Linkin Park, national security mash-up

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A woman is accused of using a computer at a national laboratory to hack into a cell phone company's Web site to get a number for Chester Bennington, lead singer of the rock group Linkin Park.

According to an affidavit filed by the Department of Defense Inspector General, Devon Townsend, 27, obtained copies of Bennington's cell phone bill, the phone numbers he called and digital pictures taken with the phone.
Investigators said she also hacked into the e-mail of Bennington's wife, Talinda, and at one point called her and threatened her.
Talinda Bennington told federal authorities last month that someone had accessed their Verizon Wireless account online, according to the affidavit, and expressed concern that a ``stalker'' had access to personal information.

Townsend waived her right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court and was released to her mother's custody.

She is accused of using a computer at her former workplace, Sandia National Laboratories, to access Bennington's cell phone information. Lab spokesman Michael Padilla said Wednesday that she no longer worked there.
Townsend's attorney, Ray Twohig, said investigators were still analyzing his client's computer and that it remains to be seen what exact violations will be alleged.

``This is the Internet version of a groupie hiding in Mick Jagger's dressing room,'' Twohig said. ``We're in a different age, and fans have more skills than they used to.''
Townsend's computer wasn't connected to classified data, Padilla said.

The affidavit says that during a search of Townsend's home in Albuquerque, investigators found Linkin Park posters, autographed band memorabilia, pictures of Townsend with Chester Bennington, bootlegged Linkin Park music and copies of messages and photographs intercepted from the Bennington family's e-mail accounts.
A person who answered the phone Friday at Time Warner -- Linkin Park's label is Warner Bros. Music -- said no one would be available to comment until Monday.

Sandia National Laboratories develops technology to support national security, according to its Web site.
Linkin Park has sold more than 36 million records worldwide. In February, Linkin Park and rapper Jay-Z shared a Grammy Award for best rap/sung collaboration for ``Numb/Encore.

'' In 2001, the band won a Grammy for best hard rock performance for ``Crawling.''
CHICAGO -- Michael Richards will appear on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's nationally syndicated radio program to discuss his racist rant at a Los Angeles comedy club, the civil rights leader said Saturday.

Richards' participation in the ``Keep Hope Alive'' program is a chance to reach out and apologize to the black community, Jackson said.
``He is embarrassed,'' said Jackson, who spoke to Richards by telephone this week after being contacted by the actor's publicist. ``I think he wants to recover from the pain he now feels and the pain he's caused others.

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While he called Richards' words ``hateful,'' ``sick,'' and ``deep-seated,'' Jackson said his inclusion in the radio show airing Sunday would be a chance for a broader discussion about black actors, writers and directors' ``cultural isolation'' in the entertainment industry.
``We might turn this minus into a plus,'' Jackson said.
Richards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor Kramer on the TV sitcom ``Seinfeld,'' was performing at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory last week when he lashed out at hecklers with a string of racial obscenities and profane language.

A cell phone videocamera captured the outburst, and the incident later appeared on TMZ.com.
Richards appeared via satellite on the ``Late Show with David Letterman'' on Monday, where he said the tirade was fueled by anger at being heckled, not bigotry.

He also apologized to the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Jackson said Richards apologized to him, but his ``public meltdown'' showed he needs psychiatric help.

``I asked him, 'Why do you hate blacks? Have you been robbed or accosted or molested in some way?''' Jackson said.

``He said, 'No, I can't quite explain it.' I said, 'That's why you need to talk it out.'''
Richards' publicist Howard Rubenstein said Saturday his client has begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger and why he made the racist remarks.

``He acknowledged that his statements were harmful and opened a terrible racial wound in our nation,'' Rubenstein said. ``He pledges never ever to say anything like that again. He's quite remorseful.

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Richards has been trying to locate the two men he insulted so he can apologize, Rubenstein said.
LOS ANGELES -- Freddy Rodriguez has gone from undertaker to A-lister.
The 31-year-old actor, who played embalmer Frederico ``Rico'' Diaz on the HBO hit ``Six Feet Under,'' has two movies opening this month.

Rodriguez plays the best pal of a former Army ranger gone wrong in the gritty crime drama ``Harsh Times.'' In ``Bobby,'' about the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Rodriguez plays Jose, a compassionate busboy who came to the aid of the fallen senator.

Both films are in theaters now.
In his next role, Rodriguez plays a tattooed bad guy in Quentin Tarantino's ``Grindhouse,'' due next year.
The youngest of three sons of first-generation Puerto Rican immigrants, Rodriguez says it's important for him to mix things up and not play into stereotypes.

``As long as there is truth, there's going to be stereotypes in films, and actors who are going to play them. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that,'' he said. ``But I always felt like my game plan was different.

There just needs to be somebody who stands up and says, `I'm going to take a stand and not be that dude.' ''
WALPOLE, N.H.

-- Ken Burns thought he was done with war movies after his series ``The Civil War.'' But he says two troubling statistics fueled the creation of ``The War,'' a 14-hour documentary about World War II.
``It was really a couple of statistics that got me,'' Burns said.

``One was that we're losing a thousand (World War II) veterans a day, and the other is that our children just don't know what's going on.''
Burns said he was astonished at the number of high school graduates who believe the United States fought with the Germans in World War II.
``That to me was terrifying, just stupefying,'' said Burns, who will show the first two-hour installment of The War to Dartmouth College on Dec.

1.
The series follows four American towns -- Waterbury, Conn., Mobile, Ala.

, Sacramento, Calif., and Luverne, Minn. -- through the war years, focusing both on the soldiers from the towns sent to war and the families and friends left behind.

``The point of view is from ordinary people, who do the fighting and who do the dying in all wars,'' Burns said.
Placido Domingo aims to spread gift of sound, music
NEW YORK -- Placido Domingo's latest project is music to the ears of the hearing-impaired.
The tenor, paired with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, is speaking for a global effort called ``Hear the World'' to raise awareness about hearing loss and to offer the latest technology to those in need -- especially in developing countries.

Hearing aids will be delivered to poor children in the Guatemalan jungle; hearing-challenged youths in Pretoria, South Africa, will be taught how to function alongside classmates who hear; and youngsters in remote parts of the island of Fiji will be tested for the first time.
``Music is my emotional need. I therefore feel sad for anyone who cannot hear music,'' Domingo told The Associated Press.

``Science has made incredible strides in helping people with hearing trouble, but the majority of the world's population is still unaware of this fact.''
Domingo and members of the Vienna orchestra were expected at a Carnegie Hall news conference on Tuesday to announce the new, nonprofit Hear the World Foundation, based in Zurich, Switzerland. The effort is sponsored by the Swiss company Phonak, a leading high-tech hearing device manufacturer.

Long ago -- like October -- some gossipers snickered when Tara Reid shared her plastic-surgery nightmare story with Us Weekly. Her `04 combined liposuction and breast-implant surgery left her breasts so uneven and misshapen, she said, it earned her the name ``Franken-nipple.''
Now -- just six weeks later -- Carson Daly has rushed in to the rescue, saying he totally supports Tara's brave confession.

``I thought that she handled herself great, and I really commend her for her honesty and stepping up to the plate,'' Carson tells People magazine.
Carson, who dated Tara for 17 months (there was even an engagement in there, somewhere), says he never really keeps in touch with the actress these days and implied that, currently, he is single.