Master P steps in for son

Master P steps in for son
NEW YORK -- Master P will fill the dancing shoes of his teen rapper son, Romeo, who has dropped out of ABC's reality competition "Dancing With the Stars" because of a basketball injury.
The hip-hop mogul, whose real name is Percy Robert Miller, is CEO of No Limit Records. In recent years, he has tried out for different NBA teams, including the Sacramento Kings and the Denver Nuggets.
He will be paired with professional dancer Ashly DelGrosso for the competition, the network announced Wednesday.
The second season of "Dancing With the Stars" premieres Jan. 5 at 8 p.m. Other contestants include Tatum O'Neal, Drew Lachey, Tia Carrere and NFL great Jerry Rice.
Lawyers let Fantasialeave case for concert
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Lawyers allowed juror Fantasia Barrino, the 2004 "American Idol" winner, to leave a case in the middle of deliberations after learning the singer had to attend a benefit concert in New York.
Barrino, a High Point native who now owns a home in southeast Charlotte, was chosen Wednesday to serve on a Mecklenburg County Superior Court jury in a motor vehicle negligence case.
"People recognized her right away," said Charles Keller, a court system administrator. "Jurors started coming up to her taking pictures with their camera phones and getting autographs."
Testimony took less than a day, and Judge W. David Lee sent jurors out to deliberate late Wednesday, Keller said. But when it became apparent that deliberations would continue into Thursday, lawyers agreed that Barrino was free to go.
Keller said he was among the court employees who had their picture snapped with the celebrity juror.
"She's just really nice, down to earth," he said. "Not at all what you'd expect."
Notable deaths
Character actress Mary Jackson, best known as Miss Emily Baldwin on the iconic 1970s television series "The Waltons," has died. She was 95.
Jackson died at her home Saturday of complications from Parkinson's disease, said her assistant, Woody Roll.
On "The Waltons," which ran on CBS from 1972 to 1981, Jackson played one of two sisters who made bootleg whiskey they referred to as "the recipe." She appeared in several of the show's reunion specials, and her last appearance was in 1997's "A Walton Easter."
Beverly Tyler, a film actress from the 1940s and '50s who signed a studio contract at 14, then grew up to make 16 films, including a lightweight comedy with Peter Lawford, has died. She was 78.
Tyler died of a pulmonary embolism Nov. 23 at South Meadows Hospital in Reno, Nev., said her son, James W. Jordan.
She was in "The Green Years" in 1946 and "My Brother Talks to Horses," the film with Lawford, in 1947. Her last film was "Toughest Gun in Tombstone" in 1958.
Sydney Leff, 104, who illustrated the moon-June-spoon romance of the Jazz Age through sheet music drawings on hundreds of popular songs, died Dec. 10 at an assisted-living home in Ossining, N.Y. No cause of death was disclosed.
Today's birthdays
Author Sir Arthur C. Clarke is 88. Actress Joyce Bulifant is 68. Actress Liv Ullmann is 67. CBS news correspondent Lesley Stahl is 64. TV producer Steven Bochco is 62. Pop singer Benny Andersson (ABBA) is 59. Rock singer-musician Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) is 56. Rock musician Bill Bateman (The Blasters) is 54. Actress Alison LaPlaca is 46. Actor Sam Robards is 44. Actor Jon Tenney is 44. Actor Benjamin Bratt is 42. Country singer-songwriter Jeff Carson is 42. Rhythm-and-blues singer Michael McCary is 34. Country musician Chris Scruggs is 23. Actress Hallee Hirsh is 18.