Quick Takes: ‘Transformers 3’ injury

‘Transformers 3’ injury

A Chicago bank teller was critically injured working as an extra on a street scene in “Transformers 3.”

Gabriela Cedillo, 24, was driving her own car in Hammond, Ind., when a flying object came crashing through her windshield and hit her Wednesday evening, according to the Indiana State Police.

The movie crew was filming a stunt using numerous vehicles and drivers, police said. Cedillo was airlifted to Loyola University Hospital in Maywood with a serious head injury, police said.

—Chicago Tribune

Letterman larcenist freed

The former television producer who tried to blackmail David Letterman was freed Thursday after four months in jail for a plot that put a spotlight on the comic icon’s office affairs.

Robert “Joe” Halderman got time off for good behavior from his six-month term at the Rikers Island jail complex, but he isn’t done with his sentence: He still has to complete 1,000 hours of community service, and he’ll be on probation for five years.

The former CBS “48 Hours” producer — who’s up for a news and documentary Emmy award this year — is looking for work, his attorney said.

Halderman, 52, pleaded guilty earlier this spring to attempted grand larceny. He admitted he demanded $2 million in hush money last fall to keep from revealing personal information about Letterman.

—Associated Press

Refunds for Guns concert?

Irish concert promoters declined to say Thursday whether thousands of fans would get their money back after for a Guns N’ Roses concert at which Axl Rose showed up nearly an hour late and then walked off when some members of the audience hurled water bottles on stage.

The band eventually finished its performance at the 02 Arena in Dublin on Wednesday night, but most people had left by then.

Promoter MCD and the 02 issued a joint statement criticizing Rose for having “a long history for being late on stage” but emphasized that “no artist should be subjected to missiles and unknown substances being thrown at them.”

Guns N’ Roses’ tour has 22 cities in 13 more countries to go.

—Associated Press

Chris Brown tops charts

Chris Brown is back to a familiar place: the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts.

The 21-year-old’s latest song, the goodbye groove “Deuces,” hit the top spot of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart this week.

Since Brown’s February 2009 altercation with then-girlfriend Rihanna, he has not had much success musically. He released his third album “Graffiti” in December 2009 and it’s his lowest selling CD to date. Only two songs from the album hit the charts; the first single, “I Can Transform Ya,” peaked at No. 20 on the pop charts.

“Deuces” appears on Brown’s mixtape, “Fan of a Fan,” and it features rappers Tyga and Kevin McCall.

Brown also stars in the heist thriller “Takers,” which debuted on top of the box office last week.

—Associated Press

Expert: Work isn’t Adams’

An art expert whose opinion backed Rick Norsigian’s claim that he owns a “lost” trove of pictures by Ansel Adams now says they aren’t Adams’ work after all.

What’s more, Robert C. Moeller III, one of just two Norsigian experts who identified the old-fashioned negatives as the work of the great nature photographer, said he trusts the judgment of former associates of Adams who had disputed or even ridiculed Moeller’s original finding that “all of the images in the [Norsigian] collection were most probably created by Ansel Adams.”

Moeller said he informed Norsigian’s attorney, Arnold Peter, on Wednesday that he no longer wants any contact with “Team Norsigian,” the term adopted by the Fresno wall-painter and his allies who are helping him market prints of the negatives from his garage-sale find for $7,500 or $1,500 each.

Moeller said that he changed his mind about two weeks ago when he had the chance to look at Yosemite pictures attributed to “Uncle Earl” Brooks, the previously unknown photographer who a group of highly placed opponents of Norsigian’s claim points to as the one who shot the garage-sale negatives.

—Mike Boehm

Finally

Sing out: “American Idol” said it would hold auditions for next season at the Forum in Inglewood on Sept. 22.