Dogg is now a Lion, and Bob Marley, too

Updated: July 31, 2012 - 6:55 PM

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NEW YORK - Snoop Dogg wants you to know that he's tired of hip-hop, is Bob Marley reincarnated and is embracing reggae instead of the culture of guns he once rapped about. And, he's got a new name: Snoop Lion.

The artist said at a news conference Monday in New York that he was "born again" during a visit to Jamaica in February and is ready to make music that his "kids and grandparents can listen to." The former gangsta rapper is releasing a reggae album called "Reincarnated" in the fall. He said that in Jamaica, he connected with Bob Marley's spirit and is now "Bob Marley reincarnated."

Bob Marley's son Rohan attended the conference and gave Snoop his blessing. "I feel like I've always been Rastafarian," Snoop said of the spiritual Jamaican movement. While there, he said, he visited a temple, was renamed Snoop Lion and was also given the Ethiopian name Berhane, meaning "light of the world."

Later, he played five songs for a small crowd, including one called "No Guns Allowed." It features his daughter and includes the lyrics, "No guns allowed in here tonight, we're going to have a free for all, no fights." "It's so tragic that people are doing stupid things with guns," he said.

Suave baritone Tony Martin dies

Tony Martin, the debonair baritone whose career spanned some 80 years in films and nightclubs and on radio and TV, died Friday at his home in West Los Angeles. He was 98. Martin's long life in show business began in the late 1920s; he was still performing in nightclubs well into the 21st century. In one of the high points of his screen career, he serenaded Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner as they floated down a staircase in a number staged by Busby Berkeley in MGM's "Ziegfeld Girl."

ABSENT: Liberal radio and TV talk show host Ed Schultz has been absent from the microphone for a week. Schultz's wife, Wendy, is being treated for ovarian cancer. He told his audience last week that he would be gone from the air for some time. Mike Papantonio has been filling in on radio, and Michael Eric Dyson has been doing the TV gig. The Schultzes live in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

TRILOGY: Peter Jackson and his Hollywood backers have finished plans to produce a third "Hobbit" movie, with release in 2014. The cast will include actors from Jackson's successful "The Lord of the Rings" films, including Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood.

NYC COURT: Scout Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, can do community service to resolve her public-drinking and fake-ID case, a judge said Tuesday.

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