After taking much of the past year...

After taking much of the past year off, Mary J. Blige is back at work on the follow-up to her hit 1992 debut album. A source at Uptown Records, which releases her work, denies a rumor that Blige had completed an album that the company rejected. For the new one, due around the end of the year, Blige is doing more of the songwriting than on her debut. . . .

Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal’s team, the Orlando Magic, got eliminated from the playoffs weeks ago--so why isn’t he back working on his other career as a rapper? He’s returned to college at Louisiana State University to finish up his undergraduate degree, but he’s planning to spend July and August working on a follow-up to his million-selling debut, “Shaq Diesel.” . . .

Crosby, Stills & Nash are finishing a new album, due Aug. 16, while David Crosby is also working on a solo album, due later in the year. Perhaps in answer to his first solo album, 1971’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” the now-sober Crosby is calling his new one “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” . . .

Following the lead of Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa is looking to break into the sitcom world. The trio is scheduled to shoot two pilots, one for the Fox Network, this summer. . . . Boyz II Men’s next album is due in September, with songs produced and written by both Babyface and the team of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. . . .

If you’re a fan of the new “Robocop” TV series, you may know that the theme, titled “A Future to This Life,” was written and recorded by the unlikely team of the Eagles’ Joe Walsh and hard-rocker Lita Ford. Now the two are planning to shoot a video for the song, which will also be released as a “limited edition” CD single later this summer. . . .