Leno back on stage, joking about his illness

Burbank, Calif. — Jay Leno is back on NBC’s “Tonight” after missing two shows last week because of illness.

In taping his monologue for Monday’s show, the comedian made the most of his absence — and of the swine flu outbreak dominating news headlines.

According to NBC, Leno told the Burbank studio audience he’d had a 103-degree fever and joked that it may have been a mistake to eat the raw pig a friend brought back from Mexico.

Another Leno quip: His HMO was so bad, he said, he was sent to the Burbank Airport baggage area for X-rays.

Snoop Dogg takes stand in civil trial

Santa Monica, Calif. — Snoop Dogg told jurors on Monday that he didn’t hit a man suing him for millions of dollars with a brass-knuckle microphone during a melee at one of his 2005 concerts.

The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, took the stand for nearly two hours and denied that he hit Richard Monroe Jr. during the show near Seattle. Broadus said he went back to his tour bus immediately after Monroe jumped on stage and was tackled by security.

Broadus described the people who were on stage during a melee in which Monroe claims he was seriously injured. He identified several people near the struggle as being affiliated with The Game, a fellow rapper who toured with Snoop on the “How the West Was Won” tour.

Monroe sued in 2006, claiming he was seriously injured after Broadus and members of his entourage and security detail struck him and poured alcohol on him during a performance of the hit “Gin and Juice.” He sued for $22 million; a 12-person jury will decide whether he receives any money.

Monroe testified on Friday that he woke up backstage, naked and in a pool of blood after the altercation. He said he was responding to what he thought was a call for audience members to join the performers on stage.

Broadus’ attorneys have argued that Monroe was wrong to come on stage and that the rappers’ security was reacting because they thought Snoop was being attacked.

Ailing Farrah Fawcett receives visit from son

Los Angeles — Authorities have allowed the son of Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett a brief visit with his ailing mother.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore says a judge allowed 24-year-old Redmond O’Neal to leave jail briefly on Saturday to visit the cancer-stricken Fawcett.

O’Neal’s family paid roughly $1,300 so that deputies could supervise the visit.

O’Neal has been jailed since April 5, when deputies say he was caught with heroin at a jail facility north of Los Angeles. He faces two important court dates this week, when judges could allow him to re-enter rehab.

O’Neal said in court earlier his month that Fawcett, who is battling anal cancer that has spread to her liver, weighed only 86 pounds. Fawcett’s representative disputes the claim.

Montag and Pratt make marriage official

Los Angeles — Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt made their union legal.

A spokesman for the couple says the reality TV stars were legally wed Saturday during a ceremony at a Pasadena church that was filmed by MTV.

Montag and Pratt announced their elopement on a magazine cover in November but later acknowledged that the impromptu ceremony they had in Mexico was symbolic and not legally binding. The couple appeared before a deputy commissioner at a Beverly Hills courthouse in December, but didn’t say “I do.”

Spokesman Rick Rhodes said Saturday’s wedding was “100 percent legal.”

Montag, who is 22, and her 25-year-old husband are set to appear on the NBC show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!” in June.

Father of Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby injured

Osceola, La. — Casey Aldridge, the father of actress Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby, and two of his four passengers were thrown from his 2008 Ford F-250 pickup when it rolled over in Louisiana, state police said Monday. No one in the truck was wearing a seat belt.

Trooper Mark Dennis said Aldridge, 19, suffered moderate injuries. He was taken to Riverrun Medical Center in nearby Vidalia, then moved to an undisclosed hospital, Dennis said.

The wreck happened about 1:30 a.m. Sunday on a highway 60 miles southeast of Monroe, near the Mississippi state line. Dennis said the passengers, men aged 19 to 23, refused treatment for minor injuries.

Investigators did not find cause to suspect drugs or alcohol, but cited Aldridge for careless driving, Dennis said. No one was cited for not wearing a seat belt.

Aldridge, a pipe-layer from Liberty, Miss., is the father of Maddie Briann Spears, born last June. Spears, 18, is the star of the Nickelodeon TV series “Zoey 101” and the sister of singer Britney Spears.

The crash happened in Tensas Parish down Louisiana Highway 606 near a country club on the inside shore of Lake Bruin, a clear oxbow lake popular for boating, fishing and swimming.

Dennis said the truck went off the right side of the highway and into a ditch, overcorrected, ran off the left side of the highway and flipped at least once.