By Rya Backer

Before the weekend starts, we thought we'd let you know about a few stories we worked on today:

Amy Winehouse is back in trouble! The Brit soul sensation threw another assault charge onto her ever-growing rap sheet for allegedly beating a fan who requested a photo with her last September. In other news, it's Friday.

There's a lot to be said about last night's episode of "American Idol," (TATIANA, I MISS YOU ALREADY!) but much of the wild-card show was centered on Anoop Desai. In addition to being chosen as lucky number 13 to round out this year's hopefuls, Desai gave a shout-out to an elusive "Eve" at the end of his song and critique. Curious? We've demystified the announcement.

Taylor Swift just fulfilled her ultimate dream! No, it wasn't to have the #1 album for the past zillion weeks. Rather, she was killed on an episode of "CSI." Did you see it last night? What did you think of her performance?

Have a great weekend!

Amy Winehouse may still be taking some time off, but the Dap-Kings — who helped craft the modern soul sound of her last album, Back to Black — have kept hard at work in their Daptone Records studios in Brooklyn, where they write and play for a variety of other artists. Unfortunately, that work (including an upcoming session with Rod Stewart) may have to be put on hold because the studios were broken into over the weekend.

"There was a lot of equipment (mics, pre-amps, monitors, turntables, guitars, amps, computers, etc.) stolen and damaged," label co-founder Gabriel Roth wrote in an e-mail to bloggers. "It is going to take us a while to go through everything and take full stock of what was stolen, and we are not supposed to touch anything until the cops come back to collect fingerprints, so we can only guess what's missing from some mic drawers and cabinets. ... And no, we did not have insurance." Read more...

Another weekend, another trip to the ER for Amy Winehouse. According to British press reports, the fragile singer was rushed to a hospital Saturday night after doctors visiting her at home on Thursday became concerned that her condition had deteriorated.

The singer's British spokesperson, Chris Goodman, confirmed today that Winehouse had "gone for some checkups," that she had a chest infection last week and that, given her earlier treatment for lung damage, doctors wanted to make sure everything was OK. In June, the 25-year-old singer was hospitalized with a severe lung ailment that her father, Mitch, attributed to smoking cigarettes and crack cocaine. At the time, he told reporters that she was suffering from the early stages of the incurable disease emphysema. Winehouse is expected back home today.

Though Amy Winehouse has been caught on tape (more than once) appearing to ingest hard drugs, her father said on Tuesday that he believes his daughter's trip to the emergency room on Monday was a result of a friend spiking the 24-year-old singer's drink with ecstasy. According to that bastion of British journalism, The Sun, a "furious" Mitch Winehouse has vowed to find out who was responsible for the spiked drink, which reportedly sent his daughter into convulsions. He called police on Monday to report his suspicions.

"He is convinced that one of her hangers-on was responsible, and he's waiting for a toxicology report to show what caused her to fit," an unnamed source said. "If his suspicions are proved right, he wants someone to be punished. He is seriously unhappy about Amy's flat being a stop-over for randoms and wants an end to it."

Then again, another infamous British paper, The Mirror, has reported that the singer was playing a drinking game for four hours before the incident and had downed "dozens" of rum shots before taking her 11 prescription pills, and the reaction nearly resulted in paramedics having to put a tube down her throat. A spokesperson for Amy Winehouse could not be reached for comment at press time.

Do you believe Papa Winehouse's supposed theories?

The "Rehab" singer is back home after spending a night at London’s University College Hospital following an adverse reaction to some medication. Her reps say she "had a bit of a scare" but is now at home having a "rest," which in her world is a relative term.

Check out the full story here.

With the biggest names in baseball flying into town this week for what will be the last-ever
All-Star Game to be played at New York's legendary Yankee Stadium, we here at MTV News' New York offices have been stricken with baseball fever. It's hard to escape baseball this week. No matter where you turn, there's some sort of reminder that the fastest fielders, the strongest arms and the biggest bats in the game are all here, to ensure home-field advantage for their respective league in the fall classic.

All this baseball in the air got us thinking about music's all-stars — the artists who've shattered sales records this year, produced hit after hit and have been packing out arenas coast to coast. If music had an all-star game, who would we want to see in the dugout? After careful consideration, here are some of our picks — and feel free to let us know who'd go in your team in the comments section below. So, here goes.

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· On Wednesday, cameras finally rolled on Britney Spears' video shoot for Madonna's tour. In the clip, Brit, clad in a gray hoodie, walks into an elevator and nervously paces as it begins its ascent. She then kicks and smacks the elevator walls, screams into the camera and pulls down her hood to yell, "It's Britney, bitch."

· Nobody here is trying to tell Amy Winehouse how to live her life. But does it really make sense for the troubled "Rehab" singer to be launching her own club night at London's Camden Monarch on Thursday (July 10)? Love the name, though: "Snakehips at the Monarch."

· Vanessa Hudgens has finally revealed who leaked those nude photos of her last year: "stupid people."

· Here's the rehearsal footage of the Flaming Lips practicing their cover of the Who's "Tommy" in preparation for Saturday's VH1 Rock Honors concert (airing July 17). All we can say is: fish-eye lens, lots of smoke, a strobing gong, alien helium vocals and some kind of silver tassel rah-rah drum stick being waved around by singer Wayne Coyne. Have we mentioned how much we love the Lips?

· After the free Bon Jovi All-Star Concert in Central Park on Saturday, Sheryl Crow, 3 Doors Down and Josh Groban are getting in on the musical action at the All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium on July 15.

By Matt Elias

Well, the beautiful weather in London was short-lived, but that didn't stop Amy Winehouse from soundchecking Friday in Hyde Park. Despite the drizzle, Amy (who was featured in a bizarre Rolling Stone article this week) is at least that much closer to performing at Friday night's concert honoring Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, which also features Annie Lennox, Simple Minds, Queen, Leona Lewis and the Soweto Gospel Choir. More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the show, according to CNN.
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We frequently write about Amy Winehouse's travails, but, truth be told, we don't get to talk to the British popwreck very much. Which is why we should have just walked up to her London flat and knocked on the door at four in the morning, like Rolling Stone did. If we had, we'd have gotten a glimpse at a place littered with potato-chip bags, crumpled bits of tin foil, beer bottles, lingerie boxes and credit cards strewn about. Oh, and we totally would have been offered one of her signature, Elvis-worthy white-bread and banana with potato-chip sandwiches.

According to a story in the new issue of Rolling Stone, one of their reporters hung around outside Winehouse's place in North London earlier this month — before the singer was
hospitalized for fainting and found out that she showing early signs of emphysema — and, shockingly, the musician invited the reporter in and provided a rare glimpse into her cloistered, cluttered and predictably chaotic world.

The reporter visited the day after the then-latest Winehouse scandal — the one about the
racist playground-chant video — and instead of the usual rush of publicists and managers doing damage control, she found only a bedraggled Winehouse and her best friend, singer Remi Nicole, who appears to be a calming presence in an otherwise shambolic home life. Read more...

By Matt Elias

(This report comes straight from London, where MTV News is covering the Police's final U.K. show. Check out the first post here.)

We spent the morning touring the festival grounds for the Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. Before we were allowed on site, we had to throw on some very stylish neon-orange-and-yellow vests (since the stage is still being built).

After walking around the grounds, I have to say that this might be one of the nicest locations for a festival, rivaling Lollapalooza's Grant Park in Chicago. There is a freakin' pond right behind the backstage entrance, plus people are riding horseback throughout the park — it's gorgeous.

Before the fest kicks off Saturday, there will be a special concert on Friday in the same spot, celebrating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. Among the performers, Amy Winehouse is "scheduled" to play, and the talk around town is whether she'll actually show up. One of the local gossip rags reported that her backstage dressing room has been turned into a makeshift clinic, just in case anything goes wrong. Oh, and there will be an ambulance standing by — you gotta love that free British health care.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to peep any of this. My neon-orange vest didn't give me the level-four clearance. Fortunately, the good folks at Hard Rock scored us tix to the event, so check back here Friday night to read my full report.