Showbiz: Pavarotti to team up with Tom Jones

Luciano Pavarotti is to team up with Tom Jones for a rendition of Delilah.

The pair will perform together next week at Pavarotti's annual charity concert in his hometown of Modena in Italy.

Jones, who scored a hit with the song in 1968, will sing his section in English while Pavarotti will chip in with sections in his native tongue.

The show will raise money for Afghan refugees.

* Daryl Hannah has won a libel suit against a newspaper that reported she skipped rehearsals for a play because it was her dog's birthday.

In fact she was attending the Toronto Film Festival, said her lawyer, Simon Smith.

The London Daily Mirror claimed in October that Hannah, 40, had abandoned rehearsals for The Seven-Year Itch and flown to Los Angeles to be with her dog days before the play was to open in London's West End.

Smith said the allegations were "false and very embarrassing" to the actress, who found fame as a mermaid in the 1984 comedy Splash.

Hannah received an undisclosed sum in damages.

* Uncle Junior would never sing for the feds, but the actor who plays him in Mob drama The Sopranos has made a recording.

Dominic Chianese's debut CD, Hits, to be released next month, includes traditional Italian songs such as State Vicino a Me and Santa Lucia.

He also sings Amazing Grace and several songs he wrote.

Chianese's character - Corrado "Junior" Soprano, Tony's uncle - crooned during the final minutes of The Sopranos season finale, at a reception following the funeral of a fellow mobster.

"Music and acting have always been the same thing for me," Chianese said. "Maybe it sounds crazy that I'm a 70-year-old guy who's just made his first album. But I'm basically a troubadour at heart."

* Ellen DeGeneres, who's about to launch her second sitcom, has again been chosen to host the Emmy Awards.

The small-screen equivalent to the Oscars will be broadcast on September 16 from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Nominations will be announced on July 12.

The actress-comedian - who came out as a lesbian in 1997 on Ellen, which the ABC network cancelled a year later - has nearly completed a CBS comedy in which she plays a lesbian internet executive who moves back to her small hometown.

* About 200 REM fans crammed into MTV's New York studios to see the band perform a mix of old hits and songs from their new album, Reveal, for an edition of MTV Unplugged.

"Thank you for jamming into this little room here," lead singer Michael Stipe said at the start of the concert.

It was the second time the band has performed for MTV Unplugged - REM did the acoustic show in 1991.

In case Stipe needed any reminders of that performance, MTV played a muted version of it on a video screen.

"Get that guy off the screen," Stipe joked when he saw his younger self. "He's so sincere. My God, he looks great!"

Stipe kept the audience, which included actress Gwyneth Paltrow, laughing during breaks between songs.

* Christina Aguilera has sued two music companies, her former producers and several other people in an attempt to block the commercial release of demo tapes made years ago.

She says those named in her suit made a deal to package and sell the recordings.

A 13-song album titled Just Be Free is set for release on June 5, and distributors have started accepting tens of thousands of orders at $US10 ($23.70) each, the suit claims.

The 20-year-old star says the recordings were made solely to demonstrate her abilities to record companies.

Aguilera's lawsuit was filed in response to one filed against her on May 15 in New York by Platinum Recording Group and JFB Music.

The companies contend they own the rights to the recordings and should be allowed to release Just Be Free without interference from Aguilera.