Joaquin Phoenix confronts heckler

Miami Beach, Fla. — Joaquin Phoenix appears to be getting into the act of being a petulant hip-hop star.

He jumped off the stage during a short performance at the LIV nightclub early Thursday morning and confronted an audience member who was heckling him. Security guards dragged him back on stage and escorted him away.

It’s unknown whether the confrontation — and his pledge to quit acting and start rapping — was real or a put-on, but actor Casey Affleck recorded the performance on camera.

In October, Phoenix’s publicist confirmed he was making the career switch.

Anna Nicole Smith associates charged

Los Angeles — Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend Howard K. Stern and two doctors were charged Thursday with giving thousands of prescription drugs to the former Playboy playmate in the years leading up to her 2007 fatal overdose.

Stern and doctors Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich were each charged with three felony counts of conspiracy. Prosecutors said the doctors gave the drugs — including opiates and benzodiazepines — to Stern, who then gave them to Smith over three years.

“These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose,” California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown said in a statement.

A spokesman for Brown told The Associated Press that two of the three had been arrested but would not specify which ones.

The medical examiner’s office has said Eroshevich, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and friend of the starlet’s, authorized all the prescription medications found in the Hollywood, Fla., hotel room where the 39-year-old Smith was found unresponsive shortly before her death in February 2007. Eroshevich had traveled with Smith to Florida.

Jay Leno may consider 2nd show in Detroit

Detroit — Motown star turned councilwoman Martha Reeves may get her wish yet — a free performance by Jay Leno in Detroit.

But that likely will be some time after a planned April 7 show at the Palace of Auburn Hills about 20 miles north of the city.

Reeves said Thursday that Leno indicated to her earlier in the day that he would consider a benefit in Detroit later in the year, The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press reported.

Reeves had appeared outraged after Leno announced on Monday’s “Tonight” show that he would give a free show at the Palace as part of his “comedy stimulus plan” for the unemployed in the Detroit area.

Reeves, lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas in the 1960s, had asked Leno to do a free show April 6 at Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit for out-of-work city residents, she said.

Leno has said the April 7 performance was for the entire area that has been hard hit by high unemployment: “It just kinda makes me laugh. It’s that old no good deed goes unpunished.”

Conviction of ‘Peanuts’ voice actress is voided

Santa Monica, Calif. — A judge threw out a contempt-of-court conviction and ordered a new trial for a woman who was the voice of Lucy in several “Peanuts” TV specials and is accused of harassing UCLA faculty members who conduct research on animals, her lawyer said Thursday.

Pamelyn Ferdin had faced up to five days in jail and a $1,000 fine until Wednesday, when Superior Court Judge John Segal voided her 2008 conviction based on what a UCLA attorney called a technicality.

Segal scheduled a new trial for April 28, said Ferdin’s attorney George Seide.

Ferdin, 50, was convicted of violating a court injunction that barred harassment of faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Last June, Ferdin demonstrated outside the home of a UCLA primate researcher and handed out fliers that included home addresses, phone numbers and photographs of some researchers, Seide said.

Jack White forms yet another new band

Nashville, Tenn. — No one can accuse Jack White of being lazy.

The rocker is already a member of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, and now White says he’s formed a third band, The Dead Weather.

White announced the project Wednesday in Nashville and hosted a private party to hear the new CD and see a performance by the group. He says The Dead Weather’s debut album, “Horehound,” will be released in June on his Third Man record label.

Besides White, the new group includes Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Greenhornes.

Both Fertita and Lawrence perform with White in The Raconteurs.

Afterward, White said the group began as friends getting together to make music.

“The idea was to do a 7-inch single and be done with it, but we started writing songs and something happened,” he said.

‘Dog Whisperer’ becomes U.S. citizen

Los Angeles — Now you can call Cesar Millan the oath taker.

Millan, the Mexican-born star of National Geographic Channel’s “Dog Whisperer” was sworn in as a U.S. citizen Thursday morning at a ceremony in Montebello, Calif., the National Geographic Channel said in a statement.

Millan, who passed his citizenship test earlier this year, has been a U.S. resident since 2000.

“This is the ultimate culmination of living the American dream,” he said.