Timberlake tries acting

New York — After adding the title of Grammy winner to his resume, Justin Timberlake is going after another: movie star.

Timberlake will star with Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman and LL Cool J in “Edison.” Shooting is to begin March 8 in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the film scheduled for release next year. David J. Burke of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” will make his feature writing and directing debut.

The ‘N Sync singer will play a young journalist who discovers an elite team of corrupt police. Freeman plays the veteran reporter who helps him, and Spacey plays the district attorney’s top investigator.

Theater campaign staged

London — When Jude Law was a schoolboy, he saw a performance of Shakespeare’s “Othello” at London’s Young Vic Theatre that he said inspired him to take up acting.

Tuesday, the star recently nominated for a best-actor Oscar for “Cold Mountain” launched a campaign to raise $4.5 million to save the venue, now 34 years old and somewhat dilapidated.

Built in 1970 to nurture young talent, the theater was intended as a temporary structure.

Law, 31, has appeared on the Young Vic stage twice, most recently in a production of Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus” in 2002.

The planned renovation will double the size of the theater. Besides refurbishing the main auditorium, there are plans for an extra workshop, office and backstage space.

Full-figured role

New York — Michael McKean will be Broadway’s new Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray.”

McKean joins the cast of the hit musical on May 4, replacing Harvey Fierstein as the full-figured Edna.

McKean, 56, is best known for playing the role of Leonard “Lenny” Kosnowski on television’s “Laverne and Shirley.” He also was a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” and his films include “This is Spinal Tap,” “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind.”

Fierstein leaves “Hairspray” May 2. The show, based on the John Waters movie about a chubby girl and her obsession with a television dance show in 1960s Baltimore, opened on Broadway in August 2002.

CBS lawsuit withdrawn

Knoxville, Tenn. — The latest Janet Jackson report: Terri Carlin, who filed a class-action lawsuit seeking billions of dollars, claiming Janet’s nipple stunt “seriously injured” her and millions of upstanding CBS viewers watching the Super Bowl halftime show, isn’t so injured after all. The Knoxville bank employee, 47, has withdrawn her suit, saying she retains the right to refile if broadcast regulators don’t bring the smackdown on the singer.

Meanwhile, MTV is shifting some of its racier music videos to late night.

MTV said a handful of videos, including ones by Britney Spears, Ludacris and Incubus, would only air between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., mostly for sexual content.