Showbiz: Marilyn Manson settles sex suit

A security guard has dropped his sexual-assault suit against shock rocker Marilyn Manson after the two sides reached an undisclosed settlement. Joshua Keasler claims that during a July 2001 performance in Detroit, Manson wrapped his legs around Keasler's neck and gyrated against him while wearing only a leather thong and panty hose.

Keasler had sued Manson in the US district court in Detroit for sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. "I can now go on with my life and try to close this unhappy chapter," he said.

The bum's rush

The family of the late country music legend Johnny Cash is outraged at a plan to use his song Ring of Fire in an advert for haemorrhoid cream. A Florida advertising company came up with the idea and won the backing of the song's co-writer Merle Kilgore.

But Cash's daughter, Rosanne Cash, said: "There is no way we will ever let that happen. We would never allow the song to be demeaned like that." She told the Tennessean of Nashville newspaper: "The song is about the transformative power of love and that's what it has always meant to me and that's what it will always mean to the Cash children."

Ring Of Fire found a new audience in 1999 when it was included in a US TV ad for Levi's 501 jeans. The idea for the haemorrhoid advert was reportedly that of TV producer Sula Miller, of Big Grin Productions.

She thought of using the song - which has the chorus "And It Burns, Burns, Burns" - while suffering from the condition, she said.

Tina feels karma

Pop diva Tina Turner will play an Indian goddess in a new Merchant-Ivory film, a newspaper report said. Turner, who had a successful farewell tour four years ago, said she had enjoyed being able to fill stadiums, "but now I'm ready to move on to another kind of performance," she told the Times of India.

Famous for power-packed performances in high heels and leather miniskirts, Turner will star in the film The Goddess, the newspaper reported.

"I think Ismail [Merchant] chose me because of my shakti [strength] within," the 64-year-old Turner said. "I'm special in that I've had a long run and I'm still here."

Merchant, a producer known for making movies with director James Ivory, said Turner had spent two weeks in India and had been practising classical music with Zakir Hussain, India's maestro of the tabla, a small set of drums.

"She will have to sing in Latin and Sanskrit for the film," he said.

Turner, who acted with Mel Gibson in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, said she's looking forward to the new role, "not as Mad Max, but as a goddess - that's real power and real love."

She also insisted she'd be able to keep up with the new generation of pop singers, if she wanted. "I can stand with any of them on stage and hold my own," Turner said. "I am still in the playground."

Remix blocked

British record company EMI has taken legal action to block distribution of a critically acclaimed remix of the Beatles' 1968 classic The White Album. The Daily Telegraph said US hip-hop producer Brian Burton, 26, who goes by the name of DJ Dangermouse, had made what Rolling Stone magazine called "the ultimate remix record".

It takes the words of the rapper Jay-Z's Black Album and marries them to the sound of the Beatles. Burton was frank about the origin of the music on his Grey Album.

"Every kick, snare and chord is taken from the album and is in their original recording somewhere," he said.

Only a limited edition of 3000 copies was pressed for non-retail distribution, but the CD is on the internet and on sale in independent record shops in America, where it is fetching as much as US$200 ($286) a copy.