Renfro faces drug rehab program

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Â A judge put jailed actor Brad Renfro into a three-month substance abuse treatment program Thursday and told him he faces a nine-month sentence if he fails it.

The 19-year-old, who starred in the 1994 film “The Client,” was jailed Jan. 31 for violating his probation for trying to steal a yacht. He violated probation when he was arrested Jan. 14 and charged with driving without a license and public intoxication near his hometown of Knoxville, Tenn.

Renfro’s credits include “Bully,” “Ghost World,” “Sleepers” and “Telling Lies in America.”

Jackson fan charged in burglary

Uniondale, N.Y. Â Someone got past Janet Jackson’s velvet rope.

While the 35-year-old singer was entertaining fans Wednesday night at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a 19-year-old man allegedly was breaking into her dressing room, police said.

Mario Backman of Manhattan was charged with third-degree burglary after the singer’s managers found him inside Jackson’s dressing room, said Detective Sgt. John Giambrone, a Nassau County police spokesman.

Backman had allegedly taken some stuffed animals, an FDNY cap and correspondence, police said Thursday.

Backman was released without bail and ordered to return to court on Monday.

Culkin mom ordered to stand trial

New York  A Manhattan judge says the mother of actor Macaulay Culkin must go to trial to defend herself against lawsuits filed after a fire that started in her apartment damaged property and killed four people.

State Supreme Court Justice Paula Omansky, in a ruling made public Thursday that applies to eight lawsuits, refused to dismiss the cases against Culkin’s mother, Patricia Bentrup, and the 51-story building’s managers and owners.

The lawsuits seek hundreds of millions of dollars for wrongful death, personal injuries and property damage caused by a December 1998 fire in one of the three 19th-floor apartments where Bentrup and six of her seven children lived.

Fire officials said the fire was ignited by a short circuit in a wire in a heater. They also said that the door to the apartment in which the fire started had been propped open, allowing air to feed the blaze.

Tiffany to prove her ‘maturity’

Los Angeles  Former teen pop star Tiffany plans to show she’s all grown-up with a pictorial in the April issue of Playboy magazine.

“I became aware that the world still views me as the 15-year-old performer I once was,” the 30-year-old said. “I view my appearance in Playboy as the first step in presenting myself to the world as I am.”

However, the shapely figure she shows off in the magazine isn’t all natural. The singer has had breast-augmentation surgery, her publicist said this week.