• Last night, David Letterman revealed that a CBS News employee is accused of trying to extort $2 million from him because he had sexual relationship with female employees.

The guy threatened to write a screenplay and a book about Letterman unless he was given money. Letterman says: "I was worried for myself, I was worried for my family. I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I had done." [AP]

• CBS is saying Letterman's accused extortionist was an employee at the news program 48 Hours named Robert Halderman, and he was arrested yesterday. [LA Times, Reuters, HuffPo]
• The New York Post is calling the Letterman incident a "sextortion" plot. [NY Post]
• Kanye West and Lady Gaga's "Fame Kills" tour is dead. Canceled before it ever started. Refunds will be made available. [AP]
• A source says the Fame Kills ticket sales "sucked." Lady Gaga may tour, but play smaller venues. [TMZ]
• They're saying Lindsay Lohan poses on a "stripper pole" in ads for her line of leggings, 6126. But that pole looks structural! [NY Daily News]
• Jon Gosselin says he had "no idea" he was being fired, and that he "found out just like everybody else … saw it on a laptop as an [Associated Press] newswire." His lawyer also says that Jon was going to "pull the plug" on the show weeks before TLC fired him. [People]
• Even though Jon has blocked the TLC crews from coming to the house, Kate Gosselin says: "Jon has never expressed any concerns to me about our children being involved in the show, and, in fact, is on the record as saying he believes the show benefits our children." [Gatecrasher]
• There's a Billboard cover story on Beyoncé, which reveals that she grossed some $53.5 million on her I Am… tour; she was the star and executive producer of the 2009 film Obsessed, which opened at No. 1 and has grossed more than $68.3 million in North America; the Knowles family has donated more than $2.5 million for transitional housing for Hurricane Katrina victims and storm evacuees in the Houston area; Beyoncé works with Feeding America to deliver more than 3.5 million meals to local food banks through fan donations; and, her father says: "Most people don't know this, but she's a really good painter." [ONTD via Billboard]
• WAIT WHAT?!?!? Liza Minnelli will do Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" in Sex And The City 2?!?!? Crap. Now that's something I want to see. [MSNBC Scoop]
• Simon Cowell's 50th birthday party — being held tomorrow at a mansion in Hertfordshire called Wrotham Park (it looks gorgeous!) — will have scantily clad showgirls and boys; tons of flowers; lots of food and cocktails; a smoker's tent; and performances by Rat Pack impersonators, Leona Lewis and maybe Lily Allen. Expect Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue, Donald Trump and possibly Paula Abdul to attend. [Daily Mail]
• Headline Of The Day: "Britney Spears Buys A Parakeet." [People]
• Britney's traveling aliases: Ms. Alotta Warmheart; Mrs. Diana Prince; Queen of the Fairy Dance and Mrs. Abra Cadabra. [Page Six]
• Weird: New York magazine's Emma Rosenblum sat next to Spencer Pratt when she attended a taping of The View yesterday. She writes: "So here are some facts about Spencie that you probably don't want to know, but I will tell you anyway: That necklace he's wearing is made of crystals, and he wears it to protect himself from evil. He has a 200-pound crystal from Peru in his house, which he had excavated and flown in specially. He's very proud of it. He laughs very loudly at anything that's semi-funny." [NY Mag]
• Since the Michael Jackson autopsy shows that the singer was healthy, it could be used against Dr. Conrad Murray: "It clearly establishes that Michael Jackson was a healthy person whose death appears to have been directly caused by the administration of some very powerful sedatives," says criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Mark Werksman. "This autopsy report seems to clear the path for a prosecution that his death was caused by an overdose." [AP]
• "CBS anchor Katie Couric yesterday kicked back at her critics saying she thought the word 'gravitas' — the characteristic she is often accused of lacking — was 'Latin for testicles.'" [NY Post]
• Jay-Z and Alicia Keys: Shot a video at the Empire State Building on Wednesday. [Gatecrasher]
• Lil' Wayne will go on trial next March stemming from the January 2008 incident in which authorities found cocaine, Ecstasy and a handgun on his tour bus. [USA Today]
• Kate Hudson has bonded with Alex Rodriguez's daughters, Natasha and Ella. She's not doing as well with the Yankees, the players wives or girlfriends. [MSNBC Scoop via In Touch]
• Oliver Hudson and wife Erin Bartlett are expecting their second child. [NY Daily News]
• "Mary-Louise Parker certainly isn't ashamed of her new romance with singer Charlie Mars." Why should she be? [Page Six]
• Even though Randy and Evi Quaid have paid their bill for their stay at the San Ysidro Ranch, they still face the charges of burglary, conspiracy and defrauding an innkeeper. Court date: October 19. [TMZ]
• The Tate Modern museum in London has a "Pop Life" exhibit, and director McG hooked up with Takashi Murakami for a four-minute film starring actress Kirsten Dunst singing a cover of "Turning Japanese." Click the link for an insanely colorful picture: Kiki's wearing a bright blue wig! [WSJ]
• "A lawyer for John Travolta testified Thursday that he warned a former Bahamas senator she would not get away with an alleged scheme to extort $25 million from the movie star, and even wore a wire to secretly record their conversations." [AP, TMZ]
• No one likes Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Peter Sellars' production ofOthello at NYU's Skirball Canter: Audiences have been leaving in droves at intermission. [Page Six]
• "Michael Moore, champion of the working class, used non-union stagehands to film Capitalism: A Love Story." [Page Six]
• In a video at the link, Mary Forsberg Weiland talks about her memoir, Fall To Pieces: A Memoir Of Drugs, Rock 'N Roll, And Mental Illness. She talks about the modeling world, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and how she and Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland did heroin and cocaine together. The book contains an anecdote about a Fourth of July party at Leonardo DiCaprio's house in Malibu, where the Weilands arrived in long-sleeved turtlenecks to hide needle tracks and scabs. [Blabbermouth]
• "Workers at an Arizona cryonics facility mutilated the frozen head of baseball legend Ted Williams - even using it for a bizarre batting practice, a new tell-all book claims." [NY Daily News]
• "John Cleese takes a goose-step backwards with one-man show to fund £12million divorce." [Daily Mail]
• "Fame… It kind of kills the humanity and the humility of music for some reason. You're like this product all of a sudden and you have to stay in this Superman costume with people telling you that if you cut your hair, your career is over." — Maxwell, who no longer rocks the giant Afro he once did. [Washington Post]
• "Women don't like the humor when it's combined with inconsideration and insensitivity." — Larry David, on his dating life. [LA Times]
• "There are people that I want to work with but I'm too intimidated. There are a few people that I'd be worried about working with — the greats: Jack Nicholson, Scorsese and Clint Eastwood. So there are still people out there who intimidate me. I think they would catch me out finally. I've got away with murder until now and they would blow that."— Ricky Gervais. [Mirror]
• "I don't think of myself as a typical comedian. I'm just a normal bloke who says things he observes. I don't even really tell jokes with punch lines. But people seem to connect." — Ricky Gervais. [USA Today]
• "One of the things I like about this movie is that my character, for example, is made up all the time. She always looks cute. So she's cute and covered in tats and willing to punch people while wearing dresses and cute shoes. The merging of that: you can be a strong, rough-and-tumble woman, but still be a woman. All of that can be bundled into one. That's definitely a lesson that I currently have been learning the last couple years myself, so it spoke volumes to me." — Whip It's Zoë Bell. [BoxOffice.com]
• Your name is on fans' dream team list for Ridley Scott's prequel to Alien. "Wouldn't that be awesome!? That absolutely has to happen. There was an article where someone CGIed my head onto Sigourney Weaver's body. It's kind of creepy, but I liked it. I sent it to my people and was like, 'Make this happen!' That'd be so sick! That's the kind of stuff I would like to do. Linda Hamilton in Terminator and Sigourney Weaver in Alien-those are the kind of roles we don't have enough of." — Zoë Bell. [BoxOffice.com]
• "I am a hippie girl with anger issues, I get it…" And: "I was so obsessed with happy endings in my 20s. In my 30s, I'm like, a good day is a good day." And: "I do a very serious, disciplined, mature job. That said, I love to go get plastered with my friends on a Saturday night and let it go, but… I'm up on Monday morning at 6 a.m. and I don't stop for seven days straight." — Drew Barrymore. [The Daily Beast]
• "The bride will fight again!" — Quentin Tarantino says he intends to make Kill Bill 3. [Page Six]
• "I think my acting is offensive!" — Lauren Conrad. [People]
• "I just put on a 'Snuggie' and ate a popsicle." — Miley Cyrus, who has strep throat two weeks before her world tour. [NY Daily News]

• "I think that the world was not fair to her, and they're just using her and not dignifying her. I think she's a survivor and she's doing very well."- Yoko Ono on Britney Spears. [USWeekly]

• Lindsay Lohan has reportedly been kicked out of the Bowery Hotel after a fight with Samantha Ronson, wherein Lohan threw a room service tray at a door she thought belonged to Ronson, but actually belonged to another guest. Whoops! [TheSun]
• One source is reporting that Lohan was escorted from the premises by police. Oh, Linds. [Hollyscoop]
• Apparently Avril Lavigne was spotted partying on Brandon Davis' yacht in the French Riviera long before her split from husband Deryck Whibley: "She was seen downing shots, drinking booze from the bottle and play-fighting men on the beach," says a source, "She wasn't acting like a married woman at all." [PageSix]
• "I was not ‘the slut' in high school. I was not an outcast but I didn't have a ton of friends. I got picked on, and I ate lunch in the bathroom because I was afraid of being picked on in the cafeteria. I was a loner, and I think that's OK. I think it's perfectly acceptable not to run with cliques."- Megan Fox [ShowbizSpy]
• "You're a good Irish lad who is going to be a great father."- Bono to Colin Farrell [PageSix]
• Angelina Jolie is reportedly "wasting away" due to sadness over her relationship with Brad Pitt. [ShowbizSpy]
• After skipping the line to gain entrance to a club, Justin Timberlake told fans he was "way too drunk" to pose for photos. [PageSix]
• John Travolta will fly to the Bahamas next week to be a witness for the prosecution in the extortion trial surrounding the death of his son, Jett. [TMZ]
• Amy Winehouse is "in constant pain" after a series of dental procedures she underwent to fix her teeth and gums. [TheSun]
• A crew member at a Killers/Psychedelic Furs concert rushed the stage while the Killers were playing to announce that "Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time and The Psychedelic Furs had one of the best songs of all time." It was all a big joke, of course. [TheSun]
• Scott Weiland had a seizure while on a flight from Los Angeles to Miami; he was taken to the hospital "for precautionary measures." [TMZ]
• "My first shot at Hollywood didn't work out and I had to go back to my parents' place in Virginia. I worked as a supply teacher in the day and a bartender at night. I was a loser who felt the need to justify myself to the kids I was teaching. I was always saying stuff like: 'Don't get used to me being around, kids, because I'm going back to Hollywood to direct a movie soon.'"-Danny McBride [Guardian]
• Drew Carey showed his generosity by buying every patron in a restaurant lunch on Thursday. [TMZ]
• Tilda Swinton "is a direct descendant of legendary Scottish king Robert the Bruce." [MSN]
• "You know, honestly, I'm trying not to make it into a bigger deal than it already is. It's kind of become more of a bigger deal than I thought it would be. I would just like to move on a little bit. ...I didn't know what to think but I think we should talk about something else. It's nothing I feel like we should talk about."-Taylor Swift on the public's ongoing fascination with Kanye West's interruption at the VMA awards. [DailyExpress]
• Leonard Cohen has left the hospital and is recovering after collapsing on stage during a performance in Spain. [Yahoo]
• Kristen Stewart's ex-boyfriend, Michael Angarano is reportedly waiting for Stewart to dump Robert Pattinson: "Michael's convinced Kristen's going to tire of Rob," says a source, "He's still crazy about her, so he's positioning himself to be there when the Rob romance crumbles." Meanwhile, 18 billion screaming Twilight fans just volunteered to "comfort Rob" when the romance crumbles, as long as he changes his name to Edward Cullen, legally. [ShowbizSpy]

• Susan Boyle was "comforted" by psychiatrists before the Britian's Got Talent finale. Then she lost. [Daily Mail]
• Paramedics and police were called to help a "spaced-out" Susan Boyle through a hotel lobby early Sunday. [NY Daily News, NY Post]
• Now? Susan Boyle is in a mental hospital:

She had an "emotional breakdown." Sources say she is suffering from exhaustion: "She was very tired and hasn't been sleeping." Can I just say that I know someone who was on America's Got Talent and for 99% of the time that you're involved, the producers fuck with your head? They tell you you're amazing, and to "do what you do best," and if the judges don't like it, you're supposed to tell them off. There's no doubt that being on the show is a mindfuck. [The Sun, BBC News]

• Judge Piers Morgan says of Susan Boyle: I spoke to her yesterday for about half an hour and she's fine. She's gone in for some rest. She needs to get away from everyone – get away from the show, from the media, the public, and just have a bit of down time to herself." [People]
• "Susan Boyle set for £6million fortune with hit album and blitz on America." [Mirror]
• Bruno (aka Sacha Baron Cohen) — wearing angel wings and a butt-exposing jockstrap — flew in to the MTV Movie Awards over the audience, on a wire — but a "mishap" cause him to get stuck and lowered over the crowd, with his ass right in Eminem's face. (Video here.) Eminem was pissed and stormed out — but was he in on the joke? [AP, People]
• Eminem reportedly said, "Get this motherfucker off me." [NY Daily News]
• Kate Hudson and Madonna were both at Veuve Clicquot's Manhattan Polo Classic on Governors Island Saturday afternoon, and there was no clawing scratching catfight now that Kate is dating A-Rod, because her Madgesty doesn't give a shit. [Gatecrasher]
• If you missed the angsty, muscular, fuzzy, werewolfy New Moon trailer, see it here. [NY Daily News]
• Are Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt regretting their decision to join the cast of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here? Apparently the couple threatened to quit the show and Heidi bitched, "I wish they got some real celebrities like K-Fed." [RyanSeacrest.com]
• Here are some "leaked" pictures (possibly from a cellphone) of Rihanna and Chris Brown kissing and cuddling, from happier days. [The Sun]
• "Chris Brown Predicts Next Album Will Be His Biggest." [People]
• Although she never confirmed that she is pregnant, Jennifer Hudson had a baby shower in Chicago. [UPI, Chicago Tribune]
• If you ever wanted to lick Daniel Craig's abs, here is your chance: An ice cream company created a purple "licence to chill" popsicle crafted to look like 007 in Casino Royale. As you'll see in the picture, things get real weird below the waist… dude's hands and hips are fused together. [Telegraph]
• Thank Zeus: The rumor that TLC will send the kids to a Swiss boarding school and just have a show called Jon & Kate Unleashed is totally false. [TMZ]
• This weekend, Jon Gosselin was in New York, shopping; Kate Gosselin and the kids (and the bodyguard) were in Bald Head Island, N.C. Separate lives. [MSNBC Scoop]
• The eldest daughter of Billy Bob Thornton has been charged with child neglect; a one-year-old she was babysitting died in October. She and Billy Bob are estranged, but he calls the situation "an unimaginable tragedy." [TMZ]
• Seen having an intimate dinner: Drew Barrymore and Adrien Grenier. Hmm, his eco-mindedness and her flower-child persona could be perfect together! [Perez]
• Stephanie Pratt told Sandra Bullock she was her grandfather's favorite actress. Unsult! Stephanie also said: "Oh, he's dead now, but the two films of yours he used to watch over and over were Miss Congeniality and Pretty Woman." Sandy replied: "Well, if I were actually in 'Pretty Woman' I'd be very flattered." [LA Times]
• Victoria Beckham is freaked out by the earthquakes in L.A. — she and her family are having lessons in a tremor simulator, to learn what to do. Scream and head for a doorframe? [Daily Mail]
• That oh-so-lovely painting of Madonna and Guy Ritchie by artist Peter Howson failed to sell at auction yesterday. Wonder why? [Daily Express]
• Amy Winehouse may have canceled her UK comeback gig, but she is still working on her third album; and this is a picture of Amy strolling the beach and playing guitar, which proves that somehow. [Daily Mail]
• Simon Cowell has spent all week with his "glamorous" ex-girlfriend, Jackie St. Claire. That is a steamy romance novel name, you gotta admit. [Daily Mail]
• At next week's Venice Biennale, Yoko Ono, called here "the world's most famous rock widow" will receive the Golden Lion award for a lifetime's achievement in the visual arts. [Financial Times]
• Donald Trump has changed Miss California USA Carrie Prejean's contract, throwing out the clauses which forbid her from making unauthorized appearances and penning a tell-all book. Her lawyer, who helped work the deal, is also the lawyer for NOM. Naturally. [Perez]
• Some 500 actors, including George Clooney and Tom Hanks, urged members of SAG — the largest U.S. actors union — to vote "yes" on a new contract with Hollywood's major studios on Friday. [Reuters]
• Paul McCartney will be the first musician to perform at Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets, on July 17. [UPI]
• Catherine Zeta-Jones was paid £1.55m in salary and expenses to appear in a shampoo commercial which will be broadcast in China and Japan; that comes to about at £3,691 for every second she appears on screen. Her hair is super shiny, I must say. [Times of London]
• Katie "Jordan" Price has agreed to give estranged husband Peter Andre a "quickie" divorce. [Daily Mail]
• Will Princess Eugenie join a British reality show based on The Hills? [Daily Mail]
• John Travolta is "struggling" five months after the death of his son, and can't promote his new film, The Taking of Pelham 123. Costar Denzel Washington says: "One moment he's OK and the next he's in tears." [CNN]
• Halle Berry is in talks to star in The Surrogate, a film about a a couple desperate to have a child — and then find out the surrogate they hired to carry their baby is insane. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Lisa Ling has written a statement, pleading for the release of her sister, Laura Ling, as well as journalist Euna Lee, who were arrested in North Korea. It reads, in part: "It has been nearly three months since their arrest… We have been holding our breath… Laura and Euna are journalists who were simply doing their job. They have been charged with 'illegal entry,' and 'hostility to the Korean nation.' We aren't certain of the details of what happened on March 17, but we can say with absolute certainty that when the girls left U.S. soil, they never intended to set foot onto North Korean territory. If at any point a transgression occurred, we sincerely apologize on their behalf." [People]
• Did you know that Spike TV has "Guys Choice" Awards? Well, they do. And Mickey Rourke was named Guy Of The Year on Saturday. Clint Eastwood was given a Brass Balls award. [UPI]
• Constantine Maroulis, who got a Tony nomination for his role in the Broadway show Rock Of Ages, says, "Oh, I'll never win. I'm pretty sure it will go to the guys from Billy Elliot." He also says he would love to do Shakespeare: "I'd cut off my hair tomorrow." [NY Times]
• Haha: Harry Connick Jr. got his tarot cards read by a fortune teller and asked if he "could double down" if the news was good. [Page Six]
• Here's a profile on Tom Barrack, a financier who made billions buying and selling distressed properties — his latest investment is Michael Jackson. [LA Times]
• Lori Petty, aka Tank Girl: Arrested! The charges are felony DUI and allegedly hitting a skateboarder with her car… [TMZ]
• Tonight's the night! Conan O'Brien hosts The Tonight Show. "It's a venerated, beloved NBC franchise," O'Brien says. "That doesn't mean I can't do silly things in that space, but the space itself should be beautiful." [UPI]
• Andy Richter is excited to be back on TV with Conan O'Brien: "I'm not gonna lie to you. A steady paycheck is a very rare thing in show business generally. And specifically right now a very rare thing. That in itself is the sublime revelation. To get that stress lifted, man, life is really nice." [LA Times]
• Sophie Dahl has a book about food and says: "I'm naturally very greedy. I go to bed wondering what to have for breakfast." [Mirror]
• Kylie Minogue and her model man, Andres Velencoso, are about to buy a beachside Villa in Spain. [Daily Express]
• Natasha Richardson left most of her assets to husband Liam Neeson, but also set aside money for her half-sister, a costume designer and and employee in London. [TMZ]
• Scott Weiland's estranged wife, Mary Forsberg, will publish her memoir, Fall To Pieces, in October. As you may know, Weiland was arrested on battery charges while with Forsberg, a former model. Her book is described as a ""visceral, rollercoaster ride inside bipolar disorder, rock 'n' roll, celebrity culture, and the competitive world of modeling from a rock star wife and recovering drug addict." [Daily Express]
• Tom Sizemore will be on the third season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew — but so is his ex-girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss. He was convicted of assaulting her back in 2003. Now they have to share space and airtime. [TMZ]
• Pete Doherty says The Libertines will reunite next year. Just when people have ceased to care! [The Sun]
• "Rock legend Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager as part of an insurance scam, a new book by one of his former aides claims." [Daily Mail]
• Words you maybe thought you'd never read: Phil Spector blogging from prison. Just so you know: The authorities took his wig, and he's befriended a cockroach – "I'm naming him Wilson" – and is playing air chess with him. Raise your hand if you think this is fake. [ONTD via Daily Express]
• Blind item! "Which sexy rapper was rolling on Ecstasy during a recent VIP event?" [Gatecrasher]
• "Most of the time I think, deep down, I'm three different people. You have to jump from place to place – go along with the situation. It's different, wherever you are. You gotta roll with it." — Prince Harry. [Mirror]
• "If it happened now, Bill would go to jail."— Mandy Smith on the Rolling Stone (Bill Wyman) who seduced her at the age of 13. She married him in1989, when she was 19 and he was 53. [Daily Mail]
• "He's a good influence. He doesn't drink or do drugs or anything like that. And I have a girlfriend so it's not like I hit on girls with him. He's the best, a very sweet professional and incredibly smart." — Jonah Hill on Russell Brand. [Mirror]
• "I feel sexier now than I did then: it's what's in my head that's sexier. If I could go back and be in my 25-year-old body with my head, boy, would I be dangerous… I've read books like The Beauty Myth. I guess I see it very differently. I don't use beauty products or dye my hair to please anyone else; I don't do it to capture a man, I do it because it's something I enjoy. I think it's innate, something you're born with. Femininity is an amazing quality and with it comes wanting to dress beautifully – as a little girl, it's in your nature. I watched my daughters do it – you don't teach them." — Andie MacDowell. [Daily Mail]
• "We should stop cutting music programmes in schools. It's vitally important that our kids are exposed to music: give them the opportunity to play instruments. It's still a mystery to me, the whole idea of how you write songs, and I've been doing it all my life." — Sting. [BBC News]
• "I'm not one of those people that can suddenly start running and hire a Pilates trainer, it's just not my thing. Walks helped clear my head. I was weighing myself once a week, just trying not to be obsessive about it. I just wanted to feel better; I wanted to feel healthy… It was never about that Hollywood pressure to lose weight, I laugh at that. It was always just an issue of health. Some people have been calling it a comeback, I actually call it a resurfacing." — Nia Vardalos, who slimmed down after blood sugar issues. [People]
• Q:Do you have any advice for aspiring stars? A: "I do. No. 1, stay clean and sober. Say no to drugs and alcohol, especially if you're under 18. No. 2, make sure you have a credible agent [or adult] with you at all times when you go into photography studios. No. 3, when you start out shooting your portfolio, don't let photographers rip you off or steal your money. You only need 10 good pictures. No. 4, make sure your agent is credible." — Janice Dickinson, who has a soon-to-be-released pop song called "Crazy." [Star Tribune]
• "People sometimes think I'm on drugs when I'm not. It's because I am actively in my creative headspace. I operate in a different way to other artists." — Lady GaGa, who is newly single. [News Of The World]
• "They think this is a game show. It isn't. It's arduous. It's fighting hunger. Since I haven't eaten in 32 years, it won't affect me. After I have sex with Sanjaya, he'll come out of the closet and run out of the jungle." — Janice Dickinson, on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. [Page Six]

• Kanye West has been charged with battery, theft and vandalism stemming from that incident last September in which he smashed a paparazzi's camera at LAX. He's planning a fly courtroom outfit right now. [TMZ, Mirror, Gatecrasher]

• Here is piece about Natasha Richardson's life and death, including who visited her before she was taken off of life support (Joan Didion; Meryl Streep.) [NY Post]
• Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson's mother, played Joan Didion on Broadway, and the play was about losing a daughter. [Fox 411]
• Rihanna's "mentor" (?), producer Evan Rogers, says all the attention from Oprah and Tyra Banks makes matters worse: "I think that everyone has good intentions and means well, but it turns up the heat in terms of it seeming like the whole world is telling her what to do." Eh, she needs to listen. [MSNBC]
• Rihanna's car was pulled over last night in Hollywood for having tinted windows and no front license plate. She was in the backseat, not driving. [TMZ]
• A judge has issued a restraining order against Britney's ex, Adnan Ghalib. It's in effect until 2012, and there's no way he can wait that long. [NY Post]
• Uh-oh: Jessica Lange fell in her home, suffering a broken collarbone and a small cut on her forehead. Be well! [Daily Mail]
• Oh snap! LeAnn Rimes is not denying that she's having an affair with Eddie Cibrian, (as noted in Midweek Madness.) She says, "This is a difficult time for me and my loved ones." [NY Daily News]
• Jason Segel brought a date to the premiere party of I Love You, Man and she passed out by the pool and had to be carried out on a stretcher. Must have been an awesome bash! [Page Six]
• Katie Holmes: Not on a special Scientology diet; not pregnant. Despite everything we've heard. [E!]
• Sad face: One of Oprah's cocker spaniel puppies died and the other one is sick. Sadie the puppy is fighting a life-threatening disease called parvovirus. Hope she pulls through! [NY Daily News]
• Shocker: "Kate Moss Parties For The Third Night In A Row." [Daily Mail]
• Prince William has a "Harry Potter scar" but no magical abilities, as far as we know. [Yahoo News via AFP]
• Here is a picture of Gwyneth Paltrow picking off of Madonna's plate. [Janet Charlton's Hollywood]
• Some phone billionaire paid Leona Lewis £1 million to sing at his daughter's 21st birthday party. In this economy! [Telegraph]
• The Colbert Report will spend a week taping on a USO tour in the Persian Gulf; Comedy Central is claiming this is the first TV series to shoot more than ep in a combat zone. Colbert says: "I can't tell you where I'm going, but the fact that I can't tell you where I'm going should tell you where I'm going." [Variety]
• Did Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell kiss?!!?!?! [E!]
• More rumors about Liz Hurley's marriage: "He keeps flying off to India. There's no sign of that longed-for baby. And gossips whisper about her terrible temper..." [Daily Mail]
• Gossip Girl spinoff news: Josh Schwartz says the new show will focus on Lily, played by Brittany Snow. "Brittany and Krysten Ritter have amazing chemistry as these mismatched sisters and Andrew McCarthy plays their father, which is incredible. We also got No Doubt to record a cover of Adam and the Ants' 'Stand and Deliver' for the show. They're going on tour and they don't have an album, so this is the only new song that they've done. They performed it on the show and everybody, Gwen [Stefani] and the band, were just super into it." [E!]
• As previously posted, Project Runway's Kenley Collins assaulted her now ex-fiancé with a cat yesterday and was arrested. She says: "It was a miscommunication. Fights happen, and that's that." But… what about the cat?!?! She also threw her laptop and three apples at the dude. [NY Post]
• Taylor Momsen tops this list of "Worst Celebrity Mullets." [ONTD]
• You know what's cool? How the new Real Housewives Of New Jersey — Italian ladies with mob ties — isn't stereotypical. At all. [NY Post, NY Daily News]
• Girls have "figured out his schedule" and are now stalking James Franco outside of his classes at Columbia University. At least they're learning something? [Page Six]
• Are the final four American Idol contestants already chosen? [E!]
• Kate Bosworth is single again; she dumped hot boyfriend James Rousseau. [Star]
• A folk singer is accusing Lil Wayne of copyright infringement. What a world. [NY Daily News]
• Alex Rodriguez is suing over a real estate deal. [TMZ]
• Chow Yun Fat will play Confucius in a new film, which is a pretty big deal, no? [Yahoo News via AFP]
• Thank Zeus: VH1 is bringing back Behind The Music. Lil Wayne and Scott Weiland have signed on; expect sex and drugs and drama! [Yahoo News via Hollywood Reporter]
• Actor Stacy Keach was hospitalized Tuesday after suffering a mild stroke. [Variety]
• "She was a wonderful woman and actress and treated me like I was her own. I didn't see much of her over the years but I will miss her. My heart goes out to her family. This is a tragic loss." — Lindsay Lohan on Natasha Richardson, who played her mother in The Parent Trap. [E!]
• "It was my responsibility as a kid to regulate her pills. I remember sitting in hotel rooms, opening capsules, emptying out the drugs and filling the capsules with sugar…I was taught to never, ever call an ambulance, no matter what happened. I was to call my father or someone else never an ambulance because it would get into the press. I was taught at a young age to lie, to deceive, to manipulate." — Lorna Luft, on her mother, Judy Garland. [Page Six]
• "He's been in touch a little. The apologies come, and he was like, 'I made a big mistake.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, yeah, I know. Go ahead and say what you need to say to feel better and to sleep at night.'" — Dita Von Teese on Marilyn Manson, to Inked magazine. [Page Six]
• "When I got the call, I was playing pool with Scott. I remember picking up the phone and someone started asking me how the Veterans Day parade was. At first I didn't even recognize who it was, but it was my brother. He just sounded so down in the dumps, I had never heard him like that! He told me he got the letter I'd been dreading and everything just changed. My mind was going a mile a minute. Everything disappeared, Scott, the cameras, I was just absorbed in that phone call. At first I wanted so bad for my brother to say he was joking, but he wasn't." — Ryan Conklin, of The Real World, who was called back to serve in Iraq. [LA Times]
• "When me and my dad played pool, he'd always beat me. I'd like be putting 'em quickly. But he'd be really slow and methodical and then just wait for me to mess up. And as soon as I did, he'd be like this [swishing noise]. So when I decided to take that method, and really take my time and take one careful shot, I'd always beat him. Always. I just know now that if you take your time with something, things just seem to work out best." — Idris Elba. [USA Today]

• German fashionisto: "She's is no runway model. Heidi Klum is simply too heavy and has too big a bust. And she always grins so stupidly. That is not avant-garde - that is commercial." Me-ow! [VogueUK]

• Kaiser Karl piles on: "I don't know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn't know who she is." This dismissal comes as Heidi helms the third season German Top Model. We're guessing Mrs. Seal is crying all the way to the bank. Maybe in a diamond-encrusted bra.[VogueUK]
• Stylist Patricia Field's advice to real-life Shopaholics? "Find a rich husband." Thanks, will do. Someone's been spending a little too much time with the Carrie Bradshaw crew...[Fabsugar]
• Photos of Rachel Roy's fall collection are up. The models in the presentation all wore black bobbed wigs and black lipstick — echoing Yves St. Laurent in Paris last September. The clothes were all white, with touches of gray, pale yellow and blue, and black. [WWD]
• Bluefly.com is upping its presence within the fictional worlds of fashion-related television and movies. Since the company noticed site traffic spiked during the episodes of Project Runway it sponsored, it set about buying ads within other media, too — most notably Gossip Girl (did you think it was an accident when Serena kissed Dan in Times Square and there was a Bluefly billboard behind them?) and Isla Fisher's Confessions Of A Shopaholic. [WSJ]
• If you heard a rumor that Thom Yorke was going to be playing the music for the Rag & Bone show today at 5 p.m., I am here to tell you it ain't so. But Yorke did act as a musical designer for the show — although that still doesn't mean he'll be present. [Men.Style.com]
• 25 garment workers who were required to work over 80 hours a week and only intermittently paid the princely sum of $3 an hour won their lawsuit against their former employers, New York's Liberty Apparel. Liberty had used subcontractors to attempt to shift blame. As competition for jobs in the garment sector worsens — in 2008, the jobs available shrank by 7% in New York City, and U.S. Bureau of Labor figures for January of 2009 showed 9,600 garment workers were laid off nationwide that month alone — working conditions are believed to worsen. [Crain's]
• British supe Lily Cole plays a model called Lettuce Leaf in the upcoming film Rage, a murder mystery set in the New York fashion world, which also stars Dame Judi Dench, Jude Law, Steve Buscemi, and Eddie Izzard. You can watch a clip, mostly in English, of Cole as Lettuce Leaf and hear her talk about modeling, blogs, and beauty while doing promo work at the Berlin Film Festival. "There's a big gulf often between appearance and, you know, the reality, like seeming and being," says Cole. "Fashion illustrates that quite clearly because you only ever see the exterior and you don't really know what's going on behind. But it's true of every human, some to more extent, some to lesser extent, that there's a difference between the truth of that person and their own internal struggles and difficulties and loves and joys, and how they present themselves to the rest of the world." Watch, if only for the moment when she suddenly takes off her wig during Lettuce Leaf's monologue. [Spiegel Online]
• Speaking of voyeurism, here's a bunch of pretty pictures of designers doing last-minute runway show stuff. It's supposed to be hectic, still looks glam. [WWD]
• Ikram Goldman, owner of the Chicago boutique Ikram and de facto stylist for a certain First Lady, is of course at New York fashion week. She refused to talk about anything Obama-related in this interview. [Paper]
• Not so tight-lipped is Benjamin Cho. The designer, who's not showing at fashion week this season, says he wishes Michelle Obama dressed more sophisticatedly. Her inauguration outfits "got a little cheesy." Cho thinks her style is too retro. "It would be nice if she wore like a Jil Sander shift dress. Or something interesting like that — more sophisticated." Can we talk about something else than Michelle Obama's clothes now? [The Cut]
• Kelly Cutrone always has an interesting take on powerful women! On Michelle Obama: "She's the first lady in the White House in 50 years who actually looks like she's getting fucked." Hm. That wasn't the kind of non-sartorial discussion I meant. [The Cut]
• Anna Sui apparently has a book deal with Chronicle. [Fashionista]
• Australian label Morrissey is going out of business. [News.com.au]
• The video that Halston put together instead of a show or presentation is now live at their website. It's undeniably beautiful — I love the part where the model kicks off her stilettos — but how are you supposed to get any idea of the clothes via grainy digital video? [Halston]
• Two pieces of statuary from Yves St. Laurent's art collection, which is to be auctioned at Christie's by his partner, Pierre Bergé, are believed to have been stolen by looting French troops in 1860 from Beijing's imperial Summer Palace. China wants the statues, originally part of a fountain representing the Chinese zodiac, repatriated, but the treaty that covers such claims states only things taken since 1970 have to be returned. A Hong Kong billionaire might bid on the statues and take them back to China. [Time]
• Here's a look at some of the more unusual highlights of St. Laurent and Bergé's eclectic collection. [WSJ]
• Ew. Scott Weiland, who in no way deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the late, great Yves, is debuting a men's line with L.A. label English Laundry. [WWD]
• Thank dog designers are taking the pulse of the times and scaling back on vulgar runway shows! To show her sensitivity to the zeitgest, Monique Lhuillier premiered her collection of ballgowns, "Modern Ballet Russes," at the Plaza, where guests quaffed champagne. [WSJ]
• Donna Karan, for her part, relieves her social conscience by giving out a truly ugly tee to all comers to Sunday's runway show. The tee has a bunch of worthy charities listed on the back (including Donna Karan's Urban Zen Foundation) and their contact info, should the fashionistas feel that receiving a free shirt is not doing their part. [WWD]
• We've been burned by Target's accessories collabs in the past, but listen up, kids: Erickson Beamon for Target, which hits this Sunday, looks outstanding. Glimpses show a lot of vintage costume jewelry-inspired statement pieces and one old lady chic pendant we'll fight you for. [Fabsugar]
• The new all-things-moddle web site Modelina (remember how they handed out those model "campaign buttons" during the election?) is not only up and running and spilling mannequin gossip, but has launched a pr stunt we can get behind: fashion-themed Necco conversation hearts! A "Kiss Karl" in clove would just about make our weekends, although we're not sure why. [Glam.com]
• Is this the end of an era? Abercrombie's 4th Quarter profits were down a whopping 68%! [AP]
• We'll believe it when we see it, but now they say the first American Top Shop will be opening in April.They've cried...um, "high-concept fast fashion?" one too many times! [WWD]

• Lindsay Lohan and Sean Penn: Hung out all evening. For real. And! Is LL in denial about the fact that Samantha Ronson has broken up with her? [Page Six]

• Lindsay looks pretty good in this behind-the-scenes video from her Interview magazine cover shoot. [Pop Dirt]
• Close friends and family attended the memorial service for Jett Travolta yesterday afternoon. Lisa Marie Presley, James Gandolfini, Kirstie Alley, Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood, Forest Whitaker and wife Keisha were among the mourners. [USA Today]
• Nicole Kidman on watching herself in Australia: "I squirmed in my seat. I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done. I sat there and I looked at Keith and went, 'Am I any good in this movie?'" [Daily Mail]
• Angelina and Brad are not, repeat, not married. Taraji P. Henson slipped when she called Angelina Brad's wife: "I mean, they have a family, they live together. What is married really? It's like they are married." [Yahoo News via E!]
• Wow, the Golden Globes website announced that Anne Hathaway won a Golden Globe for Rachel Getting Married a few days early! The info has since disappeared, but if you're in an office pool, consider this one a freebie. [Socialite Life via New York Mag, JustJared]
• Katie Holmes walked into a busy Dean & Deluca in SoHo, Manhattan yesterday, carrying Suri. She waited on line to pay for a cookie for Suri and then walked down the block to Uniqlo, where Suri ate her cookie and Katie bought cardigans. [WWD]
• Lily Allen is giving up clubbing! She has a whole new modus operandi: "I hang out with much older people. I go for dinners at posh places and talk about art. I’m meeting more interesting people who tax my brain." [The Sun]
• Ashley Olsen doesn't wash her hands when she leaves a public toilet. [Page Six]
• Oh dear. Everything was going so well down in the Caribbean. But now Amy Winehouse has hurled a glass of water at a female tourist. She apologized. But a source says: "She walks around in the same grimy bikini bottoms each day with her boobs on show, gets drunk, gropes waiters and is rude to male staff. She’s hardly the most popular guest." But, isn't that the way people act on vacation? [The Sun]
• Fill in the blank! Twilight star Robert Pattinson said the following to a chick at a bar in L.A.: "If I could, I’d have a _____ on the inside of my elbow so I could lick it all day long." [Gatecrasher]
• Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie, Bruno, is sure to piss some people off: There's a black model called Jesus wearing a loincloth and a crown of thorns; and Bruno, the gay Austrian fashion journalist, along with his boyfriend, Diesel, adopts an orphaned African baby boy named David and takes the kid to fashion shows. [Telegraph]
• Kanye West talks about his run-ins with the paparazzi in the new issue of Vibe: "I haven’t done anything violent. They make it seem like I actually went and hit the paparazzi. I haven’t. I was restrained. I’m good at restraining myself from committing violent acts. I know how to control my temper. That one paparazzo made it a bigger deal. I just put my hand up and he felt like he had more right to my personal space than I did. I put my hand up to stop him from shooting me." [Concrete Loop]
• Jermaine Dupri, like so many others lately, is out of a job. He was president of Island Records Urban Music. [Perez]
• This report claims Dupri was fired… because he stopped coming to work. [Page Six]
• Some trickster sent a handwritten letter and a demo CD to Rolling Stone in the name of Sean "Puffy" Combs, along with a pack of gum and a photo of Diddy, "intended as bribes." Nice try. [Rolling Stone]
• There's something oddly charming about this Chloë Sevigny Esquire interview, like when she explains her name: "The umlaut isn't on my birth certificate. I had this book as a child called Chloë and Maude, and there was an umlaut on the e, and I said, I want that! It's a little flair. Just to confuse people even more. People always come up to me and say, Oh, you're Chloë Se-VIG-ny, right? Sevigny. Number seven, letter e." [Esquire]
• You probably forgot that R. Kelly was married, so it will probably come as a shock to you that he is now officially divorced. [E!]
• Fergie's wedding to Josh Duhamel this saturday will be a "blinged-out affair." She's working with H. Stern on the jewelry, which means a PR blitz, which means pictures of the ceremony in the weeklies, for sure. [WWD]
• Patricia Arquette wants you to know that animal overpopulation is as easy as ABC: Animal Birth Control. [ONTD]
• Blind item! "Which mega-athlete got duped by his wife? She swore she was on the pill but wasn’t, and that led to an unexpected bundle of joy." [Gatecrasher]
• Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones' new NBC sitcom is not an Office spinoff; there's a hospital involved, and Human Giant's Aziz Ansari will also star. He says: "The script is hilarious." [Gatecrasher]
• Will TR Knight stay with Grey's Anatomy? Chandra Wilson says yes: "Every script that comes down has O'Malley's name in it, so we're going to do right by the fans, and we're going to do right by the actors, but right now we're all together." [E!]
• Lil' Kim did not go to see the new flick about Notorious B.I.G., but Faith Evans, who was married to Big Poppa, says: "I couldn’t even watch the trailer without crying. I’m going to have to peel off my fake eyelashes!" [Gatecrasher]
• If you're interested in knowing what Kelly Clarkson's new CD cover looks like, click away. [Perez]
• Scott Weiland is out of rehab but still has a terrible temper; he was seen calling some woman a piece of trash and throwing a pack of cigarettes at her head. [Page Six]
• Merle Haggard is suing an environmental awareness group for illegally using his name and likeness. But doesn't the planet need the cash??? [AP]
• Serena Williams looks all PLAKOW in this behind-the-scenes video from her shoot for H magazine. [The Life Files]
• "I don't really have any concept of how money works. I don't know how much things cost. Like a BMW. Or a quart of milk. It's embarrassing. My brother, when he was a commodities trader, would bring me the pamphlets you bring home to your children, like, 'Daddy trades orange juice.'" — Chloë Sevigny. [Esquire]
• "I do think it’s my best album to date. No, I actually know this is my best album to date. Do I think it will be my best album ever? No, I'll improve. Do I think there are mistakes in it? Yes. There has to be. I’m a human being. But I think it surpasses Graduation. These 12 tracks are going to resonate more than any 12 tracks of any album this year." — Kanye West on his current CD, 808s & Heartbreak. [Concrete Loop]
• "I've been living two different lives. By day I've got the leading role in a movie, in spite of having no acting training and very little experience. That's weird in itself. And at night I go home and my mum is telling me to make my bed, keep my room tidy and help with the washing-up. It keeps my feet on the ground, stops me from letting it all go to my head." — Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire. [Daily Mail]

• Holy Xenu! Katie Holmes looks freakin awesome on the cover of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. She claims she is not the pawn of Tom Cruise: "There's a misperception about me that I just became this wallflower, this woman who doesn't have any control of her life. "And that's pretty wrong. From the very beginning, I've made choices in my life that have been very strong." Plus: "When I met Tom I was completely in love and, yes, I admired him growing up — he's Tom Cruise! When I met him, he was so warm and I thought, Wow! You can be a superstar and a human being. He made me feel so amazing." [People]
• Another glamorous shot of Katie, and one of Tom Cruise, from T Magazine. [Pop Sugar]
• Amy Winehouse has "escaped" from her hospital bed and went to a recording studio and a friend's house before returning to the hospital "in the early hours." Sneaky! [The Sun]
• Alex Rodriguez speaks! About his relationship with Madonna! "We're friends – that's it. I've been to two [of her] concerts, yet I've read that I went to 20. I've also read that we were buying an apartment together. That is absolutely ridiculous and not true." [People]

• ¡Caliente! Rumor has it Shakira will perform at Barack Obama's inauguration in January. [Perez Hilton]
• Boy George: Found guilty! He falsely imprisoned a Norwegian male escort after a nude photoshoot, and will be sentenced January 16. [Yahoo News, Mirror,
• The escort told the court that Boy George yelled at him: "Fucking whore! Now you're going to get what you deserve." Guardian]
• Apparently Jennifer Aniston went on Oprah and talked about an Obama cake that she'd made? John Mayer says: "Jen and I made that cake together. She didn't really give me any credit for that cake. I was the architect on that cake. I put a lot of my time in designing that cake. I was a good man. I shared the process. From mixing to frosting….[she] took all the credit." He adds what seems to be a lame joke: "There's some trouble but we're getting over it…We're having therapy everyday in Brentwood…and we're figuring this out because that was my time to shine on Oprah." [Perez Hilton]
• Speaking of Oprah: Contrary to reports, her show may not end in 2011. "I'm not done!" she says. "I'm a very multi-dimensional woman. I can do a show. I can have OWN [the Oprah Winfrey Network]. I can have a magazine. I can do radio." You tell 'em! [UPI]
• Beyoncé's on the cover of Elle and admits that having a kid scares the crap out of her: "I'm terrified of having a child," she says. m terrified of delivering a child because I saw my nephew being born. That traumatized me. I'm only 27. I've got time." [People]
• Jennifer Hudson, who has been in seclusion since members of her family were killed, was nominated for four Grammys on Wednesday. She says: "It's been a childhood dream of mine to release an album, so to receive four Grammy nominations is truly a blessing. I am extremely honored and humbled by the nominations." [AP]
• George Clooney has a crush on a waitress. Also: The sky is blue. [The Sun]
• By the by, Clooney just raised £10 million for the victims of Darfur at a fancy London party. Guests included Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Cindy Crawford, Sarah Ferguson, Bono and Guy Ritchie. [Daily Mail]
• Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movie is disrupting residents of one street in London, and they want to reduce the number of days he can shoot there. They'd also love it if Guy would give them some cash. [Daily Express]
• Kate Moss is throwing a party to announce that she is pregnant?!? [ONTD]
• David Duchovny and Tea Leoni were spotted taking their kids out for frozen yogurt in New York and being lovey-dovey. It seems they may move into a new apartment together this month and are "working on" their relationship. [Star]
• If you care to see the impossibly sunny, blonde, annoying pictures of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt on their honeymoon, go ahead and click, you will not be judged. [Just Jared]
• Spencer is pissed that Heidi's mom is "furious" about the wedding and says he won't visit the in-laws for the holidays: "After that statement, the Pratts, as in Heidi Pratt and Spencer Pratt, will probably have their own Christmas tree out here," he says. Of course, all of this seems to be part of the "script" for The Hills. So. [E!]
• Shia LaBeouf had to drop out of a new film because "his hand is totally shattered, it’s much worse than anyone thought." He needs more surgery, you guys. [Fox 411]
• Was The House Bunny a hit? Anna Faris is "capitalizing" on it by lining up two new projects; a female buddy comedy and a romantic comedy. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Amy Adams will star in the film adaptation of the novel The Ten Best Days Of My Life, about a woman who dies and goes to heaven, but has to prove her worth by recounting her 10 best days. [Variety]
• The National Board of Review has named Anne Hathaway 2008's best actress for Rachel Getting Married; Slumdog Millionaire was best picture. [People]
• No one wants to live in the SoHo loft where Heath Ledger died. Even if you have $26,000 a month, you can't rent it now — it's temporarily off the market. [TMZ, Page Six]
• Heather Locklear was on The Tonight Show and admitted that she had a tough year. But! She has a sense of humor about her pill-popping DUI bust. "I've been better, but I'm good today," she said. And when Jay Leno asked if she would have done differently this year, she joked: "I would have stayed in my house." [People]
• Grey's Anatomy fans can find out a big secret about Denny's "afterlife love affair with Izzie" by clicking this link. [EW]
• Blythe Danner made oral sex jokes at a cocktail reception in honor of the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer fund. She lost her husband to the disease six years ago. [WWD]
• Miley Cyrus is not divorcing her parents, but if she did, it would be a lot easier for the 16-year-old to date a 20-year-old underwear model. [Yahoo News via E!]
• Jim Carrey, Spike Lee, Amy Poehler, Twilight's Kristen Stewart, Richard Gere, Zooey Deschanel, and Ashton Kutcher are among the stars with flicks in the Sundance Film Festival. Will there be a breakout indie hit this year? [USA Today]
• Former SNL star Rachel Dratch is in a musical, and it might go to Broadway. "It's about a burlesque club the cops are trying to shut down," she says. "It has crazy burlesque dancing and clever dance numbers. I'm not in them, I just watch." [NY Mag]
• Cops are looking for 2 people in the shooting of Mark Ruffalo's brother, though a motive has not been released. [AP]
• Bob Dylan's room at the famed Chelsea Hotel in New York: Destroyed. Sledgehammered and ripped up, in the name of renovations. [Gothamist]
• Someone is suing Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines for defamation, and it has to do with the 1993 murders of three boys. [AP]
• Kathy Griffin tried to smooth things over with Clay Aiken, whom she called Gayken in her standup act, way before he came out, and she claims: "I would have to say he was not very nice." [E!]
• Some dumb paparazzi asked Robin Williams' daughter Zelda why her dad wasn't partying with her: "You don't take an alcoholic out to a club," she explained. Also, why would she be clubbing with her dad? [TMZ]
• Rocker Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay, accusing the band of plagiarizing one of his songs. [Yahoo News]
• David Hasselhoff's ex wife: Kicked out of the Hoff's house. By a judge. [TMZ]
• The Real World: Brooklyn is coming to MTV January 7th. The "strangers" living in the house are an Iraq war veteran, a former beauty queen, a hip hop dancing hippie, a punk rock Mormon, a dolphin trainer, a computer geek, an abs model and an advocate for victims of abuse. Good luck! [MTV.com]
• Not a joke: Pete Doherty will replace Pete Townshend in The Who. For one night only. For charity. [The Sun]
• Did you know that before Madonna was cast in Evita, Michelle Pfeiffer had the role? Click to hear her sing some demo tracks. [ONTD]
• Erik Estrada must love being, not just playing a cop: He'll be working the night shift at the Muncie Police Department in Indiana this week. [USA Today]
• UK's Channel 4 is poking fun at the death of Princess Diana? [Daily Mail]
• RIP Paul Benedict, also known as Bentley from The Jeffersons. [AP]
• "I was separated from my dad for most of my life, but we forgave each other for whatever had happened. It’s huge for me. He’s been the most supportive dad. No matter what has happened, he’s always been there. And especially right now - he’s been so great. He really helped me out." — Evan Rachel Wood, who reunited with her father over Thanksgiving. [Perez Hilton]
• "I knew I wanted to marry Kate when I met her. After our very first date, I was sure. At one point, I thought she was going to ask me to marry her first and I cut her off by changing the subject. I wanted to ask her." — Tom Cruise in T: The New York Times Style Magazine. [People]
• "I've been recording in between periods of romantic torture, which is the concept of this album. Writing these songs has been my saving grace. I have felt in the past like a marionette. This album is my freedom. When you're in love, you've found your soul mate, you think life is going one way, and suddenly it's completely apparent it's not. You have to rethink your whole purpose." — Scott Weiland on his solo album, Happy In Galoshes. [USA Today]
• "Our behaviour is changing. Look at how we re-use and recycle. I want to see people at movie premieres wearing outfits they’ve had for 10 years." — Sigourney Weaver, on how Hollywood can cope with the economic crisis. [Daily Express]

• Before Blake and Amy had even hit puberty, Whitney and Bobby were acting completely bonkers in public all the time. And it sounds like the gruesome twosome is back together again!! They've been spotted on romantic dinners and their daughter is allegedly itching for them to reconnect. Resist, Whitney, resist! [TMZ]
  
• Joaquin Phoenix is filming a documentary to "showcase his transition from acting to music." More importantly, last night he was hanging out with Casey Affleck and Ryan Gosling, creating a triumverate of hotness. [People]
• Perez Hilton continues to be totally outraged about the fact that the Speidi wedding was a mere publicity stunt for Us and probably not legal. "The mag was very well aware of the wedding laws in Mexico for foreigners and they failed to even report if Speidi obtained a marriage license or not," he says. In other news, Perez is really angry that water is wet. [Perez]

• But don't worry, you'll be able to see extensive footage of the fake nuptials on The Hills, since the cameras were there to capture the entire heartfelt, intensely private ceremony. [People]
• Spencer continues to insist that the ceremony was 100% real. “We’ve never been happier. And, like other elopements that happen outside the country, we’ll take care of the legal details when we get home," he tells the AP. [AP via Just Jared]
• In other shocking Hills news, Whitney Port has a new vlog and it's spectacularly boring. [NY Mag]
• Ewan McGregor is selling one of his vintage motorcycles on Ebay to raise money for Unicef. "I collected this bike from the Moto Guzzi factory in Italy and rode it back to London and I've loved riding it ever since. Whoever wins this bike will not be disappointed," he says. Does he come with the bike? We would not be disappointed about that.
• Habitual rehab visitor Scott Weiland says he isn't completely clean. "I still drink, I'm not perfect ... you know?" [ TMZ]
• Hugh Jackman will play magician Harry Houdini in an as-yet-unnamed Broadway musical. We already knew he was a magician because he has us in a trance. Zing! [Perez]
• "I'm just blessed to have two very lovely children in my life, and health. It's something people don't think about a lot. I'm very lucky to be healthy and have healthy kids," says Reese Witherspoon. To read about what other celebs are thankful for, click here. [AP]
• Speaking of Reese, Ms. Witherspoon says she'd like to guest star on 30 Rock. "I love Tina [Fey]," Reese gushes, "and I think she does such a great job, and she really understands comedy for women." [A Socialite's Life]

• Angelina Jolie let her sons, Maddox and Pax, attend her sonogram, so the kids could see their new siblings — the twins. [MSNBC]
  
• The Beyoncé pregnancy rumors have begun. [Page Six]
  
• Oooh! One of the first reviews of Sex And The City: "It can feel like a never ending dinner party: however pleasant the courses, after a while you can hardly eat another one." Ugh. [Times Of London]
  
• And! "It is Kim Cattrall as sex mad Samantha who steals the show with all the big laughs... The product placement is less than subtle... There is a totally pointless visit to New York fashion week which has nothing to do with the plots. It is much, much too long for a romantic comedy... More than two hours spent with four air kissing, shopping, screaming women will surely tire out most men." [The Sun]
  
• Cynthia Nixon says: "Because of the show, I have wonderful clothes, but I never even used to wear high heels." [Telegraph]
  
• Candace Bushnell says: "When I began dating at 17, I assumed that men would be nice." [Times Of London]

• Felicity's Scott Speedman hearts pot. Maryjane. Ganja. Weed. Pakalolo. [Perez Hilton]
• Three jurors have been chosen for the R. Kelly trial. Six years after the tape surfaced, there's actual progress in the case. [Yahoo News]
• Did you know that Joaquin Phoenix is recording an album? He's working with the Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess. "Once he learned guitar [for Walk The Line], he found that he had quite a lot of demons inside himself that he wanted to expel through music," Burges explains. But! Before you start clearing a spot next to your Scarlett Johansson CD, know this: "All the tracks that [we] worked on were brilliant," says Burgess. "But I think he just keeps scrapping everything or redoing everything. I'm sad to say that I think it's one of those records that may never come out, to be honest with you." [Reuters]
• Katie Holmes will make her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's All My Sons this fall. Does that mean she and Suri will move to NY? [Just Jared]
• Miley Cyrus has a new single, "7 Things," you're probably dying to hear. (Listen here.) It's a list of all the things she hates about her ex. "You're vain, your games, you're insecure/You love me, you like her/You make me laugh you make me cry." It's kind of country punk, slow and then fast. Maybe teenage girls will love it? It's perfect for jumping up and down on the bed to. [People]
• Noel Gallagher of Oasis doesn't think Jay-Z should play the Glasonbury Festival because it has "a tradition of guitar music." Jay says, "We have to respect each other's genre of music and move forward." The times, they are a-changin'. [The Sun]
• The season finale party for The Hills was held last night and guess who didn't show up? Photo-op lovers Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. Montag's rep had tow words: "Not invited." That is ice cold. [E!]
• Amy Winehouse stumbled home at 1 am and accidentally left her friend Kristian Marr outside, so he broke into her garage to sleep. Cops showed up at 2am and removed him. Whoops! [The Sun]
• Tom Breihan of the Village Voice says Scarlett Johansson's album is't so bad! "Everything on the album comes submerged in a viscous shoegaze amber that honors the faraway mystery of the Waits originals without ever attempting to replicate their sound," he writes. "It's not a masterpiece, but it unfolds like a long, luxuriant, theatrical sigh, and I'll take that." [Village Voice]
• Scott Weiland is in jail right now. He checked in yesterday and will serve eight days for his DUI conviction. [People]
• Pete Doherty says he knew he needed to be drug free when he tried to murder one of his kittens. "I got a shovel and was going to kill one of the cats. That was when I was, like, you know, 'I'm a bit of a mess.' It was a bit of a crazy time." Ya think? [The Sun]
• Socialites throw themselves at Shia LaBeouf, and he doesn't mind a bit. Also, he says "I've been in love with every woman I've ever worked with." [Rush & Molloy]
• Blind item! "Which young star — who plays gay on his hot TV show — has a taste for significantly older women?" [Rush & Molloy]
• Pictures of the guy who knocked out Suge Knight! He's a 5'10" 173 lb. barber. (Suge is 6'3" and weighs 315 lbs. The barber is hardcore.) [TMZ]
• Britney was on How I Met Your Mother again last night. She wasn't funny. [TMZ]
• In this picture of Samantha Ronson and Lindsay Lohan shopping in Paris, you can see Samantha's hickey really well. [Dana's Dirt via ONTD]
• Rapper Remy Ma was set to marry rapper Papoose, despite the fact that she is jailed. But! Someone smuggled a handcuff key into the prison and now the wedding has been canceled! [The.Life Files]
• "As a kid, I considered suicide and even attempted [it] a couple of times because I thought it would be easier to be dead." — Tyler Perry, writer/director/actor of Meet The Browns. [Rush & Molloy]

• Beyoncé and Jay-Z have taken out a marriage license! In Westchester, NY! They have up to 60 days to tie the knot. Where do you think they're registered? And what do you get the couple who has everything? [NY Post]
  
• Post-rehab Eva Mendes is "taking a break and having a good time" by exercising and being with her family. Bo-ring. [People]
  
• Jane Fonda has a new boyfriend, Lynden Gillis, who met her when he asked for her autograph at a book signing. They "met cute!" [Page Six]
  
• Um, we saw pictures on X17 of Lisa Rinna kissing a man who was not her husband Harry Hamlin. She was clad in a bathrobe and drinking wine. The pix were taken yesterday in Malibu. More info to come!
  
• Heather Mills: Vowing to break up Paul McCartney's new romance? [Mirror]

• Drew Barrymore: Seen photographing Bunnies at the Playboy Mansion. [Page Six]
• Blind item! "Which lead actor in a hit ensemble TV show brags that a female conquest isn't complete unless at least one of his hotel room neighbors calls security about the noise? " [Gatecrasher]
• Jamie Lynn Spears is planning her wedding! It will take place at Serenity, the Kentwood, LA home Britney bought for the fam, and Brit will probs be a bridesmaid. Can't wait! [MSNBC]
• Dita Von Teese starred in a "kinky lesbian movie" years ago, but clips are just now showing up online. Someone send a link please? (For a friend.) [The Sun]
• Madonna and Guy Ritchie sleep with electronic devices: "We lie right next to each other with our BlackBerrys under our pillows. It's not unromantic, it's practical." [The Sun]
• Madonna will be in Malawi next week for a final court ruling on whether she can adopt David Banda. There are an estimated 1 million orphans in the country, so her chances look good. [Reuters]
• Oh, and Madonna thinks of the UK as her home. "My kids are at school there, my horses are there. And I love the weather. All that rain and moisture are good for the skin." [Mirror]
• Sharon Osbourne says of daughter Kelly's friends: "I don't approve of them." Could she be talking about Ms. Amy Winehouse? [Mirror]
• Tracey Edmonds, who "got married" to Eddie Murphy on a tropical island in January only to break up with him 2 weeks later, is now dating TV chef Rocco DiSpirito. Good luck! [Concrete Loop]
• The Village Voice's Michael Musto continues to ask: Ellen Page a lesbian? [Village Voice]
• Velvet Revolver no longer has Scott Weiland as its lead singer. "his increasingly erratic onstage behavior and personal problems have forced us to move on." But he's so so hot! [Rolling Stone]
• Celine Dion's Beijing show is canceled because organizers didn't get the proper permits. China, what's up with you lately? [Reuters]
• That Valkyrie movie, in which Tom Cruise plays a Nazi with an American accent, might just be sucktastic. Is Tom getting desperate for a career comeback? [LA Times]
• Jimmy Kimmel says after he shot the video for "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck," "I brought Ben back to my house to watch Lost, and I ended up spooning with him." [Rush & Molloy]
• Robin Williams' wife filed for divorce last week — is it because Robin is dating an artist who is 29 years younger? [Rush & Molloy]
• If Avril Lavigne ran a celebrity tabloid, "I would make it completely positive," she says. "There's so much negativity right now. I'd pick up the big stories, but they'd have to be positive." [Rush & Molloy]
• American Idol contestant David Cook was rushed to the hospital last night with heart palpitations and high blood pressure. He's been stressed out because his brother has cancer. He was released but is being monitored. [TMZ]
• Also, Ryan Seacrest hurt is knee. Poor baby. [TMZ]
• Jay Leno apologized yesterday for prompting Ryan Phillippe to give the camera his "gayest look" on-air. (Phillippe replied,"Wow. That is so something I don't want to do.") GLAAD said Leno's "joke" was "demonstrating a lack of respect." [People]
• Tia Mowry of '90s show Sister, Sister is getting married in 3 weeks, and leaning on — you guessed it — her sister Tamera for help. [People]
• Oooh, a London-based version of The Hills? With brainier chicks? [E!]
• Rumer Willis will guest star on Miss Guided, the TV show produced by her stepdad, Ashton Kutcher. Now you can't say she's famous for nothing! [ET]

• Victoria Beckham has been approached by Fox to host her own fashion reality TV show. Posh would travel around America — some small, "backwater" towns — finding style-challenged people, and giving them fashion make-overs. Geek to chic! [Marie Claire]
  
• Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon went to a play in New York on Sunday, but spent the whole time texting. Rude! [Page Six]
  
• Though he's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Patrick Swayze's doctor says he "has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far." [People]
  
• Demi Moore is on the cover of Bazaar and talks about her relationship with Ashton Kutcher inside: "People made such a fuss about it. You would have thought the world had never seen it before. Age wasn't what I was thinking about, but to the rest of the world it was a very big deal." [Perez Hilton]
  
• Demi's family portrait is hot. [People]

• Cosby Show alum Raven Symoné, 22: "I want to have a record label and a licensing company. I want to have a publishing company and a management company where I can launch all kinds of artists. I want to do everything. I want to be Disney." Get it girl! [LA Times]
• Terri Irwin faces a court battle over a million dollar debt at her late husband's Australia Zoo. A debt collector is suing the zoo and Terri in a case that involves an offshore bank with ties to a corrupt tax official. Messy stuff. [Times]
• Bai Ling pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace in her case regarding the theft of Star magazines and batteries. She was ordered to pay a fine of $700, and you can now go back to not thinking about her, if you want. [People ]
• Jamie Lynn Spears will be a guest star on an ABC comedy called Miss Guided, premiering March 20. Judy Greer stars in the sit com and JLS (who wasn't knocked up when she shot the show) plays a troubled student; Ashton Kutcher also guest stars. They really really really want people to watch. [People]
• Scott Weiland pleaded innocent to his DUI charge. He's free on bail and goes to court April 4. [Reuters]
• Jack Osbourne: Sings like his dad. At least when doing karaoke. [Page Six]
• Josh Kelly on those pix of he and Katherine Heigl and the moving truck: "Katherine and I are moving boxes and furniture into our new house in LA and this gang of photographers were there snapping away at us. So I say to them, 'You guys are just going to sit there taking pictures, making money while we bust our asses?'" That's when the paparazzi started lifting boxes. [Page Six]
• Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick would not have a kid if it weren't for herbal supplement Airborne, cough cough. [Page Six]
• Jeremy Piven continues to hit on women everywhere, yawn. [Page Six]
• Blind item! "Which hit show that has everyone guessing about its closeted male star also has a female co-star who plays for the home team?" [Gatecrasher]
• Blind item! "Which floundering pop star is hoping a unisex clothing line will rehab her nonexistent singing career?" [Rush & Molloy]
• The court has extended Jamie Spears' conservatorship of Britney to July 31; though it could end earlier if Brit's mental state keeps improving and stabilizes. It seems like she's in a good place, here's to hoping she keeps it up! [TMZ]
• Meanwhile, Sam Lutfi allegedly says, "I am going to call Britney to the stand so she can tell the world how I was helping her. I am innocent. I am Britney's friend and would never hurt her." Sure, sure. [MSNBC]
• Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley will host Bravo's new show, Step It Up & Dance. But will she keep her clothes on? [TMZ]
• That boy from American Idol with the pretty pretty lips went to a school for "at-risk" kids and had "issues" or something. Wow, his lips are so pretty. [TMZ]
• Valerie Bertinelli on Eddie Van Halen's undisclosed health crisis: "I really don't think it's anybody's business." [People]
• Producer Linda Perry is suing over royalties she's owed from James Blunt's album. [Reuters]
• The True Colors Tour is coming! Cyndi Lauper, the B-52s and, um, Carson Kressley. [USA Today]
• Lily Allen won't play the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK because her new album is behind schedule. But leave her alone, she's been through a lot. [Perez Hilton]
• Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt attended the memorial service of Heidi's stepbrother yesterday; he died after slipping off of a roof and was a veteran of combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. [People]
• Dancing With The Stars' Julianne Hough, 19, will be a virgin until she gets married. She also does not drink, smoke or do drugs. Goody two-shoes. What do you do? [People]
• Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, is a "fat-fighting guru" for a new TV show in the UK. She will help mere, common people with their weight issues. [BBC News]
• Jerry O'Connell will take part in a race across the Scottish Highlands. Kayaking, rappelling and that kind of stuff is involved, yet the race is sponsored by a liquor. Interesting. [UPI]
• Bruce Willis is a stoner. [Perez Hilton]
• Producers from The View are not wooing Cindy Crawford, which is too bad. [MSNBC]
• MTV won't air the new Gnarls Barkley video featuring Justin Timberlake because it could trigger an epileptic seizure. View at your own risk! [MSNBC]
• Danny Bonaduce will host a child star reality show, on VH1, which sounds healthy. Not. [UPI]
• Death threats against Daniel Radcliffe? How could anyone hate Harry Potter? [Sydney Morning Herald]
• You know John Waters' Cry-Baby is coming to Broadway, right? (I am so there.) [Page Six]

The story surrounding rocker Scott Weiland and his wife Mary, just keeps getting better. Apparently, after trashing a L.A. hotel room during a fight with her husband, Mary went back to the couple's Toluca Lake home, took Scott's clothes and footwear outside, and set them on fire.

We couldn't help but think of badass Angela Bassett in 1995s Waiting To Exhale, when Bassett's character, Bernadine, goes apeshit in her unfaithful husband's closet, loads up his BMW with a buttload of his clothes and shoes, and burns it all to bits.

Take a look back here.