newsmakers

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

newsmakers

Chris Brown in court for probation update

LOS ANGELES

Chris Brown’s attorney says the R&B singer has completed nearly 300 hours of community service since being sentenced for beating Rihanna. Brown appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday morning to offer a judge an update on his community service and domestic violence counseling. Attorney Mark Geragos says Brown is expected to complete his counseling in October.

He’s completed roughly 20 percent of the community labor work he’s required to perform.

Brown was sentenced last year to five years of probation and six months of community labor for the February 2009 attack on his ex-girlfriend. The 21-year-old singer is due back in court Aug. 26 for another update, and a judge has requested a formal probation report on his progress.

Comedy Central mulls Jesus Christ series

NEW YORK

Comedy Central has a cartoon series about Jesus Christ in the works. Titled “JC,” the series depicts Christ as a “regular guy” who moves to New York to “escape his father’s enormous shadow.” His father is depicted as an apathetic man who would rather play video games than listen to his son talk about his new life.

Comedy Central has pushed the envelope in the past: The long- running “South Park” features Christ as a regular character.

Gandolfini developing potential HBO series

NEW YORK

James Gandolfini may find himself at the wheel of his first TV series since “The Sopranos.” HBO says Gandolfini is an executive producer of “Taxi 22,” a project early in development that could serve as a starring vehicle for the actor best-known as New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano.

“Taxi 22” is described as a half-hour comedy centering on a politically incorrect New York City cab driver who is struggling to keep his life together. It is based on the popular Canadian TV series “Taxi 0-22.” The 48-year-old Gandolfini starred in the highly acclaimed “The Sopranos” for six seasons.

Anna Nicole Smith ruling will stand

LOS ANGELES

A federal appeals-court panel has rejected a bid by the late Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyers to reconsider its ruling that gave her none of the fortune from her late billionaire husband. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel ruled Wednesday it would not rehear the case.