FIRST OFF . . .

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear two cases from lower courts involving noted entertainment figures. The court refused without comment to reinstate rocker David Crosby’s cocaine conviction and five-year prison sentence, which was overturned by a Texas court after Crosby spent five months in prison. The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that Dallas police unlawfully searched Crosby’s nightclub dressing room. A state appeals court overturned the conviction and prison sentence Nov. 12. Crosby’s manager Bill Siddons said Monday that he was “shocked that the Texas authorities would pursue the case further . . . . It cost me a fortune to have a brief prepared for the Supreme Court.” The high court also let stand a federal appeals court ruling that dismissed claims that actor Paul Newman and director George Roy Hill made on the video profits of two films the pair worked on together, “Slapshot” and “The Sting.” In 1985 Newman and Hill filed an antitrust suit against Universal Studios and MCA Inc. alleging that the films’ producers had conspired to fix the percentage of revenues paid to artists from the movies’ video sales. Hill, Newman nor their attorneys were available for comment Monday.