FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, December 7, 2004

GRAMMY TIME! Kanye West leading the list of nominees for the 47th annual Grammy Awards announced this morning, snagging 10 nods including Album of the Year for The College Dropout. Usher and Alicia Keys followed close behind with eight noms, while Ray Charles scored seven posthumous nominations for Genius Loves Company, the best-selling record of his career.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Genius Loves Company, Ray Charles; American Idiot, Green Day; The Diary of Alicia Keys, Alicia Keys; Confessions, Usher; The College Dropout, Kanye West.

RECORD OF THE YEAR: "Yeah" by Usher; "Let's Get It Started" by the Black Eyed Peas; "Here We Go Again" by Ray Charles and Norah Jones, "American Idiot" by Green Day and "Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys.

BEST NEW ARTIST: Los Lonely Boys, Maroon 5, Joss Stone, Kanye West, Gretchen Wilson.

PAGING DR. FEELGOOD: Mötley Crüe reuniting for a world tour that will kick off in February in Fort Lauderdale and hit more than 60 cities in North America before heading over to Europe and Asia. The band will also issue Red, White & Crüe, a greatest hits set featuring three new songs.

MORE REBEL YELLING: Billy Idol set to release his first album featuring new songs in more than 10 years. The album, titled Devil's Playground, is due for release March 22.

ON HOLD...AGAIN: Opening statements in Robert Blake's murder trial, which were set to commence Monday, pushed back to Dec. 20 as a result of the theft of a computer from Blake's defense attorney, which was said to contain the "heart and soul" of the case.

DIAPER DUTY: Singer Phil Collins and his Swiss wife, Orianne, welcoming the arrival of baby boy Matthew, per Switzerland's Le Matin newspaper. The couple already have a three-year-old son, Nicholas.

IMAGINE RARE LENNON SONGS: Yoko Ono ha given the go-ahead to a Broadway musical producer to use three rare and unpublished songs by John Lennon for the upcoming musical, Lennon. The show starts previews on July 7th in New York.

ON THE MEND: Dick Ebersol and son Charlie released from a Colorado hospital Monday, after they were injured in a Thanksgiving weekend plane crash that killed Ebersol's 14-year-old son, Teddy.

SCRUBBING IN: Colin Farrell set to guest star on an episode of NBC's Scrubs in January, E! Online TV columnist Kristin Veitch reports.

SCRAPPED: Singer Marianne Faithfull nixing a European tour after collapsing before a concert in Italy last week due to chronic exhaustion.

MAKING THE CUT: Paris Hilton, Michael Moore and Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings among those making Barbara Walters' list of the "most fascinating people of 2004" for a special airing Wednesday.

THAT'S INCREDIBLE: The Incredibles topping the list of nominees for the 32nd annual Annie Awards, with 16 animation-related nominations.

CALLING ALL FOCKERS: To hype the release of Meet the Fockers, Universal says it will spring for a free vacation to Universal Studios Orlando theme park for 25 families with the legal last name Focker for the "Focker Family Reunion." The trip takes place Dec. 17 to Dec. 19.

PRETTY RICH WOMAN: Julia Roberts topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual list of Tinseltown's highest-paid actresses with a paycheck of $20 million per movie.

EARLY FLIGHT: 20th Century Fox moving up the release date of the adventure flick Flight of the Phoenix, starring Dennis Quaid, from Dec. 22 to Dec. 17 now that Miramax has moved the release of The Aviator to Christmas weekend.

ODB LIVES ON: The mother and manager of rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, who passed away unexpectedly last month, forming JC Records to release Osirus, an album of ODB's posthumous work, on Jan. 4, 2005.

LOT OF LIVES: CBS renewing long-running soap The Young and the Restless for five more years, taking it through its 37th season.

SICK BAY: Mary Travers, 62, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia, says her rep. She's expected to make a full recovery within a few months.

STAYING UP LATE: Craig Ferguson tapped as CBS' choice to take over hosting chores on The Late Late Show after auditioning as part of a rotating slate of guest emcees.

NEXT GIG: Per Variety, Julianne Moore in talks to costar with Nicolas Cage in Next, a sci-fi thriller in which she'd play a federal agent looking for people who can help predict terrorist attacks. The pic is being adapted from Philip K. Dick's short story "The Golden Man."

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO. . . Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell signing a record deal with Provident Music Group's Reunion Records, a Christian music label, Billboard reports.

OFF THE HOOK AGAIN: Charges dismissed for the second time against Robin Givens, who was ticketed for running over an elderly pedestrian's leg in Miami earlier this year, because police officers failed to testify to the cause of the accident. The actress still faces a civil suit however.

BRANCHING OUT: HarperCollins set to publish a yet-to-be-titled children's book from singer Gloria Estefan about the adventures of her two-year-old English bulldog, Noelle, in English and Spanish next year.