Some say current fare doesn’t cater to growing multicultural population

Wanda Sykes’ weekly Fox comedy show debuts at 11 p.m. EST Saturday. Mary Lynn Rajskub of “24,” Daryl “Chill” Mitchell of “Brothers” and “The Amazing Race” host Phil Keoghan are scheduled guests.

LOS ANGELES - In the blink of an eye, late-night TV is shifting from a white men’s club to the start of a rainbow coalition.

Wanda Sykes’ weekly Fox comedy show debuts 11 p.m. EST Saturday, followed by George Lopez’s four-night-a-week talk show on TBS, starting 11 p.m. EST Monday. They join “The Mo’Nique Show” on BET.

Lopez is counting on an audience hungry for something different — as in the first Hispanic to host a nighttime talk show on a major network, cable or broadcast.

Sykes is the first black late-night host since the late 1990s, when celebrities Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Keenan Ivory Wayans tried and failed to follow in Arsenio Hall’s successful 1989-94 footsteps.

“There’s a huge percentage of people not watching late-night TV at all,” Lopez said, figuring that the shows headlined by hosts including David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel draw from roughly the same audience pool.

For people of color, the actor and comedian said, “I don’t think a lot of their needs are met with the current talk shows. I would pull a different audience.”

Shari Anne Brill, an analyst with media-buyer Carat USA in New York, echoes Lopez’s assertion.

“There is a huge, growing multicultural population in this country, and the current late-night fare doesn’t really take them into account,” she said.

But neither Lopez nor Sykes are talking about practicing exclusionary TV. Lopez’s ABC sitcom drew a cross-section of viewers, and Sykes said she expects her show to attract the same mixed crowd she gets at her standup appearances.

Chris Pizzello / AP file George Lopez says he will bring “the party back to late-night” on his TBS show.

“Young, old, male, female, all races, gay, straight. I love the audience that I draw,” Sykes said.

She rebuts the idea she got the job because of her gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation (the actress-comedian, who appears on CBS’ “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” came out as gay in 2008).

“I do understand the importance of being on a late-night talk show as a black, gay woman. But I’ve been at this for 20 years. I don’t think they (networks) were saying, ‘Hey, it would be fun to get a black woman on late-night. Who fits that role?’

“I got this show in spite of being a black lesbian,” she said, adding that viewers will tune in to see her or Lopez and not a type.

“It’s all driven by the host. It’s not what you’re getting from a minority, it’s us,” Sykes said.

She doesn’t see an “Obama effect” in the sudden late-night diversity, given that she was approached before the election of the first African-American U.S. president. But Lopez said his interest was piqued as he campaigned for the Democratic candidate.

“Being with Barack for a year and seeing the people and how their eyes and their faces filled with hope for him, for this country … and, on a very smaller scale, to have a show that is fun and can galvanize people and bring them together” was appealing, he said.

The two shows, as sketched by their hosts, will take different approaches.

Lopez promises to bring “the party back to late-night,” signaling a looser, hipper hour in the tradition of “The Arsenio Hall Show,” said analyst Bill Carroll of media buyer Katz Television in New York. Sykes is planning Bill Maher-type panels with both lighthearted and serious discussion of politics and culture as part of her mix.

“In some ways, these shows are looking at breaking the mold,” Carroll said. “Lopez Tonight,” he suggests, could be “what late-night might look like in the future.”

Sykes, whose show replaces Fox’s “Mad TV,” could compete successfully in her partial overlap with NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” analyst Brill said. “Viewers could watch her show and then switch to ‘SNL’ in time for the news, which is the only part that’s funny anyway.”

Eva Longoria-Parker, Ellen DeGeneres and Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant are the scheduled debut night guests for Lopez. Sykes will welcome Mary Lynn Rajskub of “24,” Daryl “Chill” Mitchell of “Brothers” and “The Amazing Race” host Phil Keoghan.

John Ridley, head writer for Sykes, said he’s wary of asserting that the show will “blow apart” the late-night model.

“If you look at all the shows, they’re not different. Are we going to have a monologue? Absolutely. Guests? Yes. A panel? Yes. But it reflects Wanda’s sensibility,” he said.

And that, it’s safe to say, is not akin to what Carroll calls the “predominantly middle-aged — to be kind — white men” that have long dominated late-night.

Those Lohans are unfurling their claws again.

Thursday, dad Michael released to Radar Online a recording (either a voicemail, clip of a phone conversation, or a combination thereof) of Lindsay sobbing to him about her breakup with DJ Samantha Ronson, how mom Dina doesn’t care about her, how, quite frankly, no one cares about her, and more.

Later that day, Lindsay shot back via her Twitter feed:

“Its so sad that I even have to share this w/everyone, but I haven’t had a real relationship w/Michael Sr. In years. That is the truth. Xox,” she tweeted Thursday.

Informant says teen was ‘driving force’ behind robberies of Lohan, Hilton

AP	Burglary suspect turned informant Nicholas Frank Prugo, 18, has told police that Rachel Jungeon Lee, 19, led a burglary ring that targeted celebrities in Los Angeles, authorities say.

LAS VEGAS - Investigators cracked a youthful burglary ring that preyed on Hollywood’s rich and famous, often brazenly walking into their unlocked homes to make off with cash, jewels and family heirlooms, authorities said.

A suspect turned informant told police that a 19-year-old woman was the “driving force” in the thefts, motivated by a desire own the designer clothes and jewelry of such celebrities as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.

According to a Las Vegas police search warrant obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, Nicholas Prugo told Los Angeles police detectives that Rachel Jungeon Lee spearheaded the break-ins.

Prugo told police Lee, 19, would suggest a target, then Prugo would trawl the Internet for information about where they lived and when they would be away from home. Las Vegas police were involved because Lee lives there.

Officials said Lee was booked on a charge of possession of stolen property charge and released after posting $3,000 bail. Prosecutors in Los Angeles asked police to investigate her further. She could not immediately be reached Friday for comment.

Unlocked doors
Police say the Lee and Prugo were part of a group of at least six that stole from October 2008 until September.

After watching a house, they would break into the poorly protected properties, often by simply walking through unlocked doors.

Prugo said they removed cash, narcotics and thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, including family heirlooms.

Acting on a tip, police arrested 18-year-old Prugo on Sept. 17. He initially refused to talk to police but on Oct. 6, he and his attorney met with detectives and Prugo “provided a full confession, and implicated several other suspects,” court documents state.

“Prugo admitted to committing all of the burglaries and that Rachel Lee was with him during the residential burglaries of the homes of Audrina Patridge, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and the Hilton family,” the search warrant states. “Prugo stated that it was Lee who would suggest a target and that he would surf the Internet to learn where the celebrity lived as well as the target’s travel itinerary.”

Admirer of ‘designer wardrobes’
Prugo said Lee wanted to “own the designer wardrobes of the Hollywood celebrities she admired.”

Lee, Prugo and at least four others have been arrested in the case. The four others, most between the ages of 18 and 20, have been charged with felony burglary.

The search warrant states Prugo told police he and Lee broke into Hilton’s house several times. At the Lohan house, the burglary crew gained entrance by prying open a window with a screwdriver then swiped luggage, clothing and jewelry including a Rolex wristwatch with a blue face, Prugo told police.

He said expensive watches were also a target at Bloom’s house, and several were stolen along with artwork and clothing.

A search of the Las Vegas home Lee shared with her father turned up a piece of paper with the names of her accomplices which Las Vegas Detective Ethan Grimes confirmed were the other subjects identified in the crime ring.

Police also found three photos of Paris Hilton, designer jeans, three computers, a Korean passport, 204 $100 bills and less than one ounce of marijuana when they arrested Lee at the home in northwest Las Vegas on Oct. 22, according to the warrants.

Many Pakistanis blame ‘foreign hands’ for heinous market bombing

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - When terrorists last week blew up the Mina Bazaar, a market for women and children, they detonated a car bomb so powerful it left more than 100 people dead and 15 missing in a nightmarish scene of scattered limbs, charred corpses and victims trapped alive under mounds of debris.

The bombing crossed a new line of callousness, uniting Peshawar in grief and fear and unleashing a tide of anger. But most of the outrage expressed by survivors, witnesses, religious leaders and other residents this week was not directed at Islamist extremist groups, whom the government has blamed for the attack, but at the countries many Pakistanis see as their true enemies: India, Israel and the United States.

In part, this reaction stems from a deep popular conviction that no Muslim could perpetrate such atrocities against other Muslims. The more egregious the attack, the stronger seems the tendency to deny a domestic cause and blame other, more remote culprits. Some religious and political groups are encouraging such responses, eager to whip up xenophobic sentiment for their own ends.

This week, the influential Jamaat-e-Islami religious party organized a “peace march” in central Peshawar from the Khyber Bazaar, where a car bomb killed more than 30 people Oct. 9, to the Mina Bazaar. The marchers held up banners and shouted slogans denouncing the CIA, the Pentagon, the security company formerly known as Blackwater, U.S. drone attacks and American aid. There was no mention of the Taliban or al-Qaeda.

“Muslims! Muslims! We are here to protest against those wrongdoers who work for India, Israel and the United States,” a well-dressed, middle-aged rally organizer shouted through a bullhorn. “We protest against American interference and against our government, which is handing over Pakistan to the foreigners and the unbelievers.”

Spokesmen for the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda denied responsibility for the Mina Bazaar blast, saying they condemned the killing of innocents. But Pakistani and U.S. officials say the recent wave of bombings has been in direct retaliation for an ongoing army operation against Taliban tribal sanctuaries in the northwest border region of South Waziristan that began about one month ago.

Militants have also gone after a range of targets in other Pakistani cities, striking at an Islamic university and a U.N. compound in Islamabad, army facilities in Rawalpindi and police academies in Lahore. The widening terrorist scourge has increased public antipathy for the militants, solidified support for the military crackdown and turned the capital into a virtual garrison city, with riot police and traffic checks every few blocks.

Opinion polls have shown that most Pakistanis regard al-Qaeda and the Taliban as a threat. Yet Pakistanis, always sensitive to foreign intrusion, are volubly unhappy about the air strikes by U.S. unmanned planes that have been targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, sometimes killing civilians. When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Pakistan recently, audiences grilled her about the drone attacks, the ongoing U.S. Embassy expansion and persistent rumors that private U.S. security contractors are prowling Pakistan in search of its nuclear arsenal.

Joe Jackson has requested an allowance from the estate of his late son Michael, saying the pop star supported him for years before his death.

In court papers filed in Los Angeles, the 81-year-old’s lawyers said his monthly expenses are $20,000, but he receives only $1,700 from the state.

They added that the pop star’s estate has earned an estimated $100m (£60.1m) since his sudden death on 25 June.

A hearing to assess the request is expected to take place early next year.

‘Surprising’

Michael Jackson’s will omitted his father, but made provision for his mother and children.

Monthly payments to Katherine Jackson along with his daughter and two sons were approved by a judge last month.

They may be re-evaluated at the same time as the hearing to determine Joe Jackson’s case.

Documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court state that Joe Jackson does not have a regular income and relied on payments from his son which came through his wife Katherine for many years.

Joe Jackson’s lawyers went on to state that he has diabetes and suffered a stroke a decade ago.

His only source of income comes from social security payments, they added.

Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for the administrators of the pop star’s estate, said it was “quite surprising to learn of the request”.

He added: “Mr Jackson’s petition will be considered as are all requests for money from Michael’s estate.”

Joe Jackson’s outgoings were listed in the court papers and included rent for his Las Vegas home, meals out, air travel and hotel accommodation.