LEGAL MATTERS
Kevin Costner should be a rock star, the 52-year-old actor contends in a lawsuit against music promoter Mahee Worldwide Ventures Inc. The complaint, filed by Kevin's Music, LLC, in L.A. on April 3, accuses the company of breach of contract and fraud for allegedly failing to honor a two-year contract to hype the Kevin Costner Band. Lead singer Costner is seeking at least $8.5 million in damages. A rep for Mahee could not be reached for comment.... Snoop Dogg, 35, was charged in L.A. April 10 with felony gun and drug counts in connection with an arrest last fall. On Oct. 26 police arrested the rapper (a.k.a. Calvin Broadus) at a Burbank airport after finding marijuana and a gun in his car and later discovered another gun at his home. (A convicted felon from a 1990 cocaine trafficking bust, Snoop is forbidden to possess a firearm.) If found guilty he faces up to four years in prison.... Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, 34, was arrested at Florida's Panama City airport and jailed April 10 on a warrant for contempt of court. A judge had ordered the controversial video producer to turn himself in five days earlier, after he allegedly tried to change the terms of a settlement for a 2003 lawsuit, but Francis never surrendered. The still-pending case involves seven women who accuse Francis of victimization by filming them in sexual situations as minors while they were on spring break in Panama City.
SPLIT
On April 24, after 14 years of marriage, Whitney Houston, 43, and Bobby Brown, 40, will finalize their divorce. An Orange County, Calif., judge granted Houston custody of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, 14, on April 4. Houston, citing irreconcilable differences, filed for divorce in October .... Former Partridge Family child star Danny Bonaduce's wife of 16 years, Gretchen, filed for divorce in L.A. on April 10, citing irreconcilable differences. Gretchen, 41, is seeking full custody of their daughter, 12, and son, 6 (with visitation rights for Danny, 47), as well as spousal support.
DEATHS
Film director Bob Clark, 67, best known for the holiday classic A Christmas Story, died April 4 in a car crash in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Officials say a drunk driver steered into the wrong lane and hit Clark's car, killing the director's 22-year-old son Ariel Hanrath-Clark as well.... On April 7 cartoonist Johnny Hart, 76, creator of the comic strip B.C., died of a stroke while working at his home studio in Endicott, N.Y. Hart's cave-dwelling B.C. caricatures—along with his second strip, The Wizard of Id—will continue to be published with the help of his family and computer archives, his distributor said.
IT'S A BOY!
THE HANSON CLAN'S NEW ADDITION
MMMBaby! Isaac Hanson, 26, guitarist and eldest brother in the pop trio Hanson, and his wife, Nicole, 23, welcomed their first child, son Clarke Everett, in Tulsa, April 3. Clarke weighed in at 8 lbs., 12 oz. "His birth was an inspiration, and I know that his presence in my life will continue to inspire me," Isaac said in a statement. The proud new dad and his bandmate brothers Taylor, 24, and Zac, 21, are best known for the 1997 hit "MMMBop." Hanson and Nicole wed last September.
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