Black invites New Zealand preteens to perform with band

Wellington, New Zealand – Jack Black turned his “The School of Rock” role into reality when he plucked two preteen musicians from obscurity and asked them to perform with his rock band.

Black played a teacher who turns his class into a rock band in the 2003 comedy, directed by Richard Linklater.

The 37-year-old actor-musician was touring New Zealand’s South Island with his two-man band, Tenacious D, when he spotted the boys performing for money in central Christchurch on Monday.

Impressed, Black asked the young duo to open Tenacious D’s Christchurch gig on Tuesday, according to media reports.

Drummer Max Tetley, 11, and guitarist Alex Philpott, 10, said they didn’t sleep the night before the concert and had practiced their song – Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” – only about 10 times before the performance.

“We’ll be scoring heaps of chicks,” Christchurch’s The Press newspaper quoted the duo as saying.

Bravo network to make docu-series about Abdul

Pasadena, Calif. – Straight up – Bravo says it’s making a TV series about the life of Paula Abdul.

“Hey Paula,” set to debut sometime later this year, will follow Abdul, 44, as she films a new season of Fox’s “American Idol,” works on “Bratz: The Movie” and develops her own perfume and cosmetics line.

“It fits the Bravo mandate to show what’s going on in the culture of the moment,” said Bravo President Lauren Zalaznick.

The pop culture network has hits with “Project Runway” and “Top Chef,” and announced Friday that the upcoming fifth season of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” will be its last. It makes a similar series with comic Kathy Griffin on “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.”

Besides showing the frenzy of life in Hollywood, “Hey Paula” will offer “an intimate glimpse at the real woman behind the headlines,” Zalaznick said.

Ousted Miss Nevada USA finds new $2 million-plus job

Las Vegas – Dethroned Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees has quickly rebounded from her public firing by pageant owner Donald Trump.

Rees has signed a two-year, $2 million-plus deal to host a revival of an “estrogen-heavy” variety show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Jeff Beacher, promoter of the club night known as Beacher’s Madhouse, announced Friday.

Miss USA officials, including Trump, last month stripped Rees of her tiara and the chance to compete in the national pageant after provocative photos of her partying and posing in various stages of undress emerged on the Internet.

Her new gig could involve similarly raucous behavior. Beacher’s Madhouse boasts of “live monkeys, the world’s oldest male stripper … and the hottest chicks in Sin City” and bills itself as “Cirque du Soleil meets Girls Gone Wild.”

Braxton claims ex-manager cheated her out of $10M

New York – Toni Braxton sued her former manager Friday, saying he owes her at least $10 million for maneuvering to have her abandon a long, lucrative relationship with her record company and jump to his own record label.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan accuses Barry Hankerson of putting his interests ahead of Braxton’s and using fraud, deception and double-dealing to get her to leave Arista Records.

“Hankerson actively sought to destroy Braxton’s relationship with Arista through underhanded ‘double-talk,’ telling Braxton that Arista was not interested in working with her anymore, while telling Arista that Braxton no longer wanted to record for Arista,” the lawsuit said.

There was no public telephone listing to reach Hankerson for comment Friday, and a telephone listing for his company, Blackground Records, was not in service.

Irwin’s daughter Bindi: ‘I want to be like my dad’

Burbank, Calif. – Bindi Irwin, the 8-year-old daughter of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, followed in her dad’s footsteps Thursday, using her American television debut to talk about animals.

The girl skipped across the stage holding a lizard as she greeted audiences of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

Her father, animal lover and conservationist Steve Irwin, died Sept. 4 from the jab of a stingray. He also left behind his wife, Terri, and 2-year-old son, Bob.

She will star in a wildlife series to air on the Discovery Kids network next year.

“I want to be like my dad,” she said. “I want him to be proud of me.”