Spector charged in murder

Record producer Phil Spector was charged in an indictment unsealed Monday with murder in the shooting death of a B-movie actress at his mansion last year, reports The Associated Press.

Spector, 64, leaned on the arm of his attorney as the indictment in the slaying of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson was read, but showed no emotion. Outside court, he railed at prosecutors, comparing District Attorney Steve Cooley to Adolf Hitler.

“The actions of the Hitler-like DA and his storm-trooper henchmen are reprehensible, unconscionable and despicable,” said Spector, who remains free on $1 million bail.

He spoke only briefly in court, answering, “Yes, your honor,” to Judge David S. Wesley’s questions. Lesley set Dec. 16 as the earliest possible trial date.

Spector suggested in an interview with Esquire magazine that Clarkson shot herself.

If he had been allowed a preliminary hearing, Spector said, his attorneys would have called to the witness stand three of the foremost forensic scientists and coroners in the world and each would have testified that Clarkson shot herself.

Prosecutors avoided a preliminary hearing by taking the case directly to a grand jury, which returned the indictments.

District attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said that was done, in part, to avoid any further delay in bringing Spector to trial for the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting.

“It’s been almost two years since Ms. Clarkson was killed in Mr. Spector’s home and it’s time for a trial,” she said. “We believe there is a crime. We charged a crime. And that crime is murder. Nothing is politically motivated in this case.”

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Latifah belting standards

DENVER (AP) – Queen Latifah is getting a little jazzier.

Five albums and 15 years after her hard-hitting hip-hop debut “All Hail the Queen,” Queen Latifah is poised to release the jazz-obsessed “The Dana Owens Album” in which she sings standards.

“This is definitely not a one-shot deal,” the singer, whose real name is Dana Owens, told The Denver Post in Sunday’s editions. “Hopefully, with the success of it, I’ll be in it till I’m dead. I’ve always looked at singing as something I can do forever. I don’t know if I can rap forever. I don’t know that I can stay as hot as the hottest girl in the game.”

It was her experience in the 1998 feature film “Living Out Loud,” co-starring alongside Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito, that led to her new album. She played nightclub singer Liz Bailey and sang a couple of jazz standards.

“The Dana Owens Album” is released this week.

The new album, where she tackles songs by Al Green and The Mamas & the Papas, is something of a departure for an artist whose last record was “Order in the Court,” one of 1998’s better efforts at combining R&B and hip-hop.

But she said she has a fully formed and finished hip-hop album in her back pocket just waiting for the right label. “I figured I’d drop this album first,” she said. Still, her long-term plans are obvious. “Don’t be surprised if I’m 65 and playing Vegas.”

Olsen empire gets bigger

The massive media empire owned by college freshmen Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen has grown even larger.

The Hollywood Reporter says the gals have signed a 10-year distribution deal with Warner Home Video, which reportedly has netted the twins an “eight-figure (that’s $10 mil and up) advance against future net proceeds from sales of the twin’s made-for-video flicks. Their video franchise has already grossed about $1 billion since ‘93.