Jury selected in Britney’s misdemeanor trial

Jury selected in Britney’s misdemeanor trial

LOS ANGELES — A jury has been seated in Britney Spears’ misdemeanor driving-without-a-license trial.

The panel was completed Thursday morning, and opening statements were expected. Police officers, a celebrity Web site employee, and possibly Spear’s father were set to testify.

The pop star, whose new single “Womanizer” is atop the Billboard charts, was not in attendance.

The mostly female jury includes a schoolteacher and others who work in a variety of industries, including banking, insurance and health care. Some prospective jurors were disqualified when they expressed strong feelings against Spears and the paparazzi.

The charge is the last remnant of a criminal case that was filed after Spears hit a parked car last year and left the scene.

Actress Edie Adams dies

LOS ANGELES — Actress and singer Edie Adams, the blonde beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and played television foil to husband Ernie Kovacs, has died. She was 81.

Publicist Henri Bollinger says Adams died in Los Angeles Wednesday from cancer and pneumonia.

Adams was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and hoped to become an opera singer. Instead, she gained fame for her sketches with Kovacs and her pivotal roles in Broadway musicals. She also had a long stage and film career.

Adams also was known as the sexy spokeswoman for Muriel cigars in the 1950s and 1960s. In TV ads, she famously purred: “Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?”

Adams is survived by a son, Joshua Mills.

Today’s birthdays

Singer Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts is 66. Singer Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap is 66. Actor Michael McKean (“Laverne and Shirley,” “This Is Spinal Tap”) is 61. Actress Margot Kidder is 60. Actor George Wendt is 60. Country singer Alan Jackson is 50. Animator Mike Judge (“King of the Hill,” “Beavis and Butthead”) is 46. Comedian Norm Macdonald is 45. Singer Rene’ Dif (Aqua) is 41. Reggae singer Ziggy Marley is 40. Singer Chris Kirkpatrick of ’N Sync is 37. Rapper Eminem is 36. Singer Wyclef Jean of the Fugees is 36. Actress Sharon Leal (“Boston Public”) is 36.