R. Kelly too ill to promote new book, CD

R. Kelly has a new CD, a new memoir and a new health problem preventing him from promoting both.

A spokesman for the R&B singer said he is suffering complications from throat surgery and will miss promotional appearances.

He was reportedly on his way to New York Wednesday morning when he became ill and returned to Chicago for treatment. Kelly had surgery last year to treat an abscess on his vocal cords.

Kelly's new album, "Write Me Back," came out Tuesday, and his memoir, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, drops Thursday.

In a review of the book, the Associated Press said the book is entertaining but "does not discuss what really happened with the sex tape that almost sent him to prison. It does not include a single word about Aaliyah, the late singer Kelly allegedly married when she was 15. Other tantalizing incidents and individuals are glossed over. A tell-all, this is not."

In other news about books with a point of view, Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, writes that Casey isn't a killer, just someone with a too-vivid imagination.

In Presumed Guilty, Casey Anthony: The Inside Story, Baez said that detectives should have realized Anthony had built a "fantasy world" and that her lies weren't evidence of guilt but signs of someone with "serious mental health issues."

Duh.

One tidbit of interest to the Daily News Chain Gang: Baez said Anthony's first meal out of jail was a cheeseburger, fries and milkshake from Steak 'n Shake.

Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill has been getting some bad press since his alleged involvement in Drake vs. Brown I, but he said on MTV's "RapFix Live" that he had nothing to do with the melee, at the NYC club W.i.P.

"I don't really be having those controversies like that, man. It's just that the more hotter you get, they start talkin'," Mill said.

"People fight in the club every week; I just be there. The name's gettin' a little bigger, I guess they startin' to mention me now," he said. "I've never been mentioned on none of those blogs or none of those shows or whatever, but things must be goin' well over there."

Asked about his alleged Twitter war with Chris Brown, Mill succinctly summed up the value of the medium, "Twitter don't count in real life; I tweet anything."

He added that after the bottle-throwing incident, he reached out to both combatants.

"I hollered at Chris Brown immediately, I talked to Drake immediately," he said. "I don't be on no negative vibes, man. ... We blessed, we get money, we rich and leave it at that."

Tattle doesn't typically deal with deaths, but Thriller probably wasn't going to get a Jack Morrison obit.

Thriller, a tiger who belonged to Michael Jackson when MJ lived at Neverland Ranch, has died of lung cancer at Tippi Hedren's Shambala wildlife preserve near L.A.

Hedren (who most famously starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and is the mother of Melanie Griffith) said the 13-year-old, 375-pound tiger died June 11.

Hedren said Thriller and brother Sabu were born in 1998 and lived with Jackson until 2006, when he left the ranch. Their vet asked Hedren to take the cats to Shambala, and Thriller and Sabu lived together at a $79,000 compound built on a lake.

Despite Jackson's love of animals, Hedren said he never called to check on the tigers and never sent any money to help pay for their care.

TATTBITS

Federal prosecutors in L.A. recommended a nearly six-year prison sentence for Christopher Chaney, the 35-year-old Florida man who pleaded guilty to hacking into email accounts belonging to more than 50 celebrities, including Christina Aguilera, Mila Kunis and Scarlett Johansson.

Court documents filed earlier this week said Chaney also should pay more than $150,000 in restitution, including about $66,000 to Scarlett. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 23.

Lindsay Lohan has resolved a case filed by three men she took on a high-speed ride that resulted in her second DUI arrest in 2007.

Lindsay's attorney, Ed McPherson, and the men confirmed Wednesday that the lawsuit has been settled before trial. Terms were not disclosed.

McPherson said Lindsay can now devote her full attention to her career.

If only.

Timothy Michael Poe, the singing former soldier whose battle injury claims were questioned (uh, because they seemed to be untrue) has sung his last song on "America's Got Talent."

The 35-year-old country singer appeared earlier this month on "AGT" and said he was injured by a grenade in Afghanistan in 2009, but Minnesota National Guard records didn't support his story.

Last night he was merely injured by Howie Mandel.

"I don't know that he holds up to other singers on this show at all," Howie said.

New Hampshire lawmakers have failed to get enough votes to override the governor's veto of a bill sought by late writer J.D. Salinger's family to prevent inappropriate commercial exploitation beyond a person's death.

The bill would have extended the state's "common law right to control the commercial use of one's identity" for 70 years beyond someone's death. It was sponsored at the request of Salinger's heirs, who said they were offended by the use of the author's image and name on items such as coffee mugs.

Imagine how they're going to feel about Catcher in the Rye Bread.