Brad Pitt says media focus ‘misguided’

New York – Brad Pitt is taking on poverty and AIDS in Africa – and the tabloids.

In an hourlong ABC “Primetime Live” special set to air today (9 p.m. CT), Pitt talks to Diane Sawyer about the humanitarian crisis in Africa.

“I can’t get out of the press. These people can’t get in the press. So let’s redirect the attention a little bit,” he tells Sawyer.

“We have the potential to end poverty (in Africa) in our time. … Man – I mean, what is more exciting than that? The potential’s there. We gotta go for it.”

Pitt separated from Jennifer Aniston in January after 4 1/2 years of marriage. Aniston, 36, filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences.

He calls tabloid speculation that his “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” co-star Angelina Jolie played a role in the breakup of his marriage “a good story.”

He also calls the media focus on his personal life “misguided.”

Russell Crowe arrested

New York – Russell Crowe was arrested and charged Monday for allegedly throwing a telephone at an employee of the Manhattan hotel where he was staying.

Crowe, 41, who plays a boxer in his latest film, “Cinderella Man,” allegedly threw the phone at the concierge at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo, “hitting him in the face and causing a laceration and substantial pain,” according to the complaint.

“This arose because he was trying to get his wife on the phone in Australia,” his lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, told reporters earlier outside the police precinct where Crowe was booked. “He was in his room. He couldn’t get a line, and there was a disagreement.”

The Australian movie star was arraigned on charges of second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon – the telephone – before Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Martin Murphy. The assault charge is punishable by seven years in prison.

Crowe was later released on his own recognizance.

Paparazzi: Stay away

Los Angeles – Lindsay Lohan wishes paparazzi would keep their distance, especially after police said a photographer intentionally crashed into her car.

“It’s a frightening experience. There’s a line that needs to be drawn now,” the actress-singer told reporters recently, according to AP Radio.

Lohan suffered cuts and bruises in the accident last week in Los Angeles. Police said the photographer intentionally rammed the left rear of Lohan’s 2005 Mercedes-Benz.

“I was so shaken up, but I was still nice ’cause I was like, ‘I understand it’s your job. But you don’t have to ram into me next time. I’ll give you a picture.”‘

Lohan’s new film, “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” will be in theaters June 22.

Molly Ringwald mulling ‘Sixteen Candles’ sequel

Los Angeles – Could it be time to put more candles on the cake?

Molly Ringwald said she’s in discussions to make a sequel to “Sixteen Candles,” the 1984 movie about the obstacles and embarrassments a teen girl faces on her birthday.

The film, directed by John Hughes, shot Ringwald to teen stardom, but she hasn’t appeared in a major role in many years. She said she’s been appearing in theater, small TV and film parts and raising a daughter, now 18 months old.

Ringwald, 37, said she had been approached repeatedly about doing a sequel, but recently read a script that she liked and wanted to star in the movie.

“I’ve turned it down for years. I couldn’t see how it would work,” she said. “Now, it seems right.”

Speaking of sequels

Los Angeles – If Chris Tucker has his way, the next “Rush Hour” movie will be filled with more Jackie Chan mishaps than ever.

Tucker said the next film in the Brett Ratner-directed action-comedy franchise is in the works. “Everybody loved the outtakes. We’re going to make the movie one big outtake,” he said.

Wearing large black sunglasses while arriving Saturday at the MTV Movie Awards, Tucker also said he expected that Michael Jackson was “going to be cool” after the verdict was rendered in Jackson’s child molestation trial.

Tucker, 32, testified on behalf of the defense, telling jurors that he found the accuser to be unusually sophisticated and cunning for a 12-year-old. He met the boy at a benefit while the child was battling cancer in 2001.

Speaking of Jackson

Santa Maria, Calif. – Jurors in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial completed their first full day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict.

Little more than an hour into the day the jurors sent word to the judge that they had a question, but the query and its resolution were not publicly disclosed, drawing a protest from news media.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor in 2003, plying him with wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut a damaging TV documentary about the singer. He could get several years in prison if convicted on the molestation counts.

Jackson fans waited outside the courthouse Monday holding signs saying such things as “Only love. No crime. He’s innocent. Leave him alone,” “We shall overcome” and “Peter Pan rules.” A woman held a sign showing Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackson.