Trebek is game to go on

Los Angeles — “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek hopes to resume taping his Emmy Award-winning quiz show today after escaping serious injury when he fell asleep at the wheel of his pickup truck on a rural road.

The 63-year-old television host was driving alone Friday in the Central Coast town of Templeton when his truck drifted off the road, sideswiped a bank of mailboxes and sailed over an embankment into a ditch.

Trebek was not hospitalized and was not cited.

Trebek owns and manages a horse breeding and training farm about eight miles southeast of Templeton. He was returning from a family lake home in Lake Nacimiento when the accident occurred.

Sharpening the shears

San Francisco — Ice Cube has returned to the barbershop and he expects some more bruising.

A year and a half after his film “Barbershop” sparked controversy for a character’s derogatory remarks about civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, the rapper and actor is back with “Barbershop 2,” opening Friday

This time, cultural icons including Tiger Woods, Lenny Kravitz, Mike Tyson, Mariah Carey, Jackie Robinson, R. Kelly and Condoleezza Rice are skewered.

“We wanted to be true to what a barbershop is, so every headline we could grab between the first ‘Barbershop’ and the second was in there,” Ice Cube said.

Praise for the revolution

Caracas, Venezuela — Boxing promoter Don King praised President Hugo Chavez and his “revolution” during the Venezuelan leader’s weekly radio and television program.

“To see what is happening here makes me feel good all over,” said King, of Chavez’s government and his efforts to bring social justice to Venezuela’s poor majority.

King spoke Sunday during Chavez’s “Hello President” program. Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper who’s facing a possible recall referendum this year, welcomed King as “a fighter of many years” and “a man of justice.”

Two weeks ago, actor Danny Glover also joined Chavez during the show and applauded his programs for the poor.

Gore’s son sentenced

Rockville, Md. — The 21-year-old son of former Vice President Al Gore must complete substance abuse counseling as part of a pretrial diversion program to settle a marijuana possession charge.

The agreement approved by a judge Monday calls for the misdemeanor charge to be dropped after a year if Albert Gore III submits to urine testing, community service and counseling, and steers clear of criminal convictions.

The younger Gore, who attends Harvard University, had no comment after the brief hearing. He was accompanied by his mother, Tipper Gore, who did not comment other than saying the issue was a “private matter.”

The son of the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee was arrested Dec. 19, 2003, in Bethesda after an officer stopped him for driving without having his headlights on. The officer smelled marijuana and found some in the car after a search.