Charges dismissed against Kanye West

Los Angeles — A court commissioner on Friday dismissed criminal charges against Kanye West and his road manager stemming from their scuffle with photographers last year.

Misdemeanor charges were filed after West and his manager were arrested on Sept. 11, 2008, after an altercation with two photographers at Los Angeles International Airport. The struggle was recorded and broadcast by celebrity Web site TMZ.

The photographers and the rapper have reached civil settlements over the case, which resulted in a still camera, flash, and a video camera being broken.

West’s attorney, Blair Berk, successfully argued the case should be dismissed because of the agreement and that California law allows for certain criminal cases to be settled out of court.

West, 32, was not required to and did not appear in court on Friday.

Retrial set in theft of Kirsten Dunst’s bag

New York — Prosecutors plan to retry a suspect on the most serious charges in the theft of Kirsten Dunst’s $2,000 purse during a Manhattan movie shoot. But it’s not clear whether the “Spider-Man” star will play a role.

A judge Friday set a Dec. 3 date for the retrial of mechanic James Jimenez. He has said a co-defendant duped him into participating unwittingly in the August 2007 heist at the SoHo Grand Hotel.

Jimenez was convicted Oct. 2 of a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge. But jurors were deadlocked on some felony burglary counts.

Prosecutors aren’t saying whether Dunst and “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” co-star Simon Pegg will be called to testify again. Both did during the first trial.

Film of neo-Nazi gay affair wins Rome fest

Rome — A Danish movie about a gay love affair between two members of a neo-Nazi group won top honors Friday at the Rome Film Festival, while Helen Mirren won the best actress award.

Mirren won for her depiction of Leo Tolstoy’s wife in Michael Hoffman’s “The Last Station,” while Meryl Streep picked up a career achievement award.

The winning movie, “Brotherhood,” takes a hard look at the neo-Nazi group that the leading character, Lars, joins after leaving the army. The group carries out raids on homosexuals, but Lars and his mentor in the group, Jimmy, begin a love affair that they try to keep secret.

Warhol portrait of Michael Jackson for sale

Los Angeles — Christie’s auction house will offer up a portrait of Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol in New York on Nov. 10.

The auction house told The Associated Press on Friday that the 30-by-26-inch portrait should fetch an estimated $500,000 to $700,000. It’s one of a small group of Warhol silk-screened images of Jackson created in 1984.

The painting depicts Jackson smiling in a “Thriller”-era jacket, with squiggles of red and yellow in his hair.

Deputy chairman Brett Gorvy says the seller is an anonymous private collector in New York who bought it from the Andy Warhol Foundation in the 1990s.

The image is part of 47 lots being auctioned, including two other Warhol paintings.

Timberlake granted restraining order

Los Angeles — Justin Timberlake was granted a temporary restraining order on Friday against a woman his attorney described as an obsessed stalker, court records show.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cunningham III granted the “SexyBack” singer the protective order against Karen J. McNeil, 48.

Timberlake’s attorney, Evan Spiegel, described McNeil in court filings as a “mentally unstable celebrity stalker.” The papers state McNeil was placed in protective psychiatric custody by police after she trespassed at the singer’s home Thursday.

McNeil’s actions have “become much more alarming and her motivation and obsession have become more ominous, intrusive and threatening,” according to the filings.

U.S. files extradition request for Polanski

Geneva — The United States has asked Switzerland to hand over Roman Polanski to authorities in California, where he could serve up to two years in prison for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, Swiss and U.S. authorities said Friday.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement that Washington filed its formal extradition request late Thursday. The 76-year-old filmmaker has been in Swiss custody since his arrest Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to attend a film festival.

The request has been forwarded to Zurich authorities, who will hold a hearing on an unspecified date to decide whether Polanski should be sent back to Los Angeles. If extradition is approved, Polanski may appeal the decision to Switzerland’s top criminal court and, theoretically, to the Federal Supreme Court.

That means the director of such film classics as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” could remain in a Swiss jail for months more of legal wrangling, even though legal experts say he has little chance of avoiding a return to the United States after 31 years as a fugitive.

The maximum sentence Polanski can receive in California is likely two years, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.