klara and edda belly dancing

It doesn't add up

Will.i.am, whose solo album "Songs About Girls" came out Tuesday, is still bothered by the fact that most black radio stations have ignored his band Black Eyed Peas.

"Here we are, one of the biggest groups in the world," he told the New York Daily News. "(The Peas) go to Moscow and play for 50,000 people. We go to China and play for 30,000 people. We go to Brazil and play for a million people on the beach. We're this huge group, produced by a black dude and started by a black dude. So why doesn't the black community want to own that? It's a touchy thing with me."

He said it made him even more frustrated when he saw John Legend win an award from BET for "Ordinary People." Nothing against Legend, but that was a song Will.i.am wrote.

"It really messed with me," he said.

Up and at 'em

George Clooney made it to the "Michael Clayton" premiere in New York Monday, as did girlfriend Sarah Larson, despite that motorcycle accident Friday in New Jersey. Larson did show up with crutches.

"I'm doing fine, yeah ― good, good, good," Clooney told Associated Press Television at Monday night's event. "I'm just, you know, dinged up a little bit."

Clooney, 46, and Larson collided with a car on a narrow road in Weehawken, across the Hudson River from New York. Larson was a passenger on the vehicle. Both were wearing helmets.

"I got a cracked rib, so I'm not jogging right now," Clooney joked. "No jumping jacks."

They're his

Elton John said Wednesday that he owns the photo of two naked girls taken by award-winning photographer Nan Goldin that was seized by police at a British gallery over concerns it amounted to child pornography.

John says on his Web site that "Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing" is among 149 images composing Goldin's "Thanksgiving" installation and that it has been "widely published and exhibited throughout the world."

Bachelor stuff

The first person to get a rose Monday from the new "Bachelor," Brad Womack, was Jenni, who was said to be from Wichita but is now a Phoenix Suns dancer. Meanwhile, Charlie O'Connell and Sarah Brice have broken up after two years together. Brice told In Touch there were "some things between us that we couldn't resolve."

Shorts

?The first casualty of the season is "Nashville." Fox will show "K-Ville" repeats in the Friday time slot starting this week.

?The Jonas Brothers, the opening act for you-know-who at the Sprint Center in December, are getting their own series, movie and concert special on the Disney Channel. The "Jonas Brothers in Concert" will be up first Oct. 6.

?AnnaSophia Robb will star opposite Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson in a remake of "Escape to Witch Mountain" called simply "Witch Mountain." For an interview with Johnson, see today's Preview section.

?Kiefer Sutherland's arrest for misdemeanor drunken driving early Tuesday came while he was still on probation from a similar 2004 conviction. Sutherland is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 16. Sutherland had reportedly just left a party for the Fox fall season.

?Charles Durning, 84, will be honored for lifetime achievement by the Screen Actors Guild during its awards show Jan. 27.

? The Eagles will perform during this fall's Country Music Association Awards for the first time, a nod to the success of their new single, "How Long," on country radio.

?Visit Milwaukee, a nonprofit group promoting tourism there, wants to put up a statue of Fonzie from "Happy Days." Henry Winkler, who played him, said "Ayyyy." No, really, he said: "It's an honor. But it is so bizarre to think there should be a statue. I wasn't sure it was something that could happen to me."

Ahead of a major Communist Party meeting next month, China has banned "sexually provocative sounds" on TV and pulled the plug on a show reconstructing infamous crimes by women. The order is the latest in a raft of measures that have included axing reality shows featuring sex changes and plastic surgery and banning talent contests during prime time.

Update

Spouting again

The best-known geysers of a cluster hidden in a remote Russian valley hit earlier this year by a landslide have re-emerged. A massive landslide in June covered the Valley of the Geysers on the Kamchatka peninsula, threatening to drown even the largest geysers. But the floodwaters have subsided and 10 of the 16 large geysers survived.

People

Pix is Elton's

Elton John said Wednesday that he owns a photo of two naked girls taken by award-winning photographer Nan Goldin that was seized by police at a British gallery over concerns it amounted to child pornography. He said "Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing" is among 149 images comprising Goldin's "Thanksgiving" installation. Northumbria police confirmed Tuesday that an image had been taken from an exhibit "to assess whether or not an offense had been committed."

Marceau buried

French mime Marcel Marceau was buried in a simple ceremony Wednesday at the Père Lachaise cemetery, where composer Frederic Chopin, writer Oscar Wilde, painter Eugene Delacroix and rocker Jim Morrison are also buried.

Upbeat

A role of cash



A 10-year-old boy will get a chance to play an extra in Will Ferrell's new movie, "Step Brothers," after his father bought the role in a cancer-charity auction for more than $47,000. The money will go to the Cancer for College foundation run by a fraternity brother of Ferrell's at the University of Southern California.

By the numbers

Wow!

A Siberian woman who gave birth to her 12th child ― doing more than her fair share to stem Russia's population decline ― was stunned to find that little Nadia weighed in at a massive 17.1 pounds. "We were all simply in shock," said Nadia's mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43, who delivered Nadia by C-section. "What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing ― he just stood there blinking."

Gathering no moss

The Rolling Stones topped the charts with the world's most successful music tour in the latest edition of Guinness World Records. The group's "A Bigger Bang Tour" took $437 million to give them the record. Madonna was the most successful female artist ― her 60-date "Confessions" tour grossed almost $200 million. That meant she earned more than $3 million per concert.

Today in History

1939: Warsaw, Poland, surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.

1964: The government released the Warren Commission report, which found that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

1979: Congress gave final approval to forming the Department of Education, the 13th Cabinet agency.

Today's Birthdays

Actress Jayne Meadows, 87. Actor Wilford Brimley, 73. Rock singer Meat Loaf, 56. Actor Patrick Muldoon, 39. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, 35. Rapper Lil' Wayne, 25. Singer Avril Lavigne, 23.