R.E.M. to unveil tracks from new album at gigs in Ireland

Dublin, Ireland – R.E.M. plan to give fans a taste of tracks from their upcoming album during a series of gigs in Dublin this summer.

In a statement posted Friday on the R.E.M. Web site, the band said it would hold a five-night “working rehearsal” for the album at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on June 30, July 1 and July 3-5.

Singer Michael Stipe said the concerts would provide “the great start we need for our next album’s work.”

“I intend to hit the ground running,” he said.

Stipe and bandmates Peter Buck and Mike Mills are due to begin work on the as-yet-untitled 14th album this spring with producer Jacknife Lee.

Formed in Athens, Ga., almost 30 years ago, R.E.M. were college radio favorites in the 1980s with songs like “Radio Free Europe” and “Pretty Persuasion” before becoming mainstream stars with 1990s hits including “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts.”

Their 13th album, “Around the Sun,” was released in 2004.

Snoop Dogg surprised about being denied British visa

Los Angeles – Snoop Dogg says he was shocked at being denied a British visa this week, although he remains hopeful that authorities will allow him to share a “message of love and harmony.”

“I was shocked by the decision but am optimistic that the British authorities will soon realize my global efforts to promote peace and grant me the opportunity to come back for my fans,” the rapper said Wednesday during an interview for the documentary “In Prison My Whole Life.”

The 35-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, has been touring Europe with Sean “Diddy” Combs. The duo was forced to cancel British dates after authorities denied the visa.

Segments of Broadus’ interview were released Thursday by a publicist for actor Colin Firth, who is producing the documentary on death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal. The interview had been scheduled for London but was filmed in Amsterdam instead.

Marie Osmond, husband divorcing after 20 years

Los Angeles – Marie Osmond and husband Brian Blosil are divorcing after 20 years of marriage, the pair announced Friday.

Osmond, 47, and Blosil, a record producer, have eight children, some of whom are adopted. The two married in a Mormon ceremony in October 1986, and briefly separated in 2000.

“Though our marriage is ending, we continue to have a very amicable relationship. Our marriage has always been a faithful one and neither of us is assigning fault for the divorce,” they said in a statement released by Osmond’s publicist.

“Our children, as always, are our top priority and in our deep love for them we will continue to jointly fulfill our roles as active parents in their daily lives,” they said.

Osmond earned fame at age 13 with the hit song “Paper Roses,” and starred with her brother, Donny Osmond, on television’s “Donny and Marie Show” during the 1970s.

She and her first husband, Stephen Craig, divorced in 1985.

Osmond also owns a successful collectibles doll company.

Former ‘Family Ties’ child star Bonsall arrested

Boulder, Colo. – Former child star Brian Bonsall, who played Andy Keaton in “Family Ties,” was arrested on charges of assaulting his girlfriend, police said.

Bonsall, 25, was being held in the Boulder County jail Friday on charges of second-degree assault and false imprisonment. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney, and a listing for an agent could not be found.

Bonsall was arrested Wednesday after his girlfriend told police he poured an alcoholic drink on her face while she slept, put her in a choke hold and threw her onto a bed when she tried to leave, authorities said.

Bonsall told investigators he pushed the woman down in self-defense after she cut his arm and face with a steak knife, but she denied that, police said.

The woman was initially taken into custody but then released, police said.

Bonsall, who lives in Boulder, appeared in three seasons of “Family Ties,” the NBC sitcom that helped launch Michael J. Fox’s career. He later appeared in episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and the 1993 film “Father Hood.”

Lennon unfazed by attention because of famous parents

Alexandria, Va. – Sean Lennon is accustomed to people recognizing him because of his famous parents, but one incident really caught him off-guard.

“When I was 15, a cabdriver asked me if I was Paul McCartney’s daughter,” the 31-year-old singer told AP Radio in a recent interview. “That really blew my mind.”

Lennon said he usually finds himself unfazed by all the attention he gets as the son of Yoko Ono and former Beatle John Lennon, who was killed in New York City in 1980.

“I don’t have any perspective on a life without people freaking out about my parents, so I don’t know what it would be like for that not to happen,” he said.

“People only have glimpses of like, you know, who I might be and I don’t think people have a real sense of what I’m like necessarily,” he said. “I get the spoiled-rich-kid thing a lot and I get the serious thing a lot, but I think people are misunderstanding me.”

Lennon, who is on tour in support of his latest album, “Friendly Fire,” prefers to be on the road.

“I like playing music live for people because it’s the way music was meant to be heard,” he said. “We’ve only been recording music for a couple hundred years.”