• Curious about the bromance between Tom Cruise and David Beckham? A new book will explain it all to you, including how Beckham decided to name his kid Cruz. [Gatecrasher]

• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are in Australia, where Tom's been cruising on a billionaire's yacht and Kate took Suri shopping at Target. Yes, Target. [News.com.au]
• Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson: Still going strong. [Page Six]
• Emma Watson's dress flew up in London on the Harry Potter red carpet… Her undies were showing and photographers snapped away. [NY Daily News]
• In this interview, a promoter from an Arkansas convention center talks about being duped by Sacha Baron Cohen for a scene in Brüno. "They were clever," she says. "They first contacted us via an intermediary company called Ring Rulers. In this area cage fighting is popular. They told me that they would be doing videotaping for a reality show… At the last minute they started changing the set up. They originally contracted to use our chairs. Then, barely an hour before opening the doors, they brought in their own. These were all literally roped together with wire so you couldn't untie them. As I was leaving at 5pm on the Friday six guys in suits - obviously from Hollywood - marched into my office with a bundle of legal paperwork wanting me to sign a waiver… Beer here is normally four bucks. That night it was a dollar a cup. The production company had paid the difference." There's more. [Telegraph]
• How do we feel about Lindsay Lohan and Christina Aguilera being in the new season of Project Runway? [Mirror]
• Sniff: Ozzy Osbourne's Pomeranian, Little Bit, was killed by a coyote on the grounds of the Osbourne home in Los Angeles. [The Sun]
• Tim Gunn, Debbie Harry and Bill Hader of SNL: All denied entrance to a Fourth of July roof party. [Page Six]
• Here's a breakdown of how the city of Los Angeles spent $1.4 million on the memorial for Michael Jackson. [AP]
• Fans and media have been taking over the streets near the Jackson family home and the Encino Neighborhood Council has released a statement about how residents and businesses need to "take back their streets." [People]
• "Was Jacko in the box? …Some have speculated his body was never in the coffin, and people close to the family say, without elaborating, that the pop idol has already been buried." [NY Post]
• Not sure why, but the media is talking to Heath Ledger's dad in the wake of Michael Jackson's death. "On the day Michael died I spoke to my daughters and former wife Sally, and we all had such a down day," Kim Ledger says. "In the first couple of weeks it's crazy, and you're just trying to come to grips with the enormity of it. It's not for me to advise the Jackson family how to get through this, but what I will say is the saddest times are now, one-and-a-half years later. The media interest has died down, so I'm no longer surrounded by Heath and all I want to do is pick up the phone, but I can't." [MSNBC via Australia's Women's Day]
• Paris Jackson's eulogy made Spike Lee cry. [People]
• Here's a letter Ronald Reagan wrote to Michael Jackson in 1984, after the incendiary Pepsi commercial. [US News & World Report]
• Michael Jackson helped develop merchandise for his This Is It tour, and it will be on sale as soon as this week, at places like Hot Topic, Target, JCPenney and Spencer's. [LA Times]
• Michael Jackson will be buried wearing one white, crystal encrusted glove. [TMZ]
• "Michael Jackson 's family won't bury him without his brain." All I have to add is :( [Mirror]
• Gwyneth Paltrow and George Michael are among the celebrities who were allegedly targeted as part of a newspaper telephone hacking scandal. Someone from tabloid rag News Of The World hacked into their phone lines, as well as Nigella Lawson, Patsy Kensit, Jude Law and Sadie Frost. [The Star]
• Is Kate Gosselin A-list? She has been invited by Maria Shriver to attend the Annual Women's Conference, where she'll rub elbows with Katie Couric, Kelly Preston, Cindy McCain, Elizabeth Edwards and Madeleine Albright. [E!]
• At the Conference for Women, Kelly Preston will speak publicly about the loss of her son, Jett Travolta. [ET, People]
• Oh dear: The Jane Kaczmarek/Bradley Whitford divorce might get messy: She wants full custody of the kids. [TMZ]
• Starting Monday, Drew Barrymore will be shooting her new film — Going The Distance, about a long-distance relationship — at the New York headquarters of the Associated Press. "Real-life newsgathering will continue around her as usual by the AP's editorial staff in the sprawling facility." [AP]
• You know what looks really cool? Drew Barrymore's new flick, Whip It, starring Ellen Page as a roller derby phenom. Pic at the link! [USA Today]
• "Actress Kate Beckinsale accepted 20,000 pounds ($32,000) in libel damages at the High Court on Thursday over a story in Britain's Daily Express newspaper that she was set to miss out on her dream role as Barbarella." [Reuters]
• After 15 years, Nicole Kidman has ditched her publicist. What does it mean? [Deadline Hollywood]
• I'm afraid I must draw your attention to a first-person essay entitled "I Fucked Screech." Quoth the lady in question, "The pillow talk consisted of 45 minutes of [Dustin] Diamond telling me about Adult Swim cartoons." [Videogum, Heeb]
• Jessica Lange may get an Emmy nomination next week for Grey Gardens, but she is also an acclaimed photographer. In this interview, she talks about both. [The Daily Beast]
• Would Rosie Perez play Sonia Sotomayor if asked? "Oh my God, I'd be so honored," Rosie gushes. "There needs to be a fearlessness in approaching that role. That's who she is. Balancing the human being versus the judge is the biggest challenge that would face me personally. But I also think that to play her, you have to dive in and discover her true spirit. Otherwise, don't even fucking go there. Don't even fucking try it. It would be the chance of a lifetime. I'd be right for the role because I'm fearless. I'm afraid of everything and afraid of nothing at the same time." [Gatecrasher]
• Brooke Shields hasn't been in movies for 10 years, but she just signed on to a "live-action family comedy" called Furry Vengeance in which a real estate developer (Brendan Fraser) "gets more than he bargained for from a band of raccoons when he pushes too hard into more pristine territory." Also involved: Dick Van Dyke, Ken Jeong and Samantha Bee. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Hope Davis will play Hillary Clinton in an HBO Films/BBC Films movie called The Special Relationship. Dennis Quaid will play President Clinton. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Pamela Anderson is rumored to be making a cameo in the upcoming Baywatch movie, which will be a "tongue-in-cheek" comedy. Sounds… dirty. [Gatecrasher]
• Edward Furlong: Getting divorced. [People]
• David Alan Grier's wife, Christine Kim: Filed for divorce. [TMZ]
• "Heather Mills has spoken of how much she is enjoying her freedom, insisting she has been 'having a great time' since divorcing Sir Paul McCartney." [Daily Express]
• Paris Hilton is on trial in Miami, being accused of not doing enough to promoto her 2006 sorority flick Pledge This. [Breitbart]
• "MARSHA/JAN LESBIAN AFFAIR A 'JOKE'" [Page Six]
• Blind item! "Which television star called off her wedding the night before the nuptials? She changed her mind after having a sexy fling with the best man." [NY Daily News]
• "I think I am just by the sheer fact of my existence. I know that I personally would have loved to have me around when I was a gay teenager. Because when I was a gay teenager there weren't that many openly gay celebrities. And I would have loved to have been like, ‘Wow look at that dude. He's gay. He's REALLY gay. And he's successful and he's not apologizing for that and he seems really happy.' So I hope that though they may not agree with everything I say that I inspire gay youth to be themselves and to say what they think and to be proud of who they are." — Perez Hilton on why he is good for gay America. [EW]
• "I was never at a place where rehab would have been appropriate… Booze was what would make me want to stay out all night and do some blow or smoke a joint or whatever, so shutting that off was key. It's like ketchup and French fries - I don't want one without the other. So that's the moment: Do you want to continue being great at being in your 20s, or do you want to step up and graduate into adulthood?" — Jason Bateman, on getting sober. [MSNBC]
• "I consider her more than a dear friend. I consider her my wife, my sister, my daughter." — Perez Hilton on Lady GaGa. [EW]
• "I got a phone call telling me about it, and then I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off, yelling, 'Get me a dictionary! It's so typical of something that would happen to me. So mortifying. I'll probably get it fixed, but in the meantime, I'll just say I was putting my own twist on it." — Hayden Panettiere, on her misspelled tattoo. [USA Today]
• "I had to do a scene in a bra and shorts for the first time in two years. On the day of the shoot, I ate a pork burrito, chips and Coke. Afterward, I thought, 'I probably shouldn't have done that.' But whatever." — Blake Lively. [MSNBC Scoop via Glamour UK]
• "Dude, the humor came from the fact that they did a casting call on Craigslist that basically said, 'Come have mock sex with Josh Lucas for $50 and get a film credit.' Literally that's what it was. And like 25 different women showed up." — Josh Lucas, on his gritty new film, Death In Love. [BlackBook]
• "I'm very disciplined for work but I have to be even more disciplined to enjoy holidays. I hide in the bathroom with my BlackBerry. My family always check to see where my BlackBerry is and take it away from me. They get angry with me and my friends do, too – they don't let me take it to dinner. It can be an addiction." — Penelope Cruz. [Daily Express via Psychologies Magazine]
• "I've never been invited to a dinner party - they don't invite vegetarians. When you are eating with friends someone will say, when you're starting to eat, 'So you don't eat fish?' I've been having that same conversation for 40 years! The food [at my restaurant] is amazing! Ninety per cent of the people who go there are meat eaters. They just think the food's great and there's not a bean sprout in sight. I could eat beans on toast every day for the rest of my life, no complaints at all. I'm a buffet kind of person. I'd much rather go in for a buffet, load up my plate, sit down, eat and split, or have a piece of pizza on a doorstep or something. I can't stand fuss." — Chrissie Hynde. [Mirror]
• "I'll be 34 in October. I can't keep getting away with [nudity]. There was so much of it in The Reader because the story required it, but people have seen enough of my bum and my boobs. I have to put them back." — Kate Winslet. [MSNBC Scoop via Harper's Bazaar]

• Hugh Jackman called Ricky Gervais to "brainstorm jokes" for the Oscars. Will Jackman bring the funny as well as the song and dance? [EW]

• This column says that since the parties and swag suites are super scaled back or canceled, this year's Oscars may actually be — gasp — about the awards. [MSNBC Scoop]
• Ooh — renderings of the Oscars stage! There's a bandstand and glittery lights and chandeliers. The architect set out to "craft an immersive environment evocative of an intimate club." [AP]
• Ha! The Academy would like to get rid of the red carpet so that people will actually watch the award ceremony. We want to see the purty dresses, mmkay? [NY Post]
• Heath Ledger's family has arrived in Los Angeles to accept the Oscar for Heath, should he win. [NY Post]
• Twilight's Robert Pattinson is presenting at the Oscars. No real explanation why. [E!]
• Police are investigating who leaked the photograph of Rihanna's battered face: "The Los Angeles Police Department takes seriously its duty to maintain the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence," the LAPD said in a statement Thursday. The department has yet to publicly identify Rihanna as the alleged victim in Brown's case. The picture was taken when cops arrived on the scene in Hancock Park, but apparently there were more pictures taken at the hospital, where, a source says, "the swelling is even worse." [E!, CNN]
• Anthony Geisler, president of LA Boxing, has created a Facebook group called "I Want To Fight Chris Brown." [Fox News]
• Heidi Klum tried pole dancing, but just for Germany's Next Top Model. Quoth Heidi: "It was hard!" [Gatecrasher]
• If you want Gerard Butler to be amused by you, get your chest tattooed with scenes and characters from 300. [Page Six]
• Did Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia break up over a pregnancy scare? [Chicago Sun Times, Yahoo News via E!]
• Some of Madonna's most famous ensembles are on display in London starting tomorrow: See the "Open Your Heart" bustier, the "Like A Virgin" wedding gown and the baseball uniform she wore in A League Of Their Own. Plus! You can bid on the pink strapless number from the "Material Girl" video. [People StyleWatch]
• Kate Winslet has sisters named Beth and Anna. They are actresses as well, though as this paper so helpfully points out, they "toil in obscurity." Beth looks the most like Kate, no? [Daily Mail]
• Whoa: Linda Hamilton might play Sarah Connor again — in Terminator Salvation! Oh wait, just a voiceover? [ONTD]
• Field trip alert: Hollis Famous Burgers in Hollis, Queens, New York, offers mini-burgers for $1 and a viewing of the Hollis Hip Hop Museum. DMC from Run-DMC donated memorabilia. [IHT]
• Kanye West's new ladyfriend is a model named Amber Rose. Why yes, she was nude in Smooth magazine, why do you ask? [Gatecrasher]
• Do what you must to prepare: Frances Bean Cobain is moving to the UK with mom Courtney Love. Will she join London's "brat pack" and party with Pixie Geldof? [Daily Mail]
• Freida Pinto's engagement photos have hit the web. She allegedly broke up with her fiancé when Slumdog Millionaire turned into a success. Is it so terrible for her to end a relationship because her life changed? [ONTD]
• Slumdog's Freida Pinto and Dev Patel are dating in real life, confirms costar Anil Kapoor: "I think this is the beginning of something exciting. They definitely make a great pair and look very good together." [Daily Mail, Mirror, Independent]
• Speaking of Slumdog, all nine actors who play the three main characters in three stages of their lives will attend the Oscars. Kids on the red carpet! Rubina Ali, 9, says: "I'm not scared. I'm going to go and take a lot of pictures and show them to people over here [in India]." [AP]
• "Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors, and I got an original of The Cannery, signed, from my boyfriend," Mischa Barton "trilled" to New York magazine. The mag points out: "Presumably, she was referring to Steinbeck's classic, Cannery Row." [NY Mag]
• The actor who played a steroid dealer in The Wrestler was busted for selling steroids. [AP]
• Usher's wife was spotted at the airport, leaving Brazil, so she must be doing better after complications from lipo. [Concrete Loop]
• Jenna Elfman has been cast in the lead of the CBS comedy show Accidentally On Purpose. She'll play a movie cirtic who gets pregnant after a one-night stand and decides to raise the child with its much-younger father. Are there any plots for women which don't involve the uterus? [Variety]
• Wait! Here's one: Cybill Shepherd will star in a flick called Mrs. Washington Goes To Smith, in which a woman in her 40s returns to Smith College to finish her degree. Oh, but: It's on the Hallmark Channel? [Variety]
• A couple accused of kidnapping and killing a young girl for ransom got the idea for the crime from the Clint Eastwood movie Dirty Harry. [Daily Mail]
• Blind item! Which TV personality is "too white" for a Spanish-based program? He tested well, but execs were worried because he doesn't really speak the language. [Gatecrasher]
• "I live in Hollywood, I work for E! Have I ever lied on the red carpet - erm, yes, I have! Sometimes I find myself saying: 'That looks...' and sometimes 'great' comes out before I can process I've said it, or 'fantastic.' And then I watch it back - and it does look different on television - and think that was not a 'great', that was a 'less than great'." —Ryan Seacrest. [The Star]
• "I wanted to be a movie star. I had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with, particularly for a movie career. Being gay, really. It just doesn't work. As actors we don't play gay, straight... we play human beings." — Rupert Everett, who is convinced his sexuality killed his career. [Daily Express]
• "People we worked with in the slums said, 'You're not going to show us as being poor, are you? Because that's what Westerners always do.' I tried to make the film with a kind of energy that reflects what the place is like, that it has a vitality despite its poverty" — Danny Boyle, on Slumdog Millionaire. [Time]
• "There is a fantastic scene in Trainspotting where a character disappears down the toilet. And when we came to do this scene [in Slumdog], I remember thinking, We can't do that—it's exactly the same as Trainspotting! But it's such an extraordinary scene because all his character is right in that moment. Obviously, it's a big audience favorite." — Danny Boyle, on his penchant for graphic toilet scenes. [Time]
• "I come from a long line of real cart horses. Very stoic, insides-made-of-iron people. So I can take any shit you can fling at me. I can cope with any workload. I can deal with lack of sleep. I can multitask like you've no idea. But two weeks ago, I actually had a panic attack. My first one. I didn't know what it was! It was a little like when your water [breaks], and you think, Did I just pee a bit, or is this it? I called my sister and said, 'I can't breathe, and I feel like I've got a brick on my chest and I'm seeing funny, and it sounds like everyone's talking to me in Hebrew.' She said, 'Yeah, that's a panic attack.'" — Kate Winslet, 10 days before the Oscars. [Time]
• "It is not like your taste suddenly changes because you're a mother, but I would love to do a movie that would impress my kids. Most of all I would love to do a voice in an animated movie, but people don't come to me for that. They don't think of me, and break into fits of giggles." — Naomi Watts. [Independent]
• "There's no standup comic hosting it. Hugh [Jackman] is going to come out and say a few things, but he's not going to do a 10-minute monologue... He's going to be doing a lot of musical stuff, so that will have a different feel to it. The show's got a narrative line this year, so all the awards are grouped around that. The sequence in which they're given is dictated by this narrative. There are different people doing groups of awards instead of a different set for each one, so all that stuff kind of makes it different. But, you know, it's still the Academy Awards, and there are 24 of them to give out." — Bruce Vilanch, on his 20th gig writing for the Oscars. [AP]
• "You can't expect to win something like this. [The Academy] could just as easily turn left, as it could go right. You can't take anything for granted." — Kim Ledger, Heath's dad, who says if if his son does win, Kim "may say a few words." [Mirror]
• "I wouldn't raise [Matilda] [in LA]. For all the obvious reasons – being the daughter of… Being an actor's daughter. It's a town that's about one thing and I want her to have options." — Michelle Williams. [Telegraph]

In order to quench readers' insatiable thirst for gossip, we've decided to try an evening edition of the much-beloved Dirt Bag. Now you won't have to wait for morning to find out the latest celebrity news. Welcome to the swirling, sleazy disco ball of "Dirt Bag After Dark". 18 to enter and 21 to drink, ladies!

• Debra Messing was sad when tabloids were talking smack about her post-baby body. "On one page it showed all the actresses who got skinny in six weeks or less, and on the other page was me! I was so depressed and frustrated," she says. But now Debs is happy because she's skinny again! "I've finally taken ownership of my body." [People]
• Former sexiest man alive George Clooney is fake-sad about passing the sexy mantle Hugh Jackman. Hugh says George called him up at 2 am and "He goes, 'Shut up, Jackman!'…I know what you did! You started this big campaign that's been going on and [you] took the title away from me.'" Clooney vs. Jackman? That is one cat fight we would pay money to see. [People]
• Kim Ledger accepted GQ's actor of the year award in honor of Heath. He called Heath a "beautiful boy" and took the award on behalf "his little one Matilda and our family." [Daily Telegraph]

• Shock of all shocks, Perez Hilton is claiming the Speidi marriage was staged by Us and is probably not legal. You don't say! [Perez]
• Beyonce says that watching her sister Solange give birth made her reconsider having babies: "I was there in the delivery room and it kind of traumatized me. I said please don't have me in the room. And she said, 'You have to. I'm your sister. Stop being so silly.' Well, I was right!" [People]
• The always-humble Kanye West says his new album is "great art." He also said that his most recent trip to the bathroom resulted in "great fart." He's so grandiose! [AP via Yahoo]
• Those of you who wanted to download all your fave Beatles hits on iTunes may have to wait a little longer. According to the BBC negotiations between Apple and the surviving Beatles are stalled. "We are very for it, we've been pushing it. But there are a couple of sticking points, I understand," Paul McCartney says. [BBC]
• Despite their public feuding, Rosie O'Donnell says that Barbara Walters is welcome on her new variety show. Who wouldn't want to share a stage with Rosie and Liza Minnelli? [ETOnline]
• Do you love Amy Sedaris enough to sit through a 6 hour PBS documentary just 'cause she's in it? You'll find out after Christmas, when she and Billy Crystal helm the docu-series Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America. [Fishbowl LA]
• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will be on the cover of the next issue of T, the New York Times style magazine. [NYM]
• Kate Winslet is in Parade mag this weekend and she talks about watching herself in Titanic years later. "I just love seeing those things. I am enjoying my face changing, as well as realizing that at the same time, as you get older, the machine isn’t as well-oiled as it was," she says. [Just Jared]
• Pete Wentz dishes on the origin of "Bronx Mowgli Simpson Wentz." According to E!, "We came up with the idea Bronx, we'd been throwing it back and forth a while ago… [as for the middle name] The Jungle Book is something me and Ashlee bonded over. It's really cool." [E! Online via Yahoo]
• Bad news for the Gyllenhaal parents: their divorce proceedings have revealed that Naomi Foner and Stephen Gyllenhaal are pretty much broke. Naomi, a screenwriter, was so financially embattled during the WGA strike that she had to take out a loan. Can't Jakey spare a dime?