US appeals court upholds Buju Banton's conviction

MIAMI (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton's conviction on cocaine conspiracy and trafficking charges.

Banton's attorney, David O. Markus, argued that a government informant had improperly entrapped the Grammy-winning singer.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled Thursday that the evidence supported Banton's 2011 conviction in Tampa federal court.

The panel also agreed with the jury's conviction of Banton on a gun possession charge, which the trial judge had dismissed after the verdict was read. The judges rejected Banton's argument that his right to a speedy trial had been violated.

Banton's real name is Mark Myrie. He's serving a 10-year prison sentence. Markus says he believes "a good man is in jail for talking a big game."

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Police: 2 dead at Beverly Hilton in murder-suicide

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Two people have been found dead in what investigators believe was a murder-suicide at the Beverly Hilton, just hours before the Daytime Emmy Awards are being held at the posh hotel, police said Saturday.

Police responding to a report of a shooting late Friday found a man and a woman dead from gunshot wounds in a hotel room, Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said.

Police would give no other details on the two people, their relationship, or the circumstances of the shooting. Police would not comment on whether the deaths were connected to the Emmy awards.

Coroner's officials had yet to begin their investigation, but said they were a man in his late 60s and a woman in her mid-50s.

The luxury hotel was also the site of Whitney Houston's death in February. The singer drowned in the bathtub of her fourth-floor room, just a few hours before she was to attend record executive Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party in the ballroom downstairs.

An HLN spokeswoman, Alison Rudnick, said the 39th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will go on as scheduled. The cable news channel will be broadcasting live the ceremony, which honors the best in soap operas and talk shows.

The hotel also hosts several other annual galas, including the Golden Globe Awards.

Before the Friday shootings, Beverly Hills had just six homicides since 2008. Such rare cases usually draw national attention, as in the death of a Hollywood publicist who was shot while she was driving after a movie premiere in November 2010. Police say Ronni Chasen was killed in an apparent bungled robbery by a career criminal who later killed himself when approached by police.

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Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows

WASHINGTON (AP) — Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:

ABC's "This Week" — Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Issa; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; former Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas; former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama; Eric Fehrnstrom, adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Ed Gillespie, adviser to Romney's campaign; Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.; former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

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"Fox News Sunday" — Issa; Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

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NBC discussing plan to remove Ann Curry as host

NEW YORK (AP) — In the midst of the first prolonged challenge to its morning supremacy in 16 years, NBC News is discussing a plan to remove Ann Curry as co-host of the "Today" show with Matt Lauer.

Curry, who has been with "Today" since 1997, replaced Meredith Vieira last June as Lauer's partner. Lauer agreed to a long-term contract this spring to stay with the show.

It's still uncertain whether Curry, who has discovered a passion for international reporting in recent years, will remain with "Today," according to a source with knowledge of the show who spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday because the source was not authorized to speak on the matter. The New York Times first reported the discussions about the possible change on Wednesday.

NBC News President Steve Capus and the "Today" executive producer, Jim Bell, did not immediately return requests for comment.

Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosts the show's third hour, is at the top of the list of Curry's possible replacements.

"Today" lost in the ratings this spring for the first time since 1995 after a string of 852 consecutive weeks. Since then, "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America" have been trading weekly wins.

Keeping "Today" on top is serious business for NBC. Now four hours long, "Today" is the network's most profitable show and, with no end in sight for the network's prolonged prime-time slump, stands with Brian Williams' "Nightly News" as NBC's most successful program.

The Times reported that Curry had hired Washington lawyer Robert Barnett to represent her in talks with NBC News about her future. Barnett said he would not comment on Curry Wednesday, and Curry did not return an email seeking comment.

NBC is getting ready to take "Today" to London during the Summer Olympics in July, a high-profile period when the show will be closely watched.

Asked a week ago whether "Today" was considering any personnel changes, Bell deflected the question with a joke, saying there was no truth to the rumor that Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford would leave as hosts of the show's fourth hour.

Bell, who is also producing NBC's Olympics broadcasts, said it would be wrong for "Today" not to undergo some self-examination with the new competition from ABC. But he also noted that ABC was helped this spring because it had a stronger prime-time lineup than NBC and some of those evening viewers stuck around for "Good Morning America."

"It feels like there's an evolution that's to take place now in the (morning) and I think, as has been the case in the past, we'll be the ones to lead the way," Bell said.

Lauer, during a CNN interview last month, said he took responsibility for his show's ratings troubles and that was one of the reasons he decided to sign another multi-million dollar contract.

"The show is not where I want it to be right now," Lauer said. "The ratings are not where I want them to be. I want to make it better and I want to reinvigorate the show in some ways that perhaps we have let up on in the past couple of years."

Curry was passed over for Vieira in 2006 when NBC executives were replacing Katie Couric on "Today." After getting the job last year, she told The Associated Press that she would not have left the show even if she had been passed over again.

"It would have been nuts abandoning the broadcast," she said. "It would have been abandoning our viewers. I love our viewers ... I have a real sense of service when it comes to this job, taking care of the viewer and helping them have information that I think they should know and want to know."

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NBC is controlled by Comcast Corp.; ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co.

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NYPD: Man swiped Dali painting from art gallery

NEW YORK (AP) — Police are looking for a suspect who stole a $150,000 Salvador Dali painting from a Manhattan art gallery.

Police say the man walked into the Venus Over Manhattan art gallery on Madison Avenue posing as a customer and removed the watercolor and ink painting from the wall, put it in a bag, and fled.

Police say the suspect was wearing a black and white checked shirt and dark colored jeans. It happened on Tuesday.

The 1949 painting, called "Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio," was part of the gallery's inaugural exhibition.

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Judge details reasons for not blocking ABC show

LOS ANGELES (AP) — CBS is unlikely to succeed in its efforts to win copyright infringement claims over rival network ABC's new show "The Glass House," a federal judge said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess has refused to block "Glass House," which premiered Monday, and detailed his reasons in a 16-page ruling released Friday.

CBS wants to stop the show from airing, arguing it violates copyrights and trade secrets from its series "Big Brother."

Feess, however, noted the unpredictable nature of reality television and said the genre does not generally include plot or other expressions of ideas that are subject to copyright protection. Ideas alone cannot be protected by copyright, and courts must consider how the ideas are expressed when disputes arise.

Both shows employ dozens of cameras to check in on a houseful of contestants vying for a cash prize, but Feess ruled the shows are likely to play out very differently.

"Until the cameras begin to record, there is no plot, there is no (dialogue), there is no pace or sequence of events, and there are no fixed characters because there is no author," his ruling stated. "There is a setting, which is hardly novel, and some general ideas regarding the structure of the show, but little else."

"'Reality,' it turns out, is hard to copy," Feess wrote.

The ruling is unlikely to end the fight between the two networks. CBS says it will continue to pursue the case and is seeking additional evidence from ABC and "Glass House" producers.

"This is only one preliminary step in a long road; we will now aggressively move two steps forward," CBS wrote in a statement. The network has argued that nearly 30 former "Big Brother" staffers are now working on "Glass House" and some may have violated confidentiality agreements.

Feess agreed with ABC attorneys who argued that many of the filming techniques employed on "Glass House" are not unique to "Big Brother" and are used in other reality shows.

"We're pleased the Court agreed with ABC's arguments that The Glass House is a very different show and people working in the reality television industry should not be prevented from bringing their skills to a new employer," ABC wrote in a statement. "We are thrilled viewers will now get a chance to continue to enjoy and participate in ABC's The Glass House."

The rivalry between the two networks hasn't just been confined to the courtroom or airwaves. CBS on Wednesday issued a tongue-in-cheek news release claiming it's developing a reality series called "Dancing on the Stars" — a jab at ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

CBS described the mock series — staged in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery — as featuring "moderately famous and sort of well-known people" who will compete by dancing on stars' graves.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

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Baldwin to Letterman: I didn't punch photographer

NEW YORK (AP) — Alec Baldwin denied punching a newspaper photographer during a confrontation outside a marriage license bureau.

"If I had punched him, I would be in jail right now, rightfully so," Baldwin said during an appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show" Wednesday. "I kind of pushed him out of the way because he almost hit me in the face with the camera."

Baldwin's confrontation with New York Daily News photographer Marcus Santos was splashed on the newspaper's front page. Police have confirmed that Santos filed a complaint against Baldwin, saying he was punched while taking pictures of Baldwin and his fiancée on Tuesday.

The New York Press Club condemned Baldwin, saying his actions "should not be tolerated." The club said he is a public figure and that his activities are legitimate subjects of media interest.

Baldwin, to Letterman, said the photographer is a master at getting close enough to a subject that he thinks he is going to be hit by the camera. "They want you to react," he said.

Baldwin said that if he were charged in the case, he would have pressed charges against Santos.

"You do not want to know what would have happened in the jail cell if we were both in the jail cell," he said.

A joking Baldwin noted that in the Daily News picture of his confrontation, he appears to be forming the letter 'f' with his mouth. "What I'm saying is, 'What 'f stop' are you using on the camera?'"

An NYPD spokeswoman says no charges have been filed and that police are investigating.

On Thursday, The Daily News ran a photo on its front page of Baldwin dropping his pants on Letterman — a quick gesture to demonstrate that he was losing weight.

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