Rapper Coolio charged with cocaine possession

March 11, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors in Los Angeles say Coolio has been charged with cocaine possession.

The 45-year-old rapper, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey, was also charged Tuesday with battery stemming from his Friday arrest at Los Angeles International Airport. Authorities say he grabbed a screener’s arm to prevent a luggage search that turned up the drugs.

Ivey was charged with one felony count of possession and one misdemeanor count each of battery and possession of paraphernalia. He was released on $10,000 bail and is scheduled for arraignment April 3.

Author admits posing as doctor to get drugs

RALEIGH, N.C. — Best-selling author Kaye Gibbons has pleaded guilty to fraud charges after twice posing as a doctor to get prescription painkillers.

Gibbons pleaded guilty in a Wake County courtroom Tuesday to two counts of obtaining property by fraud. She was given a 90-day suspended jail sentence, fined $300 and sentenced to two years of probation.

Prosecutors said the 48-year-old Gibbons posed as a Florida doctor when she submitted a prescription online for hydrocodone. She was stopped Aug. 9 when she tried to pick up the prescription at a North Carolina pharmacy.

She was arrested Nov. 2 at another pharmacy after a similar incident.

Her attorney, Roger Smith Jr., said she has received inpatient treatment and is currently undergoing outpatient treatment for her addiction.

Leno to give free show for jobless in Michigan

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Michigan’s high unemployment is no laughing matter, but Jay Leno will offer a little comic relief with a free show next month at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The NBC “Tonight Show” host said on Monday’s show the April 7 performance will be for “anybody out of work in Detroit.”

People only have to say they’re unemployed to get tickets.

Refreshments and parking also will be free when “Jay’s Comedy Stimulus Plan” comes to the home of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.

Tickets will be available starting Monday at the Palace box office. Only four tickets will be allowed per person.

Michigan’s unemployment rate has been among the highest in the nation. It was at 11.6 percent in January.

The real ‘Cheers’ barkeep loses job after 35 years

BOSTON — Eddie Doyle was the guy who really did know everybody’s name.

But after tending bar for 35 years at the Boston tavern that inspired the television show “Cheers,” Doyle has been laid off.

The bar’s owner says the economy is to blame.

Doyle was a fixture at the pub known as the Bull & Finch long before his TV counterpart, Sam Malone, entered the mainstream.

After the NBC show hit the airwaves in 1982, he started serving 5,000 people a day.

The 66-year-old Doyle tells The Boston Globe he’s not bitter and may write a book about his experiences.

Today’s birthdays

News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 75. Actor Mark Metcalf (“Animal House”) is 63. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 59. Country singer Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers is 54. Actress Alex Kingston (“ER”) is 46. Actor Wallace Langham (“C.S.I.,” “Veronica’s Closet”) is 44. Singer Lisa Loeb is 41. Singer Pete Droge is 40. Actor Terrence Howard (“Crash,” “Hustle and Flow”) is 40. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 38. Singers Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte are 30. Singer LeToya Luckett (Destiny’s Child) is 28. Actress Thora Birch (“Ghost World,” “American Beauty”) is 27.