• Usher’s follow-up to 2004’s Confessions is ready, according to producer Jermaine Dupri, who says “[Usher] has been taking a pretty long time to put it out, but I think he’s ready now.” The album will likely feature the Dupri-produced “The Realest,” contributions from Cool & Dre and a guest appearance by Ludacris.

• Wyclef Jean is being sued for copyright infringement by a rapper named Blahz, who claims a song on Wyclef’s Carnival 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant too closely resembles his 1995 song “Danger.” Sony BMG is also being named in the suit, which sources say could be asking for as much as $50 million.

• Olga Sarantos, the grandmother of the Fiery Furnaces‘ Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger who narrated the band’s critically-acclaimed 2005 album Rehearsing My Choir, has passed away.

• Britney Spears could permanently lose visitation rights with her children pending her performance at a custody hearing on Monday. Should Brit be tardy, uncooperative or just out of her head, the judge could end her attempt to regain her custodial privileges. Members of the LAPD will testify to describe what they saw the night of Spears’ breakdown. In a related and equally disturbing development, Kevin Federline has re-entered the studio.

• The Monks‘ banjoist/rhythm guitarist Dave Day died yesterday after suffering either a stroke or heart attack last Sunday. The Monks were a seminal proto-punk band from the Sixties who were was also name-checked in LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge.”

[Photo: Getty]