Country singer hospitalized

Los Angeles — Mickey Gilley, the country music entertainer and entrepreneur whose Texas nightclub spawned the 1980’s “Urban Cowboy” craze, underwent emergency surgery for a burst appendix, his publicist said.

Gilley, 67, was about to board his airplane when he was stricken July 3 at the airport in Branson, Mo., where he has a home and theater.

“I just folded up like a dollar bill,” Gilley said in a statement Wednesday. “If I’d been in the air, I don’t know that I could have landed the plane. The pain was excruciating.”

A friend took him to Skaggs Hospital for the operation, spokesman Sandy Brokaw said. Gilley returned to his Branson home Monday.

‘I’m With Busey’ explained

Los Angeles — Gary Busey didn’t know Adam de la Pena from, well, Adam, when the comedy writer approached him about doing a television show based on hanging out together.

De La Pena thought Busey was funny in the 1996 movie “Black Sheep” with Chris Farley and David Spade and figured the 59-year-old actor could do comedy.

“Adam brought me this idea. It had no blueprint, no foundation, no script and no outline. Just imagination,” Busey said Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. summer gathering. “Where I live, my imagination is big so I thought it would be good.”

The result is “I’m With Busey,” a Comedy Central show that began in June. The duo embark on adventures, including an episode in which Busey gives his protege romance tips. They also attend a driving school and learn self-defense techniques.

Rappers keep it all in the family

Los Angeles — Rapper and producer Master P figures the best way to keep an eye on his 13-year-old son, Lil’ Romeo, is to be his co-star.

They’re part of a musical family in “Romeo!,” a comedy series beginning Sept. 13 on Nickelodeon. “Saturday Night Live” alum Victoria Jackson plays the family’s nanny.

Master P said he’s not above a little one-upmanship with his son.

“We’re always competing against each other now,” the 33-year-old said. “On the set, I beat him a lot in basketball. Romeo is so great now as an actor and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to step my game up.’ It’s a lot of love that is happening.”

Connelly downplays her draw

New York — Jennifer Connelly says winning an Academy Award for “A Beautiful Mind” hasn’t improved her job offers very much.

“There is still a hierarchy, a food chain, that I am not at the top of,” Connelly tells Harper’s Bazaar in its July issue. “I’m not necessarily the greatest box-office draw.”

She won a best-supporting actress Oscar in 2002 for playing the wife of schizophrenic math genius John Forbes Nash (Russell Crowe).

Connelly’s expecting a child with actor-husband Paul Bettany this summer.

“I didn’t think I was going to have any more kids,” said Connelly, who has a 5-year-old son, Kai, from a previous relationship. “But then suddenly, with Paul, I really wanted to. And we just thought, ‘Why not sooner rather than later?”‘