Taking Names

Arrested — again

Amy Winehouse has been arrested on suspicion of drug possession, police and her spokesman said yesterday.

According to Associated Press, Miss Winehouse’s spokesman, Chris Goodman, says the arrest is connected to a video that reportedly shows the troubled singer taking drugs at a party in her home in northern London.

Britain’s Sun tabloid in January published still images from a video that it claimed showed Miss Winehouse inhaling fumes from a small pipe. The images were said to have been filmed during a party at her London home.

Famous for her Grammy-winning hit “Rehab,” Miss Winehouse has had a turbulent private life. She was cautioned by police for assault last month after she slapped a man during a night out.

Shortly after the Sun published still photographs of the video, Miss Winehouse entered a London rehabilitation center.

Maestro miffed

Acclaimed conductor Franz Welser-Moest will not take the rostrum for two scheduled performances of a vampire-inspired staging of Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” at the Zurich Opera, AP reported yesterday.

Mr. Welser-Moest, the general director in Zurich and music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, will not conduct the Strauss operetta on May 17 or June 20 because of “artistic reasons,” says spokeswoman Nadia Stefanizzi.

The daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung reported last month that the 47-year-old Austrian was “unhappy” with the staging by his compatriot Michael Sturminger, who infused vampires and Dracula’s castle into the popular 19th-century Viennese work. While Strauss’ title literally means “The Bat,” the operetta focuses on amorous intrigue at a bourgeois home, a ball and a Vienna prison. The bat serves only as the symbol of revenge that befalls the main character.

Miss Stefanizzi says Ralf Weikert will conduct the performances in Mr. Welser-Moest’s place. A DVD will feature Mr. Welser-Moest because there was enough material from the two performances he conducted to fill out the film, she says.

Sinatra stamp

A new stamp honoring Frank Sinatra goes on sale next week.

First-day-of-issue ceremonies for the 42-cent stamp will be held Tuesday at three locations familiar to the famed singer and actor, AP says. The price of a first-class stamp goes up a penny to 42 cents on Monday.

The first ceremony for the performer often known as the Chairman of the Board will be hosted by the post office’s own chairman of the Board of Governors, Alan Kessler.

Mr. Sinatra’s son and daughter — Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra Jr. — as well as Rep. Jose E. Serrano, New York Democrat, will join Mr. Kessler at the 10 a.m. program at New York’s Gotham Hall. Mr. Serrano has said he learned English by listening to Sinatra records.

Court report

• A court ruling in favor of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has set the stage for a trial on whether the publication of photographs taken of her young son violates his privacy. The Court of Appeal in London says children of famous parents have the same right to expect privacy as children of parents who aren’t well known. Miss Rowling and her husband, Dr. Neil Murray, brought the case on behalf of their 5-year-old son, David. The photographs in question were taken when David was 18 months old, AP says.

• The widow of television’s “Crocodile Hunter” yesterday reached a confidential settlement with creditors who claimed the family’s zoo owed them $2.3 million, AP reports. Alyssa Treasury Services, a debt-recovery agency, had sued Australia Zoo — the wildlife park that was operated by the late Steve Irwin and his wife, Terri Irwin, in Queensland state — for money reportedly owed to trustee partners. Mr. Irwin, who built a worldwide audience and a multimillion-dollar business around his television persona as an animal lover and conservationist, was killed in a stingray attack in 2006 while filming a television series.

Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports.