11:03 An ambulance had to be called for Kristin Chenoweth. According to the report, she "first complained about a migraine headache, then said she couldn't open her eyes." Do you think it had something to do with the glasses?

11:01 Mad Men wins for Outstanding Drama Series. Elizabeth Moss and Jon Hamm both gave their significant others soul kisses.

10:57 I hope Lost wins. I mean, I guess I don't really give a shit. It wins in my book anyway.

10:55 30 Rock wins for Outstanding Comedy Series.

10:49 Wow, the Breaking Bad guy won for Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

10:44 Glen Close wins for Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

10:38 Mad Men wins for Writing for a Drama.

10:30 Dead people, with some singing that might remind you of shelter cats and dogs in need of a home.

10:23 Did Chris O'Donnell fart or something? What's the deal with LL's face?

10:21 Michael Emerson totally sounded like creepy Ben during his acceptance speech.

10:20 Ben Linus FTW!

10:08 Check it out. They're advertising it. It's gonna take a long-ass-ass time.

10:07 I'm annoyed that FOC didn't win for original music and lyrics.

10:01 JK, not pregnant. Pull-out method still 100% effective. Just checking to see if people were reading.

9:45 Grey Gardens won Outstanding Made for Television Movie and the director quoted from Little Edie's journal in his acceptance speech.

9:43 What's with Keifer Sutherland's ear growth spurt?

9:41 I'm pregnant.

9:34 I'm so glad Jessica Lange won. She really nailed Big Edie, I guess proving that Botox won't necessarily hinder one's acting abilities, or guarantee that women over 30 will get hired to play women under 60.

9:32 What's the deal with this internet vs. television thing. Suddenly, TV thinks it's print.

9:26 When they did that joke about the "best seat in the house" and panned over the theater, it looked pathetically empty.

9:13 Do you think Shohreh Aghdashloo is a smoker?

9:11 Actually, these movies all look up my alley. I never even heard of half of them, and I've only seen two.

9:09 Grey Gardens needs to win in this category, obvs.

9:08 And I was right. It pisses me off that Big Brother wasn't nominated. It's only the best reality competition program ever, other than ANTM and The Real World/Road Rules Challenges.

9:07 I have a feeling that The Amazing Race will win.

9:06 Yes! Tracy Morgan! Even the way he says "Neil Patrick Harris" makes me laugh.

9:03 These self-written bios that are read aloud as the winners are walking to the stage are so fucking smarmy.

9:02 I don't like that the Chenbot wasn't nominated for Outstanding Host of a Reality Competition Program.

9:00 Is that Dancing with the Stars girl related to the liquor Smirnoff?

8:57 Sadly, this montage is the highlight of the night for me. Love that they're playing Britney's "Circus."

8:56 Omg, they're actually acknowledging reality TV right now!

8:54 Alec Baldwin wins for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. That makes 2 for 30 Rock.

8:45 Seriously, what is with the trend of Valerie Cherish backwards dresses at award shows?

8:36 Love it!

8:34 Justin Timberlake is presenting Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. He's starting to look like a lesbian again.

8:30 Ha! I love Jemaine Clement's face behind Kevin Dillon, both before…

…and after Dillon lost to Jon Cryer.

8:29 Who did they think they were fooling, by putting NPH back in the audience, like we didn't know he was hosting this whole thing.

8:26 One of my pet peeves is when people say "log on to..." in reference to visiting a web site. That's not what it is!

8:25 Award #1 for 30 Rock: Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series.

8:13 When I first saw this I was like, "Hrmph, Broadway people..."

But apparently the glasses schtick was Amy Poehler's idea. I love that Vanessa Williams wouldn't participate.

8:10 Ha. I liked that Tina Fey made a joke about Seth MacFarlane being drunk.

8:07 Tracy Morgan did not like NPH's joke about Kanye West.

1.) One Life to Live Does Grey Gardens
During a drunken daydream, one character on the soap imagined life as Edie Beale. They did a musical number, and the Costume of the Day speech, although the accent was way off.

2.) Joan Rivers on Live TV
I love that for her publicity tour for her new reality show, she keeps dropping F bombs on live television.

3.) Police Women Get Stuck With The Vagina Jobs

4.) Moe
Former Jezebel editor Moe Tkacik was on MSNBC on Tuesday morning, where she talked about the economy and possibly got hit on.

5.) Do You Remember the Time?
It was discovered that a 3000-year-old tomb of a mummified woman looks exactly like MJ.

6.) Lesbians Aren't Into Sausage Parties
Zing to you, Gordon Ramsey!

7.) Wasted Housewives of Atlanta
I love how drunk and loving NeNe and Kim got at their "let's be friends again" dinner.

8.) Who Pulled Tiger Woods' Finger?

9.) Do You Wanna Hear Someone From Chicago Pronounce "Coup d'état"?

10.) Why Am I So Obsessed With Her?
Her feigned modesty is one reason.

Along with her paintings, there were also personal photos, letters and newspaper clippings that Lois had saved over the years. Lois even wrote a book, My Life at Grey Gardens: 13 Months and Beyond, "a true and factual book" based on the journals she kept, chronicling events there, as well as Big Edie's death.

The show was held at The National Arts Club in NYC. The minute I walked in, and saw this painting…

I recognized the handwriting immediately from a sign in the house, seen in the documentary.

I'd always assumed that Edie wrote that herself.

Being a huge fan of not only the original documentary, but of everything involving the lives of Big and Little Edie, I was totally excited to see these paintings and memorabilia. Particularly when I finally got to see a painting of Tom Logan (whom Little Edie refers to as "T. Logan" in the film). He lived at Grey Gardens and is mentioned often in the documentary, but the role he played in their lives was never recreated in the movie or musical versions.

There was also a fan (literally, not the girl standing next to it) there that was in the house, that Lois had painted on.

Some more work:

And a self-portrait of the artist as a young girl:

On the invitation, attendees were asked to dress as a character from Grey Gardens.

This is Celia Maysles, the daughter of one of the filmmakers of Grey Gardens, who co-curated the show.

This woman was my favorite:

I don't know what her name is or how she was affiliated with all of this, but she told me just about everything else, including details on her most recent knitting project, how she hated living in New Jersey, how she's a lawyer, how she doesn't know how to type, how she hates her Blackberry and raccoons, how long she's had to sit in traffic for various trips to the city from Long Island, and how her grandson's mock trial team finished second in the state.

The woman on the right is Ann Derby, Little Edie's cousin on her father's side.

She came up from Birmingham just for the exhibit. I asked her if she ever spent any time at Grey Gardens, and she said, "Yes it was beautiful. They had a luncheon for me there." I asked her what year that was, thinking it must've been sometime in the early '40s, and she replied, "Two years ago." I then asked if she ever spent time there when she was a child, and she shook her head no.

Lois also created a collage of clippings and personal photos.

I love how pissed off Little Edie looks in this picture.

There were newspaper clippings of Big Edie's funeral. Little Edie sang at the ceremony.

There were also personal letters from Little Edie to Lois, circa 1980, after she had moved out of Grey Gardens. True to form, her handwriting is intense, dramatic, beautiful, and difficult to read. (I've transcribed them below.)

Dear Lois,

No one seems to have gotten my lettersdid the one I wrote you go [?]? I hung your three seascapes the other night and immediately felt betterso did the cats who stopped being home sick for Long Island! That boy that drove me down to my nephew's wedding was an [?] but never told meyou saw it in his palm. I found out afterwardsamazing. The wedding made me miss mother terribly. I was so tired from moving to N.Y. don't yet see how I made it! I sang "Toujours L'Amour" to the bride and groom as they cut the wedding cake. She is a German Catholic and ten years younger than Bouvier Beale Jr. They met out in San Francisco a year ago. Love at first sight! N.Y.C. is tough to live inso many peoplelike an [?] city. I talked to Nancy T. yesterday. She and Jackie are coming over (or so they say).

Page II

Jackie never got my letter Nancy said. I wrote her before I left. Also {Michelle?} Putnam who never got hers! I can't say the relatives are overjoyed I am now living in the big city! But I managed to stay alive and will live where I please! Many complications to be ironed out. I will be busy the rest of my life with everything! I heard it will be very cold this winter and then read an article in the Times that said there will be no winter at all! More Cubans hit Key West and Miami and I decided not to go to Florida. No place like Montauk. I don't have a minute to go anywhere yet.

Love,
Edie

P.S. I thought you looked very well!

Here is the artist, Lois Wright, posing with me.

I showed her the Little Edie tapestry I created and have been working on. It's not yet finished, but she told me she liked it. She also told me she hates sewing.

Lois appeared brieflyduring the birthday scenein Grey Gardens.

Sheand her paintingsare featured much more in The Beales of Grey Gardens, released by the Maysles in 2006.

Big Edie died in 1977, and shortly after, Little Edie put the estate on the market for $220,000. She turned down many offers, and finally sold it to journalists Sally Quinn and Benjamin Bradlee on the condition that they not tear the house down, and instead, restore it to its original condition. Mr. Bradlee said, "I wasn't sure I wanted to buy the house. There were 52 dead cats in it, and funeral arrangements had to be made for each one." (You can see what the grounds look like now, here.)

Inside Grey Gardens [NYT]
Secret Gardener [NYT]

It was a strange coincidence that the much-anticipated TV movie of Grey Gardens and former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl's fourth memoir, Not Becoming My Mother, should come out in the same week. While the differences are obvious - one's the story of fallen aristocracy, the other of mid-century malaise - both deal with thwarted female ambition, make one wonder whether fragile psyches can ever triumph over adversity, and, most of all, explore how these questions impact on mother-daughter relationships.

Most everyone - at least, readers of this site - knows the Beales' story: the New York socialites, mother and daughter, whose grandiose showbiz ambitions gave way to a life of delusion and squalor, made all the more dramatic by their family connection to Jackie O. The HBO film, while it broadens the focus, doesn't tell us much we didn't already know about their decline. To anyone who's read one of food writer and editor Reichl's memoirs, this one will not contain shocks, either: her neurotic, frustrated mother is a constant, infuriating presence in her books, her mental instability and scorn for her daughter's career a constant cross for Reichl to bear.

This memoir, title aside, is more sympathetic; Reichl explores the broken dreams that made Miriam Reichl the woman and the mother she was: her wasted education, her thwarted desire to become a doctor, her suffering through what Reichl terms "the worst possible time to have been a middle-class American woman." Reichl's writing is always curiously indifferent to whether the reader likes her, and this is no exception; despite her newfound understanding of her mother's struggles, the ambivalence is the memoir's third character. Miriam's disdain for Ruth's career choice may come from a desire to see Reichl do something more - and from a wish to protect her from crushing disappointment - but it's still cruel, and there were many mothers of the same generation who were able to muster far more support.

Then too, the main question we're left with at the end of the book is, how much was her? It's the same question that dogs Grey Gardens. Could Edith Beale have sung professionally, if not mired in the world of upper-class marriage? Or was it this very life which allowed her to cherish her illusions? Could her daughter have become a musical star without her mother holding her back, or were these women too damaged from the outset? Of Miriam, Reichl writes, "Was she crazy, or was she crazy because she had nothing to do?" As one reviewer puts it, "At times, Mim's mental health seems so fragile that the focus on her thwarted career seems misplaced: You wonder if she could have found satisfaction in any field or had condition, perhaps biological in origin, that would have caught up with her in any job."

Whatever the truth, the one certainty is that the daughters get sucked into the mythology; a daughter has to live her mother's reality, however damaged or damaging that may be. Reichl breaks free, Little Edie (of Miriam's generation) doesn't - but their mothers continue to haunt them, both with the realities and the realities they made. So, how do you break away? If you believe Reichl, the only way is to physically separate yourself from a personality that can dominate you; certainly the Beales show the danger of the alternative. Distance - not just physical, but emotional - is critical. You need to see a parent objectively. In Reichl's case, this meant a lot of anger, a lot of distancing, reducing her mother to a caricature. And then, ultimately, having the maturity to see her as more. In a sense, breaking this hold, as she tells it, is almost like the stages of grieving. And when one considers how domineering these personalities are, that makes a kind of sense. Together, this is an odd Mother's Day roundup, for sure - but certainly a potent one.

Ruth Reichl's Memoir ‘Not Becoming My Mother' – An Apple Falls Far From the Tree [One Minute Book Reviews]
"Not Becoming My Mother [New York Post]
Not Becoming My Mother [Amazon]

Grey Gardens, which will be shown on Saturday night, is based on the 1975 documentary of the same name about Jackie Kennedy's aunt and cousin, Big Edie (Jessica Lange) and Little Edie (Drew Barrymore). The classic documentary showed the women living in squalor in a decrepit East Hampton mansion in the 1970s, and told the story of their youth through photographs. The dramatized version recreates parts of the documentary, but also flashes back to each woman's youth in the 1930s and 1950s, to show how each had dreams of going into show business, but wound up eating out of tin cans and sharing their mansion with cats, raccoons and fleas.

Most critics were impressed by Lange and Barrymore's performances, but disagreed over which actress did a better job pulling off her Edie. However, several critics disagreed with the HBO giving the film a happy ending and didn't feel that the fictionalized account of the Beales past was an improvement on the story told in the original documentary. Below, we take a look at the reviews for Grey Gardens.

Salon

I emerged from the screening of Grey Gardens blinking with confusion at the ass-backwardness of it all. A documentary often fleshes out the back story of a real-life event. Yet here I was watching a feature film in order to get the "truth" behind a cinéma vérité classic ... It's a strange project, working backward from the snippets of a life as gathered from a documentary, developing a narrative from the flotsam and jetsam of two not-quite-there creatures' competing memories.

That decrepitude has been widely fetishized, and so it's not surprising to see such lavish attention paid here to costumes and set designs. Everything is lushly dilapidated and distressed in a most aesthetically pleasing way. First-time director Michael Sucsy has a good eye for shambles: I particularly remember the tableau of mother and daughter in strange black mourning outfits listening to JFK's funeral on the radio, sitting primly on a bed swamped by garbage and cats. The camera devours the decay  a tree is growing through the ceiling! A cat is peeing behind the painting of Big Edie propped on the floor! But the women who once lived in luxury treat it all with a certain vagueness, as though the outside world barely registers in comparison to the intensity of their inner lives.

The New York Times

But both fictional Edies are so entrancing as the oldest versions of themselves that the movie's slow, lengthy detours to the 1930s and 1950s are almost a distraction. Even the brief flashback to the early '70s, when Mrs. Onassis (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is driven by the tabloid exposés of her relatives' living conditions to visit them at Grey Gardens and finance repair work, is a little long. The acting is compelling, and the costumes are sumptuous, but the staging is static, too Masterpiece Theater for the story at hand.

Variety

Beyond Big Edie's extraordinary attachment to the property, the movie doesn't fully convey who the enabler and the enabled were in this co-dependent existence. The two Edies are also, as one says, an "acquired taste," so their overly mannered speech and affectations  coupled with the ravages of Bill Corso's uncomfortable-looking makeup, aging the stars 40 years  require a bit of getting used to. Barrymore and Lange nevertheless deliver vibrant, wonderfully theatrical turns, with Barrymore in particular seeming delighted to sink her teeth into a character this meaty after a blur of relatively forgettable romantic comedies. That's not to say Grey Gardens is without romance, but it's an unorthodox one  in essence a love story between these two women who take refuge from the world in each other's company.

New York Magazine

Herself the survivor of famous-family dysfunction, Barrymore resembles Edie in both her daffy grin and pop-eyed girlishness. As the fiftysomething Edie, her mimicry is impressive, her freckled arms slack, eyes wild with wasted glee. But whenever this movie re-creates Edie's youth, the documentary's anxious power-its air of poisoned nostalgia, its bold wallow in mental illness-is reduced to simpler themes. Barrymore's Edie is a rich rebel who might've been fine if her parents had let her breathe and be. At moments-as when Edie crashes a producer's dinner and his companions stare-a weirder character emerges, an unstable beauty boiling over with Wasp chutzpa. But when Edie descends into "madness," hacking her hair, raw eccentricity shrivels into an adolescent crisis.

Jessica Lange disappears more completely; beneath her Big Edie old-age makeup, she gives off great sparks of wit and emotion. (She's harder to take in flashbacks, if only because-there's no way to say this nicely-her face is now as immobile as a mask.)

Women And Hollywood

The movie is a unique character study and the performances are mesmerizing. But it's also sad. Sad that these women felt forced to distance themselves from society to be free. Sad because women who didn't "fit in" were made to seem crazy and then actually became crazy due to the isolation. Grey Gardens on the surface comes off as a love story between a mother and daughter - yet don't miss the unique lessons on class and gender roles that still seem to stick with us.

The Hollywood Reporter

Director/co-producer/co-writer Michael Sucsy gets their plight, and he's unflinching about exploiting it. But it's hard to say he exposes the heart of his characters; Little Edie's motivation remains a mystery. She might have left home at any time, as she notes. But she didn't, her mother shoots back. Why not? Unfortunately, this last mystery is beyond this version (or perhaps any version) of Grey Gardens to fully explore. And that, ultimately, is the scariest revelation of all.

The New York Daily News

It isn't even enough that two quality actresses, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, play the Beales for this production. Lange is fine as the senior Edie, but Barrymore, for reasons not entirely her fault, seems off her game. In the 1975 Maysles brothers' documentary that turned the Beales and their home into a sort of cult fascination, Little Edie came across as a caricature. While some of that was intentional and some was not, the image became so indelible that watching Barrymore play her now feels like parody, imitating Little Edie's self-portrait without finding anything fresh behind it.

The Boston Globe

Lange is flat-out extraordinary as she reveals the extent of Big Edie's big narcissism without demonizing her. As the young Big Edie, Lange evokes the broken personality of a woman in her prime who aspired to be a star but who became a bored wife and moth ... Lange hams it up in Grey Gardens, without plummeting into parody.

Little Edie is the trickier role, since she's both an angry extrovert and a victim, and her eccentricities increasingly take on the flavor of mental illness as she grows older. She dresses in upside-down skirts and, because her hair falls out from stress, she wears dramatic scarves on her head. Barrymore does her darnedest to be poignant, and I was impressed as she let herself go further than usual into her performance. And yet I never forgot I was watching Barrymore trying hard, especially in contrast to Lange's effortlessness. Her accent wanders, her older-woman prosthetic sits awkwardly on her face in the 1970s scenes, and she too-often projects fragility where she should be rebellious and rawr instead.

USA Today

Both women do a wonderful job of mimicking the documentary's scenes and cadences, and an equally good job of ratcheting the nuttiness down for the earlier, saner years. Barrymore has the showier role and gives the more riveting performance, but that takes nothing away from Lange, who captures the smothering selfishness that was the flip side of Big Edie's determination to live life on her own terms.

And yet there's an emptiness at the center of the story that Grey Gardens can't quite fill. These sad, probably sick, women hold your interest, yet remain held at a distance. Try as you might to find meaning here, the Beales' decline seems to have no deeper message to convey. These aren't heroes brought down by social conventions. They collapse, in the end, because they cared about no one but themselves and were able to live with no one but each other.

The Good:
I didn't think Drew Barrymore could top her NYC 30's bombshell look, but this Valley of the Dolls ensemble is fabulous!


The neckline makes Lucy Barzun Donnelly's LBD.


And Alison Brie's iteration is flirty and pretty.


Love the soft colors and whimsical embellishment on Jessica Lange's two-tone.


The Spring palette makes Jennie Garth's sixties-inflected numero.


The Bad:
Ali Larter does gladiator. As is her prerogative.


Jennifer Elise Cox's urban cowgirl has a touch of the Juniors department about it, no? Not that, ahem, I shop there or anything.


Wow, everyone else must have felt so awkward when they showed up and realized they'd missed the Polka-Dot Short-Short Tuxedo-Sans-Bra dress code memo!


What Say You?
Michelle Chin: upstanding or upholstery?

[Images via Getty]

[Los Angeles, April 16. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

The Good:
Apparently Drew got totally into character as one only can for an HBO movie. Apparently she decided to go with the beautiful, not-living -in-squalor iteration of Little Edie Beale for the premiere - and who can blame her? (I love it when stars do this after playing an 'ugly' character; see: Theron, Charlize; Huffman, Felicity.) Has she ever looked more stunning? Can you top finger waves and bias cuts for glam?


Jessica Lange, too, channels Deco divine, and the effect is both soft and elegant.


Jeanne Tripplehorn plays Jackie O in the film, and I love how she's carried over the American Classic theme into her polka dot choice - an unexpected pick for this kind of soft drape!


Low? Yes - and I'm not sure it would be exactly easy to eat dinner opposite Selita Ebanks' neckline - but the necklace, the demure accessories, balance the overall look like a charm.


Hilary Rhoda does clean, crisp - and almost makes us believe it's Spring...


I love evening suits; why do only older ladies like Frances Hayward appreciate their virtuosity?


The Bad:
When I saw a headshot of Kristen Wiig, I thought, Oh, how pretty; that Grecian drapery may be running its time, but it sure is soft and flattering! And then, the full monty: the leggings, the mini, the Barbie belt. Kristeeeen!

[Images via Getty]

[New York, April 14. Image via Getty]

• Jamie Foxx apologized on the Tonight Show for his statements about Miley Cyrus (he called her a "little white bitch" and suggested she should "go catch chlamydia from a bicycle seat"), telling Jay Leno:

"I am a comedian, and you guys know that whatever I say, I don't mean any of it. And sometimes, as comedians, as we do, we go a little bit too far. I have a radio show...We're really the black Howard Stern. We go at everybody. There was a situation with Miley Cyrus, and I just want to say, I apologize for what I said. I didn't mean it maliciously. You know I'm a comedian. You know my heart. Miley, I apologize, so I'll call you. I got a daughter too, so I completely understand." [E!]

• Miley's dad Billy Ray Cyrus thought Jamie Foxx's radio show comments were out of line, in case you were wondering. [E!]
• By the way: The 19-year-old hacker who broke into Miley Cyrus' MySpace last year is "very stressed" and in hiding. [E!]
• Another day, another Britney rumor; this time, it's that she's engaged to a 40-year-old real estate developer named John Sundahl. A source says the dude "got down on one knee in a Subway sandwich shop in Santa Monica" and offered Brit "a $4.5 million marquise-cut diamond." [Gatecrasher]
• Uh-oh, Britney's Circus tour might be a victim of the craptastic economy! She was supposed to add dates in Europe and Australia, but the outlook is now rather grim. [People]
• Lindsay Lohan on her Funny Or Die video: "I just think it's better to take something negative and turn it into something good... laughter is the BEST medicine." The video's director, Eric Appel, says: "She came up with the stuff about being a threat to all security guards  she improvised while doing it. She threw in a bunch of fun, funny stuff. People forget Lindsay Lohan's, like, a good actress." Wanna know why? Because we so rarely see her ACTING. [Us Magazine]
• Madonna's former nanny is still spilling deets about her time with her Madgesty! She says: "We weren't allowed to take any photographs of the family. We were given 'nanny cameras' so we could take photos of the children during their activities but when we got home we had to hand them in. The photographs were taken off and stored on Madonna's hard drive." [Daily Express]
• For crying out loud: Spencer Pratt wants a political career. He says: "Don't know if I'll be getting elected any time in the next century or so, but definitely going after mayor of L.A. and at least governor." [Us Mag via Pop Sugar]
• Is there another baby on the way for Heidi Klum? [MSNBC Scoop]
• When actors ask for money during a recession, they risk getting killed off. See: Edie of Desperate Housewives. Will Katherine Heigl's character on Grey's face the same fate? [MSNBC Scoop]
• Boo: The auction of Michael Jackson's stuff was called off yesterday; Jackson and the auction house reached a settlement. [AP]
• Mariah Carey has a Twitter, where she says things like "I gained a few pounds… My trainers back living w/me again..yippie." [E!]
• Oh. God. Mariah is covering Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is." [Page Six]
• The 24-year-old Russian pop singer claiming to be the "mystery girl" to blame for the end of Mel Gibson's marriage is named Oksana Pochepa. She was seen "frolicking" with Mel on the beach earlier this year, and from the looks of these pictures she is not shy about her body. She says her relationship with Mel "is serious and I hope that our union will be real and strong and long-lasting." Good luck! [The Sun]
• Speaking of Mel Gibson, the writer of Passion Of The Christ thinks Mel owes him money. [TMZ]
• Stephen Colbert is heading to Iraq to entertain the troops! [Page Six]
• Zac Efron might star in a film based on classic animated TV show Jonny Quest, even though Jonny was 11 years old. In talks to play Race Bannon, the brawny dude from the show? Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson. [LA Times]
• This Twilight "news" sounds juicy but actually isn't: Kristen Stewart's boyfriend Michael is "really insecure" when it comes to Robert Pattinson. A source says: "Everywhere [Kristen] goes, [Michael] now wants to go too. He's extremely jealous. And let's just say he's been trying to be up in Vancouver a lot lately." Which leaves Robert by himself, poor thing. [E!]
• William Hurt to Marlee Matlin: "My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we have both grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good." She has said that he was violent when they were together; she told Access Hollywood: "I always had fresh bruises every day. And if I had a split lip, or if...I mean, there were a lot of things that happened that were not pleasant…I was always afraid...of him, but I loved him. Or maybe I thought I did. But look, I was 19, he was 35." [E!]
• The lady accused of having an affair with Bruce Springsteen wanted the details of her divorce to be private; the judge said no way. [NY Post]
• Wow, does David Letterman really hate Jay Leno? Apparently Jay wrote him a letter after his open-heart surgery and Dave did not respond. GQ calls this "heartless." [New York Mag]
• You guys: The show hasn't started yet but one of the Real Housewives Of New Jersey is pregnant. [People]
• The folks at ONTD are calling Johnathon Schaech's blog "The Saddest Blog Of The Year." [ONTD]
• Survivor star Richard Hatch wants to live in Argentina after he's released from prison for tax evasion; a federal judge said no fucking way. [USA Today]
• An arrest warrant was issued for model Angie Everhart, but she has paid a fine and her lawyer says it was a misunderstanding. [RadarOnline]
• Law & Order : SVU has been renewed for an 11th season, but it's not clear whether stars Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay will return. How can the show move on without them? [LA Times]
• Words I never ever thought I would type: Apple's Steve Wozniak will walk Dancing With The Stars' Karina Smirnoff down the aisle at her wedding to Maksim Chmerkovskiy. [Page Six]
• Private Practice star Kate Walsh filed amended divorce papers on Monday; she doesn't want her estranged hubs to get spousal support. [ET]
• Blind item! "Which singer/talk show hostess should be more careful where she shops? She was taken recently to a downtown storage facility where she bought $10,000 worth of luxury designer goods of dubious provenance  not fake, but fallen off the truck." [Page Six]
• "The girls were out of control-they were doing drugs and they were making out and they were coming on to us in a big way. They might have been 15 or 16, but in their heads they were already 40. I don't think there was a virgin on the set, except maybe a couple of the guys."  says Gerald V. Casale, of DEVO, reminiscing on playing the "New Wave Bat Mitzvah" on '80s sitcom Square Pegs. He also says he did coke with Jami Gertz and Sarah Jessica Parker in the talent trailers. [Heeb]
• "See, I don't think of myself as funny. I think of myself as rather grave, actually. And I'm suspicious of fun. I never quite know what that is or how to deal with it or how to generate it. That's my fault. I know it's a burden on the people I'm with. It's tiresome."  Hugh Laurie. [Mirror]
• "I'm in love with Angelina Jolie. Everything she does, I adore. I'd like to do an action film where I could kick someone's ass. I want to be strong and empowered. I want to shock everybody. [I have] really strong legs. I inherited them from my dad, who has tree stumps for legs, basically. I've got big calves that look good. When I wear heels, it looks like I've worked out my legs a lot, which is why I love them. I also have a big, big big toe. I call it my goat toe. I can climb anything."  Vanessa Hudgens. [Ok!]
• "I will donate 100K to one individual's favorite non profit organization.Of course,you must convince me why by using 140 characters or less."  Hugh Jackman, on Twitter, encouraging people to Tweet their suggestions. [Telegraph]
• "How long do you think the whole Internet thing is gonna last? Are people gonna get sick of that in five, 10 years, maybe? They [my kids] won't get to be, like, 15, 16, typing in, like, the word 'Fuck' and their father's name - a kid wouldn't do that, right? This just completely undermines all parental authority I would ever have."  Ben Affleck, worried that the "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck" skit he did with Jimmy Kimmel will be seen by his kids someday. [Daily Express]
• "I could have turned everything into a crime scene, like OJ, cutting everybody's throat. You live half a mile from the 20,000-square-foot home you can't go to anymore, you're driving through downtown Clearwater and see a 19-year-old boy driving your Escalade, and you know that a 19-year-old boy is sleeping in your bed, with your wife… I totally understand OJ. I get it."  Hulk Hogan. [Page Six]
• "My friend hypnotised me before I started rehearsals to have a real open mind. I was getting a bit nervous. My anxiety was getting to me. I was hypnotised to calm me down and it worked."  Mel B, on getting ready for her racy peepshow in Las Vegas. [Daily Express]
• "I said, 'Look I'm going to call out the elephant in the room. I've never done a part like this. I sound like a girl from the San Fernando Valley. I have nothing in my arsenal to prove to you I'm capable of doing this.'"  Drew Barrymore, on her casting meeting for Grey Gardens. [LA Times]
• This is my first action movie, and I love every minute of it. I have a wonderful role, named Virginia. I wish I could tell you more about who I am, but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. And I'm a trading card, too! I said, 'Oh my God, I have to be the oldest female-action-figure trading card.' And it's a very odd child who will ask for my card."  Jane Alexander, 69, who is in Terminator: Salvation as well as the play Chasing Mamet. [NY Mag]
• "I WAS WORKING ON THIS DOPE ASS SONG WITH JARED AND BRANDON STOPPED BY. I PLAYED THEM SOME OF THE NEW JEEZY BEATS AND BEFORE EVERYBODY BOUNCED BRANDON HOPPED ON THE KEYBOARD AND I HOPPED ON THE MPC. SHIT WAS DOPE. OH AND YES THOSE ARE SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS ON BRANDON'S SHIRT BY DRIES VAN NOTEN."  Your Friend Kanye West, who is talking about Jared Leto and Brandon Flowers. Pic at the link! [Kanye UniverseCity]

Us's version, which hits newsstands tomorrow:

Our version:

Us Weekly Pushes Envelope With Mock Cover [MediaWeek]

Aside from the Edies' banter, the two aspects of the film that are most memorable are the Grey Gardens home itself, and Little Edie's fashion sense. In this clip, roduction and costume designers explain how they so accurately recreated the line between the past and the present.

• "It's not up to him to give her lessons; Michelle Obama is of her time; Oscar de la Renta is no longer," scoffed designer Azzedine Alaïa. Ooh, breaking: Oscar is on the View now. [WWD]

• Chloe Sevigny might not do her Opening Ceremony line every season, because she's busy being on the TV. Still with the I-actually-design-this-crap pretense! [The Cut]
• As promised, The Daily Beast now features advertising! Read all about HOW BOTTEGA VENETA IS KEEPING LUXURY RELEVANT. (Presented by Bottega Veneta.) [Daily Beast]
• Isaac Mizrahi just made an announcement on The Today Show: Women, we need to be spending all our money on our hair! It's what's important in life. [Anna's Twitter]
• Ads for Matthew Williamson's collection for H&M, which goes on sale May 14, have leaked. Daria Werbowy prances, mantis-like, on a beautiful beach wearing acid bright paisleys. And a bikini I really want. They gave Werbowy the same rope of loosely braided fake hair that the current H&M collection models sport in their campaign, and which I assume is not even supposed to look real. [Nitro:Licious]
• Depending on the outcome of a lawsuit, Forever 21 may find itself no longer able to copy designers' offerings willy-nilly. Trovata, whose shirts the fast fashion chain shamelessly ripped off several seasons ago, has been suing the company since, and the case is finally set to go to trial. Which means a jury would decide if the "inspiration" (which extended to the placement and choice of buttons and other unique design features) was illegal. [WWD]
• The chief executives of faltering fashion companies continue to get raises! After Kay Krill at Ann Taylor and Glenn Murphy at the Gap each got hefty pay hikes, Jones Apparel Group has raised the compensation of its CEO, Wesley Card, by 38%, to $5.5 million, for 2008. That was the same year Jones Apparel Group lost $765 million. The company owns brands like Jones New York, Anne Klein, and Nine West, and its sales fell 6% last year. Its share price has dropped by over 60%. [Crain's]
• Experts estimate global sales of luxury goods will shrink by 10% in the coming year. [WSJ]
• Marc Jacobs opened a store for his slightly lower-priced Marc by Marc Jacobs line in London. [Independent]
• While women's apparel sales have been falling sharply, menswear is up 1%. Tom Ford says his stonkingly expensive eponymous men's line is doing just fine (although we can't imagine he's sold many $30,000 cufflinks lately). Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard  where Alexander McQueen once trained  say they've had 20 new clients in the past month, which is a significant increase for a small business. [FT]
• Splitting the difference this spring: pant suits, especially when the jackets are in that slouchy 80s boyfriend style. The Times does an apt enough job tracing the trend to its point of origin. [NY Times]
• Frida Giannini, the woman who's transformed Gucci's look (and who did groundwork for that blazer trend), says she's keen to start a Gucci cosmetics line. [Times of London]
• Oh, my. This latest ad for edgy lingerie company Agent Provocateur sure is very racy. I hope all the attention they get for it won't hurt their brand. [Independent]

Constructing turbans out of fabric and brooches was Edie's signature.

The costume designer on the film took great pains to exactly replicate some of Edie's outfits. (More on that, here.)

But even before she lost her hair, she was into hoods and hats.

She probably got this from her mother.

Even her younger brothers enjoyed ladies hats.

But that's probably because the parties that Mrs. Beale threw at Grey Gardens while Mr. Beale was working weren't confined by gender roles.

Or heterosexuality.

Speaking of coming out, Little Edie debuted in this dress.

The purpose of her debutante ball was to start the search for a husband. But Little Edie didn't ever want to get married. She said, "All I want in life is a dance partner."

Ultimately, her only dance partner would be her mother.

Way back when, her mother had a music partner: Mr. Gould. But Little Edie insisted that he didn't "satisfy her sexually." He was gay, so she was probably right.

Before she moved back to Grey Gardens, Little Edie spent a few years in New York City, modeling and trying to make it as an actress.

It would depress her when she was forced to return to East Hampton.

But she never let that reflect in her garments.

Big Edie, however, took to muumuus.

Little Edie thought she was the cat's pajamas in this.

Cats' poop, however, is not as fashionable.

After her mother died, Little Edie finally got to realize her dream of having a night club act.

But we still like thinking of the two of them together.

Related: 'Grey Gardens': It's Style, Darlings [LA Times]

• Lindsay Lohan's "post-breakup makeover" involved getting her hair dyed red and getting a tattoo. [People]
• This column calls Lindsay a "celebutard" who is "painfully thin" and "in the middle of an emotional meltdown." [NY Post]

• Madonna is planning to build a home in Malawi. Hmm, maybe if she becomes a resident, she can adopt? [The Sun]
• Buffy is gonna be a mommy! Sarah Michelle Gellar and hubs Freddie Prinze Jr. are expecting their first child in the fall. [People]
• Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag will get married (again?) on April 25 in Pasadena, CA. A "source" says: "This will be the real wedding. It's being filmed as the season finale for The Hills." So that thing in Mexico was a stunt for Us Weekly? [E!]
• Farrah Fawcett has been released from the hospital "in great spirits." [People]
• This story claims: "Sales of dog food have rocketed in Europe after Hollywood stars Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson ate some on a German TV show. Budget-conscious Swiss families are tucking into tins of the stuff rather than buying more expensive dishes." [The Sun]
• Drew Barrymore on playing Edie in Grey Gardens: "People who say this is exploitative are bullshit. Anyone who is a naysayer should pull a stick out of their you know what. You know? Get a heart and get into the art and the life and celebrate with us all; don't be on the other side-it's really not fun over there." [The Daily Beast]
• During the Oscars, Amy Adams was thinking about the mall where she worked after high school: "I just was so reflective the whole evening on how I came to be sitting in that room. At one point my fiancé was like, 'You feel distant.' And I said, 'I am! I can't even talk to you!' I was there at the Oscars thinking, What if I never left the Gap?" [W Magazine]
• Here's the first graph of a Miley Cyrus profile: "Miley Cyrus prepared for April 3, an average workday, by reading the Biblea few chapters of Joband ended it by telling a ribald joke as she walked off camera at Access Hollywood. In between she had a casting session for her next movie, The Last Song, written specially for her by weepie king Nicholas Sparks; was interviewed four times; performed twice; changed outfits twice; and visited the Tonight Show's make-your-own-sundae bar once. When she left the NBC lot at 6:30 p.m., she still had to do her homework." [Time]
• Kevin Federline was seen chain-smoking for 20 minutes outside of a TGIFriday's while his girlfriend Victoria Prince sat inside by herself, fuming. Ah, l'amour. [E!]
• Clive Owen's daughter introduced him to her "half-boyfriend." "She tells me, 'Dad... I share him with a friend.' I still feel awful thinking about it." [Daily Express]
• Five seconds after Snoop Dogg learned how to stream live video from his home computer to his Twitter page, his first order of business was to light up a blunt and smoke it. Clearly. [TMZ]
• Why is someone spreading the rumor that Snoop Dogg has the dead body of his wife in his basement? [TMZ]
• Here is an in-depth review of Tori Spelling's new book, Mommywood, should you feel inclined. The title seems ill-conceived, no? Or like slang for the boner a MILF gives a dude? [CC2K]
• Michael Jackson is going to rent a little place while he's in the UK for his O2 concerts: It's a 28-bedroom manor on eight acres with an underground movie theater, indoor swimming pool and private lake. [Daily Mail]
• The daughter of Jennifer Saunders, from Absolutely Fabulous, says "I've never been Saffy." Well, duh. Instead she is a folk singer. [Daily Mail]
• Uh-oh: Sinbad and Dionne Warwick are on the list of California tax evaders. [Yahoo News via AP]
• Blind item! "Which sensual singer tells his girlfriends that although he's straight, he still receives oral pleasure from other men - then fumes when they suggest he's bisexual?" [Gatecrasher]
• "Due to the unfounded and ugly rumors that have appeared in the papers over the last few days, I felt they shouldn't pass without comment. Patti and I have been together for 18 years – the best 18 years of my life. We have built a beautiful family we love and want to protect and our commitment to one another remains as strong as the day we were married." Bruce Springsteen, on the state of his marriage. Although it doesn't exactly read like a denial of an affair. [People]
• "Is Bethenny a socialite? No. Will she ever sit next to Lauren duPont? No. Is she best friends with Aerin Lauder? No. Am I? No. Do I care? No. Does she? Oh, absolutely. She's not authentic. All she does is sit there and cry all the time. I'm like, 'You're crying about guys? …shut up.'"  Kelly Killoren Bensimon, of the Real Housewives of New York City [Harper's Bazaar via Page Six
• "It sucked when I was goin' into the jail, and once I got in jail it became enjoyable again because there were some real fun cellmates. We were singin' songs."  Matthew McConaughey on being busted for possession of mary jane back in 1999. [Men's Journal via MSNBC Scoop]
• "At one point, I really started freaking out. I couldn't sleep, and [the director] was chasing me around with food, telling me that the prosthetics weren't fitting me and I was swimming in my fat suit, which was really ironic. I was miserable in my room just typing these manifestos [in my journal] but one day, I'll have them to look back on and see that I stuck with it and I'll be glad to know I had that level of discipline."  Drew Barrymore, on being immersed in her Grey Gardens character. [WSJ]
• "Marriage and babies? Please. I want to be illegal. I want to live outside the mainstream. These awful middle-class queens-which is what the gay movement has become-are so tiresome. It's all Abercrombie & Fitch and strollers. Everybody has the right to do what they want to do, but still... And I think this surrogacy thing is crap. It is utterly hideous. I think it's egocentric and vain. These endless IVF treatments people go through. I mean, if you are meant to have babies, then great. But this whole idea of two gay guys filling a cocktail shaker with their sperm and impregnating some grim lesbian and then it gets cut out is just really weird. If I did have the impulse to be a parent, I would adopt-or foster. But this whole thing of forcing the idea of parenthood and marriage on us gay men is so bogus."  Rupert Everett. [The Daily Beast]
• "Suddenly, you're the elder in the group. I have been doing this a long time, 25 years now. It's nice to feel that you're still relevant. People like Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner and Lily Tomlin were my role models. America always had really good, strong women in comedy. I love that."  Tracey Ullman, whose second season of State of the Union premieres Sunday on Showtime. [USA Today]
• "Until the banks get fixed, there is no other issue. I think this public-private partnership of [Treasury secretary Timothy] Geithner's will be effective. Evidently, the time for debating nationalization or backing the banks  which I thought would have been smart, just to say we're backing the banks, but I guess that would have made folks uncomfortable  has passed. So the private sector is in a pretty good spot here. Truth is, it's mostly, and maybe this is just a cover, us buying back our own bad paper from ourselves, but incenting [is that a word? -Ed.]the private sector to invest by giving them an incredibly good deal, if you believe, like Geithner seems to, that prices are only artificially depressed and really have much more value than what you can get for them now. But despite what you've read about me in the tabloids, I'm not an economist. But I do worry about what value all of these bad assets people keep talking about will have in the long term."  Ben Affleck, who plays a politician in State Of Play and did research by meeting with representatives like Anthony Weiner, Adam Smith, Rahm Emanuel, and Patrick Murphy. [WSJ]

Almost everything uttered by the mother and daughter in the Maysles' 1975 documentary, on which HBO's film is based, is quotable, but much of it came off as the delusional ramblings of two women suffering from folie à deux. But by digging into their backgrounds in the new film (starring Jessica Lange and a lispless Drew Barrymore), their motivations and bon mots become much clearer, and often brilliant. Like when Little Edie said, "The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility." Her parents were pressuring her to get married, as soon as she turned 18, to a man who could secure her future and provide her with the same kind of lifestyle in which she'd been raised. Her father Phelan told her mother that marrying off Little Edie was her job and her "sole responsibility."

Little Edie had a pipe dream of entering show business and didn't want her ambitions to be stifled by marriage and children, the way that her mother's were. However, Big Edie's philosophy on life was a little shrewder, essentially telling Little Edie to marry for money, which will give her the freedom to do whatever she wants. This shed a whole new light on the conversation the two had in the documentary, in which Big Edie told her daughter that she's "not free if [she's] being supported, to which Little Edie replied, "I thought you said you're not free when you're not being supported."

The film shows how and why Little Edie gave up her life in Manhattan (which included an affair with married man Julius Krug, Secretary of the Interior, played by an aptly cast, bloated Daniel Baldwin) to live with her mother at Grey Gardens, as well as the breakup of Phelan and Big Edie's marriage of convenience, a situation that became increasingly inconvenient for Big Edie when she refused to scale back her lifestyle and burned through her Bouvier inheritance. She and Phelan never legally divorced  although he did eventually get a "fake Mexican divorce"  and Big Edie lived off the meager $150 allowance her ex-husband provided for her until his death, when all of his money was left to his "new fake wife."

The Beales' lack of financial stability was evident in the documentary, but no one really knew why they didn't just sell their massive East Hampton estate, as the land alone would've provided plenty of money for them to live comfortably. Here, Big Edie explains her reasoning, when her sons are pleading with her to be more financially responsible in the wake of Phelan's death.

After the county raided their home, Jackie O (Little Edie's first cousin and Big Edie's niece) finally stepped up to the plate and paid for cleanup and renovations to the dilapidated mansion. The relationship between Jackie and Little Edie was a tense one, due to Edie's jealousy over Jackie's celebrity. Her acrimony toward Jackie (played by dead-ringer Jeanne Tripplehorn) is seen here:

Perhaps the biggest question fans of the documentary have had is "What the fuck happened to Little Edie's hair?" It turns out that she had some kind of anxiety condition since she was young, which caused her hair to fall out. After her father died, she was left bald.

The best part about HBO's Grey Gardens is that  like the documentary  it shows these women to be nonconformists who would rather cut themselves off from society, than have to give in to its rules. They'd rather forfeit luxury than their dreams, even if it meant that they were just dreamers living in squalor. Finally getting to see the limited choices that life presented to them, their eccentricities now seem seem relatively sane.

It was also fun to see recreations of how the infamous estate looked before they let it go to pot.

And of course, there are plenty of Little Edie's fashions on display. (A gallery of Grey Gardens fashion is coming tomorrow.) And while this isn't the most revolutionary costume, I think it's the best costume for the day, you understand.

• Playboy Enterprises has announced that their website is getting a conservative makeover to attract mainstream advertisers. • Broke consumers are eschewing traditional medicine in favor of vitamins in attempts to save a few bucks, the New York Times says. •  Researchers believe that sex could be the cheap new way to cure hay fever. • Aw: 45 people volunteered several nights ago in New Haven, VT, to help carry salamanders, newts, and frogs across the road during their annual migration. These so-called "bucket brigades" are common throughout the Northeast. •  Click here to see wax sculptures of Barack and Michelle Obama. • And if that doesn't creep you out, here is a video of a Japanese robot that has been programmed to mimic baby behaviors. •  A California man stabbed a woman in front of Toys 'R' Us, immediately laid down on the ground, and when confronted, claimed that "God made me do it." •  Indian men living in the U.S. are having a harder time finding brides willing to make the move to America since the economy has tanked. Many Indian women feel that it is safer to stay in India, where layoffs are not as widespread. •  Annoyed by Madonna's adoptions but unsure why? This article by Robin Givhan may help you figure it all out. •  Not everyone loves April Fool's pranks: the Taipei Times has received complains from the Taipei Zoo about their misleading "fake panda" story. •  Now that Obama has lifted the ban on stem cell research, scientists are looking for donations of excess embryos to help them find cures for debilitating conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's. • Newsweek examines the gay love for Grey Gardens, and argues that gay icons may actually be kind of a bad thing. • Walgreens has pulled the "Chia Obama," saying that the presidential house plant is not appropriate for sale. • New data shows that Nebraska is the "happiest" state, financially, with Iowa close behind. •  And now for some truly terrible news: Researchers have identified a certain kind of yeast that can mutate rapidly, rendering anti-fungal medications ineffective. Ugh. •  Atomic games is working on a new video game based on the Iraq war, currently titled "Six Days in Fallujah." •  More than 1 in 10 Britons say they would cheat if they could get away with it, according to a recent survey. •  In India, soaps that focus on women's issues are gaining in popularity, especially those about "girl child issues." • 

• None other than the National Fisheries Institute has responded to Entourage actor Jeremy "Thermometer" Piven's claims that he has suffered from mercury poisoning.

The organization says: "People in Japan eat 154 pounds of fish a year on average. If Piven ate 6 ounces of fish a day for his whole life, he'd still eat less than the average Japanese. Despite this, there is no public health concern about mercury in Japan." [YouTube]

• The good news? We have more info about Amy Poehler's new sitcom: She'll play a mid-level bureaucrat in an Indiana city parks and recreation department who's looking to get ahead. It's a "comedic take on how government works in an American town." The bad news? It doesn't start until April. [AP]
• Hollywood will descend on Washington, D.C. for the inauguration festivities. Between the Creative Coalition party, the MoveOn.org bash, the Huffington Post party and the DNC Hispanic Caucus Gala, the town will host Sting, Adrian Grenier, Anne Hathaway, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trudie Styler, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Saarsgaard, Rosario Dawson, Michael Stipe, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, Sheryl Crow, Tom Hanks, Ed Harris and Ron Howard, among others. Oh, and, of course, Oprah. [MSNBC Scoop]
• Aretha Franklin loves Barack Obama! She says: “I heard him sing a fabulous version of "Chain Of Fools" at an event in Detroit last year. He has a good, melodic voice.” [Daily Express]
• Beyoncé will sing for the Obamas' first inaugural dance. Will it be a version of Etta James' "At Last"? [Concrete Loop]
• Sigh: The end of the Bush administration means the end of David Letterman's "Great Moments In Presidential Speeches." There will be a retrospective tonight! [AP]
• What's up with the Sex And The City sequel? Even though Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall seem to think the next flick is a realistic possibility, Chris Noth "doesn't think it's gonna happen" and Evan "Harry Goldenblatt" Handler says: "I have no idea whether it will happen or not." Maybe there are no dudes in part 2? [E!]
• Toni Colette says of United States Of Tara: "When I read the script, it was like a juicy page-turner that was full of surprises, and it made me laugh out loud. It was very moving, and as soon as I finished reading it, I was like, 'Yep, I'm doing it.'" The series starts Sunday! [USA Today]
• Uh-oh: Hollywood studios are going to cut back on the lucrative pay deals movie stars get due to a decline in DVD sales. This is how it starts! Next thing you know, you're merely rich instead of incredibly wealthy. [FT]
• St. Lucia's Tourism Minister is thanking Amy Winehouse for bringing publicity to the Caribbean island; he says every picture shows Winehouse smiling or interacting with the locals, and the overall impact has been positive. "Any edge that you can get, you hang on to it," says Allen Chastanet. [Mirror]
• Lance Bass has been talking about a 'N Sync reunion, but JC Chasez says: "No. We haven't discussed anything like that. I don't know. Honestly, I can't speak for him or as to why he would say that but I know nothing about one." Ouch. Tearin' up my heart! [Perez]
• Little Edie enthusiasts: How do we feel about this "first look" at Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in Grey Gardens? [Just Jared]
• Lily Allen has done this before, but she recently showed Dutch TV her third nipple. In addition, she reveals she has a Homer Simpson tattoo, but when she finds out that Krusty The Clown also has a superfluous nipple, you can almost see her thinking "Dammit, maybe I should have gotten the clown." Click for video! [Perez]
• Oh, Lily Allen is not wearing pants on the cover of Spin. [ONTD]
• Isla Fisher's eyebrows sorta jump out at you from the cover of Allure, but maybe that's due to the nude lip? [ONTD]
• A dude who runs a head shop talks about how Brad Pitt used to come in all the time. "He came in once and was excited about smoking with one of his very big-name co-stars. 'We blaze (smoke pot) every day in his trailer,' Brad boasted. He had a huge grin on his face." [ONTD]
• Edie Falco is coming back to TV: She'll shoot a Showtime series called Nurse Jackie, which airs this summer. And! She might return to 30 Rock as Jack's love interest, even though she says when she first worked on the show: "I was actually very scared. You watch Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey; it's like they are speaking Swahili. It's like, 'What the hell is this?' " [E!]
• Conan O'Brien will officially be out of work come February 20, and Jimmy Fallon starts March 2. [Yahoo News via E!]
• Cindy McCain was supposed to be on Dancing With The Stars, but John put the kibosh on it? [Page Six]
• Blind item! "What funnyman’s wife caught him in bed with another man? Sister straight-up dumped her dude after catching that class act." [Gatecrasher]
• So. The Gossip Girl spinoff. A teen romance between Lily van der Woodsen and Rufus Humphrey. Set in the '80s, in the L.A. music scene. Could be awesome, could be awful. [Gatecrasher]
• Whoops, Whoopi Goldberg accidentally called Josh Brolin James at an awards show. [Gatecrasher]
• Whitney Houston will perform at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party? We want to see! [Page Six]
• Ugh: Why the hell is accomplished race car driver Danica Patrick showering in this web domain commercial? [USA Today]
• This paper says of Kylie Minogue's new Spanish hunk, who sorta looks like Olivier Martinez: "He's tall with smouldering Latin looks and a fear of commitment. Is it true love for Kylie or DEJA PHEW!" [The Sun]
• Casey Affleck is directing a documentary feature on Joaquin Phoenix, his friend and brother-in-law. Phoenix's new career? He is becoming a rapper, and his album will be produced by Sean Combs. This is not a joke. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Sean Combs says of the Notorious BIG movie: "My experiences with Biggie happened when we were still young, and to be honest, it was kind of weird to see myself that way on screen." [WSJ]
• Howie Mandel says that since he's a germaphobe, being in the hospital for an irregular heartbeat was very difficult: "I wouldn't put on the gown or the customary clothing. I remained clothed and in my boots on the gurney and in the hospital!" [People]
• Billy Ray Cyrus was seen riding his motorcycle without a helmet in L.A., which is illegal. Doesn't he know the helmet gives you anonymity? Ask Brad Pitt! [Perez]
• Congrats to Monica Seles, who was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame yesterday. [UPI]
• TV adventure man Bear Grylls and his wife Shara have a new baby boy: Huckleberry Edward Jocelyne Grylls. Welcome to the world, Huck. [People]
• Aerosmith's in Venezuela and Joe Perry's in the hospital; he had a knee replacement last March and suddenly needed a second operation, stat. [E!]
• By the by, Steven Tyler says he and Joe Perry never battled over women: "Well, we didn’t compete, but we did share. And the crabs won." He also says his first sexual experience: "was at the age of seven with twins." And the band had a rule: "You didn’t have sex for 10 days at the end of tour, but that was so you’d be sure to go home with a full cup of chowder." As the kids say: Vom. [ONTD]
• Oh dear, is there bullying going on in the Celebrity Big Brother house? And is Coolio at the center of it? A communications watchdog organization is investigating. [The Sun]
• Boy George will be sentenced today for falsely imprisoning a male escort. He could get three months in jail or 300 hours of community service. [Daily Express]
• Guy Ritchie was seen dining at a NYC restaurant and not paying attention to the table full of "young model types" he was with. [Page Six]
• Nostalgia alert: The Trumps used to race the Kennedys on the ski slopes. [Page Six]
• "The reality is that Kids was my first film, and when I did it people thought that I was like the character, and that is one of the reasons that Spike Lee wanted to hire me for He Got Game. When he met me and saw that I wasn't that person he appreciated that I had actually acted in that part, and he was really great with me and forced me to be stronger in my acting."  Rosario Dawson. [Independent]
• "I still love everybody that I’ve ever had a relationship with. I am friends with them all. When I met Chris [Robinson] it was like nothing else. I had no question that I was going to have a kid with him. Every rule went out the window. We were telling each other we loved each other by the fourth day and I moved in within a week. I had no question that we were going to get married. He’s still a permanent fixture in my life, But I believe our love changed its form, it shifted. I don’t think we were meant to be married, but I think we were meant to have a child and we have this amazing little boy together – therefore we’ll be together our entire lives. Whoever he ends up with, whoever I end up with, we’ll always be together."  Kate Hudson. [Mirror]
• "I have never really understood how I should feel or behave in a relationship,” the former child star reveals. “I didn’t have the kind of childhood or family life that would have given me any perspective on what a happy home or relationship would feel like. So I haven’t had as much success in my relationships as I would have liked… You can’t live your life blaming your failures on your parents and what they did or didn’t do for you. You’re dealt the cards that you’re dealt. I realised it was a waste of time to be angry at my parents. The best thing I can do is use all the things I’ve learned from them, good and bad, have my own family someday and just keep on going." — Drew Barrymore[Mirror]
• "Every time you buy a Nirvana record, part of that money is not going to Kurt's child, or to me, it's going to a handful of Jew loan officers, Jew private banks, it's going to lawyers who are also bankers."  Ladies and gentlemen: Ms. Courtney Love. [Page Six]