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Former lead singer for Warrant dies

LOS ANGELES

Jani Lane, the former lead singer of the metal rock band Warrant, has died in Los Angeles. He was 47.

Officer Sara Faden says Lane’s body was found Thursday in a Woodland Hills hotel. She had no immediate information on the cause or circumstances of his death.

With his long, blond hair and tight leather outfits, Lane embodied the excess of 1980s “hair metal” rock bands. He joined Warrant in 1984 and wrote such hits as “Heaven,” “Down Boys” and “Cherry Pie.”

He had an on-and-off relationship with the band, leaving it in 1992 before returning and quitting again several times.

In recent years, he appeared in VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club” and made news for a drunken- driving arrest.

He is survived by two daughters from two separate marriages.

‘SVU’ opener mirrors real-life rape case

NEW YORK

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” often seems to echo real life, and the season opener of this NBC crime drama is no different.

NBC says the episode will deal with an Italian dignitary accused of rape. Franco Nero, who appeared last year in the film “Letters to Juliet,” stars as the official.

The network routinely insists “SVU” is fiction. But this episode appears to mirror the case of former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a front- runner for the French presidency until his arrest in May on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper in Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty. The woman since has filed a civil lawsuit against him.

“Law & Order: SVU” begins its 13th season Sept. 21.

Locklear engaged to Jack Wagner

NEW YORK

Actress Heather Locklear is engaged to fellow “Melrose Place” actor Jack Wagner.

Locklear’s divorce from Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was finalized in April 2007. She had been dating Wagner since at least 2008.

Locklear and Wagner worked together in the 1990s on “Melrose Place,” a spin-off of “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Locklear also starred on the prime-time soap opera “Dynasty” and the William Shatner police drama “T.J. Hooker.”

Wagner also is a golfer who five years ago won the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship.

Vindicator wire services