Cat Stevens fund-raiser set

LONDON (AP) – The singer formerly known as Cat Stevens will headline a fund-raising concert in Indonesia for victims of the Asian tsunami.

Yusuf Islam will have top billing at Monday’s concert in Jakarta that will raise money for victims, according to his Web site.

Islam has composed a new song, “Indian Ocean,” and recently recorded it with musicians. The song will be released in February to raise money for children orphaned by the disaster.

“Like everyone else, I was so shaken by the enormity of this human tragedy, and the song just came without effort,” the 56-year-old singer said in the statement.

The track includes the use of instruments, which Islam has avoided since embracing Islam, but he cautioned: “It’s not a return to Cat Stevens, I see it more as a natural response to express my concern as a Muslim and as an artist; I believe both can exist side by side particularly when the cause is right.”

On the Net:

http://www.yusufislam.org.uk

Tamblyn bored by ‘Joan’

Is “Joan of “Arcadia’s” star being a difficult diva, or is she just being wise beyond her years? You judge: Amber Tamblyn, 21, tells TV Guide that she’s bored playing the teenage gal who talks to God on the CBS drama. So bored, she might walk away from it all. “I like to be challenged,” she says. “Joan’s life is tough. Her reactions are not as hard as they should be. I want to see her more challenged.”

Her ennui seems to stem from the show’s characteristically neat, and very chipper, endings – whenever trouble arises, Joan easily handles it, with the aid of the deity in serious deus ex machina mode.

But the show’s executive producer, Stephen Nathan, says these “creative differences … are the norm,” and he tells the world Tamblyn is a phenomenal talent.

– Knight Ridder Newspapers

‘Brady’ Barry gets divorce

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The wife of former “The Brady Bunch” kid Barry Williams has filed for divorce, according to court papers.

Barry, 50, who played Greg Brady on the ’70s sitcom, married Eila Mary Matt Williams in 1999. The couple formally separated earlier this month and have a 2-year-old son, according to the divorce petition filed Tuesday in Superior Court.

Williams requested sole custody of their son and asked that her husband have visits only with a nanny present, according to the petition.

Barry Williams works in musical theater, makes public speaking tours and wrote a memoir titled, “Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg.”

Williams was married to Diane Martin from 1990-1992.

On the Net:

http://www.barrywilliams.com/

Jacko’s parents speak out

In an interview set to air on CBS’s “48 Hours” Saturday at 10 p.m., Michael Jackson’s parents speak out about their son, his impending trial and the tribulations that their daughter Janet went through after last year’s Super Bowl.

Asked how Jackson matriarch Katherine was handling Michael’s trial on child-molestation charges (it’s set to begin Monday), Joe Jackson said, “She’s not doing well. She’s taking it very, very hard. … She’s awake crying … She’s having problems with her heart.”

Katherine Jackson, for her part, said Michael tunes out the rabid TV coverage of his case to protect himself from hearing too much. And she chastised former Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake for his part in the Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” in which Janet’s breast was bared on TV.

“What I didn’t like is there wasn’t one person on that stage,” she said in the CBS interview, which was excerpted by the New York Daily News.

Joe chimed in with, “We were surprised that they didn’t say anything to Justin about it.”

“I called (Janet) and I told her, I said, “You know what? I’m the first to tell you: That shouldn’t have happened,”‘ Katherine said.

– Knight Ridder Newspapers