Look-alike Spears dupes paparazzi

Los Angeles – Cameras flashing and films rolling, a crowd of paparazzi surrounded a police escort, trying to get the perfect shot of Britney Spears’ little sister as she left the Los Angeles International Airport.

Just one snag: The woman wasn’t Jamie Lynn Spears.

In what appears to be a case of the old switcharoo, airport police on Wednesday duped paparazzi at the crowded terminal by leading an unidentified woman – wearing sunglasses and looking away from cameras – down an escalator and through a hallway while the real Jamie Lynn and her baby girl safely left the airport from another area.

Police denied any trickery and said they were not escorting the woman.

“All (the officers) did was follow the crowd down to the baggage area,” said Sgt. Jim Holcomb of the Los Angeles airport police. “The people they were following assumed that this was Spears because she was blonde.”

Despite the denial, a video posted by TMZ showed several officers tucked in tight around the woman, some giving paparazzi repeated warnings to “keep backing up” and “keep moving.”

Several in the crowd greeted the woman with, “Hello, Jamie,” and “How’s the baby?” and later learned she was a decoy.

Holcomb said it’s against department policy to provide security for celebrities, but officers were willing to do it after the Spears family asked for an escort for Jamie Lynn, her baby, her mother and her older sister Britney, who ended up being a no-show.

Davis awarded interest in defamation case

Sydney, Australia – Judy Davis won more than $8,000 in interest Friday for damages she was awarded from a newspaper that ridiculed her as heartless for opposing a plan to erect floodlights in a park near her Sydney harbor-side home.

The Australian actress was awarded $113,000 in damages in July after New South Wales state Supreme Court Judge Peter McClellan said articles in The Daily Telegraph of Sydney had impugned her reputation and personal standing in the community by implying she was selfish and unreasonable.

On Friday, McClellan added an extra $8,677 to the award for interest.

Davis, 53, had sued the Telegraph for articles printed in February 2006 about her behavior at a local council meeting. The newspaper said she stormed out of a council meeting where the plan was being discussed after an argument with council officials – something Davis denied in court.

‘Hills’ star Lauren Conrad inks book deal

Los Angeles – Lauren Conrad can add a new position to her resume: author.

The 22-year-old star of MTV’s nonfiction series “The Hills” will pen a young adult fiction book series for HarperCollins, the publisher announced Thursday. The three-book series will be titled “L.A. Candy” and will be loosely inspired by Conrad’s transformation from teenager to reality TV star and fashion designer.

“I’ve always loved books that I could lose myself in, ones that would transport me to another place, but had characters I could relate to,” Conrad said. “I’m so excited to have this opportunity to write books like that for other readers.”

The first book in the series will be published summer 2009.

Kelis cleared of charges in 2007 incident

Miami – A judge dismissed all charges against singer Kelis stemming from a 2007 incident in which she was accused of disrupting a police operation by rushing toward officers and screaming racial profanities.

Authorities were talking to some men in the South Beach nightclub district when they said Kelis Rogers-Jones rushed toward them, screamed and said one of the men was her husband, Nas, according to the arrest report.

She was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. Circuit Judge Antonio Arzola stopped the case from going forward Thursday.

Kelis is famous for her 2003 album, “Tasty,” and its chart-topping single, “Milkshake.”

Fellow critic hits Ebert during film festival

Chicago – Film critic Roger Ebert on Thursday confirmed that a fellow critic yelled at him and whacked him on the knee with a program during a movie screening at the Toronto Film Festival last weekend, but said the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

“It has been blown out of proportion. It is of little interest,” Ebert said in a column posted Thursday on the Web site of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been a critic since 1967.

Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years and was left unable to speak, did not name the other critic involved in the incident. But he said an account published in the New York Daily News that named the other man as rival New York Post movie critic Lou Lumenick was “truthful.”

Saturday’s incident began, Ebert said, when he could not see subtitles for the film “Slumlord Millionaire” because the man sitting in front of him was leaning into the aisle.

“In my medical condition I cannot speak, I tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and gestured him to move over a little. He said, ‘Don’t touch me!’ and remained in position. I tapped him lightly again. ‘I said – don’t touch me!’ He leaned further into the aisle, as if making a point of it. I tapped him a third time, and he jumped up and whacked me on the knee with whatever it was,” Ebert said.

“This whole matter was embarrassing, because it drew attention to me and invited pity, which makes me cringe,” Ebert said.