- Jennifer Lopez attended the Latino Inaugural Gala on Sunday and said of Barack Obama: “He is the biggest star here, even though it’s chock-full of celebrities.” Well, yeah. [People]
- Aretha Franklin warmed up for the inauguration with a Martin Luther King Jr. Day concert. She’s gonna bring it today. [AP]
- Brad Pitt is psyched today! He says of Barack Obama’s inauguration: “It’s a new era for us – it reconfirms the original ideals of America. We’re very excited about what the future holds. You see people look invigorated at home rather than the cynicism for the last 10 years.” [Mirror]
- Ellen Burstyn says: “If you’re only going to do one inauguration in your life, this is the one.” [USA Today]
- Moby is in D.C. for the festivities, especially since he loves MoveOn.org. Apparently he DJ’d a party and the power went out, but then “hope” brought it back on, or something. [Politico]
- Isaiah Washington was one of the many, many celebs at the Huffington Post party. The place where you could see John Cusack hop a barricade to kiss Marisa Tomei. Washington got “star struck” by meeting Christiane Amanpour. [Politico]
- The Root Ball had Oprah, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and Chris Tucker, among others. David Gregory was seen dancing to Biz Markie. [WaPo]
- Ben Affleck is in D.C. where he says he’ll “camp out” to get good seats. [MSNBC]
- Also in town: Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Tina Brown, Sharon Stone. [WaPo]
- Want to know where the celebs will be tonight? There’s a rundown of the balls and which stars are expected here. [Page Six]
- Serena Williams is at the Australian Open, but is following the Obama news on TV. “This is an amazing moment for American history. Even yesterday, the United States being Martin Luther King’s birthday. To have his birthday and Obama’s presidency fall so close to each other… This morning, I was watching on the TV before I went out to play. I looked at my arm, and I practically had chill bumps.” [AP]
- Quincy Jones, Grammy Award-winning producer and composer, is now a newspaper columnist. [Reuters]
- Remember Vogue‘s tabloidy December issue with Jennifer Aniston on the cover, and the line, “What Angelina did was very uncool”? The mag sold an estimated 465,000 single copies of the issue, outselling the December 2007 issue by nearly 65,000 copies. Anna Wintour knows what people want. [WWD]
- Paris Hilton is at Sundance, though she seems to have no interest in movies. Her sister, Nicky has been avoiding her, and Paris has been ditching her MTV BFF Brittany Flickinger for Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day. [Page Six]
- Paris Hilton swears her airhead image is just an act. “I’m a lot more serious and shy…and if I’m not out, having to be, you know, ‘on’, I’m at home just chilling and wearing sweat pants.” Plus! She’s totes an artist: “I have a room in my house where I paint. I’ve been offered an exhibition, which I might do next year.” [The Sun]
- Maybe it’s the Utah altitude? Paris was seen sucking face with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe at a Sundance party. [Gatecrasher]
- Lily Allen texted a nude picture to Ricky Wilson, the lead singer of the Kaiser Chiefs, by accident. A minute later Wilson got another text which read, “Sorry, wrong Ricky.” Says Lily: “That was really embarrassing. I was completely topless.” She claims she meant to send the snap to Rick Astley, yukyuk. [The Sun]
- In this video, Lily Allen talks about how she doesn’t like how the world is so obsessed with celebrity culture, aesthetic beauty, money and consumerism. “And yet I’m a little pop star consumer,” she muses. [Pop Dirt]
- Pete Doherty says of his buddy Amy Winehouse and her Caribbean vacation: “She had gone deeper and deeper into a black place. She needed a bright light. And that bright light turned out to be the sun.” Profound! [ONTD]
- Meanwhile, Amy Winehouse has met a new fella in St. Lucia: A clean-cut tennis instructor. Love means zero! [The Sun]
- Amy’s dad says: “Stories about my troubled daughter are selling newspapers and magazines. They don’t want her to get better. But she is better. They didn’t see her lying in bed for days in a dark room. She was close to death twice. We have been working a lot to get her to where she is right now.” Liquored up in the Caribbean? Really? Guess it beats cracked out in Camdentown. Oh, and there’s a documentary in the works, called Saving Amy. [Perez, People]
- SNL‘s Fred Armisen and Mad Men‘s Elisabeth Moss: It’s on. The two were spotted canoodling. [Page Six]
- Hugh Laurie‘s Playboy interview touches on his house in Hollywood, depression, Facebook, his similarities to his character on House and the suicide pact he made when he was 15. [ONTD]
- Page Six has a bone to pick with Sean Penn. [Page Six]
- A one hour as-yet-untitled TV documentary about Spongebob Squarepants is in the works. That’s right: Spongebob. [UPI]
- Meanwhile, Russell Simmons is working on Spongebob bling. [Gatecrasher]
- While filming the upcoming miniseries The Last Templar, Mira Sorvino broke five teeth trying to kiss Scott Foley on a speedboat. [Page Six]
- There’s a hearing in the Roman Polanski case tomorrow, not that the director will be in the country. His lawyers are using information from the HBO documentary Wanted and Desired to try and get the case dismissed. [AP]
- Look for Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly in The Extra Man, a comedy to begin filming in New York next month. [Variety]
- Aww, adorable pictures of Michael Stipe and his photographer boyfriend! [Perez]
- News you cannot use: Coolio has had crabs twice, and only once from a female. [The Sun]
- Jailed Boy George has been signing autographs for inmates who “demand” them. [Daily Mail]
- Blind item! “Which eccentric actor got his start in the biz by letting directors in where the sun don’t shine?” [Gatecrasher]
- James McAvoy hates overexposed Hollywood stars and thinks they’re not thespians: “I just know so much about them. So how can I accept them in a role? There are just some people, they’re not actors to me. They’re chip paper. Just glossy paper. If I’m in a film, or a telly, or a play, then why should people come and see it? Because you know, they can just pick up some fucking rubbish magazine, and see me in that.” [Daily Express]
- Olivia Newton-John says positive thinking helped her beat breast cancer: “I was terrified of chemotherapy, and nearly didn’t have any. But my best friend Nancy reminded me that I had a little girl who needed me and that I had to take every chance I was given to beat the cancer. So rather than thinking about the toxins going through my body, I visualised a stream of pure gold. That night, instead of going to bed feeling lousy, I went to the cinema with Nancy.” [Daily Mail]
- “I’m not so afraid of getting old, I’m more afraid of how I’ll go. Fire and tight spaces don’t appeal. A shark would be interesting.” — Brad Pitt. [Reuters]
- “The one thing we have to offer, we are peddling joy with both hands. You come to our show and you will leave a happy camper. In a downturn, people need a few laughs. I know that sounds corny, and I can imagine some old-timer saying it. (But) I’m always happy to be uplifted when I go to a show. People look forward to it during the hard times. If they’re looking forward to it, we got it.” — Bette Midler on her Vegas stage show, The Showgirl Must Go On. [UPI]
- “[Antidepressants] are something I’ve tried that has helped. They’re probably good for my work because they help with confidence, and confidence is the prerequisite of all successful endeavors. But then again, as I said, I get suspicious if things start to feel too easy or comfortable, so that’s not a perfect solution either. Pharmaceuticals do raise the question of who we are as human beings. What are moods and feelings if we can change or even do away with them? Does that reduce the essence of who we are? Then again, I tend to overthink these things. I overthink everything, I think. But if your eyesight fails, it’s okay to wear glasses or contact lenses, is it not? If you feel cold, you put on a sweater. Is that changing the nature of who you are? No.” — Hugh Laurie. [ONTD]
- “I didn’t go to acting school so I didn’t know that’s what I wanted to be. I came from a background of lawyers and academics and we just didn’t watch films in our household. I had no idea who Maggie Smith or Gary Oldman or any of these people were.” — Emma Watson. [Daily Express]
- “I know the studio is gobsmacked by its success, and a lot of the critics have been surprised, but I wasn’t. It was a no-brainer. I knew it would do well because it was aimed at an audience that has been neglected in recent years in film offerings – women. They are the last group anybody ever cares about.” — Meryl Streep, on the commercial success of Mamma Mia, which has made almost $600 million worldwide. [Telegraph]
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