Casey Abrams

A roundup of entertainment stories for Friday. Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake are over. ( TMZ ) Why do singers choose to perform for dictators? They say that sometimes they aren't aware they're doing so. ( Los Angeles Times ) Darren Aronofsky is going back to the drug world for his next movie. ( Los Angeles Times ) For the record: An item in Fast Track stated that Darren Aronofsky is going back to the drug world for his next movie. A spokeswoman for Aronofsky said that the director himself was not attached to produce the film "Intricate" and was not engaging with it. "American Idol" hopeful Ashthon Jones has gone home, while Casey Abrams is back in the hospital.

New albums from superstar artists Justin Bieber, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Nicki Minaj haven't helped the music business get back in tune with consumers' wallets, at least when it comes to album sales. Mid-year Nielsen SoundScan results released Thursday show that album sales thus far in 2012 trail those of the same period last year by 3%. What's more, the top-selling album of 2012 is Adele's "21," an effort that was released way back in January 2011.  Sales of individual songs, however, remains a bright spot.

Phillip Phillips clutched his guitar as he worked through a bluesy version of "Superstition. " In rehearsals for the upcoming "American Idol" Live tour, he focused on the band and offered little more than whispered vocals. Satisfied, he jumped from the Stevie Wonder classic - it opens his segment on the tour - into Usher's bedroom burner "Nice & Slow. " At North Hollywood's Third Encore studios, Phillips and the rest of Season 11's top 10 finalists rehearsed just before the annual postseason trek, which opened Friday in Detroit and plays Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, where the "Idol" finale is taped, July 23. PHOTOS: Behind the scenes at the Live!

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Griffin Bell on Monday handed Sandinista officials a list of 19 Nicaraguans in U.S. federal prisons, suggesting an exchange for captured American Eugene Hasenfus. But Bell told reporters that he has no authority from the U.S. government to negotiate any such exchange and admitted that he thinks there is "hardly any chance" the Nicaraguans will pursue the idea.

It's nearly May, and just as sure as spring, "American Idol" has entered crisis mode. We've seen this arc before: gifted singers voted off too soon, nerves and exhaustion affecting the rest. But this year, the show also seems to be suffering from the very fixes that only recently proved so promising. The energy-drink jolt that new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler provided has begun to fade. Although ratings remain good, "Idol" pundits all across the Internet have panned the judges' table as too Splenda sweet.

Dennis Lavelle was in high school in 1972 when his father, John D. Lavelle, an Air Force four-star general known as "Smiling Jack," was stripped of two stars and relieved of his command for allegedly ordering a rogue bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The general, devastated by the demotion, went to his grave in 1979 insisting that the bombings were ordered by superiors. For 38 years, Dennis Lavelle, a management specialist in Paso Robles, has been fighting along with his widowed mother and six siblings to renew the general's honor.