Yanni, We Hardly Knew Ye

Companies such as Time Warner that are under fire for selling rap albums with lyrics some consider violent or offensive may have found an alternative--release them as instrumental New Age music.

That’s the inference one could draw from an ad in Friday’s Hollywood Reporter touting the success of “Entertainment Tonight” host and keyboardist John Tesh’s “Live at Red Rocks” album.

The ad, which thanks the Public Broadcasting Service for first airing Tesh’s concert with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, shows Tesh’s album at the top of both Billboard’s Top Music Video category and Top New Age Albums chart for last week.

But the ad also contains a curious listing for the fourth-best-selling New Age album: “Murder Was the Case” by Yanni, the thick-haired best-selling New Age keyboardist from Greece.

Actually, “Murder Was the Case” is the latest album released by controversial rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg.

The rapper faces a murder trial this summer. He is accused of being behind the wheel of a parked Jeep when his bodyguard shot and killed a man. Snoop Doggy Dogg alleges that the bodyguard fired in self-defense. Time Warner has been criticized for selling “Murder” and other controversial rap albums.

An assistant to Tesh attributed the mix-up in the ad to “human error” by those composing the ad.

The explanation: The Snoop Doggy Dogg entry in the Top Music Video chart was inadvertently transposed into the listing for the New Age albums.

A Red Light for This Project

It’s common for Hollywood production companies to churn out news releases when they are involved in a project in even the slightest way.

It’s another to put out a statement vehemently denying you are involved.

In one of the more bizarre Hollywood announcements, production company Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment late last week issued a statement saying it had been libeled by an anonymous fake news release that said the company was launching a movie project based on the recent Oklahoma City bombing.

The company called the forged news release, which described a film project called “Oklahoma Bomber Babes,” a “vindictive and spiteful assault” on the company as well as on the people who have suffered in Oklahoma City.

Don’t-Do-It-Yourself Costs

How is the cost of laziness in Los Angeles these days?

Not too bad, based on numbers listed in the new issue of Smart Money magazine.

Los Angeles rates relatively well in a comparison with New York, Miami, Dallas and Washington when it comes to paying people to do relatively easy chores.

Having a mechanic change a flat tire is cheapest in Los Angeles and Dallas at $8, compared to $15 in New York and $12 in Washington.

Hiring H&R; Block to prepare a simple 1040EZ tax form is $36 in Los Angeles, $38 in New York.

The bad news is that having a tailor replace a button is $1 in Los Angeles. In Miami and Dallas, they do it for free.