LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Howard Bryant was arrested Saturday but claims racism is to blame. ESPN’s Howard Bryant and wife Veronique Bryant both issued news statements today denouncing treatment by police officers. Bryant pleaded not guilty for the arrest. He has been charged on counts of domestic assault and battery.

Bryant appeared in a Greenfield District Court Monday. Bryant was arrested for alleged domestic assault and battery on his wife, assault and battery on an officer, and resisting an arrest. But Bryant says the Massachusetts State Police have made error.

Bryant works for both ESPN and EPSN The Magazine. He was released on $5,000 bail.

Officers say that state police Sgt. Richard Cardan, Buckland officer Paul Herbert and Shelburne officer Clinton Phillips took at least three minutes to effectuate the arrest because of Bryant’s alleged resistance.

Bryant is an author of three books and contributor on five more. His credits include “Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston,” “Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball” and “The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron.”

Bryant said in a statement: “I am so sad today. I am sad today because this attack on me by the Massachusetts State Police and the Buckland Police has made it necessary for me to defend untrue allegations and repair my reputation when one conversation with either Veronique or with me would have diffused the entire situation. Instead, the police chose aggression first over dialogue, threatened to taser me whenever I tried to speak, and all in front of my 6-year-old son.”

He added “As a result, I have to defend a charge that I attacked both the woman I love and the police when nothing could be further from the truth.”

Veronique Bryant added in her statement that: “This is all so unfair. There was no investigation. The police made assumptions about my husband that weren’t true. I was never abused or in fear of Howard on that day or any other day. I wasn’t running from him or trying to get away from him. The police weren’t listening to me and they attacked him with violence with our 6-year-old watching.”

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Dancing with the Stars new 2011 cast is revealed tonight but part of the lineup is already out. Dancing with the Stars cast 2011 will featured Kendra Wilkinson and Kirstie Alley. But who else is confirmed?

Reportedly confirmed is Faye Dunaway. Dunaway is best known for her performances in Chinatown and Mommie Dearest. Nastia Liukin and Vera Wang may join the lineup. Christine O’Donnell and talk show host Wendy Williams are apparently joining the cast, claims reports. Among TV personalities joining could include Jodi Sweetin and reality star Kendra Wilkinson-Basset along with Lorenzo Lamas.

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Wilkinson made news this fall appearing on the cover of Life and Style Magazine with the bizarre cover “I’m a single parent now”. “When Hank left I felt lonely. He’s my everything. Nobody else can really fill that loneliness” read the deceptive cover. Of course, husband Hank Baskett never left Kendra, he just left Los Angeles for that current season for the NFL with the Minnesota, Vikings.

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Other reports claim that Chris Jericho is joining Dancing with the Stars along with Lil’ Romeo and Chelsea Kane. The new cast will be announced tonight during The Bachelor. The next season starts this March 21.

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were very much in love at the Vanity Fair Oscar party last night. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez’s appearance at the post-Oscars party last night featured the two holding hands, wearing coordinating outfits, and featuring her hand on his knee.

Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez showed up looking stunning. She was adorned in a red evening dress by Dolce & Gabanna while he wore red pocket square to match. Arriving that the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood for the annual Vanity Fair bash, Bieber and Gomez did not opt to be photographed separately. Rather they appeared hand-in-hand, smiling for the intentional news media.

But always working the crowd, Bieber chatted up other industry heavyweights in the party including Tom Hanks, reports PEOPLE. And as MTV photographers revealed to news last night, the couple were even spotted texting together. While the two did not speak to news late night, their message was clear. To date, neither have ever officially confirmed their relationship.

Watch the video below.

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – The Ben Roethlisberger wedding to Ashley Harlan has brought news media to New Castle and Hickory Township seeking comment this weekend. Ben Roethlisberger’s wedding drove news media, yet again Sunday, to “Hickory Township, just outside the village of Eastbrook near New Castle” seeking comment about the upcoming nuptials. But the response, yet again, was no comment.

While Ben Roethlisberger’s games are usually before a sixty four thousand person crowd at Heinz Field, Ben Roethlisberger’s wedding news is drawing news media to a community less than half that size.

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And yet despite local news publishing details of their attempt to get a comment from the Harlan family and friends, the community has still remained mum. News reporter Sally Kalson previously detailed that Harland’s mother had introduced Ben Roethlisberger as her daughter’s boyfriend. Kalson also reports the community knew that the two were dating reportedly as long as last summer. But when asked about the upcoming wedding, “no one had [any] first-hand information” or, as Kalson qualifies, “no information they were willing to share.”

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So who is Ashley Harlan? A local tells news that the Harlans are a “wonderful family”. Harlan attended Laurel High School. She, too, grew up in a sports family, playing softball in high school. She eventually earned a bachelor’s degree (health science) and then went on to earn a physician assistant’s master’s degree from Saint Francis University in Loretto, Cambria County.

And while local news reports about Harlan broke nearly two months ago, Harlan has remained quiet.. Her father, like in January, was available outside his home in New Castle yesterday. When asked if his daughter will marry July 23, David Harlan said its up the couple when to announce the news.

Roethlisberger’s agent Ryan Tollner has yet to comment as well.

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LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Could Christian Ponder go first round in the NFL Draft? Christian Ponder delivered one of the best, if not the best, quarterback performances at the NFL Combine this weekend. But a quick perusal online reveals that news coverage of Christian Ponder at the Combine generated roughly ten percent of that in hyped Cam Newton and impressive Jake Locker.

So could Christian Ponder be the real surprise of the NFL draft that few are talking about? Most insiders believe so.

Many think Cam Newton will go first round, perhaps first overall. But another group believes that Jake Locker could be the surprise. Other analysts simply disagree wondering whether Christian Ponder could a late first round pick or high second round pick.

Teams felt at this year’s Combine you had a great group of “second tier” quarterbacks, reports Adam Schefter. Schefter told news today that Christian Ponder did so well this weekend that he is at the top of that second tier. “He is accurate with his throws” said Schefter. “He distinguished himself over the last month, month and a half…. He is part of that second tier of quarterbacks … that can be effective on an NFL level” Schefter told viewers.

Ponder was tied Tyrod Taylor with the best 20 yard shuffle. Reporter Wes Bunting was impressed, writing of Ponder “Looking through the entire QB group I thought Ponder had the best day of all the signal callers.”

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