Opera Singer Blames MJ For Her Disorderly Behavior

Opera singer Gabriela Pochinki, whose loud cellphone speakerphone conversation at an Upper West Side restaurant led to a row last week, is relieved that she can avoid jail if she stays out of trouble. So now she's telling the Post and the Daily News why she got so carried away on the phone (hint, it was because of Michael Jackson!).

Pochinki tells the Daily News that "she and her mother had just sat down at [Nice Matin] when she got a call from organizers of the Las Vegas premiere of the Michael Jackson movie 'This Is It.'" (A call she put on speakerphone.) She said, "I was so excited, happy... At the moment, I didn't even think. I was in my own world." So much in her own world, she ignored the a server's request to pipe down. The restaurant's manager said that they tried to ask her to leave repeatedly, only for Pochinki to push her.

Ponchinki, who denies pushing the manager, refused to leave. Speaking to the Post, she said, "The police showed up and they didn't ask me what was going on, they just told me to come with them. I really wasn't aware what was going on. I never thought speaking on a cellphone could get someone arrested." She was taken to the station house, serenaded cops with "Somewhere" from West Side Story, and got a desk appearance ticket. And she's learned her lesson: "I'll never talk on a cellphone again in a restaurant."