Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne checks in from the hoosegow He's just like Jean Valjean - a great man languishing in cruel confinement. Except he's got access to the Web. Lil Wayne, in jail for a year on weapons charges, told his fans Friday (via WeezyThanxYou.com) that he reads the Bible every day. In a note that could have been written by Descartes (or Deepak Chopra) Lil says "to those who hate" that "Hate is only a form [of] love that hasn't found a way to express itself logically. " He says he'll always love us, "no matter what they do to erase me. " Oh, Jean!

LOS ANGELES - Chris Brown won a pair of prizes at Sunday's BET Awards. The 21-year-old singer and the night's leading nominee won best male R&B artist and best collaboration for his song "Look At Me Now" with Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes. Nicki Minaj won for best female hip-hop artist. Kanye West won for best male hip-hop artist but wasn't on hand to accept the trophy. Diddy Dirty Money was named best group. Jaden Smith and Willow Smith tied as winners of the Young Stars award.

YESTERDAY'S news was all about Tuesday's midterm elections, but now that the boring stuff is over, let's turn our focus to what really matters on this page: celebrities. The Famous inundated us Joe(anne) Sixpacks with pleas to get out the vote, but Fox News reports that few put their money where their mouths were. Paparazzi were stationed at polling places all over Los Angeles, but the only celebs caught doing their civic duty were soon-to-be former Guv Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer Garner . The hypocritical behavior could easily be chalked up to absentee ballots, but Fox quoted Angie Meyer , communications director of the Young Republicans, who said that many outspoken celebrities aren't even registered.

FHM MAGAZINE'S sexiest woman, Megan Fox, used to be in love with a female stripper. How's that for "Transformers"? The 22-year-old hottie/actress, who's engaged to actor Brian Austin Green and appears on the cover of the October GQ, said the relationship occurred when she was 18 and first living in L.A. alone. "Well, that year my boyfriend broke up with me, and I decided - Oh, man, sorry, Mommy! - that I was in love with this girl that worked at the Body Shop," Megan said.

Pop Lil Wayne Tha Carter IV (Cash Money/Universal ***1/2) Jail can't stop him. Leaks can't either. Yes, Hova and Kanye had better watch their throne, judging from the boldly regal sound of Tha Carter IV , the latest in a series of royal Lil Wayne efforts. Don't compare IV to Weezy's previous Carter s. That's like pitting Guernica against Les Demoiselles d'Avignon . Listen, instead, for the new jazz Wayne's cooked up on the banging blues of "Blunt Blowing" and the MOR prog-hop of "It's Good," the latter well known for its dis to Jay Z's wealth and comfort.

WAS IT SHODDY journalism or environmentally sensitive journalism? NBC News is taking heat from the Society of Professional Journalists for flying a New Jersey man and his son back from Brazil on the network's dime after it covered the man's nasty custody battle in that country. NBC countered that it had already chartered the jet to bring staffers home for the holidays. We might add, what's the harm in reducing the carbon footprint by filling a few more seats? Surely that's what the Peacock honchos were thinking.

Gwen Stefani has learned a basic truth about being a parent: You always feel guilty. Especially if you are a woman juggling work and home. "Getting to the studio and not being able to make it happen, but missing out on being at home, missing out on putting the kids down. What's more important? I felt so guilty," the No Doubt singer tells Vogue of raising her two sons with hub Gavin Rossdale , Kingston , 6, and Zuma , 4. Gwen, 43, says she kept thinking, "I am letting everyone down.

Everybody's got a personal playlist of summer songs. It might have Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind," or Sly and the Family Stone's "Hot Fun in the Summertime. " The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City," or maybe Regina Spektor's song of the same name. Seals and Croft's "Summer Breeze" might make you feel fine, though I'm betting the Isley Brothers' version would make you feel finer. The 21 picks assembled here - on a playlist that can be burned onto one CD - are contenders for the songs of summer '08, tunes that may worm their way into your consciousness, if they haven't made it there already.

GARY COLEMAN told "Inside Edition" that he's been secretly married since August to 22-year-old Shannon Price. The couple tied the knot on a mountaintop in Nevada and "Nobody was around but the minister, preacher, the videographers, the photographer, the helicopter pilot and us," Coleman said. Sounds like the photographer had an easy job, only having to shoot one table. Coleman, who has 18 years on Price, played down their age difference. "I don't have issues with age, I have issues with intelligence," he said.

Diplo has come a long way since he hosted Hollertronix parties at the Ukrainian Club in Northern Liberties in the early '00s. He's gone all the way to 10th and Spring Garden Streets, in fact, where the DJ/producer and BlackBerry salesman played to a sold-out, all-ages crowd Thursday night at Union Transfer. The Mississippi-born, Philadelphia- and Los Angeles-based cultural anthropologist and beat-maker born Wesley Pentz topped an all-local DJ bill that included opener Xaphoon Jones, the nom de rap of Noah Beresin of the hip-pop duo Chiddy Bang, and DJ/producer Dirty South Joe. Jones and Joe warmed up the former Spaghetti Warehouse with the latter, in particular, making the walls quake with booming dubstep and slow-grinding hip-hop.