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In the news
By Times staff writer Pepsi pulls Ludacris commercialPepsi-Cola has yanked its 30-second television spot featuring rapper Ludacris because of what the company called consumer complaints about his sexually explicit, profanity-laden song lyrics. (Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly had gone after Pepsi as "immoral" and urged a boycott.) "We have a responsibility to listen to our consumers and customers, and we've heard from a number of people that were uncomfortable with our association with this artist," the company said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Def Jam, Ludacris' label, said she was "shocked" to learn Pepsi was pulling the ads. Senator going to 'Law & Order'Retiring U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson is going from Capitol Hill to the New York District Attorney's Office as the newest cast member of Law & Order. The Tennessee Republican, who also has been an actor and a prosecutor, will join the NBC legal drama this fall for its 13th season. Thompson's new character replaces Dianne Wiest as the district attorney, which executive producer Michael Chernuchin said "is definitely a reaction to 9/11." "His political leanings are a little more to the right than former DAs on the show," Chernuchin said in a statement Wednesday. Thompson, 60, unexpectedly announced in March that he was leaving from the Senate for personal reasons. He made the decision shortly after the death of his 38-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Thompson Panici. Blake gives jail interviewActor Robert Blake said from a Los Angeles jail Thursday that he is convinced he will be acquitted in the shooting death of his wife and will return to his young daughter. Asked why he was certain, Blake said: "Because I didn't do it." The star of the 1970s TV show Baretta talked about his life in show business, his abusive childhood, his relationship with wife Bonny Lee Bakley and her family, and his determination to be acquitted and "walk into the sunset" with his daughter Rose, 2. Blake, 68, spoke by telephone from behind glass at the Men's Central Jail. He said he decided to speak out in spite of advice that he remain silent. "I'm sick of keeping my mouth shut," he said. His 44-year-old wife was shot the night of May 4, 2001, in her husband's car near Vitello's, a Studio City restaurant. Blake says she was shot when he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he carried for their protection and had inadvertently left behind.
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