Very nice while it lasted: Cohen ends Borat, Ali G

New York – Borat is dead.

Sacha Baron Cohen tells The Daily Telegraph that he’s retiring the clueless Kazakh journalist, as well as his alter ego, aspiring rapper Ali G.

“When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing,” the 36-year-old actor-comedian says in the British newspaper’s Friday edition.

“It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it’s fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I ‘get’ with Borat again, so it’s a kind of self-defeating form, really.”

Baron Cohen brought Borat Sagdiyev – an anti-Semitic buffoon in search of Pamela Anderson – to the masses last year with his smash comedy, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” He first introduced the character on “Da Ali G Show,” which was carried in the U.S. on HBO.

“It’s much easier for me to be in character and it’s a lot more fun,” he says. “If I’d done the entire promotional campaign for (the ‘Borat’ movie) as myself it wouldn’t have developed in the same way.”

Willie Nelson donates $40K to Wash. city

Vancouver, Wash. – Willie Nelson hasn’t forgotten the town that knew him before he was famous.

The 74-year-old country singer has donated $40,000 to Vancouver, the southwestern Washington city where he sold some of his first records a half-century ago.

Nelson performed at The Amphitheater near Vancouver on June 30. He promised to share some of the proceeds with the city and area charities.

In the late 1950s, Nelson worked as a disc jockey for Vancouver station KVAN. He financed and recorded the single “No Place for Me” and sold it to some of his listeners.

Nelson soon moved back to his native Texas and then on to Nashville, Tenn., and fame.

Vancouver received the $40,000 check three weeks ago. On Wednesday, the city gave $15,000 to the Humane Society of Washington and $15,000 to the Boys and Girls Club.

Colleen Kawahara, Vancouver special projects coordinator, said the remaining $10,000 would be used for efforts to make city government and the community more ecologically friendly.

Van Halen-Bertinelli divorced finalized

Los Angeles – After seven years of separation, Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli have jumped forward and completed an amicable divorce.

The Los Angeles Superior Court judgment Thursday didn’t provide details about a custody arrangement for their 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. The bass player is with his father on a Van Halen reunion tour.

Bertinelli cited irreconcilable differences when she filed for divorce in December 2005.

The couple were married in 1981.

Van Halen, 52, and his band have sold 80 million albums worldwide.

His guitar licks and David Lee Roth’s flamboyant stage persona sent songs such as “Jump,” Panama” and “Hot for Teacher” to the top of the charts.

Bertinelli, 47, starred in the TV series “One Day at a Time” and “Touched by An Angel.”

Singer R. Kelly avoids having bond revoked

Chicago – R. Kelly avoided having his bond revoked in his child pornography case, but was admonished by a judge Friday for missing a court date earlier in the week.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan set a May 9 trial date for the 40-year-old R&B superstar, whose case has been delayed numerous times since he was charged in 2002.

Kelly missed a court appearance Wednesday after his tour bus was delayed in Utah because its logbooks didn’t document enough rest time for the driver. The bus had been stopped for speeding.

The singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, apologized to the court.

“I’m sorry for this whole incident,” he told the judge.

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping sex acts with a young teenage girl in or before 2000.

At Friday’s hearing, his attorney, Ed Genson, argued that Kelly’s bond shouldn’t be revoked because he hadn’t missed other court dates and had complied with other court rules regarding travel.

Don Vito gets probation for child sex-assault

Golden, Colo. – The man known as Don Vito on MTV’s “Viva La Bam” show has been sentenced to 10 years to life on probation after he was convicted on two counts of sexual assault on a child.

Vincent Margera, 51, of West Chester, Pa., was also ordered Thursday not to appear as the Don Vito character for 10 years. His defense attorney had argued that Margera had taken on Don Vito’s outrageous and profane character at the time of the incident.

In October, Margera was convicted on two counts and acquitted of one count of sexual assault on a child. He had been accused of groping three girls, ages 12 to 14, during an autograph-signing event last year in the Denver suburb of Lakewood.

Margera was also ordered to register as a sex offender, get substance abuse treatment and undergo a mental health evaluation.

Authorities said his probation can be transferred to Pennsylvania if Colorado authorities determine the state has comparable programs.

Margera still faces a charge of violating the conditions of his bail.

His arraignment in that case is Jan. 18.