• Texas gal Renée Zellweger will spend the holidays in Philadelphia with Bradley Cooper's parents. Sounds like the plot of a romcom. But it's real! [NY Daily News]

• Award season has begun! Precious star Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe and Hilary Swank both won Hollywood Awards (given by the Hollywood Film Festival) last night. [AP]
• The father of one of the teenaged girls arrested in the Lindsay Lohan burglary case says that his daughter "was in the wrong place at the wrong time, associating with the wrong people." [People]
• In this story about the teen burglars, attorney Blair Berk, who represents some of the victims, blames "paparazzi shots and magazine coverage" for "increasingly prying into the private homes, schools and personal possessions of stars. Another lawyer says: "It would be fun to do capers. It was all about fun. It was one of those cases of you get bored, and it was something to do with a little technology." The young women arrested were classmates at Indian Hills High School, which is "set atop a leafy incline in an upscale neighborhood" where there are BMWs and Audis parked in the student lot, and nearby roads have horse trails for equestrians. Seriously, people: This is a screenplay waiting to happen. [LA Times]
• Congrats to Jennifer Esposito and tennis player Mark Philippoussis, who are engaged. Did you know they were dating? [People]
• BREAKING: Madonna planted a tree. [NY Daily News]
• Hugh Jackman's four-year-old daughter wants to be a chocolate chip muffin for Halloween. His nine-year-old son wants to be Al Capone. And Hugh? "I'm going as James Bond," he says. [NY Magazine]
• Sources say Balloon Mom Mayumi Heene may have confessed to the hoax to keep her children from being taken away from her, or to spare them from having to testify against her husband. [CBS News]
• The Balloon Boy case has been handed to the District Attorney's Office, and the DA has requested more information before making a charging decision. [TMZ]
• Heartbreaking: La Toya Jackson says that Paris Jackson is dealing well with her father's death ("Paris thinks and talks about her father all the time… She's doing very well, writes a lot and she wears his shirts every day. They still smell of him and it helps her feel close to him."), but Prince Jackson "just doesn't want to speak about it" and Blanket is "just a very sad little boy" who cries and cries. Luckily, La Toya says, "They all go to therapy." [MSNBC via Daily Mirror]
• The woman accused of stalking Justin Timberlake has already been served with a restraining order from Metallica and was sentenced to a year in prison for violating a court order to stay away from Axl Rose. [TMZ]
• Henry Ian Cusick, aka Desmond on Lost, has settled a sexual harassment suit with a former production staffer whom he allegedly grabbed and touched inappropriately. [TMZ]
• Bill Cosby was honored with the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last night, and stars like Phylicia Rashad, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Jerry Seinfeld, Sinbad, Chris Rock and Willie Nelson were in attendance. [USA Today]
• Suzanne Somers has a new book in which she reveals she was misdiagnosed with "full-body cancer." Her book promotes alternative medicine and avoiding chemotherapy; she says: "It's easier to try the traditional route and then, if it fails, go to the alternatives, but often it can be too late. My friend Farrah Fawcett— would she have made it if she had gone alternative first? There is no way of knowing." [NY Daily News]
• Egads. The Anna Nicole Smith trial is still going on. An expert psychiatrist has testified that Anna was an addict. [NY Post]
• Alec Baldwin knows how to spell. [Page Six]
• Black people on Gossip Girl? What is the world coming to? [Page Six]
• Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom have "romantic" new tattoos. [People]
• Uh-oh: Mel Gibson's pregnant girlfriend is refusing to sign a pre-nup. [MSNBC via National Enquirer]
• Some guy sniffed Pamela Anderson's underwear. [The Sun]
• This Mary J. Blige track from the Precious soundtrack is powerful, sad. [The Life Files]
• It's been 25 years since U2 released The Unforgettable Fire. It was recorded at an Irish castle; producer Danny Lanois says: "Bono was looking for a different kind of location, a building that had ghosts in the walls and some kind of a sense of history… So that we weren't just in an empty modern warehouse, that we were actually feeling the presence of goings-on from the past." [Reuters]
• Eric Clapton has pulled out of a Rock and Roll Hall concert to have gallstones removed. [AP]
• Bruce Springsteen has canceled a show in Kansas City after his cousin — who was a roadie — was found dead in a hotel room. [USA Today]
• After his stint on Dancing With The Stars, next Tom DeLay plans to be an "expert" on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. [MSNBC Scoop]
• "You owe it to yourselves and your loved ones to see this again and again. Memorize it and say to yourselves, 'I saw genius in my lifetime.'" — One of Liz Taylor's 20 Tweets about the Michael Jackson movie This Is It. [CNN]
• "I've been on the road for pretty much five years now and I'm tired. I've kind of written about everything that has happened in my life for the past 10 years so I think I need to live some more before I start writing more." — Lily Allen, on quitting the record biz. She also says she might do musicals in London's West End: "It hasn't been confirmed yet but I'm keeping my options open." [Telegraph]
• "Reading about somebody else's tough experiences of being a mother, you're suddenly like, ‘My God, I've got a kid and I don't have time to read this. I've got to go do it.' There's no time. If he's sleeping I'm trying to sleep and when you're breast-feeding you're the milk machine. There's no time to pick up the guitar, much less go for a walk or have a beer. The first year of Henry's life has been just an insane earthquake for me… I waited a long time to have children because I had this career that was kind of like my kid, it required as much nurturing. There's no amount of hassle that could be bigger than my love of Henry." — Minnie Driver doesn't have time to read parenting blogs. [Daily Express]

Look, Jamie Lee Kirchner is within her rights to drag this vinyl leggings trend out to its bitter, painful, inevitable end. I mean, I get it: comfortable and beautiful! But in hundred degree weather? That's commitment.


Emmanuelle Chriqui: I can see your knish through your fly. That is all.


Seriously, I'm working on my aversion to purple, I really am. Would I like Kiera Chaplin's dress if I didn't hate the color? Tell me! Be my eyes!


And I'm already lovin' social Fabiola Beracasa's Park Avenue eccentric: how much more would I love it if I didn't see "Duncan-dancing -wizard" every time I saw aubergine?


Jennifer Esposito's looking seriously busy here. Not in the
"industrious" sense, although I'm sure she has a wonderful work ethic.


Whereas I love Alexa Chung's iteration: it's like asking your bridesmaids to just dress in the same color palette, except one has amazing style and the other finds the whole thing an ordeal and just goes into a store blindly and asks tremulously, "do you have anything in...teal?"


Melanie Laurent channels Mad Men. If Mad Men were costumed by Tim Burton. At which point Johnny Depp would show up and his character would have some random quirk he'd decided on - like he'd always be sucking on an enormous lollipop or crocheting.


Really, Agyness Deyn? Ironic Rocky Horror? Because I feel like we were doing that in middle school, both earnestly and ironically, regardless of whether we were into RHPS. And even then I sensed that we were on very, very thin ice.


Kinda dig Gina Gershon's earthy accessories with an LBD - but the whole thing is rendered a bit odd by said accessories' inevitable "matchy" quality.


If you said had "enormous chain suitable for use by one of those giant Playmobils," I wouldn't cotton to it. And yet, Rachel Roy kinda makes it work!


I think anything that makes you look like you might be heading back from a luude-heavy swinger's weekend the Esalen Institute on Route 1 circa '76, like everything Frederique Van Der Wall is wearing, is kind of a good idea.


In other news, Padma Lakshmi looks stunning. Moving on.


I love Melissa George's frock. In fact, I love anything you can describe as "dowdy" plus "positive adjective." Let's go with "glam."


You know I love me some Emma Roberts, but don't tell me the super-low jean is coming. Because I was at my parents' house and I found an old pair form circa '03 and those bad boys had, like, a 1" zipper, and obviously I'm fresh out of low-rise undies nowadays and I remembered why no one sat down for three years.


One nice thing about Julia Stiles: when you see her IRL - like on the street, I don't hang out with her - she looks like a real person. No furtive glances or baseball-cap-and-sunglasses-indoors-don't-look-at-me-why-aren't-you-looking-at-me?! shenanigans. I mean, an attractive person and everything, that's not code, but...normal.


Y'know, I can live with alien chic. Whatever. Do it, Michelle Monaghan. But this sandal trend is exactly like the orthopedics my grandmother wears, and not cool orthopedics, either.


Yes, Diane Kruger's boxy number's chic as all git-out. But the shoes? Look like security anklets.

[Images via Getty]

The Good:
As usual, Carine Roitfeld looks perfect, although she could stand to lose the Kenneth Cole accessory.
Sure she might've fallen during the pageant, but Miss Universe Riya Mori had one of the most stand-up looks of the evening.
Molly Sims looks cool and effortlessly glam in her almost-sheer sheath.


The Bad:
I'm sure that Lauren Bush is wearing Ralph Lauren, but this dress is just ill-fitting and not at all flattering.
Christy Turlington let me down. This dress is just all wrong for her.


The Ugly:
Who the hell is going to listen to Veronica Webb give fashion advice of Tim Gunn's Guide To Style after seeing her in this monstrosity?
Jennifer Esposito's dress looks like, in the words of Michael Kors, "something the town whore's mom made."

[All images via AP]

• Owen Wilson attempted suicide because he "had been depressed for several months," reports Extra. [People]
  
• Samuel L. Jackson visited Owen Wilson in the hospital. For some reason this makes us feel a lot better. Seriously. Somehow, Sam just soothes the soul. [TMZ]
  
• Madonna's adoption of David Banda is moving forward: a social worker was given permission to visit the family. [People]
  
• This summer, singer Ashanti "gained so much weight she refused to be photographed." Sigh. Some of us know how she feels. [Page Six]

• The Teen Choice Awards was going to have a category called "Newsmakers of the Year" with nominees like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, but the category was nixed. Good call. [Page Six]
• Neighbors and community leaders are unhappy with The Box, a downtown NYC club with Jude Law, Josh Lucas and Rachel Weisz on its board. The nightspot was supposed to be a theater and a "cultural institution," instead it's just a club. "They lied," says a resident. Shady celebs? What a surprise. [Gatecrasher]
• Blind item! "Which adult video star is bragging he has pix of a certain hip-hop big asleep in bed after a tryst?" [Gatecrasher, last item]
• Former bodyguards have a book in the works that will detail "the darker side" of Siegfried and Roy — including smuggling jewelry in tiger cages, drug and alcohol abuse and illegal "secret disposal of animals, including an elephant buried under a housing development." Scandalous! [Rush & Molloy, 2nd item]
• About the "abuse investigation" into Britney Spears and her two young boys: it's not physical abuse — the complaint lodged dealt with poor dental hygiene, poor eating and sleeping habits. [TMZ]
• Amy Winehouse's in-laws staged an intervention on the radio. They say that Amy and Blake think they're under control, but that's not the case. Also: "We are concerned that if one of them dies, the other will die. They are a very close couple, and if one dies through substance abuse, the other may commit suicide." [Guardian]
• Lily Allen was so drunk at a festival she interrupted a reggae singer's set and pushed him off the stage — he retaliated by pouring beer over her head. Fun! [The Sun]
• Jude Law: Dating German model. [The Sun]