Von Teese to be special guest at famous ball

Vienna, Austria – Dita Von Teese will attend Vienna’s prestigious Opera Ball later this month as the special guest of an Austrian businessman.

Richard Lugner – a 75-year-old real estate and construction mogul who takes a celebrity to the glamorous gala every year – told a news conference Wednesday that Von Teese will attend the Jan. 31 ball with him.

Lugner keeps the Viennese in suspense each winter over who will accompany him to the ball. His past guests include Paris Hilton, Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson and Sarah Ferguson.

Von Teese, whose real name is Heather Sweet, has gained attention as a retro fashion muse. She is the former wife of goth rocker Marilyn Manson.

Faith Hill recovering from knee surgery

New York – Faith Hill hasn’t wasted time getting back to work following knee surgery last week.

Hill, 40, has been recuperating at her home in Nashville, Tenn., and keeping busy with her music engagements, the country star’s publicist, Paul Freundlich, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The operation was “the result of an old knee injury suffered while playing softball in high school and normal wear and tear over the years,” Freundlich said.

Hill, who is married to Tim McGraw, has won numerous honors, including Grammy, Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards. Her hits include “This Kiss,” “Breathe” and “Mississippi Girl.”

Ivanka Trump OK’d for casinos’ board

Atlantic City, N.J. – She’s hired.

The state Casino Control Commission gave final approval Wednesday to Ivanka Trump serving on the board of directors of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which operates three casinos here.

The 26-year-old daughter of Donald and Ivana Trump received temporary approval in July, pending completion of an investigation into her background and finances – a standard practice for pending casino board members.

Ivanka Trump serves as vice president of development and acquisitions of the Trump Organization LLC and is assuming a greater role on “The Apprentice,” the NBC reality show on which her father fires someone each week.

Foxy Brown seeks release from jail

New York – Foxy Brown is asking to be released from jail so she can go to California for hearing tests and repair of a cochlear implant.

Brown’s hearing problems were revealed during a court appearance in late 2004. Her petition, filed Tuesday in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, says her condition is worsening in jail and she needs to go to a Los Angeles clinic to “have her cochlear implant reprogrammed and repaired or else face imminent harm to her hearing.”

The 28-year-old rapper’s lawyer was out of her office and not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Brown was sentenced in September to a year in jail for violating probation.

A judge put her on probation after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault of two manicurists at a Manhattan nail salon in August 2004.

Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, had two ear surgeries in New York and both failed, according to court papers.

Scorsese’s Stones flick to open film festival

Berlin – “Shine a Light,” Martin Scorsese’s documentary on the Rolling Stones, will open the Berlin film festival next month.

Scorsese and the band will attend the Feb. 7 screening. The annual event, the first of the year’s major European film festivals, ends Feb. 17.

“Shine a Light” documents two concerts by the Stones at New York’s Beacon Theatre, on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, 2006. It also includes rarely seen archive and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as interviews, the festival said.

Prosecutors say Snipes was warned about taxes

Ocala, Fla. – A longtime tax adviser warned Wesley Snipes he could get in trouble by hiring new accountants who said he didn’t have to pay taxes, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

In the opening statements of an expected monthlong trial, assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill said the 45-year-old actor was called by Kenneth Starr, a New York money manager with several famous clients. Starr told Snipes there was no merit to the argument that he didn’t have to pay taxes and the next day sent a letter terminating his tax services, O’Neill said.

“In the ’90s, Mr. Snipes was a taxpayer,” O’Neill told the jury. “Something happens in the year 2000, and that stops the payment of taxes.”

Snipes and two other men, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile, are charged with tax fraud and conspiracy in an eight-count grand jury indictment. Snipes is further charged with willfully failing to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004, on the advice of Kahn’s tax protest groups American Rights Litigators and Guiding Light of God Ministries.

Snipes faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted on all eight counts.