July 8, 1999
Web posted at: 5:08 p.m. EDT (2108 GMT)

• Coolio gets jail time
• Documentary to explore Selena's following
• 'Midnight' author fêted in Savannah -- again
• Crosby drives teens from Aussie mall

Coolio

TORRANCE, California (CNN) -- Rapper Coolio is going to jail.

The Grammy winner pleaded guilty to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The judge sentenced him to 10 days in jail, 40 hours of community service and two years' probation.

Coolio, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was driving in Lawndale on September 15, when a sheriff's deputy stopped him for allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road. Prosecutors say he told the deputy he had a gun in a door pouch. The officer took the pistol.

Coolio, 35, was found guilty of carrying a concealed firearm five years ago.

Selena

BOSTON (CNN) -- Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo says she's making a documentary that explores the social forces that transformed slain Tejano singer Selena into such a beloved figure. Devoted fans visit Selena's grave to clean the headstone and leave dolls, flowers and notes.

"When I saw the coverage on the television, I couldn't believe that this brown girl had gotten to be so famous. That's when I decided to make a film about Selena," Portillo says.

The public television special, "Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena," studies the star's hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, and her legacy. It includes clips of Selena singing as a girl, home movies, family interviews and a debate on her value as a role model. The documentary is to air July 23.

Selena was killed in 1995 by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who's serving a life sentence.

SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- Savannah already has given author John Berendt two keys to the city. So an appreciation party was the answer.

The city threw a bash to celebrate the release of the Vintage Books paperback edition of his hardcover bestseller "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." The book, from Random House, spent 216 weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list.

The nonfiction novel covers the four murder trials of Jim Williams, a wealthy Savannah antiques dealer accused of killing his young male lover in 1981. Williams, who eventually was acquitted, died in 1990.

"Thank you," said Mayor Floyd Adams Jr. at Tuesday's celebration of Berendt's success, "not for putting Savannah on the map, but for telling the people of the world about the beauty of Savannah."

The city has seized on the popularity of the book as a tourism bonanza, promoting tours of sites mentioned in the text and selling countless souvenirs related to the novel.

WOLLONGONG, Australia (CNN) -- Mid-century American crooner Bing Crosby has become a Pied Piper of sorts in Australia, driving teen-age mall goers from a shopping center in Wollongong, south of Sydney.

Warrawong Westfield mall pipes in the song "My Heart Is Taking Lessons" over and over again -- loudly -- in a bid to get rid of teenage loiterers. It appears to be working.

"The music keeps them (teenagers) away," one shopper says. "It makes it safer as we walk up to the car park."

Teenagers concede the music works as a repellent, one calling it "damn annoying."

As if that weren't enough to get rid of them, the mall also uses pink fluorescent lights that highlight pimples.

Bing Crosby made more than 200 albums in his 50-year career, his biggest hit being "White Christmas" from the 1942 film "Holiday Inn." In his heyday, Crosby was appreciated by the dating set, and in his last Christmas television special, he shared the stage with David Bowie. Crosby died in 1977 at age 74.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.