Phelps dons game face for ‘SNL’

Michael Phelps, in New York rehearsing for hosting “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, disclosed Thursday that this weekend’s show might include skits about his mom and his famously high-calorie diet.

“There is a little of everything,” Phelps said during a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon. “There’s one about my mom, something about the medals, stuff about the food – just some really, really funny skits. They nailed just about every topic …”

The show will decide which bits make the cut over the next two days. “SNL” creator and producer Lorne Michaels, who was also on the conference call, said an Aquaman skit is also in the works.

Phelps, fresh from winning a record number of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, said he’s more excited than nervous about the high-profile experiment in acting.

“I’m more nervous doing this than swimming in Beijing, I’ll tell you that,” said the 23-year-old Baltimore native. “But I started getting into it and warming up a bit. I felt completely confident yesterday and I’m feeling good today. … I’m just looking forward to having fun.”

Asked if he’d take his shirt off “to satisfy the ladies,” Phelps laughed and said he’s game for anything.

“It’s all in good fun,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. I’m here along for the ride.”

Kanye West arrested in airport altercation

Los Angeles – Kanye West’s notoriously fickle temper boiled over Thursday, resulting in his arrest for apparently helping smash a paparazzo’s camera on the floor at Los Angeles International Airport.

Police arrested the music superstar shortly before 8 a.m. He and his manager, Don Crowley, were booked for investigation of felony vandalism, although prosecutors will determine what charges they might face.

West was released from police custody by Thursday afternoon. Blair Berk, who was retained as his attorney, said she couldn’t comment on the incident.

Clips of the video shot by the celebrity gossip site TMZ shows West and Crowley grabbing the camera from a photographer, who is yelling “Police! Police!” and “Help me!” After they wrest it away, it appears that the manager smashes the camera to the ground, and the rapper follows by slamming down a flash.

Crowley is then seen accosting the TMZ videographer who’s shooting the footage. The video camera was broken in the scuffle before security intervened, the Web site reported.

The video starts mid-confrontation, and doesn’t show how it began or what might have caused it to escalate.

It’s a boy for Laila Ali and Curtis Conway

Los Angeles – Laila Ali and her husband, former NFL star receiver Curtis Conway, are new parents of a baby boy whose name packs a familiar punch.

Curtis Muhammad Conway Jr. was born August 26, Ali announced on her Web site Thursday. The couple’s first child weighed 6.8 pounds and measured 19 inches long. The baby boy is named after his father and Ali’s – Muhammad Ali.

While Ali, 30, had planned to have a natural, home birth, “there were some surprises during labor that altered Laila’s birth plan,” her publicist, Thea Ellis, said in a statement. She declined to elaborate.

“Mom and baby are both healthy and happy,” the statement said.

“Mama and baby are resting,” Ali wrote on her Web site, where she blogged throughout her pregnancy.

Laila Ali, a decorated champion in her own right as a professional boxer, is the daughter of Muhammad Ali and his third wife, now Veronica Porsche Anderson. Conway spent the better part of his football career playing for the Chicago Bears in the 1990s.

Comedian Ron White arrested for drugs

Vero Beach, Fla. – Ron White of the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” was late to a sold-out performance on Florida’s Treasure Coast – but he had an excuse.

The Vero Beach Police Department arrested the 51-year-old comedian Wednesday on charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. White, whose comedy album is titled “You Can’t Fix Stupid,” was booked at the Indian River County Jail shortly after 6 p.m. and released about two hours later on $1,000 bail.

His publicist, Kathe Nelson, says he went straight to the show after being released from jail. The show was delayed about an hour.

One of White’s most famous routines includes a joke about being booked into a Texas jail under the alias “Tater Salad.”

DMX extradited to Phoenix from Miami

Phoenix – Rapper DMX is now in custody in a Phoenix jail on theft charges, Maricopa County Sheriff’s officials said Thursday.

DMX (real name: Earl Simmons) was extradited Wednesday from Miami, where he had pleaded guilty to drug charges and was sentenced to time served.

Simmons is being held on a $25,000 cash bond. He was arrested on a fugitive warrant for failing to appear in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Simmons still faces several animal cruelty and drug possession counts.