Hicks: Jennifer Lopez's manager talks about her "obsessive men

Jennifer Lopez's manager told Vogue he wishes she'd stop getting involved with "obsessive men."

Oh yes he did.

After separating from Marc Anthony last year, Lopez moved on rather quickly to boyfriend Casper Smart. Which didn't completely thrill her manager Benny Medina.

"The thing that I always sort of wished is that she would give herself time to just naturally meet someone, instead of having obsessive guys pursue her," Medina said. "The ease which that obsession becomes a relationship I think sometimes works against her ability to have a real meaningful relationship."

Oh yes he did.

Lopez isn't affected by the 18-year gap between her and Smart, 24, says Medina.

"We talked about it and she was like, 'It's not even the age, Benny,'" Medina says. "'It's actually that I just came out of a relationship where I felt like I was kind of not getting what I needed. And I'm open!'"

Lopez went on to tell Medina she is looking for "somebody who steps in right now and is actually touching me in a (meaningful) way."

Um ... what?

Even though Medina wishes Lopez would go about getting into relationships differently, he believes that Smart isn't just some short-term rebound romance.

"(Jennifer) never half-does anything," he says. "When she commits to anything in her work, her life or her relationships, she is in it."

RIHANNA DEFENDS CHRIS BROWN COLLABORATION:

Rihanna is defending her recent collaboration with ex-boyfriend, ex-Rihanna beater Chris Brown, saying it "made sense" and it's "innocent."

Only if she was carrying a flamethrower.

Brown appears on a remix of her song "Birthday Cake" and she appears on a remix of his "Turn up the Music." Their music union is noteworthy because Brown beat up Rihanna three years ago and is still on probation for the assault.

Rihanna says it was her idea for Brown to appear on her song because he's "the hottest R&B artist" right now. He then asked her to be on his song.

The kids must b! e messin g with the language again, to where "hottest" means "most likely to assault me."

She says the partnership allowed fans to come together, adding: "There shouldn't be a divide. ... It's music, and it's innocent."

It would take far more space to recount why Chris Brown is anything but innocent.

Rihanna made the comments to Ryan Seacrest on his radio show on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles.

BRAND ARRESTED: New Orleans police arrested Russell Brand on Thursday afternoon when he turned himself in after police issued a warrant for him early in the day, according to TMZ.

The British comedian is accused of snatching the iPhone of a paparazzo and hurling it through a building window Monday night.

Brand did this in front of a bunch of other photographers, who said they understood his frustration at always being hounded by them, set down their cameras, gave him big hugs, and promised never to publish any of the pictures they took of him.

Actually, that's kind of a guess.

Police spokesman Gary Flot said the warrant was issued for simple criminal damage (sounds like a great band name) in the amount of $700.

A spokeswoman for the comedian did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But Brand appeared to make light of the incident Wednesday on Twitter.

"Since Steve Jobs died I cannot bear to see anyone use an iPhone irreverently, what I did was a tribute to his memory," the actor tweeted on Wednesday.

I wish I thought of that.

Brand has been filming an untitled film for director and writer Diablo Cody ("Juno") in New Orleans. The movie co-stars Octavia Spencer and Holly Hunter and centers on a plane crash survivor's crisis of faith.

ANOTHER STAR ANGRY IN PUBLIC: Chris Rock busted a journalist's camera in January, after being asked about his stance on the Tea Party.

I guess he feels pretty strongly about it.

The footage just surfaced this week of Rock going off on a male journalist at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Last year, d! uring an interview with Esquire, Rock blasted the Tea Party, saying "When I see the Tea Party and all this stuff, it actually feels like racism's almost over. Because this is the last ... this is the act up before the sleep. They're going crazy. They're insane."

Right. And that sentence made complete, non-crazy sense.

The conservative writer, Jason Mattera, approached Rock in a friendly manner, asking him to pose for a picture with him. As Rock tried walking away, Mattera asked "When you said the Tea Party was insane and racist ... ."

Rock kept trying to walk away but, upon discovering his path was blocked by other people, Rock grabbed the camera and threw it to the ground.

A rep for Rock told TMZ the actor's attorney is looking into the video.

HBO SHOW RUNS OUT OF 'LUCK': After the third horse death in a little more than a season of production, HBO has decided to cancel horse racing drama "Luck."

"Luck" had just begun shooting a new season, with A-list actors Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte.

Two horses were put down last season after fracturing their legs. The third died recently after it reared up and fell, hitting its head.

In a statement, HBO said, "While we maintained the highest safety standards possible, accidents unfortunately happen, and it is impossible to guarantee they won't in the future."

Animal rights group PETA says whistle-blowers contacted it during the first season of "Luck," but PETA's complaints of animal mistreatment went nowhere, even after the deaths of the first two horses.

"We got the necropsy reports on those horses through a Freedom of Information Act (petition)," says PETA's Lisa Lange, "and what we found was shocking. One of the horses had been pumped full of painkilling drugs, another one was old and arthritic"

But doctors who oversaw the horses say PETA is misreading the death report, and that the painkillers were given to one horse to calm it down after its leg injury.

Dr. Rick Arthur, a veterinarian at the San! ta Anita racetrack in California, told CBS News, "HBO did everything they possibly could to ensure the safety of those horses."

Yeah. Did they try using two guys in a horse suit instead of real horses? I think not.

The series was gaining ground with critics and was shooting episodes for season two. But its ratings -- just half-a-million viewers -- were considered disappointing. Variety Associate Editor Jon Weisman wondered whether the ratings race was the real reason the show was pulled. "There's going to be a lot of speculation that that's exactly what happened - that they used this for cover to get out from a show that they perhaps didn't really want to be involved with long term," he said.

The American Humane Association, which monitors animals on TV and movie sets, said canceling the series is "arguably the best decision HBO could have made."

PETA has called for a criminal investigation of the latest horse death.

GALLAGHER HAS HEART ATTACK: Comedian Gallagher had a heart attack Wednesday in a Texas club before he was scheduled to perform.

The watermelon-smashing funny guy, who suffered a heart attack during a March 2011 show in Minnesota, was supposed to do his routine at Hat Tricks in Lewisville, Texas.

His manager Craig Marquardo told TheWrap website that Gallagher "had met a few fans and whatnot, and he was in the office (of Hat Tricks) when he felt a little tired. So he went in and sat down, and then (club employees) went in and checked on him and he wasn't feeling good, so they called an ambulance.

"He was feeling the onset of a heart attack," Marquardo says. "He just didn't know it at the time."

The 65-year-old was still at a Dallas-area hospital Thursday, where he will remain for a few days while doctors evaluate his heart.

The comic has shows booked through the end of 2012. Marquardo said the schedule will be evaluated once the comedian is feeling better. He is scheduled to perform at Walnut Creek's Vice Ultra Lounge on April 12.

Follo! w Tony H icks at www.facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/insertfoot

FRIDAY IN HISTORY

Friday is March 16, the 76th day of 2012. There are 290 days left in the year.

A.D. 37: Roman emperor Tiberius died; he was succeeded by Caligula.

1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines, where he was killed by natives the following month.

1751: James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.

1802: President Thomas Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

1912: Future first lady Pat Nixon was born Thelma Catherine Ryan in Ely, Nev.

1926: Rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass.

1935: Adolf Hitler decided to break the military terms set by the Treaty of Versailles by ordering the rearming of Germany.

1945: During World War II, American forces declared they had secured Iwo Jima, although pockets of Japanese resistance remained.

1968: During the Vietnam War, the My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians was carried out by U.S. Army troops; estimates of the death toll vary between 347 and 504.

1972: In a nationally broadcast address, President Richard M. Nixon called for a moratorium on court-ordered school busing to achieve racial desegregation.

1982: Claus Von Bulow was found guilty in Newport, R.I., of trying to kill his comatose wife, Martha, with insulin. (Von Bulow was acquitted in a retrial; his former wife, who was also known as "Sunny," died in December 2008.)

2002: Gunmen killed Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino, a prominent critic of Colombia's leftist guerrillas, in Cali. Thirteen-year-old Brittanie Cecil was struck by a flying hockey puck during a game between the hometown Columbus Blue Jackets and the ! Calgary Flames; she died two days later.

2003: American activist Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to block the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip.

2007: Former CIA operative Valerie Plame told a House committee that White House and State Department officials had "carelessly and recklessly" blown her cover in a politically motivated smear of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for publicly disputing President George W. Bush's assertion that Saddam Hussein was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear bomb.

2011: Pakistan abruptly freed CIA contractor Raymond Allen Davis, who had shot and killed two men in a gunfight in Lahore, after a deal was sealed to pay $2.34 million to the men's families.

BIRTHDAYS

Comedian Jerry Lewis (86), game show host Chuck Woolery (71), singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker (70), actor Erik Estrada (63), country singer Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) (61), rock singer-musician Nancy Wilson (Heart) (58), rapper Flavor Flav (Public Enemy) (53), rock musician Jimmy DeGrasso (49), actress Lauren Graham (45), actor Tim Kang (TV: "The Mentalist") (39), rhythm-and-blues singer Blu Cantrell (36). actress Brooke Burns (34), rock musician Wolfgang Van Halen (21).

Associated Press