MISSED: "Reba"'s namesake has returned to work. Singer-turned-actress Reba McEntire was back on the set of her WB sitcom after going missing twice in two weeks because of a "family emergency." There was early speculation that the star was holding out to renegotiate her salary, but Reba's label publicist denied to the Tennessean newspaper that her absence was contract-related. The rep added that McEntire had "a private family thing," but everyone's fine.
QUOTED: "Exotic beauties and total sexpots get asked to do the cover of Playboy, not girls like me." -- country singer Terri Clark, 35, in a statement rejecting the men's magazine's offer to appear on the cover of its May music issue, reports AP
NIPPED: Vanessa Redgrave will join the second season of FX's "Nip/Tuck," a drama about a plastic surgery practice, for three episodes beginning June 22. Redgrave, whose character will request a facelift, will play the mother of the show's star Joely Richardson, AP reports. Richardson is Redgrave's daughter in real life, as well.
EXCEEDED: Kenny Chesney's new album is the hottest seller of the year, so far. "When the Sun Goes Down," released Feb. 3, sold more than half a million copies in its first week on the shelves, Billboard magazine reports. That is more than twice as many as his previous album, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem."
SETTLED: Crooner Lou Rawls has settled a $12 million lawsuit for a song, AP reported Wednesday. The 68-year-old singer agreed to pay $35,000 to Margaret Schaffer, who claimed that she had abandoned her business in order to become Rawls's mistress. A spokesman for Rawls said that while the singer knew the woman, the pair had never dated. The spokesman called the suit a "nuisance."
