Houston back in rehab

New York — A year after her first reported stay in rehab, Whitney Houston has again checked into a rehabilitation facility. “Whitney Houston has re-entered a rehabilitation facility today,” her publicist, Nancy Seltzer, told The Associated Press Wednesday. She declined to provide details.

The news was first reported by syndicated entertainment TV show “Access Hollywood.”

In March 2004, Houston checked herself into an undisclosed rehabilitation center.

After years of denying drug use, the pop diva said she had used cocaine, marijuana and pills in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Primetime” in 2002.

She has said she was using the power of prayer to help her get over drugs.

Houston, 41, has been working with producer Clive Davis on a comeback album.

Trump wants Jackson to perform in Vegas

New York — Donald Trump’s Las Vegas partners have been courting Michael Jackson to perform at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, Us Weekly magazine reports.

New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin and partner Jack Wishna have reportedly spoken to representatives of Jackson about a long-term residency.

Trump and Ruffin are partners in Trump International Hotel & Tower, which is being built behind the New Frontier.

Jackson’s spokeswoman, Raymone K. Bain, told The Associated Press Wednesday that she wasn’t aware of any such discussions, but didn’t discount that they may have occurred.

The 46-year-old pop star is on trial in Santa Maria, Calif. He is accused of molesting a boy, now 15, at his Neverland ranch, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy’s family captive in 2003.

“There’d be moral clauses in the contract,” Wishna told Us. He added that Jackson would draw more than the $80 million Celine Dion grossed in 2004.

Human error blamed in ‘American Idol’ mix-up

Los Angeles — “American Idol” fanatics had to wait another day to discover which contestant would be sent packing this week.

For the first time in the four-season history of Fox’s top-rated series, “American Idol” was forced to schedule a revote Wednesday after incorrect voting numbers were displayed in the on-screen graphics for three contestants during the performance recap Tuesday. Results of Wednesday’s vote were to be aired tonight.

“It was human error,” said “Idol” executive producer Ken Warwick during a conference call. “We found out as it was on the air (about the problem). Fox called to say we are getting e-mails saying that the wrong phone numbers were going up.”

As soon as the mistake was discovered, Warwick and the other “American Idol” producers decided they didn’t want to be told how many votes were cast Tuesday — or for whom. They opted to have a nationwide revote among “Idol” viewers.

DiCaprio talks on water

San Francisco — Leonardo DiCaprio helped environmentalists launch an international campaign to draw attention to the billion people worldwide who don’t have access to clean water.

“We are here to help raise awareness about what is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today,” said DiCaprio, speaking on World Water Day at the Clift Hotel Tuesday with Global Green USA President Matt Petersen.

DiCaprio screened a short film he helped produce that highlights the need to conserve the world’s limited supply of fresh water and provide greater access to it for more than 1.2 billion people.

The film, titled “Water Planet,” will be distributed starting next month on the Internet, at film festivals and to television stations and schools to educate the public about what DiCaprio calls the “growing global water crisis.”

About 2.5 billion people worldwide lack water sanitation services, and 5 million people die from waterborne diseases each year, according to Global Green USA.

Cassidy’s Derby dreams

Los Angeles — David Cassidy isn’t horsing around when he says that his life’s passion is to win the Kentucky Derby.

The 1970s teen idol has a contender in Mayan King, an undefeated 3-year-old who will run Saturday in the Lane’s End Stakes at Kentucky’s Turfway Park. Cassidy owns the horse with several partners.

“If I could win the Kentucky Derby, there would be nothing on the face of the earth, other than the birth of my son 14 years ago, to compare to the thrill and the high of it,” he said Tuesday by phone from Florida.

“The day we bought him I thought he was a Derby horse. It’s the only time I’ve ever high-fived anyone in the sales ring,” he said. “I’ve already turned down quite a lot of money for him.”

Cassidy, 54, has bred thoroughbreds since the 1970s, when he rose to stardom playing Keith Partridge on “The Partridge Family.”

He has used a different name because he didn’t want to draw attention to his celebrity.

Animals’ best friend

Chicago — Bob Barker has donated $1 million to Northwestern University’s School of Law to endow a course on animal rights law.

The Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights Law will allow students to earn credits on topics such as how humans interact with and use animals, species protection and international wildlife law, the school announced Tuesday.

Barker, the host of “The Price Is Right” and a longtime animal rights activist, has given similar funds in recent years to law schools at Duke, Stanford, Columbia and UCLA.

“We intend to train a growing number of law students in this area of the law in the hope that they will ultimately lead a national effort to make it illegal to brutalize and exploit these helpless creatures,” Barker said.