Shakira, fellow stars launch foundation

Poor children in Latin America have a new ally, and her hips don't lie. Shakira, fellow Colombian and Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Latin musicians Ruben Blades, Juanes, Ricky Martin, the rock group Mana, Aleks Syntek, David Bisbal, and Alejandro Sanz collectively have launched a foundation to fight child poverty in Latin America. The artists plan to hold five concerts, starting next year, to collect funds for the foundation, which is also being backed by businessmen from the region. The foundation, dubbed Latin America in Solidarity Action, will be headed by Spanish singer Miguel Bose. Shakira also founded the Colombia-based nonprofit foundation Pies Descalzos, or Barefoot, which helps the child victims of violence in that South American country. The singer performed a benefit concert for the group in October. "We all have to do our part to fight against inequality," Shakira said in a statement.

Wrestler expands lawsuit over hand sign

Diamond Dallas Page is looking to get paid, and he just expanded the pool of people he hopes will have to pay him. A Los Angeles Federal Court judge this week granted the former pro wrestler's motion to add several entities as defendants in the lawsuit he filed in December 2005 against Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella Records over the rapper's use of a diamond hand gesture. Page has accused the rapper of trademark and copyright infringement, and now Rocawear, Roc Apparel Group LLC, Urban Menswear LLC, and Rocawear Licensing LLC have been added to the lawsuit. Page seeks an injunction to prevent Jay-Z from using the symbol, as well as an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

Franz Ferdinand front man's food tome hits stores

Sound Bites, an off-beat restaurant guide from the pen of Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos, is in stores. As previously reported, the Glasgow-based singer has been writing a regular food column for the British newspaper The Guardian, and the new book is culled from those columns. In the columns, Kapranos chronicles the wide array of eateries he finds himself in while on tour with his band, taking a unique look at the culture of restaurants from all over the world, as well as the food itself. The book includes tales of Kapranos' consumption of fish-brain bread from Finland, gizzard salad in Paris, bull's testicles in Buenos Aires, and potentially fatal blowfish in Osaka. "I never eat predictably," he writes. "I've chipped my molars on tiny pearls from mussels in Brussels. Yes, food is still an adventure."

The Streets giving away his winnings

The Streets' Mike Skinner is putting his notorious gambling habit to good use--at least for one lucky fan. The British rapper reportedly won more than £1,000 ($1,960) in cash at a UK casino during a Christmas party thrown for his record label Beats last week, and now he plans to make someone's holiday season by giving away his winnings. "I walked away with £1,025 in cash, mainly in £50 notes," he wrote in his blog. "I woke up with 1,020 due to a certain lady taking five on the way out to work the next morning. But I've decided to give it away in a special Beats competition to someone who can use it to have a good Christmas." To win the cash, fans must listen to the new song "Solemate" by labelmates Mitchell Brothers at the band's MySpace page and then e-mail Skinner at mike@the-beats.co.uk to describe the song's hidden meaning.

Lupe dreams of Pink Floyd collabo

Some might say he has a better chance of learning to fly, but rapper Lupe Fiasco is hoping to collaborate with legendary rock band Pink Floyd in some capacity for his next album. Fiasco told Billboard this week that he knows the prospect of getting the dormant British rock group to sign off on such an idea is remote, but that isn't stopping him from pressing forward. To convince the Floyd members, Fiasco said he'll draw from his experience in getting jazz pianist Chick Corea to approve a sample for the track "American Terrorist" from his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor.

"'American Terrorist' wasn't going to be on the album, because we heard Chick Corea doesn't like hip-hop," Fiasco told Billboard. "But we went the extra mile to make sure he heard the rest of the record and could see that there was no cursing, and that there was positivity. We were taking extra care with his work and not putting any garbage out there. It's that same approach with Floyd. I'm really serious!" Fiasco said the next album will be titled The Cool.