(Reuters) - A court order was lifted on Tuesday that had prevented R&B singer Chris Brown from coming into close contact with his ex-girlfriend Rihanna since a violent altercation two years ago.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Patricia Schnegg downgraded the stay-away order that said Brown, 21, must stay 50 yards away from Rihanna, or 10 yards at entertainment industry events.

Schnegg replaced it with a less stringent order that bars Brown from harassing or annoying Rihanna, but allows him to speak to her.

Rihanna was not in court but her lawyer said that the "Rude Boy" and "Umbrella" singer had no objection to the change.

Brown, 21, who did attend Tuesday's brief hearing, pleaded guilty in 2009 to assaulting Rihanna on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to five years probation and community service and recently completed a year-long domestic violence course.

Brown last week skipped the music industry's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, despite being nominated for three honors. Rihanna performed on the show but failed to win any of the four awards for which she was nominated.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

(Reuters) - Singer and musician Lenny Kravitz will release his first album in three years under the title "Black and White America," and he promised on Wednesday it will be his most musically and lyrically "diverse" yet.

The album will be the 46 year-old songwriter's ninth in his career but the first under a new label, Atlantic and Roadrunner Records. It will be released in the middle of 2011 as Kravitz embarks on a world tour in June.

Kravitz told Billboard.com the album's title was derived from his experiences growing up "in between a so-called black and white world," up to changes in the United States today including Barack Obama elected as the first black president.

"My life has always been about contrasts, and it reflects on not only my life and what I've gone through with my parents and what I saw growing up, but also where we are now as far as this country," he said.

Kravitz is the son of black actress Roxie Roker and white television producer Sy Kravitz.

The 12-track up tempo album is expected to contain elements of Kravitz's signature sound that mixes rock, funk and soul influenced by the 1960s and 1970s, including tracks called "Stand, "You're Gonna Run Again," "Push" and "Super Love" -- described as combining 1970s funk with a modern sound, according to a statement.

The album will also include "Dream," a piano ballad and a funk-driven title track.

"Musically and lyrically, I feel it is the most diverse album of my career," Kravitz, who has won several Grammy awards for best male rock vocal performance, said in the statement.

He last toured in 2009 across 18 countries with his last album, "It Is Time For A Love Revolution". It contained the hit ballad "I'll Be Waiting" that landed in the top 10 in several European markets.

Kravitz also has acted in recent years, including a supporting role as a nurse in the 2009 film "Precious."

(Reuters) - From Michael Jackson to James Brown, Harlem's The Apollo Theater is famed for helping launch some of the most successful figures in U.S. black entertainment and marking their influence in popular culture.

A new exhibit, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," displays images, videos and artifacts including instruments, shoes and costumes from music greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Sammy Davis Jr. who performed at the theater over the past 75 years.

From swing to Motown to hip hop, it details the 1500-seat music hall's history of propelling styles of music and artists that have graced its stage from Nat King Cole in the 1940s to its famed Apollo Amateur Night, which helped the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix and The Jackson 5.

"The first time I appeared at the Apollo was during Amateur Night -- my gospel group during a gospel caravan show. And we won. And the next time was at the very beginning of my career in 1962," Dionne Warwick told Reuters Television.

"The Apollo Theater is the creme de la creme. And as is said, and is so true, if you can make it at the Apollo, you can make it anywhere," Warwick added.

The exhibit, held from Feb 8 to May 1 at the Museum of the City of New York, also explores Harlem's history as a hub of U.S. black culture and the theater's role in hosting memorial services for James Brown and a public tribute to Michael Jackson.

Jackson first performed at Amateur Night at age 9 with his brothers. Their group, the Jackson 5, won the competition in 1969, when the pop singer was 11 years old, performing Smokey Robinson's "Who's Lovin' You."

"When I think of a soundtrack for the second half of the twentieth century, it's the music that was launched by the Apollo," Susan Henshaw Jones, director of the Museum of the City of New York, said in a statement.

Letters from Martin Luther King and Frank Schiffman, the owner of the Apollo from 1935 until his death in 1974, are also included in the exhibit.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

By Lea Michelle Cash –

Recently at the Art Institute-Inland Empire, Sherry West, the executive producer and Academic Director of Fashion Design, Dawn Knapp and Cecilia Ng, both co-producers, along with Phyllis Clark, instructor of Fashion retail marketing and a list of others hosted a fashion show featuring their students and a second fashion show featuring Project Runway eighth season finalist Michael Costello.

Costello, 27, a native of Palm Springs who is living his dream since a very young age, opened his fist boutique in Palm Springs at the age of 15. At 16, following a oneyear internship with Mackie, he took a job designing clothes for Claire’s Collection, the design house responsible for stunning gowns featured on red carpets at the Emmy, Oscar, and Grammy Award ceremonies.

He is also noted for dressing Vanna White and the girls from “Price is Right”. Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Celine Dion, and Mya have all worn his creative designs. Although, the outstanding, award winning celebrity fashion designer was celebrated and featured his 2011 African print Spring couture collections, the night belong to the Art Institute fashion design students creating big dreams of their own.

For example, Bertha Harris, 64, has loved sewing, designing, and drawing all of her life. She recently retired from the County of Riverside as a drafter of maps. She loves designing wedding dresses. With her dream planted firmly in her heart she headed to the Inland Empire’s Art Institute and is scheduled to graduate in 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design. Harris said, “I’m living my dream and taking it slow. Because my son says, mom take it slow. But I am so happy to be designing and doing things associated with fashion.” In the student’s fashion show she presented a breathtaking beautiful wedding gown with hand sewn sequenced butterflies featured throughout the garment. “I like butterflies” says Harris, “so I thought a wedding gown should have butterflies on it.”

“The Red Carpet” event was a success as the room filled with over 200 people, delighted with the unveiling of each perfect design presented by runway models who volunteered their time. Delicious finger foods were provided by the Art Institute.

Marinello the School of Beauty also sponsored the event. They supplied the make-up artists and hair stylists.

After both fashion shows were featured, the stage was opened to a question and answer segment in which Costello inspired the audience and future fashion design students to live their dreams and to never give up on believing the could become a valued member in the fashion industry.