FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, April 12, 2006

THE BURDEN OF PROOF: According to Detroit police, D12 rapper Proof fired the first shot in the deadly nightclub shooting along Eight Mile that left him dead and another man hospitalized in critical condition.

BYE, BUCKY: Bucky Covington becoming the latest contestant voted off of American Idol Wednesday night. Rod Stewart to perform next week and take a turn coaching the seven remaining pop star hopefuls.

ONE MORE MCGREGOR: Ewan McGregor and wife Eve Mavrakis confirming to People that they have adopted a four-year-old girl from Mongolia. The couple, married since 1995, also have two biological daughters, Esther and Clara.

RAISON D'ÊTRE: Dave Chappelle telling Esquire about the "cultural, professional and personal" reasons he left his hit Comedy Central show last year and walked away from $50 million.

MOURNED: June Pointer, the youngest of famed '80s R&B group, The Pointer Sisters, who had struggled with drug problems in recent years, died Tuesday of cancer in a Southern California hospital. She was 52.

IN THE MONEY: Will Smith set to headline Greenbacks, an action thriller about an American expat in Morocco who stumbles onto a scheme to destabilize the world's economy by flooding the market with perfect counterfeit greenbacks, per Daily Variety.

QUEEN FOR A DAY: Also in Variety, Queen Latifah set to star in Welfare Queen, about a woman who got rich by taking advantage of the welfare system.

SPY GAMES: TNT and director Ridley Scott teaming up to produce The Company, a six-part miniseries based on Robert Littell's bestselling Cold War epic.

STAY OUT OF HER VIEW: Per the New York Daily News, a female fan of Elisabeth Hasselbeck is stalking and harassing The View cohost hoping to get Children's Services to investigate the working mom.

BIG APPLE MISSION: Mission: Impossible III having its U.S. premiere at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on May 3. During that day, star Tom Cruise will also crisscross Manhattan by speedboat, helicopter and subway to attend a series of events around the city hyping the film.

FIGHT CLUB: The New York Post reporting that Good Charlotte rocker Benji Madden got into a scuffle with a patron at New York nightclub Don Hill's on Saturday night. The clubgoer was eventually ejected.

SORTING OUT THE PAPERWORK: Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Tori Spelling's marriage to actor Charlie Shanian will officially be dissolved on Apr. 20, allowing her to marry new fiancé Dean McDermott. Spelling and Shanian were married for a little more than a year.

NO SHOW: Kate Moss' ex-beau, rocker Pete Doherty, failing to turn up in a London court Wednesday for a follow up review regarding his drug rehab. The case was postponed until May 12.

ALL-STAR BROTHER: CBS announcing that Big Brother will return this summer as an all-star edition featuring America's favorite houseguests from years past. Julie Chen is also back as host.

HEADED FOR BEANTOWN: Robert Wagner set to guest star in the two-hour season finale of ABC's Boston Legal, slated for broadcast May 16.

SCRAPPED: With the New York Post grappling with a Page Six scandal, the New York Times quietly axing its own gossip machine, Boldface Names, which ran in the metro section, according to Variety.

BIG MAC ATTACK: McDonalds developing a "crisis management" plan to fight back against any negative publicity stemming from the Fox's upcoming release of Fast Food Nation and the publication of author Eric Schlosser's sequel, Chew On This: Everything You Didn't Want to Know about Fast Food.

NO GAME: Buena Vista Games denying Teri Hatcher is involved in the production of a Desperate Housewives videogame, despite reports claiming the actress had been offered $1 million to record voice-overs for the game.

CODA: Proof, a member of rap group D12 and a close friend of Eminem, shot to death early Tuesday at a Detroit nightclub, the group's publicist said. The rapper, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, was 32.

OOPS? Child welfare officials visiting Britney Spears' home after seven-month-old Sean Preston was rushed to the hospital Friday for injuries sustained after a fall from his high chair earlier in the week. The case has since been closed; no charges will be filed.

IN DEEP: Victor Edward Willis, the original policeman from the Village People, facing arraignment on further drug charges later this month after a judge determined there was enough evidence to hold him over for trial.

PUT UP YOUR DAISY DUKES: A California-based clothing company suing Jessica Simpson for $100 million accusing her of breaching her contract by failing to market several fashion lines she developed with the manufacturer.

WHO'S THE GREATEST? Muhammad Ali selling 80 percent of the marketing rights to his name and famous mug to a firm for $50 million which is expected to put it to good use in advertising campaigns.

SEATTLE HOPS: Kanye West and A Tribe Called Quest among the hip-hoppers joining rockers AFI, Hawthorne Heights and Yellowcard on the bill for the 2006 edition of Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival, set for Sept. 2-4 at the Seattle Center.

NO BUNNIES ALLOWED: An estimated 300 extremist Indonesian muslims trashing a building in Jakarta that housed the office of Playboy magazine on Wednesday to protest its publication in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Playboy's Indonesian edition is a toned down version that does not feature nudity.

PASSING: Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film director who was kidnapped by North Korean agents to make propaganda movies for the totalitarian regime, died Tuesday due to complications following a liver transplant. He was 79.

ROYAL GRADUATION: Great Britain's Prince Harry participating in graduation ceremonies Wednesday from the country's elite Sandhurst military academy which he entered in May, 2005, to train as an army officer. The young prince said he hopes to join his comrades-in-arms on the frontline in Iraq or Afghanistan.