UPI NewsTrack Entertainment News

Toni Braxton voted off of 'Dancing'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. singer Toni Braxton and her partner Alec Mazo were eliminated from the competition series "Dancing with the Stars" during Tuesday night's results episode.

"I wanted to do better, to breathe better and I was definitely breathing better. I've come a long way from week 1 to week now," People.com quoted Braxton as saying. "This has been very good for me."

Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, reality television personality Kim Kardashian, actor Ted McGinley and comedian Jeffrey Ross -- and their partners -- all got the boot during previous episodes of the dance competition show and Olympic beach volleyball champ Misty May-Treanor was forced to drop out due to an injury.

Still in the running for the mirror ball trophy, along with their professional dance partners, are Brooke Burke, Lance Bass, Maurice Greene, Susan Lucci, Cloris Leachman, Cody Linley and Warren Sapp.

People.com quoted Julianne Hough's representative as saying the 20-year-old professional dancer was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after Tuesday night's show because she "was experiencing slight stomach pains all day that increased and the doctors thought it was best to have them checked out."

Publicist Cindy Guagenti insisted Hough "didn't collapse," contrary to some reports claiming she had.

Hough is dancing with Linley this season.

Porn snips interrupt classic movie channel

TORONTO, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A Canadian cable TV company in Toronto says it doesn't know why brief snippets of hardcore pornography interrupted ads on a classic movie channel.

Rogers Cable began receiving complaints from viewers Monday afternoon about short blasts of pornography that interrupted ads on the American Movie Classics, or AMC, network.

The network was showing "Patriot Games" starring Harrison Ford. Both incidents of the porn popped up between 3:30 and 4 p.m. during promo ads for the show "30 Rock," the Toronto Sun reported.

Rogers' Director of Communications Nancy Cottenden told the newspaper there was a corrupted file that was somehow embedded in the promo ad, and it was pulled immediately.

"It was a 9-second clip," she said. "We are investigating but we may never know how it happened or who did it."

Katy Perry criticized for knife photo

LONDON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The father of a British stabbing victim is criticizing U.S. pop star Katy Perry for brandishing a blade in a publicity photo.

Richard Taylor has been leading an anti-knife crusade since his son Damilola was stabbed to death in London in 2000.

"This woman's behavior is unacceptable. She must be out of her mind to pose for a picture like this," The Times of London quoted Taylor as saying. "There is nothing glamorous about knives -- they wreck families. Any youngsters seeing her will think it is OK to carry a blade."

The Sun newspaper said street violence has resulted in the deaths of more than 60 British teenagers this year, with 27 young victims in London alone.

The Times said the photo of Perry holding a knife is believed to have been taken in 2006 and hasn't appeared on an album or the singer's Web site.

It was published in The Sun next to a photo of Joey Lappin -- a 16-year-old army cadet recently stabbed to death outside a Liverpool youth club -- and under the headline "No.1 Idiot."

The move prompted Perry's fans to defend her.

"Can't stand people bashing her when they don't even have their facts straight," The Times said one supporter wrote on a message board on the singer's Web site.

Billie Piper gives birth to baby boy

LONDON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- British pop singer and television actress Billie Piper has given birth to a son, her husband, actor Laurence Fox told reporters outside a London hospital.

The BBC said Winston James Fox was born Tuesday via an emergency Caesarean section at the Portland Hospital.

Piper is best known for her roles in "Doctor Who" and "Secret Diary of a Call Girl." Fox has appeared in the films "Gosford Park," "Becoming Jane" and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."

The couple married last December.

The actress' husband said she was in labor for 26 hours before heading to the hospital.

"The emergency Caesarean only took about 20 minutes," the BBC quoted him as saying. "Billie is happy. Of course she is, she's a mum. I am tired but not as tired as her -- I am a proud father."

Fox described his new son as "beautiful" and "sweet," and showed the gathered media pictures of the baby on his cell phone, the BBC said.