Even if he survives a horrific head injury suffered in a bus crash, Grammy-winning Tejano singer Emilio Navaira faces a long recovery and an uncertain future, his doctors say.

Navaira, 45, known to his fans simply as Emilio, was behind the wheel of his tour bus carrying his band members before dawn Sunday following a weekend show when it slammed into an interchange barrier on a Houston-area freeway, propelling him through the windshield.

He remained in critical condition yesterday, said Ann Brimberry, a spokeswoman for Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center hospital.

Police said while the crash remained under investigation, their preliminary probe showed Navaira was not licensed to drive the 26,000-pound bus. His agent said the singer loved to drive it and normally did.

The neurosurgeon who operated on the San Antonio-born Navaira to remove a blood clot warned that the performer "might not make it." Physicians hoped a research technique using hypothermia to lower his body temperature would keep Navaira's brain from further swelling and help his recovery.

Dr. Alex Valadka, director of neurotrauma services at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, said the survival rate for those suffering similar severe brain injuries was 30 percent to 35 percent.

The singer's blood will be tested for alcohol, but the results likely will take two weeks, he said. Also under consideration was that Navaira fell asleep.

In case you missed it, Britney Spears was in a small cameo role Monday night in the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Reader reviews on People.com gave her a thumbs-up for the mild comic moments she provided as Abby the flirty receptionist in a dermatologist's office. Probably the most implausible moment, however, was when she allowed herself to be seduced at the end of the episode by Neil Patrick "Doogie Howser" Harris.

A man charged with stalking Tyra Banks has been ordered to stay away from the talk-show host or face going to jail.

Brady Green, according to a criminal complaint, has followed Banks from coast to coast since January, sent her letters and flowers, and tried to telephone her. Last week he was issued a court order requiring him to leave her alone.

Green, of Dublin, Ga., was arrested when he showed up several times March 18 at the Manhattan building where "The Tyra Banks Show" is taped and asked to speak to her, a misdemeanor complaint filed in Criminal Court says.

TMZ reports that the Smashing Pumpkins are slamming Virgin Records in a lawsuit, claiming that the label killed their credibility with fans to help sell sugar water.

In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in L.A. Superior Court, the band members allege that they've "worked hard" over two decades to build credibility with their fans, and that Virgin's use of the Pun'kins in a "Pepsi Stuff" promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. is damaging their "artistic integrity."

The group's "That's the Way" was recently featured in a Ford Focus commercial.

The band wants the profits from the promotion, and asks for an injunction against using its name or music in the future.

Sean "Diddy" Combs has settled a lawsuit brought by a man who claims the rapper-entertainment mogul punched him after a 2007 post-Oscar party outside a Hollywood hotel.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed in court papers posted Monday on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

After-hours calls to attorneys for both sides weren't immediately returned.

The lawsuit by Gerard Rechnitzer claimed that Combs punched him, pushed his girlfriend and spat on another woman on Feb. 25, 2007, outside Teddy's Nightclub at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Rechnitzer sought unspecified damages.

Denise Richards is officially rubbing the Sheen off her last name.

The 37-year-old actress, whose bitter divorce from Charlie Sheen was finalized in 2006, has won a judgment to legally change her surname back to Richards.

Richards and Sheen, 42, were married in 2002. She filed for divorce in March 2005, then the couple reconciled. In January 2006, they filed legal papers asking a private arbitrator to handle their split.