Invision | Photo by John Shearer

Runner-up Jessica Sanchez, left, congratulates winner Phillip Phillips onstage at the "American Idol" finale on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 in Los Angeles.

Phillip Phillips, a bluesy Georgia guitar man, was crowned the new "American Idol" on Wednesday after defeating teenager Jessica Sanchez in record viewer voting. He was the fifth male "Idol" winner in a row.

Phillips, 21, a pawn shop worker from Leesburg, Ga., looked stunned when host Ryan Seacrest announced his name, then wordlessly accepted a hug from Sanchez and congratulations from his fellow finalists.

He dissolved into tears as he sang "Home," the song that may be his first single.

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Joan Marcus | AP

A new off-Broadway play, "Old Jews Telling Jokes," stars, from left, Audrey Lynn Weston, Marilyn Sokol, Lenny Wolpe, Todd Susman and Bill Army.

There’s an easy trick to writing a good Jewish joke — just make the idiot at the center of it sound Jewish.

“Any joke you tell, if the character’s name is Feldman, it becomes a Jewish joke,” says Daniel Okrent. “Say you’ve got a joke about a guy on a desert island who watches Angelina Jolie float by. The guy could be named O’Hara. But if it’s Feldman, it becomes a different joke.”

Such is the wisdom that Okrent and his friend and collaborator, Peter Gethers, have gleaned by mining generations of jokes over the past three years to create their new off-Broadway show, “Old Jews Telling Jokes.”

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Tom Selleck

After eight TV movies, including the recent “Benefit of the Doubt,” there’s no doubt that Jesse Stone “has legs” like Thomas Magnum of “Magnum, P.I.,” says the man behind both characters, Tom Selleck.

It’s just that Stone’s are jean-encased — unlike Magnum’s short-shorts-exposed gams. (That dubious fashion statement is the only part of the seminal ’80s series that’s dated, Selleck jokes.)

And if Magnum flew around in a Ferrari, Stone — the Scotch-swilling, sarcasm-spewing, brow-furrowing sometimes-police chief of picturesque but puny Paradise, Mass. — lumbers along.

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David Goldman | AP Photo

Tameka Foster Raymond, ex-wife of Hip-hop artist Usher Raymond

R&B singer Usher Raymond is locked in a legal battle with his ex-wife arising from a custody fight over their two sons.

The 33-year-old testified in court on Tuesday that Tameka Foster Raymond spit at and tried to fight his girlfriend during one visit. He alleged that his ex-wife hit him during the dispute, but that he didn't press charges because "I didn't want the boys to know that their father put their mother in jail."

Tameka Raymond's attorney claims that Usher provoked her client and that his account is exaggerated.

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Marvel Comics | AP Photo

This comic book cover image released by Marvel shows "Astonishing X-Men," No 51. Marvel Comics said Tuesday, May 22, 2012 that the Canadian character named Jean-Paul Beaubier, right, will marry his beau, Kyle Jinadu, in this edition due out June 20.

Wedding bells will ring this summer for Marvel Comics' first openly gay hero, super speedster Northstar, and his longtime boyfriend.

The New York-based publisher said Tuesday that Canadian character Jean-Paul Beaubier will marry his beau, Kyle Jinadu, in the pages of "Astonishing X-Men" No. 51. That's due out June 20.

Northstar revealed he was gay in the pages of "Alpha Flight" No. 106 in 1992, one of Marvel Entertainment's first characters to do so.

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Katherine Jenkins couldn't have performed any better during the "Dancing With the Stars" finals: She earned a perfect score of 60 for her two dances on the penultimate episode of the ABC show.

Fellow finalists William Levy and Donald Driver finished one point behind the Welsh singer Monday. The actor and the Green Bay Packer each collected 59 points from the judges.

Judges' scores are combined with viewer votes to determine which contestant will claim the title and the mirrorball trophy on Tuesday's season finale, when each finalist will perform one last routine.

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Danny Moloshok, file | AP Photo

Steven Tyler is mum on whether he or Jennifer Lopez will return to the judging panel on "American Idol" next year, but the rocker says he has loved the experience of sitting next to her.

"She's a sexy beast," Tyler said in a phone interview Monday. "I feed off that female energy with her."

He added: "I'm always flirting with her. It's not a bad thing. It's really a good thing. The best part of it all is that we been able to pick some good talent. Just look at this year."

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Robert Lahser | rlahser@charlotteobserver.com

David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen

David Lee Roth posted a video this weekend explaining the mysteriously postponed dates on Van Halen's tour.

The band performs tonight at the Sprint Center, but late last week announced it was postponing all the tour dates after their July 26 show in New Orleans, pulling more than 30 dates from their schedule. They offered no explanation for the postponement at the time.

Though a source with knowledge of the tour attributed the cancellations to fighting within the band, Roth insists otherwise in the video.

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Authorities say an Alabama man has been charged in the theft of a $15,000 guitar that belonged to Hank Williams Jr.

Adam Dale Broach, of Notasulga, was arrested Sunday by the Pike County's Sheriff's Office. Broach is charged with first-degree theft of property.

An arrest report says the custom-made 1968 Les Paul guitar disappeared from Williams' cabin in the area in July 2010 and then was recovered later that month when it was given to Wayne Mills of the Wayne Mills Band as a gift during a concert in Sheffield.

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