Jon Cryer says he doesn't have Charlie Sheen's phone number (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – In his first joint interview with new "Two and a Half Men" costar Ashton Kutcher and the returning Angus T. Jones, Jon Cryer says he doesn't even have Charlie Sheen's phone number anymore.

"I have not heard from him," Cryer told TV Guide Magazine. "I don't even have his number. He still has mine."

Sheen famously called Cryer "a traitor" and "a troll" during the media blitz that preceded his firing in May. He later apologized to Cryer in public statements -- but apparently not in person.

Kutcher joins the show, which returns September 19, as Internet billionaire Walden Schmidt. Cryer's character becomes something of a mentor to him after a bad breakup -- and the death of Sheen's character, Charlie Harper.

In the interview, Kutcher said he was on a fishing trip with his father in Idaho when he got the call to meet about joining the show. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler suggested Kutcher after negotiations with Hugh Grant fell through.

"I was completely convinced that we needed a fortysomething costar who would be a peer to Jon," executive producer Chuck Lorre told the magazine. "It was obvious my assumption was wrong. ... Here was a guy with great comedy instincts, tons of experience and who is totally fearless. Taking the job proves that."

How's the on-camera chemistry between the three? Viewers can find out Thursday when they present a Top Ten list together on the "Late Show With David Letterman."

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Sheriff: Rapper incited phone flash mob on Twitter (AP)

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County sheriff's department says The Game incited a telephone flash mob that overwhelmed the emergency phone system.

Capt. Mike Parker tells the Los Angeles Times (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_mu/storytext/us_the_game_tweet/42592259/SIG=10mtml2on/*http://lat.ms/oGFHO1) that the rapper tweeted the number of the Compton station Friday and told his 580,000 followers that if they wanted an internship with him, they should call the number.

Sheriff's Lt. Suzan Young says "the phones started ringing like crazy" around 5:20 p.m. Parker says phone lines were jammed for more than two hours.

The rapper later posted that his account was hacked but also tweeted that it was "an accident."

The Game could face criminal charges. Parker says investigators are planning to forward a criminal complaint to the district attorney's office.

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Information from: The Los Angeles Times, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_mu/storytext/us_the_game_tweet/42592259/SIG=10kuoqvj2/*http://latimes.com

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McCartney's ex-wife accuses Mirror of phone hacking (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – The ex-wife of Paul McCartney claimed Wednesday that a journalist at Britain's Mirror Group newspapers admitted hacking into her phone, dragging another tabloid into the long-running scandal.

Heather Mills told the BBC's Newsnight programme that the journalist made the admission in 2001 when he confronted her about an argument she had had with McCartney, who was then still her boyfriend.

Mills said the journalist rang her and "started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine".

"You've obviously hacked my phone and if you do anything with this story -- because they were obviously very private conversations about issues we were having as a couple -- and I said, then I'll go to the police," she challenged him.

She said the journalist responded saying: "OK, OK, yeah we did hear it on your voice messages, I won't run it."

Rupert Murdoch shut down his News of the World tabloid last month after it was revealed that private investigators working for the Sunday paper had hacked into the voicemail of a missing 13-year-old girl who was later found dead.

Former journalists at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror have already claimed that phone hacking was widespread at their papers too, although Trinity Mirror has insisted its staff act within the law.

The Mirror Group comprises the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, the People, and Scotland's Daily Record and Sunday Mail, while its parent company, Trinity Mirror, owns more than 100 regional titles.

In a statement to the BBC on Wednesday, a spokesman for Trinity Mirror said: "Our position is clear. All our journalists work within the criminal law and the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) code of conduct."

The BBC did not identify the journalist, but confirmed that it was not Piers Morgan, who was editor of the Daily Mirror at the time and is now a celebrity talkshow host on US television network CNN.

However, the broadcaster said the message Mills refers to appears to be the same one which Morgan later admitted to listening to in a 2006 newspaper article.

Morgan has always denied hacking phones, ordering anyone to hack phones, or to his knowledge publishing stories obtained from phone hacking.

Conservative MP Therese Coffey, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee investigating phone hacking, said Morgan should return to Britain to explain "very strong" new evidence.

"If Mr Morgan wants to come back to the UK and help them with their inquiries, and I don't mean being arrested in any way, I'm sure he can add more light," she told Newsnight on Wednesday.

"I don't see any point in him necessarily just staying in the US and issuing statements."

Morgan earlier issued a statement through CNN accusing Mills of intercepting voicemails herself.

"I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills," he said.

"What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media."

Although the scandal has so far centred on the News of the World, where a royal editor and a private investigator were jailed in 2007, there is growing evidence that other newspapers may have used the practice.

Trinity Mirror launched an internal review into its editorial practices last month, although it stressed this was not in response to any specific allegation.

McCartney and Mills divorced in 2008.

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McCartney ex-wife: Mirror journalist hacked my phone (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Heather Mills was quoted on Wednesday as saying a journalist at British publisher Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper, had hacked her phone before she was married to former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

The accusation widens a scandal over phone hacking by British newspapers that has so far center on titles owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, with the furor also threatening to embroil U.S. talk show host Piers Morgan.

The BBC said the messages were left by McCartney, whom Mills married in 2002. The couple separated four years later.

Mills said the journalist had confronted her with details of sensitive messages left on her phone.

"He started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine, and...I'd wondered why they had already been heard, listened to, when it says 'heard messages'," Mills told the BBC.

The BBC said the journalist worked at the Mirror group, although Mills does not mention the journalist's employers in the audio clip provided by the BBC.

"I said you've obviously hacked my phone and if you do anything with this story, because they were obviously very private conversations about issues we were having as a couple, I said then I'll go to the police," she added.

She went on to say the journalist admitted hacking her phone and agreed not to use a story based on the messages.

"All of our journalists work within the criminal law and the PCC code of conduct," said Nick Fullagar, Trinity Mirror's director of corporate communications, referring to Britain's Press Complaints Commission industry watchdog.

PIERS MORGAN

Allegations of phone hacking at the News of World Sunday newspaper, owned by News Corp's British newspaper arm News International, last month prompted the newspaper's closure and the resignation of News International chief Rebekah Brooks.

CNN talk show host Morgan, who once edited the News of the World and later the Daily Mirror until 2004, has repeatedly denied any role in the phone hacking scandal.

In a 2006 article for Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, Morgan said he had listened to one of Mills' phone messages.

"Stories soon emerged that the marriage was in trouble - at one stage I was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone," he wrote.

The BBC said Morgan was not the journalist who had contacted Mills with details of her phone messages.

Morgan said in a statement the BBC had confirmed to him that the journalist, whom Morgan refers to as a senior executive, was not employed by the Daily Mirror. He also said he had no knowledge of conversations any other executive at Trinity Mirror may have had with Mills.

"Heather Mills has made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had with a senior executive from a Trinity Mirror newspaper in 2001," he said, describing her claims as "somewhat extravagant."

"To reiterate, I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone," he added.

Mark Lewis, lawyer for victims of phone hacking by the News of the World, on Monday confirmed that he had instructions to take legal action against Trinity Mirror on behalf of other unnamed phone hacking victims.

(Additional reporting by Olesya Dmitracova and Georgina Prodhan)

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Piers Morgan seeks apology over phone hacking claim (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Former British tabloid editor Piers Morgan has demanded an apology from a lawmaker who made claims about him admitting to phone hacking, at the London hearing which quizzed Rupert Murdoch.

In an angry on-air exchange, Morgan, who is now a celebrity interviewer for US television news network CNN, challenged Member of Parliament Louise Mensch to repeat her claim that he had "boasted" of phone hacking in a book about his tabloid editor days.

She declined to do so, saying she had been covered by parliamentary privilege -- which protects her from legal action for anything said inside parliament -- a protection which does not apply if she repeats the words elsewhere.

In the committee hearing which grilled Murdoch and his son James over the phone hacking scandal rocking the tycoon's media empire, Mensch said Morgan had boasted about using a phone hacking "little trick" to win a scoop of the year award.

"That is a former editor of the Daily Mirror being very open about his personal use of phone hacking," she said in the hearing.

But Morgan, a former editor of the Mirror and of Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World, said he had never claimed to have used phone hacking himself in his 2005 book "The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade."

"I'm amused by her cowardice in refusing to repeat that allegation now that shes not in parliament covered by privilege," Morgan said in the on-air exchange with Mensch, who was in London.

"She came out with an absolute blatant lie during those proceedings. At no stage in my book or indeed outside of my book have I ever boasted of using phone hacking for any stories."

And he added: "For the record, in my time at the Mirror and the News of the World I have never hacked a phone, told anybody to hack a phone or published any story based on the hacking of a phone."

In an increasingly tetchy exchange, during which Mensch said Morgan was a rich man and accused him of threatening her, the former newspaperman added: "I think you should apologize for being a liar."

He repeatedly bashed her for invoking parliamentary privilege and said Mensch should "show some balls" and repeat her claims outside the hearing.

Asking her to produce evidence to back her claim, he said: "If there is no evidence for that, are you going to publicly apologize to me, and to CNN right now for such an outrageous lie?"

"I feel no need whatsoever to apologize," said the lawmaker.

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Rock musician uses cell phone stickup note in robbery (Reuters)

CONWAY, Mass (Reuters) – A musician, using a stickup note posted on his cell phone, robbed a Massachusetts pharmacy of prescription pain pills just hours before his scheduled rock concert, authorities said on Monday.

Michael Todd, 30, a bass player and singer with New York rock band Coheed and Cambria, was arrested Sunday at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts, several hours before the group was set to open for headliner Soundgarden.

Prosecutors say Todd went to a Walgreens in nearby Attleboro Sunday afternoon and showed a pharmacy employee a text message on his Blackberry saying he had a bomb and demanding prescription painkillers.

"It is somewhat routine that in robberies, the robber gives a note to the clerk, but obviously this was a little bit more high-tech," said Gregg Miliote, spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.

A frightened employee allegedly then handed over a half-dozen bottles of oxycodone pills, and Todd fled the store, taking a taxi to his parked tour bus outside the hall, said Miliote.

Attleboro police managed to track down Todd after piecing together details from surveillance video at the pharmacy and a witness's description of the taxi, he said.

At his arraignment Monday in Attleboro District Court, Todd was charged with armed robbery and drug possession, Miliote said. Judge Dan O'Shea ordered Todd held on $25,000 cash bail.

"Michael Todd was arrested today on what we consider very serious charges and therefore he will not be finishing up the current tour," said a statement from the band on its Facebook page.

Musician Wes Styles will take on bass duties starting Monday for the remaining dates in Poughkeepsie, New York; Quebec City and Halifax, Canada; it added.

"We are surprised, to say the least, and will address the situation with Michael after the tour. For now, we just want to have a great time out here and finish with some killer shows," the band statement said.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

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Jude Law joins News Corp phone hacking claimants (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – British film star Jude Law will sue the News of the World over allegations of phone hacking next year in a case to set guidelines over damages and which could involve senior management at the tabloid.

A judge hearing the case into phone hacking at the best-selling tabloid, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, selected Law and four others to act as lead cases in a trial which will begin in January next year.

The judge said it was crucial to establish how widespread phone hacking was at the newspaper and the degree of senior management involvement, as this could influence the level of any damages awarded.

Law's case was included because it covers allegations of harassment, resulted in numerous stories and his disclosures had pointed to a senior executive at the newspaper, his lawyers said. Lawyers for the newspaper said they were unaware of this.

A clutch of celebrities, politicians and sports personalities are suing publisher News International, a unit of News Corp, for violating their privacy by eavesdropping on their voicemail to unearth scandals to sell more newspapers.

The lead cases will establish principles for the others and eliminate the need for each one to be heard separately.

SENIOR INVOLVEMENT

Judge Geoffrey Vos said it was also important to understand to what extent the newspaper's motivation was to uncover news by a single journalist and to what extent it was about increasing profits for the paper by selling more copies.

"Those are important questions as to exactly what was going on. To set the damages you need to know exactly what happened," Vos told a case-management hearing in a London court.

The claimants say there was a "grand conspiracy" at the newspaper, meaning that illegal voicemail interception was standard practice and widely known about.

News International denies this, although it has admitted some liability and offered compensation to a few of the claimants. Actress Sienna Miller, Law's ex-girlfriend, accepted a payout of 100,000 pounds ($162,700) last week.

The scandal comes at a time when News Corp is pursuing a planned $14 billion takeover of UK pay-TV firm BSkyB.

News International also owns the Times of London, while BSkyB owns popular 24-hour news channel Sky News and critics have claimed the deal would give the company too much influence over public opinion. News Corp has offered to spin off Sky News into an independent company if the deal goes ahead.

Ripples from the scandal at Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid have spread up to Prime Minister David Cameron's office.

Andy Coulson, who resigned as editor of the paper in 2007 after a reporter was jailed for phone-hacking, was later hired by Cameron as his spokesman but resigned from that job earlier this year after the investigation was reopened.

The court decided on Friday on four other lead cases in addition to Law's: those of soccer agent Sky Andrew, designer Kelly Hoppen, who is Miller's stepmother, sports pundit Andy Gray, and opposition Labour Party parliamentarian Chris Bryant.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; writing by Georgina Prodhan)

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Actress Miller settles News Corp phone snoop case (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Sienna Miller will take a payoff to drop a case against a newspaper that snooped on her phone messages, a scandal that embarrassed Rupert Murdoch's News Corp while it seeks government blessing for a huge merger.

Miller, the on-and-off girlfriend of fellow Hollywood star Jude Law, was one of the main plaintiffs suing News Corp over allegations reporters at its News of the World tabloid illegally listened to voice messages to get scoops.

The scandal has already cost Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman his job and led to calls for greater oversight of Britain's ruthlessly competitive news media.

The newspaper said it would pay Miller 100,000 pounds ($160,000) as part of a settlement that would see her drop her case. The newspaper would also give her documents in the case.

Miller was one of more than 20 celebrities, including TV personalities, sports figures and even former cabinet members, suing the News of the World for hiring a private investigator to hack into the voicemail accounts of their mobile phones.

Her case was expected to be one of a handful of lead cases against the newspaper that will set compensation levels for other plaintiffs. The lead cases are expected to be decided at a case-management hearing next week.

"We are pleased that we have managed to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion. Several weeks ago we admitted liability in certain cases and offered a genuine and unreserved apology," News International said in a statement on Friday.

"We hope to resolve other cases swiftly."

Miller's lawyer had no immediate comment.

The scandal has damaged News Corp's reputation at a time when it has been seeking government approval for a proposed $14 billion takeover of British pay-TV firm BSkyB. Opponents want the merger blocked pending the outcome of a police probe.

One journalist at the newspaper was jailed in 2007 for illegally snooping on phone messages of a member of the royal household, but the paper maintained until this year that it was an isolated incident.

The police have since reopened the investigation, several journalists have been arrested and the newspaper has apologised. Cameron's media chief Andy Coulson, who had been the newspaper's editor at the time when the snooping took place, resigned.

Ex-member of parliament George Galloway, who also says his voicemail was hacked, has called cash settlements a legal trap that would allow News Corp to silence claimants by offering them compensation they cannot afford to refuse.

Claimants who refuse to settle and bring their cases to court could end up with huge legal bills.

(Editing by Peter Graff)

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