LOS ANGELES Simon Cowell is playing it coy about rumors that Fergie, Britney Spears and Janet Jackson are being considered for "The X Factor."

NEW YORK Aretha Franklin says Cissy Houston raised her daughter Whitney Houston well - and that an interview where Franklin said parents need to make sure children "leave home prepared" was taken out of context.

WASHINGTON The story of late rap pioneer Heavy D will be chronicled in a documentary airing Sunday on Centric TV.

LOS ANGELES The Academy Awards will be coming to you live from the same place - but with a different name.

LOS ANGELES Rachel Crow was a tearful runner-up on "The X Factor," but she's a winner now.

NEW YORK A new musical bringing together Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and rock icon Cyndi Lauper will put its best foot forward in Chicago this fall.

LOS ANGELES Lindsay Lohan drew praise Wednesday from a judge who said the actress was one court hearing away from putting a long-running drunken driving case behind her.

NEW YORK Conan O'Brien's got his desk job for at least two more years.

NEW YORK Viewers gave CBS the week's most-watched show along with 21 others in the top 30 ranking.

PHILADELPHIA The Franklin Institute's automaton can't help you find a good sushi place, direct you out of a traffic jam or check your bank balance.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. The widow of country music legend Roger Miller doesn't own the rights to some of his biggest hits, including "King of the Road," a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

KIEV, Ukraine A small Ukrainian nationalist party came under fire Wednesday after a high-profile member suggested a singer of African descent was a bad choice to represent the country in the Eurovision song contest.

NEW YORK Barney Rosset was a publisher, not an author, and struggled for decades to write the story of his brave and wild life. But few over the past 60 years had so profound an impact on the way we read today.

NEW YORK Publisher and First Amendment crusader Barney Rosset has died. He was 89.

LONDON Actress Helena Bonham Carter, whose regal roles include the Red Queen in "Alice in Wonderland" and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II in "The King's Speech," has been honored by the British monarch for services to drama.

ATLANTA Singer Jason Crabb grabbed eight nominations for the Dove Awards, leading the way for the gospel and Christian music show that will be held in Atlanta for the second year in a row.

ORLANDO, Fla. Attorney Jose Baez says he no longer represents Casey Anthony, the Florida mother whose 2011 murder trial made him one of the best known criminal defense lawyers in the country.

DALLAS, Ore. Drummer Deen Castronovo from the rock group Journey was sentenced to 80 hours of community service in Oregon and ordered to attend anger-management classes for a domestic violence dispute.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has named 35 national co-chairs, including elected officials, campaign volunteers and a few celebrities.

NEW ORLEANS Officers on horseback cleared Bourbon Street early Wednesday, declaring an end to Carnival 2012 in New Orleans as Mardi Gras revelers began to prepare for the beginning of Lent, the period of fasting and repentance before Easter.

NEW YORK Adele's album "21" has spent 21 weeks atop Billboard's Top 200 albums chart - and its 21st week is the biggest one yet.

LOS ANGELES The estate of former "Columbo" star Peter Falk has donated $3 million to the University of California, Los Angeles, for student scholarships.

LOS ANGELES A judge granted a motion Tuesday to dismiss concert promoter AEG Live from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson's father.

DALLAS The bulk of a man's childhood comic book collection that included many of the most prized issues ever published sold at auction Wednesday for about $3.5 million.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand The founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload was released on bail Wednesday after a New Zealand judge decided Kim Dotcom lacked means to flee because his funds had been seized.

LOS ANGELES Michael Jackson's doctor was properly sentenced to four years behind bars in the star's death and should not be released on bail, prosecutors argued Tuesday in a response to his bid for release while his case is appealed.

NEW YORK Add "The Lyons" to the list of off-Broadway hits jumping to the Great White Way.

LOS ANGELES Denzel Washington's action thriller "Safe House" held the No. 1 spot at the box office with $27.5 million over the long President's Day weekend.

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court has rejected Phil Spector's appeal of his conviction for killing actress Lana Clarkson.

WASHINGTON Before the death of Don Cornelius stirred pangs of "Soul Train" nostalgia in the American public, a group of black entrepreneurs already had begun working to revive Cornelius' creation and carry it beyond the continued popularity of the show's dances and television reruns.

WASHINGTON Navy SEALs never expected the film "Act of Valor," starring real, active-duty Navy SEALs, to be this big.

BEVERLY HILLS, California Anyone who knows their Oscars knows that nominees' fashion plans are strictly top secret until the big day. They seem to be more revealing about their designer undergarments, though.

WASHINGTON The president just couldn't say no: Mick Jagger held out a mic almost by way of command, and soon Barack Obama was belting out the blues with the best of them.

NEW YORK He's only 17, but pop sensation Justin Bieber is back with his second book.

App Store Official Charts for the week ending Feb. 20, 2012:

iTunes' Official Music Charts for the week ending Feb. 20, 2012:

NEW YORK With the blessing of Maurice Sendak, Stephen Colbert is releasing a children's book.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Nationally renowned poet Maya Angelou is recovering from a brief illness that forced her to cancel a planned speech in Texas.

INDIANAPOLIS Attorneys for country duo Sugarland said concertgoers were at least partly to blame for injuries suffered in a stage collapse, drawing a sharp reaction from fans Tuesday and prompting the band's manager to issue a statement criticizing the finger-pointing.

MADRID Crowds gathered Tuesday at Madrid's Prado Museum to view a copy of the "Mona Lisa" for the first time since restoration revealed it was almost certainly painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci's apprentices as he worked on the original.

NEW YORK Don DeLillo's first book of short stories is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. The young voices of The Band Perry soared in the space where pioneers of country music had been heard, but their boots were the first to tap time on the new stage.

LONDON The North London band Bombay Bicycle Club says being in the latest "Twilight" movie wasn't quite the high profile leg-up the band was hoping for.

PHILADELPHIA Villanova University has canceled a workshop on personal narrative by a gay performance artist, saying his shows aren't in keeping with its Catholic values.

NEW YORK One of four versions of Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream" will be sold this spring in New York, Sotheby's auction house announced Tuesday.

LONDON Soulful songstress Adele capped a momentous year of Grammy Awards triumph and medical woes with a double win at the U.K.'s Brit music awards Tuesday, taking prizes for album of the year and best British female solo artist before making an obscene gesture after the show's host cut her acceptance speech short.

LONDON Adam Lambert has nabbed his dream gig: Singing vocals for the iconic British band Queen as they headline the second day of the U.K. rock festival Sonisphere 2012.

LONDON Organizers say Britpop icons Blur will headline an outdoor concert to coincide with the end of the 2012 London Olympics.

LISBON, Portugal Portuguese workers issued a spontaneous "Ja chega!" - "That's enough!" - to the government, rejecting its appeal to stay at their jobs during Carnival, one of their most beloved holidays.

PORTLAND, Ore. Looking like punk gladiators, teams of young adults on junk bikes pulling chariots made of junk parts frenetically chased each other around a makeshift arena, slamming each other and swinging away with foam clubs.