Coldplay tops chart

Coldplay tops chart

LOS ANGELES — Coldplay’s new album is already living the life.

“Viva La Vida” will debut at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 album chart with over 720,000 copies sold in its first week, the second-best opening week of 2008, according to the trade magazine’s Web site. Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” was the top album debut of the year after it sold a spectacular 1 million copies earlier this month.

“Viva La Vida” follows 2005’s “X Y,” which also debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, with 737,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It album sold 3.2 million copies in the United States.

Man faces charges

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Nashville man has been charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication after he repeatedly harassed Cher at the famed honky-tonk Tootsies Orchid Lounge.

Police say 36-year-old Calvin Hutton Houghland tried to make contact with Cher early Wednesday and was asked to leave the club. He complied, police said, but returned a short time later and grabbed Cher by the waist as the singer-actress sat in a roped-off area of the lounge.

Houghland was escorted from the bar, but returned again. When security blocked his attempts to approach the singer, Houghland called police to say he’d been assaulted.

Police say Cher declined to prosecute but Houghland asked to be arrested. Houghland failed a self-requested field sobriety test. His bond was set at $3,000.

Winehouse case acquittal

LONDON — A British court on Wednesday acquitted a former pub manager of taking a bribe to drop assault charges against Amy Winehouse’s husband. A jury deliberated for three hours before finding James King not guilty of trying to pervert the course of justice (the equivalent of obstruction of justice in the U.S.).

The singer-songwriter’s husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, has admitted beating up King in a barroom fight in 2006 and then offering him $400,000 to keep quiet about it. King, who suffered a broken cheekbone, said he was intimidated into withdrawing the assault claim. Three other men also pleaded guilty to involvement in the plot. They and Fielder-Civil all face jail terms when they are sentenced later.

Today’s birthdays

Singer Billy Davis Jr. of the Fifth Dimension is 68. Musician Mick Jones of The Clash is 53. Singer Chris Isaak is 52. Singer Patty Smyth is 51. Singer Terri Nunn of Berlin is 47. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (“Magnolia,” “Boogie Nights”) is 38. Actor Chris O’Donnell is 38. Country singer Gretchen Wilson is 34. Actor Jason Schwartzman (“Slackers,” “Rushmore”) is 28.