Sarah Hall Thu Mar 27, 9:41 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - In the end, Remy Ma couldn't beat the rap.

The Grammy-nominated rapper (real name: Remy Smith) was convicted Thursday of shooting a woman outside a Manhattan nightclub in July 2007.

She faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced April 23.

Ma wiped tears from her eyes as the verdict was read and wept openly as she was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. The judge denied a request from her attorney, Ivan Fisher, to have her released on bail until her sentencing.

Her defense team had conceded that Ma, 26, fired a shot at a friend whom she suspected of stealing $3,000 from her but claimed that it was an accident.

In their version of events, Ma and her victim, Makeda Barnes Joseph, were struggling over Joseph's purse after Ma demanded to look inside for the missing money and Joseph refused. Amid the tussle, Ma's gun supposedly went off accidentally, launching a bullet into Joseph's gut.

However, Assistant District Attorney Michael McIntosh said that Ma "took every step you had to take to shoot somebody," including loading her illegal .45-caliber automatic with hollow point bullets and using both hands to cock the weapon.

Joseph survived the shooting, but required three operations on her abdomen and was hospitalized for several weeks, according to her testimony.

Ma was found guilty of assault, weapon possession and attempted coercion. She was acquitted of additional charges of witness tampering and gang assault, stemming from the beating of the boyfriend of a witness who ultimately testified against her.

Her attorney said he plans to appeal the ruling.

By Dan Whitcomb 22 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Richie Sambora, lead guitarist for the rock band Bon Jovi, was arrested in Southern California on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, police said on Wednesday.

Sambora, who was taken into custody shortly before 11 p.m. on Tuesday night in the seaside community of Laguna Beach, could also face child endangerment charges because there were two minors in his black Hummer at the time, police said.

"He was stopped for lane-straddling and weaving in lanes," Laguna Beach police spokesman Sgt. Jason Kravetz said. "The officer who contacted him smelled alcohol, got him out of the vehicle and performed a field sobriety test."

Kravetz said the 49-year-old rocker, a longtime resident of Laguna Beach, failed the field sobriety test and was administered a blood test when he was booked at the police station.

Sambora, who was "very cooperative" with officers, was released on his own recognizance at about 4 a.m. on Wednesday and ordered to appear in court on May 7, Kravetz said.

Police declined to identify the three female passengers in Sambora's car, but the guitarist has a 10-year-old daughter with actress Heather Locklear.

The guitarist twice spent time in rehab during 2007.

"At this point we're waiting for the blood test results," Kravetz said. "There is a possibility we will seek additional charges if, after speaking with the District Attorney's office, we feel the children were endangered."

Bon Jovi, formed in New Jersey during the 1980s, became one of the decade's iconic bands with top-selling albums including "Slippery When Wet" and "New Jersey."

The band, which is fronted by singer Jon Bon Jovi, is best known for such classic rock hits as "Livin' on a Prayer," "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "I'll Be There for You."

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

31 minutes ago

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Grammy-winning Tejano music star Emilio Navaira's chances of survival are improving, his doctor said on Wednesday, following a crash this week in which he was thrown through the windshield of his tour bus.

"I feel optimistic that he will not die," Dr. Alex Valadka said at a news conference. "He's done about as well as can be expected."

Navaira, 45, had been in grave condition following Sunday's early morning crash, and Valadka had said there was "a chance he may not make it." The neurosurgeon cautioned on Wednesday that something adverse might still happen to Navaira.

"He can still take a turn for the worse," he said.

Valadka led a team of surgeons who removed a hand-sized portion of Navaira's skull on Tuesday to reduce pressure from a bruise forming on the left side of the singer's brain.

The operation was the second surgery to relieve pressure on the brain after the bus Navaira was driving crashed into a concrete highway barrier in the Houston suburb of Bellaire, Texas.

Navaira remained unconscious in critical condition at Memorial Hermann hospital. He is expected to stay in the intensive care unit for up to two weeks.

The singer likely faces a long recovery lasting at least several months, Valadka said. Until he awakens, doctors are unable to tell how much brain damage he may have suffered.

The area of the brain where the bruise formed is near where speech recognition is controlled, he said. The doctors did not attempt to reduce the bruise for fear of causing further harm.

Police continue to investigate the accident.

Navaira's brother Raul on Wednesday discounted the suggestion fatigue was a factor. Raul Navaira plays in his brother's band, which performed on Saturday night at a southeast Houston nightclub.

"Every weekend we're used to driving all over Texas," Raul Navaira said. He declined to discuss if his brother had been drinking alcohol before departing the club.

Called the "King of Tejano music," Navaira is often described as one of the most influential Tejano musicians, on par with the late singer Selena. Navaira won a Grammy award in 2003 for his album "Acuerdate."

(Reporting by Erwin Seba, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Natalie Finn Wed Mar 26, 12:21 PM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Apparently the Los Angeles Times should have Combed a little deeper before it reported on evidence contained in a batch of newly discovered FBI files that connected Sean "Diddy" Combs to a 1994 shooting assault on Tupac Shakur at a New York recording studio. 

The paper confirmed Wednesday it is launching an internal investigation into those so-called records in light of The Smoking Gun's revelation that most of the documents that fueled the Times' report were fabricated, forged by an incarcerated Florida conman who fancied himself a hardcore hip-hop insider. 

"Questions have been raised about the authenticity of documents that we relied on for a story on the assault of Tupac Shakur in New York," Times editor Russ Stanton said in a statement. "We are taking this very seriously and have begun our own investigation." 

According to The Smoking Gun, convict James Sabatino, whose own father described him in a letter to a federal judge as a "disturbed young man who needed attention like a drug," filed what looked like an FBI interview report along with civil court documents related to an ongoing lawsuit against Combs. 

The 31-year-old Sabatino, who's currently behind bars in Pennsylvania on a fraud charge, is suing the hip-hop mogul for $16 million over an alleged botched business deal. 

Among the indicators that the documents were bogus: they were riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, composed by typewriter rather than computer, contained blacked-out sections and had FBI filing numbers not found in the bureau's database. 

"Beyond ridiculous and completely false" was how Combs described the March 17 article by Pulitzer Prize-winner Chuck Philips, which alleged, based on mostly anonymous sources and "confidential FBI files," that two former associates of Combs orchestrated the shooting and beating of Shakur in retribution for his refusal to join Combs' Bad Boy Records label—and that Combs, who was in the studio several floors above where the beatdown took place, knew about it beforehand. 

It was this attack on Shakur that authorities say launched the East Coast-West Coast war that resulted in the deaths of Shakur, a Death Row Records artist, in 1996 and, less than a year later, Bad Boy rapper Biggie Smalls. 

"Neither [Notorious B.I.G.] nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened," Combs continued. "I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story."  

The article was first posted online as a web-only exclusive and then an abridged version was published in the Times' print edition two days later, despite an unequivocal demand from Combs' legal camp to keep the story out of the paper. 

In a letter addressed to Times publisher David Hiller and dated March 18, L.A.-based attorney Howard Weitzman asked for a retraction of the online story, stating that Philips had "absolutely no information that would allow readers to determine for themselves the reliability of the anonymous sources used in the Article."

The lawyer also called it "telling" that the purported confidential FBI informant was not among the anonymous sources directly cited by the writer. 

"The Times has not only defamed Mr. Combs, but failed its readers by printing a story of dubious ongoing news value…that breached its own journalistic standards in its use of anonymous sources," Weitzman continued. Finally, he informed Hiller that Combs was retaining the right to take further legal action. 

The paper said that, as of Tuesday, it had not yet responded to the retraction demand.

David Jenison Wed Mar 26, 8:09 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - It seems Diddy's learned to walk softly and carry a big Kane.

Danity Kane, a product of the Diddy-powered MTV series Making the Band, is now 2-for-2 when it comes to debuting at No. 1. The group's Welcome to the Dollhouse topped the charts for the week ended Easter Sunday, selling more than 236,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan numbers.

In a time of declining album sales, Dollhouse actually sold 2,000 more first-week copies than Danity Kane's self-titled debut two years ago. Furthermore, Dollhouse trails only Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static for the biggest bow of the year. (Currently at No. 5, Static sold 375,000 first-week copies in its February debut.)

Back in '06, Danity Kane scored an upset victory on the charts when the band's rookie release dethroned Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics and beat OutKast's Idlewild for the week's top debut. While Danity's latest didn't face such tough competition, Dollhouse did send last week's chart-topper, Rick Ross' Trilla, down to No. 3 and held Now That's What I Call Music! 27 in the two spot despite a slight uptick in sales.

Danity Kane also topped red-hot rapper Flo Rida, whose Mail on Sunday delivered a No. 4 bow on 86,000 copies. Late last year, the Sunshine State emcee scored a major hit with "Low," setting new digital sales records and topping the Hot 100 for several weeks. Possibly hampering Sunday sales, the song already made its CD debut last month as part of the Step Up 2: The Streets soundtrack.

Overall, the Easter holiday provided a good week for young female stars. In addition to Danity, the Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus soundtrack jumped 10 spots to No. 6, while Cyrus' The Best of Both Worlds Concert held at No. 10. The week also saw Taylor Swift return to the Top 10 with her self-titled debut surging four spots to No. 8.

(Though not making the Top 10, several other youth-friendly albums enjoyed significant gains: the Alvin and the Chipmunks soundtrack up four to 11 in advance of the film's April 1 release on DVD; the Jonas Brothers' self-titled up five to 12 following the announcement of their new reality show; and Disney's Enchanted soundtrack up 110 spots to 39, with nearly threefold sales in conjunction with the DVD hitting stores.)

Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin' and Sara Bareilles' Little Voice rounded out the Top 10 at Nos. 7 and 9, respectively.

Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple made an impressive chart appearance after its release date was unexpectedly bumped up three weeks to combat an online leak. On primarily digital sales, the Cee-Lo/Danger Mouse duo sold 31,000 copies of The Odd Couple for a No. 18 bow (and No. 1 at iTunes).

Other notable debuts included Rocko entering the ring at 21 with Self-Made, Sheek Louch's Silverback Gorilla swinging in at 41 and Black Tide's Light from Above washing ashore at 73.

Next week, Diddy's latest Making the Band act, Day26, will see if it can repeat Danity Kane's success next week, as its eponymous debut's first-week sales will be reflected on the album chart.

Overall, sales are up over 11 percent compared to last week and down just a percentage point against the same sales week in '07.

Here's a recap of the Top 10:

  • Welcome to the Dollhouse, Danity Kane   • Now That's What I Call Music! 27, various   • Trilla, Rick Ross   • Mail on Sunday, Flo Rida   • Sleep Through the Static, Jack Johnson   • Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus   • Ego Trippin', Snoop Dogg   • Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift   • Little Voice, Sara Bareilles   • The Best of Both Worlds Concert, Hannah Montana

52 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Kevin Federline says he’s been on full-time daddy duty since getting custody of his two toddler sons.

“I spend most of the day chasing my kids around the house,” he tells In Touch Weekly magazine. “Their needs define my schedule every day.”

Federline has had sole custody of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 18 months, since early this year after months of bizarre behavior by his ex-wife, Britney Spears. The couple, who wed in October 2004, divorced last July.

Spears is now under the court-ordered conservatorship of her father, James Spears.

“It is so very important to me that my children will always know and never question, that no matter what happens, they have a mommy and daddy who love them very much,” Federline, 30, tells the magazine.

Last week, the 26-year-old pop star was ordered by a Los Angeles court commissioner to pay Federline $375,000 to cover his attorney fees in their child-custody dispute.

Federline also has a son and daughter with ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson.

“I will always love the mothers of my children, and I will always be there for both of them,” Federline says.

“I believe that any good energy I put out there brings more good energy into my own life. The relationships with my kids and family will last my whole life and are the most important to me,” he says.

___

On the Net:

In Touch Weekly:

http://intouchweekly.hollywood.com/

By Katie Hasty 51 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Danity Kane, a prefabricated MTV girl group, scored its second consecutive No. 1 on the U.S. album chart Wednesday, while pop-soul duo Gnarls Barkley's latest release entered at a disappointing No. 18 after being rushed out three weeks ahead of schedule.

Danity Kane's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" sold 236,192 copies in the week ended March 23, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It ranks as the second-biggest opening of the year, behind the 375,000-unit start for Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" in February.

Perhaps more incredibly, at a time when most artists are routinely suffering big sales drops amid a decadelong slump in the music industry, "Welcome to the Dollhouse" managed to sell about 2,000 copies more than Danity Kane's 2006 self-titled debut. The debut has sold 926,000 copies to date.

The MTV "Making the Band 3" troupe is signed to Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy imprint. It's a good day for Combs. The Los Angeles Times said it is reviewing a recent story linking the hip-hop mogul to the 1994 shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur, amid an online report that the paper may have relied on forged FBI documents. Combs strongly denied any involvement in the shooting.

The Grammy-winning Gnarls Barkley's second album, "The Odd Couple," sold 31,000 copies for its No. 18 start. Its 2006 debut, "St. Elsewhere," opened at No. 20 and peaked at No. 4 as the single "Crazy" turned into a monster hit. "St. Elsewhere" has sold 1.4 million copies to date.

"The Odd Couple" was rushed out last Tuesday, three weeks earlier than planned, likely because of an early leak on the Internet; online buyers accounted for 85% of the sales. A spokeswoman from the group's Atlantic Records label did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Elsewhere, the multi-artist "NOW 27" compilation held steady at No. 2 with 170,000 copies in its second week. Last week's champ, Rick Ross' "Trilla," fell to No. 3 with 90,000.

Rookie rapper Flo Rida may have recently topped Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for a massive 10 weeks with "Low," but his debut album "Mail on Sunday" bowed at No. 4 with a relatively modest 86,000 copies. By contrast, "Low" has sold 3.3 million downloads since its November release, the biggest selling digital download of all time.

Johnson's "Static" slipped one to No. 5 with 67,000 in its seventh week. Sales to date stand at 939,000 copies.

Miley Cyrus' Disney double-disc "Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus" soared 10 to No. 6 with 61,000. Additionally, her "The Best of Both Worlds Concert" set held at No. 10 with 51,000.

Snoop Dogg's "Ego Trippin"' slid four to No. 7 with 57,000. Blender magazine cover girl Taylor Swift's self-titled album jumped four to No. 8, also with 57,000.

Three weeks after it debuted at No. 1, Janet Jackson's "Discipline" now resides at No. 17. Its sales to date stand at about 310,000 copies; at the same point in its cycle, her previous release "20 Y.O." had sold 443,000 copies. The 2006 disc was considered a big disappointment.

Album sales, boosted by the Easter holiday, rose 11.3% over the prior week to 8.83 million units, but were down 1.1% compared to the same week in 2007.

Reuters/Billboard

Sarah Hall Wed Mar 26, 9:31 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Justin Timberlake is bringing sporty back.

The pop star has been tapped to host the 2008 ESPY Awards, slated to take place July 20 at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre L.A. Live.  

The annual awards, presented by ESPN, celebrate the best and brightest sporting moments of the year as decided by fans, who can vote for their favorites online at espys.tv beginning July 1.

"I'm very excited to be hosting the 16th edition of the ESPYs. I can't wait for the day of the show as I'm truly a sports junkie," Timberlake said in a statement.

"Since the last ESPYs, there have been amazing moments in sports and I'm looking forward to recapping all of them with ESPN's diehard fans."

The hosting gig won't be Timberlake's first. Last year, he presided over the 20th annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, where he was named Favorite Male Singer (and subsequently doused with a healthy dose of slime). The singer is up for the same honor at this year's Kids Choice Awards, taking place Saturday.

Up ahead, Timberlake stars opposite Mike Myers and Jessica Alba in The Love Guru, opening June 20.