NEW YORK (AP) -- Battle-scarred rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight and volatile hip-hop star Kanye West faced off Friday over a beef involving a bullet — with a conference table between them.

The two rap titans were there for West to answer questions about a celebrity-packed Miami Beach party where an unknown gunman shot Knight in the leg. West hosted the 2005 fete at the posh Shore Club before the MTV

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The estate of Michael Jackson and entertainment company AEG have agreed to contribute $1.3 million to help cover public costs related to the pop star's memorial service last year at Staples Center, officials said.

AEG President Timothy J. Leiweke and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Friday in a joint statement that $1 million will be provided to the city's general fund and the rest of the money will go to

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rapper Jay-Z and his wife, Beyonc?, will compete in three categories at the 2010 BET Awards.

They're both nominated for video of the year, best collaboration and viewers' choice. Jay-Z received two nominations in the video of the year category, which includes newcomers B.o.B and Melanie Fiona.

Jay-Z is the top contender with five nominations; he's also up

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jazz pianist and composer Hank Jones, whose 70-year career included a stint as Ella Fitzgerald's pianist and Marilyn Monroe's accompanist when she sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy, has died, his manager said Monday. He was 91.

Jones, who won a Grammy lifetime achievement award last year and received the National Medal of Arts in 2008, died Sunday night

SANTA FE, N.M. – French conductor, composer, pianist and author Frederic Chaslin has been hired as the new chief conductor of the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico.

The opera's general director, Charles MacKay, introduced Chaslin during a new conference Tuesday. He says the conductor's three-year appointment will end a nearly two-year search that included extensive conversations with orchestra members, artists and other leaders in

NEW YORK (AP) -- A personal assistant will spend up to life behind bars for murdering her boss, a punk-rock manager turned high-powered real estate broker, in a vicious beating at the victim's Fifth Avenue penthouse.

Twenty-eight-year-old Natavia Lowery was sentenced Monday in Manhattan 25 years to life for murder. With additional time for other counts, her total sentence comes to 27 and one-third years to life.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Bret Michaels' is expected to make a full recovery, according to his doctor.

The 47-year-old former Poison frontman's will to live is "undeniable," said Dr. Joseph Zabramski, chief of cerebrovascular surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, who has been leading the team treating "The Celebrity Apprentice" contestant since