Bieber ends London gig without hitches after "rough week"


LONDON (Reuters) - Pop star Justin Bieber wrapped up his final London show without hitches on Friday after a week riddled with paparazzi run-ins and a trip to the hospital.

Bieber, 19, sang and danced his way through his fourth night at London's O2 Arena on the European leg of his "Believe" world tour, back to his normal self after collapsing on stage from shortness of breath on Thursday.

The Canadian-born singer was treated by doctors backstage and given oxygen on the third night of his London shows. He returned to the stage after a 20-minute break and completed his set but was later taken to hospital as a precaution, the singer's representatives told Reuters.

The singer also had an altercation with a UK photographer on Friday, caught on camera by Reuters, which showed Bieber get out of a van, try to move towards the unnamed photographer and threaten him using several swear words.

He was reacting to the man's foul-mouthed criticism of him and his security team after the singer appeared to have made contact with the photographer as they moved towards the vehicle.

The bouncers held Bieber back, but the incident is likely to create more negative headlines for one of the world's biggest pop stars.

'ROUGH WEEK'

Since being discovered on YouTube in 2008, Bieber has built a huge following of mainly teenage girls attracted to his clean-cut image, slick videos and catchy pop songs.

But the intense media spotlight that follows him around the world has clearly unnerved the "Boyfriend" singer.

Bieber has had several run-ins with paparazzi in recent years and took to Twitter this week to criticize the media for what he called fabricated stories about him during his stay in London, where he is performing his sold-out tour.

After the latest altercation, he returned to the micro-blogging site, where he has more than 35 million followers.

"Ahhhhh! Rough morning. Trying to feel better for this show tonight but let the paps get the best of me..." he wrote.

"Sometimes when people r shoving cameras in your face all day and yelling the worst thing possible at u ... well I'm human. Rough week."

'POP BRAT'

Thursday's onstage collapse was not the first for Bieber.

He suffered a concussion during a concert in Paris last June after falling into a glass wall.

Bieber's illness came just days after he angered many fans by appearing for his first night at the O2 nearly two hours later than the advertised time.

The singer blamed technical issues for the delay, and said he was only 40 minutes behind schedule, but the media jumped on the story and the popular Sun tabloid referred to him in a March 7 story as "Pop brat Justin."

The tabloid attention has not been limited to the late show.

Newspapers described as "bizarre" his decision to wear a gas mask on a night out.

They also reported that Bieber, who celebrated his 19th birthday in London last week, tried to take 14-year-old Jaden Smith, son of actor Will Smith, to a club, where Smith was turned away, along with Bieber and his entourage.

Bieber took to Twitter and Instagram to vehemently deny the reports he tried to take the underage Smith to a club, saying instead he was forced to leave the venue when the club's security guards behaved aggressively towards his fans who were lined up outside.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Sophie Hares and Peter Cooney)

Nigella Lawson pays homage to Italy in new cookbook


NEW YORK (Reuters) - British television celebrity and best-selling cookbook author Nigella Lawson recalls that when the other girls wanted to be French, she wanted to be Italian.

"As a teenager, what drew me was the combination of familial warmth and glamour that was somehow both earthy and chic," Lawson said about Italy, where she lived between high school and college.

Her eighth cookbook, "Nigellissima," focuses exclusively on 120 Italian-inspired recipes.

"Somehow by speaking Italian, I came into the person I am," the 53-year-old, Oxford-educated cook added.

London-based Lawson, who is appearing in the U.S. cooking show "The Taste," spoke to Reuters about creating recipes and about how her most joyful moment in the kitchen is opening the fridge, seeing what is inside and trying to make something taste good from it, which she admits is "absolutely the antithesis of a cookery book."

Q: Is this your first Italian cookbook?

A: "It sort of is, and isn't. It's the first that's just Italian, or Italian-inspired. Because Italy has been such a big influence in my life, in my cooking life, there are actually more Italian recipes in my other books. But this is the only time I've done a book with such a narrow focus geographically."

Q: How would you describe your take on Italian cuisine?

A: "I suppose what I bring to it is a slightly more contemporary, urban edge in the sense that I live a busy modern city life, whereas so many Italian recipes come from a time when women were expected to spend a long time in the kitchen. I suppose I bring a kind of temporary impatience because it's the way I live now."

Q: How did you learn to cook?

A: "I've never learned to cook. I just cooked from when I was a child, always. I come from a large family and my mother believed in child labor, so I've cooked since I was about six. I do come from a food-obsessed family. That helps. I did have to teach myself how to cook weighing and measuring. It was an education in itself, and an interesting one."

Q: Do you create the recipes in your books?

A: "Well, they're mine, and if they're not I will always say. I think it's improper not to credit recipes. Often I credit someone even if I've changed it enormously because I feel for the reader it's very interesting to see the evolution of a recipe. So I will go back through the mists of time (to trace) how this recipe evolved."

Q: How does being a home cook, rather than a professional chef, influence your approach to preparing food?

A: "Cooking for me is in part an evangelical zeal that I want to share. If I've loved a book that I've read, I want to share that as well. A chef needs to feel they're being original. I just have the home cook sensibility: not wanting to waste money or time.

"Generally I make sure that if I buy a certain stash of ingredients, I can cook many different dishes. Cooking is not about heaping in ingredient after ingredient after ingredient. If I read a recipe and I'm exhausted by the time I finish reading the ingredients list, I know I'm never going to cook it."

Q: Did you enjoy co-hosting the reality TV show "The Taste?"

A: "I had a certain amount of trepidation but I really enjoyed it ... Because it was really about the taste of the food and not about personalities, I didn't think it was going to descend into the cruelty of some reality TV, that would appall me."

Sicilian Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic & Almonds

Serves 6

1 1 4 pounds fusilli lunghi or other pasta of your choice

salt for pasta water, to taste

8 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes

6 anchovy fillets

2 tablespoons golden raisins

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons capers, drained

1/3 cup skinned almonds

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil leaves from small bunch

basil (approx. 1 cup, packed )

Put abundant water on to boil for the pasta, waiting for it to boil before salting it. Add the pasta and cook following the package instructions, though start checking it a good 2 minutes before it's meant to be ready.

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce by putting all the remaining ingredients, except the basil, into a processor and blitzing until you have a nubby-textured sauce.

Just before draining the pasta, remove a cupful of pasta-cooking water and add 2 tablespoonfuls of it down the funnel of the processor, pulsing as you go.

Tip the drained pasta into your warmed serving bowl. Pour and scrape the sauce on top, tossing to coat (add a little more pasta-cooking water if you need it) and strew the basil leaves on top.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Philip Barbara)

Hugo Chavez a 'Great Hero,' Oliver Stone Says


LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Director Oliver Stone praised Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who died on Tuesday, calling him "a great hero."

In a statement provided to TheWrap, Stone referred to Chavez - who was a subject of his 2009 documentary "South of the Border," which explored media misperceptions about South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents - as "my friend."

While Stone conceded that Chavez was hated "by the entrenched classes," the filmmaker opined that he "will live forever in history."

Venezuela's vice president Nicolas Maduro said that Chavez died Tuesday. Chavez, who had battled cancer, was 58.

''I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place," Stone said. "Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history."

Stone concluded, "My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned."

Bieber scuffles with photographers in London


LONDON (AP) Justin Bieber's week just got worse.

Following a brief hospital stay after fainting backstage, the 19-year-old pop star's preparation for a final concert in London on Friday hit a speed bump.

Bieber got into an altercation with insult-hurling paparazzi, lashing out at a photographer with a stream of expletives as he was restrained by minders.

The singer quickly took to Twitter to address the incident, which was captured by Channel 5 news, and pledged to channel his "adrenaline" into his Friday show.

"Ahhhhh! Rough morning. Trying to feel better for this show tonight but let the paps get the best of me," he posted on the social networking site.

"Sometimes when people r shoving cameras in your face all day and yelling the worst thing possible at u...well I'm human. Rough week."

The scuffle came just hours after Bieber said he was "getting better" after struggling to breathe during the previous night's concert at the O2 arena, and pledged the show would go on as planned.

A spokesman for the O2 Arena said the 19-year-old pop star was treated backstage during Thursday's concert after becoming short of breath, but recovered and finished his set.

"As far as we are concerned everything is on, on, on" for Friday's show, Jeremy King said.

"He was treated by our team of medics and after further examination they didn't find anything more serious or worrying."

A spokeswoman for Bieber said he was recovering after Thursday's incident, which saw him given oxygen before returning to the stage.

"Justin has been released from the hospital after a check-up and, while he's feeling a little under the weather, he's currently planning on going ahead with tonight's show," the spokeswoman said Friday. She demanded anonymity to discuss the star's condition.

Bieber later posted a shirtless photo of himself in a hospital bed, saying he was getting better and listening to Janis Joplin. Before that on Twitter he thanked "everyone pulling me thru tonight."

"Best fans in the world," he wrote. "Figuring out what happened. Thanks for the love."

Video footage from the concert shows Bieber appearing to fade during a performance of his up-tempo hit, "Beauty and a Beat." He slows down, puts a hand to his head then bends over, resting his hands on knees before walking slowly to the back of the stage.

The AP spoke to 18-year-old journalism student Prithvi Pandya, who shot the footage, to confirm its authenticity.

"When he started 'Beauty and a Beat' you could see he was struggling," said Pandya, who was near the front of the crowd. "He took lots of drinks of water, that seemed unusual, and he was really sweaty, sweating a helluva lot.

"Toward the end of it, he went backstage. We didn't see him fainting. They brought on dancers to entertain, and I knew something was wrong at that point."

Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, appeared onstage and told the crowd that the singer was feeling "very low of breath" but would come back to finish the show.

Jazz Chappell, a 20-year-old concertgoer who brought her younger sister and her friend to the show, said that In the nearly 30 minutes he was offstage, some fans started to leave. Once his manager announced what had happened, Chappell said many fans in the audience were gasping and crying, while others kept cheering for him to return.

"I thought, 'Give the guy a break. He just fainted. He's not a performing horse. Let him rest a second,'" said Chappell.

Chappell said Bieber, who is in London to perform four concerts at the O2, later returned and performed low-energy renditions of his hits "Boyfriend" and "Baby."

Braun later tweeted "everyone please give him a little space and he will be ok. Im sure he appreciates the support ... Tough kid proud night once again he always finishes the show. Full out. True pro..."

The incident caps a difficult week for Bieber. He was forced to apologize to outraged fans who accused him of taking the stage almost two hours late for his first concert at the O2 on Monday. He insisted he was only 40 minutes late and blamed "technical issues." He took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the media's portrayal of the incident.

The star's Believe world tour is due to move on to Portugal on Monday, then continue across Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and North America until August.

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AP writers Gregory Katz in London and Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.justinbiebermusic.com/

PSY to unveil 'Gangnam Style' follow-up next month


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Korean rapper PSY says he'll unveil his much-awaited follow-up to "Gangnam Style" next month and celebrate it with a huge concert in Seoul.

PSY made the announcement Friday on YouTube, where his "Gangnam Style" video has a record 1.39 billion views.

PSY said he'll release the new single on April 13 and hold a concert at a soccer stadium that evening. He's dubbed the concert "Happening" and says it will be broadcast live on YouTube.

The rapper, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, has been on a worldwide tour since his viral video made a global splash in July, with its catchy tune and much-imitated horse-riding dance. He recently released a "Gangnam Style" remix and performed at the inauguration ceremony for South Korea's new president.

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Online:

http://tinyurl.com/a34v24h

Tiffani Thiessen thankful she missed TMZ era


NEW YORK (AP) Tiffani Thiessen is probably best known for her role as Kelly Kapowski on "Saved by the Bell," but the actress says she had no idea at that time how popular the teenage sitcom was.

"I mean, I was so young. I was 15 when I started that show," Thiessen, now 39, said in a recent interview.

"I remember Mark-Paul (Gosselaar) and I touring the (United) States and going overseas. ... That was the first time that I realized what an impact that show had when 5,000, 6,000, 10,000 kids were showing up to these malls and these places where we would sit there for hours and do autograph signings and pictures and stuff," she said.

"That's when I was really like, 'Where am I? What is this?' Kids wanted my empty cup of water and, you know, things like that. It was strange. I had to constantly remind myself that what I was doing was a job and I enjoyed my job and I was going back to school and do homework like all these other kids who were sitting here."

"Saved by the Bell," which also starred Mario Lopez and Dustin Diamond, aired from 1989 to 1993.

The show now airs in syndication and remains a part of the pop culture zeitgeist. Jimmy Fallon tried unsuccessfully to rally the cast for a reunion in 2009. (They did pose for a People magazine cover.) Justin Bieber wore a T-shirt with the likeness of Kelly Kapowski to the MuchMusic Awards in 2011.

Thiessen is grateful that she grew up in the limelight before TMZ and other 24-hour media outlets and gossip blogs came along on the Internet.

"Thank God I missed that. The photographers that would follow us were like for Teen Beat and Bop (magazines)," she said.

She said the limelight got a little more intense with her next big role as Valerie Malone on the '90s romance drama "Beverly Hills, 90210." But it was "nothing like (what) the kids are going through now."

Thiessen credits Aaron Spelling, who was an executive producer of "90210," with giving her an interesting perspective on fame.

"Aaron Spelling said something to me a long time ago that was really interesting," she said. "He said ... movie stars are in big screens and you have to go see them in the theater. TV stars are in people's homes and they feel much more of a connection because you're watching them in your home, and I thought that was really interesting because it was kind of true. A lot of people you know would stop me on the street thinking they went to high school with me."

Thiessen divides her time between Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and daughter, and New York City, where she films the USA series "White Collar," which aired its season four series finale this week.

Matt Bomer plays former con man Neal Caffrey, who is working with the FBI to catch white-collar criminals. Her character is married to agent Peter Burke, who supervises Caffrey.

"If I wasn't an actor, I probably would be an event planner, which is why my character, Elizabeth, on 'White Collar' is an event planner. It was kind of my idea. Presentation is huge for me. I love throwin' a good party. Absolutely. Like my daughter's birthday last year. I did all the catering, all the food, all the decor and I loved every minute of it. Of course, my husband's like, 'Do we have to do this much?' I just love doing it."

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Online:

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/

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Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar

Erin Andrews accuses hotel of trying to violate her privacy: again


NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Sportscaster Erin Andrews, who is suing Marriott over a stalker secretly filming her through a peephole and posting the nude video online, says the hotel chain is trying to again violate her privacy with a request for her employment and medical records.

In a filing this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Andrews says Marriott is seeking her payroll records, contracts, performance reviews, any disciplinary reports, as well as other employment information from her current employer, Fox. Andrews was employed by ESPN when she was secretly recorded.

Andrews' attorneys say Marriott is also seeking "physician letters, notes, annual physicals, and other related medical records."

The attorneys are asking a judge to quash the subpoena - essentially ruling that the request for information is out-of-bounds. The attorneys say the request is an attempt to "harass and embarrass" Andrews.

Marriott did not respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.

In her lawsuit against Marriott and the man who recorded her, Michael David Barrett, Andrews contends that Marriott employees gave Barrett the dates Andrews would be at a hotel and a room next to hers. He then recorded her through a peephole.

Barrett pleaded guilty to interstate stalking and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Although Andrews initially claimed she had lost earnings and earning capacity because of the recordings, she later dropped those claims. That makes the requests for information about her employment irrelevant, her attorneys said.

Gabrielle Giffords to receive "Profile in Courage" award


PHOENIX (Reuters) - Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is set to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for her efforts to curb gun violence since she was seriously wounded in a Tucson shooting rampage two years ago.

Gifffords is to receive the award, given annually by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, in recognition of the "political, personal, and physical courage she has demonstrated in her fearless public advocacy for policy reforms aimed at reducing gun violence," the foundation announced on Friday.

The award, named for President Kennedy's 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Profiles in Courage," is to be presented to Giffords by foundation president Caroline Kennedy at a ceremony in Boston on May 5.

Giffords, a Democrat, was shot in the head when a gunman opened fire on a congressional outreach event in Tucson in January 2011, killing six people and wounding a dozen others. She resigned from Congress a year after the shooting to focus on her recovery.

Following the attack that killed 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school in December, Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, founded a lobby group aimed at curbing gun violence and challenging the political clout of the well-funded gun lobby.

"Instead of retreating following the tragic shooting that ended her Congressional career, she has recommitted herself to fighting for a more peaceful society free from hate and violence. She is a true Profile in Courage," Caroline Kennedy said in a statement released by the foundation.

In a Tweet on Friday, Giffords thanked both Caroline Kennedy and the foundation: "Wow! So proud about the Profile in Courage Award. President Kennedy's book is a favorite of mine."

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Gary Hill)

Ice island draws looks in northern Lower Peninsula


READMOND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) An ice island that's formed off Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula is attracting attention.

Outdoor enthusiast Josh Baker tells WPBN-TV (http://bit.ly/YGArTe ) he and his family came across the towering collection of ice blocks Sunday in Lake Michigan off Emmet County.

Good Hart General Store Owner Jim Sutherland says cold weather and wind combine to build ice into mountains and caves. He says it's been many years since he's seen such a large ice island form in the area. It's likely been growing for 6 to 8 weeks.

The ice island is the latest winter creation of Lake Michigan to draw looks. Earlier this year, hundreds of ice balls and boulders piled up at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park. They were the size of beach balls or basketballs.

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Information from: WPBN-TV, http://www.tv7-4.com

T-Mobile USA to start BlackBerry Z10 business sales on March 11


NEW YORK (Reuters) - T-Mobile USA, the fourth biggest U.S. mobile service provider, said on Friday that it would start selling the highly anticipated and much delayed BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen smartphone to its business customers on March 11.

The U.S. unit of Deutsche Telekom said business customers could get delivery of the device by the end of next week. It declined to give a date for the consumer launch except to say that it would be before the end of March.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion, already sells the device in more than 20 countries but its reception in the United States, its former stronghold market, is seen as a key step. However, U.S. consumers have had to wait much longer for the device than other countries like Britain.

Bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc declined to reveal their Z10 launch dates on Friday and Canada's BlackBerry declined comment.

BlackBerry, a one-time smartphone pioneer, has bled market share to the likes of Apple's iPhone, as well as Samsung's Galaxy product line and other devices powered by Google Inc's market-leading Android operating system.

In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced the new smartphone to much fanfare in January. A more traditional BlackBerry with a physical keyboard will go on sale next month.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Nick Zieminski)