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July 2008
Britney agrees to sole custody for K-Fed
Britney Spears has agreed to hand over parenting responsibilities to Kevin Federline.
The pop star and her former husband have reached a settlement in their long-simmering custody case, avoiding a messy trial.
According to the agreement, reportedly signed by all parties, Federline gets sole custody of the couple’s two sons, Preston, 2 1/2, and Jayden, 1 1/2. Spears will have visitation rights.
“The case has been settled,” K-Fed’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told E! Online. “The court still has to approve it. “
Both parties are due in court today, July 18. The case had been set to go to trial next month.
Sparing us the spectacle of a custody trial, Spears can now resume making a spectacle of herself…
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TweetHollywood writers protest “American Idol”
Hollywood writers launched a protest Wednesday, July 16, against television’s No. 1 show, “American Idol.” The Writers Guild of America claims the Fox network talent competition “underpays workers and subjects them to sweatshop conditions,” Reuters reported.
The WGA claims that the companies making “American Idol” and similar shows force workers to toil nearly around the clock without overtime pay or benefits, in violation of California labor laws. Reality TV programs are not covered by WGA contracts.
The union argues that the work production assistants and editors do in creating the shows is tantamount to a form of writing.
“All these shows, they’re well-structured,” said David Weiss, vice president of the WGA West. “You can’t sit through an hour of television that is the result of random footage being strung together.”
The “American Idol” protest began the day before the program launched its summer audition tour to find contestants for its next season. The WGA “Truth Tour” protest bus, carrying writers and stand-up comedians, will shadow the audition tour.
Does this mean someone actually writes Paula’s gibberish and Simon’s snarky quips?
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TweetMichael J. Fox takes role on “Rescue Me”
Michael J. Fox returns to television with a four-episode guest role on the FX drama series, “Rescue Me.”
“Rescue Me” stars Denis Leary as troubled New York City firefighter Tommy Gavin. Fox will play a “very funny, very original character,” said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks, to the Associated Press.
The series also features Kettering native Sherri Saum.
Fox’s character, who uses a wheelchair, is the new boyfriend of Tommy’s estranged wife Janet (Andrea Roth) and will be introduced in the fifth-season premiere in spring 2009. The episode’s air date was not announced.
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 and revealed his condition publicly in 1998. He quit acting full time in 2000 because of his symptoms, which for people living with Parkinson’s — a chronic, progressive disorder of the central nervous system — can include muscle rigidity, tremor and slowness of movement.
We’re sure Tommy Gavin will be sensitive and supportive of the character’s plight. Yeah, right.
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TweetWilliam Petersen says “Bye” to “CSI”
This season of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” will be the last for series star William Petersen, Entertainment Weekly reported. Petersen, who portrays Las Vegas forensic scientist Gil Grissom, will depart mid-season. The 10th episode will mark Petersen’s last appearance as a full-time series regular.
“Billy is leaving,” confirms the show’s executive producer, Carol Mendelsohn. “But he will remain throughout the run of the series an executive producer. And he will, whenever CBS asks, come back. I don’t think you’ve seen the last of Gil Grissom.”
Peterson, an avid theater fan, took a break from “CSI” in 2006 to star in a stage play. Original series cast members Jorja Fox and Gary Dourdan also left the top-rated drama series last season.
Petersen has been critical in the past about the rest of the “CSI” franchise. “I still think that the other shows could have been done in a more interesting way,” he told the Radio Times. “I think they just rubber-stamped them and stuck more of them out there.”
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TweetHeath Ledger’s family attends “Dark Knight” premiere
Heath Ledger’s family attended the Monday night premiere of “The Dark Knight” in New York City. The late actor gives his final major performance in the new “Batman” film as the Joker.
Ledger’s father and stepmother bypassed the red carpet, but Heath’s dad left the theater giving a thumbs-up sign, People reported.
Ledger’s performance as the colorful arch villain earned several mid-screening ovations, and is generating Oscar buzz.
“The screening reaction of both the media and the industry proved not just a test of the movie’s drawing power — it’s already expected to challenge for the biggest opening in history — but whether it could gain traction as an awards contender,” said the Hollywood Reporter.
“The Dark Knight” opens Friday, July 18, in theaters. Check out a gallery of photos from the film.
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TweetEddie Murphy tanks at box office
Eddie Murphy suffered one of his worst openings ever with “Meet Dave,” a sci-fi comedy that grossed just $5.3 million at the weekend box office. In contrast, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” did hellacious business, debuting to an estimated $35.9 million.
“Critics have trashed Murphy’s comedies over the past decade, a period in which he’s replaced the biting humor of his 1980s standup routines and early, acclaimed films such as “48 Hrs.” and “Beverly Hills Cop” with broad antics, bathroom gags and fat suits,” the Associated Press reported.
Still, most of Murphy’s recent movies have enjoyed box office success, or at least have done decent business. “Norbit” was trashed by critics, but it still opened at No. 1 with $34.2 million when it was released in February 2007. It also earned an Academy Award nomination for its special-effects makeup. Go figure.
Murphy raised eyebrows last week when he skipped the “Meet Dave” movie premiere in Hollywood. Reportedly, he was working on “A Thousand Words,” a comedy that reunites him with Brian Robbins, who directed Murphy in both “Norbit” and “Meet Dave.” Perhaps it’s part of a career-killing trilogy.
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TweetEmily Blunt and Michael Buble split
Emily Blunt and Michael Buble have ended their three-year relationship, People magazine reported.
The Golden Globe Award-winning actress and the Canadian crooner met in 2005 when she popped backstage after one of his concerts to say hello.
Blunt, 25, earned acclaim as Meryl Streep’s caustic, put-upon assistant in “The Devil Wears Prada.” Buble, 32, is a Grammy Award-winning Big Band singer. People attributed their split to the strain of a long-distance relationship on the couple, who shared a home in Vancouver.
Buble may have a tough time explaining the break-up to his mom, who was a big Blunt fan. “I love her,” Amber Buble told People earlier this year. “In fact if he doesn’t marry her, I’ll kill him.”
Hope you caught Buble in 2006 at Fraze, while you still had the chance.
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TweetJim Carrey sports “mankini” on beach
Borat has nothing on Jim Carrey. The Hollywood comic was spotted on the beach in Malibu, Calif., wearing the swimsuit of his long-time girlfriend, Jenny McCarthy.
The couple were first seen strolling hand-in-hand, with Carrey wearing traditional knee-length board shorts. They reportedly disappeared into their beach hut and re-emerged minutes later with McCarthy wearing a strapless blue dress and Carrey sporting her halterneck swimsuit. Carrey then strutted down the beach in his “mankini,” giving stunned onlookers a glimpse of his own beach bum.
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TweetMichael Jackson toy shops in wig and wheelchair
Michael Jackson wanted to keep a low profile while shopping for toys near his current home in Las Vegas. Being pushed in a wheelchair while wearing a surgical mask, dreadlocked wig and pajamas probably was not the best way to go unnoticed.
“The irony is of course that Jackson is now better known for wearing such ludicrous disguises than not,” Britain’s Daily Mail reported.
“Indeed he would have stood a much better chance of not being noticed had he strode into the shop without any disguise - and had not pulled up in four cars filled with his eight-strong security team.”
Jackson, who turns 50 next month, has been seen with and without the wheelchair in recent weeks. Perhaps he was shopping for a Big Wheel.
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TweetChristie Brinkley and Peter Cook reach surprise settlement
The nasty divorce trial of Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook came to a sudden end Thursday morning with an undisclosed settlement, People magazine reported.
The warring exes reached the settlement after a night of intense negotiations among their lawyers.
Sensational testimony gave the public a salacious peek into the former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model’s fourth marriage. The juicy details included allegations about Cook making a $300,000 payoff to his teenage mistress, spending thousands of dollars on Internet porn, and engaging in extramarital trysts in the office and his wife’s Hamptons homes.
The settlement will spare Brinkley and Cook’s two children from further embarrassment. Unless, of course, they know how to use the Internet and Google their parents’ names.
Check out a photo gallery of the ever-stylish Brinkley in court.
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TweetCBS News’ Lara Logan discusses baby drama
Lara Logan, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, clearly knows something about foreign affairs. The award-winning reporter told the Washington Post that she is pregnant, and the father is a married federal contractor whom she met while stationed in Iraq.
Logan, a South African native, was dubbed the War Zone “It Girl” by the New York Times.
Logan is going through a divorce from estranged husband Jason Siemon, a Chicago-based energy lobbyist whom she married in 1998. The baby’s father, Joseph Burkett, is in the midst of a divorce from wife Kimberly, with whom he has a 3-year-old daughter.
Logan, whose pregnancy was unplanned, told the Washington Post her due date is in January, and she’s “looking forward to being a mom.” She and Burkett plan to marry eventually.
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TweetDrew Barrymore and Justin Long end relationship
Maybe he’s just not that into her. Or perhaps she prefers PCs after all.
Drew Barrymore and Justin Long have ended their romance, Long’s publicist told the Associated Press.
Long’s film credits include “Live Free or Die Hard” and “Dodgeball.” He also is known as the “Mac Guy” in Apple’s TV commercials. Barrymore is an actor-producer whose credits range from “Charlie’s Angels” to “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.”
The couple began dating last year and weren’t shy about public displays of affection. “This relationship is great,” Barrymore said during a recent visit on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. “It’s healthy, it’s productive, and it’s supportive. It’s full of humor and a lot of fun.”
Barrymore and Long co-star in the upcoming film, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” slated for a February release. The red-carpet premiere could be awkward.
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TweetMatthew McConaughey’s girlfriend has baby boy
Matthew McConaughey and girlfriend Camila Alves welcomed a baby boy on Monday night, People magazine reported on its Web site.
It is the first child for McConaughey, whose films include the recent “Fool’s Gold,” and Alves, a Brazilian model. The couple have been together for two years.
McConaughey announced in January on his Web site that the couple was expecting. “Camila and I made a baby together…,” he wrote at the time. “We are stoked and wowed.”
The baby boy was born, like his dad, without a shirt.
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TweetMadonna denies affair and divorce plans
Madonna denied that she had an affair with New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and said in a statement to People magazine that she is not planning divorce her British husband Guy Ritchie.
“My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce,” the singer said in her statement to People. “I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study.”
People reported Sunday that Rodriguez wife left him over his rumored affair with Madonna and his newfound interest in Kabbalah.
Check out our photo gallery of Madonna through the years.
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TweetA-Rod and wife split
New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and his wife have split three months after the birth of the couple’s second daughter, according to the New York Daily News. And no, former WDTN news anchor Coleen Sullivan is not to blame.
The culprits appear to be Madonna and Lenny Kravitz.
As previously noted in Celebrity Worship, Rodriguez is said to be pinch-hitting for Madonna’s husband, Guy Ritchie. A-Rod has been seen leaving Madonna’s New York City apartment after midnight. Apparently, Yankees players don’t have a curfew.
Meanwhile, a gossip Web site reported that Rodriguez’s wife, Cynthia, had gone on a romantic getaway with rocker Kravitz to Paris.
Is this starting to sound like an episode of “Swingtown” or what?
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TweetBaron Cohen, Ferrell to play Holmes and Watson
Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell will star as master detective Sherlock Holmes and his crime-solving partner, Dr. Watson, Variety reported. The comedy, inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of the snuff-sniffing supersleuth, will be produced by Judd Apatow.
The film will reunite Baron Cohen and Ferrell, who previously co-starred in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” Baron Cohen is best known for the outrageous comedy hit, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Ferrell’s films include “Elf” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”
Apatow has produced such comedy hits as “Knocked Up” and “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”
The film’s humor, to borrow a phrase from Holmes, will be “elementary,” my dear reader.
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TweetNicole Kidman’s birthing soundtrack
This one’s for you, baby! Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are in Nashville, Tenn., for the birth of their first child, who is due any day now.
Oscar winner Kidman has selected the music that she’ll hear in the delivery room. Of course, the selections include songs by Urban, a Grammy Award winning country singer. But the most prominently played artist is Irish flautist James Galway.
Kidman “has always loved James Galway, particularly his classical albums,” a friend of the actress told Britain’s Daily Mail. “Whenever you go to her house, she has Galway on.”
Here is a taste of what Kidman will hear in the delivery room.
Personally, we would have gone with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.
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