Writing in the LA Times, Caramanica bemoans the lot of Alicia Florrick, Julianna Margulies's wronged-political-wife-turned-lawyer on The Good Wife, and Jules Cobb, Courteney Cox's "older woman" returning to dating on Cougar Town. He says,

[B]y the strictures and bylaws of network television, Alicia, Jules and characters like them essentially are incomprehensible invaders: independent, single (or single-ish) older women seeking change in their lives and succeeding (sometimes, at least). As a result, they're treated like fragile, curious creatures that might implode on contact. Or lash out.

No one wants to accommodate them on their own terms.

Caramanica thinks both Cox and Margulies acquit themselves well in trying circumstances — he writes that "there's a winning quality to Cox's readiness to erode traditional boundaries" and that "what saves Alicia from being reduced to cliché is her gravitas and competence, poses that Margulies has had down cold since her time on E.R." And, as The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin points out, The Good Wife does examine what it might be like to be, say, Silda Spitzer. The show "doesn't hinge on headlines and it isn't restricted by what we can see from the outside-the merely poignant, infuriating, sad awfulness of it all." It deserves some praise for focusing on the actual life of a political wife, not — as so many news outlets have done — on her public shame. Still, this life is heavily circumscribed, and it's hard to tell if life is imitating art here or vice versa.

A more extreme example of the middle-aged-woman-as-alien trope was on view in the most recent story arc of Law & Order: SVU. I cringed the minute Christine Lahti appeared as ADA Sonya Paxton, a Ball-Busting Career Woman straight out of central casting. She snapped at people, she used bad judgment, she was ridiculously abrasive and obnoxious — all because, we soon learned, she was damaged and insecure. And then last week we found out she was also a drunk — when she staggered into the courtroom to prosecute a man who claimed, in a piece of very blunt irony, to have alcoholic psychosis. She left for rehab, completely humiliated in front of the other characters and the audience — who, if they were anything like me, breathed a sigh of relief because her character was so totally repellent.

The idea that single middle-aged women must be totally unhinged isn't new on TV — every time an unaccompanied lady scientist of a certain age appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation, for instance, you knew who really planted the evil robots in the Jeffries tubes. Of course, Detective Olivia Benson, played by 45-year-old Mariska Hargitay, is allowed to be sexy and appealing as a single woman on SVU — but there's also a suggestion that her continued torment over her mother's rape and alcoholism have prevented her from forming lasting relationships. Rather than hookers, victims, and doormats, unmarried women over 35 on TV are either irrevocably fucked up, irrevocably fucked up and downright evil, or beset by enemies on all sides.

The last category — into which Alicia Florrick falls — may be the most interesting, and the most true to life. While you don't have to be an insane villain to stay single in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, you do have to contend, if you're a woman, with a lot of increasingly nasty criticism. And while few women are publicly humiliated by lying spouses — Florrick and her husband aren't divorced on the show, but he's in jail for his dalliances with prostitutes, and she's forced to support the kids on her own — the challenges depicted on The Good Wife may be a more extreme version of the ones middle-aged women face every day. It will be interesting to see how Margulies meets these challenges as an actress. Luckily for her but unluckily for us, other shows have set the bar pretty low.

Images via gilmoregirlsnews, NBC.

'The Good Wife,' 'Cougar Town': Outsiders In A Man's World [LA Times]
Screwed [The New Yorker]
Episode 11004 Recap [Law & Order: SVU Official Site at NBC]

The conceit of the show is that Julianna Margulies's character, Alicia, has been home with the kids for a long time, and when she goes back to work after her state's attorney husband is jailed in a sex scandal, she has to start from the bottom. That is, if "the bottom" were a junior associate position at a major law firm, arguing a murder case. Christine Baranski is always fun to watch, especially when paired with her very own villain-pet, as here. But in Diane, she's basically playing a working-world stereotype: the mean, successful woman who wants women under her to fail. Later in the episode, Will (seen in the clip appealingly tossing his baseball) tells her, "I've seen you mentor these women until they start competing with you," and so have we — in central casting.

The show does have some less predictable aspects. The law firm's investigator Kalinda (played by awesome Archie Punjabi) is that rare TV woman of color who is portrayed as a hottie, rather than a funny friend or background diversity. And while her cleavage-flashing gets a little old, she and Alicia do appear to be forging a mentoring relationship, though initially it's Alicia who's getting mentored. Less interesting is the suggestion that Alicia is good at her job because she understands what it's like to be a wronged woman. Her bonding with a potential female witness over Diet Coke is pretty tiresome, and in general Margulies is a lot more fun when she's getting angry than when she's being warm. Which is why it might be okay to watch her spar with Baranski, stereotypes be damned — that is, until they hug it out in the inevitable reconciliation episode.

The Good Wife [CBS]

• This is not surprising: Nick Prugo, the 18-year-old accused of burglarizing Lindsay Lohan's house, was seen hanging out with Lindsay on the set of Labor Pains at least 10 times.

In other words: She knows him. She wasn't robbed by strangers. [TMZ]

• David Hasselhoff claims the reason he passed out Sunday afternoon was not because of booze, but because of an ear infection. Well, you know, medication for an ear infection, combined with a med that keeps alcoholics from drinking. That's why daughter Hayley found him unconscious. He says. [Page Six]
• Brad Pitt is in talks to play nemesis Moriarty in a Sherlock Holmes sequel. [Reuters]
• Where were the 8 kids while Kate Gosselin was taping her new TV show? In the care of nannies. It was her weekend. Jon Gosselin was in the Hamptons. [MSNBC]
• A source on the set of Kate Gosselin's new TV show says "she was very shy" and "she was very low-key." The View-style program features Gosselin, Paula Deen, comedian Judy Gold, former Early Show coanchor Rene Syler and newsman Bob Woodruff's wife, Lee Woodruff, talking about issues relating to motherhood. [E!]
• According to this report, Kate Gosselin burst into tears when a picture of her kids was flashed on a screen and filming of her new show had to be halted. A source says: "She hates being away from her children, but now that she's to be divorced, she has to work to support them. She was very sad, emotional and very guarded." [Page Six]
• Michael Jackson's This Is It film will include a new song, which Michael wrote for the tour. [Showbiz 411]
• The entire L.A. Lakers basketball team: Invited to Khloe Kardashian's wedding on Saturday. [TMZ]
• SHOCKER OF THE YEAR: Kevin Jonas will have two best men at his wedding: Brothers Nick and Joe. [People]
• Chloë Sevigny and Jason Segel: It's on. [E!]
• Whatever you do, don't strip down and shake your jiggly bits at Martha Stewart. She went to a performance of Hair and was so shocked by the nude scene, she said "I'm having a meltdown" at intermission, and didn't stay for the second half of the show. [Gatecrasher]
• Marc Anthony is so excited about becoming a part owner of the Miami Dolphins that he's purchased a waterfront condo in Miami. But don't worry: He and wife Jennifer Lopez aren't exactly moving there: "We are not selling our homes in New York or Los Angeles, we are just adding Miami." Recession, schmecession! [People]
• BREAKING: Russell Brand was spotted eating a banana at Fort Worth airport on Sunday. [Gatecrasher]
• Dakota Fanning's little sister, Elle Fanning, will make $125,000 for her role in upcoming movie Somewhere. Not sure why this is news, except that TMZ wanted to use the headline, "Dakota Fanning's Kid Sis Makes More Than You." [TMZ]
• A pharmacist at a Valley Village pharmacy refused to fill a drug order for Anna Nicole Smith five months before she died. Her psychiatrist was requesting two  sedatives, 300 tablets of methadone, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory drug and four bottles of a painkiller nicknamed "hospital heroin." The pharmacist later recalled thinking, The amount and combination alarmed the pharmacist, who later recalled thinking, "They are going to kill her with this." He called her doctor and said he would not fill the prescription, because it was "pharmaceutical suicide." [LA Times]
• Jesse Metcalfe will reprise his role on Desperate Housewives, if you give a crap. [UPI]
• Bijou Phillips plays the love interest of Chris Masterson in new flick Made For Each Other, which also stars her fiancé (and Chris' brother) Danny Masterson. Awkward? [Page Six]
• Chaz Bono has signed a six-figure deal for his memoir, which will detail his decision to transition from female to male. [TMZ]
• Rob Lowe's not that excited about St. Elmo's Fire being made into a TV show. He says: "Outsiders is the one they should be doing. The Outsiders was always my favorite, particularly now with the passing of Patrick Swayze." [E!]
• Julianna Margulies plays the wife of a politician busted in a sex scandal in The Good Wife, a CBS show premiering tonight. On the show, her character stands by her man. But Julianna says: "My reaction would have been to get the hell out of there. Until I put myself in her shoes - since I've been playing her - everything has changed. And since I've had my own child. It's not just about your feelings. The thing I love about her is that she's always balancing things. It's just survival." [USA Today]
• Lucinda Williams married boyfriend and manager Tom Overby on stage in front of 1,500 fans in a club in Minneapolis on Friday. "After saying their vows and sealing the deal with a kiss, the bride – dressed in knee high black boots and a short black satin dress – performed a song she had written for her groom." [People]
• The jury's been picked for the trial of two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta following his son's death in the Bahamas. Travolta is on the list of witnesses that could be called to testify. [NY Daily News]
• Nadya "Octomom" Suleman does yoga in front of the cameras camped out near her house. [NY Daily News]
• Filmmakers were following Susan Boyle as she sang "Wild Horses" for her US debut on America's Got Talent; the event is being turned into a documentary. [NY Post]
• Nathan Fillion is hot. Does anyone watch Castle? Interview with Captain Hammer, aka Captain Malcolm Reynolds, at the link. [PopWrap]
• "Dannii Minogue became dependent on Botox after she fell into a depression over her sister Kylie's cancer…" "My sister was sick, then my best friend died soon after - I felt I'd been hit by a wave. I couldn't deal with the stress. I couldn't deal with having to look at my face." [The Sun]
• Estelle Getty's Emmy is on eBay! The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is trying to get it taken off; they'd rather have it back if individuals or heirs don't want it. [Variety]
• Jenna Jameson's lawyer claims she owes $72,312.36 from her divorce from porn kingpin Jay Grdina [TMZ]
• Creepy: In an interview with David Carradine a few months before he died, he said that he believed the the "ghost" of his wife Annie's dead husband visited him from the couple's bedroom closet. [NY Post]
• "We spent a chunk of time together, and became friends, but [the collaboration] never happened. I wrote a bunch of words and presented them to him, and he didn't want to go there. He didn't want to be provocative. And I said, ‘Well, why come to me?' I mean, that's like asking Quentin Tarantino to not put any violence in his films." — Madonna, on working with Michael Jackson years ago, to the Times Of London. [MSNBC]
• "John and I always thought of our own covers. This time, Sean said, 'I'm doing it,' and he did it. He's an artist too. I didn't want to be that overwhelming Yoko Ono trying to control the scene. I'm a control freak, in a way, especially with my artwork and music. This time, I had to get to another level, a spiritual level of understanding. It's out of love for my son. He's a good one; he has his own ideas." —Yoko Ono on the cover art of her new album, Between My Head and the Sky.
• "Writing about Python is self-serving and vain, I said, and there are bad things about it as well; but these PR people are agents of the devil and she would not be shaken off." — from an essay by Eric Idle. [Telegraph]
• "So many performers sacrifice their entire life for the stage - I mean, look at Michael Jackson. I'm not in his league, but I do know the cost of fame. I lost a piece of life, normalcy. It's easy to become an android in an artificial world of flashing lights and magazine covers. Being away from it all allowed me to refocus my creative energies. There was a girl I was in love with, I wanted to marry her… It didn't work out. I was devastated. Thank God I had my music as an outlet." — Maxwell. [NY Post]
• "My dog Vivian passed away last year. I went to do this spreading of her ashes at her favorite place on the beach. I was reading this Eugene O'Neill eulogy and I took out the bag of ashes and the wind came and all the ashes went in my face. I had, like, a mouthful of Vivian. I just stood there and went, ‘This is genius, actually. This is totally perfect and humorous.'" — Drew Barrymore. [MSNBC]

Like Dina McGreevey and Silda Spitzer before her, in the first episode, Margulies stands by her man during a press conference in which he denies allegations of trading political favors for financial and sexual ones. (He also has a penchant for prostitutes.) Eventually he gets locked up, and his wife has to pick up the pieces and go back to work to support her family. She's a lawyer — just like Hillary! — who goes to work at a firm run by Christine Baranski, a ball-buster who brings her lapdog to the office.

It's kind of amazing that this is such a seeming trend that it warranted an entire series. Maybe it could even work its way up to becoming a genre, like mob movies?

Earlier: Top 10 Ways Male Politicians Confess To Extramarital Affairs

• Miley Cyrus's YouTube account was hacked yesterday and a video was posted, claiming that the star is dead. The description reads: "Miley died this morning after being hit by a drunk driver. She always told us if anything ever happened to her then tell her loyal fans first before the public. R.I.P Miley, we'll never forget you!" It's all a lie and has since been pulled down. [Perez Hilton]
• Prince goes door-to-door in LA to preach the word of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Ahem. [Page Six]
• Jessica Alba is delighted by motherhood: "Everything is cute, everything is fun," say says, "including the explosive diarrhea — the best ever." Ew, sounds… shitty. [UPI]
• Sienna Miller and Balthazar Getty have split; she's back in London, alone and he may want to get back with his wife, Rosetta. Who will Sienna date next? [Daily Mail]
• Wanda Sykes was at a gay rights rally in Las Vegas on Saturday; she told the crowd: "You know, I don't really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn't feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life. Everybody that knows me personally they know I'm gay. But that's the way people should be able to live their lives." But, Sykes said, Prop 8 made her feel like she was being attacked. "Now, I gotta get in their face," she said. "I'm proud to be a woman. I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay." [Breitbart]

• A Sarah Palin book deal? The governor could get $7 million! [MSNBC]
• Angelina Jolie is "embarrassed" that her father was among the few celebs who supported John McCain. She's supposedly especially dismayed that he called Sarah Palin as running mate "a beautiful choice." Sigh. [Daily Express]
• Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, son of the King of Bahrain, is suing Michael Jackson for breach of contract. Will MJ appear in court? Or will the dispute be settled? The sheik wants $7 million… [Daily Express]
• American Idol is filming in L.A. this week and contestants, families and staff have been strictly forbidden to mention the suicide that occurred in front of Paula's home. [TMZ]
• Breaking Hills news from Audrina Patridge: "There is going to be a fifth season. We just found out." She doesn't seem excited. "At one point, all of us were like, 'No, we don't want to do another season,'" she says. "I wanted to do more movies, and Whitney moved to New York and she’s doing her own spin-off. And Lauren’s dating [My Boys actor] Kyle [Howard] but he can’t be on the show because he’s on another show, so that makes it hard." [People]
• Ashlee Simpson thought she was going into labor on Saturday, but it was a false alarm. When will the wee Wentz arrive? [Perez Hilton]
• Kate Hudson: Spotted getting "very friendly" with a female model in Miami. [Perez Hilton]
• Kanye West says he never assaulted a photographer. "I put my hand up to prevent him from taking my image. I didn't assault him… The next morning, plastered across every media outlet... Kanye Gets Arrested. It didn't matter that I wasn't charged or that I hadn't assaulted anyone. All that mattered was that I was arrested." [People]
• The Brit tabs are not happy Kanye has namedropped Princess Diana. [The Sun]
• Hugh Jackman on getting intimate with Nicole Kidman in Australia: "The camera is like a dancer. If you watch any of [Baz Lurhmann's] movies, visually, the love scenes are like poetry." [People]
• Katie Holmes was asked who she considers a role model and answered: "Jada [Pinkett Smith] is so strong. She is a rare woman – a phenomenal friend, mother, wife. She inspires me." [People]
• No one laughed when Tom Cruise appeared in Nazi gear in a trailer for Valkyrie when this NY Times reporter was in a theater on Friday night. [NY Times]
• Kate Moss and Jamie Hince had a fight; she found a vial of his ex-girlfriend's blood he'd stashed as a memento. The ex is Raveonettes singer Sharin Foo; apparently Hince also kept a bunch of love letters from her as well. A spy says "He could just never bring himself to throw them away." Okay, but… blood? Are pressed flowers and photographs not enough? [The Sun]
• Suge Knight's been charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance (meth and hydrocodone) and one count misdemeanor battery. These stem from an August incident in Las Vegas, in which he allegedly punched his girlfriend of three years, Melissa Isaac, in the back of the head while they were driving. [TMZ]
• Sigourney Weaver is in Morocco at the eighth Marrakech International Film Festival, where she was being honored. She says: "Things are not at all as simple as we in America perceive them about the role of women. We tend to lump the entire Arab world together, which is inaccurate. They love all the strength in women here; it's very much a part of the culture. It's going to take me a while to decipher all the contradictions from actually being here." [USA Today]
• Kelly Osbourne and Luke Worrall are engaged, if you believe Luke's Facebook profile. [NY Mag]
• Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna's "soulmate," Alex Rodriguez, were at the same "showbiz" party in Miami and now the Brit tabs are saying he was "spellbound" by Gwynnie. [Mirror]
• Speaking of Madonna: She's got a video on her website asking people to donate to her school for girls in Malawi. [Mirror]
• Ridiculously romantic Seal and Heidi Klum are getting married again in Mexico, in the spring. This will be the fourth time. "It's where we got married in May 2005, and it's become a bit of a custom to get married there again every year," he explains. "We love it. It's great saying your vows again. You remember who it was you fell in love with. It's also a good excuse to have a big party, and we have a different theme every year." [Daily Mail]
• Amy Winehouse was on a "wild rampage" on Friday. [Mirror]
• Jean-Claude Van Damme spends most of this Newsweek interview hitting on the reporter, telling her: "I would love to be naked in front of you." He also invites her to the premier of his film and says, "We can have some champagne, you and me." [Newsweek]
• Charlize Theron has been named a United Nations messenger of peace, with a special focus on ending violence against women. [Reuters]
• Uh-oh: Justin Timberlake's New York City restaurant, Southern Hospitality, is being sued by a busboy (on behalf of 50 other employees), claiming the joint has cheated staff out of tips, proper pay and overtime. [Reuters]
• Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe share custody of the kids during the holidays. "I think the most important thing is to be a grownup," she says, "and not let any kind of feelings affect how you deal with your children." [People]
• Some of the original stars of ER are coming back for the final season, but not Julianna Margulies: She was invited but declined, saying, "I feel like I left [my character] Carol Hathaway in the best scenario possible." [AP]
• Isabel Lucas and Shia LaBeouf: It's on. She's the one who was in his car when it got totalled by another vehicle that ran a red light. And yeah, she's in the Transformers sequel. [News.com.au]
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding star Nia Vardalos and husband Ian Gomez have a baby. She was quietly adopted several months ago and is a toddler under five years old. Her rep says: "They are going public now to bring attention to National Adoption Month and the 500,000 children in foster care." [Yahoo News, People]
• Lily Allen's little brother Alfie and his fiancée, Jaime Winstone, had a "public row" after a boozy night. She screamed at him in the street! [Mirror]
• Rapper Nelly has a marketing deal with Ford, but he's not in ads or commercials: He just drives the Flex SUV and puts it in his video. It's promotion, not advertising. See? [Reuters]
• Rob Lowe says he and his kids fled the California wildfire near his home just in time: Apparently the flames were shooting 200 feet, the wind was blowing at 70 miles an hour and "it was just like Armageddon." [AP]
• Snoop Dogg's family and staff were among the 26,000 residents forced to evacuate due to the California wildfires; Snoop wasn't home. [Yahoo News]
• Ann Curry has been climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, for the Today show and says it's "like climbing a Stairmaster for six hours a day with 20 pounds on your back." Ann, 52, did not have much time to train because the trip was assigned at the last minute. "To be honest with you, I'm not sure I'm going to make it to the top," she says. "But all the pain and suffering is worth it because of the incredible vistas all around me." And: "I miss my family. And also warm showers. And I could really use a stiff drink." [AP]
• Are the Fugees getting back together? Wyclef Jean says maybe! Has he told Lauryn Hill? (He says, "It's not gonna happen without Lauryn.") [ITN]
• Bruno Tonioli says Simon Cowell wants to buy Strictly Come Dancing, the Saturday night rival show of his show, X Factor. Simon's spokesperson says it's a joke, but won't Simon own all TV shows someday? [Telegraph]
• In this interview with Helen Mirren, she talks about her tattoo, prostitutes of a certain age, and what makes her cry. Also, she rides a motorcycle in a new children's movie called Inkheart, and says: "I didn’t have to learn [to ride it] because I already had a motorbike when I was in my early twenties. So I thought, I don’t care what else happens, I want to be on that motorbike again." [Times]
• Oh, and here's Helen Mirren talking about what she was like as a schoolgirl. [Daily Mail]
• A car owned by David Beckham when he was 19 years old is up for sale. It's a 1994 Volkswagen Golf. No one wants to buy it. [The Sun]
• The house where David Beckham grew up is also up for sale. It's a three bedroom priced at £1million — about four times what it's worth — because the owners are trying to cash in on the fact that David Beckham lived there. For two years. As a baby. [Daily Mail]
• A new character on Lost could be part of the Dharma Initiative. [EW]
• Celebs sometimes edit their own Wikipedia entries, but, more often, a publicist does it for them. Apparently the head of communications at Wikipedia gets a few complaints a week from star reps asking for changes. [Yahoo News]
• Bernie Mac's daughter says: "When I turn a corner, I'm still thinking, 'I'm going to see him.' I've had moments where I've woken up and I've sworn I could feel him smacking me on the back of the leg. I'll say, 'That hurts. I told you to stop. You're still so heavy-handed, even on the other side.' […] He was my dad, my first guy I ever fell in love with, my protector. He was the one I laughed with. It's going to be very hard to live without that." [People]
• Melissa Joan Hart's got two small sons and says "It's a constant workout. You don't have time to eat because you're chasing them all the time!" [People]
• Debbie Matenopolous of E! and formerly of The View is about to be single again: Her husband has filed for divorce. [UPI]
• Paul McCartney wants to release "Carnival Of Light," a 14-minute experimental track the Beatles recorded in 1967 but never released. The recording includes distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling and shouts of "Barcelona!" and "Are you all right?" A hit, to be sure. [AP]
• Kevin Costner and his band Modern West released a CD last week. The sound is "rock-roots with elements of country." Costner says: "When I'm making a movie I'm playing whoever I'm playing. But my personality comes out on stage when I play live. That's when you see me the clearest." [AP]
• Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler was charged with heroin possession; he's hoping to head to rehab instead of jail and then maybe back with the band. [Reuters]
• Former Soul train host Don Cornelius: Charged with spousal battery, assault with a deadly weapon and dissuading a witness from making a police report. He could face up to one year in prison for each of the five misdemeanor charges. [AP]
• A writer visits Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food in Rotherham to find out if the project — a walk-in center on the town's main square offering advice and free cooking lessons to anyone who cares to sign up — is working. [Guardian]
• Terri Irwin: Not looking for romance. [UPI]
• Did Terri Irwin "ignore" Bob Irwin, Steve Irwin's dad, at Steve Irwin Day celebrations at Australia Zoo? Bob wasn't mentioned at all and was not seated with Terri or his grandchildren. [News.com.au]
• Legal drama involving the estate of Don Ho. [UPI]
• Believe it or not, cheesy '80s series Greatest American Hero is becoming a feature film. Oh, and there will be an A-Team flick as well as a 21 Jump Street movie. All of your memories, rehashed. [LA Times]
• Speaking of remakes, a producer has offered Arnold Schwarzenegger a cameo in a remake of Conan The Barbarian. The dude says: "He was smiling, but he didn't say yes." [Daily Express]
• "I said, 'Great, I'll do it!' It's very exciting to do something where no artifice is required. The only artifice is going to be your pretending to be that person. You're not going to have any other physical props, nothing to make you more attractive. Because attractive isn't the issue here." — Kristin Scott Thomas, on finding out she wouldn't be wearing any makeup for her role in I've Loved You So Long. [Washington Post]
• "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea and have to get up and record it straight away before I forget it. Or with 'Hero,' I was in the studio and someone was telling me about this film Hero with Dustin Hoffman in it. I took a walk to the bathroom and when I came back I had this idea for a song, and that was what then became 'Hero.'" — Mariah Carey. [Daily Express]
• "One time I met this guy in a restaurant on a date and he was really fun. Then we hung out at another bar and, as we were saying our goodnights, he says: 'So, are you coming home with me or not?' I was like: 'WHAT?' To me, that was probably the most bizarre ending to a date I've ever been on. Was I a prude? Oh well, that was the end of him. He lost me in one night." — Kate Hudson on her "date from hell." [Daily Mail]
• "He’s a man and he will always want more sex than he gets. Pete might not get it often… but when he does it’s worth it." — Katie "Jordan" Price. [The Sun]
• "I don't know what the motivation was. I remember it was something really vulgar - I mean shockingly so, like, 'Whoa, what, who are you?' I don't really know that person [Lohan]. I only met her, like, three times." — Scarlett Johansson, on the incident in which Lindsay Lohan scrawled "Scarlett is a bloody cunt" on a bathroom wall two year ago. [New York Post]
• "I studied homeopathy for years and years. Herbs and all kinds of acupuncture, acupressure, alternative medicine. I think it's just better to treat the whole person. And the wonderful thing I've seen over the last 20 years is how mainstream medicine has really opened its doors to alternative medicine." — Sissy Spacek. [NY Post
• "PAPARAZZI GIVE REAL PHOTOGRAPHERS A BAD NAME. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, THEIRS ARE WORTH A THOUSAND DOLLARS… LET US NOT FORGET THE PAPS KILLED PRINCESS DIANA. WHEN WILL THERE BE A LAW PASSED THAT SIMPLY ENFORCES THAT SOMEONE HAS TO ASK TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOU. THAT WOULD SEEM LIKE COMMON COURTESY. RIGHT NOW THE PAPS ARE ABOVE THE LAW AND THE PEOPLE THEY SHOOT ARE BELOW IT. WHAT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL IS PICTURES TAKEN WITH THE INTENT TO SELL….LIKE DRUGS WITH THE INTENT TO SELL… THE COPS WERE VERY CORDIAL BUT TOLD ME THEY HAD TO ARREST ME BECAUSE A COMPLAINT WAS FILED. THAT WAS THE BOGUS PART. THEY PLACED ME IN HANDCUFFS AND DROVE ME TO THE STATION. THEY SPOKE ABOUT HOW THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY A PUBLICITY STUNT BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER BUT THEY STILL HAD TO GO THOUGH THE MOTIONS." — Kanye West. [Perez Hilton]