Probation for ‘Hills’ star Stephanie Pratt

Los Angeles — Court records show Stephanie Pratt will serve three years of informal probation after pleading no contest to a lesser charge in a drunken driving case.

Pratt, who appears on MTV’s “The Hills,” pleaded no contest to a charge of exhibition of speed in a Los Angeles court Thursday. She was arrested in October in Hollywood and charged with drunken driving.

Pratt’s attorney, Jon Artz, says the plea deal was reached because there was no evidence Pratt was driving impaired. Artz says he thinks it’s a fair resolution to the case and Pratt has learned a “valuable lesson” about the dangers of drinking and driving.

The records show Pratt has agreed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous classes as part of the plea agreement.

Police: Stern sidekick Lange stabbed self

Hoboken, N.J. — Police say self-inflicted stab wounds put Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange in a New Jersey hospital.

Hoboken Police Detective Mark Competello says Lange’s mother found him on the floor of his waterfront home on Saturday.

Competello says the 42-year-old comedian was unconscious but breathing after stabbing himself with a 13-inch Wolfgang Puck kitchen knife.

Lange was taken to Jersey City Medical Center. Competello says doctors cleaned nine abdominal knife wounds and operated. He says Lange has been released.

Tobey Maguire talks ‘Spider-Man’ delay

Los Angeles — Tobey Maguire doesn’t think “Spider-Man 4” has become a tangled mess.

The 34-year-old star of the web-slinging superhero franchise said preproduction snags aren’t dampening his mood about the fourth installment. The next “Spider-Man” film had been scheduled to swing into theaters May 6, 2011, but that seems unlikely now that “Thor,” another big-screen Marvel superhero adaptation, has hammered out the same release date.

“Like anything, it’s a process,” Maguire said Thursday. “We’re just in the midst of the process. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script. We’re just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible.”

Maguire, who has played Peter Parker in all three films, said the plan is to still release the movie in 2011, but wasn’t more specific about the date.