Ojai taps Dawn Upshaw

A star of the opera and concert stage, she is the latest in a long line of guest artists who have been invited to help create programming for the four-day summer fest.

Upshaw, who will be making her fourth appearance in Ojai, will work with artistic director Thomas W. Morris and collaborators such as violinist and composer Richard Tognetti, leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, jazz composer and big band leader Maria Schneider and theater and opera director Peter Sellars. She’ll also perform in at least two new pieces.

—Karen Wada

Blackmailer begins sentence

The former CBS television producer who tried to blackmail David Letterman over the comic icon’s office affairs started a six-month jail sentence Tuesday, closing a case that opened Letterman’s behind-the-scenes behavior to public scrutiny.

Carrying a Bible to a court date he knew would end in time behind bars, Robert “Joe” Halderman declined to speak before he was led from a Manhattan court in handcuffs to begin his jail term, to be followed by 1,000 hours of community service. He agreed to both when he pleaded guilty in March to attempted grand larceny.

Letterman wasn’t on hand for Halderman’s sentencing Tuesday, and a spokesman for him declined to comment.

Halderman, 52, admitted in March that he demanded $2 million in hush money last fall to keep from revealing personal information about Letterman. Halderman buttressed the threat with information he’d culled from peeking at a former girlfriend’s diary, which described a relationship with Letterman, her boss, officials have said.

—Associated Press

‘Idol’ hopeful gets ‘Early’ start

Former “American Idol” contestant Ayla Brown has a new job even before she graduates from Boston College. The daughter of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is serving as a contributor on CBS’ “The Early Show,” producing pieces focused on the youth audience.

Executive Producer David Friedman said Tuesday he became interested in Brown when she sang on the morning show. She had previously been an “American Idol” semifinalist.

Her mother, Gail Huff, is a reporter for Boston’s ABC affiliate, WCVB-TV.

—Associated Press

Bret Michaels

out of hospital

Poison frontman Bret Michaels has been released from a Phoenix hospital and is expected to make a full recovery after suffering a brain hemorrhage last month, his doctor said Tuesday.

Dr. Joseph Zabramski, chief of cerebrovascular surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, said he recommended that Michaels wait at least four to six weeks before resuming normal activity.

He declined to say when Michaels could resume touring. Doctors will examine Michaels every two weeks until he’s recovered.

The 47-year-old contestant on “The Celebrity Apprentice” is receiving therapy and will probably continue to suffer from severe pain for another seven to 10 days as blood pooled under his brain dissolves. Michaels is a Type 1 diabetic, which limits the available options to ease discomfort.

Michaels’ was admitted into the hospital April 22 after suffering a severe headache. He was diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which causes bleeding in the fluid-filled spaces around the base of the brain.

—Associated Press

A director goes ‘First Class’

After a lot of back and forth between Matthew Vaughn and “X-Men: First Class,” the director is not only in, but Fox is moving quickly on the project. So quickly, in fact, that the movie will be in theaters in just over a year.

Vaughn’s attachment was confirmed Tuesday by Fox, which said that the film would begin shooting this summer in time for a June 3, 2011, release. The movie will focus on how Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr worked together before becoming enemies better known as Professor X and Magneto.

The scheduling makes for a busy release calendar next spring. “Mission: Impossible IV” comes out just one week before the “X-Men” release date, and the new “Pirates of the Caribbean” is set for release just two weeks before.

—Steven Zeitchik

Finally

Opera strike: La Scala canceled Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” with tenor Placido Domingo on Tuesday night because of a strike called by unions protesting government emergency measures regarding the finances of Italy’s 14 opera houses.