Michelle Obama has put her money where her mouth is. Talk all you like about the validity of her husband's Nobel: the FL has been walking the walk. Beyond pressing her message tirelessly. Mrs. Obama has gone multimedia. The garden has been highlighted on The Biggest Loser. From getting flak for not cooking, Obama's now hinting at penning a cookbook. And, as detailed in today's Times, there's the Iron Chef, with First Chef Cristeta Comerford for some reason partnered with Bobby Flay - throwing down against Mario and Emeril. The judges include Nigella and, um, Jane Seymour, who I suppose in her career has certainly demonstrated her advocacy for natural health.

In a collision of politics, cooking and popular culture, Michelle Obama will reveal the secret ingredient that the chefs must use in their televised cook-off: anything that grows in the White House garden (no further spoilers here, though). Mrs. Obama will also talk about her crusade to reduce childhood obesity through better school lunches, community gardens, farmers' markets and exercise, which around the White House has the working title Healthy Kids Initiative.

Also in the Times comes a story about the White House's new chef-cum-food-policy-advisor, Most Beautiful Person and University of Chicago grad (two phrases we U of Cers don't often get to use in one sentence!) Sam Kass - described as "steeped in all matters locavore and was a moving force behind the White House garden" - and, inevitably, a wonk-heartthrob.

Part chef and part policy wonk, he is reinventing the role of official gastronome in the Executive Mansion. Indeed, Obama administration officials describe him as a vital conduit to the first family. "How do I get to the first lady, how do I try to transmit ideas and messages to her? Sam Kass," said Kathleen Merrigan, the deputy agriculture secretary. "He's been a real ally when we talk about farm to school."

And in bringing sexy back. Also, get this exchange from the Iron Chef shoot:

Mr. Batali told Mr. Flay, "You have a much cuter partner than I do."

The cute partner, Cris Comerford, to Mr. Batali: "I think he's cute too."

A White House Chef Who Wears Two Hats [NY Times]
Someone's In The Kitchen With Michelle: The Secret Ingredient Is Politics [NY Times]
Chef Sam Kass Will Cook At The White House...[ObamaFoodorama]
Most Beautiful People [People]

• Russell Brand on the Kanye West incident at the VMAs:

"You don't like to see people upset. But I think it just gets exciting, live television, live events. People get worked up and things happen." [AP]

• "However rude Kanye West's intrusion may have been, it suited the controversy the VMAs openly crave." [NY Times]
• Philippe van den Bossche, the boss of Madonna's Raising Malawi charity, has quit after falling in love with Madonna's trainer, Tracy Anderson — also famous for sculpting Gwyneth Paltrow's physique. [Page Six]
• Is Oprah in trouble? This report notes: "Winfrey is still the queen of daytime television, but the aura of invincibility is gone. The average viewership for The Oprah Winfrey Show slipped under 7 million last season, down 7 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen Media Research. One week during the July rerun season, the show had its lowest ratings since its 1985 debut." [AP]
• Colin Farrell: Having another baby. He and girlfriend Alicja Bachleda are expecting their first child. Colin has a 5-year-old son James from a previous relationship with model Kim Bordenave. [Us Magazine]
• At a red carpet event, a photographer asked Colin Farrell's sister to step away to Colin could be photographed alone. Colin got mad and confronted the snapper, who says: "I was just saying, 'Please can everyone clear the carpet, move on.' He took it personal. He said, 'Do not shout at my sister like that, do not ever speak to my sister like that ever.'' [Daily Express]
• Deepak Chopra knew Michael Jackson for 20 years, and he says of Michael's death: "It was caused not by the drugs he had been taking for years — He was a very controlled addict. But by him being given a particular drug that is so powerful that I have never heard of it being used anywhere but in an operating theater with breathing tubes and a ventilator… This is something bigger and is happening all the time – and not just in Hollywood. The number one cause of drug addiction in America right now is medical prescriptions. We have to wake up to that." [Telegraph]
• Elton John would like to adopt a Ukrainian boy named Lev, but the country bans gay couples from adopting children. In addition, Elton and partner David Furnish are considered too old to be adoptive parents. But click the links to see adorable pix of the tot. [The Sun, NY Daily News]
• Ugh, some of the comments on this Elton John story are vile. [Page Six]
• Gisele Bundchen hates when her personal real estate business is in the paper. [Page Six]
• Lionel Richie says now that daughter Nicole has given birth to son Sparrow, "She is the happiest woman ever. She is just in total control. I'm the one that's nervous!" He also jokes: "Harlow right now is enjoying the baby until she finds out it's staying." And: "[Sparrow] looks just like Harlow." [People]
• John Mayer was at a bar in NYC when someone got stabbed; Mayer and other patrons were "seen fleeing." [Page Six]
• Susan Boyle's first single has been revealed: It's a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses." [Mirror]
• Tila Tequila has apparently been mentioning Chris Brown in her Tweets; Chris Brown has responded: "NOT TRYNA BE RUDE but i keep hearing tila bringing my name up. ur 15 seconds of fame has ended. dont try to gain fans by dissing me.godbless." [TMZ]
• Mischa Barton is working on her new show The Beautiful Life, but while doing so, she has been ordered to stay away from booze, boys and bad behavior. She complained to cast members: "All I can do is smoke cigarettes." [Page Six]
• Lost is scheduled to end on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. Mark your calendars. [ONTD via LostBlog]
• Ugh. Here's a "joke" an NFL announcer made during a Detroit Lions game: "Going from two Super Bowls in Pittsburgh to the winless Detroit team — that's like going from dating Beyoncé to Whoopi Goldberg." [TMZ]
• "Russell Brand romanced model Christy Peterson for three months without seeing another girl. Then he told her to go shopping with his mum and had sex with a fan and a stripper." [News.com.au]
• "Prince Harry leaves nightclub ten minutes after Chelsy Davy... as he misses Lord Freddie Windsor's wedding." [Daily Mail]
• Interested in a Hollywood Hills 5,334 square foot 1929 Spanish-style house or a 4,062 square foot three-story contemporary Mediterranean home with a guesthouse? Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor are selling, and you only need around $12.5 million [UPI]
• Jay Leno's new show is related to NBC's decision to split football drama Friday Night Lights between DirecTV and NBC. [MSNBC Scoop]
• Dancing With The Stars' Maksim Chmerkovskiy is "still nursing a broken heart but doing okay" after his breakup with Karina Smirnoff. [People]
• Chandra Wilson has been nominated four consecutive years for her portrayal of Miranda Bailey, the no-nonsense chief resident on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, but is still looking for her first win. She says: "The thing that always impresses me whenever I go on the website each year to cast my little vote for myself, there are like 400 women there! So to even get in the top five, narrowed down from all those women, that's already amazing. I'm a huge fan of Sandra's work on this show. So the fact that we keep coming in together, I'm highly complimented by that. I also think it's a big testament to the show remaining as current as it is, six years in." [NY Times]
• Harrison Ford was honored with a tribute to his career at the 35th Deauville American Film Festival in Normandy, France, and got all choked up. Han Solo doesn't cry! [Daily Mail]
• Director Niki Caro and actress Keisha Castle-Hughes paired up in 2002's divine Whale Rider, and have reteamed for new film The Vinter's Luck. [USA Today]
• Couple alert: Chace Crawford and Bar Refaeli. [NY Daily News]
• Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has dumped girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, telling her he is not ready for marriage and children. But she was quoted as saying: "My dream is to do my own music one day, to have an unbelievable tour, to have done some musical theatre and some film and maybe to have opened up a performing arts school for special needs kids. That is my ultimate dream — not marriage." [Mirror]
• Even though they broke up 22 years ago, The Smiths are gaining new fans, thanks to 500 Days Of Summer. [Independent]
• ABBA's Benny Anderson on rumors that the group will create music for a sequel to Mamma Mia!: "it's not going to happen. There will not be another, quote unquote, Abba musical." [UPI]
• "Sir Michael Caine described his latest vigilante film as a 'warning' of the way British society is heading." [Mirror]
• Kirk Douglas, 92, Is the oldest person on MySpace. He recently sent son Michael Douglas a message which read: "I've got 800 new friends, what should I do?" [Mirror]
• I Can Do Bad All By Myself opened at the top of the weekend box office with more than $24 million in ticket sales. [NY Daily News]
• Blind items! "Which has-been action hero has knocked up his comely assistant? When his longtime girlfriend learned of the impending birth, she angrily split… Which world-famous actor has fallen out with his equally A-list director? They have weeks to go on their upcoming block buster, but the actor thinks the director is arrogant and dismissive of his ideas, while the director considers his leading man to be a spoiled, over rated punk." [Page Six]
• "I'm not that motivated nor do I see that many good projects that make me want to take me away from my family. So much so, that his young children see mummy as the film star in the family. All they know was daddy makes pancakes because I did not have a movie to show them." — Michael Douglas. [Mirror]
• "It feels like we have been away for a long time. The four of us were feeling really nervous about coming back home." — Chris Martin, on Coldplay playing its first UK gig this year. [BBC News]
• "I am comfortable singing in a context like that. I am least comfortable singing karaoke, and less comfortable singing in cabarets. I really only like singing when you understand the context, so an awards show is fine." — Neil Patrick Harris on the Emmys, which he'll be hosting Sunday. [USA Today]
• "You're surrounded by cameras, you're surrounded by film crews, you're surrounded by equipment. It's, like, the most empty, unromantic experience ever." — Penn Badgley on kissing scenes on Gossip Girl. [USA Today]
• "I'm not a great actor. I don't fool myself to think that I am. Most of the work that I get is through having really good relationships with people and being dependable… We all have to put each other in check. Otherwise, people start to become delusional about who they are and what they are and what they're contributing to the world." — Ashton Kutcher. [New York Magazine]
• "Popular music has an emotional-intelligence quotient that's geared much toward younger people. It's all about [he flattens his voice to a disaffected teen monotone] 'You left me. Why did you leave me? I still love you. I tried so hard to stop loving you.' And it's like, well, I relate to that, I just don't want to think about that. When you're younger, you want to wallow in it. When you get older, you still love the person, and wonder why they don't love you. You just have other things to do." — Alec Baldwin. [New York Magazine]
• "At one of the orgies there was this bunny - there was a rabbit, who was just sitting there staring at us. We all kept saying, 'Look that bunny's still there.' And after about 45 minutes, I thought, 'Maybe he's hurt,' and I started to walk over to it and it took two hops and I was like, 'Nope, he's just a pervert.' … He was pervy Peter Rabbit!" — Michelle Forbes, aka Maryann from True Blood. [People]
• "I'm happy to be a representative for curvier women, but I don't really want to be known as 'the fat one.' I don't really mind what people want to say about me, but it's just that I have two daughters and I don't want them growing up to believe that flesh is something to be ashamed of, particularly at their age. They need to understand not to take any notice. I'm happy with my shape." — Nigella Lawson. [Telegraph]
• "It's just a working relationship. We all have our different things that we're doing. We're not friends, but we are cordial." — Sheree Whitfield, on fellow Real Housewives Of Atlanta castmates NeNe, Kim, Lisa and Kandi, whom Sheree says she doesn't really hang out with. [E!]
• "It doesn't really matter, those are Michael's kids. He raised those kids. They were in his arms when they were born." — La Toya Jackson, when asked about the biological father of Michael Jackson's children. [NY Daily News]
• "I recognized myself in that character and most of all, I recognized that I have seen the Precious girls of the world and they have been invisible to me. None of us who see the movie can walk through the world and allow the Preciouses to be invisible again." —Oprah, on the lead character in Precious, the film for which she is the co-executive producer. [AFP]
• "[Director] Karyn Kusama and I are both outspoken feminists. We wanted to subvert the classic horror model of women being terrorized. I want to write roles that service women. I want to tell stories from a female perspective. I want to create good parts for actresses where they're not just accessories to men… The friendships that I had as an adolescent had this unparalleled intensity. I wanted to show how almost horrific that devotion can be. It's almost parasitic." — Diablo Cody on Jennifer's Body. [Reuters]

• Rihanna was the big show-stopper at the Met Ball: Celebs cheered when she took the stage to perform. And! At an after-party, guess who RiRi was in deep convo with?

None other than Ms. Anna Wintour. Will someone be gracing the pages of Vogue very soon? [Gatecrasher]

• Have people stopped returning Lindsay Lohan's phone calls? Apparently Pharrell Williams had offered to help her revive her music career, she tells Interview: "He's an amazing guy. He's only been really kind to me whenever I've met him. He said, 'I'd love to make a great record with you, but I want to take you out of all the elements that you're used to. Let's go away. Let's go somewhere nice where you can be focused, and let's make an album there.'" Of course, she hasn't heard from him since and says: "Pharrell, please call me back!" [Daily Express]
• It seems that Kiefer Sutherland did indeed intentionally headbutt Proenza Schouler designer Jack McCollough, who allegedly knocked over Brooke Shields; Kiefer was coming to Brooke's rescue or something. Met Ball dramz! [TMZ]
• Brooke Shields' rep is saying "nothing happened to her" and "Jack did nothing inappropriate. It's not clear what caused Kiefer to do what he did." [TMZ]
• A source says Kiefer Sutherland "was really drunk and he got accidentally bumped by McCollough. They started arguing and then he just head-butted him." Hmm. Kiefer's been arrested for DUI twice. [Page Six]
• More on this in Midweek Madness, but Us magazine is confirming that star of Jon & Kate Plus 8 Jon Gosselin, 32, has been having an affair with third grade school teacher Deanna Hummel, 23. [Just Jared]
• Amy Winehouse's dad is kicking "freeloading pals" out of her hotel room in St. Lucia — her two friends Violetta and Thalia were having "all-day boozing sessions" on Amy's dime. A source says: "Amy performs for the first time in ages at the St Lucia Jazz Festival this week. Mitch knows she has to get it right." [The Sun]
• Paula Abdul is saying pain killers are to blame for when she would "get weird." [MSNBC Scoop]
• Madonna is planning a concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, but local authorities are calling it a "natural disaster" and want "guarantees that there will be no blasphemy." Ha! [Page Six]
• Victoria Beckham wears her sunglasses at night. In the rain. [The Sun]
• Excellent news: Mindy Kaling has a new deal with NBC; she'll continue to write for and appear on The Office next season while simultaneously developing a comedy in which she would also star. She says: "This is my first step in a Transformers-style way to take over the whole world." [Variety]
• Holy gray T-shirt! These pictures of Simon Cowell's new £15million mansion which looks over the Hollywood Hills are absolutely stunning. [Daily Mail]
• In a deposition regarding a lawsuit that Paris Hilton didn't do enough to promote 2006 box office bomb Pledge This, Paris says she promoted the flick "any chance I got." Her lawyer says, "She's the single busiest person on the planet." [AP]
• "Robert Pattinson 'baffled' by fans." [Mirror]
• The weight watchers have moved from Jessica and Lindsay to the King of Pop: Michael Jackson has allegedly been warned that he is "too thin" and needs to gain about 20 lbs before his 50 live shows in the UK. [The Sun]
• Details on Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard's wedding! It took place in a cloister of a convent that's a luxury bed and breakfast in Brindisi, Italy; Jake and Reese were there; guests mingled in the garden, which features a pool, wines from the nearby town of Lecce were served. [People]
• Oprah's Twitter stunt of offering everyone in America a free chicken dinner: Newsworthy. [Time]
• Speaking of Ms. Winfrey, you knew this would happen: Susan Boyle will be on Oprah. [Daily Express]
• Yesterday was Chris Brown's birthday; he turned 20 and it was "low-key." [People]
• Mia Farrow is ten days into her hunger strike for Darfur. A few days ago she said: "At this point I don't think about food. I am weaker and I am mostly in bed. I am clear-minded. I sleep less." She also says: "No one voted for President Obama with more excitement and passion than I did, but he's really been lagging and the people of Darfur can't wait." [Guardian]
• Mia Farrow is documenting her fast on YouTube. [Page Six]
• Joel Madden went on a Twitter rant after he and baby Harlow were surrounded by photographers at an airport: "Let me just say shame on any magazine or blog that post pics of us in the miami airport. The photographers were acting like animals. it was the first time i've ever seen my child scared. Not cool for any parent to see. At least in LA they gave us some space. These guys were sticking flashes in her face and bumping in to us and yelling. The most unnecessary force i've ever seen." [Perez]
• Village Voice columnist Michael Musto says Miss California USA once posed with "trannie extraordinaire" Amanda Lepore. He asked Amanda about it, but she says: "I don't remember meeting her. You know how many pictures I take!" Of Carrie Prejean's pageant answer, Ms. Lepore says: "That was stupid. She could never make a career in TV. Gays monopolize everything! She's a dummy! Now she's trying to have churches help her. That doesn't sound promising. But at least she has big tits. She can marry a high roller and have miserable kids that hate her." Musto adds: "All thanks to opposite marriage!" [Village Voice]
• Unfake my heart: A Las Vegas entertainer faces fraud charges for impersonating Toni Braxton. [AP]
• Back in the '90s, Bono wrote a poem about Elvis; it will be broadcast on the UK's Radio 4 on May 13. [The Sun]
• Rachel Weisz will star in an indie political drama, The Whistleblower, which is based on the true story of a female cop from Nebraska who serves as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and exposes a United Nations cover-up of a sex trafficking scandal. [Variety]
• Will Ferrell is in talks to star in a comedy called Neighborhood Watch, directed by the guy who did Wedding Crashers. [Variety]
• Cameron Diaz plays the mother of a sick child in My Sister's Keeper, and although she appears bald in the film, didn't shave her head: She only needed to be bald for one day of shooting. [LA Times]
• Kate Walsh's divorce continues to be a mess. [TMZ]
• Debbie Matenoppoulos will get $3,595 per month in spousal support from her ex, Jay Faires. She currently lives in the couple's home and is responsible for paying all expenses, including the mortgage. [Radar Online]
• Shimmy shimmy ya: Ol' Dirty Bastard will be memorialized in an upcoming documentary and a series of tribute albums, all produced by his cousin Raison Allah Iceman. [Telegraph]
• Blind item! "Which very taken Oscar winner has been sending lots of flowers to a pretty fashion publicist?" [Gatecrasher]
• "There are many duos we wanted to draw from. Something as eccentric as The Odd Couple to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Withnail and I and Laurel and Hardy. It's the kind of friendship you can only have with someone of the same sex, a person you adore but who infuriates you." — Jude Law on the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's new flick Sherlock Holmes. [USA Today]
• "There's tons of stuff in my name. I mean, if I told you how many Facebook pages have my name on it, you wouldn't believe it. But I am going to join Facebook. I've been doing the MySpace thing a long time and I realize a lot of people are doing Twitter, I just don't want to know what people are doing every single second of their day. I find it a little invasive, but people are into it. To each their own. I don't have the desire to send out messages all day long. That's not me. I'd rather be doing something else." — Zach Braff [Time]

• As part of her ongoing media blitz, Jennifer Aniston is wearing only a necktie on the cover of GQ. In the story, the reporter asks why people are still interested in the story of her breakup with Brad and his ladyfriend, Angelina. Aniston tells the reporter: "The funny thing is that people don't realize we all go away to the Hamptons on the weekends. No. But can you imagine? That'd be hysterical: I've got Zahara on my hip, and Knox...." [Us Magazine]
• Oh, this is not the first time Jen's posed nekkid; she was bare-assed on the cover of Rolling Stone back in 1996. [Extra]
• Don't forget, guys, Jen is working on a movie called Pumas, which she calls "sort of a female Wedding Crashers" about two "aspiring cougars." Roar? [People]
• This Q&A with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio begins with Kate saying, "Where is that little fucker?" because Leo is running late. [EW
• Additionally, Leo talks about current teen heartthrobs Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson: "When I see younger actors getting a tremendous amount of publicity, I say to myself, Well, they’ve been given an unbelievable opportunity, and I hope they know within themselves that all that really matters at the end of the day is the work. All this noise and attention will absolutely deteriorate and there will be a new, fresh piece of meat for the media to focus on within less than a year’s time." [Just Jared]
• These "Gwyneth marriage is on the rocks" stories keep popping up. [Gatecrasher]
• Uh-oh, guess who got beat up in prison? Your old pal, Blake Incarcerated. [The Sun]
• Supposedly pregnant Kate Moss was seen with "poppers," aka amyl nitrite. Tsk, tsk! [Daily Mail]
• Bobby Brown was working on a tell-all book about Whitney Houston, except for the part where he forgot he'd signed a confidentiality agreement in which he promised not to write anything about her. But! There is still a book coming out, written by Derek Handspike, and it has all the stories Bobby promised, like how he "died" three times from drug overdoses; hit Whitney, and had sex with Janet Jackson. Good times. [Fox 411]
• Madonna and Guy: Still locked in a custody battle, even though the divorce has gone through. Madonna's desire to live in the U.S. complicates things. [Daily Mail]
• Pete Wentz is actually Pete Wentz III. So why didn't he name his kid Pete IV? "There is a lineage of Pete's, but this is not a Pete," he says. "I think that it's important to name someone after you meet them and you realize who they are. And when I met my son, he looked like he was a Bronx." [E!]
• By the by, magazines do not want to waste cash on pix of Bronx. [Page Six]
• Heath Ledger's name has been stripped from a new Australian arts center that was supposed to be named in his honor. [News.com.au]
• Nice: Writer Patricia Cornwell is speaking out about same-sex marriage. "If people like me don't take a stand then it will only get worse. We just want to live and let live and be treated in the same way straight people are treated," she says. [Reuters]
• Fiddy Cent: Addicted to success! That's what he says in this video. And he looks good in a suit. [The.Life Files]
• Ever since the National Enquirer reported that Kelly Ripa and Mark Conseulos were splitting up, Kelly has been talking about Mark every day on her show and been spotted kissing him in public. Subtle spin! [NY Mag]
• Score one for Josh Hartnett: The Mirror had to pay him £20,000 in libel damages after printing that he indulged in "steamy shenanigans" with a mystery woman at a London hotel and that they were caught on closed circuit TV. Sorta sad that this story isn't true! [The Star]
• Oh no, more Twilight drama: the studio doesn't want to rehire Taylor Lautner, the actor who played Jacob! Ridiculous, since he is adorbs. They're also dealing with the "obstacle" of finding Native American actors. Again, ridiculous! Didn't Kevin Costner find heaps of them back in the day? [Perez Hilton]
• What a tangled web: Evan Rachel Wood has been cast as Mary Jane in Spider-Man: The Musical. [Perez Hilton]
• Animal rights groups are pissed at Nigella Lawson, who said, "If I could go out into the woods and kill a bear myself, I’d wear it proudly as a trophy." She added: If you’re in nature and it’s either you go or the bear…" [The Sun]
• Can the world take nine seasons of Desperate Housewives? [USA Today]
• LOL! The Top Ten Things Bijou Phillips Hates include "when guys get highlights" and "being too old to play Barbie dolls." [BlackBook]
• What's this? Tori Spelling, aka Donna Martin Graduates, might end up being on 90210 2.0 after all? [Yahoo News via E!]
• Alicia Silverstone on stage! In LA, in the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still. [Variety]
• D-List celebs get paid to "host" New Year's Eve parties? Still? Even in this economy? [Page Six]
• DJ AM: Not impressed by the chick on The Bachelorette. [Page Six]
• Is Abbie Cornish knocked up with Ryan Phillippe's kid? [News.com.au]
• When these Hanson kids have kids we're forced to remember they're not kids. [People]
• Rihanna's nails are happy and sad and happy and sad. [Concrete Loop]
• Yesterday we read Katie "Jordan" Price claims, in her own words, that she is not pregnant; today, this report announces hat she is three months along. [News.com.au]
• This dumb sorta racist song may or may not be rapped by Kevin Federline. Actually, it sounds nothing like him, and that is an awful thing to admit. [The Atlantic]
• Somehow Kylie Minogue doing a musical number a Bollywood film seems absolutely right. [The Sun]
• Prison Break's Lane Garrison has been slapped with a wrongful death lawsuit; he will definitely have to pay up! [Perez Hilton]
• Ben Stiller will replace Mark Ruffalo Greenburg, a comedy-drama Noah Baumbach is writing and directing. (Baumbach was nominated for an Oscar for The Squid and the Whale and is married to Jennifer Jason Leigh.) [The Hollywood Reporter]
• The wife of disgraced private eye Anthony Pellicano is getting a reality show, in which she and her three daughters try to figure out how to fund their extravagant lifestyle without Hubs/Daddy. [Variety]
• Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard have sold their Minnesota house at a loss. [UPI]
• Stop, oh ho ho stop me, stop me if you think that you've heard this one before: The Smiths are talking about a reunion. [Telegraph]
• Documents from the archives of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were supposed to be auctioned off; Harry Belafonte, who owned the papers, withdrew them from sale right before the auction. [NY Times]
• "She's been saying that for years. I have nothing against her but I'm still living and working. You know I'm not dead yet." — Stevie Nicks on Lindsay Lohan's obsession to play her in a movie. [Perez Hilton]
• "My target audience is females between the ages of 70 and 85." — Enrique Iglesias. [Mirror]
• "I'm very intelligent. I'm capable of doing everything put to me. I've two records, I've launched a perfume and I want my own hotel chain. I'm the living proof that blondes are not stupid." — Paris Hilton. [The Sun]
• "Hey everyone! I haven't written in a while, just wanted to write and check in! Motherhood is the most fantastic experience I have ever been thru, Bronx makes me laugh and smile everyday! I finally left the house for Fall Out Boy's show on Monday night, which was so good. Their new songs sound awesome live, I can't wait for their new record! And last night I went to Pete and Bronx's godfather Travis' artshow. It's amazing to see how many artistic outlets those boys have! Made me very proud. It was an awesome show and so many of our friends and family came out to support. I hope you guys have a great holiday, I can't wait to spend it with my new family. Christmas tree goes up tomorrow!" — Ashlee Simpson's MySpace blog. [ET]
• "I was never single in the industry — when the movies came out and I started getting more jobs, I was always married. So [becoming the subject of romance rumors] is very new to me, and it hits you very fast because the publications jump on you. You’re dating everybody you walk around with — you can’t have any male friends. It’s weird.' — Kate Hudson. [MSNBC Scoop]
• "We were both relishing [the fights]. Reading those sequences where these people are at each other's throats and having these suburban knockout, drag-out fights? Look, there's not many actresses like Kate Winslet who you know can endure anything you give them and give it right back." — Leonardo DiCaprio. [EW]
• [Sudden fame] did affect my choices as an actress, definitely. In a good way. It really made me sit and think, ''Okay, you know what? Don't worry about the fact that there's 10 paparazzi outside the door, don't worry about the fact that people may be expecting completely different things from you right now just because you're suddenly so famous. This doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of what you love about your job.' So in a way, Titanic has played a very big part in being able to hang on to a sense of who I am, because I felt that I had to fight for it then at a very young age." — Kate Winslet. [EW]

• Halle Berry's baby has 3 nurseries in different homes, all done in all whites, neutrals and organics. Cost? $60K. [Rush & Molloy]
  
• And ooh, Halle Berry's baby will learn to speak French! Because her daddy is from Quebec! Très mignon! [People]
  
• A Snoop Dogg quote, presented without comment: "How many ugly women selling records? None! Only the pretty ones sell records — Beyoncé, Mary J. The ugly ones just be singing their little hearts out but don't get no sales. You beautiful on the inside, baby." [Mirror]
  
• Amy Winehouse will get $1 million to sing at a party thrown by George Clooney and Julia Roberts and hosted by Giorgio Armani. That kind of cash buys a lot of eyeliner. [Mirror]

• George Clooney is not, as previously reported, Nicole Kidman's baby's godfather. He is still hot, however. [MSNBC]
• George Clooney is also not returning to ER. [People]
• "Spies" at the Food Network say Nigella Lawson has gained weight. "The result is a butt like a Budweiser horse," a source says. "Her director is now doing back flips to not show her below the waist." Here's an idea: Shut the fuck up. No one talks about Mario Batali's ass. [Page Six]
• Britney's father got permission from a judge to sell some of Brit's cars. Maybe she'll trade her convertible for a kid-friendly mini van? [TMZ]
• Britney on How I Met Your Mother: "Can we have sex and then go shopping?" [People]
• Miley Cyrus is legally changing her name from Destiny Hope Cyrus to her famous nickname. (Dad used to call her smiley when she was a kid; somehow it morphed into Miley.) [TMZ]
• Christian Bale speaks about his Dark Knight costar, Heath Ledger, who played the Joker. "Heath was a joy," Christian tells EW.com. "What was so great to see with Heath is just how seriously he took [his work]. And we don't mean in any way to sound sort of pretentious with that, but just in the fact that if we don't take it seriously, then how can any audience ever take it seriously? And he did one hell of a job." [ET]
• Is Madonna moving to New York without hubby Guy Ritchie? Her rep says no. If not, why do these rumors persist? [Page Six]
• Oh wait, everything's fine: Madonna and Guy have game nights in which they play Scrabble. Triple word score! [Mirror]
• Some 35-year-old music manager Lindsay Lohan's been hanging out with was arrested over the weekend as a suspect in sexual assaults involving two 16-year-old girls. Shall we judge her by the company she keeps? [Page Six]
• Lindsay's grandfather is losing his battle with colon cancer. [E!]
• Diddy is denying a report that his associates were responsible for the shooting death of Tupac Shakur. "The story is a lie," Sean Combs says. "It is beyond ridiculous and completely false." [Yahoo News]
• Orlando Bloom has dropped out of a Nick Hornby movie due to scheduling conflicts. [Reuters]
• Did "oil heir" Brandon Davis make a scene at Lauren Conrad's fashion show in which he was "screaming and yelling and waving around a bag of white powder"??? [Page Six]
• Will Smith is denying that the Church of Scientology has recruited him and his wife. Says Legend: "I am a Christian. I am a student of all religions. And I respect all people and all paths." [Rush & Molloy]
• Soleil Moon Frye gave birth to a second daughter, Jagger Joseph Blue Goldberg. [People]
• Is Paul Newman okay? He's been seen at a cancer treatment center. But he says he's being treated for "athlete's foot and hair loss." [Mirror]
• Ian Ziering has LOTS of big ideas for the 90210 spinoff: "Rush Sanders gets together with Nat and Willie, the chef from the Peach Pit, and they throw a burger syndicate. Mrs. Teasley, the Beverly Hills High School principal, finally gets the affair she's always wanted with David Silver when his sexless affair with Donna Martin falls apart. Kelly Taylor champions the cause of the embarrassed wife when she punches Brandon across the jaw during a live news conference just as he resigns from public office for having gay footsie sex with high priced hookers smoking a cigar. Dylan never recovers from the loss of his beautiful wife. Having done enough drugs to sedate a small village, his mind snaps forever more only speaking and rhyming couplets that can be incredibly insightful but mostly are just freakish and bizarre... Brenda's back and she's supernova hot. In her Christian Louboutin pumps, she is imbued with attitude that's only attained through social climbing of Europe's social elite. Andrea Zuckerman invented the social networking website called "MyFace". She gets herself ranked in the fortune 200. She buys every child a home of everyone in school who ever made her feel bad, and she turns those homes into half way houses for wayward teens..." [Perez Hilton]
• Click if you care to see Mischa Barton topless. [The Sun]

• Apparently, Britney and her "friend" Sam Lutfi got in a fight last night: Photogs started snapping and she asked them to leave her alone. There's more, but let's just say that the cops were called to keep the paparazzi at bay and helicopters circled overhead. Clusterfuck. [TMZ, ONTD, Perez Hilton, Perez Hilton]
  
• Barbara Walters says she spoke with Lutfi, who told her that Britney has seen a shrink and has "mental issues which are treatable." Apparently Britney has mood swings and insomnia as well. [USA Today]
  
• No surprise here: sources interviewed in a profile of Britney in Blender paint a picture of a woman who has been used and lied to most of her life. Eric Foster White, who co-wrote six songs on her first album, says, "You have to understand that there's nobody in the equation who stood to benefit by giving it to her straight." [MSNBC]

• Oh, and Britney is allowed to have telephone contact with her kids, as per the hearing last week. Still no physical contact, though. [TMZ]
• Meanwhile, Zoey 101, the hit show of which Jamie Lynn Spears is the star, has returned for another season; the episodes were filmed before JLS became pregnant. This fourth season was always meant to be the last. [USA Today]
• Lindsay Lohan took at least one swig of vodka when she was out partying with Brody Jenner, Samantha Ronson and Stavros on Friday night. Rehab shmehab. [Page Six]
• By the by, since Brody Jenner has a girlfriend, a model named Cora Skinner, he denies hooking up with Lindsay and has issued a statement: "We were hanging out as friends and nothing happened," Jenner said. "We weren't 'all over' each other, and we definitely weren't making out. I am dating and really happy with Cora." OK, awesome, thanks. [Rush & Molloy]
• Filming of Michelle Williams' new movie, Blue Valentine, which also starts Ryan Gosling, has been put on hold while she mourns the death of Heath Ledger. [People]
• Nigella Lawson, who shares a £100 million fortune with her husband, Charles Saatchi, doesn't want to leave her children any money. She believes that kids should make their own loot: "I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money." She has a point but damn that's cold. [Telegraph]
• Vanessa Paradis bombed at a music awards show in France? Eh, who cares, she's got Johnny Depp. [Perez Hilton]
• Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson earned a perfect score on his citizenship test and the Scottish-born funnyman will be sworn in a few weeks from now. Congrats! [USA Today]
• Despite the writers' strike, the Grammys will happen! The WGA and the Recording Academy made an agreement; the ceremony will be February 10. Now if Amy Winehouse can just get her shit together... [Yahoo News]
• Blind item! "Which reality-show clogged network had to change its casting procedures after a racist internal policy was leaked? Producers had an informal ban on considering cast members who were 'too black.' They claimed it was because darker skin tones were hard to pick up on camera." [Gatecrasher]
• Oooh, actress Sean Young caused a boozy ruckus at the Directors Guild of America party? Sounds fun. [Page Six]
• Tracy Morgan: Seen shirtless and dancing on a banquette while asking a waitress if he could father her baby. You know, the usual. [Page Six]
• Kathy Griffin: double-banned from The View? Guess Barbara doesn't like being made fun of. [Page Six]
• A year after their breakup, Kylie Minogue had a rendez-vous with ex Olivier Martinez — and his dog. She's said his dog "was the love of my life" and was important to her recovery from cancer. Aw, happiness is a warm puppy. [Daily Mail]

Nigella has her own theories about why we live in a society that would target both herself and women like Beyoncé — who is gorgeous and talented, but was recently described as "erupting" out of her dress at an awards show. "I think it is a fear of flesh," says Nigella, "maybe of vulnerability and softness. I do think that women who spend all their lives on a diet probably have a miserable sex life: if your body is the enemy, how can you relax and take pleasure? Everything is about control, rather than relaxing, about holding everything in."

Plus, since Nigella's mother, sister and husband died of cancer, thinness is not something she aspires to. "I associate thinness with dying," she says. "When [my mother] had cancer, she said, 'This is the first time I have eaten without worrying,' and that is chilling."

The worst part? That women are doing this to other women. "In my experience, the weight thing is an almost totally female problem. I never feel bad about my weight around men, only women," claims Nigella. And, according to Watson, we're in a battle over our bodies:

The underlying issue is becoming clear. In the fat camp are those who represent the forces of goodness and womanliness, or indulgence and ill discipline, depending on where you stand on the scales; in the skinny camp are the savvy, fit, modern girls, or the life-deniers - if you're not so thin yourself. The size you are is a statement of your entire life philosophy, and the gulf between the two camps is filled with fear and misunderstanding. It is war, ladies, and it is our war. We are making enemies of each other on the basis of body shape.

The Big Issue [The Times]