Sober for a week

New York – Lindsay Lohan says she’s been going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for a year, but hasn’t talked about it because “it’s no one’s business.”

“I just left an AA meeting,” the 20-year-old actress tells People magazine in a story posted Tuesday on its Web site.

“I haven’t had a drink in seven days. Or anything,” she says. “I’m not even legal to, so why would I? I don’t drink when I go to clubs. I drink with my friends at home, but there’s no need to. I feel better not drinking. It’s more fun. I have Red Bull.”

“I’ve been going to AA for a year by the way,” Lohan adds.

When asked why she didn’t say so until recently, she replies: “Well it’s no one’s business. That’s why it’s anonymous!”

Video stunt brings lawsuit

Tampa, Fla. – Evel Knievel has sued Kanye West, taking issue with a music video in which the rapper takes on the persona of “Evel Kanyevel” and tries to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon.

Knievel, whose real name is Robert Craig Knievel, filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Tampa claiming infringement on his trademark name and likeness. He also claims the “vulgar and offensive” images depicted in the video damage his reputation.

“That video that Kanye West put out is the most worthless piece of crap I’ve ever seen in my life, and he uses my image to catapult himself on the public,” the 68-year-old daredevil said Tuesday.

A spokesman for West said the 28-year-old rapper had no comment. The lawsuit seeks damages and a halt to distribution of the video.

In the video for “Touch the Sky,” West dons the familiar Knievel star-studded jumpsuit and jumps a canyon in a vehicle “visually indistinguishable” from the one used by Knievel in his failed attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974, the lawsuit said.

The video, which features Pamela Anderson as West’s girlfriend, contains “vulgar and offensive sexual images, language and conduct involving ‘Evel Kanyevel’ and women apparently trying to gain his sexual interest,” according to the lawsuit.

“The guy just went too far using me to promote his filth to the world,” said Knievel. “I’m not in any way that kind of a person.”

From Mafia to Mardi Gras

New Orleans – James Gandolfini, aka Tony Soprano, has been tapped to reign as celebrity monarch Bacchus during the 2007 Carnival season.

Gandolfini, who filmed scenes in New Orleans for his role in the movie “All the King’s Men,” plays the head of a New Jersey crime family on HBO’s “The Sopranos.”

New Orleans’ signature celebration will have 31 parades over 10 days, compared with 28 parades in eight days in 2006, just months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The Bacchus parade will be the evening of Feb. 18, two days before Mardi Gras.