LOS ANGELES (AP) — Selma Blair is making a sudden exit from the Charlie Sheen sitcom “Anger Management.”

In a statement Tuesday, producer Lionsgate says the actress won’t be returning to the FX comedy. The company says it wishes her “the very best” but has no further comment.

Blair’s departure comes while the comedy is about halfway through completing its 90-episode order from FX.

The actress’s publicist didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Sheen’s manager, Mark Burg, declined comment, as did FX.

The sitcom represents Sheen’s TV series comeback after he was fired from CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” in 2011 after clashing with producers.

Sheen has an ownership stake in “Anger Management.”

Blair played a therapist and colleague to Sheen’s character on the show. Sunday is her 41st birthday.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to eight days in jail for stealing a former “American Idol” contestant‘s iPhone while the singer was performing at a California elementary school.

City News Service reports 47-year-old Bertha Alicia Avalos, of Santa Ana, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft charges Monday and was sentenced immediately.

Todrick Dramaul Hall reported his phone missing after a performance at Hazard Elementary School in Santa Ana.

Hall and a school security guard used the “Find My iPhone” feature on the device to track the phone to a grocery store where Avalos was shopping with her son, a student at the school.

Avalos gave the phone back to Hall. He wanted to press charges, so she was taken into custody later at her home.

Hall was an “Idol” contestant in 2010.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The endangered Lakota language has lost one of its greatest supporters.

Albert White Hat, who was instrumental in teaching and preserving the American Indian language and translated the Hollywood movie “Dances with Wolves” into Lakota for its actors, died last week surrounded by loved ones at a South Dakota hospital. The 74-year-old had prostate cancer and other health issues, according to family and friends.

White Hat, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, authored several books on writing and reading Lakota, a language fluently spoken by fewer than 6,000 people. The average age of those speakers is 60, and less than 14 percent of the Lakota population in South Dakota and North Dakota — where the vast majority of Lakota speakers live — speak their native tongue.

The first native Lakota speaker to publish a Lakota textbook and glossary, White Hat was considered an activist for traditional ways of living, according to his daughter, Emily White Hat. He even created an orthography for the language, which he had taught since 1975, and was head of the Lakota Studies Department at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.

She said her father believed in sharing the Lakota way of life with both tribal members and non-Native Americans.

He believed “there was always an opportunity to educate,” Emily White Hat said. “Even though some questions may be off the wall, he believed it was better to take the opportunity than to be misled about who we are.”

One of those opportunities came when White Hat provided the translation for the Lakota dialogue in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves.”

Wilhelm Meya, executive director of the Lakota Language Consortium, a nonprofit seeking to revitalize the Lakota language, called White Hat a “warrior” for the language. Meya said he hopes White Hat’s legacy lives on and that more young people will decide to study the language and work to retain its importance.

“Anytime someone who cares so deeply about the language passes, it’s a blow to the language and the revitalization efforts,” Meya said.

“We are, after all, losing speakers every year,” he added. “Over 100 Lakota speakers pass on (each year). Those speakers are not being replaced by young speakers. Until we can reverse that trend, the language will continue to be very much in danger.”

White Hat was born on the outskirts of St. Francis, S.D., on the Rosebud reservation. He spoke only Lakota until his teens, when he started learning English in school. His grandfather, Chief Hollow Horn Bear, was a leading chief in many of the Plains Indians Wars against settlers in the 1800s and was involved in treaty negotiations with the U.S.

Rosebud Sioux Tribal President Cyril Scott called White Hat a great teacher, spiritual leader and friend. He noted that White Hat was known all over the powwow circuit and was awarded numerous awards for his dedication to preserving the Lakota language and culture.

“He did so much research and knowledge of the Lakota language itself that those of who are young, who are learning to teach the Lakota language, he encouraged all of us,” added Tina Martinez, co-chair of the Lakota Studies Department at Sinte Gleska University. “And yet his loss is all our loss. We don’t have that source to go to anymore.”

White Hat is survived by his wife, seven children and many grandchildren.

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Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kristieaton.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — ‘Terminator 2′ star Edward Furlong has been charged with assault after a May 21 incident in which his girlfriend called police and reported he attacked her.

Deputy District Attorney Linda Loftfield says Furlong pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday.

Furlong already has two pending misdemeanor battery cases. He allegedly violated a restraining order when he returned to the victim’s West Hollywood home. He’s also accused of damaging a laptop and photo equipment.

In March, the 35-year-old actor was sentenced to six months in jail for violating his probation in a 2010 case for violating a similar restraining order.

Furlong has been the subject of such orders taken out by both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend.

He is being held on $100,000 bail.

A preliminary hearing is set for July 1.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson‘s personal chef described for jurors the home lives of the children during the final months of the singer’s life and their ongoing grief over their father’s death nearly four years ago.

Gone are the freewheeling days when the children, Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson played with their father and traded jokes at the dinner table, chef Kai Chase told jurors Tuesday.

It has been replaced, Chase said, by a weight on eldest son Prince Michael Jackson‘s shoulders. Daughter Paris Jackson cries and no longer wants parties for her birthday since her father hosted a private circus for her 11th birthday. Youngest son Blanket, who remains home-schooled, wears a T-shirt with his father’s image every Friday, she said.

Chase recounted for jurors her interactions with Jackson, his children and her ongoing work with the singer’s mother and children for jurors hearing Katherine Jackson‘s negligent hiring case against concert promoter AEG Live LLC. The company denies all wrongdoing.

After weeks of testimony about Jackson’s business dealings with AEG, Chase’s testimony returned the trial’s focus to the King of Pop and his offspring.

“At 16, the weight of the world is on his shoulders,” Chase said of Prince Jackson, who is trying to figure out girls and all the challenges adulthood brings.

His younger brother, 11-year-old Blanket, has his older siblings to shield him from pain but had the least time to spend with his father. “He never really had a time when it was father-son because he was so tiny,” Chase said.

The singer’s only daughter seems to be having the hardest time, Chase said.

“Being daddy’s little girl, Paris is devastated,” Chase said. “She’s devastated and lost.”

Chase’s testimony provided a look into the lives of Jackson’s three children before and after their father’s death in June 2009. Michael Jackson was fiercely protected of their privacy, often using masks to hide their faces when they were in public.

She now has daily interactions with Jackson’s children since being hired to serve as their chef in July 2012. Of Paris, she said, “She’s trying to find herself and find who she is,” Chase said. “It’s taking a lot of love and understanding to keep her together. She breaks down, she cries, she talks about him.”

Earlier in her testimony, she described an April 2009 birthday party for Paris that included a private circus. The Cirque du Soleil-style show featured men on stilts and a woman performing in a giant balloon, Chase said.

Paris Jackson, who was turning 11, adored her father and Chase helped decorate a room filled with posters and photos of the “Thriller” singer. The singer’s music was played throughout the party.

It was the last birthday party the 15-year-old has had. “Paris hasn’t had any birthdays since,” Chase said. “She hasn’t wanted to celebrate since.”

She described the routines in Jackson’s home in the months before his death, describing him as a vibrant and hands-on father. But by June 2009, Chase said Jackson was deteriorating and she witnessed Prince having to help his father up a staircase to his bedroom.

She said she met AEG executives at the center of the case, including chief executive Randy Phillips and executive Paul Gongaware, when they came to Jackson’s home for meetings about the singer’s ill-fated “This Is It” comeback concerts. One tense meeting in June started with a vase being broken — she didn’t know by whom — and with Jackson and his personal physician storming out.

The doctor, Conrad Murray, told her as he left the home, “I can’t take this (stuff.)”

She described the Jackson family dynamic in happier times at the home. The entertainer wouldn’t allow his children to eat sweets and made sure they went to bed early so they would be alert for tutors who instructed them. Chase described Jackson as a prankster who ate meals with his children, exchanging jokes and stories.

When the singer entered the room, his children would run to their father when he came into a room. “They would take off like lightning,” she said, hugging their father’s ankles and legs.

If jurors determine AEG Live is liable for Jackson’s death, they will have to determine any damages awarded to his mother and his children.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP