Etta James Vs. Beyoncé; Miley Cyrus On "Racist" Pic

• At a concert in Seattle, Etta James said:

“You know, YOUR President, the one with the big ears? He ain’t MY President. Had that woman singing for him at his Inauguration. She’s going to get her ass whooped.” [This Is 50, DListed, TMZ, NY Daily News]

• Miley Cyrus on her “racist” picture: “I’ve also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I’m sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context! In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy?” There’s more of this non-apology if you click the link. [ONTD]
• Angelina Jolie, goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency, is asking the government of Thailand to give more freedom to thousands of Burmese refugees. “I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp,” Jolie said in a UN statement. No word on whether she is trying to adopt any Burmese kids. [AP]
• Britney’s diaries: Stolen! And since her dad is making a deal for her to pen a few books over the next 10 years, she needs them to write her memoirs! What’s in the journals and video interviews? Brit hears voices, had an abortion, reveals the real reason she shaved her head and threatens to kill her children. As always, consider the source on this. [National Enquirer]
• Meanwhile, Sam Lutfi is suing Britney and her parents for “defamation, libel and battery.” [NY Daily News]
• While in Rio, Tom Cruise has been saying hola and gracias to everyone. Of course, in Brazil, they speak Portuguese and not Spanish. [Page Six]
• Michael Phelps spoke about his bong pic: “It’s something I am going to have to live with and something I’ll have to grow from. I know with all of the mistakes I made, I learned from them and that is what I expect to do from this. By no means it is fun for me, by no means is it easy.” Then he had to go because he had the munchies. [AP]
• James Franco has been named Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year. The roast is February 13. [AP]
• Madonna basically swept her new man, Jesus Luz, off of his feet. Luz’s former modeling agent says the two met at a W magazine shoot: “We did the shoot, and I never saw him again. She loves him and asked him to go to New York. It was something very strong, because one day everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, where is Jesus? He’s disappeared. After he went to the shoot, he never came back. He moved to São Paulo with the crowd of Madonna, and they changed his number, and they don’t let him talk to me anymore. He asked me to close his contract and I did.” Now Luz is in New York with her Madgesty, working for Ford models. Upgrade! [E!]
• Why did Jessica Alba drop so much weight after giving birth? “I did it for the Campari job. [The workouts] were horrible. I cried. And I haven’t worked out since.” [Elle]
• Scarlett Johansson understands men, except for one thing: “Why do they have nipples? That has always amazed me.” [Sydney Morning Herald]
• Salma Hayek is launching the second annual Pampers/UNICEF program to stop the spread of maternal and neonatal tetanus. She explains: “I’ve done a lot of social work, primarily with abused women and women’s rights. I had the baby and I had so much on my plate, and I said that this year, I’m taking a break from charity. I cannot do it all. But then this came along. And I said no. Then I read what it was, and I was so screwed because you cannot walk away from this one.” [USA Today]
• Carla Bruni‘s family castle near Turin, Italy, has been sold to an Arab sheik for $9 million. What about your family castle? Is it made of sand? [Page Six]
• Prince Charles appears in the new Oasis video, through some creative editing. [Daily Mail]
• Holly Madison is dunzo. In addition to ditching Hugh Hefner, she’s quit working for Playboy as an “editor.” More time for wondrous illusions with boyfriend Criss Angel? [Perez]
• What does Lady GaGa want for Valentine’s Day? “A good fuck and some carbohydrates.” [The Sun]
• Orlando Bloom has signed onto a sci-fi flick called The Cross. Set in the near future, Orly plays a man seeking to cross a mysterious border, something no one else has achieved. He’s good at pirates and elves, will he be good at a future-man? [Variety]
• Ang Lee protégé Tang Wei has landed her first role since starring in sexy spy thriller Lust, Caution and being banned in mainland China. [AP]
• Patrons at super British restaurant Tea & Sympathy in the West Village, NYC, got to watch Rupert Everett get up and recite his lines for an upcoming Broadway play. [Page Six]
• Ashton Kutcher wasn’t going to look at the Hard Rock Girls calendar because he didn’t want to piss off Demi Moore, but Demi said, “I don’t give a fuck if you look at that thing.” [Page Six]
• Gossip Girl‘s Taylor Momsen was at a party and “She kept telling people she wasn’t drinking because she was on heavy doses of Percocet, as she had just had her wisdom teeth removed. Not that anyone cared – everyone was twice her age!” [Gatecrasher]
• What the world needs now: A reality show featuring freshly rehabbed Sean Stewart, as he — wait for it — starts his own fashion line. [Page Six]
• Benji Madden: Dating Audrina Patridge? [Gatecrasher]
• Blind item! “Which starlet did more than get wet with an uber-famous athlete in a pool? On top of that, a gridiron god walked in and got a gander at the action – and the twosome’s pile of cocaine.” [Gatecrasher]
• Aww, Jessica Simpson‘s flick, Major Movie Star — now titled Private Valentine — is now available on DVD, having skipped theaters all together. [NY Daily News]
• No one likes Gwyneth Paltrow‘s GOOP. [NY Post]
• Terrence “Baby Wipes” Howard’s eyes will haunt your soul as he stares at you from the new cover of Ebony. [The Life Files]
• News network and Oasis fan MSN is launching a new gossip site called Wonderwall. The tone will be “edgy but respectful.” [Reuters]
• Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan: SO ON. [This Is London]
• Kylie Minogue‘s hot hot man took her to meet his family in Spain. [This Is London]
• RIP Lux Interior, the lead singer of the Cramps. [BoingBoing]
• “My mom went on a date with Jimi Hendrix. My dad was a part of Strawberry Fields Forever and hung out with Timothy Leary. My parents have stories. They probably have better stories than I do. And they found God. They needed to find God. Not that they needed to find God, but God found them, really. I stopped trying to change them at 21.” [Daily Mail]
• “Katy is our daughter and we love her but we strongly disagree with how she is conducting herself at the moment. We cannot cut her out of our lives as she is our child but she knows we disagree strongly with what she is doing and the message she is promoting regarding homosexuality which the Bible clearly states is a sin. But the Bible also promotes understanding and forgiveness, which I keep reminding myself. Katy is not a homosexual but I fear she has been led astray by the Hollywood crowd. I pray all the time that God will work through her and help her find salvation.” — Katy Perry‘s mom. [Daily Mail]
• “I wore a girdle. Eight weeks after my girlfriend had her baby, you could see her six-pack. She told me to put an elastic band around my waist – any kind of band or girdle works. She was like, ‘I slept in it.’ I didn’t recover as fast as she did. I don’t have a six-pack – that’s just not my body at all.” — Jessica Alba. [Elle]
• “When I was in the full make-up, we had the kids come to the set, and I tried to prepare them for the moment. Their mommy tried to explain to them that ‘that’s daddy’. But it didn’t phase them. They didn’t even comment on it.” —Brad Pitt on filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. [Independent]
• “I make fun of me all the time. I’m like, ‘Call me Mr. Carey, who cares?'” — Nick Cannon. [MSNBC]
• “I’m going big. It’s all about the hairdo. I love being blonde a bit more at the moment. It’s so much fun. I was so focused on work that I hadn’t reinvented my look in so long and I love to reinvent. It gives you a whole new attitude. It’s a little scary to get out of your safe zone but I love change. It’s fun and I embrace it.” — Drew Barrymore on her tresses. [The Sun]
• “It’s a real crucible because you feel daunted by your peers who somehow get younger and younger. People older than me have fewer lines than I do. And no, you’re not supposed to talk about it; you’re supposed to admire the fact that they look 22 even though they’re 58.” — Sarah Jessica Parker on aging, in thew new issue of Bazaar. [The Life Files]
• “I haven’t spoken to Christian about it, but I have listened to most of it and he was clearly very angry. People might now realise that that is his temper, and they might understand a bit more… He is a perfectionist and if you are doing an intense scene and someone is spoiling a shot, it takes time to get it back.” —Christian Bale‘s mom, on his tirade. [Mirror]
• “Everything was about keeping Christian happy because he was the meal ticket. If something wasn’t just so, Christian would erupt. He would yell until he was red in the face. It was very intimidating. Fame began to change him. Once, when [his mother] Jenny and her mum arrived in Los Angeles, Christian sent me to the airport to pick them up. Jenny was in tears because her son hadn’t come in person.” — Christian Bale’s former assistant, Harrison Cheung. Cheung also says that after Bale’s dad married Gloria Steinem, “Gloria liked to pontificate and was going on about something for ages at the dinner table one night. Christian suddenly let out a huge sigh and said, ‘For God’s sake woman, shut up!'” [Mirror]