Members sue ‘Hannah Montana’ fan club

Nashville, Tenn. – Thousands of “Hannah Montana” fans who couldn’t get concert tickets could potentially join a lawsuit against the teen performer’s fan club over memberships they claim were supposed to give them priority for seats.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a New Jersey woman and anyone else who joined the Miley Cyrus Fan Club based on its promise that joining would make it easier to get concert tickets from the teen star’s Web site.

Cyrus, 14, is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and star of the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” TV show.

Her sold-out “Best of Both Worlds Tour” is the hottest concert ticket of the year, with shows selling out in as little as four minutes and scalpers getting four or five times face value.

The class-action lawsuit names Interactive Media Marketing Inc. and Smiley Miley Inc. as defendants and seeks triple damages for all members of the lawsuit and attorneys’ fees. The plaintiff doesn’t yet know the size of the class, but based on the popularity of the Web site, it could number tens of thousands of people, according to the lawsuit.

The fan club costs $29.95 a year to join, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that the defendants should have known that the site’s membership vastly exceeded the number of tickets.

Clark, Seacrest co-host ‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve’

New York – Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest will ring in 2008 as co-hosts of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC. It will be the 36th consecutive year that “Rockin’ Eve” has been on the air.

Clark, 77, missed the show in 2004 when he suffered a stroke. He has been back in business for the past two years with Seacrest as co-host, counting down to midnight from New York’s Times Square before a TV audience of millions. Seacrest, 32, is expected to eventually succeed Clark as host of the show.

Stephen Colbert in 3-way tie for board

Williamsburg, Va. – Stephen Colbert may have abandoned his brief bid for the White House, but he ended up in a three-way tie for a seat on the Colonial Soil and Water Conservation District Board.

His electoral success will be fleeting, however.

When the Williamsburg Electoral Board draws a name from a hat to decide the winner, Colbert’s name won’t be among the three: He’s not a registered voter in the former colonial capital of Virginia.

Colbert, 43, and two students from the College of William and Mary each received three write-in votes in the Nov. 6 election for a seat on the board that oversees natural resources.

West’s plastic surgeon had past problems

Santa Ana, Calif. – The doctor who performed a tummy tuck and breast reduction on the mother of Kanye West is a plastic surgeon to Hollywood’s elite and something of a celebrity himself, with a TV show of his own and a host of appearances on programs from “Extra” to “Oprah.”

What Dr. Jan Adams hasn’t publicized, however, is that the state medical board is investigating whether to revoke or suspend his license over alcohol-related arrests; that he has been the target of malpractice lawsuits; and that he’s paid out nearly $500,000 in civil settlements.

Adams, through his spokesman Kevin Williams, confirmed for The Associated Press that he operated on Donda West, who died Saturday night at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina del Rey after she stopped breathing at her home. She was 58.

She underwent cosmetic surgery Friday in Los Angeles and went home, said Capt. Ed Winter of the county coroner’s office.

The coroner’s office said initial indications were that West died from surgical complications, but an official cause of death won’t be made for six to eight weeks pending further tests, Chief Coroner Investigator Craig Harvey said Tuesday after an autopsy.