Garth Brooks planning greatest hits album

Nashville, Tenn. – Garth Brooks may be retired from touring, but he’s not slowing down.

Brooks announced Saturday that a greatest hits package called “The Ultimate Hits,” with four new songs and a DVD full of videos, will be released on Nov. 6.

Brooks, 45, retired in 2001 to be a stay-at-home dad. He said he has no plans to tour, but he assured more than 200 radio executives and music retailers that he will be promoting the album.

“You’re going to see us everywhere,” said Brooks. “It’s my job to let people know it’s out there. And then after February, I’m going to go back to whatever I was doing before this.”

Brooks’ hits include “Friends in Low Places,” “Shameless” and “Longneck Bottle.”

Senator to appear in next Batman movie

Burlington, Vt. – Holy Beltway, Batman! Sen. Patrick Leahy has a part in the next Batman movie.

“I don’t wear tights,” the Vermont Democrat said.

Leahy’s scene was filmed this summer for “The Dark Knight” and involves Batman, played by Christian Bale, The Joker, played by Heath Ledger, and Alfred Pennyworth, played by Michael Caine.

The longtime Batman fan would reveal little about his role other than he is called the “distinguished gentleman.”

“It’s a pretty tense scene,” said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It’s going to be a very interesting one.”

He’s done voice-overs on Batman cartoons, written the preface for a Batman book and had small roles in the last two Batman features.

He said he will donate his earnings from the film to the Kellogg-Hubbard children’s library in Montpelier, where the senator got his first library card.

“The Dark Knight” is scheduled to be released next summer.

Seagal blames slump on federal investigation

Los Angeles – Steven Seagal wants an apology from federal investigators he says wrongly implicated him in a plot to scare a journalist who was working on a story about the actor’s possible ties to organized crime.

The 56-year-old action star blames his slumping career on the negative publicity he says resulted from the FBI affidavit that accused him of hiring former private eye Anthony Pellicano to threaten a freelance reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

“False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the Mafia,” Seagal told the Times in an interview published last week. “These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers – and kill careers.”

Seagal was one of the biggest action stars of the 1990s, his films generating more than $1 billion in ticket and DVD sales. Most of his recent movies, however, have been released straight to video.

Seagal was never charged but the FBI has not issued any statement clearing him of wrongdoing. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the agency does not comment on pending investigations.

Pellicano and others were eventually indicted for allegedly participating in a wiretapping scheme. Pellicano, once known as the private eye to the stars, has pleaded not guilty and is in prison awaiting trial next year.

Fourteen people have been charged in the case, with seven pleading guilty so far.