News in Brief

Sony executive sued by landscapersThe former head of Sony Corp.’s music division and the ex-husband of singer Mariah Carey is being sued by a Carbondale landscaping company for nearly $10,000.Tommy Mottola has allegedly not paid $9,778.77 to Good Earth Landscaping & Maintenance for services the business provided at his home in Wildcat Ranch near Snowmass Village.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Pitkin County Court. The lawsuit says Mottola is a part-time resident and also has a P.O. box on East 42nd Street in New York City.Good Earth is owned by Dave and Melanie Crandall. Their lawyer, Lawrence Mincer, said he could not comment. A message left at Good Earth yesterday was not returned.

Mottola, whose numbers locally and in New York City are not listed, is perhaps best known for discovering and marrying Carey when she was 18. They divorced in 1998.As CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, he helped to advance the careers of Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez and Destiny’s Child.

According to askmen.com, an online magazine, Mottola earns millions annually.”He signed a five-year contract with Sony in 1996 worth $35 million, and is reported to earn about $10 million per year,” says a biography of Mottola on the website. “He once lived in a $25 million mansion that had 14 bathrooms.”Airport security confiscates woman’s knifeA woman who had a steak knife in her carry-on bag was questioned by security officials at Sardy Field yesterday morning.The woman, described as in her 70s, told agents with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that she used the knife to cut her own cosmetics. She said she is allergic to most over-the-counter makeup, said sheriff’s deputy Jeff Lumsden.The woman and her husband were on their way to Nice, France. They had originally planned to put the knife in their checked luggage but changed their mind, Lumsden said.The blade was confiscated by TSA officials and the couple was once again Nice-bound.”They made their flight,” Lumsden said.Female artist exhibit opens tonightGirls’ Night Out, an exhibition featuring the work of 10 contemporary female artists, opens at the Aspen Art Museum with a public reception from 6-8 p.m. tonight. The exhibit runs through July 24 in the upstairs and downstairs galleries of the museum.Girls’ Night Out includes photography and video installations by 10 artists: Eija-Liisa Ahtila and Salla Tykkä from Finland, the Netherlands’ Rineke Dijkstra, Londoner Sarah Jones, Daniela Rossell from Mexico City, Parisian Elina Brotherus, Switzerland’s Shirana Shahbazi, and Americans Kelly Nipper, Katy Grannan and Dorit Cypis. The traveling exhibit, which opened in 2003 at the Orange County Museum of Art, is curated by Elizabeth Armstrong and Irene Hofmann.Armstrong will give a public gallery talk about Girls’ Night Out on July 1. Dijkstra will speak about her work on July 14.