Brazil: Music man dies in motorcycle crash
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Brazilian music producer Tom Capone died in a motorcycle accident hours after participating in the Latin Grammy awards. He was 37.
Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported Friday Capone -- whose real name was Luis Antonio Ferreira Goncalves -- may have run a red light on a busy Los Angeles street early Thursday and collided with another vehicle, dying almost instantly. Estado said there are unconfirmed reports Capone was inebriated.
News of Capone's death sent shock waves through the Brazilian music industry.
"It is an irreparable loss," said musician Roberto Frejat. "He was a brilliant professional, an exceptional man and a great friend."
Mourning the death of his colleague, fellow producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda said "the loss of a brother is very difficult and the pain enormous."
Rapper Lil' Kim wants separate trial
NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Lil' Kim, co-defendant in a federal perjury case involving a New York shoot out, reportedly wants a separate trial because she thinks it will be fairer.
Lil' Kim, whose real name is Kimberly Jones, has been charged with lying about her involvement in the Feb. 25, 2001, shooting outside a Manhattan radio station between her entourage and a rival rapper, the New York Post reported Friday.
Jones is a co-defendant with her ex-manager, Damion Bulter, who has been charged with firing a weapon in the incident.
"Ms. Jones is not alleged to have any involvement in that alleged event other than being an innocent bystander," said Mel Sachs, Jones' attorney, in court documents.
Jackson hushed staffer's son with payoff
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- "Dateline NBC" reports Michael Jackson paid $2 million to allegedly quiet a staffer's son at the same time the pop singer settled with his first accuser.
The "Dateline" segment, airing Friday, focuses on the 1993-94 investigation when a 13-year-old boy accused Jackson of molestation, E! Online said.
That case ended without charges when the alleged victim refused to cooperate with authorities soon after Jackson set up a $15.3 million trust fund for the boy and paid $8 million to the boy's parents.
Around the same time, Jackson paid $2 million to the 12-year-old son of a staff member at the entertainer's Neverland ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif., after the boy said Jackson fondled him through his clothes.
Jackson currently is out on $3 million bail on charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer patient.
The trial is set to begin in January.
'Mary Poppins' coming to London stage
LONDON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- London theater producer Cameron Mackintosh is set to bring "Mary Poppins" to West End in the 1964 Disney film's first stage production.
Mackintosh and Disney partnered for the project after the veteran producer secured the stage rights to Pamela Travers' book, the Western Mail reported Friday.
The stage version will be similar to the film, which starred Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews, "but which has its own life, which is what one always strives for with any adaptation of anything," Mackintosh said.
"That means you can expect 'A Spoonful Of Sugar' and 'Chim Chim Cher-ee' and a few surprises," he said, adding a new song "Practically Perfect" will be used to introduce Mary Poppins.
The producer selected a relative newcomer in the title role, Laura Michelle Kelly.
Kelly, who won Cardiff, England's, first Voice of Musical Theater contest, followed Martine McCutcheon in "My Fair Lady."
"I wanted to pick someone to play Mary who could make the role her own and who wouldn't come with much baggage," Mackintosh said.
