CARLY SIMON AIDS RAPPER JAILED ON NEWARK AIRPORT DRUG CHARGE

Singer Carly Simon posted $250,000 last week so that a rapper who
co-produced the Fugees smash record, "The Score," and sang backup on her
most recent tour could make bail after his arrest at Newark International
Airport on cocaine charges.

John Forte was arrested July 13 and charged with conspiring to distribute 14
kilograms of cocaine carried by two friends who had been arrested in
Houston.

As part of the evidence against him, prosecutors say they have a series of
taped telephone conversations in which Forte, 25, refers to the cocaine as
"ice cream" and agrees to pick up his alleged associates at Newark Airport.

When the women arrived, they each handed him a suitcase, and agents from the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Forte, authorities said.

Forte's July 24 bail hearing in U.S. District Court in Newark was attended
by Simon and her son, Ben Taylor, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah
Goldklang. Taylor's father is Simon's former husband, singer James Taylor.

At the hearing, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Ronald Hedges set bail for
Forte at $625,000 and ordered him placed under 24-hour house arrest at his
mother's house in South Brunswick, Goldklang said.

On Wednesday, Simon posted a $250,000 certificate of deposit toward Forte's
bail. Forte's business manager also posted a Manhattan apartment valued at
$375,000.

"John is a very close friend of Carly Simon's," said Forte's lawyer in
Houston, Kent Schaeffer, adding that Forte recently was a backup singer on
her tour. In addition, he said, Forte was collaborating musically with Ben
Taylor.

A complaint filed in Houston alleges that Forte conspired with the two
women, Marisa Laken and Angela Gegg, to move the cocaine from Harlingen,
Texas, to New York.

It alleges that Laken and Gegg flew from New York to Houston on July 11, and
then flew the next day to Harlingen, near the Mexican border. They returned
to Houston on July 12, where narcotics officers questioned them, the
complaint says.

Officers checked their luggage and reportedly found a collapsible cooler
that contained 30 frozen packets that the women said they were paid $1,000
each to take to Forte in New York.

After authorities discovered that the packets contained 14 kilograms of
cocaine, the women agreed to cooperate in exchange for possible leniency
when they're sentenced, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy de la Torre in
Houston.

"They are obviously interested in getting something in return," De la Torre
said.

Forte and the women then exchanged a series of phone calls that authorities
recorded, De la Torre said. Forte told them to take thefirst flight to New
York and to keep the "ice cream" cold, the complaint says.

It says he told them he would then pick them up at the airport in Newark.

Forte, Gegg, and Laken all were charged with conspiring to distribute the
cocaine, while Forte and Gegg were charged with possession. If convicted,
all three could face lifetime terms in federal prison.

Laken, 20, is under house arrest at a relative's house in Chicago, while
Gegg, a 20-year-old native of Belize, remains in federal custody.

Schaeffer said he couldn't discuss the case in detail.

"It's a little premature for me to really lay out our position, because we
haven't really seen what the evidence is nor heard their tapes," he said.
"There's reason to believe that the case isn't what the government says it
is."

Forte's attorney in New Jersey, Alan Silber, couldn't be reached for
comment, nor could the Simons' attorney in Manhattan, Rose Hart.

Forte co-produced the Fugees smash, "The Score," in 1996 and appeared on a
solo album put out by Fugees singer Wyclef Jean. He also produced 11 of 14
tracks on a recent compact disk by the group Poly Sci.

Forte, a Brooklyn native who attended Philip Exeter Academy, worked with
several acts, including the Fugees, before launching Poly Sci. On his Web
site he says the band "represents the balance between the institution of
academia and the institution of the streets."