India.Arie’s Broadway debut postponed

New York – India.Arie will have to wait a little longer to make her Broadway debut.

A revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” which was to have starred the Grammy-winning singer, has been postponed.

The delay occurred because the loss of one of the production’s backers, producers Whoopi Goldberg and DreamTeam Entertainment Group announced Wednesday. No word on when the show would be rescheduled.

The play, directed by Shirley Jo Finney and choreographed by Hinton Battle, was to have opened Sept. 8 at Circle in the Square.

“For Colored Girls…,” a prose-poem portrait of black women in America, originally featured Shange and Trazana Beverley, who won a Tony for her performance. It was an off-Broadway hit for the Public Theater in 1976 before transferring to Broadway for a run of more than 700 performances.

Ex-boy band promoter sings in murder case

Miami – Lou Pearlman, the former boy band promoter and entrepreneur turned federal inmate, has taken another career turn: police informant.

Pearlman went to authorities with information about a 19-year-old man accused of killing an off-duty Orlando, Fla., police officer in a botched robbery, court documents released Wednesday show.

The 54-year-old founder of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync said that while in jail, he heard Davin Smith admit fatally shooting Alfred Gordon.

Pearlman’s cooperation was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

Pearlman recounted several exchanges with Smith, who was held in a separate cell about 15 feet away. Pearlman said Smith and a co-defendant, called “homeboy” throughout the 23-page police interview, were trying to use a stolen bank card when they saw Gordon in the parking lot. After the first card didn’t work, they tried to rob Gordon, he recalled Smith saying.

“(Smith) said that this guy was going to pull out his own gun, so Smith shot him,” Pearlman said. “He said it happened, it happened so fast, Smith said his homeboy and he didn’t know it was a cop. They immediately ran and they didn’t, uh, rob the guy. They were afraid of getting caught.”

Cheech and Chong reunite after feud

Los Angeles – Their feud finally over, Cheech and Chong say they’re eager to get back on the road for their first comedy tour in more than 25 years.

“We had such a legacy, such a history. We couldn’t escape it, even if we tried,” Tommy Chong told reporters at a news conference Wednesday at the Troubadour, the Los Angeles nightclub where the pair were discovered more than 35 years ago.

The duo said their “Light Up America” tour will kick off Sept. 12 in Philadelphia.

“It’s going to be very theatrical,” said Cheech Marin.

Marin told AP Radio earlier this month that he and the 70-year-old Chong had recently decided that if ever they were to reunite the time was now because, “You’re not getting any younger and neither am I.”

They tossed around some ideas and figured a comedy tour would be “the most fun” and “the least hassle,” the 62-year-old Marin said.

Marin and Chong, who broke up amid creative differences, have tried to reunite before but have always fought too much.

“It takes about three minutes for that to happen,” Marin said. “There’s this veiled hatred.”

But he added: “We’ve kind of resolved that.”

Authorities set sights on limiting paparazzi

Los Angeles – The paparazzi keep taking their shots, but not always the kind they’re after. Lately it’s a jab from a star’s bodyguard – or his surfer pals – or the metallic pinch of handcuffs slapped on for lingering too long.

And more push-back may be coming.

Weary of the scrums of photographers chasing celebs at the airport, on the beach and through the streets, some Los Angeles-area leaders are contemplating tougher regulations against the people who make their living by catching celebrities off-guard.

Officials from celeb enclaves in and around Los Angeles such as Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Malibu and Calabasas are convening Thursday for the first time to discuss ways to combat shutterbugs, whose tactics have grown more aggressive and confrontational in the past few years.

Their goal is for each city to adopt its own ordinances to punish aggressive paparazzi, while keeping the rules uniform in the places where celebrities live, work and play.

“This is a response to their lack of responsible behavior,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, an outspoken paparazzi critic and organizer of the task force.

Zine proposed a “personal safety zone” around celebs earlier this year that police officials said would be virtually unenforceable.