Entertainment briefs

SANTA ANA — The doctor who performed a tummy tuck and breast reduction on the mother of Kanye West is a plastic surgeon to Hollywood’s elite and something of a celebrity himself, with a TV show of his own and a host of appearances on programs from "Extra” to "Oprah.”

What Dr. Jan Adams hasn’t publicized, however, is that the state medical board is investigating whether to revoke or suspend his license over alcohol-related arrests; that he has been the target of malpractice lawsuits; and that he’s paid out nearly $500,000 in civil settlements.

Adams, through his spokesman Kevin Williams, confirmed for The Associated Press that he operated on Donda West, who died Saturday night at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center in Marina del Rey after she stopped breathing at her home. She was 58.

Adams would not say when and where the surgery was done, citing doctor-patient confidentiality.

"I first want to express my deepest condolences to the West family at a very difficult time,” Adams said in a statement read by Williams.

"Out of respect for the West family and in the absence of other verifiable information, any comment from me without first discussing that information with the family would be unprofessional.”

She underwent cosmetic surgery Friday in Los Angeles and went home, said Capt. Ed Winter of the county coroner’s office.

Tiffany accuses eBay of failing to stop counterfeit jewelry sales

NEW YORK — A lawyer for Tiffany & Co. accused eBay Inc. on Tuesday of allowing the sale of tens of thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry on its Web site; an eBay lawyer responded that Tiffany wasn’t doing its share to protect customers.

The arguments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan came at the start of a trial to decide whether eBay can be blamed for the sales of silver Tiffany knockoffs on its Internet site since 2003.

James B. Swire, Tiffany’s lawyer, said eBay "simply turned a blind eye” to the sales.

Bruce Rich, eBay’s lawyer, said the site has suspended hundreds of thousands of sellers who broke its rules.

He blamed Tiffany for failing to protect its own trademarks by notifying eBay when it spots sales that seem suspicious. Rich said that when companies do so, eBay often stops the sales even before it can check whether they are legitimate.

In a 2004 lawsuit, Tiffany said it notified eBay a year earlier that thousands of pieces of fake silver jewelry were being sold as if they were genuine Tiffany products.

Swire said the company randomly bought 325 items being sold as genuine Tiffany jewelry on eBay’s Web site from among 280,000 listings related to Tiffany products. Of those, 75 percent turned out to be fake, he said.

He said there was no evidence that eBay did anything to stop the false sales after it reported its findings to the company.

Instead, he said, eBay supports sellers, offering marketing assistance that includes conducting seminars on how to grow the online jewelry business.

Rich said eBay spends more than $10 million annually to clean counterfeit merchandise from its site, which carries 6 million postings a day.

He said the company relies on the expertise of more than 14,000 copyright and trademark owners to find counterfeit merchandise.

"It cannot get it done by itself,” Rich said of eBay.

"We never see this merchandise. We don’t turn a blind eye to it,” he said. "We turn people over to law enforcement all the time.”

He said eBay’s success relies on creating a safe and friendly business.

"There are a lot of bad guys out there and eBay spends an enormous amount of money trying to keep up with it,” Rich said.