Ray Charles returns to roots

Los Angeles — Grammy-winning entertainer Ray Charles has gone back to his gospel music roots.

“It was very nostalgic, bringing me back to my childhood at church on Sundays,” Charles said this week ahead of the release of a 90-minute concert DVD “Ray Charles Celebrates A Gospel Christmas.”

“My mother said you can’t serve two masters, and I sing rhythm and blues,” he said.

The 13-time Grammy Award winner recorded the gospel DVD during a concert last November in Green Bay, Wis.

Kid Rock, zoning code rebel

Mount Clemens, Mich. — Kid Rock may project a bad-boy image, but his current hassles with the authorities involve the mundane issues of parking and zoning.

The parking problem emerged in this Detroit suburb, where the rapper-rocker is to perform at a theater for a VH1 cable special.

The theater’s operator Joe Nieporte told the Detroit Free Press that VH1 wanted eight metered parking spaces for its production trucks, but the city denied the request.

And in Oakland County’s Independence Township, 25 miles northwest of Mount Clemens, the zoning board has ordered Kid Rock to remove a shed and additions to the barn where he runs a recording studio.

“He has to remove the construction that was not granted approval,” Beverly McElmeel, the township’s building director, told The Daily Oakland Press.

Ryan downplays ‘adorable’ image

New York — Meg Ryan, known for sweetheart roles in “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail,” plays a writing professor who becomes involved with a police detective in Jane Campion’s erotic thriller “In the Cut.”

The 41-year-old actress says although she’s had a great run playing adorable blondes in comedies, she isn’t really like that.

“There’s the idea of me, and then there’s me, and there’s a gap — a huge gap,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar in its November issue.

Ryan said in the year since production ended, she hadn’t accepted any new film roles, mainly to keep the experience of making the movie close to her.

“I feel really blessed that Jane trusted me and hired me,” she tells the magazine. “I still think back, a year later, about what I learned from her.”

Recovery he can relate to

New York — Robert Downey Jr. says he can relate to the message of “The Singing Detective” because it mirrors what he went through with his past drug problem.

The 38-year-old actor said his own experiences — including a stay at a rehab center after a year in prison — inspired him to play the title character.

“You can make miraculous recoveries from seemingly hopeless situations if you put your mind to it and you have enough support,” he told reporters in Los Angeles recently, according to AP Radio.

Downey plays a bedridden writer afflicted with a disease that attacks the joints and causes agonizing skin psoriasis.