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Rapper XZIBIT has blasted the media for putting a negative "spin" on comments he made about a one-time trip to a gay bar with SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS, insisting his words have been blown out of proportion.
The X hitmaker, real name Alvin Joiner, recently appeared on Sirius satellite radio station Foxxhole, recalling how, on one occasion, he unwittingly went to a gay venue in Miami, Florida with the Bad Boy Records boss.
Xzibit recalled how he only realised the nature of the club when he stepped outside the VIP lounge and saw men kissing and dancing provocatively with one another.
He insinuated Combs knew the bar was a homosexual hang out, saying: "It was suspect… I’ve been in a gang of clubs, I ain’t (sic) never mistakenly stepped into a club with that kind of activity." But the star is now backtracking over his comments and admits he is disappointed at how the matter has been interpreted by the press.
He claims he never intended to question Combs’ sexuality and felt the need to speak out to clear up the reports after receiving an irate call from Combs himself.
However, he insists there is no tension between himself and Combs over the misinterpretation.
In a post on his MySpace.com page, he writes: "Wow, so I wake up this morning and my phone is going nuts.
"I turn on the computer and find all this s**t about me ‘throwing puffy under the gay bus’ whatever that means. All this SPIN that you journalist (sic) are putting on the statements I made on a radio show to DIRECTLY effect (sic) a guy in a manor not intended is wrong.
"The rumour mill that has ground this bulls**t out to be the s**t storm that it is, is doing so on its own accord. …I have no beef with Diddy. BUT WAIT… a bigger problem I see is the negative stance these Hip-Hop sites and blog sites are taking when speaking of gay people in general. All I can say to that is: PEOPLE GROW UP! I do NOT like to spread hate and make it a point not to do so, so this is not the way I intended this interview to unfold."

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A man who found BIANCA JAGGER’s missing $255,000 (EUR200,000/£176,000) ring is suing her, alleging she failed to pay him a reward.
Reinhard Ringler filed a suit in an Austrian court on Monday (23Feb09) alleging Sir Mick Jagger’s former wife refused to pay him the $12,800 (EUR10,000/£8,800) he is entitled to by law - which states the finder be given five per cent of the item’s value.
Jagger, who lost the precious item on 22 August (08), initially refused to pay the fee because of Ringler’s "long delay" in handing the item over to police.
Ringler claims he gave the platinum and aquamarine ring to his daughter after concluding it was of little value - and only returned it to authorities in September after seeing press reports about the gem.
The former model then offered to settle the dispute by giving $11,500 (EUR10,000/£7,900) of the reward money to charity and the remaining $1,300 (EUR1,000/£880) to Ringler’s daughter.
Both parties failed to reach an agreement and now the civil suit is to go to court on 4 May (09).
Jagger will have to pay $24,000 (EUR19,000/£16,700) - including court and attorney’s fees - if she loses her case.

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EMINEM’s legal battle with record label Universal over royalties from digital downloads is set to go to trial on Tuesday (24Feb09) - two years after the case was filed in a California court.
The Without Me hitmaker, real name Marshall Mathers, sued Universal bosses via his F.B.T. Productions company in 2007, challenging how much he is entitled to when the label sells his music to third-party distributors, like Apple’s iTunes downloading website.
The case could set a precedent for the music industry as hundreds of millions of dollars is potentially at stake for other artists whose songs have been made available for the service.
The trial is due to take place in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and will be the first legal test of the competing issues of its kind.
Eminem, who is signed to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records - a subsidiary of Universal/Interscope, will not be present for the court proceedings, but Universal founder Jimmy Iovine, Apple CEO Steve Jobs are among those expected to testify, reports TheWrap.com.
Universal is the biggest music company in the world and counts superstars like U2, Jay-Z, Kanye West and singer Akon among its roster of artists.

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Off-Broadway producer ERIC BLAU has died of pneumonia after suffering a stroke. He was 87.
Blau, best known for his New York theatre tribute to late Belgian singer Jacques Brel, died in Manhattan on 17 February (09).
As creator and producer of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, which opened in 1968, Blau compiled an evening’s worth of the star’s pop songs, translating his lyrics with composer Mort Shuman into English for American audiences.
The show ran for four years, and followed Blau’s work as a poet, children’s television producer, ghost writer and his post as founder and editor of Communist literary magazine, Masses and Mainstream.
Blau continued to create and produce Off-Broadway musicals after the success of the Brel production, although none matched the success of the tribute. He also went on to publish several books, including compilations of his poetry.
He is survived by his wife, Elly Stone, sons Matthew, John and Peter, four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

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ROMAN POLANSKI’s movie producer pal HERCULES BELLVILLE has died after losing his battle with cancer at the age of 69.
The star, who suffered a relapse in his fight against the disease at the start of this year (09), passed away in London on Saturday (21Feb09).
Bellville served closely as producer to directors like Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci and Michelangelo Antonioni, and was considered to be producer Jeremy Thomas’ right hand man for many years.
He scored his big break in 1964 at the age of 24, when he met Polanski on the eve of making the film Repulsion.
Although initially hired as a runner for Polanski, with whom he worked for over a decade, Bellville would eventually go on to become a well-known figure on the European and American film circuits, working on movies like 1975’s The Passenger and 1981’s The Postman Always Rings Twice.
His more recent projects include 2000’s Sexy Beast and 2003’s The Dreamers.
Bellville is survived by his wife Ilana Shulman, whom he married just 48 hours before his death.

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Actor ADAM SANDLER has been sued by a comic book author who’s accused the star of stealing the idea for his 2008 movie YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN.
Author Robert Cabell filed a copyright infringement suit against Sandler and bosses at Happy Madison Productions, Sony and Columbia Pictures on Monday (23Feb09) in Manhattan Federal court in New York.
Cabell claims the idea for Sandler’s Zohan character, an Israeli special forces officer who fakes his death and becomes a hair dresser, was taken from his comic book series Hair-Raising Adventures of Jayms Blonde, which chronicles the main character wielding a blow dryer against corporate bad guys.
Pitching the Blonde movie on his website, Cabell writes: "He’s gorgeous, he’s gay, he makes bad guys pay." According to the New York Daily News, Cabell says he brought the idea of taking his Blonde comic book character to the big screen when he pitched it to executives at Columbia in the autumn of 2007.
Cabell claims Sandler began filming the movie in Los Angeles close to the time he pitched the film, five years after he published the first books in the series.

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Actress JANE FONDA’s first Broadway performance in 45 years was marred after it was picketed by Vietnam War veterans.
The 71-year-old stars in new play 33 Variations, after a four decade-long hiatus from the stage.
But at Saturday’s (21Feb09) preview performance of the show at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre, audience members found themselves fighting through demonstrators to get into the building.
War veterans were protesting against Fonda’s 1972 visit to North Vietnam, where she straddled an anti-aircraft gun and gave her support to the enemy, reports New York Post’s gossip column PageSix.

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Late actor HEATH LEDGER and actress MICHELLE WILLIAMS’ young daughter MATILDA has been granted a privacy order by a U.S. judge.
The Los Angeles official reacted as lawyers for the three-year-old’s trust and ReliaStar Life Insurance Company announced in court they had reached an agreement to settle a $10 million (£6.9 million) lawsuit.
It involved a life insurance policy Ledger took out seven months before his death from an accidental prescription drug overdose last year (Jan08).
An attorney for the tragic star sued the company, claiming the firm’s bosses refused to pay out pending an investigation on whether his death was a suicide.
Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin has ruled that because The Dark Knight star’s daughter is the benefactor of the policy, the details of the settlement - including the amount Matilda will receive - should be kept private.
Judge Lavin told the court, "She is not a celebrity. She is a minor child." He also noted that while Ledger was famous, Matilda had "a right to privacy".
Lawyer for ReliaStar, Margaret Levy, said the company was pleased the case was settled "amicably" and Matilda would be shielded from public scrutiny: "We think that’s great that she will be protected."

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HEATH LEDGER’s final film THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS is facing a limited U.S. release as bosses struggle to land a deal with a major distributor.
Executives have been searching for six months for backers in America but are having difficulty finding a company to release the experimental movie, which features late actor Ledger as a travelling magician.
And American audiences may not have easy access to the independent project as a result of the marketing difficulties.
An industry source tells Reuters, "This movie stars Heath Ledger in his final performance - it will get a deal and come out in the U.S. But it’s no accident that it’s taking this long."

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SEAN PENN has hit out at anti-gay demonstrators who lined the streets outside the Academy Awards on Sunday (22Feb09) to protest against same-sex marriage.
The star won the Best Actor Oscar at the ceremony for his portrayal of assassinated gay politician Harvey Milk in biopic Milk.
And backstage at the prizegiving, he criticised those who support the banning of gay marriage in California.
When asked what he would tell the protestors, he responded: "I’d tell them to turn in their hate card and find their better self.
"It’s very sad in a way, because it’s a demonstration of such emotional cowardice, to be so afraid of extending the same rights to your fellow man as you would want for yourself."

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EVAN RACHEL WOOD and MARILYN MANSON have sparked speculation their relationship is back on after the rocker was reportedly overheard calling the actress his "girlfriend".
The pair, who dated from 2006 until October last year (08), was allegedly spotted leaving the W hotel in Los Angeles together hours before The Wrestler actress appeared at the Oscars on Sunday (22Feb09).
According to New York gossip column Page Six, Manson emerged from the building first and "said he was waiting for his girlfriend".
Wood then appeared and the two climbed into a car together.

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The head of celebrity news website TMZ.com has defended publishing a picture of RIHANNA following her alleged bust-up with CHRIS BROWN - insisting it’s important to show "both sides" of the story.
Singer Brown was charged with making criminal threats following an incident earlier this month (Feb09) which reportedly left the Umbrella hitmaker needing hospital treatment.
Staff at TMZ later published a photo of a battered woman they allege is Rihanna following the incident - and Los Angeles police launched a probe over the leaking of the picture.
Now website chief Harvey Levin has defended running the "horrifying" shot, adding that his staff are "not convinced" the image was taken by cops investigating the incident.
He tells Fox News, "It is a photograph of Rihanna that was taken shortly after the alleged beating a couple of weeks ago. We, obviously, believed at the time, convincingly, that it was Rihanna and put it up on the site… I’m not saying anything bad at all about the LAPD. I mean, what they needed to do, they felt, was conduct an internal affairs investigation because they felt there was a leak. In so doing … they did authenticate the picture.
"Chris Brown is not going to just say, ‘I’m going to lie down on this one and not fight’. I guarantee you that Chris Brown is going to mount a defence in this case. I know that. He will mount a defence in this case.
"So, the picture is not the be-all and the end-all, as far as he’s concerned… But what it does do is it puts a face on what both sides really have been kind of leaking out over the last couple of weeks… Well, the bottom line is, here’s the photograph, here’s the end result. And frankly, I think it’s pretty horrifying."

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BRITNEY SPEARS’ father JAMIE has blasted her former manager SAM LUTFI - accusing him of spiking the singer with drugs and wrecking her life.
Jamie Spears, the co-conservator of his daughter’s estate since January 2008, is seeking to extend a restraining order against Lutfi and the Toxic hitmaker’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, making it a permanent injunction.
And in an astonishing outburst, he told a court in Los Angeles Lutfi was a "predator" who had given Britney cookies laced with drugs, had tried to "extort" the singer, and fed her lies about her custody case with ex-husband Kevin Federline which led to her hospitalisation early last year (08).
He described his daughter’s life under Lutfi’s management as "pretty well a disaster", adding: "When (Lutfi) was in so-called control, she’d lost everything - her kids and career.
"I believe he’s a predator, I believe he’s very dangerous to her… and causes her a lot of anguish and disbelief. We’ve asked him to go away before, and now he’s coming back. We just want the man to go away. Just leave us alone." Referring to the events leading up to Britney’s hospitalisation in January last year, he said: "She was told by Lutfi she could have her children for another night. She didn’t want to let her kids go because she thought she could have them for another night." Jamie also alleged Lutfi had tried to contact Britney by text message, and told the court: "Sam put drugs in (Britney’s) biscuits." The hearing is due to resume on Wednesday (25Feb09).

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NAOMI WATTS is eager to follow in the footsteps of Oscar winner PENELOPE CRUZ - she has signed to star in WOODY ALLEN’s latest movie.
The Aussie actress has been cast in the as-yet-untitled film alongside Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins and will start shooting the project in London in Summer (09).
Cruz received critical acclaim for her turn in Allen’s latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona - winning the Best Supporting actress trophy at the Oscars on Sunday (22Feb09).

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Actress/singer HILARY DUFF has turned into an Ice Hockey fanatic since dating NHL star boyfriend MIKE COMRIE.
The Lizzie Maguire star admits she found it difficult to relate to fans of the sport when she first began dating Ottawa Senators idol Comrie in 2007.
But Duff is now hooked on the sport - and insists she is not afraid to stand up for her boyfriend when he comes in for abuse from fans.
She tells Us weekly, "I like to sit in the audience, you know I don’t sit up in a box or anything, and people started to know that I’m sitting there, and they’ll be like ‘Mike sucks!’ Or (they) try to rile me up. And I’m like, ‘Hey, watch it! I’ll come up there, you know.’ I try to not be that crazy girlfriend.
"The first couple of games I went to, I’m like, ‘These people are nuts,’ They are, like, so into it. And then, I got really into it once I started learning about the game."

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THE KILLERS rocker BRANDON FLOWERS once stormed off-stage in the middle of a concert after the crowd got out of hand.
The frontman, currently touring Europe with the band, refuses to tolerate rowdy revellers at his gigs and was once so enraged he abandoned a show when an audience member hurled a towel at him.
He explains, "Over-enthusiastic girls and boys throw things like flags at us. I caught about five flags the other night.
"(Once) I couldn’t sing because my throat wouldn’t let me. We did this Killer karaoke thing and two girls came up to sing Mr. Brightside. Someone balled up a towel and hit me in the face. That was my exit."

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Pop star MELANIE CHISHOLM is reportedly planning a career hiatus so that she can focus on raising her newborn daughter.
The former Spice Girl welcomed her first baby Scarlet Starr on Sunday (22Feb09).
The singer continued to perform even when heavily pregnant - but now she is putting aside her singing to concentrate on her child.
A source tells Britain’s Daily Mirrror, "Her priority at the moment is Scarlet - her music will have to take a backseat for a while."

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JENNIFER HUDSON is turning her back on her pop music roots - she’s set to record a gospel album, according to reports.
The Spotlight singer shot to fame on American Idol in 2004 and her self titled debut album was full of R&B and pop hits.
But now Hudson is turning to gospel for her second album, which she’ll start recording this spring (09), reports MediaTakeOut.com.
A source tells the website, "(Jennifer) has always wanted to explore different genres and she’s recorded gospel before, so it makes a lot of sense."

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