Vietnam, CIA works top awards

NEW YORK (AP) -- With the United States fighting an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, stories of espionage and critiques of foreign policy were winners at the 58th annual National Book Awards.

Denis Johnson's "Tree of Smoke," a 600-page journey through the physical, moral and spiritual extremes of the Vietnam War, won the fiction award Wednesday night, while Tim Weiner's "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA," won in nonfiction.

Robert Hass' "Time and Materials," which includes several poems critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration, won for poetry. The prize for young people's literature went to Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian."

Each of the winners received $10,000. Runners-up received $1,000.

Johnson's novel, which he has said he first thought of in the early 1980s, has been widely praised since coming out this fall. It tells of spies, counterspies and others caught up in the blur and horror of Vietnam from the day after President Kennedy was shot until the early 1980s.

The author of "Jesus' Son" and other works earned praise for "Tree of Smoke's" recognizable story about the certainty of exploration and suffering and the hope for salvation.

"I'm very sorry to miss this one chance to dress up in a tuxedo in front of so many representatives from the world of literature, and say thank you," the author said in a statement read by his wife, Cindy.

Tweaking "God is Not Great" author Christopher Hitchens, whom he obliquely referred to as "one of our nonfiction nominees," Johnson concluded by saying, "I'd like to thank God."

The 58-year-old Johnson, who lives in New Mexico, rarely talks to the media and is currently on a writing assignment in Iraq. It was the fifth time in the past eight years that an author published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux has won in fiction, with previous winners including Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" and Richard Powers' "The Echo Maker."

Joan Didion and National Public Radio host Terry Gross received honorary medals. Didion, who two years ago won the National Book Award in nonfiction for "The Year of Magical Thinking," noted that Norman Mailer had been at the ceremony then.

Mailer, a former National Book Awards winner who died Saturday at age 84, was "someone who really ... knew what writing was for," Didion said. Mailer also was praised by Hass, who recalled giving a poetry reading decades ago at Mailer's home and how "enormously generous he was to young writers."

Hass, a former U.S. poet laureate who accepted his prize from the current laureate, head poetry judge Charles Simic, began his speech by quoting someone who had never won any prizes, Emily Dickinson: "Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne'er succeed."

Alexie, best known for such adult novels as "Ten Little Indians," won for a semi-autobiographical story of an American Indian at an all-white high school. A member of the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene tribes, he gave an emotional speech in which he remembered Ezra Jack Keats' classic "The Snowy Day," the first book Alexie read that included characters who resembled him both physically and in all his "gorgeous loneliness" and "splendid isolation."

Writing about young people, of course, isn't the same as being with them. Alexie, who has two children, was asked after the ceremony if he had told his family the good news.

"Yes," said Alexie, "I called them right away and they wanted to know when I was coming home."

Celine Dion: 'This is where I am right now'

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- Though she's undeniably warm and gregarious, you can hear a bit of irritation creep into Celine Dion's voice when her years away from the pop music world is referred to as "time off."

"I don't think it was a break," she says politely but firmly. "I worked for five years."

Indeed, Dion's "A New Day" concert extravaganza on the Las Vegas strip may have been more demanding than pop life. The French-Canadian chanteuse performed several days a week in the ambitious, Franco Dragone-directed show, which was heavy on dancing, theatrics and of course Dion's booming voice. The career of Celine Dion the Entertainer was vibrant and thriving.

But for all practical purposes, the career of Celine Dion the Pop Diva was all but dormant where it once had its biggest impact -- the recording industry.

While thousands packed Caesars' Palace to hear her sing every night, Dion -- who has sold 50 million albums in the United States alone since her 1990 debut, and had one of the biggest songs in pop history with "My Heart Will Go On" -- disappeared from the charts. Though she released a French-language album and a CD to accompany an Anne Geddes photo book titled "Miracles," Dion decided not to put out a pop disc during her Las Vegas tenure. Her last proper studio album release was 2003's double-platinum "One Heart," released just as the show began.

So as "A New Day" winds down this year and she releases her comeback record, "Taking Chances," this week, Dion finds herself in many ways starting over, trying to reclaim her place after being a pop queen in exile.

"She's more nervous than she was before. The fact that she hasn't been in the pop arena for five years, she's pretty nervous about it -- and me too by the way," says her husband and manager, Rene Angelil. "We don't know if people will accept her, if the fans are still there. We know that she has fans ... (but) a lot of things have changed in the music business in the last five years."

Something else has also changed as well: Dion's sound. The woman known (and often parodied) for her bombastic love ballads now has a harder edge to her music. Some of the songs are decidedly uptempo and would fit in easily on a Kelly Clarkson CD, with their emphasis on heavy guitars. And on the album's most intriguing track, "The Woman in Me," Dion sounds like she's singing in some nefarious dive bar. Growling her way through the blues belter, she blows away her reputation for sometimes saccharine material.

Even the album's first single, the ballad "Taking Chances," seems more mainstream pop than her usual adult contemporary vibe -- like a calculated attempt to capture new listeners.

But Dion, 39, says she wasn't intentionally trying to change her sound.

"I picked those (songs) without knowing that it was very different, to be honest with you," she said via phone after taping an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," part of a high-profile media blitz planned for the week of the CD's release.

"When I went in the studio and I sang them I just enjoyed myself so much. And now I listen to it and I notice it's definitely edgier but this is where I am right now," she adds. "I'm not a new Celine but it's just that I've evolved and this is where I am in my life and my career right now. ... the feeling that I feel. I'm definitely more mature and more grounded."

John Shanks, who produced several songs on "Taking Chances," including the title cut, says her new sound shows "she's viable and that she is competitive."

"It shows that there are many sides to her and it's just how she's been showcased in the past. ... I don't think she's chasing anything at all, she's not chasing a sound. I think it's a very natural growth."

But after being gone from the pop scene for so long, even a new sound may not be enough to connect with listeners. So far, the acoustic-leaning single "Taking Chances" hasn't registered on the pop charts, although it's at No. 11 on the adult contemporary charts.

One station that is taking a chance on "Taking Chances" is New York's top 40 radio station Z100. Sharon Datsur, the program director, says the typical response from listeners is "shock that it's Celine Dion, first of all, and then they say, 'Wow, I love the song.' "

Though the first single has been slow to catch on at other radio stations, Datsur said the album, which includes production by R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo, rocker Ben Moody and Linda Perry, is the smart way to reintroduce Dion and create a different identity with the audience.

"I've listened to the whole album and they did this really smartly. They are working with some of the top producers that have produced some of the biggest pop hits in the last five, 10 years," she says. "For so many years, a lot of people kind of associated her with adult contemporary -- an older audience."

While Dion admits to being "more nervous" about her new album than past one, she's also quick to assert that she's not obsessed with trying to recapture the multi-platinum status of her glory years. Part of the reason for that is also the reason she planted herself in Las Vegas for five years: her 6-year-old son, Rene-Charles.

"I do worry, but for the important things," she says forcefully before a recent performance at Caesars Palace. "My priorities changed since I became a mommy. I love to sing, I love to perform -- (but) it is not my life."

To that end, Dion and Angelil are already looking past the next year, during which she plans a major world tour, and planning to add to their family. "This is our big project," Angelil says.

In fact, Dion, who is quick to point out that she has been working pretty much straight for the past 25 years, is looking forward to her next hiatus from the pop arena -- when she will truly have a real break.

I miss to be home, we're building a house right now," she says wistfully. "I'm about to meet my life soon, you know, so that's what I miss the most."

Marie Osmond: My son is in rehab

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Marie Osmond said Wednesday that her 16-year-old son has entered a rehabilitation facility but she didn't disclose the nature of his problem.

"My son, Michael, is an amazing young man, shown through his courage in facing his issues. As his mother I couldn't be more proud of him," Osmond said in a statement issued through her publicist, Marleah Leslie.

"The press and public have always been kind and gracious in the past and I know they will continue to respect our privacy during this time," she said.

The statement was first reported by "Entertainment Tonight."

Michael is one of Osmond's five adopted children. She also has three other children from two marriages.

She announced earlier this year that she and her second husband, Brian Blosil, are divorcing.

The 48-year-old singer-actress has been appearing on the ABC show "Dancing With the Stars." She missed last week's show after her father, George Osmond, patriarch to her and her singing brothers, died at his home in Provo, Utah. He was 90.

She learned Tuesday she had survived the cut and remains a contestant.

Osmond fainted on stage following a samba during a live broadcast of the show on October 22. She quickly recovered and was well enough to continue.

Osmond gained fame at age 13 with the hit song "Paper Roses" and starred with her brother, Donny Osmond, on television's "Donny and Marie Show" during the 1970s.

Her brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay Osmond made their television debut as singers in 1962. Over the years, the Osmond Brothers singing group has also included her brothers Donny and Jimmy.

Zellweger: 'I'm not a big scene girl'

NEW YORK (AP) -- What makes Renee Zellweger most proud in her celebrated acting career is that she's kept her sanity.

"It's weird to have fame precede you in any situation ... and I'm very proud of myself that I've not been to Betty Ford (Center) yet," Zellweger, 38, tells Harper's Bazaar. "Never say never!"

Among her career achievements? "Learning what my boundaries are. That I've been able to stay out of the psychiatric wards despite the really bizarre exchanges I have on a daily basis," she says in the magazine's December issue, on newsstands November 20.

Zellweger prefers privacy to hanging out with the Hollywood crowd -- in public at least. "I'm not a big scene girl," she says. "If I see the scene once a year, that's more than plenty."

The "Bridget Jones" star says an ideal night out could be a "really nice Christmas party."

"I love to go to somebody's house when it gets a little bit later and there's dancing and laughter and nobody's pointing at the weird actor-girl in the corner," says Zellweger, an Oscar winner for 2003's "Cold Mountain."

Zellweger, who filed for an annulment four months after her 2005 wedding to Kenny Chesney, says she's "not sad" about being single. "I'm so busy catching up with the people I miss when I'm working that I'm not busy missing someone."

She's been romantically linked with Jim Carrey, George Clooney -- and Paul McCartney. When asked about McCartney, Zellweger says: "He's as lovely as I expected. We have mutual friends. The crush and I have mutual friends."

Autopsy planned for Kanye West's mom

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Donda West, mother of hip-hop mogul Kanye West, may have died because of complications from surgery, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said Monday.

An autopsy to be performed Wednesday may make clear the cause of death.

West died Saturday at the age of 58, a representative of her son's record label, Island Def Jam, confirmed, adding that "the family respectfully asks for privacy during this time of grief."

Lt. Fred Corral, watch commander for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, told CNN the office is investigating West's death due to "possible complications of surgery."

He added that it is not known whether complications arose during or after surgery.

West died Saturday night at 8:29 p.m., Corral said.

Cindy Woelfle, with Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina Del Rey, California, told CNN that paramedics brought Donda West to the emergency room Saturday evening. Attempts were made to revive her, but were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead before 9 p.m. (6 p.m. ET).

Woelfle said West did not have surgery at Centinela.

West's publicist, Patricia Green, told CNN earlier Monday that West died after undergoing a cosmetic surgery procedure, although she said she had no information on the cause of death or whether complications had resulted from the surgery.

Later, however, Green denied saying West had undergone surgery.

Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Andre Aboolian, however, said through his publicist that Donda West consulted him in June about a procedure. Publicist Jo-Ann Geffen said West contacted Aboolian again two weeks ago to say she was ready to go forward, but Aboolian said he needed a medical clearance before he would perform the surgery.

"I always insist on a medical clearance for women over 40, and in this instance it was particularly important because of a condition she had that I felt could have led to a heart attack," Aboolian said, according to Geffen's statement.

Geffen said she was scheduled to see an internist for the appropriate tests, but never made the appointment.

Donda West was a major influence on her son's life, as the music producer-singer-songwriter has often said -- including in lyrics to some of his songs. She regularly attended her son's concerts, and was at his performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September.

Earlier this year, she released a book she co-authored called "Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar."

West retired from her post as professor and chair of the English Department at Chicago State University in 2004 to become her son's manager, according to the Kanye West Foundation Web site. She also became CEO of Super Good, the parent company of Kanye West Enterprises.

In Kanye West's song "Can't Tell Me Nothing," a track from his latest album, "Graduation," he rhymes about her attempt to discourage him from spending money on jewelry. On "Touch the Sky," from his 2005 album, "Late Registration," he recalls how his mother drove him from Chicago to New York in a U-Haul van.

Donda West was also the inspiration for the song "Hey Mama."

Couple eliminated from 'Amazing Race'

NEW YORK (AP) -- Slow and steady did not win "The Amazing Race" for Kate Lewis and Pat Hendrickson.

The reality series' first-ever lesbian couple was eliminated in Amsterdam during Sunday's episode after losing precious time during a challenge scouring through thousands of bicycles for a color-coded tag.

"I admit I was out of shape," says Hendrickson, who's lost 40 pounds since filming. "I could do much better now."

During the race's first Detour challenge, Lewis and Hendrickson opted to search through a parking garage full of bikes. Looking back, Lewis and Hendrickson wished they would've chosen to hoist furniture up the side of the building.

"We definitely could've done that," says Lewis. "I've done macrame, too."

Lewis, 49, and Hendrickson, 65, from Thousand Oaks, California, tied the knot three years ago. The "married ministers" team are the oldest duo featured in the 12th edition of the Emmy-winning competitive reality series, and the show's first lesbian couple.

"It isn't something we flaunt, yet it isn't something we covet," Hendrickson told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Monday. "That was what we were hoping would come out of this. It's just part of who we are."

Throughout the race, Lewis, an Episcopal priest, says the couple frequently prayed in private, away from the reality TV cameras. The pair asked permission from their church to participate in the around-the-world race.

"We've been supported 100 percent by our bishop," says Lewis. "We did have to ask permission to do this because we are under vows to our bishop. He didn't even think twice. He was 100 percent supportive."

Literary lion Norman Mailer dies

(CNN) -- Norman Mailer, the outspoken author whose prize-winning works made him a towering figure on the American literary stage for more than 50 years, is dead. He was 84.

Mailer died about 4:30 a.m. Saturday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, his literary executor, J. Michael Lennon, said.

Author of "The Naked and the Dead," "The Armies of the Night" and "The Executioner's Song," Mailer was probably the most famous of the generation of writers who came of age after World War II -- he was certainly the most colorful, and most pugnaciously so.

He wrote constantly: novels, screenplays, articles (he was a key figure in the "New Journalism" movement of the 1960s), poems, polemics. He co-founded the Village Voice. He was married six times.

And with his brawny physique and outsize personality, Mailer was never one to shy from a fight, whether physical -- he once stabbed his second wife after a party -- or literary. His feuds

He ran for mayor of New York, agitated for left-wing causes (though his 1971 book, "The Prisoner of Sex," made him a pariah to the feminist movement) and led a drive to obtain parole for a talented convict, Jack Henry Abbott -- an act that backfired when Abbott killed a man not long after being freed.

One of his books was called "Advertisements for Myself," and he wasn't kidding.

"He is a man whose faults, though many, add to rather than subtract from the sum of his natural achievements," his longtime rival Gore Vidal once said.

"Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision," Mailer observed. "The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation."

But, even as he walked both sides of that line, there was no doubting his literary talent. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice -- for "The Armies of the Night" (1968) and "The Executioner's Song" (1979) -- as well as the National Book Award and several other honors.

His literary style was energetic, muscular, relentless: Joan Didion, no slouch herself, called him "a great and obsessed stylist, a writer to whom the shape of the sentence is the story."

Norman Kingsley Mailer was born January 31, 1923, in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He describes his family -- his father was an accountant, his doting mother an assistant in running a trucking company -- as a "typical middle-class Jewish family," but other accounts refer to the clan as working-class.

Whatever the family's economic level, Mailer showed his mettle early, writing a 250-page story at age 9 and entering Harvard at 16. At the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university, he won a student fiction contest. He received a degree in engineering in 1943, but that was just a formality: "I knew there was one thing I wanted to be and that was a writer," he said.

Mailer joined the army after graduation and was sent to the Philippines, where he served as a rifleman and eventually rose to the rank of sergeant.

When the war ended, he entered Paris' Sorbonne as a graduate student and wrote his first novel, "The Naked and the Dead," inspired by his wartime experiences. The book, published in 1948, became a huge best-seller, and Mailer was famous. He was 25 years old.

"I understand one element of celebrity, which is the unreality of it," he said later. "At the age of 25 I went from being the kid next door ... to being called a major American writer -- that's a role you just don't fit at 25. ... I used to feel I was secretary to someone named Norman Mailer, (and) to meet him you had to meet me first."

Celebrity was intoxicating, however, and Mailer set out for its capital -- Hollywood -- in hopes of seeing "The Naked and the Dead" immortalized on celluloid. But the studios rejected the young writer and he returned to New York. A film version of the book finally appeared in 1958, with Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson and Raymond Massey.

After one failed novel -- "The Barbary Shore" (1951), about McCarthyism -- his next book, "The Deer Park" (1955), took on Hollywood. The book's sexual content prompted six publishers to reject it, and when it was finally published by Putnam, reviews were middling to scathing: "Stultifies us with misanthropy," wrote The New York Times' John Brooks in one of the kinder notices. But the book sold moderately well and became a cult item in later years.

By then, Mailer was characterizing himself as a hipster, a "psychic outlaw." His 1957 essay, "The White Negro," dealt with alienation, anti-establishmentarianism and race relations. He followed that work with "Advertisements for Myself," a 1959 collection that, as its title promised, promoted its author and his anti-establishment beliefs. It became a favorite of the Beat generation.

But Mailer rose to a new level of prominence in the 1960s. He wrote an influential essay for Esquire during the 1960 presidential campaign, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," about John F. Kennedy, which the magazine later named one of its five best stories.

Mailer was a regular contributor to Esquire over the years. He reported on politics for several publications, often putting his point of view at the center of the story -- a hallmark of the "New Journalism" practiced by Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson.

Meanwhile, with a lifestyle redolent of rock stars (before such a species existed), he was a constant in gossip columns, particularly after the 1960 stabbing incident, for which he was temporarily confined to New York's Bellevue mental hospital.

As the atmosphere of the '60s became more tumultuous, Mailer found himself in his element. A 1967 novel was titled "Why Are We in Vietnam?" He turned a 1967 protest against the Pentagon into "The Armies of the Night," subtitled "History as a Novel, the Novel as History." Its main character was Norman Mailer. His coverage of the 1968 political conventions became "Miami and the Siege of Chicago." He wrote about the 1969 Apollo 11 moonshot in "Of a Fire on the Moon" (1971).

During this time, he was also appearing on talk shows to argue with all comers, making films -- one of them, "Maidstone" (1970), includes a brawl with actor Rip Torn -- and, in 1969, running for mayor of New York as an independent on a platform of city secession. He lost the race, one of the city's most contentious, to John Lindsay.

By the early '70s, Mailer was more than a writer -- he was a full-fledged personality. In 1973 he threw himself a 50th birthday party. The 550 guests, who paid $30 a head (a hefty sum in 1973), included the cream of New York's arts and political classes.

"These were people wholly unaccustomed to paying their way into any party. ... They came and they paid because Mailer has a magic command on our attention," The New York Times' John Leonard wrote.

But attention to his writing was waning. Books on Marilyn Monroe and boxing failed to move critics or audiences.

He reinvigorated his reputation with "The Executioner's Song," a 1,000-page "true-life novel" about convicted murderer Gary Gilmore. The book won Mailer his second Pulitzer Prize. He followed it up with "Ancient Evenings" (1983), set in ancient Egypt, and the hard-boiled detective story "Tough Guys Don't Dance." Mailer also directed the 1987 film version starring Ryan O'Neal.


His later novels include "Harlot's Ghost" (1992), another lengthy tome about the history of the CIA; "Oswald's Tale" (1995), about Kennedy's assassin; and "The Gospel According to the Son" (1997), which concerned Jesus Christ. His most recent novel, "The Castle in the Forest," probed the life of Adolf Hitler, told by a demon.

Mailer also remained involved in civic life, not always happily. In 1980 he led the movement to have a convicted killer, Jack Henry Abbott, released on parole. Abbott had published a book, "In the Belly of the Beast," with Mailer's help. Six weeks after his release in 1981, Abbott stabbed a restaurant employee to death. The Abbott affair was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in," Mailer later said.

In 1984 he traveled to the Soviet Union, reporting on a country he believed was imploding. He headed the international writers' organization PEN in the mid-'80s and continued to speak out on political topics well into his 80s.

Mailer had opinions on everything. The Associated Press compiled a few:

The '70s: "The decade in which image became preeminent because nothing deeper was going on."

Poetry: A "natural activity ... a poem comes to one," whereas prose required making "an appointment with one's mind to write a few thousand words."

Journalism: Irresponsible. "You can't be too certain about what happened."

Technology: "Insidious, debilitating and depressing," and nobody in politics had an answer to "its impact on our spiritual well-being."

He distrusted technology so much he continued to write with a pen, some 1,500 words a day, according to AP. When a stranger asked him if he used a computer, AP reports, he replied, "No, I never learned that," then added, "but my girl does."

In a 1971 magazine piece about women's liberation, Mailer compared the dehumanization of technology to the effect of feminists, who he said were abolishing the "mystery, romance" and "blind, goat-kicking lust from sex," AP reports.

Mailer received a gold medal for lifetime achievement at the National Book Awards in 2005, where, AP reports, he deplored the decline of interest in the "serious novel."

Mailer said, according to AP, that when he was young, "fiction was everything. The novel, the big novel, the driving force. We all wanted to be Hemingway ... I don't think the same thing can be said anymore. I don't think my work has inspired any writer, not the way Hemingway inspired me."

Even as he settled into a quieter life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with his sixth wife, Norris Church, Mailer was always thinking, always moving.

"Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit," he once said.

He made the most of his own time on Earth.

Works by Norman Mailer

"The Naked and the Dead" 1948 "The Barbary Shore" 1951 "The Deer Park" 1955 "Advertisements for Myself" 1959 "The Presidential Papers" 1963 "An American Dream" 1965 "Why Are We in Vietnam?" 1967 "The Armies of the Night" (National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize) 1968 "Miami and the Siege of Chicago" 1968 "Of A Fire On the Moon" 1971 "The Prisoner of Sex," essay, 1971 "Existential Errands" 1972 "St. George and the Godfather," 1972 "Marilyn" 1973 "The Fight" 1975 "Some Honorable Men" 1975 "Genius and Lust" 1976 "A Transit to Narcissus" 1978 "The Executioner's Song" (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) 1979 "Of Women and Their Elegance, Pieces and Pontifications," essay, 1982 "Ancient Evenings" 1983 "Tough Guys Don't Dance" 1984 "Harlot's Ghost" 1991 "The Gospel According to the Son" 1997

Singer cries as husband locked up

LONDON, England (AP) -- Singer Amy Winehouse looked on tearfully Saturday as a British judge ordered her husband be held on charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Winehouse watched from the gallery in Thames Magistrates' Court in London as her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, was remanded in custody until November 23.

Fielder-Civil and Anthony Kelly, 25, who was also remanded, are among five men arrested in relation to a court case due to start on Monday at another London court.

In that trial, Fielder-Civil and Michael Brown, 39, face charges of assaulting a barman on June 20.

Retro soul singer Winehouse has won worldwide acclaim for her second album, "Back to Black," but has also made headlines through erratic behavior, health fears and reports of heavy drug use.

In August she spent time in rehab and canceled a series of dates in Britain, the United States and Canada. Last month Winehouse and Fielder-Civil were arrested in Norway and fined €500 (US$715) for possession of marijuana.

It's a boy for 'View' co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck

NEW YORK (AP) -- Television talk show host Elisabeth Hasselbeck has given birth to a son, ABC announced Saturday.

The co-host of "The View" gave birth Friday to a 7-pound, 15-ounce boy at an Arizona hospital, the network said.

Hasselbeck and her husband, NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, did not release the newborn's name.

She planned to call in to the show Monday to announce it, the network said.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, 30, began a 2 1/2-month maternity leave from "The View" on October 23.

She also was a contestant on the television reality show "Survivor."

Her husband is a backup for the Arizona Cardinals.

O'Brien stalker priest fit for trial

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A priest accused of stalking Conan O'Brien was found fit to stand trial Friday, although his lawyer acknowledged he has been treated for psychological problems.

The judge issued the ruling after a court-appointed psychologist examined the Rev. David Ajemian of the Archdiocese of Boston. State Justice Abraham Clott also ordered him held on $2,500 cash bail.

Ajemian's attorney, Eric Seiff, agreed the priest was fit for trial. But Seiff said Ajemian had been taking medication and has been treated for a year for psychological problems.

Msgr. Dennis Sheehan of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton, Massachusetts, attended the hearing. He said the cardinal of the Boston Archdiocese "asked me to come as a sign of his concern."

Ajemian, 46, was arrested last week while trying to enter a taping of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in New York City despite being warned to stay away by NBC security.

Ajemian, who allegedly began writing O'Brien in September 2006, has been placed on leave by the Boston Archdiocese and can't minister publicly. He was removed in June from his last posting, at St. Patrick Parish in Stoneham, after two years at the parish.

A spokesman at the archdiocese did not respond to questions about whether the move was related to the stalking allegations.

But on July 2, Ajemian wrote to security officials at NBC questioning "why you chose to raise this matter with my superiors after I left you a clear message by phone several weeks ago that I would cease all contact with the show," according to court papers.

In the letter, he called himself "a stalker of a very different order than the kind you are used to dealing with" and dared them to "tell Conan about your surveillance of me."

In a previous letter, Ajemian expressed frustration to O'Brien that he had been denied a spot in his audience after he'd flown to New York "in the dimming hope that you might finally acknowledge me."

"Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans???" he wrote. "You owe me big time pal."

He also told O'Brien he knew where he lived and wrote, "Remember (mobster) Frank Costello once dodged a bullet in your building and so can you."

Ajemian's seminary mentor, the Rev. John Mark Hannon, said Thursday he believes Ajemian can still be a good priest if he receives proper psychiatric help.

"He was a good seminarian. He was kind and generous and affable and concerned how people were," said Hannon, who guided Ajemian before he graduated from St. John's Seminary in 2001.

Ajemian, the son of former Time magazine journalist Robert Ajemian, attended Harvard University at the same time as O'Brien. Ajemian graduated from Harvard in 1983, while O'Brien graduated in 1985.

It was unclear whether the two crossed paths there. O'Brien's roommate at Harvard, the Rev. Paul O'Brien, a priest in Lawrence who is not related to Conan O'Brien, declined comment.

NBC said Conan O'Brien would not comment on Ajemian.

After graduating from Harvard, Ajemian took a roundabout route to the priesthood. Among his jobs was work in 1990 as a legal assistant at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. He also worked as a teacher.

Juan Luis Guerra dominates Latin Grammys

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- You could say the hand was stacked in Juan Luis Guerra's favor before the prolific singer-songwriter ever got to Sin City and came away with a jackpot of Latin Grammy trophies.

The Dominican superstar had a show-leading five nominations heading into the 8th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on Thursday and won them all, including the most-coveted trifecta: album of the year, record of the year and song of the year.

The singer and his band, 440, also won trophies for best merengue album and tropical song for their album, "La Llave De Mi Corazon," and its title track.

A master of songcraft known for taking traditional genres and making them his own, Guerra bested a roster of Latin music's new order, including Ricky Martin, Shakira, and reggaeton stars Calle 13.

That is no small feat at a time when reggaeton, pop and even alternative rock in Spanish are increasingly capturing favor with young fans of Latin music.

"I have a lot of confidence in tropical music, the genres I work in -- salsa, merengue and bachata," Guerra told reporters backstage. "Merengue will never go out of style, nor will salsa or bachata, they are established genres."

For a while it looked as if Martin and Calle 13 might spoil Guerra's chances. Each had four nominations going into the awards. Both picked up two trophies.

Guerra's dominance took a backseat only to the onstage spectacle rolled out for the award show's Las Vegas debut.

Martin opened the show with a rousing medley of "Lola" and "La Bomba," while the Blue Man Group added its signature frenetic dance visuals. It was one of the show's several mash-ups of nominees and Las Vegas Strip staples.

Later, reggaeton star Daddy Yankee performed "Ella Me Levanto," flanked by scantily clad "Folies Bergere" showgirls in colorful feather headpieces.

Calle 13 and Cuban hip-hop group Orishas also got into the Vegas theme, taking the stage back-to-back with dancers of "HavanaNightShow" and drummers from the show "Stomp Out Loud."

Guerra edged out Miguel Bose, Calle 13, Martin and Alejandro Sanz for the album of the year prize. Among the artists he bested for his record of the year win were Martin and other superstars: Beyonce and Shakira, and Bose and Paulina Rubio.

Praise for "La Llave" also extended to its production, as the album garnered the award for best engineered album.

Guerra also was named the Latin Recording Academy's person of the year in recognition of his career and personal achievements.

"I want to dedicate this award to the Dominican Republic," he said upon presented with the award. Guerra talked about Tropical Storm Noel, which recently thrashed the Caribbean nation and killed several dozen people.

"In recent days, we've had some difficult moments ... But we are a strong and courageous people," he said.

Backstage, Martin praised Guerra.

"Juan Luis Guerra is ... the father of Latin American poetry and whoever thinks the contrary, well, get off the bus," Martin said.

The Puerto Rican superstar took home the award for long form music video for "MTV Unplugged" and for male pop vocal album.

Fellow Puerto Rican Calle 13 picked up the trophy for urban music album for its politically charged "Residente o Visitante," beating out Daddy Yankee, Orishas and Ivy Queen.

"We are super thrilled, nervous, this has been a lot of pressure," singer Rene Perez said. "To all of Mexico, Colombia, from the heart -- to all Latinos: From here, no one will remove us."

"Pal Norte," on which the group highlights hardships faced by immigrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally, garnered the urban music song trophy, which recognized songwriting in the genre.

Jesse & Joy, siblings from Mexico who scored a hit this year with "Espacio Sideral" off their debut album, won the new artist trophy. The pair beat out several newcomers, including pop singer Alejandra Alberti and Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto.

Among the other winners, Italian singer Laura Pausini won the trophy in the female pop vocal album category for "Yo Canto," while Michael Salgado won the Norteno album trophy for "En Vivo."

Before the nationalized televised portion of the show, when many of the Latin Recording Academy's 48 trophies were awarded, Venezuelan vocal group Voz Veis landed two Latin Grammys -- becoming the first group from its nation to be honored.

Voz Veis took home the awards for short form music video for "Ven A Mi Casa Esta Navidad," and Latin children's album for "Como Se Llega A Belen," a collection of Christmas songs.

"This is an important moment," group member Santiago Castillo said after receiving the first Grammy.

Brazil's Caetano Veloso also picked up two trophies during the preshow. He won in the Brazilian song category for "Nao Me Arrependo," and for best singer-songwriter album for "Ce."

Sebastian Krys, who has worked with the likes of Obie Bermudez, Rabanes and Daniela Guzman, won the producer of the year award.

The show was held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the Las Vegas Strip. It was broadcast from New York last year and has previously bounced between Miami and Los Angeles.

Major winners

Record of the year: "La Llave De Mi Corazon," Juan Luis Guerra y 440.
Song of the year: "La Llave De Mi Corazon," Juan Luis Guerra, (Juan Luis Guerra y 440).
Album of the year: "La Llave De Mi Corazon," Juan Luis Guerra y 440.
New artist: Jesse & Joy.
Female pop vocal album: "Yo Canto," Laura Pausini.
Male pop vocal album: "MTV Unplugged," Ricky Martin.
Pop album by a duo or group with vocal: "El Mundo Se Equivoca," La Quinta Estacion.
Producer of the year: Sebastian Krys.

'Million Little Pieces' refund claimed by only 1,700

NEW YORK (AP) -- Millions of readers who bought James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" were sold something less than the truth.

After the best-selling "memoir" was found to be laced with fabrications, buyers around the country sued, saying they had been misled.

But in the end, only about 1,700 people asked to be reimbursed, a lawyer said Friday as a judge approved a final settlement with disgruntled readers.

Attorney Larry D. Drury had urged U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell to approve the deal, which offered a refund to anyone who bought the book before Frey's falsehoods were acknowledged.

The Manhattan jurist said he would bestow final approval on the settlement because it was "most fair, adequate and reasonable." Although the book was a huge hit that exploded in sales after Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club, only 1,729 readers came forward to benefit from the settlement, Drury said.

In January 2006, the Web site The Smoking Gun revealed that Frey's memoir of addiction and recovery contained numerous fabrications. Frey and his publisher then acknowledged that he had made up parts of the book.

Drury noted that 93,738 copies of the book were sold in the seven months after the controversy erupted.

"Amazingly, the book remained a best seller for another 26 weeks," the Chicago-based lawyer told Holwell. Drury said Frey had received more than $4.4 million in royalties.

The various lawsuits filed by readers were consolidated before Holwell, and a settlement was reached. It called for refunds for readers who felt duped by the book, which earned its author more than $4 million.

Although Random House set aside $2.35 million in a fund to cover costs related to the lawsuits, advertisements in 962 newspapers and elsewhere drew only the 1,729 claims for reimbursement by the deadline, costing $27,348. Another $783,000 will be paid in legal fees, as will $432,000 in costs associated with publicizing and carrying out the settlement.

As part of the settlement, Random House agreed to include a warning in the book that not all portions of the book may be accurate. In addition, an author's note about the subject was to be included in copies of the book until this December.

The settlement also calls for roughly $180,000 to be divided among three charities: the American Red Cross, the Hazelden addiction treatment center and First Book, a nonprofit that gives children from poor families a chance to read and own their first book.

Drury said the proportion of people who availed themselves of the settlement was lower than in similar cases in the past. While more than 20 percent of a settlement class usually takes advantage of a settlement, only 7.2 percent tried in this instance.

Lawyers for the defendants declined to comment on the settlement, except to note that the sole objector to the deal had withdrawn her objection the day before.

Outside court, Drury said the message of the case was that "corporations need to be held accountable for their conduct."

Evan Smith, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, said: "I also think publishers will think twice before labeling their book a memoir."

Meanwhile, Frey is working on a new novel, "Bright Shiny Morning," slated for release in summer 2008.