Names and faces

— Imagine having William Shatner supply your outgoing voice-mail message. Or maybe you’d prefer Morgan Freeman coolly telling callers to wait for the beep. Or perhaps having Betty White joke around is more your speed. All it takes is $299 and some luck. The advocacy group Autism Speaks is offering custom-recorded messages from those celebrities as well as Will Ferrell, Carrie Fisher, Tom Hanks, Derek Jeter, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart and Ed Asner. From Dec. 3-9, a limited number of 20-second MP3 messages will be recorded by each celebrity on a first come, first-served basis for fans to do with as they wish. All requests must be of the PG variety. Asner dreamed up the unusual fundraiser with his son Matt, who works for Autism Speaks. “I think people will get a charge out of it,” says Asner, who is working on Broadway in the play Grace. “I’ll probably say,‘What are you wearing?’ Or, ‘Take it off.’ Something like that.” All proceeds will support autism research and advocacy efforts.

Prosecutors decided not to file any charges against Justin Bieber after investigators found no evidence that the pop star had kicked and punched a photographer after leaving a movie theater, a document obtained Wednesday states. Prosecutors had been asked by police to consider filing a misdemeanor battery charge against Bieber, but Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators found no visible injuries, video or photographs to confirm the allegations by the photographer. Bieber, 18, was leaving the theater in suburban Calabasas with girlfriend Selena Gomez on May 27 when he had the encounter in a parking lot. A doctor found only superficial injuries, and deputies observed no injuries on the man after the incident, the document states. Authorities interviewed several witnesses but none reported seeing Bieber kick the man, and they noted that the photographer kept taking photos as the two singers left the location, according to the charge evaluation worksheet prepared by the district attorney’s office. The case was rejected on Oct. 22 and first reported Wednesday by celebrity website TMZ.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 11/25/2012

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