Showbiz: And here's to you, Mrs Melfi

* Actress Lorraine Bracco, who plays psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi on the hit television mob drama The Sopranos, is heading to Broadway to play the role of the lustful Mrs Robinson in The Graduate.

Taking over the role from Kathleen Turner, Bracco, 47, was scheduled to make her Broadway debut yesterday in the stage production famed for its brief nude appearance by the character of Mrs Robinson.

Bracco joins two other actresses from the popular HBO series now appearing on Broadway.

Edie Falco, who plays Carmela Soprano, the wife of Mob boss Tony Soprano, stars in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays the Sopranos' daughter, is performing in Beauty and the Beast.

* Grammy-winning R&B singer D'Angelo had to be subdued with pepper spray after he resisted arrest on misdemeanour charges of aggressive driving and other counts, police said.

Chesterfield police said they went to D'Angelo's suburban Richmond home after a confrontation he reportedly had with a woman at a petrol station. The singer, whose real name is Michael Eugene Archer, allegedly cursed at the woman and spat on her after he cut her off in his sport utility vehicle, police said.

D'Angelo allegedly resisted police as they tried to arrest him and had to be subdued with the spray, Major James Bourque said.

* Pop heart-throb Justin Timberlake has broken his foot after stumbling during a dance routine.

The NSync star has had to pull out of presenting a TV awards show after being told to rest.

Timberlake, who used to date Britney Spears, was rehearsing for the Smash Hits T4 Poll Winners' Party, which he had been due to host alongside Kelly Osbourne.

* The British film academy is to honour American movie director Spike Lee as "one of the most influential and important directors of our time".

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said that Lee, director of She's Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing, will be given a Special Award and be interviewed before an audience of academy members by playwright and critic Bonnie Greer.

"Spike Lee is inspiring to a generation of film-makers," the academy said. "Lee has established himself as one of the most influential and important film-makers of our time."

Previous recipients of the award include Dame Maggie Smith, Audrey Hepburn and Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

* Ozzy Osbourne and his dysfunctional family are heading home to film a special episode of their reality TV show.

Teenage daughter Kelly is flying in from Los Angeles tomorrow to launch her new record Shut Up. She will later meet the rest of the family in London where they will shoot the third episode of the new series of The Osbournes.

* Brian May, rock star and former astronomy student, has received an honorary degree from the University of Hertfordshire.

May, 55, a founding member of the rock group Queen and renowned rock guitarist, was given an honorary science doctorate at the university's campus at Hertford, north of London.

- NZPA