Michelle Rodriguez could face jail time

Los Angeles – Actress Michelle Rodriguez violated probation again in a drunken driving case by failing to complete her community service and not following an alcohol education program, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez went to court Friday to answer to the latest claims by the city attorney’s office, which said the former “Lost” actress submitted a document stating she performed community service on Sept. 25, 2006, but later admitted she was actually in New York City that day.

The document was required as part of the 30 days of community service Rodriguez was ordered to serve for violating probation in a 2003 drunken driving case, according to court papers filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

If she is found to have violated terms of her probation, Rodriguez could face between 477 to 537 days in county jail and a $2,000 fine.

Tom Cruise extortion plot suspect found dead

Phoenix – A man who agreed to plead guilty in a plot to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor’s stolen wedding photos was found dead in his home, authorities said.

Investigators said it appeared David Hans Schmidt, 47, who was under house arrest and faced up to two years in federal prison, had committed suicide.

He was found dead in his townhouse Friday after police noticed a tracker placed on him had not moved and he had not checked in, said Lt. Anthony Lopez.

His attorney, Nancy Kardon, said she had spoken to Schmidt earlier this week and was preparing for an Oct. 11 hearing in federal court where he would enter his formal guilty plea to attempted extortion. She said she had planned to ask for probation.

“I was greatly saddened by his loss and I found him to be a very kind man,” Kardon said Saturday.

He was arrested in July after federal authorities said a co-defendant obtained photos of Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes in Italy last year from the event’s official photographer, court documents show.

Coen brothers to film movie in home state

Minneapolis – Will the Coen brothers ever return to their native Minnesota to film another movie?

Yeah sure, you betcha!

Joel and Ethan Coen haven’t made a movie in Minnesota since their 1996 Oscar-winning “Fargo,” but come March they plan to roll cameras for “A Serious Man,” set in their home town of St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb.

The brothers helped scout locations this summer, said Lucinda Winter, executive director of the Minnesota Film and TV Board.

“They looked in Richfield, Brooklyn Center, maybe Hopkins – neighborhoods that would match the one they grew up in,” she said.

The film is about a Jewish college professor during the 1960s. According to the online entertainment journal FilmJerk.com, the main character is bedeviled by children who lift his wallet, a wife who wants a divorce, an intense grad student and a hot neighbor who sunbathes in the nude. With all of that, “he starts to question the value of life.”