With 609,000 copies snapped up during its first week in stores, Britney Spears [ tickets ]' "In the Zone" is this week's top-selling album, according to industry sources. It marks Spears' fourth straight No. 1 album.

Coming in at No. 2 on the new Billboard 200 album chart is G-Unit's "Beg for Mercy," which sold about 327,000 copies during its second week in stores. Blink 182's new, self-titled album sold about 313,000 copies to land at No. 3.

The Top 5 is rounded out by Jay-Z [ tickets ]'s "The Black Album" and The Beatles' "Let it Be ... Naked" at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.

Madonna [ tickets ]'s new children's book, "Mr. Peabody's Apples," will debut at No. 1 on the New York Times' children's picture book best-seller list, according to publisher Callaway Arts and Entertainment. Her first children's book, "The English Roses," spent six weeks at No. 1 on the list earlier this year, and currently sits at No. 3.

Alanis Morissette [ tickets ] will portray the character Sunny Jacobs in the off-Broadway play "The Exonerated" for one week only, Dec. 2-7, according to her publicist. The show plays at New York's 45 Bleecker Theater.

Activist, lecturer and author Dick Gregory announced in a press release that he "will begin a 40-day fast and an appeal to friends and fans around the world join in prayer every day at noon for the truth to come out in the Michael Jackson [ tickets ]'s case."

Said Gregory: "[Jackson is] a good man, and I feel he's an innocent man who has been the target of a conspiracy to destroy his career for a long time. In my opinion there are people who have a financial interest in bringing Michael down, and they seem to come out every time Michael has a major album to release."

The New York Daily News reported that police were called to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night (11/25) when hundreds of ticketless fans tried to crash the gates of a Jay-Z concert. The show was billed as a farewell concert for the New York rapper.