Paparazzi won’t face charges

Los Angeles – Paparazzi who chased Reese Witherspoon from her gym to her home won’t face criminal charges, prosecutors say.

Although photographers undoubtedly terrified the actress when they “besieged” her in April, there wasn’t evidence of false imprisonment or other crimes, said William C. Hodgman, head of the district attorney office’s Target Crimes Unit.

“In this specific instance, we couldn’t prove any criminal behavior by the paparazzi,” Hodgman said Tuesday.

Witherspoon told police that photographers swarmed her car when she left the Brentwood gym, tried to force her off the road and surrounded her when she reached the gated community in West Los Angeles where she lives with her husband, Ryan Phillippe, and two children.

Police examined videotape of the incident in the gym parking lot and at the community gates but couldn’t determine that photographers detained the 29-year-old actress.

“I have no doubt Ms. Witherspoon was besieged by the paparazzi that day,” said Detective Jeff Dunn, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Threat Management Unit.

“But through witnesses and videotapes, we weren’t able to corroborate the incident Ms. Witherspoon described.”

Now she needs dreadlocks

Kingston, Jamaica – Sinead O’Connor, who has recorded her first reggae album, “Throw Down Your Arms,” said she has found solace in Jamaican music and the Rastafarian faith.

“To me, I have not made a reggae record, I’ve made a Rasta record,” O’Connor said Monday night at a launch party for the album, set for release later this year.

The album includes covers of classic reggae protest songs such as Burning Spear’s “Throw Down Your Arms,” Peter Tosh’s “Downpressor Man” and Bob Marley’s “War.”

“It is my way of expressing gratitude to the Rasta people, because I am one of those human beings who would not be alive today if it was not for the teachings of Rastafari,” the Irish pop singer said.

O’Connor, 38, recorded the album in Kingston earlier this year with top Jamaican musicians including drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist Robbie Shakespeare, guitarist Mikey Chung and trombonist Nambo Robinson.

Rocking the runways

New York – David Bowie, Destiny’s Child, Duran Duran, Gwen Stefani, Joss Stone and Tim McGraw will perform at the Fashion Rocks concert at Radio City Music Hall on Sept. 8, to kick off New York Fashion Week.

Alicia Keys, Nelly, Rob Thomas, Shakira, Billy Idol and The Arcade Fire are also set to appear, the Conde Nast Media Group announced Monday.

CBS will air a two-hour “Fashion Rocks” special on Sept. 9 (8 p.m. CDT). The announcement said it will be the last televised appearance of Destiny’s Child, who have announced plans to disband after their tour ends.

New York Fashion Week will run Sept. 9-16. Stefani will close the week with her L.A.M.B. designer show.

Third juror expresses doubts

Los Angeles – A third juror in the Michael Jackson case who initially favored a guilty verdict weighed in after two others expressed second thoughts, saying she believes the entertainer is a child molester but joined in the verdict exonerating him because of reasonable doubt.

Appearing on MSNBC on Tuesday, juror Katarina Carls said she initially agreed with Eleanor Cook and Ray Hultman that Jackson was guilty, but decided she could not convict because of jury instructions that he must be acquitted if there was reasonable doubt. She said it was possible that Jackson’s accuser was lying.

“I kept asking myself, is there any slight possibility that this boy might lie at all? And my answer was yes,” she said.

Cook and Hultman said Monday as they began publicizing book deals that they believe Jackson molested his 15-year-old accuser and now regret finding him not guilty in the June verdict.

Stones get kicks with NFL

New York – The Rolling Stones are teaming with ABC and the NFL for a season-long marketing tie-in with “Monday Night Football.”

Footage from the Stones’ concert tour performance in Detroit will be included in “NFL Opening Kickoff 2005,” a one-hour pre-game special on Sept. 8 (7 p.m. CDT), the network announced Monday. The special will run before the season opener between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders.

The Stones’ tour opens Aug. 21 at Boston’s Fenway Park, and their new album, “A Bigger Bang,” is scheduled for release on Sept. 6.

ABC will feature music and video footage of the Stones throughout the 2005 season of “Monday Night Football.”

Clinton vs. Cheney?

Washington Post editor Bob Woodward speculated that Hillary Rodham Clinton would earn the Democratic nomination in 2008 and would run against Dick Cheney. And he rejected the likelihood of a third party being a threat to Democrats and Republicans. He also discounted the fear that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts would help overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark abortions rights case, if elected to the bench.

Woodward spoke to an overflow crowd Tuesday night at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen, Colo. His half-hour talk, punctuated several times by well-received jokes, was followed by 11 questions from the audience.