HSM 2 star's rep confirms nude photo

A nude photo circulating on the Internet purported to be Vanessa Hudgens, the star of the wildly popular High School Musical movies, is indeed the 18-year-old actress, a spokesman for Hudgens has confirmed.

"This was a photo, which was taken privately," Jill Fritzo, Hudgens' publicist, told the Associated Press on Friday. "It is a personal matter, and it is unfortunate that this has become public."

The photo shows the 18-year-old actress standing naked in what appears to be a bathroom, with a red shower curtain behind her. The Disney Channel denied a published report that Hudgens will be dropped from the upcoming feature film High School Musical 3. That movie is in development and negotiations with the stars are incomplete.

Hudgens portrayed Gabriella, the brainy love interest of Zac Efron's basketball star in the first two High School Musical TV movies. The two are said to be dating in real life. High School Musical 2 garnered more than 17 million viewers for its premiere in August, the most-watched television program of the summer

Wyclef says Hill needs help

They were once the duo responsible for propelling the Fugees to the top of the world. Now Wyclef Jean says his one-time bandmate Lauryn Hill needs psychiatric help. Jean, in the midst of promoting his forthcoming solo album, Carnival II, was asked by MTV News about Hill, who has been touring sporadically over the past year and has been ridiculed by some for her appearance, late arrivals, and decision to play radically different versions of Fugees' songs and her own solo work.

"At this point, I really think it will take an act of God to change her because she is that far out there," Wyclef told MTV. "Lauryn Hill...Mrs. Hill...The Hill...Should go see a psychiatrist--period--Just seek help!"

Hill is believed to be the primary reason the Fugees have not reunited over the years and why their attempted reunion in late 2005 was aborted. Fellow Fugee Pras was asked about a possible reunion last month and said, "Before I work with Lauryn Hill again, you will have a better chance of seeing Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush in Starbucks having a latte."

Bjork preps live album

Bjork has spent the better part of the summer touring in support of her latest album, Volta, which hit stores in May. But according to a post on her Web site, the Icelandic songstress is set to release "a special live session album" she recorded "a few weeks ago" with her current touring band at Olympic Studios in London.

Bjork told Billboard.com that the group, which includes LFO electronics wizard Mark Bell and Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale, as well as a 10-piece, all-female brass section from Iceland, gives her tremendous flexibility in her music.

"I started with arranging my old stuff to brass," she said, "seeing what of it would work. A lot of the songs that were previously done with strings turned out even better with brass. Having a keyboardist means I can do songs with harpsichord, clavichord, celeste, and voice only--the more lyrical side of my songs. But having two guys on electronics and one drummer means that I can go as macho as it is possible for me [and] do the hooligan songs. The brass helps out, with that obviously being quite 'butch,' but also makes it easy for me to do musically complex numbers. So overall, the importance is on dynamism--really, really quiet songs and really, really loud ones."

Phil Spector trial nears conclusion

Now in its fifth month and more than four years after the shooting death of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, the murder trial of legendary music producer Phil Spector is set to conclude. Defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden finished her closing arguments this afternoon, with the prosecution expected to provide a rebuttal later today. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler was to then instruct the jurors and said the case might be turned over to them for deliberations on Monday.

Spector, 67, is accused of second-degree murder. Clarkson, 40, died of a gunshot fired in her mouth while seated in a chair in the foyer of Spector's mansion about 5 a.m. on February 3, 2003. The star of the 1985 cult film Barbarian Queen had gone home with him from her job as a hostess at a nightclub, where she met him a few hours earlier.

In her closing arguments, Kenney-Baden attempted to discount the prosecution's witnesses, saying that five women who testified that Spector threatened them with guns long ago did not reveal a motive for his alleged shooting of Lana Clarkson.

The prosecution claims that after a night of heavy drinking, Spector invited her to his mansion, where he put a gun into her mouth and fired, before confessing to his driver: "I think I killed somebody". The defense claims that Clarkson, depressed about her fading career and addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs, put the gun into her mouth and killed herself.

Gainsbourg recovering from brain surgery

French singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, who underwent emergency brain surgery in Paris this week after doctors found a blood clot on her brain following her complaints of headaches, is "out of danger" and recovering, a spokesperson told BBC News.

Gainsbourg, daughter of French legend Serge Gainsbourg and a talented singer in her own right, had hit her head in a minor water-skiing accident in the US a few months ago, but was hospitalized earlier this week after the hematoma was discovered. Gainsbourg is expected to leave intensive care "in the coming days."

Gainsbourg, who starred in director Michel Gondry's 2006 film, Science of Sleep, released her second solo album, 5:55 last year.