OutKast tops MTV Europe

Rome — OutKast topped the winners list at the MTV Europe Music Awards, picking up three prizes, including best group.

The hip-hop stars from Atlanta also won best video and song for “Hey Ya!”

“I hope you don’t get tired of us. We only do what we do,” said OutKast’s Andre 3000 while thanking the crowd of about 6,000 Thursday at the Tor di Valle hippodrome.

Winners also included Usher, best album for “Confessions” and best male; Alicia Keys, best R&B; Britney Spears, best female; Black Eyed Peas, best pop; and Linkin Park, best rock.

The ceremony featured performances by Usher and Keys, Eminem, Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, Swedish punk band The Hives and Gwen Stefani.

Vanilla Ice loses wallaroo

Port St. Lucie, Fla. — Vanilla Ice wants his wallaroo back.

The 36-year-old rap performer, who had a ’90s hit with “Ice Ice Baby,” called animal control officials Wednesday to report that a wallaroo and a goat found wandering around Port St. Lucie belong to him.

They had escaped from his back yard, city officials said.

He may have trouble getting his pets back. Neither the wallaroo, which is considered an exotic animal, nor farm animals such as the goat, are allowed in Port St. Lucie.

They were picked up Saturday by animal control after a woman reported them, saying the wallaroo, a cross between a kangaroo and a wallaby, had scratched her and kicked her car.

The hidden allure of jury duty

New York — Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer thinks people should know that jury duty has an upside that doesn’t get talked about much: It’s a great way to get a date.

Westheimer, known as Dr. Ruth to her radio, television and reading public, made her observation Thursday as she and nearly 20 other celebrities marked Juror Appreciation Day at the State Supreme Court Building in Manhattan.

“Jury duty is good way to meet men and women, a partner,” Westheimer said.

Also on hand were former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, Barbara Walters, comedian Anne Meara, singer Rosanne Cash, recording executive Clive Davis, NBC “Today” news anchor Ann Curry and actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.

All the celebrities have been called to jury duty, but Giuliani is the only one who has served. In 1999, he became the first New York City mayor to serve as foreman of a civil jury that reached a verdict.

Antiques store sues Jackson

Los Angeles — An antiques and furniture store has sued pop star Michael Jackson for allegedly failing to pay a nearly $180,000 bill.

Kamad Enterprise, which owns Mayfair Gallery, claimed Jackson owes $178,875 of the $378,875 in merchandise he allegedly purchased in May, according to a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Mayfair Gallery sells mostly 19th-century European furniture.

Jackson bought 20 items, including a malachite urn, a Louis XVI-style bust clock, silver bread holder and an “Austrian gold-painted dancing girl,” the complaint said.

An attorney for Jackson, Brian Oxman, said he had not reviewed the complaint.