Ka-ching, Baby

Junior M.A.F.I.A. rapper Larceny was sentenced to a year in New York's Riker's Island jail on gun possession charges last week. Larceny (real name: Antoine Spain) pleaded guilty in October to the charge, stemming from an March incident where he and M.A.F.I.A.'s Lil' Cease were riding in a Jaguar owned by M.A.F.I.A.'s Lil' Kim when police stopped the car and found Larceny with a loaded .22-caliber Beretta semi-automatic and Cease with some marijuana. Larceny and Cease still face charges for attempted murder over a shootout at a Brooklyn deli in August. A pre-trial hearing in that case is set for Jan. 7....

''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' contestant Rick Rosner saw most of his suit against the game show over what he said was a faulty question dismissed by a Los Angeles judge last week, but the central issue of whether ABC denied Rosner a fair chance of winning will proceed. When Rosner appeared on ''Millionaire'' two years ago, he was asked which world capital had the highest altitude. He said Quito (Ecuador) but the judges said Kathmandu (Nepal). However, says Rosner (who also writes occasional questions for NBC's ''Weakest Link,'' says that the real correct answer should have been La Paz (Bolivia), but since that wasn't one of the four options, the question should have been thrown out. ABC's position is that all contestants sign waivers granting the show's judges the final answer. The judge discounted Rosner's other complaints (negligence, unfair business practices) but allowed the suit to proceed. Rosner is suing for $1 million, but he'll settle for a rematch with Regis....

An expert on Civil War relics who was a regular on PBS' ''Antiques Roadshow'' pleaded guilty to charges of fraud for several instances in which he artificially lowballed estimates on valuables he bought and then sold for steep profits and for staging hoax appraisals on the show. Russell Pritchard entered his plea in a federal court in Philadelphia. Among the misdeeds attributed to Pritchard and codefendant George Juno: buying a truckload of memorabilia from the descendents of Gen. George Pickett (of Pickett's Charge fame) for an artificially low $87,500 and selling it to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. for 10 times that; stealing a uniform from that museum and selling it to a private dealer, and having friends appear on the PBS show on at least two occasions as civilians seeking appraisals of rare swords that actually belonged to Pritchard and Juno. (Juno pleaded guilty to a similar count of charges in May). Pritchard could face a maximum of 135 years in prison and $5.25 million in fines, as well as restitution to his victims. The Pickett family had already successfully sued Pritchard for $800,000, but it was ruled that the museum did not have to return the artifacts....

Afroman's ''Because I Got High'' is not just a hit song from this summer -- it's also a sentence. Last week, Connecticut Judge Nancy Dusek-Gomez ordered Matthew Fournier, an East Hartford 17-year-old who'd been caught with a marijuana pipe and a stash of beer and whiskey, to listen to what she called ''that stupid rap song'' and write a report on it. (She gave him six months to write it and will dismiss his misdemeanor drug and alcohol charges if he stays clean until then.) No word on whether Fournier was also sentenced to go to the multiplex and watch ''How High'' or stay home and watch ''That '70s Show.''