• Jennifer Hudson may be pregnant again, only four months after her son was born. "Jennifer was in total shock when she found out she was having another baby," says a "friend," who claims she found out on December 10.

The source says she didn't want her children to be so close in age, but "She and David love kids... It's another thing for them to celebrate during the holidays." [Star]

• The 333-page file the FBI kept on Michael Jackson was made public today following a Freedom of Information Act request from several media outlets. The files cover seven different investigations including a 1997 child pornography probe in which no charges were filed and a 1992 extortion plot against Jackson. There was no new information about his death. [LAT]
• The bulk of the file is about the investigation of Frank Paul Jones, who made death threats against Michael Jackson, George H.W. Bush, and John Gotti from 1992-1993. Jones wrote in a note, "I will personally attempt to kill [Michael Jackson] if he doesn't pay me my money," and said he would "commit mass murder" at a Jackson concert if necessary to kill him. According to news clippings in the file, Jones was obsessed with Janet Jackson and was arrested trying to break into the White House and at Jackson's parents' home. He plead guilty in 1993 and was sent to prison. [N.Y.T., Reuters]
• In 1995 a U.S. Customs agent asked the FBI to analyze a VHS tape connected to Michael Jackson to see if it contained child pornography. They found the tape called Michael Jackson's Neverland Favorites — An All Boy Anthology was a "poor quality third or fourth generation recording," but the documents don't say what was on the tape. [AFP]
• In 1993 the LAPD contacted the FBI and suggested the agency look into a "possible federal violation against Michael Jackson concerning transportation of a minor across state lines for immoral purposes [Mann Act]," but the FBI declined. The agency provided a driver and a stenographer for California investigators who travelled to the Philippines to interview the couple who had managed the Neverland Ranch about child molestation allegations. [CNN]
• Brittany Murphy left her estate to her mother Sharon Murphy. She wrote the will before she met her husband Simon Monjack, and it's unclear if she ever updated the document. [TMZ]
• Right after his Thanksgiving car crash 60 percent of people polled still had a favorable view of Tiger Woods, but a new survey shows his approval rating has dropped 34 percent. [CNN]
• Jamie Jungers' aunt Susan Minor says that Jamie bragged to family members about pictures she took of Tiger Woods while he was passed out drunk. "She told us she took the naked pictures. It is the truth and I have several witnesses. Jamie said it in front of my son, daughter, and my husband." Jamie's mother denies that this happened, and that her daughter has pictures of Tiger Woods. [Radar Online]
• During a radio interview today Jamie Jungers was questioned about the pictures. "My aunt? I don't believe she said that," Jungers said, adding that her aunt's "kinda crazy." The hosts suggested that that Woods had payed her off, but she said, "You know what, I haven't made a penny from all of this (bleep) and the only reason I'm involved with this is because of an ex fiancé." [Radar Online]
• John Lennon's star on the Hollywood walk of Fame is missing. The asphalt has just an "empty outline of a star" that has been covered up with a plastic bag and tape. [Contact Music]
• Richard and Mayumi Heene have been sent a $42,000 bill from the DA for the cost of having the police, national guard, and FAA investigate their balloon hoax. Their lawyer says they won't pay until they see receipts and records. [TMZ]
• Beyonce's parents Tina and Matthew Knowles issued this joint statement today confirming their divorce: "The decision to end our marriage is an amicable one. We remain friends, parents, and business partners. If anyone is expecting an ugly messy fight, they will be sadly disappointed. We ask for your respect of our privacy as we handle this matter." [Contact Music]
• Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and the Black Eyed Peas are among the stars who will perform at the Grammy Awards on January 31. [People]
• Check out Jay-Z's new video for "Young Forever," which is described as "a longer version of that Levi's commercial that employs Walt Whitman's 'Pioneers! O Pioneers!" poem. [Rolling Stone]
• Is Rachel McAdams dating Jude Law's personal assistant? [Contact Music]
• BREAKING: Jessica Simpson went out with less makeup on than usual. [Daily Mail]
• Prince William spent a night sleeping on the streets of London last week to raise awareness for the homelessness charity Centrepoint. The group's CEO said, "We took as much precaution as possible – finding a relatively secluded spot in an alleyway, shielded partly by a collection of wheelie bins. But there was no shielding from the bitter cold, or the hard concrete floor, or the fear of being accosted by drug dealers, pimps or those out to give homeless people a 'good kicking.'" [Guardian]
• Eminem's Christmas gift to fans: A picture of himself in a Santa Claus suit. Fans can insert their face into the picture to make it look like they're sitting on "Shady Claus'" lap. [UPI]
• Looks like somebody really wants to make their split permanent. On the same day that Dean Sheremet filed for divorce from LeAnn Rimes, they agreed to a confidential divorce settlement. [People]
• Kevin Jonas was caught kissing his new wife Danielle Deleasa on their honeymoon in Mexico. Scandalous! [Popsugar]
• John Woo will be given a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival. [The Mirror]
• TMZ is being sued for $20 million by former Hollywood executive Ronald Grigg. He says the site failed to get his side of the story when a story was posted last year about a lawsuit in which Grigg was accused of fraud, theft, and date rape. [Reuters]
• Police say Pete Doherty has been charged with possession of heroin. He was arrested yesterday minutes after pleading guilty to drunk driving in court. [AFP]
• Jesse McCartney wants to write songs for Adam Lambert. [ONTD]
• T.I. was released from prison today after serving seven months for sending his bodyguard to buy machine guns and silencers. He'll do the last three months of his sentence in a halfway house. [TMZ]
• There's a bench warrant out for Lynne Curtin of The Real Housewives of Orange County. She and her husband were supposed to appear in court yesterday to answer questions about a $1.2 million judgement they were ordered to pay to a former business partner, but they didn't show. [TMZ]
• Creed frontman Scott Stapp and his wife Jaclyn are expecting a second child. [Us]
• Ugh. Here's a picture of Kate Gosselin wearing a Carol Brady wig: [People]
• If you'd like to speculate about Avatar's Oscar chances, read on: [Reuters]
• In the first ad for the Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais says of NBC asking him to host, "What were they thinking?" [The Wrap]
• Martin Sheen will star as the father in the play The Subject Was Roses 46 years after receiving a Tony nomination for his role as the son. [Variety]
• Carrie Underwood showed off her five-plus carat engagement ring at an Ottawa Senators game last night. [People]
• Lady Gaga will appear on the Bravo show Launch My Line on January 6. [People]
• Be advised: PETA supporter Bethenny Frankel doesn't wear fur. Her rep contacted us to say that an item reported by Gatecrasher about she and her fiance wearing leather wasn't true.
• Bret Michaels praised Miley Cyrus' cover of "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" saying, "She's one of the few musicians - and I want to use that word cause she can actually play and sing - she's one of the few people who can pull it off and give it her own flare and make it sound good." [MTV]
• Paris Hilton says she'll never appear on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! "They've asked me to do that show so many times. I wouldn't want to do that, I couldn't eat bugs and do all those crazy challenges. I might do it for fun, on a camping trip with friends but not on national TV," says Paris. [Contact Music]
• Paris Hilton says her sister Nicky Hilton won't stay in her home since it was burglarized earlier this month. Paris says, "She's still so scared and won't sleep in her house at the moment, she's staying with my mom. It's creepy knowing these thieves have been in your place and I know exactly what she's going through. I'm giving her all the support she needs." [Contact Music]
• "Most dancers, actors and singers get treated like filth at auditions," says Daniel Day-Lewis. "You never forget that do you? I mean every now and then I bump into some of the directors that treated me that way when I was a kid and they're all over me like a rash and you can't forget it because you're so vulnerable." [Daily Express]
• Ozzy Osbourne says, "I hate Christmas, I hate it. Everything stops. When I used to drink it it was a good excuse to get drunk for two weeks. Now I just hate it. I have to unravel all these presents. What a waste of paper! ... I was in a coma for awhile, so I missed Christmas, thank god. If I want to miss Christmas I'll get on my quad bike and break my neck again." [Perez Hilton]
• Lily Allen says she's going to stop drinking on stage: "When I started out, I'd drink four cans of cider on stage because I needed the confidence not to be judged. But getting off my head (drunk) got me into trouble - I didn't understand why I couldn't be like (Oasis frontman) Liam Gallagher just because I was a girl. Now I'm happy being more of a lady." [Contact Music]

[Washington, DC; December 22. Image via Getty.]

WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 22: First lady Michelle Obama and her daughters Sasha (C) and Malia read Christmas stories to children at the Children's National Medical Center on December 22, 2009 in Washington, DC. The first lady toured the hospital visiting the Heart and Kidney Unit before greeting 200 patients and hospital staff. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

According to Shirley Wang of the Wall Street Journal, scientists measured Santa-faith not only against belief in the garbage man (no word on whether any kids thought he was stealing their garbage), but also against a made-up entity named the Candy Witch who they claimed arrived on Halloween and exchanged candy for toys. 70% of three-year-olds believed in Santa, while 78% believed in the — apparently only marginally more convincing — garbage collector. Among five-year-olds, the percentage of Santa adherents was actually higher, at 83%. And scientists were able to con almost two thirds of preschoolers into believing in the Candy Witch, with five-year-olds again more credulous than younger kids.

The scientists caution that most of the kids in the study were Christian, possibly making them more vulnerable to the Santa mythos. But as the Candy Witch experiment illustrates, kids are pretty easy to fool, even without the benefit of 100-plus years of quasi-religious tradition. It's not really so surprising that children's "magical thinking" grows (temporarily) stronger with age, either. I don't remember being three all that clearly, but I do seem to recall a lot of confusion — if woolly mammoths came out of the tar pits, might they also come out of the asphalt on the playground? Did our vacation last two weeks or two years? Did strange dreams prove you were an alien? I was totally mystified by the universe — but by five or so, like many kids, I had become a tiny conservative. I had a theory about how the world worked — a theory that included not just Santa but also herbivorous monsters and the idea that everyone whose name started with the same letter was somehow related — and I planned on taking that theory to the grave. Except that because of my various schemes for immortality, I was never going to die.

Of course, that all went to shit around age eight or so. This turns out to be about average — the researchers found that belief in Santa began to decline around age 7, and had dropped to a third by age 9. Meanwhile, nearly all nine-year-olds had accepted the reality of the garbage man. In a blog post on the same topic, Wang writes that kids who discover Santa is fake "often seem to relish that they figured out the secret, rather than feel sad." This wasn't my experience. Even as the persuasive voices of other kids on the bus grew too loud to ignore, I clung to my belief in Santa, afraid of the drastic worldview reorganization that letting go would require. I went through what cartoonist Roz Chast calls the "Santa is, like, a spirit" period, and when I finally accepted that a supernatural jolly being was not bringing me Barbie dolls, I remained pretty despondent for a while. In fact, this was the beginning of a time when I was no longer very excited about kid stuff, but there was no grown-up or even teenage stuff yet, and life looked kind of bleak.

Wang says scientists think children's "magical thinking" and belief in fantasy characters may "have a key role in helping children take someone else's perspective," and this seems likely enough. But I also think that believing in things like Santa is just a step along the way to developing some sort of personal understanding of the workings of the universe, something everybody needs in order to get through the day. Religious people may have a slightly easier time with this, but they still have to evaluate which parts of their chosen tradition actually ring true to them. As an agnostic, I don't believe in Santa or God, but I do believe that it's dangerous to look directly at the microwave (I read this somewhere!), that putting toilet paper on the seat shields me from germs (obviously false; totally comforting), that eyelash wishes are so powerful I need to think hard before I make them, and that if I have bad thoughts about people they will start having bad thoughts about me. And I believe that all these beliefs — plus Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Candy Witch — are ways of making whatever sense we can out of the many things in life we'll never really understand.

The Power Of Magical Thinking [Wall Street Journal]
Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus: The Importance Of Magical Thinking [Wall Street Journal]

[Sofia, December 21. Image via Getty.]

A woman looks through an frosted window on a tram in Sofia on December 21, 2009, as temperatures dropped to minus 11 degrees Celsius as a cold spell continues to grip Europe. AFP PHOTO / DIMITAR DILKOFF (Photo credit should read DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images)

[Melbourne, December 22. Image via Getty.]

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 22: A young girl stops to admire Christmas festive lights displayed on a house at The Boulevard Christmas Lights Display on December 22, 2009 in Ivanhoe on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. Residents cover their homes and gardens with lights and Christmas decorations every year, attracting upto 20,000 people every night and bringing local traffic to a standstill. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

The Associated Press has named Williams the AP Female Athlete of the Year (and proving that they are not afraid of a little controversy, they also named Tiger Woods the Athlete of the Decade). Out of the 158 votes cast by editors and members of the AP, Williams received 66. This may not seem like a lot, but the runner up — Zenyatta, the first female horse to win the Breeders' Cup Classic — only got 18 votes. And Kim Clijsters came in behind the filly, with just 16 votes, which makes Serena's win rather impressive.

This is not the first time the honor has been bestowed upon Williams. In 2002, she was also named the AP Female Athlete of the Year, but things are a little different this year. "I'm just happy and blessed to even be playing seven years later. All this is a bonus, really," she told the AP. "In 2002, I just was really dominant, and I think in 2009, I just brought that back. I kind of became that player again."

Considering the recent disciplinary actions taken against Williams for her outburst at the U.S. Open, "dominant" is an interesting choice of words. But Williams even suggests that her unsportsmanlike behavior could be good for tennis: "[it] got a lot more people excited about tennis," she claims. And on an even less contrite note: "People realize that I'm a great player, and one moment doesn't define a person's career. And I was right, for the most part: It wasn't right the way I reacted - I never said it was - but I was right about the call."

Fortunately, her hopes for 2010 are a little more humble. "My goal is to have a better year than '09 - and to stay healthy," she said. "I think if I can do that, I'll be fine."

Serena Williams Is 2009 AP Female Athlete of Year [AP]

[Tokyo, December 22. Image via Getty.]

Children enjoy the HD (high-definition) image of a polar bear at Asahiyawa Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, during a press preview at Sony Building in Tokyo's shopping district of Ginza on December 22,
2009. Visitors will be able to watch the 3D (three dimensions) HD images of amimals at the Japan's northernmost zoo from today until January 17. AFP PHOTO/Toru YAMANAKA (Photo credit should read TORU
YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

Researchers from the UK have found that some people actually feel physical pain in response to viewing images of other people's suffering. British psychologist Dr. Stuart Derbyshire showed 123 university students videos and pictures of athletes in painful situations. The videos included clips of a soccer player breaking his leg, a tennis player twisting his ankle, and a patient getting an injection in their hand. While every student reported feeling an emotional response to the videos, a third of the participants said they actually felt twinges of pain in their own bodies.

The video that elicited the most painful responses showed a man running on a racetrack with a clearly broken leg. Students reported anything from tingling to a harsh, stabbing pain, usually in the corresponding region of the body. 10 of the "hypersensitive" students were then asked to view similar images while undergoing a functional MRI. When compared with scans from students who reported just emotional pain, only the "responder" brain scans showed activity in the region associated with handling pain. "We think this confirms that at least some people have an actual physical reaction when observing others being injured or expressing pain," Derbyshire said.

The twinges of phantom pain experienced by a third of Derbyshire's subjects could be the most primal version of empathy. According to the Daily Mail, some scientists believe the ability to feel another person's pain evolved millions of years ago as a way to help bond and "encourage our prehistoric ancestors [to] work more closely with each other."

People Who Say They "Feel Your Pain" Really Do [Daily Mail]
The Brain May Feel Other People's Pain [Reuters]

[New York, December 21. Image via Getty.]

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 21: Recording artist Mary J. Blige performs at SIRIUS XM Studio on December 21, 2009 in New York, New York. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

[Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; December 21. Image via Getty.]

A woman bathes at Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on December 21, 2009. Rio de Janeiro reached over 35 degrees celsius of temperature on the first day of the summer. AFP PHOTO/VANDERLEI ALMEIDA (Photo credit should read VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

"Think of a better place. Think of a better place."


"Eli the Celebrity Chihuahua"'s expression gives new, poignant meaning to the words "tears of a clown." Ridi, Pagliacco, indeed. (With Karen Biehl, "Santa.")


Founder and editor of Animal Fair magazine Wendy Diamond is Santa's Helper. Santa looks sheepish.


A study in indignation: "Cheetah is so last season!"


This guy clearly takes the responsibilities of being an escort seriously!


This dog's face says: "I'm wearing a heating blanket for you. This is what devotion looks like."


"Why do you always get to wear the LBD while I'm stuck in this?"


"Give me that crucifix. I need to ward something off."

[Images via Getty]

[Allahabad, India; December 21. Image via Getty.]

A young girl smiles at the photographer as her unseen mother sorts dried cow dung cakes in the Teliarganj area on the outskirts of Allahabad on December 21, 2009. Cow dung cakes are a major source of domestic fuel for rural households and an environment friendly alternative to firewood in the village areas in many parts of India. In recent times, dung is collected and used as biogas which is used to generate electricity and heat. The gas is a rich source of methane and is used in rural areas of India to provide a renewable, stable and environment friendly source of electricity. AFP PHOTO/Diptendu DUTTA
(Photo credit should read DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP/Getty Images)

The details on how the amendment compromise will impact the bill are still hazy, but the Washington Post provides an outline of possible scenarios and complications:

The long-standing ban on federal funding for abortion has complicated congressional Democrats' health-care legislation. Medicaid bars federal funding for abortion, but 17 states and the District allow the procedure for female Medicaid enrollees paid out of their own funds. It is harder to reach middle ground in the bill before Congress, which would provide federal subsidies to millions of people to buy private health insurance plans on a new marketplace, or "exchange." The deal reached by Nelson and other Democrats over the weekend would allow those people to purchase insurance plans with abortion coverage. But they would have to write two separate premium checks — one to cover the bulk of their plan and the other to cover the sliver for abortion coverage, probably a dollar or so per month.

States could also decree that no plans including abortion coverage be provided on the exchange in their state. As it stands, five states already have some sort of ban on abortion coverage.

By contrast, an amendment that passed the House would prohibit insurers from selling plans with abortion coverage to anyone buying coverage with the help of subsidies — excluding 85 percent of customers on the exchange. The amendment, sponsored by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), would permit the sale of "riders" for abortion coverage, but abortion rights groups say it is offensive to expect women to buy separate coverage for a procedure that most do not plan on needing.

Neither the House language nor the Senate language would affect women who have employer-provided plans, many of which cover abortion. But it is expected that more people would go into the exchange over time for coverage, broadening the impact of its rules.

While health policy experts believe the additional restrictions may "chill" insurers' willingness to offer abortion services, the Post article reports that there isn't much known about implementation since the bill is not yet finalized. While it appears this deal was done without any consultation with insurance companies, insurance representatives point out that they already comply with state regulations on abortion - adding a federal level of regulations would be something they adapt to.

Despite the optimism of the insurance companies that they can meet the needs of women, Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, is not pleased with the compromise:

This new "extra" payment for abortion coverage is akin to an abortion rider — as if women would take these extra steps to pay for insurance, with a separate check, that included abortion coverage. Women don't plan an unplanned or problem pregnancy any more than they plan for a heart attack. But they expect that they have coverage nonetheless.

Requiring people to write two separate checks for their health coverage doesn't accomplish anything other than the real goal — making the system unworkable — which is exactly what health care reform opponents want. Like the Stupak abortion ban, the Nelson abortion provision creates such complicated administrative burdens for health plans that it's highly unlikely insurers will offer abortion coverage at all.

How all this will pan out remains to be seen. Remember, the Stupak amendment still exists in the House bill. The Senate vote will happen on Christmas eve, much to the chagrin of Senate aides and workers who have been stranded on Capitol Hill since mid-December. But even in something as universal as griping about working overtime close to Christmas, partisanship still prevails:

Republicans have been quick to cast Democratic leaders as grinches calling for votes so close to Christmas. Of course, the Senate may have already finished its business were it not for GOP delay tactics, such as Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) demanding last week that the clerk read aloud a 767-page amendment.

Abortion deal may be hard to keep in health bill [AP]
Both sides question health bill's abortion compromise [Washington Post]
Expert: Nelson Amendment Would ‘Chill' Access to Abortion Coverage [Washington Independent]
Women on the Verge [Huffington Post]
Health-care vote means senators will spend Christmas Eve at the Capitol [Washington Post]

The court upheld a lower court's decision that the motion for dismissal could not be heard while Polanski was a fugitive. The decision criticized the director for fleeing the country in the first place, saying, "flight was not Polanski's only option. It was not even his best option." However, the court also found evidence of misconduct in Polanski's original 1977 trial under Judge Laurence J. Rittenband. They were especially concerned about allegations that prosecutor David Wells, who was not actually assigned to the case, had engaged in "backroom conversations" with Rittenband in which he encouraged a tougher sentence. Wells admitted to these conversations in the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which the court viewed as part of its deliberations, but later claimed he had lied in the film. In its decision, the court said,

If Wells's account is true, Judge Rittenband was ushered along a path of iniquity by an officer of the court with a personal axe to grind and no hesitation to engage in unethical ex parte communications and devise illegal, nonappealable sentences to circumvent the defendant's due process and sentencing rights.

Though the court rejected the dismissal motion, it offered other options for the resolution of the case that may be appealing to the Polanski camp. The decision stated, "Polanski is not without any remedy. He is only without the remedy that he prefers: complete release not only from any threat of future punishment, but also from the very charges themselves." The court has offered Polanski two choices to resolve his case: write a letter asking to be tried in absentia, or submit to extradition to the US for trial in person. The court has hinted that the latter would not result in an additional jail sentence.

These choices may not please Polanski's critics. Apparently addressing them, the court's decision said, "We exhort all participants in this extended drama to place the integrity of the criminal justice system above the desire to punish any one individual, whether for his offense or for his flight." One of the most unfortunate things about Polanski's case is that a heinous act will likely never get its proper punishment, in part because of possible misconduct by Wells and Rittenband, and in part because of the sheer passage of time that was the result of Polanski's flight. The court called for a swift resolution, saying, "The passage of more time before this case's final resolution will further hamper the search for truth and the delivery of any appropriate relief, and it will also prolong the agony that the lack of finality in this matter continues to cause Samantha Geimer." But the search for truth has already been hampered, and many have forgotten the real enormity of what Polanski did amid all the confounding factors that piled on afterwards. Polanski's case may be resolved in the next few months, but it's safe to say that justice will never really be done.

Court Deals Polanski A Setback [Wall Street Journal]
Polanski Dismissal Rejected; Misconduct Alleged [AP]
Polanski Exit Strategy Suggested By Court [LA Times]
Roman Polanski's Plea Rejected In Court [AP, via Independent]

• Lily Allen has spoken about her miscarriage, which she describes as "the worst time of my life." She says:

"I couldn't even compute the emotions going through my head, but I was having to put out a press release about my miscarriage... I had this public sympathy for about five days and then everyone was on my case again and I didn't know what was happening to me… I just didn't deal with it at all. I didn't even start beginning to deal with it until the baby's due date. Then it just hit me like a house collapsing. I have therapy on and off but at that time it really helped me. Then I started to deal with it and move on. I still get sad. I still think. I don't mark (what would have been) my baby's birth but it's always there. […] I've had really bad, unbelievably awful times, but if I hadn't had them I wouldn't get the happiness I've got now. I'm very grateful because I could have turned down a very different path. It could have been awful. It really could." [Mirror]

• Meanwhile, Lily Allen wants to stay with her boyfriend, Sam Cooper, "forever." She says: "We've never had one argument and there's absolutely nothing about him that annoys me. He's not impressed by what I do. I've been with guys and seen them looking in the mirror before they walk out of the door with me. That makes me feel sick because I know it's not just me they're interested in." [Mirror]
• Britney Spears doing "The Year In BS" is brilliant. Brilliant! [NY Mag]
• "K-Fed Loses Weight, Gains Movie Role." And by movie, we mean straight-to-DVD teen sex comedy. [Radar Online]
• Sarah Jessica Parker on her Sex And The City castmates: "We love each other. Could we spend more time together? If that existed in our lives, absolutely. Do I see Cynthia Nixon as much as I want to? Never. Kristin Davis or Kim Cattrall? Never. It's just not the way our lives work. I don't see my best friends as much as I want to. But it doesn't mean that there is any less affection." [Mirror]
• The Sex And The City ladies will be on the cover (covers) of Marie Claire — each posing separately, not together. [Gatecrasher]
• Jude Law's assistant, Ben Jackson, and Rachel McAdams: Something's up. [Gatecrasher]
• Reading the exchanges between Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in this interview, it's obvious that they have a zingy kind of chemistry that will be fun when they host the Oscars. Alec calls it "a kind of Hannity & Colmes antagonism." [USA Today]
• Brittany Murphy's husband spoke with Access Hollywood on Monday. "My world was destroyed yesterday," he said. "I loved what Ashton [Kutcher] wrote on Twitter. It was comforting to me… I couldn't have said it better." He described what happened when Brittany was found and denied that she was surrounded by bad influences: "I don't know why anyone would think that. She found love. We found love. Brittany didn't get to where Brittany was with anyone controlling her… Brittany was Brittany." [Access Hollywood, People]
• Brittany Murphy's cause of death will not be known until toxicology results come back, which could take two months. [TMZ]
• At the link, a list of the prescription drugs found at Brittany Murphy's home — including Klonopin, Ativan, and Propranolol, taken for hypertension and used to prevent heart attacks. No illegal drugs were found. [TMZ]
• This paper calls the meds at Brittany Murphy's house "a staggering trove of powerful prescriptions." [NY Daily News]
• "Family Friend Of Brittany Murphy Says Husband Simon Monjack Is 'Not Good.'" [Radar Online]
• BREAKING: Adrian Grenier banged his drum. [Page Six]
• Apparently there was a rumor that Katy Perry hooked up with Robert Pattinson; she tweeted: "Read a bunch of yesterdays-news — BULLOCKS. Ppl should know by now that I don't do vampires, but I do, DO @rustyrockets [Russell Brand]. Don't get it TWISTED!" [Us]
• Jon Gosselin tried to sell his car at a used car lot but couldn't get as much as he wanted. [TMZ]
• Reading about whether nude pictures of Tiger Woods do or do not exist makes my eyes glaze over. [Radar Online]
• This magazine swears that Tiger Woods and Rachel Uchitel have been having sex "since the scandal broke" and that her condo is 500 feet from where Tiger's boat was docked. [In Touch]
• Simon Cowell's brother, radio host Tony Cowell, says Simon will leave American Idol at the end of the next season. He'll be concentrating on bringing X Factor to the US. [NY Post]
• Kim Kardashian lies on a bed and seductively eats salad for her new Carl's Jr. commercial, which made my eyes roll so far back in my head they almost got stuck. [E!]
• In The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, there's a scene in which the character played by Johnny Depp — standing in for Heath Ledger — sees a stream full of floating images of people who died prematurely in their prime: James Dean, Princess Diana, Rudolph Valentino. And he talks about their godlike status as the forever young. "It's very weird," director Terry Gilliam says. "We didn't change anything, and I wasn't going to change anything. We had to deal with certain things just to get through it. But the dialogue wasn't going to change if possible. That was the film Heath and I were making, and that's the film we finished." [USA Today]
• Terry Gilliam, Johnny Depp and Robert Duvall are trying to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote happen. At last. [UPI]
• Aw, it's super cute that Lisa Loeb has an eyewear collection. "Think sexy librarian, not retro grandma," she says. [People]
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Jerry "Turtle" Ferrara: Splitsville. [Gatecrasher]
• Funny interview with Amy Poehler and Christina Applegate, who voice "Chipettes" in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Here's a snippet:
  Q: Any similarities between you and your Chipmunk selves?
  Amy: I want to be a star! (laughter) Well, Christina is a good leader. She's a good front person and she's an excellent singer and dancer in real life.
  Christina: Thank you for answering that question.
  Amy: You're welcome. I would say that I am like Eleanor in that I'm the shortest. And like Eleanor, I do not enjoy wearing high heels. I don't walk very well in them. But Christina and I look like we could have a bit of Chipmunk in our DNA.
  Christina: I have really hairy arms.
  Amy: And we both sleep all winter (laughter). [Reuters]
• Get your Kleenex: Brody Jenner and Jayde Nicole have broken up. [Us]
• Bruce Willis is investing in Belvedere vodka. I am open to sponsorship by Bonbay Sapphire gin or any cheapo white zinfandel. What. [WSJ]
• Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood dumped his girlfriend Ekaterina Ivanova because she was cheating on him with a male model. As you may recall, Ronnie left his wife of 23 years when he met Ekaterina. [Daily Mail]
• Carrie Underwood is spoken for, as they say. This column notes that she wore "an eye-catching ring" at a hockey game on Monday night. [AP]
• Taylor Swift will perform and present at the Grammys. Obvs. [People]
• Beyoncé will perform at the Grammys. [ET]
• And Beyoncé's noodles are adorable. [WoW]
• Diane Sawyer started working the desk of the evening news on ABC now that Charles Gibson has retired. Did anyone watch? [AP]
• The Venice Film Festival has honored John Woo with a lifetime achievement award. Because those doves in Face/Off were genius! [AP]
• What's Christmas like at 50 Cent's house? He plays Santa Claus, buying presents… But he doesn't dress up as Santa. He also recommends that the reporter buy his wife underwear for Christmas. [Dazed Digital]
• Kristen Johnston will return to Ugly Betty, playing a aging party-girl and temp in a part originally written for Paula Abdul. "It was all, like, hot-flash jokes," says Johnston. "So I rewrote it." [NY Mag]
• Kim Peek, the man who inspired the Oscar-winning film Rain Man, has died. [AP]
• RIP Connie Hines, who played Carol Post on Mister Ed. [LA Times]
• Blind item! "Which lady who recently filed for divorce is trying to lure her husband to a Christmas reunion? Friends suspect she hopes to generate footage for a reality show." [Page Six]
• "While it was great that we were the 'First Couple' of porn, the fact is Tera hates the industry. She's not a sexual person. We barely had sex in our own marriage. She's desperate to break into the mainstream, and just wants to generate press. I didn't choose porn over her. Our marriage had a lot of holes in it, despite what she claims. I chose freedom." — Evan Seinfeld, Tera Patrick's ex-husband. [Page Six]
• "I've given up the Internet. I don't read comments, and I don't go on any of the sites anymore, and I just feel better. And it's not about being a celebrity - you get on MySpace, Facebook, there's all these different outlets where people can just feel like nobody's watching them so they can just say whatever they want to say… It gets dangerous sometimes." — Disney star Selena Gomez, to Seventeen. [MSNBC Scoop]
• "I've got to tell you. My disposition lies in rather populist entertainment. I'm not prejudiced in whether a film is low-budget, independent, or studio-oriented. I suppose the only thing I care about is whether you get some feeling, some sense of integrity from what it is you do. As long as that's not compromised extensively, then I think why should you care about where it comes from?" — Guy Ritchie on his big-budget film, Sherlock Holmes. [The Daily Beast]
• "If you ask me, I think she's all right. I think she's perfectly good. I just don't think people can get her persona out of the way." — Guy Ritchie on Madonna's acting. [The Daily Beast]
• "Yes, at this age it's unusual for somebody to do a love scene, to be making love… Yeah, that is unusual. But that is just how benighted we are. Because, you know, we still are alive. … It's authentic. The whole idea that you have to look a certain way and be a certain age to earn love is ridiculous." — It's Complicated star Meryl Streep, to the Times Of London. [MSNBC Scoop]
• "I don't believe in having work done, because then everybody looks the same. [But] I should exercise more. Lose a couple of kilos." — Sophia Loren. [StarPulse]

• Tom Cruise is being sued by Michael David Sapir, who he sued in 2001 after Sapir claimed he had a video of Cruise "engaged in a homosexual relationship." Now Sapir says Cruise hired a P.I. to wiretap his phone.

He says the wiretapping took place during the 2001 case, which was later settled. Afterwards, both parties issued a statement saying the tape never existed. [TMZ]

• An autopsy was performed today on Brittany Murphy. Sources say there were no signs of foul play, but nothing that pointed to a cause of death either. Now the coroner is waiting for the toxicology report and other lab tests come back. [TMZ]
• The LAPD has concluded its preliminary investigation into the death of Brittany Murphy and sources say there is no evidence of foul play. [TMZ ]
• In this article, Brittany Murphy's "friends" say she got addicted to prescription drugs after having plastic surgery, used cocaine, and had an eating disorder. "We have been very worried something like this was about to happen. Brittany has been living life on the edge. She definitely had a drug problem and we have all begged her to seek help. Sadly our words fell on deaf ears," said the source. [The Sun]
• Ashton Kutcher, who dated Brittany Murphy, showed up to a book signing for Kabbalah leader Yehuda Berg on Sunday afternoon, but an eyewitness says he "looked visibly shaken when he arrived. He was physically there to support Berg, but mentally he was on another planet." [Star]
• This video isn't all that interesting, but it now seems creepy in light of Brittany Murphy's death. At a public appearance, she says to a reporter, "Can I have your hair in my next life please?" The reporter replies, "Can I be you in my next life?" [TMZ]
• In an e-mail to ABC News, Brittany Murphy's half-brother Jeff Bertolotti said, "I haven't seen my little sis for eight years or so now due to family issues and Hollywood politics, but never have i lost my heart for that sweet little child... I'm torn up in side beyond belief. It's just not natural for a man of 54 to see his kid sister of 32 leave in such an abrupt manner as this. The loss is just unbearable to us all." [ABC News]
• A clip of Abby Elliott impersonating Brittany Murphy on the December 5 episode of SNL was removed from Hulu last night. [EW]
• Hockey player Mike Fisher confirmed that he and Carrie Underwood are engaged at a press conference before an Ottawa Senators game tonight. "It's true," said Fisher. "We're both obviously excited and very happy." [Ottawa Sun]
• Her rep says: "I'm happy to confirm that Carrie Underwood is engaged to Mike Fisher, and the couple couldn't be happier... No wedding date has been set at this time." [People]
• There's a rumor going around that Jay-Z and Beyonce have changed their legal names to Shawn and Beyonce Knowles-Carter. A source says Beyonce wanted to keep the Knowles name alive because her parents had no boys. [Media Take Out]
• Britney Spears' manager posted a "BS Alert" on her blog listing the 75 most outlandish stories published about Britney last year. He lists a story about Britney dating Indian choreographer Sandip Soparrkar as the most ridiculous, but we think Courtney Love posting on her Facebook page "britneys dad molested her" is more disturbing. [Us]
• The FBI was supposed to release 333 pages of formerly-classified documents about Michael Jackson today, but they've been delayed by a day due to the snow storm. Source say the documents show that in 1993 Johnnie Cochran contacted the FBI and claimed the family of the boy who accused Michael Jackson of child molestation was just trying to extort money from MJ. [TMZ]
• Wave goodbye to Tiger Woods: Sources say he and some friends took off on his yacht from Florida this weekend and they're cruising to the Bahamas. [E!]
• It seems all of Tiger Woods' neighbors knew that he was cheating because he'd take women out to dinner and bring them to his home. "Elin feels that Tiger made a fool of her and that's not something she can forgive," said a source. [Radar Online]
• Sources say the husband of Theresa Rogers, the woman who had the longest affair with Tiger Woods, found out about their affair but made some kind of arrangement so she could keep sleeping with Tiger. [Radar Online]
• Moments after Pete Doherty escaped a prison sentence by admitted to careless and drunken driving in court, he was arrested on suspicon of possessing a controlled drug and taken to the police station across the street from the court house. [The Telegraph]
• Boy George is appealing his probation sentence for imprisoning a male escort because it prevents him from appearing on Celebrity Big Brother. [BBC]
• Are Randy and Evi Quaid on the lam? This morning they posted bail and later they were seen packing some belongings into their car and driving off into the sunset. [Perez Hilton]
• Check out Evi Quaid's mug shot from her arrest on Saturday here: [Radar Online]
• New Zealand TV host Paul Henry, who said Susan Boyle was "starved of oxygen at birth" and "she is in fact retarded," has apologized saying, "I am sorry that some people have taken what I said in a way that I never intended." [AFP]
• Want to party with the cast of Jersey Shore? It's going to cost you. Michael Schweiger of CEG Talent says, "We get the most requests for Mike (aka The Situation) and Pauly D. They're $7,500 per person." [E!]
• One of Bon Jovi's sons was taken to the hospital in New Jersey this morning. Authorities said the incident wasn't serious and he's already been released. [Perez Hilton]
• Taylor Swift is in talks to star in the remake of the 1984 flop Supergirl! The Love Story. [The Wrap]
• Taylor Swift has been named the Associated Press Entertainer of the Year. "I am so honored and so excited," Swift said. "This was so unexpected, and I could not be more grateful." Tina Fey won last year and Stephen Colbert won in 2007. [AP]
• The AP says Michael Jackson's death was the biggest entertainment story of 2009 (obvs.). [AP]
• No surprises here either: Entertainment Weekly named Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag's How To Be Famous the worst book of the year. [EW]
• Jessica Simpson posted this video of herself using an ear candle, which was a Christmas gift from her hair stylist Ken Paves, on her Twitter for some unknown reason. [Buzzfeed]
• Some previously unseen letters Princess Diana wrote in the 1980s have been released. In one letter she tells a friend, "I could not resist opening my present, as a parcel of any shape or form has never been safe with me and I fear that William has also picked up this dreadful habit from his mother, as I find wrapping paper undone in the most extraordinary places!" [Daily Mail]
• Nancy Meyers says Alec Baldwin demanded a butt double for It's Complicated. "He said, 'Mine's beautiful. However, I don't want to do that,'" she reported. [Us]

[Loire Valley, December 21. Image via Getty.]

A picture taken on December 21, 2009 shows the chateau of Chambord on the Loire Valley decked in Christmas lights. AFP PHOTO/ALAIN JOCARD (Photo credit should read ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images)