Comedians deliver humor, testimony at Jackson trial

Santa Maria, Calif. — The unfamiliar sound of laughter has punctuated Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial with the recent witness stand appearances of three comedians and a comedy club owner whose wisecracks have reminded everyone that this is still a show business case.

“I was thinking that between the comedians and the lawyers, I like the comedians better,” Judge Rodney S. Melville quipped this past week. Jurors laughed heartily and a few clapped.

Jackson later told reporters: “We can always use a little comic relief.”

Jamie Masada, owner of the Laugh Factory comedy club; George Lopez, a comic with his own TV show; Fritz Coleman, a TV weatherman and part-time comedian; and comedian Louise Palanker have all taken their turns on the witness stand, recalling how they became involved with the family of the boy who accuses Jackson of molestation.

None had ever met Jackson, but Masada drew laughs when he looked over at the defendant and said genially: “How are you?”

Jackson waved at him from across the courtroom.

Some told dramatic stories. Coleman said he and Palanker once went to a poor East Los Angeles neighborhood to take the accuser’s family a Christmas tree and presents. Palanker told of giving them $20,000 and finally cutting off payments when the father became too demanding.

The defense is seeking to show that the family members were con artists who used the boy’s cancer to take advantage of show business contacts, including the comedians and Jackson, then accused Jackson when he tried to sever ties with them.

Lopez got laughs on the witness stand when he compared his own upbringing to that of the Hispanic family that now accuses Jackson of molestation. He, too, met them at the Laugh Factory but severed ties when the father accused Lopez of stealing money from the boy.

Lopez recalled that the accuser and his two siblings came to the club’s comedy camp by bus.

“Anyone who takes the bus in Los Angeles is a hero to me,” he joked.

Lopez said he visited the sick boy at his grandparents’ home in suburban El Monte, saying he had heard that Palanker had given the family $10,000 to build a germ-free room and he wanted to see it.

Mesereau asked if he thought that was odd.

“I think it’s odd when a comedian has $10,000, period,” Lopez quipped.

Loren honored in Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey — Film legend Sophia Loren received a lifetime achievement award at the opening of the Istanbul Film Festival.

“I feel surrounded by love,” Loren said at Friday’s event.

She said she would place the award next to her Oscars. Loren won a best actress Oscar in 1961 for “Two Women” and an Oscar for career achievement in 1991.

Loren was the guest of honor at the festival which ends April 17.

Thirteen international films are competing for the festival’s Golden Tulip Award.

They include “Beyond the Sea,” in which Kevin Spacey directed himself as 1950s crooner Bobby Darin, and “Untold Scandal,” a Korean version of the novel “Les Liasons Dangereuses.”

The festival kicked off with the screening of “Ladies in Lavender,” in which Judy Dench and Maggie Smith portray two spinsters in a post-World Ward II Britain who take in a mysterious young Polish man they find half-drowned on a beach.

Singer makes surprise visit

Chicago — A program to motivate city kids got a jolt of star power when Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys stopped by.

Keys, scheduled to perform in three sold-out shows through the weekend in Chicago, was at the Betty Shabazz International Charter School to take part in “Frum Tha Ground Up” on Thursday.

Shabazz, a public school that features an Afrocentric curriculum, was one of five schools Keys was to visit in various cities around the country to promote her album “The Diary of Alicia Keys.”

Keys was clearly touched by seeing more than 300 children, many dressed in kente cloth, sang a song in Swahili for her.

Osborne, daughter withdraw from London’s ‘Monologues’

London — Sharon Osbourne and her daughter Aimee have withdrawn from the West End show “The Vagina Monologues” because Aimee is ill, a spokeswoman said.

The family is flying back to Los Angeles so Aimee, the only family member not in the MTV show that catapulted the Osbournes to fame, can receive treatment. The spokeswoman would not say Friday what was wrong with Aimee, 21.

The mother and daughter apologized for letting the cast down and wished the production well. They were scheduled to start in the show on Tuesday.

Evel Knievel’s son to jump into reality TV spotlight

Butte, Mont. — The son of famed daredevil Evel Knievel, motorcycle stuntman Robbie Knievel, is jumping into reality television in a new cable series.

“Knievel’s Wild Ride,” is scheduled to debut Tuesday night on the A&E network.

It follows the 42-year-old stunt rider, family members and crew as they work and travel. The first episode features a jump over 25 police cars at a New Jersey car dealership.

Six episodes — each revolving around a motorcycle jump — have already been filmed. Seven more are expected to be completed by May.

The elder Knievel became famous in the 1970s for riding his motorcycle over everything from vehicles to alligators while wearing a red, white and blue jumpsuit.