NEW YORK (AP) – Paparazzi, beware. George Clooney has a plan to put celeb-snapping photographers out of business.

“Here is my theory on debunking photographs in magazines, you know, the paparazzi photographs,” Clooney says in the November issue of Vanity Fair, on newsstands Oct. 10. “I want to spend every single night for three months going out with a different famous actress. You know, Halle Berry one night, Salma Hayek the next, and then walk on the beach holding hands with Leonardo DiCaprio.

“People would still buy the magazines, they’d still buy the pictures, but they would always go, “I don’t know if these guys were putting us on or not.”‘

The 45-year-old actor-director, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in “Syriana,” might loathe the tabloids, but he does have good things to say about his fellow thespians.

“I will tell you right now – (Cate Blanchett) will win the Oscar,” he says of his co-star in the upcoming drama “The Good German.” “She’s the best actor working today. Not actress, she’s an actor. Intimidating, in a way, to work with an actor that good.”

He says Johnny Depp “just keeps doing really good stuff. He’s just a really, really smart and good actor.” And he thinks Clive Owen is “the big find in the past two or three years.”

“I think he’s a movie star,” Clooney says. “He’s, like, a man – there’s a sexuality and a masculinity that I think is really interesting.”

Alrighty then.

CANTON, Mass. (AP) – Being Bobby Brown ain’t easy these days.

A family judge ordered the singer arrested if he steps foot in Massachusetts after Brown failed to show for a hearing Monday over delinquent child support payments.

Brown’s attorney said it’s a “very difficult time” for Brown, 37, whose tumultuous marriage to Whitney Houston is coming to an end. She filed for a legal separation earlier this month.

“Whether or not he’s going through a divorce doesn’t negate the fact that he still owes child support relative to his two children that he had prior to his marriage,” said Norfolk Probate and Family Court Judge Paula Carey.

Kim Ward, of Stoughton, the mother of two of Brown’s children, says Brown owes two months’ support, or $11,000.

In June 2004, Brown was sentenced to 90 days in prison for missing three months of payments. That sentence was immediately suspended after Brown made back payments totaling about $15,000.

Brown’s attorney, Phaedra Parks, would not say where Brown, a Boston native, is currently living.

“It’s just a very difficult time for him, as you can well imagine,” said Parks, an Atlanta-based entertainment lawyer. “The media is very aware of this very public divorce that’s going on right now. It’s unfortunate we find ourselves back in Boston on this matter.”

Brown gained fame as a member of New Edition and for his 1988 hit solo album.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Eric Clapton is playing “Cocaine” in concert again.

The recovering drug addict and alcoholic, who founded the Crossroads Centre addiction recovery center on the Caribbean island of Antigua, stopped performing the song written by J.J. Cale when he first got sober.

“I thought that it might be giving the wrong message to people who were in the same boat as me,” Clapton recently told The Associated Press.

“But further investigation proved … the song, if anything, if it’s not even ambivalent, it’s an anti-drug song. And so I thought that might be a better way to do it, to approach it from a more positive point of view. And carry on performing it as not a pro-drug song, but just as a reality check about what it does.”

Clapton’s band shouts out “dirty cocaine” during the song.

“It’s one of those songs that you can take it any way you like,” Clapton told the AP. “But it very clearly says in the opening verse, “If you wanna get down, down on the ground,’ I mean, that’s, I think, the focal point of the song. That’s what the song’s about, is that, you know, there’s a price.”

Clapton also said he missed playing “Cocaine,” with its signature guitar riff, “just purely from a musical point of view.”

Clapton, 61, is on the North American leg of his world tour. His duet CD with Cale, “The Road to Escondido,” is scheduled for release Nov. 7.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello was arrested during a protest for hotel worker rights last week in Los Angeles.

According to Morello’s social activism Web site, Axis of Justice, he was one of about 400 protesters arrested during a march last Thursday to raise awareness for immigrant hotel workers’ rights.

He was charged with unlawful assembly for refusing to move from the main entry road into Los Angeles International Airport.

Morello, 42, spent the evening in lockup and was released Friday morning. “Bail was high,” he said – each arrestee had to pay $5,000. But, he added, “spirits were higher. We had a rousing civil rights-era-like hootenanny on ‘the inside.”‘

In 2005, Audioslave played a free show in Cuba. It was the first American rock group to perform in that country in 26 years.

“Revelations,” the band’s latest album, was released last month.

NEW YORK (AP) – Avril Lavigne has agreed that spitting at the paparazzi is probably not a good thing to do.

Lavigne issued a statement apologizing after she and her husband, Deryck Whibley of Sum 41, clashed with some of the pesky photographers in Los Angeles.

According to reports, Lavigne spat in two separate incidents last week. Lavigne apologized for her “behavior with the paparazzi.”

However, her apology, posted on her Web site, indicated she “meant no offense” to her fans – not the paparazzi. She said she will always go out of her way for fans.

She also said her behavior was “a reaction to the persistent attack from the paparazzi” and she said “it’s trying at best dealing with their insistent intrusions.”

Lavigne and Whibley married in July after having dated since early 2004

Lavigne is among the ensemble in Richard Linklater’s upcoming adaptation of the best-seller “Fast Food Nation,” about fast-food culture, due to open in November. She was also the voice of Heather the opossum in “Over the Hedge.” Her last album release was “Under My Skin” in 2004.

LONDON (AP) – George Michael was arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana after police found him slumped over the steering wheel of his car in London, authorities said Monday.

Michael was arrested after police responded to complaints that a car was blocking an intersection in North London at 3:22 a.m. Sunday. He received a caution for possession of cannabis and was released on bail on a charge of being unfit to drive. He has a November court date.

Just a week earlier, Michael gave his first solo concert in 15 years. The Spain show kicked off his new tour, “25 Live,” which is scheduled for 28 European cities this fall.

Michael rose to fame in the 1980s as half of the duo Wham! before starting his solo career.

Police had earlier warned Michael for possession of cannabis in February.

In April, he hit three parked cars. He later acknowledged in an interview that he was a “terrible driver” and said he was trying to maneuver out of a parking spot.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Robert Downey Jr. will star as the latest Marvel Comics superhero to hit the big screen.

Downey will play the title character in “Iron Man,” a film directed by Jon Favreau. Filming is scheduled to begin in February, with the movie due in theaters in May 2008.

It will be the first feature film produced independently by Marvel Entertainment.

“(Downey’s) versatility sets him apart and makes him an ideal fit to play such a complex character as Iron Man,” said Kevin Feige, president of production for Marvel Studios.

“Iron Man” is the story of billionaire industrialist and inventor Tony Stark, who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, he builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes, vowing to protect the world as a superhero.

Downey most recently starred in Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly,” and can be seen in “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” currently in theaters.

“Iron Man” will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

HONOLULU (AP) – Thousands of fans swamped Waikiki to get a glimpse of the stars of ABC’s castaway drama “Lost” and see a preview of the third season.

The entire cast of the show attended the red-carpet event Saturday night to promote the season premiere, which airs Wednesday. The show is filmed in Hawaii.

The crowd welcomed each cast member with loud cheers, and some fans got autographs.

Before the season’s first episode was shown on the big screen, producers asked that the audience keep quiet about it until after it airs on TV.

Cast members said they were flattered by the reception.

“Believe it or not, this doesn’t happen every day,” said Terry O’Quinn, who plays Locke on the show. “I’m not used to it, but I don’t mind it. I’ve never been to a Hollywood premiere, but can’t imagine anything surpassing it.”

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – “American Idol” Carrie Underwood is the latest celebrity to appear on a poster for the Oklahoma Library Association’s “Read Y’all” literacy campaign.

Posters featuring the country singer from Checotah will be distributed free to every academic, public, school and special library in the state, said Buffy Edwards, poster coordinator for the campaign.

Other Oklahomans to appear on the posters include country star Toby Keith, actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth, actor James Garner, author Dana Dunbar and New Orleans Hornets star Desmond Mason.

Gov. Brad Henry and first lady Kim Henry were featured on the first poster in 2003.

“I think Carrie Underwood just represents Oklahoma in such a positive manner,” Edwards said. “She’s grounded in her upbringing. She’s proud of her state. She appeals to a very wide age range.

“I think America fell in love with Carrie Underwood on ‘American Idol,’ and we’re very lucky she’s from our state.”