Country singer hospitalized after overdosing on pills

Nashville, Tenn. – Country singer Mindy McCready was hospitalized after overdosing on antidepressants early Friday following a quarrel with the father of her unborn child. She was in fair condition Friday afternoon, officials said.

According to a police report, McCready and William McKnight were arguing on the phone about whether his parents would help pay for the pregnancy. He cursed at McCready and she became angry and took about 30 antidepressant pills, the report says.

After McKnight called her back and she didn’t answer, he called police and an ambulance.

McCready’s lawyer did not return a phone message to his office.

McCready, 29, has had a series of legal and personal problems in recent months, including a drunken driving arrest in Nashville, a suicide attempt and an arrest in Arizona on charges stemming from her involvement with a con man she said she was trying to help police catch.

McKnight was also charged earlier this year with trying to kill her. McCready said he punched her in the face and tried to choke her.

Last year, McCready was charged with obtaining the painkiller OxyContin fraudulently at a pharmacy. She pleaded guilty and was placed on three years’ probation.

McCready had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with “Guys Do It All the Time.”

Dialing for donors

Los Angeles – “Iowa Jim” was suspicious. Was Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson really putting messages on his official Web site urging people to contribute to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts?

The Web surfer using that screen name e-mailed a challenge: If Wilson called and proved it was really him, Jim would gladly donate $100.

“So I called him up!” a jovial Wilson told The Associated Press. “I was surprised that he said he didn’t think I was involved because I really was. So I called him up.”

Then Wilson and his wife, Melinda, got another brainstorm. Why not have the legend behind such musical standards as “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and “Surfin”‘ call everyone who donates $100 or more. And he decided to match any contribution of $100 or more posted through his Web site – www.brianwilson.com – by Oct. 1.

Wilson said Friday that he had made about 15 calls since posting his challenge Thursday.

“I’ve got to go pretty soon,” he said before hanging up. “I’ve got 20 more calls to make tonight.”

Guitars on parade

Phoenix – Chicago fancifully painted fiberglass cows, the streets of Washington were decorated with donkeys and elephants, and now the Phoenix area is getting 10-foot guitars transformed by artists including Stevie Nicks, Eddie Van Halen and Alice Cooper.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona hopes to raise $1 million by auctioning off 90 giant guitars painted by celebrities and local artists that will be on display across the metropolitan area from Monday through early February.

Along with Van Halen, Nicks and Cooper, guitars were painted or sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Gavin DeGraw and Wayne Gretzky.

The guitars’ paint jobs include sunsets, portraits, the Arizona flag and colorful mosaics.

Cline home a landmark

Winchester, Va. – The home of Patsy Cline, already a favorite stop for country music fans, is now recognized by Virginia as a landmark.

Cline, born 1932 as Virginia Paterson Hensley in Winchester, was in 1973 the first solo female to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She is best known for “Crazy,” the torch song penned by Willie Nelson.

Cline lived at 608 South Kent St. from age 16 to 21, and lived there off and on through 1957. The home was listed this month on the Virginia Landmarks Register. It also has been proposed for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

“The family home was a foundation and a springboard for Patsy’s ambitious dreams of becoming a country music star,” says the Department of Historic Resources.

The dining room where Cline’s mother, Hilda Hensley, sewed her stage outfits remains largely unchanged from the 1950s, the board said.

Cline was killed in a plane crash in 1963.

Modeling mink

New York – Elle Macpherson stars in the new “What Becomes a Legend Most?” advertising campaign for Blackglama mink.

Macpherson, 42, was one of the world’s top earning supermodels in the 1990s. She starred opposite Hugh Grant in 1994’s “Sirens” and had a recurring role in the NBC sitcom “Friends.”

In recent years, the Blackglama “Legend” campaign has featured models including Linda Evangelista, Gisele Bundchen and Cindy Crawford.

American Legend Mink is the holding company for the Blackglama brand.

The ads will run in leading fashion publications this fall.

SNL lineup announced

New York – Steve Carell will host the season premiere of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday with Kanye West as the late-night show’s musical guest.

Also scheduled as hosts during October: “Napoleon Dynamite” star Jon Heder, Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, with his fiancee, Sheryl Crow, as musical guest, NBC announced Thursday.

“SNL” is returning for its 31st season.