NEW YORK — After six tedious days and thousands of questions about Sean "Puffy" Combs, Jennifer Lopez and the media circus that follows them, a jury was finally seated late Thursday afternoon in the rap mogul's gun and bribery trial.

The seven men and five women chosen from a pool of about 260 survived intense grilling — both individually and as a group — about whether they could set aside Combs' enormous celebrity and treat him like any other defendant.

Those who made the cut include a corrections officer who listens to Combs' music, a postal worker who doesn't and a tax collector whose children do.

"We're pleased. We think we have a fair group of people here," Johnnie Cochran, one of Combs' attorneys, said outside court moments after the last juror was selected.

As he has on each previous day, Combs sat between Cochran and his other attorney, Benjamin Brafman, listening intently to the jurors discussing their lives and their opinions about his life.

The defense lawyers' upbeat tone about the jury was much different than on Wednesday afternoon when they accused the prosecutor of systematically excluding blacks and Hispanics from the panel. Prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos struck back Thursday morning, arguing that it was the defense that was engaging in racial profiling by keeping whites off the jury. The judge rejected the accusations of both sides, and in the end, the jury had a racial balance of seven blacks and five whites.

On Monday, those jurors and six alternates will begin hearing testimony against Combs and his co-defendants, Jamal "Shyne" Barrow and Anthony "Wolf" Jones. While the jurors assured state Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon they would come to court with open minds, all acknowledged hearing reports about the Dec. 27, 1999, nightclub shooting that landed the trio and actress-singer Lopez in jail.

The prosecution alleges that when a fight broke out, Barrow and Combs pulled out semiautomatic handguns. Barrow, according to the state, shot three bystanders. He faces attempted murder charges. Combs, his bodyguard Jones, and Lopez fled in a chauffeur-driven SUV. Police officers found a stolen handgun in the car, and another was recovered from the street. Combs and Jones are accused of not only possessing the guns illegally but also trying to bribe the chauffeur into taking the rap.

Lopez, who was released without being charged, is a hotly anticipated witness at the trial. Asked Thursday afternoon if she would be testifying for the defense, Cochran chuckled and said, "We'll see."