Chris Brown pleads guilty, Justin Bieber arrested

YESTERDAY'S Tattle was a case of tap dancing to fill space following a holiday weekend in which celebrities and the people who report on them decided to take off.

Today? We've got two pages of news to stuff into one page of newsprint.

We'll start with the docket:

* Chris Brown pleaded guilty yesterday to hitting a man outside a Washington hotel, an assault that occurred while he was on probation for attacking his then-girlfriend, Rihanna.

Brown pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to time served - the two days he spent in a District of Columbia jail.

Brown was arrested in October. The victim told police that Brown hit him after he tried to get in a picture the singer was taking with two women.

Brown had previously pleaded not guilty in the case.

* Oft-troubled Justin Bieber, meanwhile, was arrested on assault and dangerous driving charges stemming from an alleged fight after his ATV collided with a minivan in the Ontario, Canada, community where the Biebs lived as a boy.

According to CNN.com, Bieber's 24/7 lawyer used the new celebrity gold-standard excuse, saying that the diminutive pop star/mansion egger was chased by people with cameras when the incident happened.

Bieber was enjoying a "peaceful retreat" - allegedly with on-again Selena Gomez - at his father's home when the paparazzi descended, the lawyer said.

Bieber, whose latest tour consists mainly of courtrooms, is due back to appear on Sept. 29.

Former "Voice" coach CeeLo Green might have a future in the Todd Akin wing of the Republican Party.

The colorfully frocked musician shocked fans, according to Foxnews.com, with a series of since-deleted tweets in which he argued that sex with an unconscious person can't be classified as rape.

Huh?

CeeLo this week pleaded no contest to a charge of giving a woman Ecstasy during a 2012 dinner at an L.A. eatery before accompanying her back to her hotel. He was not charged with rape of an intoxicated person in the case, due to insufficient evidence.

CeeLo addressed the case via the law journal known as Twitter, tweeting, "People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!"

He followed that gem with: "If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent."

Later came the obligatory, "I sincerely apologize for my comments being taken so far out of context.

"I only intended on a healthy exchange to help heal those who love me from the pain I had already caused from this. Please forgive me as it was your support that got me thru this to begin with. I'd never condone the harm of any women. Thank you."

* It's been a little while since any group felt particularly wronged by a TV show, but officials in Venezuela are denouncing the new TNT series "Legends" for portraying its socialist government as stockpiling nerve gas to quash dissent.

Producer Fox 21 apologized and said the show was just fiction.

Unlike, say, "24."

"The producers did not intend to imply that the show was reporting any actual events when it mentioned President Maduro's name. We sincerely apologize to President Maduro," the company said in a statement.

But refusing to allow fictional criticism to go to waste, yesterday government critics were posting the 20-second clip with the heading, "The scene Maduro doesn't want you to see."

* Nick Cannon has been keeping a notebook for much of his life, and is now working on a book of poems for children.

Scholastic announced yesterday that Nick's Neon Aliens Ate My Homework and Other Poems will be published in March. According to the publisher, Neon Aliens will feature black-and-white illustrations from street artists and will reflect Nick's desire to combine poetry and hip-hop. Nick said in a statement that he has been writing poems and stories since he was 8.

Nick also has a children's book scheduled for October, Roc and Roe's Twelve Days of Christmas, inspired by the twins he had with his estranged wife, Mariah Carey.

* A new Cornell University study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, concludes that watching action shows on TV makes you eat more.

And watching those shows at 2 a.m. after smoking a joint makes you eat a lot more. And enjoy the shows more.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

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