(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

It’s been an eventful year in celebrity news, and even if it has been light on scandals , stars held the attention of fans. 
    
But some big names, notably Michael Jackson and Miley Cyrus, appear to have worn out their welcome, according to a fan poll from celebrity Web site Parade.com.

Some  41 percent of respondents said Jackson, who turned 50 in 2008 with no sign of making good on repeated promises of a comeback,  should officially retire. They also said the pop star’s antics are the most disturbing behavior from any Hollywood star. 

Fans chose Disney star Miley Cyrus as the most overexposed celebrity. At the age of 16.

The wedding of comedian Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi ranked as the year’s most exciting nuptial, with 29 percent of respondents choosing it as their favorite. The wedding was made possible by a California court ruling allowingt same-sex weddings that voters rejected in November,  but not before several gay and lesbian stars were married.

Singers Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale clinched the year’s craziest baby name spot by naming their son Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale. Some 48 percent of poll respondents called the name, which brings to mind famous Zuma Beach in Southern California, the most out-there name of the year. 
     
 Fans thought  pop diva Britney Spears had the most improved reputation. As for the relationship between singer Lindsay Lohan and celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson, only 1 percent of respondents said that couple is “most likely to succeed.” 

How would you have voted?  Have Miley and Jacko really outstayed their welcome or would you still like to have them around for another few years?

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Jason Alexander, not the “Seinfeld” star but the 27-year-old first ex-husband of  Britney Spears,  has been sent to jail on his court conviction for driving under the influence.
    
A judge has sent Alexander to jail for 10 days for violating his probation in the case,  the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, said on Thursday.
    
Because of jail overcrowding, Alexander could be released after serving about seven days, officials said. 
    
Alexander’s jail stint comes as Spears launched a career comeback with the release of her new  album “Circus” and the announcement of a U.S. and British tour. 
    
Spears and Alexander, a childhood sweetheart, were married in Las Vegas in January 2004, but the the marriage was annulled a couple days later on the grounds that Spears “lacked understanding of her actions.”

(Reporting and writing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

As she works on her comeback, singer Britney Spears awaits the release of her album “Circus” on Dec. 2. But fans can start delving into the album now with the release of extended segments from six “Circus” songs that were posted on Thursday at the Web site of New York radio station 103.5 KTU.

One of the songs, “Womanizer,” was already released in September, and another song “Kill The Lights” turned up on the Web site YouTube this week, then was taken down within hours and later reposted. With lyrics that include the words “Mr. Photographer, I think I’m ready for my close up tonight,” the song is a clear reference to her paparazzi-filled life. The video posted online for the song features images of Spears pole-dancing, demonstrating that Spears shows no signs of changing gears from the sex-fueled persona that helped shoot her to pop stardom.
    
Other songs included in the nearly 8-minute segment posted on Thursday at KTU’s Web site were: “Circus,” “Out from Under,” “If U Seek Amy” and “Unusual You.”
    
It remains to be seen how far the album “Circus” will propel Spears as she seeks to make a career comeback from the public meltdown she suffered in 2007 and early 2008. Since the album will be released on her birthday, the singer stands a chance to give herself an outsized present if “Circus” is a hit.

 So the rumors of a Madonna-orchestrated Britney and Justin reunion were true… kinda.  The former teen sweethearts both performed with the Material Girl during her Thursday night concert in L.A.’s Dodger Stadium, but not together.

In fact, there was at least an hour between their respective appearances, so it’s anybody’s guess whether they even ran into each other backstage.

Brit was first to emerge, joining Madonna early in the night to sing the the last few bars of “Human Nature.” The two women embraced at the end of the performance to wild screams from the crowd, at which point Britney promptly marched offstage. Truth be told, Britney’s performance was so short that if you had blinked you might have missed it.

JT, on the other hand, at least hung out for an entire song. He joined Madonna for “4 Minutes,” a song from her latest album that he co-wrote and produced.

Both Britney and Justin elicited big roars from the audience, but the biggest screams of the night came when the massive screens at the back of the stage flashed images of President-elect Barack Obama. Madonna told the audience that Obama’s victory was a big reason to celebrate, but she also expressed her disappointment that California voters, at the same time, had approved a ban on same-sex marriages.

“If we got an African American in the White House, then we can have gay marriages,” Madonna told the crowd.

Britney Spears and former teen sweetheart Justin Timberlake are apparently headed for a very public reunion — at the Madonna concert in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Los Angeles radio DJ Ryan Seacrest, who seems to know everyone in Hollywood, told listeners on his show that Britney and Justin are “going to be onstage performing with Madonna at some point”.

“At Dodger Stadium Madonna - and if Justin and Britney end up onstage with her - I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything quite like that before,” Seacrest said.

Madonna, who is in Southern California on her “Sticky and Sweet” world tour, has close relationships with both Britney and Justin, who were one of Hollywood’s hottest young teen couples until a bitter breakup  in 2002

Madonna enjoyed a steamy kiss with Spears in a controversial live performance in 2003 on the MTV Video Music Awards, and she sang with Timberlake on her “4 Minutes” single and video earlier this year.

The trial of Britney Spears for driving without a license has ended, and even though the singer failed to win a not guilty verdict, she nearly got its legal equivalent with a hung jury, the prosecutors’ decision not to seek a retrial and the judge’s dismissal of the charge. 
    
But it didn’t come easy – or cheap — as most misdemeanor cases do. And it begs the question of why so much money was spent to try Britney for driving without a license.

Prosecutors have said the case only came to trial because Spears and her legal team refused a plea bargain – unlike the overwhelming majority of defendants in her situation. Prosecutor Michael Amerian had said the city offered Spears a year of probation and a $150 fine, or no probation and a $1,000 fine.

But if convicted Spears would have had a misdemeanor on her record, and the pop star did not want that, said her defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan. 

So, the case went to trial.

How much money was spent to try the once-troubled singer who got popped by the cops for driving without a license?

Allan Parachini, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Superior Court, said it’s impossible to put a price tag on one day of court work. But he said the cost includes the salary for a judge, a court reporter, a bailiff and a clerk.

From jury selection through hung jury, the trial of Britney took roughly four days.

Attorney Flanagan said he racked up so much time on the case he stopped billing Spears by the hour.  After the trial, he joked that his fees to Spears are “probably a world record” for a driver’s license case. He told Reuters the amount ended up being the same as what he would charge on a vehicular manslaughter case, even though no one died. He did not give an exact price. 
    
Flanagan also claimed Amerian pursued the case for political reasons. ”The prosecutor wanted a little attention, he’s running for city attorney,” Flanagan said. 

But last week Amerian said he filed his papers to run for public office in March, well after Spears was charged. “We have never at any time treated this case differently because the defendant is Britney Spears,” he said. 

One thing we do know for certain — other than Spears was cleared – is that she now has a California license, her attorney said. So, she should be able to avoid a repeat this past week’s events! Still, one wonders, was it all worth it?

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

 The trial of Britney Spears on a relatively minor charge of driving without a California license finally got under way on Thursday.

 But finding an unbiased jury in a case in which virtually everyone in Los Angeles knows, or knows of, the  26 year-old pop star took almost as long as the trial itself is expected to last.

 The process began on Wednesday and Spears’  lawyer J. Michael Flanagan said some jurors probably had confused ideas about the case against Spears.
    
“Half the people think she’s been charged with driving under the influence or drunk driving, drugs, and all this kind of stuff,” Flanagan told reporters. “People think they know about this case but they don’t, really.”
    
One teacher in the pool of potential panelists said in court that she disliked “rich, spoiled girls,” and would have a hard time being unbiased toward Spears.
    
 Asked if any of them knew Spears personally, another woman said she knew the singer’s  manager, and was quickly  dismissed from the jury.
    
Flanagan said the trial itself was expected to take only a few hours.  Spears herself has stayed away from the trial, exercising her right not to appear, because the case against her is a misdemeanor instead of a more serious felony case.
    
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Britney Spears is making her comeback — again. First step: release a catchy single. And so, on Friday Britney’s song “Womanizer” finally hit airwaves, four days after its scheduled release and a week after a snippet was leaked.
    
The song is an upbeat if slightly repetitive electropop number lasting about 3:40. It comes off Spears’ album “Circus,” which is set to be released on her 27th birthday on Dec. 2. The song was produced by The Outsyders, a group based in Atlanta.
    
It has lyrics that include: “You say I’m crazy/ I got your crazy/You’re nothing but a womanizer” In the song’s chorus, Britney sings, “Boy, don’t try to front/I-I know just-just what you are/Womanizer, you’re a womanizer, baby.”
    
It remains to be seen what Britney’s fans think of the song, but it’s definitely catchy. In a snap judgment, the Los Angeles Times music blog Soundboard reached the conclusion that “Britney is back. She actually seems to be awake this time.”

Last year in late August, Britney released a song, “Gimme More,” which was also billed as a “comeback” tunes after months of Britney finding herself making headlines for erratic behavior. At that time, she was embroiled in a bitter custody battle over her two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

She sang “Gimme More” at the MTV Video Music Awards in September ‘07, but was  panned by fans and critics. By January of this year, she found herself in a Los Angeles-area hospital under psychiatric evaluation.

But since February, after her father and lawyers took control of her affairs, Britney has seemed to be on the mend. In fact, at this year’s MTV VMAs, Britney won three awards for her song, “Piece of Me.”

So one wonders: could this “comeback” be the real deal.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Radio stations were supposed to start playing Britney Spears’ new single “Womanizer” on Monday. But instead the pop star’s record label pushed back the release by a week. 
    
The last minute delay comes after a 37-second segment of “Womanizer” was leaked and played on the Web site of a Nashville, Tennessee, radio station on Friday. The leak had a short life that day, as Spears’ record label, Zomba Label Group/Jive Records, told the station to take the song off its site.
    
Wendy Washington, a spokeswoman for the record company, said on Monday that the single’s release was pushed back.
    
“Yes, the mix is being finalized and is expected to be done within a week,” Washington said.
    
The leaked segment of “Womanizer” was not an immediate hit with commentators on the Web. The site Hollyscoop.com said the fake song “Candy From Strangers,” posted online last week by a Spears impostor, was more catchy than the leaked song from Spears herself.
    
The single is off Spears’ album “Circus,” which is scheduled to be released on the pop star’s 27th birthday on Dec. 2.
    
Spears has a lot riding on the album, because after a turbulent public meltdown last year she appears to have gotten her life back on track, giving her the chance to make what could be the biggest comeback in years in the rollercoaster music business. 
 (Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis)    
     
    

 Was it Britney, or wasn’t it?
    
Two songs that sounded like new work from the revitalized pop princess circulated briefly on the Internet this week, but only one of them was real.

Less than 40 seconds of a song called “Womanizer” made its way to the Web site for Nashville, Tennessee, radio station 107.5 The River on Friday  – but it was soon taken down.

 It appeared a couple of days after ”Candy From Strangers” circulated online, with a vocal track that some commentators said sounded deceptively like Spears.

Wendy Washington, a spokeswoman for Zomba Label Group/Jive Records, said the leaked preview of “Womanizer” was a Spears song and not a fake.  It is the first single off her upcoming new album  “Circus” and is expected to be released to radio stations on Monday.

“A radio rep played a rough mix of ‘Womanizer’ over the phone for a Nashville radio station, 37 seconds of this rough mix was recorded by someone at the radio station and that is what this leak contains,” Washington said in a statement. 
     
Spears, 26, is climbing back after a public meltdown that dominated show business headlines for much of the past 18 months, but last week she won three trophies at the MTV Video Music Awards.  
    
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis)