FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, January 31, 2005

JACKSON WATCH: Michael Jackson in court Monday as jury selection began in his child-molestation case. Some 300 prospective jurors were called to court with another 450 expected to report for questioning later in the week. Fans of the singer waited outside the courtroom and shouted words of encouragement as he entered.

JACKSON ADD: The embattled entertainer left a court-approved video message on his Website Sunday, predicting that he would be acquitted. "Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court," Jackson said in the message. "I deserve a fair trial like every other American citizen. I will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told."

MORE JACKSON: Jackson's parents, Katherine and Joe Jackson, appeared on Monday's The Early Show on CBS to speak in their son's defense, saying his accuser was simply after Jackson's money. "I know my son, and this is ridiculous," Katherine Jackson said.

BLAKE WATCH: Monday and Tuesday's proceedings in Robert Blake's murder trial canceled because the lead defense attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach is sick, per a Los Angeles Superior Court spokeswoman.

BADA-BING! A&E will broadcast edited versions of The Sopranos starting next fall, it was announced Monday. The network paid $2.5 million per episode for the rights to the HBO hit--the most ever shelled out for a syndicated series.

FINAL FAREWELL: Cher set to take the last bow of her three-year Farewell Never Can Say Goodbye tour at the Hollywood Bowl on April 30. The performance will mark the 325th concert of the long-running tour, which sold more than 3 million tickets.

COACHELLA HEATS UP: Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Prodigy, Wilco and the Chemical Brothers among the acts confirmed for the sixth annual Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California on Apr. 30 and May 1.

IN THA DOGGHOUSE: Snoop Dogg sued by makeup artist Kylie Bell, who claims that she was raped by the rapper and his posse following a January 2003 taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Snoop filed a preemptive suit against Bell last month, claiming she was trying to extort money from him.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: A publicist for Orlando Bloom and Kate Bosworth confirming to People magazine that the camera-ready couple have split after two-plus years together. "It was a mutual decision," rep Robin Baum tells the magazine, citing the actors' busy schedules as a reason for the breakup.

WAR: The Edge, lead guitarist for U2, fighting an Irish newspaper over a report on a relative's serious illness that caused the band to delay its upcoming Vertigo 2005 tour. The musician's lawyers obtained a temporary injunction against the Sunday World, barring it from printing the details. Meanwhile, the newspaper's lawyers want the injunction overturned, claiming the details of the relative's illness are newsworthy.

REMEMBERING JOHNNY: More than 1,000 people in Johnny Carson's hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska, gathered in the high school auditorium that bears his name to remember the late comedian on Sunday night. Carson died last Sunday of emphysema at age 79.

INCREDIBLE SHOWING: The Incredibles sweeping the 32nd Annual Annie Awards Sunday, taking home awards for Best Animated Feature, Best Directing and Best Voice Acting for Brad Bird, who voiced seamstress Edna Mode.

BOOK BUCKS: Tom Brokaw signing a two-book deal with Random House, though when and what he will write has not yet been determined.

TSUNAMI VISIT: Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, paying a visit to the tsunami-ravaged Aceh region in Indonesia, where he gave children money and prayed in mosques. Islam said he planned to open a branch of his charity, Small Kindness, in Aceh to help children who lost their parents.

MORE TSUNAMI AID: Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and other Canadian artists taking the stage at a concert in Vancouver Saturday to raise money for tsunami relief. The show raised close to $3 million.

MUSIC CLASS: Students at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, studying Martina McBride in a class titled "Happy Girl/Broken Wing: Martina McBride as Text." The school has also offered classes on Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

NOT BOGUS: Keanu Reeves received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame Monday. "This has been an amazing journey," the Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure star said of his career at the ceremony.

TAKING THE FIFTH: Jack Russell, lead singer for Great White, refusing to answer allegations in civil suits filed against him by victims of the 2003 nightclub fire sparked by the band's pyrotechnics. The singer's lawyer said in court documents that his client "faces a real possibility of criminal prosecution" and is therefore asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.

REMEMBERED: Bill Shadel, a broadcaster who covered D-Day and moderated the third presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, died Saturday at 96.

IN PLAIN SIGHT: The Robert De Niro-Dakota Fanning thriller Hide and Seek opened as the nation's top film, with an estimated $22 million over a weekend when top Oscar nominees Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator and Sideways registered substantial gains.

DO I FEEL LUCKY? Clint Eastwood took home top honors Saturday in the Directors Guild of America's 57th Annual DGA Awards for Million Dollar Baby, besting Martin Scorsese's work on The Aviator. Scorsese has been nominated six times, but has never won.

SUNDANCE FEVER: Forty Shades of Blue, a family drama featuring modern Oedipal triangle involving a music producer, his young Russian wife and the producer's son, took top dramatic honors at the Sundance Film Festival. Why We Fight, examining the chronically militant stance of the United States over the last half-century, took Sundance's Grand Jury Prize for documentaries.

GOOD INSTINCT: Sharon Stone raising $1 million in five minutes to pay for mosquito nets to combat malaria in Tanzania. The impromptu fund-raiser occurred after the actress called on bigwigs attending a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland, to follow her lead and pony up.

LOST REVENUE? Producers of the ABC hit Lost, threatening to leave Hawaii and shoot the drama elsewhere unless state officials pony up tax breaks. According to the New York Post, the high costs of production has led to $11 million in losses for the show's production company.