Morning Links: Mindy McCready suicide scare

Country music star Mindy McCready was hospitalized on Wednesday morning after an apparent suicide attempt at a home in Nashville. Police and paramedics rushed to the home after McCready called the mother of her roommate and said some things that concerned the woman. McCready was treated for wounds to her wrists and taken to a Nashville-area hospital.

The singer went to rehab earlier this year and was involved in a scandal related to an alleged affair as a teen with retired major league star Roger Clemens.

• • •

Former child star Jodie Sweetin had an emergency court hearing Wednesday regarding custody of her children, after her estranged husband reported to the court that the former methamphetamine addict had recently slipped in her sobriety treatment and consumed alcohol to excess.

"Jodie absolutely has not relapsed into using meth,"Sweetin's lawyer told People. "She merely confessed to having several glasses of wine over dinner recently and felt guilty about that. She is currently in a 12-step program and is working hard on her sobriety. She wants to be clean and sober from everything."

• • •

The Russian Roulette theory has been thrown out in the death of Scott Ruffalo, the brother of actor Mark Ruffalo. The Los Angeles County coroner declared yesterday that the death was a homicide. The investigation by the coroner's office has determined that someone else shot Ruffalo, ruling out the the drug-fueled accident that had previous been theorized.

• • •

Pop diva Whitney Houston is being sued by her stepmother, who claims Houston withheld money from an insurance policy on her father, John Houston, who died in 2003. Step-mom, Barbara, says that Whitney kept the $1 million policy, which was supposed to pay off the mortgage that she shared with her late husband.  After the mortgage was paid, the lawsuit says Whitney was supposed to give the remaining money to Barbara.

• • •

Charges have been dropped against a British family that worked for David and Victoria 'Posh' Beckham. Members of the family were arrested in October, and were accused of stealing items from the Beckhams and then selling items on eBay.

• • •

Lil Wayne has more in common with Coldplay than just a bunch of Grammy nominations. The rapper is being accused of stealing a song from South African artist, Karma-Ann Swanepoel, who says Lil Wayne backed out of an agreement to license a track for his hit song "Feel Like Dying." Swanepoel is seeking payment for the unlicensed sampling of the track.

This is the second time Lil Wayne has been accused of lifting a song, and not paying for it. He was sued in July by a record company that says he stole a Rolling Stones song.

Coldplay, who shares the Grammy nomination lead with Lil Wayne, was accused of stealing last month by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani.

• • •

Ed McMahon will not lose his Beverly Hills home after all. McMahon's mortgage has been renegotiated by an Orange County firm to a rate that the Tonight Show icon will be able to afford.

--Dave Valenzuela