Gun will be evidence in Lil Wayne trial

February 25, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

NEW YORK — A New York City judge says a handgun found on Lil Wayne’s tour bus after a 2007 concert can be used as evidence at the rapper’s trial.

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, has pleaded not guilty to gun possession and is free on $70,000 bail.

He was arrested in July 2007 after a concert at the Beacon Theatre. A police officer said she boarded the tour bus because she smelled marijuana, and then saw him try to hide a gun.

Justice Charles Solomon set an April 20 trial date.

Clooney tells of visit with President Obama

LOS ANGELES — George Clooney apparently had a good reason for skipping out on Oscar night: He had a meeting with President Barack Obama.

The Oscar-winning actor appeared Monday on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and spoke of his visit earlier that morning with Obama to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Clooney said he told the president of his visit to camps in Chad where 250,000 refugees live, but he downplayed the risks he took to witness the suffering firsthand.

“I don’t think people should be going there and coming back and saying how it affected them,” Clooney told King via satellite from the White House lawn. “I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth.”

Clooney, a U.N. Messenger of Peace, said he asked the president to appoint a full-time regional envoy who reports directly to the White House, and to ask China to set aside its business interests in the region and pressure Sudan to prevent atrocities.

‘Law & Order’ actress’s memoir will be featured

NEW YORK — A memoir by Isabel Gillies, who plays Kathy Stabler on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” will be the next book featured at Starbucks stores around the country.

Gillies’ “Happens Every Day,” which tells of the collapse of her marriage to DeSales Harrison, will be published March 24 by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc.

In a statement released Tuesday by Starbucks, Gillies calls her book a story of “loving your life even when it’s falling apart.” Gillies, 39, is now married to Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Lattman.

Today’s birthdays

CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 72. Actress Diane Baker is 71. Actress Karen Grassle (“Little House on the Prairie”) is 65. Singer-guitarist Mike Peters of The Alarm is 50. Actor Alexis Denisof (“Angel,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 43. Actress Tea Leoni is 43. Comedian Carrot Top is 42. Actor Sean Astin is 38. Singer Daniel Powter is 38. Singer Justin Jeffre of 98 Degrees is 36. Actress Rashida Jones (“Boston Public”) is 33. Actor Justin Berfield (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 23.