The former mental patient accused of stalking Uma Thurman appeared at her front door repeatedly at odd hours, and he left her a frightening letter, according to testimony Tuesday by two of the actress' employees.

Thurman's housekeeper Dorota Janas testified on the second day of Jack Jordan's trial that he rang the bell at the actress' Greenwich Village town house at least twice a day for at least 10 days last summer.

Jordan, 37, is on trial in Manhattan's state Supreme Court charged with stalking and aggravated harassment. He was arrested in October 2007 after following and trying to contact Thurman from early 2005 until about a month before his arrest. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

His lawyer, George Vomvolakis, says Jordan is a former mental patient who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and bipolar and should be in psychiatric treatment, not in jail.

Janas, testifying through a Polish interpreter, said she saw Jordan sitting on the front stoop a few days before another employee called police. Some time later, she retrieved a letter Jordan had left for Thurman on the stoop.

In the latest development in Britney Spears’s continuing family drama, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner ordered the troubled singer’s estate to pay her father, James Spears, $2,500 in weekly compensation, and extended his authority over his daughter’s affairs at least until July 31, The Associated Press reported.

The commissioner, Reva Goetz, also ordered the estate to make a $58,800 payment to the court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, who represents Ms. Spears in the conservatorship case, and authorized Ms. Spears’s psychiatrist to hire two other doctors and pay them retainers totaling $9,000 from her estate. Following Ms. Spears’s hospitalization in January, Mr. Spears was named her conservator and co-conservator of her estate.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against the star of the syndicated TV show "Judge Alex," saying that an arbitrator must decide a fee dispute with an attorney who is claiming 12 percent of "Judge Alex's" earnings.

The 8-1 decision came in a lawsuit by Alex E. Ferrer, a former Florida Circuit Court judge who decides minor civil disputes as a form of TV entertainment.

Ferrer refused to pay a management fee to Arnold Preston after the two men had signed a contract that called for arbitration of any disputes.

Ferrer says Preston is not a licensed talent agent as California law requires.

Preston sought the money by starting a proceeding with the American Arbitration Association in Los Angeles. Ferrer filed a complaint with the California Labor Commissioner, seeking to invalidate the contract for the fees. Ferrer went to court when the labor commissioner said she lacked the power to block the arbitration.

At issue was the reach of the Federal Arbitration Act.

"When parties agree to arbitrate all questions arising under a contract, the FAA supersedes state laws," wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said that the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to proceedings in state courts.

The California Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the TV star, saying that the California Labor Commissioner must determine the issue of whether the attorney is required to have a license in order to recover the money to which he says he is entitled.

Hollywood writers have voted to end a three-month strike that crippled film and television production. As Mike O'Sullivan reports, Hollywood is breathing a sigh of relief after the worst labor dispute in decades.

The writers walked off the job November 5. Tuesday, Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America West, said they will end the 100-day strike.

"The membership has voted. Writers can go back to work," Verrone said.

Nearly 3800 members of the guild cast their ballots in New York and Los Angeles, with more than 92 percent voting to end the strike. The writers will be back on the job Wednesday. New episodes of television series could be available in four-six weeks.

The dispute centered on payment for movies, television shows and other creative work that is streamed over the Internet. Under a tentative agreement, the writers would get a maximum flat fee of $1,200 per program in the first two years, then two percent of a distributor's gross revenue in the third year. The union's board of directors approved the deal Sunday.

Leslie Moonves, chief executive of the CBS network, told the Associated Press the agreement was a fair one. Union officials say it was not all they wanted, but they can live with the deal.

Although the strike is over, Writers Guild members need to ratify the pact by February 25.

The end to the strike means Hollywood's annual celebration, the Academy Awards, can go ahead as scheduled, February 24. The threat of picketing writers had reduced the Golden Globes last month to a news conference.

The strike stopped production of dozens of television shows and slowed production on movies. One Los Angeles economist says it cost the local economy at least $3 billion.

A screenwriter has sued Mel Gibson and his production company, claiming he was misled by the actor-director into accepting a small payment for writing "The Passion of the Christ," and was refused extra money when the film became a blockbuster.

Benedict Fitzgerald claims that when he was asked to write a script about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Gibson told him the movie would cost between $4 million to $7 million, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court. Fitzgerald also alleged Gibson promised he wouldn't receive any money from the film and any profit would be distributed to people who worked on it.

Gibson stated he didn't want "money on the back of what he considered a personal gift to his (Roman Catholic) faith," the lawsuit said.

Fitzgerald, who shared screenwriting credits with Gibson, claimed he agreed to "a salary substantially less than what he would have taken had he known the true budget for the film," which the lawsuit claimed had an estimated budget of $25 million to $50 million. The 2004 movie went on to gross several hundred million dollars.

The lawsuit doesn't specify how much Fitzgerald was paid.

An after-hours call to a publicist for Gibson, 52, wasn't immediately returned.

The lawsuit claims fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and seeks unspecified damages. It also names Gibson's Icon Productions LLC as a defendant.

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills returned to court Monday in an attempt to agree on terms for their divorce. The fight over the wealth of the former Beatle, who is estimated to have as much as $1.6 billion, could produce Britain's largest-ever divorce settlement.

Mills, 40, looked tense and said nothing as she entered a courtroom at London's Royal Courts of Justice wearing a gray suit and bright pink shirt.

McCartney, 65, arrived at court after his estranged wife, also wearing a gray suit. He said "good morning" as he entered court carrying a large black case.

Unlike most British court hearings, divorce proceedings are heard in private, and the door of Court 34 bore a sign reading "No Admittance — Strictly Private."

The hearing before Justice Hugh Bennett is scheduled to last five days. The terms of any settlement would not become public record unless it moved to the Court of Appeal, or either of the parties chooses to reveal details.

That has not stopped a frenzy of media interest and speculation. Dozens of photographers staked out entrances to the court Monday, while two news helicopters hovered overhead.

Press reports have suggested that McCartney has offered his wife around $50 million, and that she is seeking at least double that amount.

"Current estimates suggest that Heather is likely to receive anything from 50 million to 100 million pounds ($100-200 million) as her final settlement," said Suzanne Kingston, a family law expert.

NBC Universal has taken Dick Wolf, the executive producer of its "Law & Order" series of dramas, to court in a dispute over how much he is being paid.

The lawsuit, filed late last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, asks the court to clarify a contract signed by the network and its top producer of scripted shows. Besides the original "Law & Order" series, Wolf has made "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" for NBC.

Wolf has argued that the contract essentially guarantees him a kill fee, or money for producing 48 extra episodes of "Law & Order" even after NBC has determined it doesn't want the show anymore. NBC says in the court papers that it has made no such promise.

"NBC Universal is trying to rewrite an existing contract," Pam Ruben Golum, a spokeswoman for Wolf, said Monday.