Sideshow: Matthews Band fete coming to A.C.

This summer, instead of a big tour, the Dave Matthews Band will do four "regional destination festivals" throughout the country - and the show for this area will be - June 24-26 at Bader Field, former site of the Atlantic City Municipal Airport! The band announced it Wednesday. We're talking huge, oh, my brothers and sisters. Dave and the boys will headline, but among many other acts will be David Gray, Ray LaMontagne, the Flaming Lips, O.A.R., Damian Marley, Dr. Dog, Amos Lee, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Guster, Lotus, Carolina Chocolate Drops, the incredible Punch Brothers, From Good Homes, Delta Spirit, Big Gigantic, Alberta Cross, Mariachi El Bronx, TR3, Vusi Mahlasela, the Budos Band, and Bobby Long. Dave's bandmates Carter Beauford and Stefan Lessard will do solo sets, and Dave and Tim Reynolds will do an acoustic set. The weekend also includes late-night shows at A.C. venues. An online tix request period is from March 14-21 at www.warehouse.davematthewsband.com. Tickets go on sale to the public March 25 at www.DMBCaravan.com or by phone at 1-800-594-8499. Phish originated the regional-festival idea back in the late '90s - and bigtime rumors say Phish may stage its own mini-Woodstock at Watkins Glen on July Fourth weekend.        Mel makes plea deal

America's sweetheart, Mel Gibson, has struck a plea deal with L.A. prosecutors, Anonymous Sources tell TMZ. When he stands up in court on Friday, Mel will plead guilty to misdemeanor simple battery, instead of corporal injury on a spouse. He'll get counseling, but not jail time. All stems from a January 2010 blowup at his then-gf Oksana Grigorieva. Mel's lawyer, Blair Berk, said concern for daughter Lucia, 1, progeny of the liaison, and for the rest of his family, moved Mel "to approach the District Attorney with a proposal that would bring all of this to an immediate end." Oksana's lawyer, Daniel Horowitz, said she "trusts the District Attorney's office with their decision."

Usually, we give you the Billboard 200 album top 10 and then mention singles. Let's turn it around. Sometimes backward is fun. After all, CDs are tanking and single downloads are wussup. On the Digital Songs chart, No. 1 is, of course, why fight it? Lady Gaga, with, of course, go kill yourself, "Born This Way," with 238,000 downloads. Nipping at her perverse heels is the picante Jennifer Lopez (featuring Pitbull), with "On the Floor," 223K. The rest: (3) Cee Lo Green, "[Indelicate Imperative Verb] You (Forget You)," 200K; (4) Rihanna, "S&M," 178K; (5), Katy Perry (featuring Kanye West), "E.T.," 167K; (6) Ke$ha, "Blow," 164K; (7) Dr. Dre (featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey), "I Need a Doctor," 149K; (8) P!nk, "[Indelicate Adjective] Perfect," 140K; (9) Adele, "Rolling in the Deep," 121K. And No. 10 is - welcome back! - Britney Spears with "Till the World Ends," 117K.

Albums? Adele still straddles the summit, with 21, with 168,000 sold. The rest: (2) Late Nights & Early Mornings, by Floetry alumna Marsha Ambrosius, 96K; (3) Sigh No More, by Mumford & Sons, 54K; (4) Never Say Never: the Remixes, by the aging Justin Bieber, 53K; (5) The Now 37 collection, 44K; (6) Going Out of Style, by the Dropkick Murphys, 43K; (7) still hangin' round, Recovery, by Eminem; (8) Town Line, by Aaron Lewis, 38K; (9) Doo-Wops and Hooligans, by Bruno Mars, 32K; (10) Greatest Hits . . . So Far!!!, by P!nk, 31K.

Nobody asked her, but Rihanna tells OK mag that if asked, she'd say no to the lead in the remake of the 1992 flick The Bodyguard. Filling Whitney Houston's shoes? Not enough challenge, says she. Rihanna makes her filmic debut soon in Battleship. Others bruited for Bodyguard are Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson. . . . The Boot reports Gwyneth Paltrow has inked a $900,000 recording deal with Atlantic Records after warbling in film, on Glee, and at the Golden Globes and Oscars. If we were Gwyn, we'd take it. . . . Emma Watson blogs that she'll stop out of Brown University for a while, finish the Potter films and other acting stuff, and wrap her degree later. . . . Tareq Salahi, half of the "White House Party-Crashers" duo, mutters that he might sue slaggy VH1 show Celebrity Rehab because it fired his wife, Michaele, Tuesday. The show says she's fired because "she has no addiction." Tareq says, no, it's because of "her health condition," reportedly multiple sclerosis. Tareq says it all violates the Americans With Disabilities Act. . . . Halle Berry is classy. She paid for her ex, Gabriel Aubry, to fly up to NYC and be with their child, Nahla, while Halle films New Year's Eve. She put him up in bigtime style at the London Hotel, where you need a down payment for a cracker. Gabe sued over custody because Halle'd be off filming so much, neglecting Nahla. The judge ruled for Halle - who still footed the bill for Gabe to fly up and be a dad. . . . Not quite so much on the same page are the divorcin' Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz. She filed last month, asking full custody of son Bronx, 2, and wanting Pete to pay all lawyer's costs. But Pete filed Tuesday in L.A. Superior Court for joint custody - and goin' Dutch! . . . In separate sets of ads for for Emporio Armani underwear and Armani Jeans, tennis stud Rafael Nadal and movie stud-ette Megan Fox get so close to nekkid let's not discuss the difference. . . . Lady Gaga (her again!) has torn up a deal with retail leviathan Target to vend a special exclusive! deluxe edition of her album Born This Way. It hinged on Target's efforts to reform its policy on political donations - some of which have made their way to anti-gay groups. That ticks off Lady G, an advocate for gay rights. Guess Target missed the target, so Gaga is saying ta-ta. . . . Kamofie & Co., that Venice, Calif., jewelry shop, says it'll auction off the necklace it says Lindsay Lohan lifted - and give the proceeds to charity. . . . It is with humane compassion and comic relief that we save this day's mention of Charlie Sheen for our penultimate item. From time to time, we at "SideShow" mention Vivid Entertainment, which bills itself (proudly!) as the world's largest adult vid maker. Vivid claims to have pioneered the celeb porn tape, and it has made some bucks with sex vids featuring Pam Anderson, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Tom Sizemore, Joslyn James (of Tiger Woods infamy), Kim Kardashian, Kendra Wilkinson, and Montana Fishburne. The CEO, Stephen Hirsch, who really knows how to hook into celebrity news, has invited Chas to direct a film titled - Two and a Half Women. Hey, he's between projects! . . . Even funnier, some 74,000 people have applied for the internship (doing what, we fear to know) Chas posted Monday. . . . Even funniest, HBO said Wednesday that it's making Game Change, a telepic about - Sen. John McCain's presidential run with Sarah Palin! Who will play the divine Sarah? Julianne Moore, it sez here. Who'll play Johnny Mac? No word yet. We vote for Darrell Hammond, talented McCain taker-offer of Saturday Night Live - but why listen to us?