NEWSMAKERS

July 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

NEWSMAKERS

George Michael arrested after crash

LONDON

British media reports say George Michael has been arrested after a car crash in London. The BBC says the 47-year-old singer was arrested Sunday after police responded to reports that a car had crashed into a building in Hampstead in north London.

Metropolitan Police say only that they arrested a man in his 40s early Sunday in Hampstead on suspicion of being unfit to drive. They say the man was taken to a police station and released on bail pending further inquiries.

Judge denies dismissal

LOS ANGELES

A Los Angeles judge has denied a defense motion to dismiss two charges against a doctor accused of illegally funneling prescription drugs to Anna Nicole Smith.

Superior Court Judge David Wesley on Tuesday rejected the motion by Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, who sought to have a drug conspiracy charge dropped along with one count of unlawfully obtaining a prescription by a false name.

Kapoor, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Smith’s former lawyer-boyfriend Howard K. Stern have pleaded not guilty to illegally providing sedatives and opiates to the former Playboy model. They are not charged with causing her death.

Smith died of an accidental overdose s in February 2007 in Florida.

Opening statements are slated for Aug. 5.

Singer Siepi dies at 87

ATLANTA

Singer Cesare Siepi, who performed hundreds of times at the Metropolitan Opera and was known for the role of Don Giovanni, has died at the age of 87. Siepi, a native of Milan, Italy, died at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on Monday after suffering a stroke more than a week earlier, his family said.

Siepi’s distinctive bass helped make him a favorite in such roles as Mephistopheles in “Faust” as well as the title role in “Don Giovanni.” His Met career began in 1950 and ran until the early 1970s.

Buffett hopes to boost spirits with concert

ORANGE BEACH, Ala.

Jimmy Buffett says Gulf Coast residents have every right to be mad about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but he’s hoping a free beach concert will help lift spirits. Buffett and his band will play Sunday on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala.

The show was originally set for last week but had to be postponed because of bad weather from Hurricane Alex. Instead, he gave an impromptu free show at his sister’s waterfront restaurant in Gulf Shores last Wednesday.

Rare art in cellar

BERLIN

A German museum has discovered what it believes to be a previously unknown work by German Expressionist artist Ludwig Kirchner that languished in its cellar for decades. The Staedel Museum announced the find Tuesday, saying that it had discovered it as part of renovation. The canvas is painted on both sides, with a rare nude, believed to have been painted in 1910, on the back.

The Frankfurt museum plans to restore the work and put it on display for the first time when it reopens in the fall of 2011. It did not give an estimate of the painting’s value. Kirchner is one of the best-known German Expressionist painters. He was also part of a movement known as Die Bruecke, or “The Bridge.”