In The Heights, a look at Latino life in Upper Manhattan, received a leading 13 Tony Award nominations as the names were announced Tuesday (May 13th) in New York, the Associated Press reports. A revival of South Pacific took 11 nominations, followed by Sunday in the Park with George with nine. Three other shows received seven nominations apiece: August: Osage County, Passing Strange and the revival of Gypsy. In The Heights was nominated for best musical along with Passing Strange, Cry-Baby and Xanadu. Best play nominees include August: Osage County, The Seafarer, Rock 'n' Roll and The 39 Steps.

The best actor-play category features big-name competition between Patrick Stewart, nominated for the title character in Macbeth, and Laurence Fishburne, who portrays former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in Thurgood. Their competition includes Mark Rylance for Boeing-Boeing, Ben Daniels for Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Rufus Sewell for Rock 'n' Roll. Reacting to his nomination, Fishburne said, "I am totally, completely shocked and amazed by all of this. More than that, I am grateful and truly blessed that every night I get to play one of the most compelling and extraordinary men from the 20th century."

Best actress-play nominations went to Deanna Dunagan and Amy Morton for August: Osage County, Eve Best in The Homecoming; Kate Fleetwood in Macbeth; and S. Epatha Merkerson in Come Back, Little Sheba.

In the musical categories, best actor nods went to Paulo Szot for South Pacific, Lin-Manuel Miranda for In the Heights; Daniel Evans for Sunday in the Park With George; Stew for Passing Strange; and Tom Wopat for A Catered Affair. Best actress-musical nominees include Kelli O'Hara for South Pacific, Patti LuPone for Gypsy; Faith Prince in A Catered Affair; Kerry Butler in Xanadu; and Jenna Russell for Sunday in the Park With George.

The 62nd Annual Tony Awards will air in a three-hour telecast from Radio City Music Hall June 15 on CBS and will be hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

The original von Trapp family villa immortalized in The Sound of Music is being turned into a hotel, Reuters reports. Opening in July in Salzburg, Austria, The Villa Trapp hotel will offer visitors the chance to sleep in the family's former bedrooms or get married in their chapel. In addition, the gazebo where Liesl, eldest of the von Trapp daughters in the film, and her boyfriend Rolf performed "Sixteen Going on 17" will be available as a self-assembly construction set. A local official calls the Villa Trapp hotel "a milestone for the commercialization of The Sound Of Music for Salzburg."

The 1965 film The Sound of Music starring Julia Andrews and Christopher Plummer was based on a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. According to U.S. movie ticketing site BoxOfficeMojo.com, it's the third most successful movie of all time in the domestic market, adjusting for inflation, behind only Gone with the Wind and Star Wars.

Baron von Trapp and his seven children lived in the villa from 1923 to 1938 before fleeing the Nazi takeover of Austria. It was utilized by Nazi security chief Heinrich Himmler until 1945. After World War Two, it was purchased by a missionary order that has agreed to relinquish it for use as a hotel.

Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has begun work on a sequel to his controversial 2004 political commentary Fahrenheit 9/11, Reuters reports. The still-untitled project, described as "searing and provocative," will be released next year. According to Danny Rosett, chief operating officer of the film's co-financer and co-distributor, Overture Films, the new movie will be a broader look at the United States' position in the world since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. However, Rosett says Moore doesn't want it to be a "politically motivated piece," which is why he decided to release it after the November presidential election.

Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing critique of President George W. Bush and the decision to go to war in Iraq, grossed $119 million at the U.S. box office, making it the most commercially successful political documentary of all time. That film was released months before the 2004 presidential election, which Mr. Bush managed to win anyway.

Moore's other documentaries include 2002's Oscar-winner about America's gun culture, Bowling for Columbine, and last year's critique of the U.S. health care system, Sicko.

American Idol is suffering a severe audience loss, but it's still the most-watched show in America, according to Nielsen Media Research. The competition's Wednesday (May 7th) edition was the week's most popular broadcast, attracting 22.9 million viewers, just ahead of the 21.8 million who tuned in for Tuesday's (May 6th) show. However, both those numbers represent the smallest Idol audience in five years for the respective nights.

Idol was the only show to crack the 20-million-viewer mark. ABC's Dancing with the Stars placed third and fourth for the week with its two telecasts, while CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was fifth. No NBC shows made the top 10, while the network's America's Favorite Mom special was anything but, ranking number 107 for the week with an audience of just 2.4 million.

CBS was the nation's most popular network last week, averaging 10.6 million viewers in prime-time, followed by ABC with 9.5 million. Fox was tops among the coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic but slipped to third in total viewers with an 8.9 million average. NBC averaged 6 million viewers, followed by Spanish-language Univision with 3.6 million, the CW with 2.6 million and My Network TV with 1.2 million.

For the week of May 5-11, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships:
1. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 22.87 million
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 21.76 million
3. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 18.38 million
4. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18.11 million
5. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 18.07 million
6. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 16.02 million
7. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 15.42 million
8. Without a Trace, CBS, 14.67 million
9. CSI: Miami, CBS, 14.11 million
10. NCIS, CBS, 13.6 million.

Veteran actor James Garner is hospitalized after suffering a minor stroke at his Los Angeles-area home last week, the Associated Press reports. According to publicist Jennifer Allen, the 80-year-old Garner went to the hospital Friday (May 9th). She says he's doing fine and will be going home soon.

Garner is best known for his 1970s detective show The Rockford Files, for which he won a best actor Emmy in 1977. He first came to prominence in the 1950s playing a wry riverboat gambler in the TV Western Maverick. He's also appeared in dozens of films, including 1985's Murphy's Romance opposite Sally Field, earning an Oscar nomination.

Rockford's most recent role was on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules...For Dating My Teenage Daughter, which he joined after the death of John Ritter.

Just two new shows are on the fall schedule announced Tuesday (May 13th) by ABC, Reuters reports. Based on the BBC series of the same name, Life on Mars follows a modern police detective transported back to the early '70s after a car crash. The other new ABC program this fall will be Opportunity Knocks, a game show produced by Ashton Kutcher in which a TV crew shows up at a new house each week to test the family on how well they know one another.

ABC has a few other new shows lined up for midseason, including The Goode Family, an animated series from King of the Hill creator Mike Judge; and another reality show produced by Kutcher and Tyra Banks that's still under wraps. The long-running NBC sitcom Scrubs will also be moving to ABC mid-season.

In contrast to last year, when ABC announced a dozen new shows, the network is bringing back nearly all of its current programs this fall. The 14-week writers strike ended too late for the normal number of pilot episodes for potential new series to be written and shot. One show that won't be back is Oprah's Big Give. Although ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said the network "absolutely would have loved to bring it back," Winfrey was not interested in a second go-round.

McPherson said some more new shows may be brought out for midseason, when ABC will also be bringing back its hit Lost. He also said declining network audiences make next season a crucial test. McPherson explained, "The fall is a very big challenge for all the networks. We all need to come back and launch in a big way."

CBS is ready to add six new shows to its fall line-up, TVGuide.com reports. When the network unveils its 2008-'09 season on Wednesday (May 14th), there will be four new dramas: The Ex List, starring Grey's Anatomy's Elizabeth Reaser; The Mentalist, starring Simon Baker; producer Jerry Bruckheimer's Eleventh Hour, about a science professor who advises a government agency; and Harper's Island, a murder mystery set at an island wedding.

CBS is planning two new comedies, both with marriage-related themes: Worst Week of My Life, chronicling the days before a young couple's wedding; and a still-untitled sitcom starring Jay Mohr as a recently divorced man.

CBS is expected to bring back its anti-terrorism drama The Unit and sitcoms How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement and The New Adventures of Old Christine. The latter show, which has earned an Emmy for star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, had been a question mark because of concern that its audience was older than that of Met Your Mother and fellow sitcom Big Bang Theory. ABC was rumored to be ready to pick up Christine if CBS didn't renew it.

Two CBS shows that didn't make the cut were the James Woods legal drama Shark and the sexy vampire drama Moonlight. Shark was averaging 10.3 million viewers, while Moonlight drew an average audience of 7.5 million this season.

Jason Castro won't be competing on tonight's American Idol episode, after being eliminated last week for messing up the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man." The flub led judge Simon Cowell to tell him, "Jason, I'd pack your suitcase." The 20-year-old singer from Rockwall, Texas tells us what happened during the competition:"My mind just was split. I couldn't keep up. It wasn't like pressure. I felt pressure, but I couldn't figure out the songs that time."

Castro says he's okay with being eliminated from the show: "You know, I think I had the weakest performance out of every -- out of all the contestants. So I think it was fair."

David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado are currently the top three contestants in the seventh season of American Idol, and one of them will be voted off the show tonight (May 14th), setting up for the final showdown next week.

Harrison Ford reprises one of his most famous roles in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which opens next Thursday (May 22nd). The film re-teams Ford with director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas, and also brings back Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Ford's love interest from the first film in the franchise, 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, and Ray Winstone also star.

The producers took great pains to maintain the same visual quality as the first three movies, all made in the 1980s, such as using stuntmen where modern movies would generally use CGI work, and studying the work of the original cinematographer.

It also involved putting Ford back in his original costume, which was a good fit, he says:"I hadn't worn the Indiana Jones costume in 18 years. And early in our production process the costume was sent to my house for me to try on, to see where we would have to change sizes and so on and so forth. I put it on, and it fit like a glove. I felt really comfortable, and ready to go. And it felt good, it felt really good."

Ford says re-learning his character's trademark whip moves was surprisingly easy as well: "The whip came back pretty easily too, I was surprised, because it's a relatively uncommon skill, and I wasn't terribly good at it, but I was good enough for show business when we did it 18 years ago, and I had lost touch with the first whip trainer that we used. So I had a new whip trainer who had a different technique. And I was able to bring it back in a couple of weeks of pretty diligent application."

Dancing with the Stars is down to its final three couples, E! Online reports. Tony winning Broadway actress Marissa Jaret Winokur and professional partner Tony Dovolani were eliminated Tuesday (May 13) from the ABC show. Before their goodbye dance, Winokur said, "It's been incredible! No one expected us to get this far...(Tony) has worked so hard with me. This has been such an incredible experience."

The three couples competing in next Monday's (May 19) dance-off will be figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas, pro football star Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska, and actor Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke.

Tuesday night's show featured a Michael Jackson Thriller tribute from R&B singer Omarion. Next week's finale will feature a performance from Usher.

George Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison is hoping to meet up with her husband through reincarnation, according to Reuters.

Olivia has been collaborating on a special garden for Britain's upcoming Chelsea Flower Show in memory of George, who was a tremendous fan of the annual show, as was fellow Beatle Ringo Starr. Olivia says that even seven years after George's death, she feels his presence at the flower show, explaining, "Every time I go out there, I always think he'll just pop out from behind a shrub, like he used to."

She went on to say, "Will I see George again? I take heart from something (Monty Python's) Michael Palin once said, which is that the idea of seeing George again, on the other side, makes the idea of death a whole lot more interesting. All I know is that George dedicated a lot of his life to obtain a good ending, and I don't doubt he was successful."

Olivia went on to talk about her and George's beliefs in reincarnation: "The whole point of meditation is to have the experience you're going to have when you take leave of your body, so that when it actually happens, you're familiar with that transition and go, 'Oh yes, I know this place.' So yes, I must say that I like the thought, indeed the possibility, that one day he and I might once more be floating down the stream of time."

Olivia says that some critics and fans misinterpreted George's spiritual lyrics as being so serious that they bordered on preachy. Olivia says that George often used his songs as his own form of spiritual guidance: "He also wrote these things to remind himself. People sometimes accused him of preaching (laughs). But you know, he was really preaching to himself. He wasn't trying to say, 'You be like this because I'm already like this.' No, he was always trying to remind himself. And that's the reason he liked India so much, because he said that, 'Everywhere you went, there was a reminder.'"

The Harrison memorial garden is called From Life To Life, after a line in the Beatles' song "It's All Too Much," and premieres at next week's show. The garden is sponsored by the Harrison family's Material World Charitable Foundation.

According to initial reports, Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight was knocked unconscious by a man Saturday night (May 10th) that the mogul and his crew were assaulting but some new details have emerged to shed light on what actually transpired. Ballerstatus.com reports that Knight was actually assaulted by another man and it wasn't a punch but rather a blow from a tire iron that left Knight unconscious for several minutes.

Knight was allegedly involved in a money dispute with an unidentified man when he and his crew began to assault the man. According to a witness, Knight noticed a man taping the incident with his camera phone. The mogul approached the man and allegedly put him in a headlock. The man broke free and fled.

A short time later, the man, who had the cameraphone, pulled up in front of the Shag nightclub and removed an object which is believed to be a tire iron from his trunk. He struck Knight -- who wasn't looking -- in the back of the head.

Knight was unconscious for a few minutes before he was taken to an area hospital to have a gash on the back of his head treated. Knight hasn't filed a police report and doesn't plan to cooperate with authorities.

Pregnancy rumors continue to swirl around unconfirmed newlyweds Beyonce and Jay-Z. Friends of the couple claim they tied the knot on April 4th soon after discovering that a child was on the way. "She has gained a lot of pregnancy weight," a source told the New York Post. "When she gains weight, she normally does the Def Jam detox, but not now."

A rep for Beyonce told the paper, "I don't know if she's pregnant. Let me perform an ultrasound and get back to you."

Although they've yet to acknowledge the nuptials, the couple filed their signed wedding license on Friday, April 18th, in Scarsdale, New York, the same place they applied for the license.

People.com confirmed that the Scarsdale town clerk received the completed license, which lists April 4th as the wedding date. The couple applied for the license just three days before the ceremony.

Although Britney Spears' second guest appearance on Monday's (May 12th) How I Met Your Mother earned less critical praise than her first, the show's ending left the door open for yet another visit to the CBS comedy. People magazine called the script "an awful piece of specialty construction," but the episode ended with Neil Patrick Harris' character breaking off his engagement to Spears' alter ego because her true crush, played by Josh Radnor, wanted to be with her. At the show's close, Spears was seen with a "love-hungry Shelley Winters-like gleam in her eye."

Britney's first appearance on the show brought the sitcom its highest ratings ever.

Madonna's lawyer announced on Tuesday (May 13th) that the superstar will not be present for the final court ruling regarding her adoption of Malawi orphan David Banda later this week. Although the singer intended on attending Thursday's (May 15th) hearing in the African country, "other engagements" will prevent her from doing so.

Although Madonna requested a new court date, a clerk said the judge could finalize the adoption without her presence. "We are going to court on Thursday but Madonna will not be there because she is not coming," her attorney Alan Chinula told Reuters. "The judge has indicated that he cannot object to her being absent when making the ruling."

Madonna's bid to adopt David began in 2006 when she brought him home to London. The move was widely controversial as non-residents are forbidden from adopting in Malawi and the country's government had been accused of giving her special treatment because of her celebrity status.

"I have no problem with the government's recommendation to allow Madonna to get the child," David's biological father Yohabe Banda said after the recommendation was made public. "This is what I wanted, that Madonna should keep the child."

Ashlee Simpson and her fiance Pete Wentz could be tying the knot as early as this weekend. According to US Weekly, the pair will get married at an undisclosed spot this Saturday (May 17th). An insider said, "Proper invites have not been sent out. Instead guests have been given a save the date notice." An intimate rehearsal dinner is expected to be held on Friday (May 16th). Previous reports had pegged the wedding for the end of May in Santa Barbara, California.

The couple got engaged last month. Simpson is reportedly pregnant, but hasn't made an official announcement yet.

According to E! Online, Wentz was smitten with Simpson before she even noticed him. The Fall Out Boy bassist admits that she kept him in the "friend zone" for about a year and that he even had to send her his photo to remind her what he looked like. But things picked up speed once they first got together. Wentz said, "The first time we hung out she flashed me." Simpson added, "I lifted my dress over my head for him. So it was love at first sight."

Original Rush drummer John Rutsey died this past weekend at the age of 55, according to Toronto radio station Q107. Rutsey's death was announced by Rush's management company, Anthem Management. The cause of death was not disclosed. Rutsey and guitarist Alex Lifeson formed Rush in 1968, with bassist/singer Geddy Lee joining a short time later. Rutsey played on the band's self-titled 1974 debut album, but left the group due to health concerns. A diabetic, Rutsey was unable to commit to long-term touring and elected to step down.

His replacement, Neil Peart, joined the group on its second effort, Fly By Night. Peart's complex drumming and lyrics, steeped in science fiction and philosophy, took the Canadian trio in a progressive rock direction and helped establish a signature sound that continues more than three decades later.

Alex Lifeson told the Rockline radio show in 1989 that Rutsey "gave up playing (drums) shortly after he left the band and went into bodybuilding. He competed on an amateur level for a while, doing that for a few years."

Rush had yet to issue an official statement on Rutsey's death.

The band is currently in the midst of a North American tour as it continues to support 2007's Snakes and Arrows album. The group next plays in Moline, Illinois on May 20th.

The arrival of Weezer's self-titled sixth album has been moved up three weeks from June 24th to June 3rd, according to a press release. Although the release states that the change was prompted by the success of first single "Pork and Beans" along with a "tidal wave of buzz," the action was almost certainly taken as a result of eight songs from the disc being leaked online last week. The CD, nicknamed "the red album" due to its predominant color scheme, is Weezer's first since 2005's Make Believe and third self-titled effort, following the "green" and "blue" albums.

"Pork and Beans" reached Number One on the Modern Rock radio chart just e11 days after arriving on the air.

Weezer shot a video for "Pork and Beans" last week. The group's web site said it will debut "in the coming weeks."

A deluxe edition of the 10-track album will contain four bonus cuts and will also arrive on the 3rd, but initially as a digital release only.

Another act, Gnarls Barkley, also pushed up the recent release of their second album by several weeks to combat online leaks.

New jack bad boys Bobby Brown, Dru Hill featuring Sisqo, and Johnny Gill could be touring together this summer under the Triple Threat tour banner. East Coast promoter Universal Attractions is currently attempting to put together tour dates for this group of '90s hit makers. No word yet on where the tour will kick off or how long the tour will run.

Brown and "Thong Song" singer Sisqo recently competed on the CMT reality show hit Gone Country, which pitted celebrities and artists from other genres against each other for a chance at winning a country music recording deal. Latin heartthrob Julio Iglesias Jr. was the first-season winner.

Brown and Gill were members of influential group New Edition, which staged a reunion tour in 2006 with members Ralph Tresvant, Ricky Bell, Ronny DeVoe, Michael Bivins and Gill doing most of the performances. Brown dropped in for an infamous show at the Essence Music Festival that year. Their last album was 2004's One Love.

Gill, a solo artist before joining the group, released a total of five solo albums, with his third, 1990's Johnny Gill, sparking the hits "My My My" and "Rub You The Right Way." His last set was 1996's Let's Get The Mood Right, before joining Keith Sweat and the late Gerald Levert for two LSG albums in 1997 and 2003.

Dru Hill also attempted to staged a reunion last year, but the project fizzled. Formed in 1995 by high school classmates Jazz, Sisqo, Nokio and Woody, the group debuted in 1996 with a self-titled album that went platinum. The group released 1998's double platinum Enter The Dru, and followed with their final album, 2000's Dru World Order, which featured a fifth member, Scola, and was certified gold.

Following months of rumors, Ozzfest organizers have confirmed through a post at the official web site that the festival, a touring event for more than a decade, will transform into a "destination festival" this summer. Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica will headline a one-day show on August 9th at Pizza Hut Park in Dallas. Also appearing on the main stage are Serj Tankian, Korn singer Jonathan Davis, Hellyeah, Cavalera Conspiracy, Shadows Fall, Apocalyptica, In This Moment and what's being billed as an "all-star tribute" to slain Pantera and Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.

Although Britney Spears' second guest appearance on Monday's (May 12th) How I Met Your Mother earned less critical praise than her first, the show's ending left the door open for yet another visit to the CBS comedy. People magazine called the script "an awful piece of specialty construction," but the episode ended with Neil Patrick Harris' character breaking off his engagement to Spears' alter ego because her true crush, played by Josh Radnor, wanted to be with her. At the show's close, Spears was seen with a "love-hungry Shelley Winters-like gleam in her eye."

Britney's first appearance on the show brought the sitcom its highest ratings ever.

Ashlee Simpson and her fiance Pete Wentz could be tying the knot as early as this weekend. According to US Weekly, the pair will get married at an undisclosed spot this Saturday (May 17th). An insider said, "Proper invites have not been sent out. Instead guests have been given a save the date notice." An intimate rehearsal dinner is expected to be held on Friday (May 16th). Previous reports had pegged the wedding for the end of May in Santa Barbara, California.

The couple got engaged last month. Simpson is reportedly pregnant, but hasn't made an official announcement yet.

According to E! Online, Wentz was smitten with Simpson before she even noticed him. The Fall Out Boy bassist admits that she kept him in the "friend zone" for about a year and that he even had to send her his photo to remind her what he looked like. But things picked up speed once they first got together. Wentz said, "The first time we hung out she flashed me." Simpson added, "I lifted my dress over my head for him. So it was love at first sight."

Pregnancy rumors continue to swirl around unconfirmed newlyweds Beyonce and Jay-Z. Friends of the couple claim they tied the knot on April 4th soon after discovering that a child was on the way. "She has gained a lot of pregnancy weight," a source told the New York Post. "When she gains weight, she normally does the Def Jam detox, but not now."

A rep for Beyonce told the paper, "I don't know if she's pregnant. Let me perform an ultrasound and get back to you."

Although they've yet to acknowledge the nuptials, the couple filed their signed wedding license on Friday, April 18th, in Scarsdale, New York, the same place they applied for the license.

People.com confirmed that the Scarsdale town clerk received the completed license, which lists April 4th as the wedding date. The couple applied for the license just three days before the ceremony.

Madonna's lawyer announced on Tuesday (May 13th) that the superstar will not be present for the final court ruling regarding her adoption of Malawi orphan David Banda later this week. Although the singer intended on attending Thursday's (May 15th) hearing in the African country, "other engagements" will prevent her from doing so.

Although Madonna requested a new court date, a clerk said the judge could finalize the adoption without her presence. "We are going to court on Thursday but Madonna will not be there because she is not coming," her attorney Alan Chinula told Reuters. "The judge has indicated that he cannot object to her being absent when making the ruling."

Madonna's bid to adopt David began in 2006 when she brought him home to London. The move was widely controversial as non-residents are forbidden from adopting in Malawi and the country's government had been accused of giving her special treatment because of her celebrity status.

"I have no problem with the government's recommendation to allow Madonna to get the child," David's biological father Yohabe Banda said after the recommendation was made public. "This is what I wanted, that Madonna should keep the child."

The third solo album by popular singer-songwriter Ne-Yo will have to wait a bit. His label, Def Jam, decided to push the release date of Year Of The Gentleman to August 5th while the artist completes additional songs for the project, according to Billboard.com. The project was originally due to make a splash on June 24th date.

Producers for the set include Stargate, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, J.R. Rotem and members of Ne-Yo's Compound Entertainment crew.

Ne-Yo has already said that contemporary R&B is a bit "boring" and that he wants to experiment with newer sounds. At the same time, he said, "My worry is that I'll do something that's so far left of what I've already done that it's going to go over my fans' heads. I pray that my fans are smarter than that."

He made sure that the music of his second CD, Because Of You, was a step beyond his debut as well:"You know, once you do something that people enjoy, they want you to keep doing that, you know? So people expected songs like 'Sexy Love,' songs like 'So Sick,' that was the expectation for the second album. They wanted In My Own Words, Part Two. But me being an artist I can't keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. I just can't."

A first single from the set titled "Closer" is already at radio, landing at Number 41 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart this week.

Rapper Remy Ma was sentenced to eight years behind bars on Tuesday (May 13th) in Manhattan Criminal Court. Fortunately for the rapper, her five year sentence for assault and her three sentence for coercion will run concurrently so she could be free in four-and-a-half years with time off for good behavior.

Ma was found guilty of two counts of assault, coercion, and criminal possession of a weapon in March. The rapper allegedly shot her friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph, in the stomach twice during a dispute over $3,000 which went missing from the rapper's purse last July.

SOHH.com reports that prior to her sentencing, a tearful Remy Ma told Judge Rena Uviller, "I stand here today as Remy Mackie. I'm a loving wife, mother and loving daughter and loving sister to my brothers and sisters."

Mackie is Ma's married name which she assumed although her marriage to rapper Papoose was canceled on Monday (May 12th) when officers discovered handcuff keys on Papoose just moments before the ceremony.

Ma also offered an apology to her victim, saying, "I apologize for not saving you from your physical and mental scars."

Prior to announcing the verdict, Judge Uviller, said, "I've learned Remy is an intelligent and charitable young woman. She's overcome a difficult childhood. Her music has inspired people in need. She's loved and has support from her family."

Then the judge added that Ma hasn't taken responsibility for her actions in the past. Judge Uviller explained, "This is somewhat of a pattern. This is not the first time she has been engaged in a violent act. She never took responsibility for her actions. This has nothing to do with rap -- it's about the actions of one person. Remy is an extremely angry young woman who feels the rules do not apply to her."

Following the sentencing, Papoose got into a shoving match with a court officer and yelled, "All y'all want is f**king money. This is bulls**t. Remy is innocent." Remy's family and friends had to restrain Papoose.

Remy Ma will serve her sentence at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester, New York. The facility is a maximum security prison.