Celebrity news

R&B singer Usher's divorce from his wife is final.

Jada Hudspeth, a spokeswoman for Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia, said a final decree in the divorce case was issued Wednesday. Usher, whose real name is Usher Raymond IV, filed for divorce from Tameka Raymond on June 12. Lawyers for both declined to comment yesterday.

The couple have two young sons, Usher Raymond V and Naviyd Ely Raymond. The couple married in August 2007 in a lavish ceremony just outside Atlanta in front of about 200 people.

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• Angela Lansbury will be the first recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award from Signature Theatre, a Washington-area theater that has produced more of his works than any other in the United States. Lansbury, a five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical star, will be honored at a gala celebration in April.

• A judge sentenced "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis yesterday to time served and a year of probation for filing false income tax returns. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero accepted the terms of a plea deal between Francis and prosecutors, who struck the deal after learning on the eve of trial that a key witness had lied to them.

-- From Wire Reports