Colbert gets soldier’s haircut during Iraq visit

Camp Victory, Iraq — Wearing a camouflage suit and tie, Stephen Colbert took his show to Baghdad to entertain U.S. soldiers in Iraq. For openers, President Barack Obama appeared by video to thank the troops.

“You’re welcome,” the mock pundit answered.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” the president deadpanned.

To the roaring approval of hundreds of troops at Camp Victory, on the western edge of Baghdad, Colbert taped the first of four episodes of “The Colbert Report,” in which he plays a pompous, blustering conservative TV host.

His first guest was the towering, bald Gen. Ray Odierno. When Obama and the U.S. commander suggested Colbert had to look like a soldier in order to be a soldier, the general took an electric razor to Colbert’s perfectly parted cable-news coif.

The four shows are being taped in the domed marble hall at Saddam Hussein’s former Al Faw Palace are to air this week on Comedy Central.

Hip-hop DJ abruptly stops K.C. show

Kansas City, Mo. — Hip-hop icon DJ Jazzy Jeff stormed off the stage during a weekend performance in downtown Kansas City, saying venue managers did not like the type of music he was playing.

But officials with the Power & Light District say they just wanted the Grammy-winning DJ’s production crew to turn down the music because it was too loud for the sound system.

In entries on the social networking site Twitter, Jazzy Jeff said the staff at the district’s KC Live! pavilion stopped his show shortly after it began Saturday night “for playin’ hip hop.”

Jazzy Jeff, whose real name is Jeff Townes, was one-half of the rap duo, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. He and partner Will “Fresh Prince” Smith won the first rap Grammy in 1988 for the hit, “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

Jazzy Jeff also had a recurring role as Smith’s best friend on the 1990s sitcom, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Concertgoers in Kansas City said Jazzy Jeff’s set started with hip-hop and pop favorites from artists including Jay-Z, Biz Markie and Rihanna. The DJ ended his set after about a half-hour — in the middle of Ne-Yo’s R&B hit, “Miss Independent.”

Then rapper Skillz, who was serving as Jazzy Jeff’s hype man, yelled out to the crowd: “They won’t let us play hip-hop y’all,” apparently referring to the district’s officials.

Representatives for Jazzy Jeff did not return phone calls to The Associated Press seeking an interview Monday.

Miley Cyrus movie to start filming in Ga.

Tybee Island, Ga. — Tybee Island has landed a starring role in the new Miley Cyrus movie, and audiences seeing the film next year won’t have to wait for the credits to find out the name of the beach town filling the screen.

Location managers for the movie “The Last Song,” which starts filming on Tybee next week, told residents at a town meeting Monday that the island proved too unique to masquerade as Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

Novelist Nicholas Sparks, who wrote the movie’s script, initially set the story in Wrightsville and Wilmington, N.C. But filmmakers persuaded him to change the location to Tybee Island and neighboring Savannah so they could include local landmarks such as the island’s towering lighthouse and the oak-shaded squares in Savannah’s historic district.

“We had a hard time trying to hide the fact that this was Tybee and Savannah was Savannah,” Bass Hampton, the film’s location director, told about 80 residents at Tybee city hall.

The movie features 16-year-old Cyrus, the star of “Hannah Montana,” as a teenage girl struggling with her parents’ divorce who tries to reconnect with her father during a summer at his home in a quiet beach town.

Filming starts Monday on Tybee Island, 12 miles east of Savannah, and is expected to stretch into mid-August.

Travolta thanks actors for promoting film

Los Angeles — John Travolta is thanking his colleagues from “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” for promoting the film while he continues to mourn the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett, who died after a seizure in January.

Travolta posted a note on his personal Web site Monday thanking “Pelham” director Tony Scott and co-stars Denzel Washington, John Turturro, Luis Guzman and James Gandolfini for “their unselfish efforts” publicizing the picture, which allowed his family the additional time to reconcile their loss.

The 55-year-old actor also thanked Scott for “the freedom to define, and then to become, the ultimate evil mastermind.”

Pete Doherty detained for heroin use on flight

Geneva — British singer Pete Doherty was fined by Geneva police for heroin consumption during a flight from London, authorities said Monday.

The 30-year-old rocker was picked up by officers after the 1 hour, 40-minute British Airways flight landed Friday, and held for two hours, police spokesman Jean-Philippe Brandt said Monday. Doherty then paid the fine and was released.

Brandt said Doherty was tested for heroin consumption, confirming a report in the Swiss tabloid Le Matin.

But police declined to confirm the newspaper’s report that Doherty was discovered by a flight attendant collapsed in a toilet, with a used syringe nearby. Air staff then contacted the police, it said.