British funnyman Russell Brand has vowed to fight his felony charge for smashing a paparazzo’s cell phone in New Orleans last week (12Mar12).

The Get Him To The Greek star is accused of throwing a photographer’s iPhone through a building’s window after a heated argument.

Brand posted $5,000 (£3,125) bail and faces up to two years behind bars after New Orleans, Louisiana police listed the incident as a felony. It was first reported he would face a minor fine for criminal damage but it was elevated because the value of the window and iPhone exceed the maximum $500 (£312) fine.

However, the outspoken comedian has now hit back – hiring renowned New Orleans lawyer Robert Glass to defend the charge.

Glass tells E! News, “We’re going to fight it.”

Editors at Tmz.com report Glass will argue the damages are less than $500 and Brand has already paid $240 (£151) to fix the window.

Pop star Jessie J was caught up in a terrifying storm following her show in Indonesia on Sunday night (18Mar12).

The Price Tag hitmaker‏ took to the stage in the country’s capital Jakarta over the weekend but strong winds later hit the city – and the singer was left struggling to sleep after her high-energy gig.

In a post on her Twitter.com page on Monday (19Mar12), she writes, “So tired. A storm here in Jakarta last night turned over a table outside my room and smashed against my window…. sleepy.”

Pitbull has responded to Lindsay Lohan’s legal action over his song Give Me Everything, insisting TV/radio host Ryan Seacrest was also mentioned in the track and he took it in good humour.

The Mean Girls actress is suing the hip-hop star for alleged defamation after he rapped about her in the lyrics of his number one hit.

Pitbull has served up a legal response to the lawsuit and in the documents, filed last week (ends18Mar12) in New York, the star is adamant that Seacrest, who is also mentioned in the track, hasn’t felt the need to sue, according to Tmz.com.

The rapper also reveals he performed the track as part of a New Year’s Eve show which was hosted by Seacrest.

He also cites America’s First Amendment in his defence, insisting he has the right to free speech and to poke fun at well-known figures.

Lady Gaga was devastated by Whitney Houston’s death last month (Feb12) as she idolised the pop star when she was growing up.

The Poker Face hitmaker became obsessed with Houston after seeing her perform The Star Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl and spent years attempting to emulate her powerful voice.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Gaga admits when she wrote her hit track Born This Way, she was imagining how it would sound with Houston on vocals.

She adds, “She for me is the greatest of all time… I used to stand at the top of the staircase and sing The Star Spangled Banner every single day after school.”

Jennifer Lopez has credited her busy work life with helping her deal with her marriage split from Marc Anthony last year (11).

The Hollywood couple announced its shock separation in July (11) after seven years of marriage.

Lopez still filmed two movies – romantic comedy What to Expect When You’re Expecting and drama Parker – as planned over the summer, and she’s convinced her hectic schedule helped her to come to terms with the split.

She tells Vogue magazine, “It was very hard to be working, but I had to get up every day in spite of how I felt and go to the set, and I realised how much work helps you in those moments.”

And Parker director Taylor Hackford is delighted with Lopez’s performance, adding: “I’m not kidding, this woman can really act. The last several years she’s been doing romantic comedies – that’s a talent, but as a dramatic actress she’s got fantastic chops.

“She knows how to transmit nuances, to make the subtlest of shifts. Does she have humour? Yes. But at the same time she can get into the deepest dramatic areas. I was fascinated and thrilled that she was able to go there.”

Bruce Springsteen was always going to be one of the highlights of last week’s South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, but it was his key note speech at the event that people will really go away remembering with The Boss on typically rousing form as he imparted his knowledge garnered from over 40 years in the business to a packed out crowd of delegates and musicians young and old.

Springsteen’s tone was mostly positive, reports Billboard, and he focused on the up and coming musicians of today during the nearly hour-long keynote. “Open your ears and open your hearts. Don’t take yourself too seriously, and take yourself as seriously as death itself,” he told the young acts in attendance, continuing “Don’t worry. Worry your ass off. Have unclad confidence, but doubt. It keeps you awake and alert. Believe you are the baddest ass in town – and you suck! It keeps you honest. Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideals alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times. If it doesn’t drive you crazy, it will make you strong.”

< He finished the segment with the emphatic lines “stay hard, stay hungry and stay alive. And when you walk on stage tonight to bring the noise, treat it like it’s all we have – and then remember it’s only rock ‘n’ roll.” Suitably inspirational in Austin, The Boss and the E Street Band then began their tour in earnest in Atlanta last night with an emotionally charged set that saw most of new LP ‘Wrecking Ball’ aired.

Jessica Simpson was surprised to find her family and friends had organized a baby-shower for her in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon (March 18, 2012). The singer’s nearest and dearest gathered at a venue for the bash organized by renowned celebrity events planner Mindy Weiss, reports People Magazine.

Simpson, who wore her hair down with a light blue dress, was joined by the likes of Jessica Alba and her sister Ashlee Simpson. Alba has two daughters, Honor and Haven, with Cash Warren, while Ashlee has a son named ‘Bronx’ with the Fall Out Boy bass player Pete Wentz. One eyewitness at the exclusive event said, “Jessica looked pretty and very happy”, while a friend of Simpson’s noted, “She’s so excited to be a mom. She can’t wait to meet her little girl”. As for the gifts that Jessica received, a source told US Weekly magazine, “She received tons of gifts mostly wrapped in pink gift wrap and boxes.There were several books, stuffed toys and clothes among other items”.

< Simpson is expected to give birth to her first child, a girl, within the next couple of weeks – she is engaged to marry the former Nfl player Eric Johnson. During a recent interview with Elle magazine, she claimed to have decided on a “non-traditional” name for the baby.

Will Ferrell ‘s latest movie Casa de Mi Padre received a limited release this weekend, with respectable box office sales of around $2.2 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. The movie was Ferrell’s chance to film a send-up of Mexican telenovelas and whilst there were some concerns that the movie may alienate the Latin American audience that it mimics, reviews for the movie have been largely positive.

An interview with the comic actor, from Chicago Sun-Times reveals that Ferrell’s painstaking attempts to quickly learn the Spanish language for the film has paid off. He’s admitted that learning the lines was less problematic than getting the pronunciation right (“that was the biggest challenge,” he admitted) and the biggest laughs come from scenes where the already intentionally ropey English script had to be translated into Spanish, such as the moment where Ferrell has to describe his perfect woman (“That scene was thrown in there to make him suffer,” reveals the scriptwriter Andrew Steele).

< Cbs News also praised the film, saying that Will Ferrell and director Matt Piedmont “have no shame in exploiting every cheesy option available to them in this comedy, filmed entirely in Spanish with English subtitles.” The consensus on this off-the-wall experiment in comedy is that it provides “humor so outlandish you will find yourself laughing so hard you cry.” In anyone else’s hands, a film centered around a well known comic actor with a limited grasp of Spanish, starring in a Spanish-speaking movie, would probably struggle to find an audience. In Ferrell’s hands, though, Casa de Mi Padre could well become a creeping success.

The actress has spoken several times with David Hare about directing her in a play called “Skylight” opposite Bill Nighy, reports contactmusic.com.

“She`s in love with the play and would very much like to do it. But it may change, and the way is clear for her to do `Skylight`, but there`s no 100 percent guarantee,” a source told the Daily Mail.

It has not yet been decided whether the play will be staged in London`s West End or Broadway in New York.

Rapper Soulja Boy will be hobbling onstage when he performs in Los Angeles on Saturday (17Mar12) after suffering a cut to his foot.

The hip-hop star took to his Twitter.com blog on Friday (16Mar12) to tell fans all about his injury, although he failed to reveal how he sustained the gash.

And despite his pain, the 21 year old has vowed to honour a concert commitment at the Sk8 Wars Urban Battles event this weekend.

He tweets, “I cut my foot last night and that s**t hurt but i’m still performing tomorrow for my fans @Sk8wars_AmTour”