Hollywood concert to help DJ AM, Barker

New York – Friends of DJ AM are throwing a party to welcome the celebrity disc jockey home after he survived a fiery plane crash last month in South Carolina.

Mark Ronson, Cut Chemist, Steve Aoki and other AM pals will perform at the event, which will be Tuesday night at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, Calif.

DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker suffered severe burns in the Sept. 19 crash at the main airport in Columbia. Two pilots and two other passengers were killed.

Tickets cost $20. All proceeds will go to memorial funds for the crash victims, organizers said Wednesday.

The disc jockey and Barker were recently released from a burn hospital in Augusta, Ga.; Barker is now being treated at a hospital in Los Angeles.

Doctors have said they expect both men to fully recover.

Linkin Park cancels China tour over injury

Beijing – Linkin Park is canceling its China tour because lead singer Chester Bennington has suffered a back injury.

The band didn’t say Tuesday how Bennington suffered the injury.

A statement posted on Linkin Park’s official Web site said the band was canceling shows scheduled for October in Beijing, Shanghai, the central city Wuhan and the southern gambling enclave Macau.

The band also canceled its show in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

The concerts were fundraisers for victims of May’s deadly earthquake in China’s Sichuan province.

Linkin Park said it will still donate to reconstruction efforts, with the promoter of its Chinese concerts, Emma Ticketmaster, also chipping in and the World Bank matching the band’s contributions.

Hilton continues online presidential campaign

Los Angeles – Watch out world: Paris Hilton is continuing her bid for the White House.

The paparazzi darling and reality TV star touted her candidacy in a video on FunnyOrDie.com Wednesday – her second appearance in a political spoof on the site.

“Running for fake president is a little daunting,” a heavily made-up Hilton tells Martin Sheen, whom she calls “one of our greatest fake presidents.”

“Being a fake president is a lot harder today than it was when I was a fake president,” says Sheen, who has often played American presidents.

Hilton talks with Sheen about “Fo Po” – “Foreign policy, silly” – and shares what could be her real views on the economy and the war in Iraq.

Spears rejects plea deal in driver’s license case

Los Angeles – An attorney for Britney Spears has rejected a plea offer that would have placed her on a year’s probation and forced her to pay a $150 fine in her misdemeanor driver’s license case.

Attorney J. Michael Flanagan says Spears would consider an offer that reduces the charge to an infraction and requires her to pay a $10 fine. He says if the case does go to trial as scheduled later this month, he will appeal any conviction.

He says the 26-year-old singer is being unfairly targeted because she is a celebrity, and doesn’t deserve a blemish on her criminal record.

The charge is the last remnant of a criminal case that city prosecutors lodged against Spears after she hit a parked car in August 2007 and left without notifying the owner.

Hefner acknowledges Madison breakup

Los Angeles – Hugh Hefner is down a girlfriend.

Hefner and Holly Madison, one of E!’s “The Girls Next Door,” are no longer dating. Hefner said he’s been “down in the dumps” about the split.

The 28-year-old model-actress stars in the reality series with Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt as one of the 82-year-old publisher’s girlfriends who live with Hefner in the Playboy Mansion.

“If Holly says it’s over, I guess it’s over,” Hefner said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Hefner said he was surprised to hear Madison discussing their breakup, but acknowledged that he knew a split was imminent after he told Madison that they would never wed or have children.

In a video posted on TMZ.com Tuesday, Madison said she’s no longer with Hefner.

‘Dexter’ brings Smits back as a crimebuster

Los Angeles – Jimmy Smits, a proven TV star in “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue,” is a prosecutor who moves swiftly and dangerously to the center of Dexter Morgan’s dark world In the new season of “Dexter.”

In the final season of “The West Wing,” he was a Latino politician who becomes the first minority U.S. president.

Assistant D.A. Miguel Prado is a man on the right side of the law, familiar territory for Smits. But there’s a “variety of different notes” to play with Prado, the actor said, which drew him to the role that unfolds over the course of the third season.