Yesterday we learned that Amy Winehouse’s husband Blake Fielder-Civil was released a month early from his conviction for attempting to pervert justice in the UK. Blake was allowed early release from incarceration on the grounds that he immediately enter into a rehab program. Amy, who has been in and out of hospitals in the past few weeks, was not on hand for her husband’s release because she had her own tragedy to deal with. Here are pics of Blake waving to the media from his new rehab home and of Amy venturing out on the streets of London with her father Mitch Winehouse to chaperone:

While I am still skeptical that early release from jail in order to serve out the final month of a criminal sentence in rehab is really the right way to go about things, I am encouraged that Blake seems willing to get help. Of course, the decision to “get help” in a cushy rehab facility over renaming in a jail cell prolly made more to do about comfort rather than a genuine desire to “get help”, I’m willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Now, if only Blake’s bride Amy would join him in this rehab facility so that they can “get help” together. Amy Winehouse is a poor shadow of the immense talent that she possesses and it is very sad to see her wither in front of our eyes. While it’s great to see that her father is involved in her life, I think she needs something stronger than parental supervision to get her act together.

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin, Splash News]

After spending almost a year behind bars after being convicted of attempting to pervert justice in the UK, Amy Winehouse’s hubby Blake Fielder-Civil has been released from incarceration one month early on the condition that he spend a month in a rehab program. Amy, who has been going in and out of the hospital in the past few weeks, is currently out of the hospital and has been seen terrorizing the streets of London with a black make-up tear-stained face, lashing out at anyone who gets near her — oh, it must be Thursday:

Amy Winehouse’s husband was released from jail yesterday after almost a year behind bars for his part in a vicious assault on a pub landlord. Blake Fielder-Civil left Edmonds Hill prison in Suffolk at 8am looking pale and with his arms covered in red scars. The 26-year-old, who has fought a long battle with drug addiction, was not due to be released until next month but was freed after agreeing to attend rehab. Miss Winehouse herself was not there to meet him, leading to rumours of a rift between the pair. Winehouse, who left hospital on Monday after receiving ongoing treatment for a ‘chest infection’, looked far from jubilant as she emerged from the residence at 4pm this afternoon with make-up smeared across her face. She appeared to be in an agitated state, lunging at a photographer stationed outside her home shouting: “Who’s first? Who wants some?”. She refused to comment on her husband’s release. After attending a drugs and alcohol clinic Winehouse was pictured clutching a prescription and falling into a cab as she returned home, her face streaked with dirt and tears. A couple of hours later her father Mitch turned up at her flat and not long after a pizza delivery arrived. After they had eaten no-nonsense Mitch shepherded his subdued daughter to his cab. The singer appeared to have showered and to have changed her clothes after her father’s arrival. However, she was back to her erratic ways later in the evening, sucking on a male friend’s knuckle before later passing out in the back of a cab. Fielder-Civil was sentenced to 27 months in prison in July after assaulting barman James King, 36, outside a pub in East London and plotting to bribe him with £200,000 not to testify. He had already spent nine months in custody after his arrest in November last year. After leaving the prison, Fielder-Civil said: “Now all I want to do is see Amy. It’s tough inside - bloody horrible, but I’m out and that’s all that matters. It’s brilliant.” He added: “It’s welcome to the free world for me and Barack Obama.”

It remains to be seen if Blake has fully rehabilitated his criminal ways but a stint in rehab sounds like a cushy way to finish out one’s jail sentence. Amy, on the other hand, seriously needs to be locked away somewhere … seriously:

Whether or not there is a future for these two also remains to be seen. We’ll have to wait and see what happens after Blake gets released from rehab … you know, if Amy lives that long.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

Earlier this week we learned that David Beckham might be lookin’ to make a temporary move to Italy to play for the AC Milan soccer team there during the MLS soccer league off-season here in the US early next year … and yesterday, I bet Becks wished he were already in Milan. Homie got pulled over by the po po after he was caught doing a bit of speeding on the streets of LA yesterday afternoon. Here are a few pics:

I understand that Becks’s shiny black Porsche was clocked doin’ 60mph in a 35mph zone in West Hollywood when he got nabbed by the cops. It turns out that Becks did actually receive a warning from this officer rather than a speeding ticket. Something tells me that when his “Fútbol player” trick didn’t work he prolly whipped out his Armani Underwear ad for the officer and that’s how he got away without a traffic citation. After all, the p33n is mightier than the sword ;)

[Photo credit: Splash News]

You may recall that the driving-without-a-license trial that has been brought against Britney Spears was argued in court last week and went to jury deliberation by the weekend. Well, the jury came back with their verdict today … they determined that there is no verdict because they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision. 10 jurors voted for acquittal, 2 were against — and remained deadlocked. The judge presiding over the case decided to call the whole thing off and declare a mistrial:

A mistrial was declared in Britney Spears’ driving-without-a-license case Tuesday, sparing the singer a criminal record — for now — as she pushes to put her music career in front of her behavior. The jury’s deadlock could not be broken, even after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Steele permitted prosecution and defense attorneys to make additional closing arguments Tuesday morning. Spears came close to bucking the matter altogether: The jury’s final vote was 10-2 in favor of acquittal. A city prosecutor did not immediately indicate whether a retrial would be sought, but an afternoon hearing was scheduled to determine whether the case would be pursued further. The jury struggled with the case since resuming deliberations Monday, telling a judge they couldn’t reach an unanimous decision after five votes going back to Friday. Steele thanked jurors for their time and dismissed them. Deliberations lasted longer than the case, which featured only three witnesses and roughly a day’s worth of testimony and arguments. Jurors posed a pair of questions Monday before declaring themselves deadlocked. One sought to clarify the charges against Spears, and whether she should be considered guilty if she possessed a valid Louisiana license, as her attorney has said she did. The other: “Why was she stopped in the first place?” In fact, there was no traffic stop that precipitated the case; she was cited for hit-and-run and driving without a valid California license later, after video of the accident surfaced. The defense argued that Spears didn’t meet the state’s residency requirements, and that her Louisiana license was all she needed to drive legally. Defense and prosecution attorneys agreed that Spears was behind the wheel in California in August 2007. That kept jurors from hearing any mention of the hit-and-run — or any narrative elements to explain why she faced a criminal charge. Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Michael Amerian initially put up only one witness and entered one piece of evidence during the trial, showing that Spears did not have a valid California license more than a week after the accident. In all, only three witnesses testified during the case. After Flanagan called Spears’ father to the stand, Amerian introduced signed papers from the singer’s divorce that indicated she had been a California resident since at least 2006. The final witness was a paparazzo who, along with other shooters, tails Spears constantly and said she spends about 80 percent of her time in Los Angeles. Flanagan countered, however, that none of those things required Spears to get a California license. Spears never appeared during the trial. She is in the midst of a comeback, recently earning three MTV Video Music Awards. As her trial started last week, Billboard announced that her new single, “Womanizer,” was No. 1 on its charts. Flanagan repeatedly said Spears had been targeted because of her celebrity status and said she should have been permitted to resolve the case by paying a small fine … [prosecutor] Amerian plans to run for City Attorney next year … said Spears was being treated the same as any other driver. He conceded that it is “extremely rare” for a misdemeanor driving without-a-valid-license case to go to trial, and neither he nor Flanagan could cite and example of when it had happened in Los Angeles.

So the guy who is trying to prosecute her for a misdemeanor traffic charge that not even he can recall has ever gone to trial before is running for a higher office next year … and we’re supposed to wonder why Britney Spears was taken to court in the first place? The whole thing is ridiculous. I’m glad that the matter resulted in a mistrial because the whole things smells of a horrible misuse of public funds. I sincerely doubt this matter will be brought before the court again. I think enough of the public’s money has been wasted in vain. Wee! Britney is free to drive the streets of LA again! Er … waitaminute … can someone remind me why that is a good thing again?

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Nick Hogan (née Nick Boella), son of famed wrestler Hulk Hogan who was sentenced to 8 months of incarceration (including 5 years probation, 500 hours of community service and 3 years driver’s license revocation) last May after pleading “no contest” to the felony charge of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury (stemming from a car accident that occurred in 2007 that left his friend John Graziano in a vegetative state), was released early this morning after serving only 166 days of his sentence on account of good behavior. Nick’s older, more famous, sister Brooke Hogan (also née Boella) was on hand at the Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, FL to collect her little jailbird bro. Here are a few photos of Nick walking free from the jail in the wee hours this morning:

Six months after going to jail following his no-contest plea on a reckless driving charge, Nick Bollea (a.k.a. Nick Hogan), son of Hulk Hogan, was released from jail early Tuesday morning (October 21). According to the Tampa Tribune, the 18-year-old Bollea raced into the arms of his sister, Brooke Hogan, upon his release from Pinellas County Jail, where he served 166 days of an eight-month sentence in connection with an August 2007 street racing crash that severely injured Bollea’s friend, John Graziano. Bollea, who was released early for good behavior, walked out of Pinellas County Jail at 12:30 a.m. and did not speak to photographers before getting into a sport utility vehicle and heading home. His mother, Linda Bollea, released a statement Tuesday morning asking the media to respect the family’s privacy.

Bollea, a veteran of his father’s “Hogan Knows Best” show on VH1, had said in jail that he wanted to star in his own reality show after release, an idea Graziano’s lawyer, George Tragos, felt was exploitative. “It’s awful Nick is going to get a reality show because he went to jail because of the permanent harm he caused another human being,” Tragos said, according to the Tribune.

Brooke Hogan not only was there to collect her just-sprung brother from jail but she also seems to have gotten a new tattoo in honor of her brother Nick’s new lease on life:

I think it shows a real strength of character and the true bonds of committed support for an older sister to get a Redemption “stripper plate” or “tramp stamp” tattoo for one’s younger brother who was just released from jail for almost killing a person. Even if her tattoo has nothing at all to do with her brother — kudos, still, for having the foresight to get such an apropos tattoo in the first place. I gotta say, I’m actually surprised that Nick ended up serving 6 of his 8 month sentence. While I honestly believe he should be locked up for much more time, I’m impressed that he was forced to serve so much of his sentence (rather than getting out after a month like his family tried to pull off earlier this year). It remains to be seen if Nick will actually stay out of the media spotlight (those reality TV camera lights can be very inviting) but I sincerely hope that he manages to stay out of trubs. I also am still hoping for a full recovery by John Graziano, who has been sentenced to a punishment far worse than incarceration and for a much longer period of time.

[Photo credit: INFdaily, Splash News; Source]

13 years TO THE DAY that OJ Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman back on October 3, 1995, a jury in Las Vegas, NV found Simpson guilty on 12 counts of armed robbery late last night stemming from a botched sports memorabilia heist in late 2007. Simpson’s alleged conspirator in the robbery attempt, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, was also found guilty on all charges … the men now face life imprisonment for these crimes. OJ Simpson, meet karma:

Former gridiron great O.J. Simpson was found guilty Friday of all 12 counts in the armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas, Nevada, casino hotel last year. Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, 54, were charged with a dozen offenses stemming from the sports memorabilia heist. Stewart was found guilty of the same charges as Simpson. Simpson sat quietly and showed little emotion at the defense table as courtroom clerk Sandra Jeter read the verdicts. After the verdicts were read, deputies immediately handcuffed Simpson and led him out of the courtroom. Simpson and Stewart were charged with 12 counts, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon … Simpson and Stewart could spend the rest of their lives in prison for these convictions. Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass set sentencing for December 5 … The jury of nine men and three women, none of them African-American, reached its verdict after 13 hours of deliberations Friday. Jurors heard from 22 witnesses over 12 days of testimony. Chief among the witnesses were seven of the nine people inside Room 1203 of the Palace Station Hotel and Casino for the September 13, 2007, confrontation … Prosecutors alleged that the men, led by Simpson, burst into the room, flashed a gun and threatened memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley. The men then filled two pillowcases with Simpson trinkets, signed Pete Rose baseballs and Joe Montana lithographs. Simpson’s defense attorneys maintained their client was merely trying to retrieve personal photographs and other mementos that belonged to him. Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified during the trial. Instead, their attorneys savaged the motives of the other witnesses. Galanter said Simpson was a target of investigators from the very beginning. The case “has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson’s involvement,” he added. “Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney’s office is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson,” Galanter said … The most compelling evidence for all sides came from the audiotapes. For the prosecution, conversations taped by collectibles middleman Thomas Riccio took jurors from the poolside planning to the profanity-laced hotel room confrontation.

I’m not even going to go into my personal beliefs about OJ Simpson. I absolutely remember his trial back in 1995 and his horribly smug attitude afterward. I kinda had a suspicion that the man would end up getting into trouble again … and here he is, a man convicted on 12 counts of armed robbery, facing life in prison. Things tend to work out the way they’re supposed to … I really believe that. Whether or not Simpson gets sentenced to a life behind bars come December 5, I believe he will finally be punished according to his crimes … and it’s long overdue.

[Source]