Okay, maybe it was just a cell phone, after all. A Brooklyn, N.Y., grand jury has cleared rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard of charges of attempted murder stemming from an alleged shootout with police last month. ODB was arrested Jan. 15 after plainclothes police officers claimed he fired shots at them when they pulled his sport utility vehicle over in Brooklyn for a traffic violation. A gun was never found, however, and the beleaguered Wu-Tang Clan member claimed he had in fact been holding a cellular phone. ODB pleaded innocent, and a jury yesterday spared him an indictment after hearing the testimony of a forensic expert and six other witnesses. The rapper is due to return to court on Friday for the formal dismissal of the charges. At a press conference held today (Feb. 4) at his lawyer's offices, ODB restated his innocence and said he was going to sue the NYPD. The hip-hop star's attorney, Peter Frankel, echoed the sentiment: "According to what he said today, [ODB] plans on filing a lawsuit, but it remains to be seen." Stay tuned for further details . . . |

As a puberty-ridden Peter Brady once said, "When it's time to change, you've got to rearrange ..." Now facing similar baritone-blossoming problems, the middle brother of another illustrious family group, Hanson, is taking that sage advice to heart this winter. Sixteen years old next month, Taylor Hanson has written approximately twenty-five new songs with his brothers Isaac and Zac for a new, more mature Hanson album. "I'm sure it will be groundbreaking," says an unbiased management representative regarding the trio's third studio album, which is tentatively scheduled for release late this summer. So far, the group has cut demos for five new tunes at their home studio in Tulsa, Okla., and hopes to begin banging out full-fledged studio tracks next month. In the meantime, the threesome will begin sorting through crates of love letters from potential producers and inviting candidates to their Midwestern retreat for auditions/rap sessions. Perhaps George Martin will shelve his retirement plans if his letter is picked ...

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be ... ABC News reports that Courtney Love is releasing a video called The Lecture that teaches women how to become rock stars. We knew she was up to something when she appeared in Rockrgrl last year, the magazine devoted to empowering women in the music business. She spent the entire interview giving advice to the nascent celebs. According to the piece, Courtney sidled up to a charismatic looking woman at her video shoot for Celebrity Skin to ask a question she's posed a thousand times before. "'Do you play guitar?'... It's been my pick-up line since I was in sixth grade" . . .

Seems The Million Dollar Hotel is ready to slide onto its foundation at last. The Bono and Nicholas Klein-penned Wim Wenders production, a black comedy set in 2030 about a billionaire's son who dies in a skid row hotel and the detective who tries to uncover the truth about his demise, will begin filming in Los Angeles this week. Mel Gibson and Milla Jovovich star in the flick. Although the musical co-author is not on our shores at the moment, sources close to the U2 camp tell us that Bono, who has a small part in the film, will be in the city of angels next week to film . . .

Save some celluloid for me. The Web site Artnet reports that David Bowie has accepted a supporting role in the new Julian Schnabel movie, Before Night Falls, based on the biography of Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas who killed himself in 1990 after being jailed by Fidel Castro for being gay. Besides Bowie, the movie -- which is scheduled to start filming in June -- will star Johnny Depp and Sean Penn. Artist-turned-filmmaker Schnabel last made cinematic waves in 1996 with Basquiat, which bombed despite a bevy of talent that included Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Courtney Love, Willem Dafoe and the Thin White Duke as Warhol himself . . .

Candlebox has found drummer number three -- and they didn't have to look farther than their own management company to find him. Shannon Larkin, who previously played in the band Amen, which is also managed by Candlebox's Freeze Artists, will assume the position vacated by Dave Krusen, who departed the band last month for personal reasons. Larkin's resume includes session work with Ugly Kid Joe, Poundhound and, most recently, Vanilla Ice. Candlebox are scheduled to resume their tour with Larkin on Feb. 19 in Missoula, Mont . . .

The devil's music comes in many forms, and not all of them require a leather-clad, leather-lunged singer -- just ask Dave Lombardo, the former Slayer drummer who's turned his infernal attention to the sounds of composer Antonio Vivaldi. Lombardo, whose day job now places him in the drum chair of Grip Inc., decided to go for baroque last summer when he was approached about taking part in Vivaldi: The Meeting by conductor Lorenzo Arruga. After backing the bellowings of Tom Araya for so long, you'd think that the skinsman might have some difficulty adjusting to the serenity of soprano Paola Quagliata and contralto Caterina Calvi. Not so, according to Lombardo, who calls the seven-song suite "one of the most exciting and enjoyable improvisational projects I've ever been involved with." While we can personally understand how he could prefer "The Four Seasons" to "Raining Blood," we'd advise Lombardo to avoid taking this thing on the road -- unless he's prepared to duck the assorted pig parts Slayer fans are probably already stockpiling . . .

When you think of high-quality, intellectually-minded television, you usually come around to thinking about the Monkees, right? Well, it's likely that you will soon, since former Prefab Four member Mike Nesmith might well end up owning the cerebral clearinghouse known as PBS after winning a $46 million lawsuit against the network earlier this week. Nesmith was awarded the dough by a federal court jury that found PBS guilty of breaching contracts with Pacific Arts, a film distribution company he founded a decade ago. The former Monkee alleged that PBS promised to step in and help save Pacific Arts, which had gone deeply into debt after launching massive promotions for a video line built around such PBS offerings as Masterpiece Theater and Ken Burns' acclaimed Civil War series. When Pacific Arts ran into financial trouble, however, Nesmith claims that the broadcasters pulled a fast one and convinced series producers to walk away from contracts with Pacific Arts and return all rights to PBS. The jury agreed with Nesmith's charges that the network acted in "an unethical and duplicitous manner" -- but the musician won't be seeing the millions anytime soon: A PBS spokesman says that higher-ups plan to fight the verdict, and ask that it be set aside by a higher court . . .

The RSN Staff(February 5, 1999)