newsmakers

newsmakers

Judge orders Brown to remain in jail

LOS ANGELES

Chris Brown will spend another month in jail after a judge said Monday he was told the singer made troubling comments in rehab about being good at using guns and knives.

Brown was arrested Friday after he was dismissed from a Malibu facility where he was receiving treatment for anger management, substance abuse and issues related to bipolar disorder.

Superior Court Judge James R. Brandlin said rehab officials reported to him that Brown said during a group session, “I am good at using guns and knives.”

The facility cited three other violations of its rules, claiming Brown refused to take a drug test, made a statement that alarmed rehab officials, and was seen touching the elbow of a female client.

His attorney Mark Geragos said the comment Brown made that prompted concern was, “’I’m going to ask my higher power to take away my troubles.”’

Brandlin rejected a request by Geragos that the Grammy-winning Brown be released into a different rehab program.

Brown, 24, appeared in court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, a sharp contrast from the suits and designer jeans he has worn for other court hearings.

Designer Scott, girlfriend of Jagger, found dead

NEW YORK

L’Wren Scott, who left her small-town Utah home as a teenager to become a model in Paris, then a top Hollywood stylist and finally a high-end fashion designer best known as the longtime girlfriend of Mick Jagger, has died in what was being investigated as an apparent suicide.

Scott was found dead in her Manhattan apartment at 10 a.m. Monday; no note was found, and there was no sign of foul play, police said. The designer had texted her assistant 90 minutes earlier and asked her to come to her apartment but didn’t say why. She was found kneeling with a scarf wrapped around her neck that had been tied to the handle of a French door, police said.

Her spokesman requested privacy for her family and friends. Just last month Scott, who was believed to be 49 but had not disclosed her precise age, canceled her London Fashion Week show, due to reported production delays.

Jagger’s representative said the singer was “completely shocked and devastated by the news” of her death.

Scott, whose elegant designs in lush fabrics were favored by celebrities such as Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Oprah Winfrey, Penelope Cruz and first lady Michelle Obama, was a fixture on Jagger’s arm since she met the Rolling Stones frontman in 2001. On red carpets, the striking 6-foot-3 designer towered over her famous 5-foot-10 boyfriend.

Kanye West pleads no contest in battery case

LOS ANGELES

Kanye West pleaded no contest Monday to misdemeanor battery against a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport in a special plea in which he maintains his innocence.

West entered the plea through his attorney and did not attend the court hearing. He was sentenced to two years of probation, 24 anger-management therapy sessions and 250 hours of community service.

West was charged with misdemeanor counts of battery and grand theft after an altercation at LAX with photographer Daniel Ramos in July.

Associated Press