I’m always a little hesitant to publish anything that shows up first on Perez Hilton’s site – but this story is getting picked up by several other media outlets and appears to be legit – if bizarre. According to Perez’s “exclusive” Karrine “Superhead” Steffans claims that she’s been physically attacked by her boyfriend, Darius McCrary – who played Eddie Winslow on Family Matters. The reason this story is odd – aside from the fact that anything related to Steffans is subject to speculation – is that she reported the news to Perez directly via text message at 4:47 in the morning.

“It’s Karrine. U have to help me. My boyfriend just tried to run over me with his car. [I] Just made a police report. In August, he placed me in a choke hold at a strip club on my birthday. There’s a report and photos of that. There was another choking I never reported but is now being investigated. I lied to the city attny to save his ass but I’m DONE. He’ll kill me if I go on with this. YES…Eddie Winslow from Family Matters! I have to give you this story. Pls!”

Wow. That is some very serious stuff.

Thankfully the police are looking into it and the allegations against Darius McCrary.

[From Perez Hilton]

McCrary, 32, is starring in the upcoming Transformers sequel.

It seems a little odd that the person Steffans would go to for “help” is Perez Hilton. That’s who you go to when you want everyone to hear your gossip. But you would THINK someone who’d just been beaten up would want to get far away to someplace quiet and safe. Probably staying with family or good friends.

I don’t ever want to doubt the validity of a potential domestic violence victim’s story. But drama seems to follow Superhead wherever she goes. And her phrasing seems very dramatic, for example not saying who the guy’s name is until the end, with the line, “YES…Eddie Winslow from Family Matters!” And the “I have to give you this story” line also seems a little odd to me. Nonetheless, we’ll keep you updated on the story.

Header of McCrary at the premiere of ‘Why Did I Get Married?’ on April 10, 2007; and Karrine Steffans at Niecy Nash’s Birthday Soiree on January 3rd. Images thanks to WENN.

Amy Winehouse sure knows how to keep it classy. After doing her best to clean herself up for her husband Blake Civil-Fielder’s pre-trial hearings on Monday (and by best, I mean her nicest beehive and too-tight skirt), but the attempt seems to be short-lived. Today she didn’t bother to show up until 3 in the afternoon, wearing a shirt with stains on it, and generally caused a scene throughout the ENTIRE half an hour she managed to stay in the courtroom.

Amy Winehouse gave her verdict on court Wednesday, announcing aloud as pretrial arguments were going on in her husband’s case: “It’s like Disneyland.”

Fielder-Civil, who spent the first part of the afternoon with his face buried in his right hand, appeared to come to life as his wife arrived. As they did on Monday, (Winehouse did not appear in court Tuesday) the pair beamed at each other across the courtroom, raising their eyebrows, winking and blowing each other kisses.

At one point, Fielder-Civil motioned to his lawyer, who brought him paper and pen, apparently to write Winehouse a note. After the court usher shook his head no, the lawyer only whispered to Winehouse, but did not pass her the note.

The singer got up and left after about a half hour. She was unsteady on her feet and whispered “f— you” as she left.

[From People]

Ahh, the traditional “F-you.” I find few things are more likely to turn a biased judge’s favor towards your husband than uttering one of the more offensive curses. Whispered or not, it clearly was audible. But you know, let’s be fair here. If Winehouse didn’t do that, she might have just brought too much elegance and grace to the court proceedings. Really, such sophistication would have caused a major distraction in court. Amy Winehouse behaving herself is much bigger news than Amy Winehouse uttering obscenities and eyeball flirting with her husband. Yeah I know that was oddly specific, but I keep thinking of this picture for some reason.

Can’t you just imagine Winehouse and Civil-Fielder exchanging googly eyes like this at each other throughout court proceedings? I don’t even want to guess what was on the note Blake tried to pass Amy, but I’m guessing that anyone passing notes at 24-years-old is probably making fun of the judge’s wig… and then trying to get some drugs. We all know what Amy keeps in the beehive.

Here’s Amy returning home in London today after her grueling half-hour at Blake’s trial. WENN notes: “Amy Winehouse arriving home from court clutching her arm after reportedly hurting it during a clash with photographers earlier in the day. She is also carrying a bottle of Malibu.” Images thanks to WENN.

The R. Kelly child pornography trial just gets weirder and weirder. And a good deal of it is downright disgusting. In testimony yesterday, the prosecution’s star witness (and three-way sex tape participator) Lisa Van Allen said Kelly carried around a duffel bag filled with his homemade sex tapes. She said wherever Kelly went, the bag went. Not necessarily for safekeeping, but for easy access. Van Allen had a relationship with Kelly from early 1998 to 2001.

R&B superstar R. Kelly carried a duffel bag filled with homemade sex videotapes wherever he went, a woman testified Monday. While making one such tape, Kelly cut off the filming when the woman — Lisa Van Allen — started crying during three-way sex with an underage girl, Van Allen testified.

“He got upset and said he couldn’t watch that. He couldn’t do anything with that, with me crying. He stopped the camera,” Van Allen said. The tapes Kelly liked went with him to his recording studio, to his favorite basketball gym — Hoops on the near West Side — and to video shoots, she said.

“Wherever he was at, the [duffel] bag would follow,” Van Allen said.

[From the Chicago Sun-Times]

Van Allen also described her relationship with Kelly and how many times they made sex tapes.

Van Allen’s testimony — covering her relationship with Kelly and how she ultimately became a witness against him — came under fierce attack by the defense, which contended she wanted money from Kelly. After Van Allen spent most of the day on the stand, the prosecution rested.

Van Allen said Kelly told her the girl was 16, though prosecutors contend she was as young as 13. Van Allen testified that Kelly videotaped the threesome — a tape separate from the one at the heart of the current case.

A year later, the trio had sex again — this time on Kelly’s indoor basketball court, she testified. Van Allen wept as she described how Kelly put a futon mattress on the court. It was during that three-way encounter that she cried, Van Allen said, prompting Kelly to stop the videotaping.

The three had sex again in 2000 inside Kelly’s trailer at a video shoot in Chicago, Van Allen said.

[From the Chicago Sun-Times]

Van Allen was 18 at the time she made the first sex tape with R. Kelly, which the prosecution points out makes the other girl in the video 14 at the time. Which is utterly disgusting. The defense managed to paint Van Allen as a thief and a liar – getting her to admit that she stole a Rolex from Kelly. They’ve also managed to really cloud the prosecution’s case in terms of the identity of the man on the tape, who they claim is not R. Kelly and was digitally manipulated to look like him. Unfortunately for the defense, an F.B.I. expert testified that the tape had not been digitally altered.

The prosecution rested today, and did a good job, given their resources. The defense’s whole strategy is to muddy the waters, blame the victim, and give ridiculous explanations – basically do anything and everything, no matter how extreme, to get Kelly off. It seems pretty clear to most people following the case that he’s guilty as sin – but if I were the betting type, I’d still put all my money on R. Kelly getting off.

Here are older file photos of R. Kelly. Images thanks to WENN.

After her drug bust this past weekend actress Tatum O’Neal called up the New York Post to give a media-quote-friendly, upbeat, positive interview. A little too much so, in my opinion. I tend to be ridiculously optimistic, but by the end of reading O’Neal’s interview – in which she repeats every addiction cliché in the book – I was left feeling like she was reading from a script. She was just way too bubbly, everything considered. She even went so far as to say New York was “cool” for not giving her any special treatment, implying that she would have gotten it somewhere else. I doubt she thought it was cool while her ass was in jail.

Tatum also claims that she’s still sober, because she was buying drugs for the first time. So Tatum says she’s thankful she was arrested and didn’t actually relapse.

“I’m still sober!” she announced to me, two hours after being sprung from a night in jail, rumpled but far more rested and relaxed than I might look after a warm shower and heavy doses of caffeine. “Just when I was about to change that and wreck my life, the cops came and saved me!” Tatum crowed. “I was saved by the bell, by the guys in the Seventh Precinct.”

[From the New York Post]

Tatum once again blames her almost-relapse on the death of her 16-year-old Scottish terrier. She claims she was doing everything she was supposed to – visiting her psychiatrist, going to AA meetings daily – but that she just couldn’t handle the extreme grief she felt. She said she was wandering around aimlessly this weekend, without even intending to buy drugs, and then she did.

“One day, I’m walking aimlessly. I found myself doing the wrong thing.” Tatum, 44, told me how, in a funk, she met Alan Garcia, 33, “a drug addict who was panhandling,” and bought coke. I told her she was charged with buying crack, too.

“It’s both?” she asked, surprised. “I didn’t even know what I was buying!”

Tatum wants to reach out to the dealer, who was charged with a felony, while she faces a misdemeanor drug-possession charge. “I’m going to try to see if I can help him. He’s not a drug dealer. He’s a panhandler who sold drugs. I’m going to talk to my lawyer.”

[From the New York Post]

“It’s both?” Oh I love that. How naive and precious you are, Tatum O’Neal. I think that was the point in the article when I no longer bought it. Up until then I was still trying to go with the whole “the death of my dog made me want to use crack,” thing, even though I couldn’t imagine going there myself. But everyone has a right to their own emotions, and I’m sure some people are that attached to their pets. And I even tried to go with the whole, “I’m just wandering around, thinking about buying a soda, and I bought some crack instead,” idea. But to pretend to not even know what she was buying or know what she was charged with is utterly ridiculous. Come on, you had to find out from a Post reporter? Too far.

Get this. Tatum, who’s never been in jail before, is glad she was busted. “It was a shock to me, and a huge wakeup call. I’m eternally grateful, as sort of grim as the situation was, that I didn’t get to do what my disease was telling me to do. I’m still going to get my year on July 10!”

How can you not love her?

Eighteen hours behind bars wasn’t so bad. “I slept on a mattress with a couple of ladies because I was tired,” she giggled. “And they were nice! And I thought the thing that was cool about New York, no special treatment. No special cell.

[From the New York Post]

I really hope Tatum gets better, and does whatever it takes to keep her addiction under control. I’m guessing part of that will involve getting real with herself, which I don’t think she’s done yet.

Here’s Tatum O’Neal at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th. PR Photos doesn’t list the people with her, but they look like her three kids with ex-husband John McEnroe. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Amy Winehouse showed up for the first day of husband Blake Fielder-Civil’s trial today – but in classic Amy style, she made her appearance four hours late. Fielder-Civil is being tried on charges of assault and witness tampering. Yeah, he’s all sorts of classy. He’s been held in jail for over six months while he awaited trial. Amy did her best to clean herself up. She managed to wear a decent dress and put on her best beehive. But she still had crack-addict skin and the generally slovenly Winehouse appearance.

Amy Winehouse turned up more than four hours late to court to show support for husband Blake Fielder-Civil on Monday. Asked how her husband looked, Winehouse told PEOPLE: “He’s gorgeous as f—. Haven’t you seen him before?”

Dressed in a blue spotted shirtdress, cream platform peep-toe Christian Louboutin shoes and carrying a black quilted Chanel handbag, Winehouse arrived at court shortly after 2 p.m. She sat alone in the court’s empty front row, blowing kisses and mouthing “I love you” to her husband, who was seated behind glass across the courtroom.

The singer appeared alternately dazed, bored, and outraged as pretrial arguments wore on. At one point, Fielder-Civil got the bailiff to have the court’s usher fetch one of Fielder-Civil’s lawyers in order to relay a message to his wife. After a whispered conversation with the lawyer, Winehouse rummaged in her handbag and held up a heart brooch bearing the word “Blake” in her husband’s direction.

Winehouse continued a mouthed conversation with her husband until the usher stopped her. At about 4 p.m., she motioned to her husband that she’d had enough and was leaving. “I love you, you’re fit,” she said, using the British slang for gorgeous as she stood up and exited the courtroom.

[From People]

What a picture of wifely devotion. Winehouse had quite the hickey on her neck when she gave a widely-panned performance at her concert in Lisbon on Friday night. Here’s Winehouse at court today in London. Images thanks to Splash.

It turns out that when you bring a good influence into Amy Winehouse’s life, the odds are much greater that Winehouse will mess up the good influence rather than the good influence straightening out Winehouse. Amy’s rumored boyfriend Alex Haines was brought in by her record company to keep Amy on the straight and narrow. Romance rumors started swirling almost immediately, with Winehouse’s family – seemingly joyfully – declaring them a couple. But instead of helping Winehouse clean up, it seems that she instead helped Alex get messed up. He was videotaped smoking crack and then fired by Winehouse’s record label.

Another member of Amy Winehouse’s posse has been busted for drug abuse. Alex Haines, an employee of Winehouse’s label who was instructed to keep an eye on the troubled singer, was fired after he was allegedly caught smoking crack on tape, Britain’s The Mirror reports.

Haines was originally brought into the fold to keep Winehouse, who has a history of problems with drugs and alcohol, on the straight and narrow. The singer’s mom raved about Haines last month, telling the U.K.’s Daily Mail that he’s “a lovely boy” who was a good influence on her daughter. Whoops.

Winehouse and Haines have been plagued by reports that they’re a couple, which didn’t sit too well with Winehouse’s incarcerated husband, Blake Fielder-Civil. “Alex was a good friend to Amy but he caused massive rows for her with Blake,” a pal said. “He couldn’t stand hearing they were sleeping together.”

A spokesman Winehouse’s label has confirmed that Haines is no longer their employee.

[From the New York Daily News]

Poor guy. I mean I’m sure Winehouse didn’t hold a gun to his head and force him to smoke crack, but you can’t help but feel sorry for a guy that was widely reported to be a relative pillar of straight-laced integrity prior to meeting Amy Winehouse. Of their rumored romance, Amy’s father Mitch conceded that it was likely Amy who seduced Alex, and not the other way around. I’m guessing if that’s the case, she’s probably the one who turned him onto crack too. It sucks that he got fired, but in the long run being far away from Amy Winehouse can only be good for Alex.

Here’s Alex s at Amy’s house on April 29th. Header image of Alex with Amy on April 25th. Images thanks to WENN.

Nick Hogan really doesn’t like jail. I mean really. It’s no fun at all – in fact it’s downright boring. Though it appears he hasn’t been made anyone’s bitch (yet), Nick still thinks the place sucks and wishes he’d gone to trial instead of copping a plea. The inmates are allowed to talk on the phone as long as they want at Pinellas County Jail – during their free time of course. Nick spends an average of two hours a day on the phone, generally complaining and whimpering to his mom.

The contents of some of Nick’s conversations have been released, and now we can hear a few of the specifics about just how tough jail really is.

The phone calls began just hours after Nick Bollea was hauled away from the courtroom.

Nick Bollea: “Had I known this, I would have rather gone to trial or I would rather, you know, appeal the case or something. I can’t deal with this for eight months. It’s (Bollea’s cell) like the size of my bathroom.”
Linda Bollea: “Oh!”
Nick: “No windows or nothing. Just one little top bed thing.”
Linda: “Oh my God!”

[From ABC Action News]

I know! My God indeed! Now I’m guessing Nick Hogan’s bathroom is bigger than most of our bedrooms. So I am not necessarily impressed by how small his cell is. And it’s not like he’s got a lot of stuff to keep in there. What does it matter how small it is? But I just love the shock and “Oh my God!” I’m guessing that was followed with, “What thread count are the sheets? 200 you say? My God!”

Bollea is being kept in a single cell at the Pinellas County Jail because he is one of only two minors serving time in the adult facility. On the phone, he cries often and is comforted by his mother Linda.

Nick: “All you do is sit there and think, and there’s nothing to think about.”
Linda: “We’ll get through it.”
Nick: “Yeah.”
Linda: “Prove to everyone you’ve learned your lesson and be more careful.”

Bollea asks for anything to pass the time, including books and magazines. He even talks about breaking the world record for sleeping and working out in his cell. On Wednesday his famous father Terry (a.k.a. Hulk Hogan) congratulated him on his time served so far.

[From ABC Action News]

Considering how Nick’s family has often reacted to the car crash (which left passenger John Graziano in a vegetative state, probably for life), it’s actually surprising to hear Linda Hogan acknowledge that Nick did do something wrong, and has a lesson to learn. Linda has encouraged Nick’s racing hobby for years, including drag racing – which was what he was doing when he crashed his car.

However she did support Graziano family for a while, renting a condo for his mother to stay in while she kept watch over her son . So it seems like she has some teeny, tiny bit of common sense lacking in father Hulk Hogan, who said the following:

~”I’m very proud of you brother. Very, very proud of you. You’ve been thrown in a tough spot and you’ve handled it better than I could have probably handled it. Any man I know. You’ve really been somebody to look up to.”

[From ABC Action News]

Yes, ruining a young man’s life, never taking responsibility or saying sorry directly to his family until you’re forced to in a court of law – you are someone to look up to, Nick Hogan. You’ve ruined many lives. Congrats. I hope the next seven months are filled with deep thoughts… though you’ve already admitted you don’t have many of those.

Nick Hogan is pictured at his sentencing hearing on May 13th. Images thanks to Splash.

It’s tearing up my heart… that Lou Pearlman, the sexy hunk of man meat who created ‘N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, and the New Kids on the Block has been sentenced to 25 torturous years in prison for stealing more than $300 million from a variety of investors, including his friends, family, business associates, and the elderly. He even bilked Justin Timberlake out of some well-deserved cash. And Chris Kirkpatrick. And we know he needs every dollar he can get.

Legendary music mogul Lou Pearlman, who created the boy bands Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for stealing more than $300 million from investors. But Federal Judge G. Kendall Sharp, in Orlando, Fla., said he would reduce the jail time by one month for every $1 million Pearlman returned to the investors.

Pearlman bilked thousands of people out of millions of dollars in an investment scam that went on for decades, authorities said. His victims included “his family, his close friends and people in their 70s and 80s who have lost their life savings,” according to Sharp.

Pearlman pleaded guilty in March to two counts of conspiracy, money laundering and using false statements in a bankruptcy proceeding. Pearlman, 53, had sought to delay the sentencing so he could launch his latest musical creation, the European pop band US5, in the United States and Asia.

During his music career, he also managed the bands LFO, Take 5 and O-Town. Both Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync previously filed suits against Pearlman because they believed they were not receiving a fair share of the bands’ profits. Those suits were settled out of court.

[From People]

Because what better reason to postpone sending a criminal to prison than launching a new boy band? Sure, sometimes people get a little grace period for some traumatic surgery or the death of a family member. But what could possibly be more important than launching the next LFO?

Ordinarily I would say that getting to buy yourself a month less of prison isn’t fair. I think a lot of celebrities would have gratefully ponied up $1 million to spend 30 days less in the slammer. That means that if Pearlman somehow returned all the money he stole, he wouldn’t serve a single day. But considering some of his previously reported predilections, something tells me Lou will make his time in prison work for him.

Who would have thought it? Turns out, Nick Hogan doesn’t like jail. Which is odd, because most people are really big fans. What with the friendly service and great food and all, you’d be batshit crazy not to enjoy your free vacation.

Nick Hogan is not doing well in jail, friends say. The son of pro wrestler Hulk Hogan started serving eight months in California’s [sic – it’s Florida] Pinellas County Jail on May 9 for a drunken-driving accident that left his best friend, John Graziano, in a coma.

“Nick’s doing really bad. He’s struggling to even form a sentence,” one friend said. “They have him in a cell by himself, isolated from the general population, because of threats. He didn’t understand how awful jail really is until now.” That will be small consolation to Graziano’s relatives, who say Hogan has done very little for their son since the crash.

[From the New York Post]

Nick is also in isolation because he is the only minor in the jail. Though if he serves just two and a half months of his eight month sentence, Nick will have the pleasure of becoming a full-fledged adult in jail. I wonder what kind of birthday cake they get you when you turn 18 in jail. I’m sure it’s nothing fancy – probably one of those grocery store bought cakes at best. But still, something to look forward to Nick. Wait, they don’t get you a cake? Madness. I’d hate jail too. Poor Nick.

I’m guessing Nick’s lawyer is going to ask that he be transferred to some type of mental health facility – or pull a Paris Hilton and try to get him released altogether because jail makes you kind of unstable. Man, if only Nick had known jail sucks so much. You’d think that might have been a deterrent or something.

I can think of few things as truly awkward as having to watch a sex tape with a room of people around me. And frankly, I really don’t want to think about the kind of thing that’s even more awkward than this. The R. Kelly sex trial is finally underway, after six legendarily long years of seemingly impossible delays. Yesterday the jury had to watch the 25 minute sex tape – in front of a packed courtroom – in which a man who is allegedly R. Kelly has sex with a woman who was allegedly 13-years-old at the time. I’m tempted to say they were forced to watch it, as I really can’t imagine anyone being okay with seeing something like this.

Prosecutors played the sex tape at the center of R. Kelly’s child pornography trial in open court Tuesday, just hours after opening statements in which they accused the R&B singer of choreographing and starring in the footage with an underage girl.

The jurors, who had been taking feverish notes during opening statements, sat motionless while the video played. Their eyes were fixed on a 4-by-4-foot monitor just outside the jurors’ box; in the courtroom, the lights were dimmed and blinds drawn across windows.

A grim-looking Kelly, 41, appeared to watch the entire footage intently on a small monitor on the defense table. He occasionally rocked in his chair and rested his chin in his hand. The 27-minute homemade video shows a man having sex with a young female, who is naked for most of the recording except for a necklace with a cross dangling from it.

At the start of the videotape, the man hands the female money and she mouths the words, “Thank you.” She is often blank-faced, impassive. The man speaks to the female in a hushed, monotone voice, and she calls him “Daddy.” Songs from the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys blare from a radio. The female dances - the man out of view. Back in view, he has sex with her. The man walks up to the camera to adjust it a few times, but his face is often obscured.

Prosecutors say the man in the video is Kelly, and that the female is a girl who was as young as 13 when the tape was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000.

[From the Associated Press]

According to several published reports, courtroom observers were focused just as intently on watching the jurors watch the tape as they were on the tape itself. I cannot imagine having to see something like that, and knowing that everyone was analyzing my expression. One juror was released yesterday after explaining to the judge that she only had 30 hours of vacation time and could not afford to serve. I’d be begging my boss to cut my vacation time if I were in that position.

The defense’s argument is essentially to deny everything. They’re claiming that’s not really R. Kelly on the tape and that the girl on the tape is not the alleged victim. And just to cover their bases, they’re claiming that the alleged victim was not 13 at the time. So just in case people don’t buy that it’s not her, they’re arguing that she’s older than she is. Which is funny, because they’ve been making that argument for six years now, and somehow it’s still up for debate. No one is totally clear how old the alleged victim really is.

The defense pointed out to the jury that the man on the sex tape does not have a prominent mole on his back. Supposedly R. Kelly does, and it’s been there since childhood. So everything’s hinging on a lot of denial, confusion, and a mole. Something tells me this is case is going to keep dragging on for a long while.

Here’s R. Kelly at the New York Premiere of ‘Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22′ at IFC theatre on August 8th . Images thanks to WENN.