Rob Thomas is a busy guy -- so busy, he apparently hasn't had much time to check in with his Matchbox Twenty bandmates. We only know this because we ran into guitarist Paul Doucette at the BMI Pop Awards in Beverly Hills several weeks ago, where he was picking up a plaque for songwriter of the year. "We're interviewing Rob about his solo album," I told him. "Hey," Doucette exclaimed. "Tell that guy to call me, would ...

The breast-feeding wars have long followed a familiar pattern. A woman gets thrown off a plane for nursing her toddler; she sues Delta. Barbara Walters says sitting next to a breast-feeding woman made her "uncomfortable"; ABC's headquarters get surrounded by 200 women staging a "nurse-in." Maggie Gyllenhaal is photographed nursing her daughter in public; tabloids rush to either praise her as a role model or tell her to throw a blanket over her shoulder. The sides have been distinct: breast-feeding advocates insist that women ...

Mike Loverde was 29 when his family intervened in his addiction to prescription painkillers. He remembers his parents driving him from Chicago, Illinois, to a rehab center in rural Indiana. He was crying because he wanted to get high. Eight years later, Loverde is a counselor and director of program services at the Intervention Services Inc. branch outside Chicago. When someone seems to have lost control of life, or has become a danger to himself or herself, family members ...

British lawmakers demanded answers Thursday after a newspaper reported that a UK tabloid illegally hacked the phones of thousands of public figures including Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson. The commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police said he asked his assistant to look into the allegations and determine whether to investigate. It comes after The Guardian newspaper reported Thursday the cell phones of "several thousand public figures" were hacked into by reporters and staff of the News of the World ...

As the news of Michael Jackson's death spread around the world June 25, the social networking site Twitter came to a virtual standstill, flooded with visitors tweeting the news. Within moments of the first breaking news reports — indicating that Jackson had suffered cardiac arrest and had been rushed via ambulance to a Los Angeles hospital — both "#michaeljackson" and "Cardiac Arrest" emerged as two of the network's highest-rated "trending topics." As TIME's Michael Scherer notes, nearly three times ...

Mandy Moore stepped onto the small stage at Amoeba Records in Hollywood with a quick wave. "Hi, shoppers," she giggled somewhat self-consciously. The audience of several hundred, stuffed between the music racks at the landmark store, giggled back. "This is so weird to be playing here. I live in the neighborhood, and this is where I get my CDs and my DVDs!" she said. Then she launched into selections from her sixth studio album, "Amanda Leigh." Somewhere ...

It was the hottest ticket in town. Colin Farrell was there. So were Michelle Branch, Josh Groban and Chris Isaak -- the latter accompanied by his manager's dog, Rodney. No, we're not talking about a Britney Spears or U2 concert. We're talking about a star-studded, invitation-only club show by Yusuf -- the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. It was the legendary folk singer's first L.A. show in 33 years, and the audience gave him a heartfelt "welcome ...

Security personnel found Miranda Tozier-Robbins looking through the windows of the singer's home in Calabasas, California, the department said in a written statement. Tozier-Robbins also had a backpack and video equipment, the statement said. Security personnel asked her to leave, but she "balked," the statement said. They then physically escorted her off the property. A policeman arrived later to arrest her. She was booked on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, the statement said. Bail was set at ...

Miley Cyrus prepared for April 3, an average workday, by reading the Bible — a few chapters of Job — and ended it by telling a ribald joke as she walked off camera at Access Hollywood. In between she had a casting session for her next movie, The Last Song, written specially for her by weepie king Nicholas Sparks; was interviewed four times; performed twice; changed outfits twice; and visited the Tonight Show's make-your-own-sundae bar once. When she left the ...

Twitter is an online service you can use to send out short notes to the world via the Web, IM and text-messaging. People use it to issue updates about what they're doing, eating, seeing, feeling, etc., to their family, friends and whoever else might be following them. When Twitter launched in 2006, it was like a relic from the Jurassic period of the dotcom start-ups, when you could get funding for anything. Could a service that ...