Dan Gross: CAPA grad testifies in Jackson doc's trial

DANCER NICOLE ALVAREZ, a 2000 graduate of the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, was on the witness stand Tuesday in the Conrad Murray trial in L.A. Alvarez is a girlfriend and baby mama of Michael Jackson's controversial doctor, who is on trial for manslaughter in the death of the King of Pop.

Alvarez, who met Murray in 2005, when she was working as a stripper in Las Vegas, testified that she had been unaware that Murray had made $150,000 a month as Jackson's personal physician and that while she signed for packages of Propofol, the drug that likely killed Jackson, she had no idea what was inside the packages delivered to their apartment. Alvarez was in town with Murray in August 2010 when the pair dined at Barclay Prime on Rittenhouse Square.

Former Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter's car wash, Trott's Spot The Ritz (401 Haddonfield-Berlin Road), in Voorhees, closed abruptly a few days back. Car accessories remain inside the shuttered shop, where a sign in the window reads that as of Oct. 3, "This property is now owned by The Bank." A call to the assets department of "The Bank" was not returned yesterday, and efforts to reach Trotter were unsuccessful.

TrottsSpot.com advertises that a "Customer Appreciation Day" had been planned for this Saturday, but it seems that's off.

Chris Tucker and Julia Stiles have joined the cast of "The Silver Linings Playbook," which Rydal-raised Bradley Cooper and "Winter's Bone" star Jennifer Lawrence will soon shoot in the area, reports Deadline.com. The film is based on La Salle graduate Matthew Quick's novel about a depressed divorced teacher who moves back in with his mother and is involved in a love triangle with a new woman and his ex-wife. We hear the film, also rumored to have Robert De Niro in its cast, has been scouting locations around Conshohocken.

Noam Osband, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Penn, walked away with $250,000 on yesterday's episode of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Osband, 31, declined to guess the $500,000 question and stayed safe with a quarter-million dollars.

The question that stumped him: When the "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, which of these artists was questioned as a possible suspect? A: Claude Monet B: Henri Matisse C: Edgar Degas D: Pablo Picasso. The correct answer is D.

Longtime NBC Universal president/CEO Jeff Zucker speaks at 6:30 Wednesday at the Bossone Auditorium (3140 Market) at Drexel's Westphal College. The talk, presented by the Kal & Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies, will cover Zucker's time at NBC and his next venture, Katie Couric's talk show. The speech is free and open to the public. For info, visit drexel.edu/westphal.

Spike Eskin, one of the casualties when 94 WYSP become SportsRadio 94WIP, makes his standup-comedy debut Saturday night at Sarcasm Comedy Club inside the Cherry Hill Crowne Plaza.

He's opening for Don Jamieson, host of VH1's "That Metal Show," and Chris Johnston.

Tickets and info at sarcasm comedy.com.

Local singer Erika Schiff hosts a viewing party of "I Married a Mobster" at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Rogues Gallery (11 S. 21st.)

Schiff, who made it to the top 40 in last season's "American Idol," recently appeared in an episode of the "Investigation Discovery" show.

Philly hip-hop pioneer Schoolly D spins at the party, at which Schiff will have CDs for sale.