NEW YORK — Michael Douglas believes his son's five-year sentence for dealing drugs could be a lifesaver, he said yesterday on NBC's "Today."

Douglas said he hopes incarceration will give Cameron Douglas, 31, the time he needs to kick drugs. "He was going to be dead or somebody was going to kill him," Douglas said.

"With all the mistakes and the disease that Cameron has, he is a great young man, and I wouldn't be supporting him if I didn't feel that way."

Douglas accepts much of the blame for his son's problems, describing himself as an absentee father during Cameron's youth.

OSCAR WINNER, MODEL GO SEPARATE WAYS

NEW YORK — A representative for Halle Berry says the actress has broken up with model Gabriel Aubry.

Publicist Meredith O'Sullivan said in an e-mail yesterday that Berry and Aubry "split some time ago." The statement says the couple remain close friends and are committed to their 2-year-old daughter, Nahla. The 43-year-old Berry won a best actress Oscar for the 2001 film "Monster's Ball."

SINGER WRIGHT CALLS COMING OUT 'MAGICAL'

WASHINGTON — Country singer Chely Wright is the latest celebrity to come out.

Wright tells People she's gay and that nothing in her life has been more magical than the moment she decided to reveal her sexuality. The 39-year-old says she had experienced a community in which homosexuality was shunned. Wright is releasing her memoir, "Like Me," and her new album, "Lifted Off the Ground," this week.

27 YEARS FOR KILLING STAR REAL ESTATE BROKER

NEW YORK — A personal assistant convicted of killing a star real estate broker with a punk-rock past was sentenced yesterday to decades in prison, insisting on her innocence while a judge called her "almost inhuman." Natavia Lowery was sentenced to a prison term of 27 years and four months to life in the slaying of Linda Stein, who once co-managed influential punk rockers the Ramones and later became a real estate broker.

She was found dead in 2007, the victim of a vicious beating that was prosecuted as a case of an employee who exploited her boss's trust to steal thousands of dollars and killed to keep the theft quiet.

'IDOL' WINNER SPARKS GETS BROADWAY ROLE

NEW YORK — 2007 "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks will join the cast of the Tony-winning musical "In the Heights" this summer. She'll play Nina Rosario for a 12-week engagement starting Aug. 19.