NEW YORK (AP) – Christian Slater has been arrested and charged with groping a woman on a Manhattan street.

Slater, 35, was accused of touching the woman’s buttocks near 93rd Street and Third Avenue on the Upper East Side around 1:50 a.m. Tuesday, said a police spokesman, Detective John Sweeney.

The woman, who wasn’t identified, flagged down police to report the incident, Sweeney said. Slater was found nearby and the woman identified him as the man who had groped her.

Slater, who’s appearing on Broadway in “The Glass Menagerie,” was arrested on a charge of third-degree sexual abuse. His screen credits include “Heathers,” “Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles” and “Broken Arrow.”

He filed for divorce earlier this year from TV producer Ryan Haddon, citing irreconcilable differences.

In 2003, Haddon was accused of hitting Slater with a drinking glass during a fight in their Las Vegas hotel room. She was jailed briefly, but no charges were filed.

In 1998, Slater served 59 days in jail in La Verne, Calif., on battery and drug charges. Good behavior cut down his three-month sentence. He pleaded no contest to the charges in an August 1997 incident, when he binged on drugs and alcohol, beat his girlfriend during a brawl and assaulted a police officer.

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Cyndi Lauper may have sold millions of albums, but that doesn’t mean she wants to pay much more than $500 a month for her Manhattan apartment.

Lauper, 51, and her husband, David Thornton, an actor whose screen credits include “A Civil Action” and “Swept Away,” are suing the owners of their luxury apartment building. Lauper and Thornton claim they were cheated out of thousands of dollars in rent in a scheme to end rent stabilization for their residence.

Lawyers for the two sides are scheduled to appear June 7 in appeals court.

In 1992, 390 West End Associates entered into a lease with Shlomo Baron. While the prior tenant had paid $508 a month for the rent-stabilized apartment, Baron agreed to pay $2,400 a month under an agreement that he wouldn’t use it as his primary residence.

Baron then sublet the apartment to the Thorntons for $3,250 a month, according to court documents.

Six months later, a state Supreme Court judge ruled the apartment was exempt from the rent-stabilization law because it wasn’t Baron’s primary residence.

In 1996, the Thorntons sued Baron, seeking to recover what they paid in excess of the legal stabilized rent plus damages. In 1999, 390 West End moved to vacate the judgment it won in getting the apartment exempted from rent stabilization on the grounds its agreement with Baron was illegal. That motion, which ended the lease with Baron, was granted in 2000.

Subsequently, the Thorntons sued 390 West End, seeking to have their rent reduced to the stabilized price of $508 a month. The Supreme Court determined the rent should be set at $989 a month.

Lauper is known for her ‘80s hits “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Time After Time” and “I Drove All Night.”

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On the Net:

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ctapps/

http://www.cyndilaupermusic.com/

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Normally, a Jay Leno motorcycle on tour to raise money for tsunami relief wouldn’t stop at a Little Rock museum.

That was until the Clinton Presidential Library a few blocks away became a home base of sorts for the country’s most prominent tsunami relief effort.

“We thought it was fitting to bring the bike to Little Rock because of President Clinton’s efforts in tsunami relief and to help out the Museum of Discovery’s newest exhibit,” said George Wheatley, director of governmental affairs for Waste Management, which bought the motorcycle on the eBay Internet auction site. “Hopefully, this bike will continue to help raise awareness and funds for the ongoing tsunami relief efforts.”

Waste Management raised more than $800,000 for the American Red Cross’ aid for victims of the Asian tsunami by purchasing Leno’s Harley-Davidson, which the NBC “Tonight Show” host had signed by more than 60 celebrities, including Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx and Nicole Kidman.

The bike will be displayed for a week starting Friday. It will be the first time on its national tour that the bike will be displayed in a museum, Wheatley said.

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Slipknot hit the stage despite a request by Greece’s Orthodox Church for organizers to cancel the show because of the band’s lyrics and references to the devil.

The band performed Monday night at the open-air Lykavitos theater. Concert organizers couldn’t be reached for comment.

Slipknot’s “I Am Hated” includes the lyrics: “The whole world is my enemy – and I’m a walking target/ Two times the devil with all the significance/ Dragged and raped for the love of a mob/ I can’t stay – because I can’t be stopped.”

“The members of the band have a shocking appearance, wearing black uniforms and masks that look like skulls,” the church said in a statement, citing a local press report.

The statement added: “Public institutions must do their duty and protect Greek citizens, especially young people, from any public event that promotes Satanism.”

Slipknot is touring to promote its new CD, “Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses).”

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On the Net:

http://www.slipknot1.com/

AP-ES-05-31-05 1458EDT