his health, the prognosis is good right now."

Thankfully, the stroke did not cause any brain damage or vocal impairment and was confined to "neural muscular issues that have to be jump-started," McGrew said.

Nate Dogg was released from the hospital on Dec. 26 and is currently in a medical rehab facility, where he will work intensively with therapists to recover his motor skills.

The artist's manager also smacked down gossip sites for making light of the 911 call from his girlfriend.

"I'm not sure what people are trying to glean from that tape," McGrew said. "The media wants to create something, but I'm not sure what the point is.  If you had an emergency and someone was in your presence, they would call 911."

McGrew said the rapper's camp had not ruled out some kind of legal action.

He also requested that fans and media respect Nate's privacy as he works on his recovery.

After making his rap debut on Dr. Dre's classic 1992 album, The Chronic, Dogg has released four solo albums and won four Grammy Awards.

But he's remains best known for his guest vocals on Warren G's "Regulate," Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode," 50 Cent's chart-topping 2003 single "21 Questions" and Eminem's "Shake That" from Curtain Call.

34 minutes ago

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Ralph Stanley and Doc Watson, two pillars of Appalachian music, will headline this year’s Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion.

It will be the first time either has performed at the annual festival celebrating the region’s musical heritage. The festival runs Sept. 19-21 in downtown Bristol.

“They are such great artists, and both are from this area,” said Leah Ross, the festival’s executive director.

In the 1950s, Stanley and Watson performed in Bristol on the “Farm and Fun Time” radio program, which helped promote their careers.

Stanley, 80, a native of southwest Virginia, is a member of the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.

He and his brother, Carter, formed the Stanley Brothers and their Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946. The duo helped define the music that would become known as bluegrass, fusing Bill Monroe’s rapid rhythms with the mountain folk of groups such as the Carter Family.

After his brother died of liver disease in 1966, Stanley continued recording and adopted the a cappella singing style of the Primitive Baptist church in which he was raised.

Stanley gained a new generation of fans when his music was featured in the 2000 film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Watson, a western North Carolina native, became a key figure in the 1960s folk movement with his mix of mountain tunes, blues and gospel. He helped revolutionize folk guitar with his flat-picking, evident on his signature song, “Black Mountain Rag.”

Watson, 84, has received seven Grammy Awards.

Besides Stanley and Watson, the music festival’s lineup includes T.G. Sheppard, Sam Bush, Cherryholmes, Blue Highway, The Infamous Stringdusters, Kelli Willis, New Riders of the Purple Sage, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Otis Taylor.

____

On the Net:

Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion:

http://www.bristolrhythm.com

Ralph Stanley:

http://drralphstanley.com/index.shtml

38 minutes ago

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Sun, sand, stupidly-big sunglasses and A$600 ($500) tips.

Those are the new ingredients of the Australasian summer, as music celebrities from quirky Icelandic icon Bjork to U.S. rocker Jon Bon Jovi escape winter to play the concerts and festivals that typically mark the start of the year Down Under.

Visiting U.S. rocker Jon Bon Jovi was crowned biggest tipper in town on Tuesday by the Daily Telegraph newspaper after leaving a A$600 tip to an astonished Sydney waiter.

"It's the biggest single tip I've ever received in the four years I have worked here," waiter Ed Tomlinson, 28, said. "To get A$100 is a bonus, so this was pretty substantial."

Celebrity mania of another sort broke out days earlier at Queensland's Big Day Out festival, as fans donned a very 2008 fashion trend: the oversized yellow sunglasses worn by teen Corey Delaney, who shot to global fame as "MySpace party boy."

Hundreds among the 53,000-strong crowd, and performers from Australian bands Regurgitator and Silverchair, sported the trademark day-glo shades worn by the infamous teen, who was arrested after a near-riot at his house party, the Courier Mail newspaper reported.

Across the Tasman Sea in Auckland, New Zealand, the first stop on the six-city Big Day Out tour, the music stars left behind another trail of gossip and waiter interviews after the festival kicked off last Friday.

Auckland's most famous surf spot, Piha Beach on the city's west coast, became celebrity central as Bjork and Rage Against the Machine band members relaxed on the black sands before facing the crowds, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Bjork, who is headlining upcoming Big Day Out shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and will play a sold-out set at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday, turned heads in kiwi surf shops and restaurants.

Despite grabbing headlines for ripping the shirt of a paparazzi photographer upon touching down at Auckland airport, it was the singer with a reputation for unconventionality's "normality" that most impressed locals.

"It was very exciting for me," a woman from Piha's general store told New Zealand media.

"Bjork was just wearing normal beachwear. She looked absolutely normal."

Chef Daniel Morini, who served Bjork two separate meals at the Piha Surf Lifesaving Club restaurant, said he also tried to act normal in the starlet's presence.

"Everyone was saying, ask her for an autograph. I said, nah - didn't want any 'talk to the hand'," Morini said, referring to the celebrity's often-used first line of defense against the public — a raised hand signaling that they do not want to chat.

"I thought of putting her fork on eBay," the chef confessed.

"But I didn't."

(Reporting by Gillian Murdoch, editing by Rob Taylor)

35 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears showed up.

The pop star went to a deposition Monday in her dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the custody of their two boys, according to published reports.

Spears drove to the office of Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, with a friend and was seen leaving more than two hours later, People.com and TMZ.com reported.

Calls to Kaplan’s office Monday were not answered, and a phone message left with Spears’ lawyer, Tara Scott, was not immediately returned.

Spears has had trouble making recent legal dates. On Dec. 12, she called in sick for a court-ordered deposition, then arrived late at Kaplan’s office on its rescheduled date, Jan. 3. That night, she was taken to a hospital after a standoff in her home when she refused to return the children to Federline’s bodyguard following a visit.

Spears didn’t attend a court hearing Jan. 14 in which a court commissioner decided to keep in effect an order suspending her right to visit Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2.

Spears went to the courthouse briefly but never went inside, and she left amid a swarm of paparazzi.

She will get another chance Feb. 19 to persuade the court to restore her visitation rights.

By DAVID KOENIG, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago

DALLAS - The widow of Sammy Davis Jr. is suing two former business partners over the rights to the Rat Pack entertainer’s life story and management of his legacy.

Altovise Davis says in a lawsuit filed in federal court that the two men exaggerated their show-business credentials and defrauded her into signing away some rights to her husband’s estate.

The entertainer — a fixture in Las Vegas with fellow Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Joey Bishop — died of throat cancer in 1990 at age 64. He owed more than $5 million to the IRS, forcing his widow to auction many of his personal belongings.

Altovise Davis says she gave her intellectual rights to Sammy Davis Jr. Enterprises Inc., formed in 2004 by Barrett LaRoda and Anthony Francis, in return for a one-third share in the business.

She alleges the men hid the company’s financial records from her.

Things came to a head, according to the lawsuit, during negotiations with a studio that wanted to make a biopic about Davis. The movie was to be partly based on two books — “Yes I Can” and “Why Me?” — that Davis wrote with the help of friends Judy and Burt Boyar. Altovise Davis and the Boyars held copyright interest in the books.

According to the lawsuit, LaRoda and Francis killed the movie negotiations by demanding a “substantial” fee and credit as executive producers.

The Boyars company, Dallas-based Boyar Investments LLC, joined Altovise Davis in suing the men. The lawsuit was filed last month in state court but was moved to federal court in Dallas because of copyright issues. Altovise Davis is seeking unspecified monetary and punitive damages.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, LaRoda said he was trying only to get Mrs. Davis more money from the movie. Davis is “like a mother to me” but is being manipulated by Burt Boyar, LaRoda said.

“I think the movie should be made … and ‘Yes I Can’ is a great source material,” LaRoda told the AP. “The sad thing here is the tarnishing” of Sammy Davis’ image.

In a court filing, LaRoda and Francis said Altovise Davis’ royalties more than quadrupled after she signed up with them and that their efforts helped rebuild her husband’s image.

LaRoda’s company, The LaRoda Group Inc. of Reseda, Calif., is also a defendant.

Davis’ lawyer, Michael Lynn, said the widow is devastated that LaRoda and Francis “have decided to hold this movie hostage to their own selfish interests.” She hopes the lawsuit will clear the way for the movie to get made, he said.

On its Web site, the LaRoda Group has a picture of LaRoda, Francis and Altovise Davis with Larry King on the set of King’s CNN talk show.

49 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Pink Floyd mastermind Roger Waters will bring the curtain down on the annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in southern California on April 27, organizers said on Monday, document.write('’);

The other headliners during the three-day event in the desert town of Indio, 130 miles east of Los Angeles, are singer/songwriter Jack Johnson on Friday, April 25, and reunited British electronica combo Portishead on Saturday April 26. Waters will perform his band's opus "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety.

Friday's lineup also includes such acts as The Verve, Raconteurs, The Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan and Sara, and Madness.

Saturday's offerings will also feature Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Cafe Tacuba, Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam.

Preceding Waters on Sunday will be the likes of Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket, and Spiritualized.

Tickets go on sale Friday, priced at $269 for all three days, or $90 for a single day. Service fees apply.

Coachella, now in its ninth year, has become one of the premier festivals in the United States, where such events are not as common as they are in Europe.

Coachella promoter Goldenvoice said it would launch a three-day festival near New York City on August 8-10 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. The lineup for the All Points West Music & Arts Festival will be announced in the coming weeks.

Reuters