Jury continues to deliberate in Michael Jackson case

Santa Maria, Calif. – The jury in the Michael Jackson molestation trial ended its third day of deliberations Tuesday without reaching a verdict.

There were no indications that the eight women and four men on the jury had communicated with Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville during the six hours the group met. Adhering to the same schedule as during the trial, there were three short breaks during the day that began at 8:30 a.m.

About 150 fans milled outside the building, down from the about 200 at one point on Monday.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a 13-year-old boy in early 2003. He is accused of giving the boy alcohol to aid in the molestation and with conspiring with aides to control the family so they would participate in a favorable interview.

If convicted of all charges, the pop star could be sentenced to more than 18 years in prison.

All business, all the time

Hight Point, N.C. – With only a limited amount of freedom allowed, Martha Stewart could have chosen a more glamorous place to visit than High Point.

But the domestic diva, who is still under house arrest and required to wear an electronic-monitoring ankle device for lying about a stock deal, had business in mind when she traveled to the furniture capital to promote new additions to her home furnishing collection, the Martha Stewart Signature line by Bernhardt Furniture.

The Lenoir-based manufacturer, which began producing Stewart-endorsed furniture in 2002, confirmed that she appeared at an invitation-only event Monday for furniture retailers at the company’s High Point showroom.

Stewart is allowed to leave her country home 40 miles north of Manhattan for work.

She received permission for the brief trip to High Point, according to Jim Blackford, deputy chief U.S. probation officer for the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.

Model hurt in wreck

Secaucus, N.J. – Model Tyson Beckford, known for his ads for Ralph Lauren Polo, was injured after his truck crashed into a utility pole and burst into flames.

Beckford, 34, lost control of his 2004 red Dodge Ram shortly before 5 a.m. Monday and skidded into the pole, said police Detective Thomas O’Keeffe. The truck caught fire, and Beckford was able to pull himself out before it became fully engulfed in flames, police said.

Beckford, a West New York resident, was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center, where he was treated for head trauma and cuts, O’Keeffe said.

Hospital officials didn’t return repeated calls Tuesday morning, but published reports said Beckford was discharged Monday afternoon.

Beckford was named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 1995.

He has appeared in magazines such as GQ, Essence and Vogue.

New ‘Lost’ character

New York – Michelle Rodriguez is getting “Lost” full-time.

The 26-year-old actress will join the cast of the stranded-on-an-island drama when production resumes for its second season, ABC announced Monday.

In a flashback scene on the season finale, Rodriguez played Ana-Lucia Cortez, a passenger on doomed Oceanic flight No. 815, who flirted with Jack Shepard, played by Matthew Fox, at an airport bar in Sydney, Australia.

Rodriguez first caught the attention of movie audiences as a boxer in 2000’s “Girlfight.” She also has starred in “S.W.A.T.,” “Resident Evil,” “Blue Crush” and “The Fast and the Furious.”

ABC didn’t specify what Rodriguez’s role would be when the show returns, but many “Lost” theorists believe passengers in the back half of the plane, where Cortez said she was sitting, are alive and haven’t been discovered.

“Lost” will air Wednesdays (8 p.m. CT) this fall.

The ex weighs in

New York – Nicole Kidman is carefully not casting judgment on ex-husband Tom Cruise’s relationship with Katie Holmes.

When asked in early May about Cruise’s very public romance with Holmes, Kidman didn’t address the subject directly. However, when asked about photographic publicity stunts in general, Kidman tells Vanity Fair in its July issue, on newsstands June 14: “In terms of your life, if you start to exploit it, then what’s real, and what’s not? What’s yours, and what isn’t?”

Kidman and Cruise divorced in 2001 after almost 10 years of marriage.

Cruise and Holmes were photographed together in Rome in April and later confirmed they were dating. He stars in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “War of the Worlds,” and Holmes co-stars in “Batman Begins.”

Wonder boy

Los Angeles – There was quite a 55th birthday present for entertainer Stevie Wonder – the birth of his seventh child.

Wonder and his fashion-designer wife, Kai Millard Morris, announced Monday that they are the parents of a son, born on May 13. He is the couple’s first child.

Mandla Kadjaly Carl Stevland Morris weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches long, said publicist Howard Bragman. Mandla means powerful/defiant in Zulu, and Kadjaly is Swahili for “born from God,” the spokesman said in a statement.

No other details were released.

“It’s a perfectly healthy family,” Bragman said.

The Grammy-winning singer is in the studio completing his “A Time to Love” album, his first in 10 years.