Planet Pop

Hugh Grant was accused of throwing beans at a photographer. PHOTO: EPA

Actor Hugh Grant accepted undisclosed damages Friday from a UK newspaper publisher over claims about his relationships with exes Jemima Khan and Elizabeth Hurley.

The ruling is Grant's second legal encounter this week. On Wednesday, he was detained by police over allegations that he threw a container of baked beans at a paparazzi photographer.

Grant sued Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers, over stories published in February.

One alleged that Grant's relationship with Khan was destroyed by a flirtation with a film executive. Another claimed Grant would attend Hurley's wedding to businessman Arun Nayar and had sponsored a chimpanzee at a British zoo as a gift. A third said he resented having to do publicity for his films.

Also receiving a favorable legal decision was Daniel Baldwin, co-star of the US television cop show Homicide: Life on the Street, who learned on Friday that prosecutors had dismissed a car-theft case against him.

Phil Spector has a new wig. PHOTO: AP

The 46-year-old performer, a member of the acting family that includes brothers William, Stephen and Alec Baldwin, was arrested in November on suspicion of stealing a sport utility vehicle from a friend in the town of Aliso Viejo, south of Los Angeles.

Police had traced the vehicle to a Santa Monica motel parking lot, using a signal from the car's security system, two days after it was reported stolen, and they arrested Baldwin when he was seen getting into the car.

He was booked on charges of unlawful taking of a vehicle and receiving stolen property, and later released.

Car-theft charges against Daniel Baldwin were dropped. PHOTO: AP

But the owner of vehicle later insisted he had given Baldwin permission to drive the car and that the report of a theft resulted from a misunderstanding. "We followed up on some statements that were provided to us by the witnesses and the victim, and we determined that the evidence didn't support us going forward with the case," said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office.

She added: "It's not unusual in cases like this for friends or family to change their story to protect somebody they're close to."

Baldwin, who played detective Beau Felton on NBC's Homicide series, also made headlines last July when he drove a sports car through a red light before smashing into two park cars.

Word that he was cleared of car theft charges came the same day that older brother Alec appeared on the daytime TV talk show The View to apologize for calling his 11-year-old daughter a "thoughtless little pig" in a voice-mail message that was posted on the Internet last week.

Lawyers for music producer Phil Spector told a jury last week that the actress he is charged with murdering shot herself while under the influence of alcohol and painkillers and that scientific evidence would prove it.

The trial, being televised live, is expected to last up to three months in what promises to be the biggest celebrity court case since singer Michael Jackson was acquitted of child molestation in 2005.

In opening arguments on the second day of the long-awaited trial, one of Spector's lawyers also said that four other women, who will testify that Spector brandished guns at them years ago, were telling "tall tales" and never filed charges against him.

Spector, 67, best known for his 1960s "Wall of Sound" recording technique and work with The Beatles and The Righteous Brothers, faces life in prison if he is convicted of killing B-movie actress Lana Clarkson in the foyer of his imposing Los Angeles area mansion in 2003.

Spector met Clarkson, 40, at a Hollywood club on the night of her death and the two went back to his home for a late drink. She died of a gunshot to her mouth.

Spector's lawyer said Clarkson's intentions were not known, but she had been depressed. "What we do know is that she put the barrel (of the gun) in her mouth. We know she was drinking, we know she was taking pills."

She said the defense would show forensic evidence based on gunshot residue and on the position of the gun, blood and tissue spatter that would prove Clarkson herself held the gun inside her mouth, not Spector.