Entertainment Briefs

Jennifer Lopez Splits With Husband
NEW YORK (AP) – J. Lo is solo again. A source confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that Jennifer Lopez and her dancer-husband, Cris Judd, have separated. The source said the pair parted amicably and have no immediate plans for divorce.
A spokesman for Lopez declined to confirm or deny the split.
The 31-year-old actress-singer married Judd, 32, in a private ceremony in Calabasas, Calif. The Sept. 29 nuptials came just months after she broke up with hip-hop mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, with whom she had a highly publicized romance.
Judd appeared prominently as a background dancer in the video for her hit “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” but in recent months has become more active in her career. He directed the video for the Ja Rule remix of her song “Ain’t It Funny,” and choreographed her recent NBC concert special.
He and Lopez also co-wrote the song Alive from her recent thriller Enough.
Lopez married model Ojani Noa in 1997 and divorced him the following year.
Toni Morrison Collaborating With Son
NEW YORK (AP) – Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and her son, Slade, are collaborating on “He Got Game,” a series of illustrated books based on Aesop’s Fables.
The first of six expected books, “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” will be published next year by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“I’ve always felt a twinge of envy for novelists who write for all ages,” Morrison, who has a children’s book coming out from Hyperion this fall, said in a statement Thursday.
“We peeped between the lines of these beloved (but often depressing) Aesop tales with their ‘dead end’ morals. In each retelling, the point is to give fresh meanings to the tales, to suggest that everything isn’t a done deal: the victim can strike back; the fool can become smart; the frightened can become courageous; the weak can get strong.”
Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, has written acclaimed novels such as Sula, Song of Solomon and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved. She and Slade Morrison, a painter, have collaborated on two previous books.
Drug Charges Dropped Against Warwick
MIAMI (AP) – Drug charges against Dionne Warwick were dropped Wednesday after a Miami-Dade County judge agreed to a plea bargain deal, which included a drug treatment program.
The singer, who was not in court, was arrested May 12 at Miami International Airport after baggage screeners said they found 11 suspected marijuana cigarettes inside her lipstick container.
“To this day, I am puzzled about exactly what happened at the Miami International Airport,’’ Warwick said in a statement. “But through the grace of God, I can now put this unpleasant chapter behind me.’’
As part of the agreement, Warwick has completed a drug treatment and evaluation program and made a $250 donation to Project Cradle, an organization that supports children born with HIV.
The entertainer also is required to make an anti-drug public service announcement directed at youth, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office.
Warwick, 61, of Miami Beach, was charged with possession of less than 5 grams of marijuana.
She was about to board a flight for Los Angeles when screeners conducted a hand check of her carryon bag and found the suspicious items, police said. A police report indicated she was not under the influence of drugs at the time.
The five-time Grammy winner had attended a Hollywood, Fla., reception the day before her arrest to receive a lifetime achievement award from The American Red Ribbon Awards, an HIV/AIDS service organization in Broward County.
Houston was involved in a similar incident two years ago, when airport security in Hawaii said they found a half-ounce of marijuana in her bag. A misdemeanor charge against her was dismissed after a substance abuse assessment filed on her behalf said she did.
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