NAMES & FACES

Friday, December 28, 2007

Barton Crosses a Line

Another day, another celebrity DUI.

Actress Mischa Barton was arrested yesterday morning for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and possessing marijuana after sheriff's deputies saw her car straddling two lanes. The 21-year-old former star of Fox's teen drama "The O.C." was stopped at about 2:45 a.m. in West Hollywood, authorities said.

Barton spent about seven hours in jail before being released on $10,000 bail. A court hearing was scheduled for Feb. 28.

Calls to Barton's manager and publicist weren't immediately returned.

Avery Brooks Returns

Avery Brooks will be back in the lead role of "Tamburlaine" tomorrow through Jan. 6, the Shakespeare Theatre Company announced yesterday.

After the actor suffered an unspecified injury at home earlier this month, the company canceled seven performances. The unusual action, the Shakespeare explained in a news release, was necessary because Brooks's original understudy had left the production to tend to a family emergency, and the new understudy hadn't had time to prepare for the large role.

Wedding Bells for Alba?

Jessica Alba is expecting a bundle of joy in 2008 -- and maybe a walk down the aisle, too.

The 26-year-old actress, who announced her pregnancy earlier this month, is now engaged to the baby's father, producer Cash Warren, her publicist confirmed to the Associated Press yesterday.

The couple is expecting their first child in late spring or early summer.

Winehouse Headed for Court

Grammy-nominated singer Amy Winehouse has been summoned to appear in court Feb. 29 in Bergen, Norway, after appealing a fine for marijuana possession.

"I can confirm that she must appear in court," Bergen police spokeswoman Liv Karlsen said yesterday. "If one appeals a conviction, it's the rule that one has to appear in person, so this is not surprising."

The 24-year-old British R&B singer and hubby Blake Fielder-Civil were arrested in Bergen on Oct. 18 on charges of illegal drug possession. They were released the next day after paying fines of $715 each on charges of possessing about a quarter-ounce of marijuana, and continued on a European tour.

Connery's Legal Smackdown

Actor Sean Conner y's squabble with a neighbor has escalated into a legal dispute so nasty that a fed-up judge is telling both sides to back off.

In court papers, Burton Sultan, who lives below Connery in the Upper East Side town house they share, calls his neighbor "a bully who ignores norms of neighborliness and decency." Connery and his wife argue the Sultan family's complaints over the years have delayed needed repairs to the building's roof.

State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman, in a decision made public Wednesday, tossed out many of the Sultans' claims and slammed the Connerys for what she called their "blunderbuss" legal salvos.

Saying both parties "have engaged in a 'slash and burn' litigation strategy," Friedman barred both familes from filing any more lawsuits without her permission.

Noted . . .

What to do with the free time between recording pop hits, penning children's books and adopting a new family? Direct a movie, duh. Madonna's directorial debut, a comedy, will have its world premiere at the annual Berlin Film Festival in February, festival organizers announced yesterday. "Filth and Wisdom" stars Eugene Hutz, Richard E. Grant and Stephen Graham. . . Having gone from Hollywood eccentric to global humanitarian in a few short years, Angelina Jolie topped a Reuters poll released yesterday of the best celebrity humanitarians of 2007.

. . . and Quoted

"We're not going to keep running and running and running, because at some point you do get the life beaten out of you. It hasn't been beaten out of us yet. We need to be in there now, while we're still fresh and open and fearless and bold."

-- Michelle Obama tells Vanity Fair that her husband Barack Obama's run for the presidency is "now or never."

-- Chris Richards, from staff and wire reports