The Law & Order detective invited the Post over to his opulent apartment to discuss an Apple employee's recent accusation that he frightened and assaulted her by mock-throttling her at one of the store's branches the other day. "The sad part of it was that police officers were called and had to report to the scene, and God knows we don't need all that manpower wasted on a trivial accusation that was clearly done either for attention or to embarrass a famous person," he said, while reclining barefoot in a velour bathrobe, sunglasses, and baseball cap at his Ikea desk.

TV cop Richard Belzer says choke claim is fiction [NYP]
Earlier: Richard Belzer Denies Assaulting Apple Employee

Read more posts by Jessica Pressler

Filed Under: the most important people in the world, law and order, richard belzer

On his radio show on March 2, Glenn Beck said the following to churchgoers: "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words ... Am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!" Since then, several Christian bloggers and some pastors have taken him to task. From the Times:

Religion scholars say the term “social justice” was probably coined in the 1800s, codified in encyclicals by successive popes and adopted widely by Protestant churches in the 1900s.

The concept is that Christians should not merely give to the poor, but also work to correct unjust conditions that keep people poor. Many Christians consider it a recurring theme in Scripture.

Beck himself is a Mormon, and once said of the religion, "I don't care if there is Kool-Aid in the basement, I'm drinking it." But a Mormon expert isn't so sure. "One way to read the Book of Mormon is that it’s a vast tract on social justice," Philip Barlow, a professor of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, told the paper. "A lot of Latter-day Saints would think that Beck was asking them to leave their own church."

Outraged by Glenn Beck’s Salvo, Christians Fire Back [NYT]
Earlier: 21 Questions With Glenn Beck
Related: 81 Minutes With Fox News Host Glenn Beck [NYM]

Read more posts by Chris Rovzar

Filed Under: cable news news, christianity, glenn beck, mormons, religion

The music video for Lady Gaga's "Telephone," featuring a fierce Beyoncé, a somewhat nude Gaga and directed by Jonas Akerlund), has premiered amid great hype.

It might even live up to it.

As she told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show last month, "What I like about it is, it's a real true pop event. When I was younger I was always excited when there was a big giant event happening in pop music and that's what I wanted this to be."

Lady Gaga gets tossed in the slammer in "Telephone."

Pretty bold praise for her own work, but "Telephone" definitely has the feel of - in typical Lady Gaga fashion - a performance art piece, rather than a mere video.

Perhaps the best part? At the onset, Gaga is strip searched and tossed in a jail cell. In a funny reference to the hermaphrodite rumors about her, a guard says:

"Told you she didn't have a d!ck."

That's before the music even commences, too. "Telephone" may not be as epic as "Bad Romance," but you have to give Gaga credit, because it's darn close.

Follow the jump to watch her team up with Beyonce in this music video event and tell us what you think. Vote in our survey and leave a comment as well ...

Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce: Telephone

What do you think of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video?

A natural-born, 26-year-old Muslim man from New Jersey, Sharif Mobley, was recently rounded up by Yemeni authorities in a sweep of terrorist suspects. After being allowed to go to the hospital for an illness, Mobley tried to escape by snatching a guard's gun. He killed the guard, but was recaptured in a shootout with anti-terror police, and now sits in Yemeni custody. So that's actually the good news. The bad news is that, between 2002 and 2008, he worked as a laborer at various nuclear power plants in New Jersey, which means he could have information that certain evildoers would be very happy to get their hands on. Good thing we are finally getting around to upgrading security at those plants, kind of.

Yemen Holds NJ Man After al-Qaida Sweep, Shootout [1010 Wins]
FBI Probes N.J. Man Linked to Al Qaeda, Hospital Attack in Yemen [Fox News]

Read more posts by Dan Amira

Filed Under: scary things, new jersey, nuclear power, sharif mobley, terrorism, yemen

There's good news for Erica "Rikki" Mongeon: she has a good shot at living. But it will be a long struggle.

The former co-star of A Double Shot at Love on MTV was involved in a serious car accident last month. Her and sister Victoria were passengers in a vehicle that collided with a truck.

But Erica was finally released from the ICU on Tuesday, and doctors say she should continue to improve slowly. However, there's a lengthy hospital stay in her future, as well as a lot of rehabilitation.

At least one family member has been remaining by Mongeon's side around the clock. We wish her a full recovery.

If you're a regular reader of Daily Intel, you know there's nothing we love more than stupid crimes and hero grannies. The former occurs nearly every day in this big, crazy, idiotic city, but the latter phenomenon only occurs every once in a while: Grannies, after all, are known to stay inside and sit near the air conditioner during the summer, and to fly to Scottsdale in the winter for the dry heat. So imagine our delight this morning when we opened the Post and discovered the tale of 91-year-old Florence Critelli, who attempted to fight off a robber at the Rite Aid where she works.

"I grabbed his hand to stop him from taking the money and I just screamed," she said. The robber then punched her in the chest, knocking her to the floor. But that didn't keep Critelli down long. "He hit me good," she said. "But it didn't hurt." Critelli described the worker to police, and then insisted on finishing her shift at the pharmacy. She attributes her health and stamina to keeping busy and maintaining her job, in fact. "If you just stay home every day, you feel like you can't do anything and you don't want to do anything," she told the tabloid. "It's just not the right way to be."

Meanwhile, she's crossing her fingers the kid gets nabbed — for personal reasons. "I want him to get caught," she said. "Because I want to smack him." Go granny, go granny, go granny, go!

Great granny! Clerk, 91, battles thug [NYP]

Read more posts by Chris Rovzar

Filed Under: hero grannies, burglaries, crime

Kate Gosselin has officially gone Hollywood.

Eight kids in Wernersville, Pa., don't like that one bit. Why can't a mom have fun, Kate Gosselin asks in People magazine. Um, because you have eight freaking kids.

Not even three months after Kate and Jon Gosselin's divorce was finalized, their twins, 9, and sextuplets, 5, are struggling with even more upheaval.

Despite the makeshift studio they installed in her house, Dancing with the Stars still requires that Kate, its new cast member, be in L.A. at least three days a week.

The children are taking it hard. Minded by five nannies in her absence, the "depressed" kids "were asking, 'When is Mommy coming home?'" an insider reported.

In fact, as she trained and promoted her Dancing with the Stars stint (debuting March 22), Kate spent February 21-March 5 away from the kids.

Two days a week? Hardly.

Twins Cara and Maddy "seem depressed when Kate isn't around," another source says. Five-year old Aaden, Collin and Joel, meanwhile, "got into trouble at school."

It's a disturbing pattern, but their mom, who "wants to be a huge star," justifies her "work" with a surprising comparison - that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie do it!

"She frequently says Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have lots of kids and their parents are away for long periods, working to support them," a family insider said.

Don't the kids usually go with Brangelina, though? Just wondering. And where's Jon Gosselin? Morgan Christie can't part with his two-inch package a few times a week?

Jessica Simpson has taken issue with, and refused to accept an apology regarding John Mayer's recent Playboy interview in which he talked about railing her.

Now Billy Corgan, who has recently been linked to Jessica, is sounding off on the topic as well. "He's trying to destroy his career," Corgan tells Rolling Stone.

"Rather than take a year off or change his musical direction, some part of it is irritating [John Mayer's] soul to the point where he's trying to blow it up."

"Certainly a talented guy, but empathetically, it's hard to watch someone literally burn their career to the ground speaking as somebody who's done it."

Ruin his career by being a douchebag? Interesting theory ...

Billy Corgan has come to the defense of Jessica Simpson.

"For any person who has celebrity to drop rocks at somebody else's feet like that, there’s things you should really just keep your mouths shut on," says Corgan.

"There's things that should just be left alone."

The Smashing Pumpkins rocker, who declined to confirm his relationship status with Simpson, recently told Rolling Stone that she is definitely worthy of love.

"If people knew her like I knew her, they would love her like I do," said Billy, who helped her pen the theme song for The Price of Beauty, which airs March 15.

For her part, Jessica says that despite John's betrayal and d!ck move, she has no trust issues going forward. Everyone can now breathe a huge sigh of relief.

They may or may not be dating, and may or may not have hooked up on the set of their movie, but if there's a hotter pairing than these two, we haven't see it.

Nor have we seen The Bounty Hunter, which looks terrible.

Still, Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston showed some very public displays of affection on the red carpet of the London premiere of their new film Thursday.

What do you think? Just friends and co-stars? Or something so much more? You be the judge ... but there's no disputing the obvious chemistry here ...

The heat that is Jen and Gerry. [Photo: Splash News Online]

• Maybe those blind items about their impending break-up (and Spencer cheating) were true? Heidi Montag fired husband Spencer Pratt, who had been her manager for the duration of their one-year marriage. Her new manager: "Healer intuitive Aiden Chase. ... Having an intuitive psychic leading my team gives me a edge no one else has." She continues, "Never mix business with pleasure. We are no longer Speidi but Spencer and Heidi." I feel like a dirge is in order, but will settle for this 2007 picture of vintage Speidi, [fig.1] from the days before Heidi's DDDs and before Spencer's flesh-colored beard. We will grudgingly miss you, Speidi. But not too much. [People]
• 
  
• James Brown's body is missing from its crypt according to daughter LaRhonda Pettit: "My daddy's body has disappeared. I have no clue where it was taken, but I need to know where. I'm convinced his death was suspicious and I want the people responsible brought to justice. The only way to do that is to exhume his body and have an autopsy." Okay, this lady sounds sort of crazy. Pettit was one of the twelve people who claimed to be Brown's illegitimate kin after his death; DNA proved that Pettit's claim was true. (With a 0.01 percent margin of doubt.) "It was common knowledge that my daddy took illegal drugs. ... At the very least there were enablers." Now she just sounds sad and yearning. [DailyMail via GlasgowRose]
• 
  
• Gerard and Jen are back to rubbing their faces all over each other in public. Is The Bounty Hunter really premiering already? Time flies.[TMZ]
• 
  
• High Society villainess Jules Kirby, whose premiere episode quotes included, "My friends do not tend to be homosexuals, fat, or Jewish-y bald" and "I use the N-word sometimes" and "Someone needs to get that black girl out of here" is irritated that the CW is editing her "to look like a stupid bitch." She also says "The show is scripted, and we are given lines and characters," but if they gave her the character, then why is she surprised/complaining about edits? Also: "stupid" is the least of your image problems, Jules. [P6]
• 
  
• A gaggle of teen girls saw Jessica Biel through a diner widow and wrote her name on their notebooks and held it against the glass so everyone would know Biel was there. "Biel, dining alone, then turned and smiled at the girls." I would really like to have witnessed this "smile." I imagine there was a world of subtext on that face. [P6]
• 
  
• Corey Haim had an enlarged heart and water in his lungs when he died, as well as prescriptions for Valium, Vicodin, and unfortunately named muscle relaxant Soma. (Remember the creepy happy pills from Brave New World?) "He told me he had a skip in his heart" said his manager. [NYDN]
• 
  
• From one creepy Jessica Simpson lover to another: Billy Corgan says John Mayer is self-destructing. "It's hard to watch someone literally burn their career to the ground—speaking as somebody who's done it." He thinks Mayer should take some time off, because "some part of [his career] is irritating his soul to the point where he's trying to blow it up." As for the painful-sounding "sexual napalm" thing, "there's things you should really just keep your mouths shut on." [RollingStone]
• 
  
• Speaking of Jess: Hairstylist Ken Paves wasn't supposed to be a character in her show The Price of Beauty. He was supposed to do her hair, but "it was impossible to get him out of the shot when taping began." He knows where the money is. Get ready for a fameball... [P6]
• 
  
• A paparazzo fed a parking meter for Renee Zellweger, who thanked him by giving him a $100 Starbucks gift card. The celebrity-paparazzo relationship should be studied by anthropologists; it's antagonistic, symbiotic, menacing, and humane all at once. [P6]
• 
  
• Charlie Sheen is ready for a plea bargain, and wants to go "no contest" on a misdemeanor to get out of his felony domestic assault case. Wife Brooke Mueller "was under the influence" during the attack and "would rather walk on coals than testify," but the prosecution's physical evidence may be strong enough to go ahead, anyway. Meanwhile, Sheen returns to shooting Two and a Half Men on Tuesday. Who the hell is watching that show? I see this man's face and I want to barf. [TMZ]
• 
  
• "DMX is the #1 draft pick to appear on the next season of Celebrity Rehab." The main issue is whether they can get him on the show before he goes to jail. [TMZ]
• 
  
• A guy in Georgia who posted a YouTube video calling for Elton John's death has been arrested for "terroristic threats." He was pissed about the "Jesus was gay" thing. [NYDN]
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• Lehava be damned! Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar Rafaeli looked "very much in love" shopping in L.A. [P6]