BURBANK, Calif. (AP) – Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas can count the King of Pop among his fans.

Michael Jackson invited the rapper-producer to collaborate on some new tracks for an upcoming album. That led to the two getting together at a recording studio in Ireland, Jackson says in a two-part interview with “Access Hollywood” set to air Thursday and Friday.

“I like what he is doing and thought it would be interesting to collaborate or just see how the chemistry worked,” Jackson says. “I think he’s doing wonderful, innovative, positive, great music.”

Jackson hasn’t released a new record since 2001. But he says he never stopped writing music.

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) – Anna Nicole Smith has been hospitalized with pneumonia at the same medical center where her 20-year-old son died under mysterious circumstances in September, an attorney for the reality TV star said Tuesday.

Smith, whose son died while visiting her in the hospital three days after she gave birth to daughter Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, was being treated at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, attorney Wayne Munroe said.

“She has a slight case of pneumonia,” Munroe told The Associated Press. “We’ve had a sudden change of weather here due to a cold snap.”

The attorney said the hospitalization was most likely just a precaution since Smith, 38, had recently given birth.

“I didn’t gather it was anything serious,” he said.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – The head of a Cambodian aid group has denied allegations that donations by Angelina Jolie for a conservation project had been misappropriated.

Trevor Neilson, philanthropic and political adviser for Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt, told The Associated Press in New York that “hundreds of thousands of dollars” were missing.

He was responding to allegations by Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian Vision in Development, that Jolie had reneged on an agreement by stopping funds for his group.

“The sad reality is that this person who made these allegations was fired because we believe (he) stole” Jolie’s donations, Neilson said Monday. He didn’t elaborate or say whether action would be taken to recover the funds.

On Tuesday, Mounh Sarath denied the allegations and said he “will fight any lawsuit to find out the truth and to see if they have any documented proof of the money stolen.”

The 31-year-old actress has promised up to $1.3 million over five years for a forest conservation program that was approved by the Cambodia government in 2003.

She terminated the contract with Cambodian Vision in Development in December, and has set up an independent Cambodian organization to administer the conservation project for remote northwestern areas of Cambodia, Stephan Bognar, executive director of the Maddox Jolie Project, said Monday.

NEW YORK (AP) – Heavy D has sued an insurance company for $1.5 million the rapper says it owes him after nine people were crushed to death in a stampede at a 1991 celebrity basketball game he helped organize.

Some 5,000 people showed up at a City College of New York gymnasium, which had a capacity of about 2,700, for the Dec. 28, 1991, event. Fans crowded down a stairwell to a closed door, where people at the bottom were crushed, nine fatally.

The 39-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dwight Myers, says in court papers that he bought a $1 million policy from National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh in 1989 that covered him for anything involving his work as an entertainer.

Myers contends his entertainment work included the heavily promoted basketball game featuring music stars that he, rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and others organized at the college’s Nat Holman Gymnasium.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, says the insurance company exhausted its legal appeals and has been ordered by the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division to reimburse Myers for payments to victims or their families.

Myers seeks reimbursement of $791,899 – plus interest of $381,167 – for personal-injury and wrongful-death claims, and is asking for $324,919 for legal fees and costs incurred in suing the insurance company.

A spokesman for the insurance company, Peter Tulupman, said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Myers’ lawyer, Paul Martin, said Monday the lawsuit seeks a determination of how much National Union will have to pay his client.

SANTA MONICA (AP) – Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff together again, beachside.

The former “Baywatch” stars were in a Santa Monica hotel, just off the Pacific Ocean, Monday night for an event trumpeting the release of DVD box sets of the first two seasons of their long-running series.

They were joined by Traci Bingham, Jeremy Jackson and Donna D’Errico, among others.

The show, which was produced from 1989-2001, followed the lives and loves of a group of California lifeguards.

While her trademark curves are still intact, Anderson looked unusually trim as she walked the red carpet and discussed the DVDs. “I’m excited,” she said. “I want my kids to see it and then they’ll know how cool their mom is.”

After making her mark on the hit sitcom “Home Improvement,” Anderson became a “Baywatch” cast regular in the series’ second season in 1992. She stayed with the show for five years.

“Every day was so fun,” she recalled. “It’s the best job in the world, being at the beach every day with my dog and my kids … Nothing has compared to it since.”

Hasselhoff looked tired as he made his way down the press line.

NEW YORK (AP) – Van Halen is trying to make their biggest “jump” yet – into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with potential 2007 classmates such as R.E.M., Chic, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

All are among the nine nominees for enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. A panel of 500 industry experts will select five to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 12 in New York City.

To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years prior to nomination.

Van Halen and R.E.M. came from opposite sides of the 1980s rock ‘n’ roll spectrum. Led by cartoonish frontman David Lee Roth and fleet-fingered guitarist Eddie Van Halen, the California quartet was a hard rock favorite with songs like “Jump” and “Hot for Teacher.” R.E.M., meanwhile, was the quintessential indie rock band until breaking through to mass success in the early 1990s.

Grandmaster Flash led the most innovative act in early hip-hop, and the song “The Message” was like a letter from urban America.

Chic, a funk group led by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, were one of the few acts to dominate the disco era and emerge with their reputation intact through songs such as the wedding band favorite “Good Times.”

Other nominees include Patti Smith, the punk rock poet who recently presided over the closing of New York’s legendary CBGB nightclub; British invader the Dave Clark Five; Phil Spector favorites the Ronettes; soul singer Joe Tex; and the Stooges, early home of Iggy Pop.

The foundation that selects inductees is based in New York City, not at the museum.