Rock nominees announced

New York – Van Halen is trying to make their biggest “jump” yet – into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with potential 2007 classmates such as R.E.M., Chic, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

All are among the nine nominees for enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. A panel of 500 industry experts will select five to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 12 in New York City.

To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years prior to nomination.

Grandmaster Flash led the most innovative act in early hip-hop, and the song “The Message” was like a letter from urban America.

Chic, a funk group led by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, were one of the few acts to dominate the disco era and emerge with their reputation intact through songs such as the wedding band favorite “Good Times.”

Other nominees include Patti Smith, the punk rock poet who recently presided over the closing of New York’s legendary CBGB nightclub; British invader the Dave Clark Five; Phil Spector favorites the Ronettes; soul singer Joe Tex; and the Stooges, early home of Iggy Pop.

Smith battles pneumonia

Nassau, Bahamas – Anna Nicole Smith has been hospitalized with pneumonia at the same medical center where her 20-year-old son died under mysterious circumstances in September, an attorney for the reality TV star said Tuesday.

Smith, whose son died while visiting her in the hospital three days after she gave birth to daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, was being treated at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, attorney Wayne Munroe said.

“She has a slight case of pneumonia,” Munroe told The Associated Press. “We’ve had a sudden change of weather here due to a cold snap.”

The attorney said the hospitalization was most likely just a precaution since Smith, 38, had recently given birth.

Heckler throws drink at Barbra Streisand

Sunrise, Fla. – Barbra Streisand had a drink lobbed at her Monday after a mid-concert skit poking fun at President Bush.

Streisand’s manager, Martin Erlichman, said she shrugged off the incident and responded to the angry audience member by saying: “It’s a free country and they’re entitled to express their opinion.”

It’s at least the third time the skit, which includes a George W. Bush impersonator, has angered Streisand’s audience. A heckler targeted her at the Philadelphia opening of her 20-city comeback tour, Guttman said, and Streisand made headlines with her response to a jeerer at Madison Square Garden last month.

Despite the controversy, Erlichman said the skit would remain a part of the tour.