Julianne Hough to undergo surgery

Los Angeles – The pain that sent Julianne Hough from “Dancing with the Stars” to the hospital turned out to be more serious than a stomach ache.

The 20-year-old professional dancer has been diagnosed with endometriosis, a common condition in which tissue from the uterus lining grows outside the uterus, causing painful cysts and possible infertility.

The growths can appear on the surfaces of organs in the pelvis or abdomen. Hough will undergo minor surgery to remove her appendix, according to a statement posted on her Web site Monday.

“After consulting with her doctor, this course of treatment was recommended,” the statement read.

Hough addressed the surgery on Monday’s show, where she performed with celebrity partner Cody Linley.

LL Cool J quits as opening act for Jackson

New York – In another setback on her “Rock Witchu” tour, Janet Jackson has lost her opening act: LL Cool J.

The rapper’s publicity firm announced Monday that he has dropped out as the opener for Jackson because of unnamed scheduling conflicts.

It’s the latest problem on Jackson’s tour, her first North American outing in seven years. The 42-year-old singer was forced to cancel a string of earlier concerts because of a bout of migraine-associated vertigo. She recently resumed while being treated for the illness, which is characterized by dizziness, imbalance and other symptoms.

Jackson’s upcoming shows are today in Auburn Hills, Mich., and Saturday in New York. She is expected to announce more dates.

Legends gather to mourn Four Tops’ singer

Detroit – A man called by some in the Motown family the “greatest lead singer” ever has been laid to rest in the city where he and three friends harmonized their way to stardom.

Funeral services were held Monday in Detroit for legendary Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs whose stirring baritone voice made the group one of the most recognizable in American music during the 1960s and parts of the 1970s.

“He made us walk in his shoes, felt what he felt and loved what he loved,” Berry Gordy Jr., patriarch of Motown Records told hundreds of Stubbs’ family, friends and fans at Greater Grace Temple. “He not only sang the song, he was the song.

“A Levi Stubbs comes along only once – period.”

Stubbs died in his sleep Oct. 17 at his Detroit home. He was 72.

For more than 40 years, Stubbs performed with Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo Benson. Songs like “Bernadette,” ”It’s the Same Old Song,” and “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” were among the assembly line of hits they churned out.

Stubbs’ death leaves Fakir as the lone surviving member of the original group. Payton died of liver cancer in 1997. Benson died of lung cancer in 2005.

Acclaimed author Hillerman dies at 83

Phoenix – Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes – Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee – died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83.

Hillerman’s daughter, Anne Hillerman, said her father’s health had been declining in the last couple years and that he was at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque when he died at about 3 p.m.

Hillerman lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes began to dim, as his hearing faded, as rheumatoid arthritis turned his hands into claws.

“I’m getting old,” he declared in 2002, “but I still like to write.”

Anne Hillerman said Sunday that her father was a born storyteller.

“He had such a wonderful, wonderful curiosity about the world,” she said. “He could take little details and bring them to life, not just in his books, but in conversation, too.”

Hillerman’s books are characterized by an unadorned writing style, intricate plotting, memorable characterization and vivid descriptions of Indian rituals and of the vast plateau of the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners region of the Southwest.

The most acclaimed of them, including “Talking God” and “The Coyote Waits,” are subtle explorations of human nature and the conflict between cultural assimilation and the pull of the old ways.

Keanu Reeves’ civil trial begins in Los Angeles

Los Angeles – Just like in “The Matrix,” jurors in a civil trial featuring Keanu Reeves may have to wade through several versions of reality.

A jury was selected Monday to hear the case, which stems from a March 2007 incident in which a paparazzo claims he was seriously injured while shooting photos of Reeves behind the wheel of his Porsche.

A lawyer for Alison Silva contends Reeves struck the photographer with his car, causing him to fall to the ground. But Reeves’ attorney, Alfred Gerisch, told the panel that the photographer repeatedly changed his story depending on whether he was talking to paramedics, a deputy or doctors.