Paparazzi spoil outings

Pune, India – Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, in India to shoot scenes for a movie about the slain journalist Daniel Pearl, went on an autorickshaw ride with their 5-year-old son Sunday.

The couple were chased by photographers, cameramen and reporters, forcing them to turn back after a 20-minute ride in downtown Pune, in western India.

Several traffic signals slowed their short rickshaw ride. At every red light, security men traveling in a rickshaw behind jumped out and surrounded the three-wheeler to prevent the media from snapping pictures of Pitt and Jolie.

They then returned to the Le Meridian hotel, where they have been holed up since arriving Thursday.

Security for the couple has been tight since their arrival in Pune with their children, Maddox, 5, Zahara, 18 months and 4-month-old Shiloh Nouvel.

On Saturday, one of Pitt’s and Jolie’s bodyguards manhandled a British photographer as he tried to take their picture at the hotel, an incident caught on video by an Indian television station.

Family mourns Daniel Smith

Mexia, Texas – Family and friends gathered at a church in this small town to mourn Anna Nicole Smith’s 20-year-old son Daniel, who died last month while visiting his mother in the Bahamas after she gave birth to a daughter.

About 50 people attended the hourlong memorial service Saturday at First Baptist Church of Mexia for the son of the former Playboy Playmate and reality television star and her former husband Billy Smith, who still lives in Mexia.

Billy Smith looked grief-stricken during and after the service, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported. Anna Nicole Smith did not attend and Daniel’s body was not brought to Mexia for the service.

Most relatives hadn’t seen Daniel in years, but they recalled that when he was a child he liked to wear cowboy apparel and ride horses in this town of about 6,000 people, some 85 miles south of Dallas. Cousins recalled playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with him, and full-size cutouts of the cartoon characters lined the front of the church, the newspaper said.

MySpace organizes Darfur relief concerts

New York – The online hangout MySpace.com will organize 20 concerts featuring bands promoted on its site as part of a campaign to raise awareness and money for humanitarian relief in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The site, which grew in popularity thanks to its early adoption by emerging bands and their fans, has in recent months taken a more active role in promoting social causes, such as environmental awareness and voter registration.

The Oct. 21 concerts will take place in Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco, Calif.; Melbourne and St. Petersburg, Fla.; Atlanta; Louisville, Ky.; Minneapolis; Reno, Nev.; Baltimore, Asheville and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Medford, Ore.; Philadelphia; Charleston, S.C.; Seattle and Spokane, Wash.; Milwaukee; and Washington, D.C. A Canadian show will take place in Toronto.

Bands – pop, rock, country and reggae, among others – agreed to donate part of their ticket proceeds to Oxfam’s relief efforts in Sudan and neighboring Chad.