People: They’re making a clean start
Looking for your favorite R&B diva these days? Try you favorite afternoon soap.
Mary J. Blige – a 35-year-old music veteran whose latest album, “The Breakthrough,” has sold more than 2 million copies – will perform two hits from that disc at the club Capricorn in the fictional town of Llanview on ABC’s “One Life to Live.”
The episode is set to air July 28.
“The cast and I, being huge fans of Mary J. Blige’s tremendous talent, are thrilled that she will be appearing on ‘OLTL,’ ” said executive producer Frank Valenti.
Meanwhile, Rihanna, a relative newcomer at age 18, will sing numbers from her sophomore CD, “A Girl Like Me,” at the opening of a club called ConFusion in the fictional town of Pine Valley on ABC’s “All My Children.”
In the episode, scheduled to air July 25, Rihanna will walk down a red carpet featuring reporters playing themselves, the network said.
Danger, menace, excess
Speaking of soap operas, in the continuing saga of DMX, the actor/rapper has been cited for carrying a concealed handgun outside a nightclub in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Earlier this month, he was cited for traffic violations in New York, and last month was arrested in London after allegedly becoming abusive on a flight from New York.
He served 70 days in jail last year for violating his parole following a 2004 incident in which he posed as an undercover federal agent and crashed his sport utility vehicle through a security gate at Kennedy International Airport.
Recovery to road
Australian singer Kylie Minogue, diagnosed with breast cancer last year, plans to resume her postponed world tour in November.
“Obviously she’s still got a few mountains to climb, but we’re very, very confident that the tour will be going ahead in November,” a spokesman said Thursday
Minogue, 38, had completed dates in Europe and was heading to Australia when she was diagnosed in May 2005. She underwent surgery and is reportedly still undergoing treatment.
He’s getting highbrow
British rocker Pete Doherty, known for his ongoing battle with drugs and his relationship with supermodel Kate Moss, will have his personal journals published next year.
Says Doherty, 27: “I am very happy … to share a bookshelf with H.G. Wells, Ian Rankin and (former British soccer player) Stan Bowles.”
Finally copping to it
Victor Willis, the original policeman in the 1970s disco group The Village People, says the “nightmare of drug abuse” is being lifted from his life.
Willis has been undergoing in-custody substance abuse counseling since his March arrest in San Francisco for drug possession and giving false identification to a police officer.
He said his attorney will ask at a pretrial hearing next month that he be released into a residential drug rehab program.
The birthday bunch
Actor Ted Shackelford (“Knots Landing”) is 60. “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson is 50. Actress Frances McDormand is 49. Actress Selma Blair is 34. Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is 29.