People in the news

State Department to Kazakhstan: Be nice to Borat

Washington – Borat, that crass chronicler of the American condition, has been singled out by the State Department as a victim of suppression in his own homeland.

The department’s annual human rights report criticizes Kazakhstan for taking action against the satirical Web site of Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of the fictional Kazakh journalist in the film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Baron Cohen also starred in the movie.

Specifically, the government took control of the registration of .kz Internet domains in 2005 and revoked Baron Cohen’s domain because it deemed his site offensive, the report said.

The State Department cited independent Web media reports that the government of the former Soviet state in central Asia monitored e-mail and Internet activity, blocked or slowed access to opposition Web sites and planted propaganda in Internet chat rooms.

Lance Bass memoir to be published later this year

New York – Lance Bass “tells all about his life, his music and his sexuality” in an upcoming autobiography, the publisher announced Wednesday.

“Out of Sync” is scheduled for publication in October, said Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

The publisher promises a behind-the-scenes look at the 27-year-old singer’s days in boy band ‘N Sync, as well as his headline-making venture to undergo astronaut training for a Russian space mission, which didn’t pan out because he couldn’t come up with the funds for the trip.

Bass announced in July that he is gay. He has said that he didn’t reveal this earlier because he didn’t want to affect ‘N Sync’s popularity.

O’Donnell began depression treatment after shootings

New York – Rosie O’Donnell says she began being treated for depression after the Columbine school shootings and hangs upside down for up to a half-hour a day to improve her mental state.

When gunmen killed 13 people at Columbine High School in 1999 in Colorado, O’Donnell said she felt as if it had happened to her children.

“I couldn’t stop crying,” she said on an episode taped for ABC’s “The View” and due to air Friday. “I stayed in my room. The lights were off. I couldn’t get out of bed and that’s when I started taking medication.”

Anyone concerned about the stigma of taking medication for depression should know that “it saved my life,” she said.

When she began taking antidepressants, O’Donnell, 44, said she began yoga and “inversion therapy,” where she hangs upside down by a swing for 15 to 30 minutes a day.

Producer Timbaland wants to help Britney Spears come back

New York – Timbaland, who’s crafted hits for Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, wants to help Britney Spears reclaim her once-stellar career.

“I feel her pain, it really bothers me,” the 34-year-old rapper-producer says in an interview in Entertainment Weekly magazine’s March 16 issue. “I’m the type of person who tries to save the world. I just want to take her away, go overseas, and work (it) out.”

Timbaland says he invited Timberlake, his “best friend” and Spears’ ex-boyfriend, to be part of that plan.

“I asked Justin, ‘How would you feel about me working with Britney?’ I had to ask him that,” Timbaland is quoted as saying. “I said, ‘Would you do it with me?'”

The 26-year-old “SexyBack” singer said he would, according to Timbaland.

Last month, Spears, 25, checked into Promises Malibu drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in California, capping a week of bizarre behavior in which she entered and exited rehab twice, shaved her head bald and went out clubbing with friends.