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Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, scheduled July 28 in the Chicago, suburb of Bridgeview, will benefit Crossroads Centre, the drug-rehab facility he founded in Antigua a decade ago. Tickets go on sale Saturday.

Scheduled performers include B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Beck and John Mayer, among others -- and Clapton is already excited about spontaneous collaborations.

This will be the second concert Clapton has held to raise funds for the Caribbean rehab facility, which now includes a halfway house and community-education program. The first concert was in Dallas in 2004.

Many performers plan to return -- ''A great testament to how much everybody loves Eric Clapton,'' said Gill, who played at the first Crossroads fest.

''I haven't had a drink or drug for quite a long time and it's changed my life completely. That's something I want to pass on and share with other people,'' he said.

The 62-year-old guitarist is set to wrap up his world tour in April and ''have a little break in England'' with his family before the Crossroads concert.

Jennifer Lopez, who has proudly declared herself ''just a girl from the Bronx,'' delighted fans in her old neighborhood by appearing at a local record store to sign autographs and promote her first all-Spanish album.

The 38-year-old pop singer-actress has two Latino-themed films coming out this year: ''Bordertown,'' about the killings of hundreds of women in and around the city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and ''El Cantante,'' starring her husband as Puerto Rican salsa singer Hector Lavoe.

Dominick Giordano, 32, was cited for disorderly conduct after employees at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts stopped him as he tried to run away, police said.

Authorities said Giordano had been following Branch to concerts around the country since 2003 and regularly sends her letters and videos. A police report from Monday's incident said Giordano had previously managed to sneak backstage at concerts and into post-concert parties, and had lunged at Branch during an autograph signing.

''He used to get his way into meet-and-greets and private events somehow and would try to approach her and touch her and just really inappropriate stuff,'' said Branch's road manager, Joshua Scott.

Branch's string of pop hits include the Grammy-winning ''The Game of Love'' with Carlos Santana. She is now singing country music and is touring with Jessica Harp and band The Wreckers.

Irish rock star and global humanitarian Bono became a knight of the British empire Thursday -- and joked that his youngest son thought he was about to become a Jedi instead.

Bono, 46, was named a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in an informal, laugh-filled ceremony in the Dublin home of British Ambassador David Reddaway.

''You have permission to call me anything you want -- except sir, all right? Lord of lords, your demigodness, that'll do,'' he told reporters afterward.

Because he is an Irish citizen, Bono won't have the title of ''sir'' before his name. That honor is reserved for citizens of the United Kingdom or British Commonwealth countries. Ireland left the Commonwealth when it became a republic in 1949.

Reddaway paid tribute to Bono's work as a campaigner against poverty and disease in Africa -- but first asked whether he was disappointed that becoming a knight no longer involves a sword or kneeling.

Accompanying the rocker were his wife, Ali, and their four children -- Jordan, 17; Eve, 15; Elijah, 7; and John, 5. U2 guitarist The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton also attended.

Bono sported lapel pins for two of his previous European government awards, the Legion d'Honneur from France and the Order of Liberty from Portugal.

Such official accolades ''really help me get through a few doors I wouldn't get through. And that's the truth, that's the way the world is,'' he said.

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