Bobby Brown was arrested early this morning in Atlanta on drug and traffic charges. The thirty-three-year-old singer and husband of Whitney Houston was charged with possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, speeding and having no driver's license or insurance card.

Brown will be transferred to a jail in neighboring DeKalb County, where he allegedly has outstanding charges against him. In 2000, he served jail time for violating probation on a 1996 drunk-driving charge.

Meanwhile, Brown's former group, New Edition -- Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant -- is carrying on without him. New Edition signed a recording contract with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs's Bad Boy Entertainment. They expect to release a new album next year, to coincide with their twentieth anniversary.

CHRISTINA SARACENO
(November 7, 2002)