Soldier On

LEGAL BRIEFS Rebecca Gayheart has settled out of court a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of the boy she struck and killed with her friend's Jeep last summer. She had swerved to pass another car on a Hollywood street and hit the jaywalking boy, 9-year-old Jorge Cruz Jr. In November, the ''Urban Legends'' star pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges and was sentenced to three years' probation, a one-year suspension of her driver's license, a $2,800 fine, and 750 hours of community service. The 29-year-old actress was also ordered to make a public service announcement on the topic of pedestrian and driver safety. At the time of the accident, Gayheart paid the boy's hospital and funeral expenses and offered to pay for grief counseling for his parents, but they still filed suit. On Wednesday, however, lawyers for both parties announced that an out-of-court settlement had been reached in December. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, per the Cruz family's request....

A bench warrant has been issued for the arrest of country singer Carlene Carter after she failed to appear at a December arraignment on drug charges in an Albuquerque, N.M., court. The 46-year-old daughter of June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash was indicted in November for heroin possession. In June, Carter was driving pal Howie Epstein of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers to the airport when police pulled her over for speeding and found 2.9 grams of heroin and drug paraphernalia in her SUV, which she allegedly claimed were for her personal use and not for dealing. (Epstein was not charged in the case.) A check on the vehicle found it had been reported stolen from a Santa Fe car dealership three months earlier. She failed to show at the Dec. 10 arraignment, and the arrest warrant was issued a week later. Carter told the Associated Press her lawyer is taking care of the matter, but the county says she doesn't have an attorney of record listed for the case.

BABY TALK Metallica frontman James Hetfield has gone from fighting Napster to changing nappies. He and wife Francesca welcomed daughter Marcella Francesca Hetfield to the world on Jan. 17 in San Francisco. The eight-pound, five-ounce newborn joins sister Cali, three, and brother Castor, 20 months. Papa Hetfield is also doing well, having checked out of rehab in December after spending several months recovering from alcoholism and other unspecified addictions. With Hetfield in treatment and bassist Jason Newsted having quit, Metallica has been out of commission for a year (it hasn't released an album in three years), and there's no word on when the three remaining members will hire a bassist and go back to work in the studio.