Green Day sued over Idiot

A 32-year-old grocery clerk from Oregon sued Green Day this week for copyright infringement, claiming that he wrote and sang all the songs on the band's smash American Idiot album when he was in high school in the early 1990s. According to the Mail Tribune in southern Oregon, Medford resident Paul McPike filed his lawsuit in US District Court claims he performed the songs that appeared on Idiot in 1992, while he was a student at Independence High School, an alternative school in Sutter Creek, California.

US Magistrate Judge John Cooney recommended dismissing the case on Monday, but gave McPike the option of filing an amended complaint detailing his copyright of the lyrics and music. McPike alleges that someone could have sent the members of Green Day a cassette tape of his recordings from 1992. In the initial complaint, McPike provided only a copy of Idiot and his claim that the words lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong sings don't exactly match those printed on the album's cover. McPike told the paper that he planned to continue researching copyright law and resubmit his case with additional evidence, which he declined to detail.

Busta won't face machete charge

A New York judge ruled that Busta Rhymes won't have to face a weapons charge stemming from an incident in which he and his crew allegedly beat up a man for spitting on his car. Rhymes--real name Trevor Smith--will still face an assault charge in the case, which will be heard in court December 11. But Criminal Court Judge Shawndya Simpson ruled today that prosecutors could not charge him with possession of a weapon because police found a machete inside the SUV he was riding in when the alleged assault occurred. According to the New York Daily News, Rhymes said nothing during the hearing. But he took a minute to tell the courtroom sketch artists, "I love it when you make me look good."

Doherty brawls with paparazzi

If Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty has gotten engaged to supermodel Kate Moss, as has been widely reported, he's not exactly in a state of premarital bliss. The singer reportedly wielded a microphone stand at fans during a show in Italy last night and later got into a huge brawl last night with a member of the paparazzi near his hotel in Rome. Doherty first brandished the mic stand when the band's drummer was hit with an object during the performance, according to the Daily Mail. The fight left Doherty covered in blood from a head wound. Doherty, 27, has had a string of arrests in London for drug possession and is undergoing a court-ordered rehabilitation program. He has since returned to London. In December, the singer is due to be sentenced on five counts of possessing heroin, cocaine, and cannabis. Last month, he avoided jail when a district judge said she was "impressed" by his attempts to combat his drug addictions through rehabilitation.

Foxy Brown gets three years' probation

Rapper Foxy Brown was sentenced today to three years' probation for a fight with two Manhattan nail salon employees, finally ending an assault case that dragged on for more than two years. The case took a turn yesterday when Brown--real name Inga Marchand--did not show for a hearing and drew the ire of the judge, who warned that Brown could face a prison term if she didn't show up today. Brown had attempted to withdraw her guilty plea but Judge Melissa C. Jackson said the agreement was legitimate and imposed the sentence.

"I'm innocent," Brown argued before the judge, claiming that she felt rushed at the time that she made the plea agreement. She also asserted that her previous lawyer had told her that she would face jail unless she agreed to the deal. Jackson rejected the appeal for a two-week extension and new arguments, instead handing down the sentence worked out in earlier negotiations. Under the plea bargain, she is also required to take anger management classes.

Hank Williams' notebook allegedly stolen

Sony/ATV Music Publishing said this week that a 59-year-old notebook that once belonged to the late country singer Hank Williams was stolen earlier this year and has now ended up in the hands of two collectors who are not suspected of having any role in the alleged theft. The notebook was reportedly taken from Sony's offices, and the publishing company's officials said they only learned that it was missing from a Chicago Sun-Times article that detailed how the collectors acquired the notebook, which contains lyrics to several unpublished Williams songs and has a value as high as $250,000.

Collectors Stephen Shutts and Robert Reynolds said they acquired the notebook this past summer after being contacted by an older Nashville-area woman last November. The two men run the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame, a traveling exhibit that includes among its 1,750 items a pair of Elvis' white underwear, circa 1970. The notebook remains in their possession. The notebook contains roughed-out song lyrics to about 20 unpublished songs and various musings written by Williams between May 2, 1947 and 1949.