LOS ANGELES (AP) – Brad Renfro was arrested in a sting operation after he allegedly tried to buy heroin near downtown’s Skid Row, police said.

The 23-year-old actor was booked for investigation of felony attempting to possess heroin, Detective Ron Hodges said.

“He was intending to buy real heroin from an undercover officer,” Hodges said.

Renfro, the star of the 1994 film “The Client,” was caught during a random sting operation Thursday that resulted in the arrests of 14 other suspects, Hodges said.

Renfro’s lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment placed after business hours Thursday.

The actor was charged in 1998 with possession of cocaine and marijuana, but avoided jail time in a plea deal.

He was sentenced to two years’ probation in January 2001 on charges of trying to steal a yacht in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

He was arrested in May 2001 and charged with underage drinking. The next year, he was charged with driving without a license and public intoxication. Both violated terms of his probation. Renfro was ordered into an alcohol rehabilitation program in March 2002.

His movie credits include “Ghost World,” “Bully” and “Apt Pupil.”

Lauper has fun on Broadway

NEW YORK (AP) -Girls just want to have fun – on Broadway.

Cyndi Lauper will join Alan Cumming, Jim Dale, Ana Gasteyer and Nellie McKay in the Roundabout Theatre Company production of “The Threepenny Opera,” opening April 20 at Broadway’s Studio 54.

The pop singer will play Jenny in the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical, which begins preview performances March 24. Cumming will portray Macheath, the show’s celebrated Mack the Knife; Dale and Gasteyer, Mr. and Mrs. Peachum; and McKay, their daughter, Polly. Scott Elliott directs.

Wallace Shawn will provide a new adaptation from the original German book and lyrics. Fashion guru Isaac Mizrahi will design the costumes.

“The Threepenny Opera” was last seen on Broadway in 1989 in a short-lived revival starring Sting as Macheath and Maureen McGovern as Polly.

Foxy shows bad attitude

NEW YORK (AP) – Rapper Foxy Brown was handcuffed, threatened with jail and made to apologize Friday after she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue in the direction of a judge who asked her to stop chewing gum.

Judge Melissa Jackson told Brown that she was showing disrespect to the court and had previously been “making faces” at the judge.

“I don’t like her attitude,” Jackson told Brown’s lawyer Joseph Fleming.

Brown, 25, who was in court to plead guilty to a misdemeanor from a ruckus at a nail salon, denied she was chewing gum. But the judge said she believed Brown was.

At that, Brown opened her mouth and wagged her tongue as if to show her mouth was empty. Jackson ordered the rapper handcuffed to the defendants’ bench along a courtroom wall.

While Brown was being handcuffed, she and a female court officer yelled at each other. Brown shouted that the numerous bracelets and bangles on her left wrist “are in the way,” and, the judge said, Brown struck the officer.

Jackson told Brown to apologize, explaining to her attorney that without an apology, she would hold Brown in contempt of court, meaning she could be jailed for up to 30 days and fined $1,000.

The rapper, both hands cuffed behind her back, appeared before the judge and said, “I apologize for my actions.”

Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, came to court with a plea deal and expected to get a nonjail sentence stemming from a fight over a manicure bill in a Manhattan nail salon. The deal hit a snag, apparently because Jackson was unsatisfied with Brown’s plea statement.

Assistant District Attorney Gary Galperin had said he believed the statement was legally and factually flawed, indicating that he believed Brown had not accepted enough blame for the fracas.

Jackson set a Jan. 23 hearing date for Brown. She is accused of assaulting two nail salon workers on Aug. 29, 2004, in a fight over payment for a manicure. Prosecutors alleged that she attacked and kicked one worker and hit a second worker in the face.

A rowdy Day at Logan Airport

BOSTON (AP) – Howie Day was arrested at Logan International Airport for rowdy behavior on a Boston-bound flight after he became intoxicated from a mix of alcohol and a sleeping pill.

The 24-year-old pop singer pleaded innocent to a charge of interfering with a flight crew at his arraignment Friday in East Boston District Court. He was released on personal recognizance and refused to comment to reporters afterward. He’s due back in court March 16.

Authorities said the charge carries a fine of $10 to $500, a jail term of one month to six months, or both.

Day, who is from Brewer, Maine, was returning home for the holidays and took a pill to help him sleep on the flight from Dallas, said his lawyer, Paul Kelley.

“He had a couple of drinks. The pill interacted with the drinks and he became intoxicated.

He feels badly if he inconvenienced anyone, or caused any discomfort,” Kelley told reporters outside court. “He has and will apologize, and our hope is that we’ll be able to resolve this thing as promptly as possible.”

David Procopio, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office, said Day smoked a cigarette in the airplane bathroom.

“He was verbally abusive to the flight crew and was kicking the backs of seats of passengers in front of him,” Procopio said.

The flight arrived at Logan on Thursday.

In March 2004, Day was arrested in Madison, Wis., for allegedly locking a woman in the bathroom of a tour bus after she refused his sexual advances. He then broke the cell phone of another woman who tried to call police, according to the criminal complaint.

The singer-songwriter received critical acclaim for his 2003 album, “Stop All the World Now.”