Spears to Palin: 'Hang in There!, XXOO'

September 03, 2008 2:59 PM

Jamie Lynn Spears is showing some love to the latest-most-famous teen mom-to-be: Bristol Palin.

The 17-year-old “Zoey 101” star and new mom sent a gift of $60 pink burp cloths to the pregnant, unwed, 17-year-old daughter of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin -- and along with it, a message of teen mom solidarity.

A spokesperson for Petit Tresor, the Los Angeles baby boutique from which the gift was bought, told ABCNews.com that Spears included a card with the package that read “Dear Bristol, Hang in there! XXOO, Jamie Lynn Spears.”

The spokesperson confirmed the Plain Mary burp cloths (pictured below), a popular baby accessory among celeb parents, were ordered by phone on behalf of Spears.

Contacted by ABCNews.com for comment, Spears' rep said she could not confirm the spokesperson's report.

Spears, the younger sister of Britney Spears, gave birth to her first child in June. Like Palin, who plans to marry the 18-year-old father of her child, Spears is engaged to Casey Aldridge, the 18-year-old dad of baby Maddie.

Two teen pregnancies, two national sensations: Sounds like it’s time for Spears and Palin to start the sisterhood of the traveling maternity pants.

Sheila Marikar

September 3, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (128) | TrackBack (0)

Single Celeb Dads Get Laughs, Not Love

August 27, 2008 2:10 PM

While single celebrity moms elicit "oos" and "awws," single celebrity dads just aren't getting much love.

Ricky Martin, the Puerto Rican pop sensation who became a dad earlier this month, was blasted by a leading Latino Catholic cardinal for fathering his twin boys through a surrogate mother.

"What Martin did diminishes the dignity of a human being. You can't just buy or rent life. It's even worse when someone famous and in the public eye is doing it," the cardinal of Honduras, Oscar Andres Rodriguez, said on a visit to Chile.

And while People magazine reportedly inked a record $14 million deal for the U.S. rights to publish the first photos of Brangelina's twins, there'll be no such clamoring for the photos of Martin's kids.

"We aren't jumping like we usually do," a celebrity magazine editor told The New York Daily News this week. "We don't think he is going to tell the back-story, so the whole thing just seems kind of icky."

Clay Aiken got more crass comments than congratulations when he became a dad in August. Aiken and platonic producer friend Jaymes Foster conceived their son through in vitro fertilization.

"Noooooo! Must not let him procreate for the sake of the human race!," ABCNews.com commenter "Don Quixote" said on a blog about Aiken's pregnancy news. Out of the 47 comments posted on that blog thus far, the majority echo his sentiments. 

When Minnie Driver revealed she was pregnant earlier this year but kept mum about the baby's father (besides the fact that they have no plans to marry), people continued to coo over her growing belly. When Mary-Louise Parker adopted a baby girl from Africa last September and subsequently broke up with her fiance, no one batted an eye.

But when a single male star opts for fatherhood and forgoes the traditional route, ridicule follows. (Remember when Michael Jackson had a son through a surrogate?) For Martin and Aiken, homophobia may play into the hate -- they've been plagued by gay rumors their entire careers and have largely stayed silent about their sexuality (though Aiken claimed to be asexual in an interview last year).

Opening up about why they had kids and who with (Martin still hasn't confirmed the identity of his surrogate) could help. But so could a more open-minded perspective on parenting: If the star's up for the challenge, who is anyone else to judge?

Sheila Marikar

August 27, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (99) | TrackBack (0)

Hudson's Hair Care Line Leads to Hot Mess

August 26, 2008 6:05 PM

Kate Hudson's long blond locks are the envy of millions of women. So it made sense when she partnered with celebrity hairstylist David Babaii to launch her own line of eco-friendly hair care products under the brand name David Babaii for WildAid.

But a key ingredient in the product line -- volcanic ash -- has gotten Hudson and Babaii into a hairy situation.

The company 220 Laboratories Inc. filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday against Hudson, Babaii and their manufacturer, Universal, for 17 ALLEGED offenses, including the misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud and breach of contract and confidence. 220 Laboratories claims that it was the only supplier of volcanic ash in the United States and that it entered an “oral contract” with Hudson and Babaii in August 2006 to develop and manufacture hair products.

The company says that it revealed its “confidential” ingredient list to the star and stylist in November, and that the pair then took the ash samples and shopped around to find a cheaper deal.

In a statement to ABCNews.com, Hudson's rep Brad Cafarelli dismissed the lawsuit.

"Kate and her attorneys are only just learning of the complaint, as Kate has not yet been served," he said. "Kate does not know the plaintiffs and has never met with them or spoken with them. Her representatives believe that the claims are baseless and without merit and intend to vigorously defend the lawsuit."

Babaii's rep echoed Cafarelli, saying, "We stand by our actions during the research and development process of the David Babaii for WildAid hair care line and believe that 220 Laboratories' allegations are baseless and without any merit. If we are formally served with the complaint, we will vigorously defend this claim."

Times have been tough for the "Fool's Gold" actress. Last year, she was dogged by rumors that her breakup with Owen Wilson spurred his apparent suicide attempt in August 2007. She got back on the saddle, as it were, by hooking up with Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong in the spring, but their three-month romance skidded to a stop in July.

Sheila Marikar

August 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Far From Dead, Newman's Raring to Race

August 22, 2008 5:43 PM

Don’t count Cool Hand Luke out of the race just yet.

Not only is Paul Newman not on his deathbed, but he’s raring to go -- to the racetrack. The 83-year-old actor did a routine run at Limerock track in Lakeville, Conn., Aug. 13, weeks after reports that he was ill and on the verge of death.

Limerock spokeswoman Marie Jannace told ABCNews.com that Newman drove a Corvette in what she described as a "typical trip to the track" for the actor. 

“He looked fine,” she said. “He didn’t look gaunt. He's a thin man to begin with. He looked the same. He was still as handsome as he's always been and his eyes were as blue as ever.”

“It was a normal visit to the track, there was nothing unusual whatsoever about it,” she added. “He came here in a racing suit, with a baseball cap and sunglasses, how he normally comes here. He had his entourage like most celebrities do: his race team, his engineers, family and friends.”

Jannace said Newman’s been coming to the track, owned by Skip Barber, a legendary race car driver and friend of Newman’s, since the 1970s. She shot down Internet reports that Limerock closed down the track just for him.

“For years and years, whenever he has a desire to take a few laps or test a car, he’ll call here and say ‘Can I come on such and such a date, I need this much time.’ We accommodate him. He’s been a friend of the track and a supporter of the track for many years. But we didn’t close the track down -- we never do that,” Jannace said. “We make sure that he’s left alone. Everyone knows to leave him alone after all this time. [Fans] really do give him his privacy.”

In June, after Newman was photographed looking gaunt and sickly at an Indianapolis 500 event, reports surfaced that he was suffering from cancer.

"It's a form of cancer and he's dealing with it," A.E. Hotchner, a writer who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, told The Associated Press.

The actor's publicist issued a vague response to the rumors.

"Newman says he's doing nicely," Jeff Sanderson said in a statement to reporters.

Sheila Marikar

August 22, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Are the Jolie-Pitts Losing Their Luster?

August 19, 2008 5:54 PM

Considering how much money was spent on the first photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's twins -- reportedly $14 million, split between People and Hello! Magazines -- you'd think the cooing over newborns Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon and the rest of the gang would be audible from outer space.

But Roseanne Barr's drowning that out with her ranting. In a Friday post titled "John Voight" on her blog,  the comedian went off on Hollywood's first family.

"Angelina Jolie and her vacuous hubby Brad Pitt make about forty million dollars a year in violent psychopathic movies and give away three of it to starving children trying to look as if they give a crap about humanity as they spit out more dunces that will consume more than their fair share and wreck the earth even more," Barr writes.

"Also, Miss Jolie says she likes McCain too and hasn't decided who to endorse....huh?," Barr continues. "Aren't you supposed to be somewhat enlightened, or do you not know that the African daughter you hold in every picture had parents who suffered and died because of the Republican party's worldwide economic assault on Africa over the last few decades since Reagan?"

She ends her post with, "Ps....it might be good for your Asian and African children's self esteem to know you support a brown man for the leader of the free world."

Barr may be extreme in her distaste for the Jolie-Pitts, but she may not be alone. It seems others are also growing weary of the picture-perfect family. According to the blog CoverAwards, People's Aug. 4 issue, featuring a 19-page photo spread of the family, reportedly sold only 2.5 million copies, a "huge disappointment as Time Inc. was predicting it would be well over 3 million after spending nearly $6 million.”

Representatives for People declined to release newsstand figures to ABCNews.com.

UPDATE:

John Voight’s firing back at Barr after she trashed his daughter and son-in-law, and she’s blaming (who else?) the media for making her think poorly of the Jolie-Pitts.

In a statement to entertainment news show “Extra,” Voight called the former sitcom star “sick of mind” and said “We can never be surprised at what vile evil comes from the mouth of a confessed victim of child abuse at the hands of her own parents.”

Meanwhile, late Tuesday, Barr published a mea culpa titled “I Do Not Know Brangelina” on her blog, writing, “they might be good people in the flesh, but the media's images of them are smelly and vile, and I must always attack the media's representation of what is good or cool, because those who inhabit the media world of glamour and entertainment and fashion and gossip are horrid people who have no talent of any kind.”

ABCNews.com’s requests to Barr’s publicist for further comment were not immediately returned.

Barr didn’t seem to have a problem with the inhabitants of the media world for the nine years she starred in her own sitcom. Perhaps she’d be less inclined to bash Brangelina and the entertainment world if she still had a place in it?

Sheila Marikar

August 19, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (218) | TrackBack (0)

Heidi & Spencer Plot 'Hills' Takeover

August 19, 2008 12:09 PM

"The Hills" are alive … with cries for attention.

Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the reality TV twosome so many love to hate, are spreading their gospel as the MTV series begins its fourth season. Their message? They want the world to tune in to their lives, however banal and fake they may be, for a long time to come.

Should Lauren Conrad, "The Hills'" answer to "Sex and the City's" Carrie Bradshaw, grow weary of the cameras, Montag's ready to step into the spotlight.

“I think that maybe Lauren is tired of [being on the show], but we’re just beginning,” Montag told Ryan Seacrest during an interview Monday on his KIIS-FM radio show. “We’re not even remotely sick of it.”

“Sometimes the narrator has to throw their hate up on the wall and pass the mic,” Montag's fiance Pratt added, saying the couple wouldn't mind taking over for Conrad as the voice of the series.

Montag and Pratt have set their sights beyond "The Hills." Ahead of Monday's season four premiere, they told the entertainment news show "Extra" they plan to get married on live TV.

"I'm just waiting for that big ring," Montag, 21, said.

But while Montag's come up with side projects -- a made-for-TV wedding extravaganza, pop songs, a clothing line -- like an old piece of bread sprouting mold, without "The Hills" and the publicity she's gotten from embracing her status as Conrad's former friend, she knows she'd be nowhere.

Asked by "Extra" whether she's contemplated leaving the show, Montag responded, "No. Where would I go?"

Sheila Marikar

August 19, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (16) | TrackBack (0)

'Green' Gwyn a Hypocrite? Star Hawks Fur

August 18, 2008 3:08 PM

She eats a macrobiotic diet. She's married to world-famous vegetarian/Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. She's BFF with green-minded fashion designer Stella McCartney. She donates a portion of the proceeds from her perfume to breast cancer research. 

And yet, she stars in a new ad for Italian luxury label Tod's, draped in fox fur and wearing fur-lined boots.

It seems somewhat hypocritical for Gwyneth Paltrow, an actress almost as famous for her Academy-award winning performances as for her activism. To be fair, Paltrow hasn't declared a public stance on fur. While she doesn't often rock it on the red carpet, she donned a lush fur coat for her turn in 2001's "The Royal Tenenbaums." But it's jarring to see a star committed to a green, holistic lifestyle hawking a product so polarizing. And animal rights activists aren't happy with the statement she's made. 

"Gwyneth Paltrow won’t be the apple of her daughter’s eye if she flaunts the skins of once beautiful animals rendered into fur. It’s a shocking example to set for a young child, promoting an industry that electrocutes animals, snaps their necks and skins them alive," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spokesperson Michael McGraw said in an e-mail statement. "We’ve written to her many times, and sent her videos showing how animals are painfully electrocuted, slowly drowned and have their necks snapped for fur  but have never received a response. Apparently her beauty really is only skin deep."

Paltrow's representative, Stephen Huvane, declined ABCNews.com's requests for comment. Perhaps it's time for the pelt-wearing star to pipe up?

Sheila Marikar

August 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (42) | TrackBack (0)

Uma Thurman Is a Nose Holder

August 14, 2008 12:51 PM

Uma Thurman is a nose-holder.

Thumb to index finger, the actress cautiously clenches the bridge of her nose while jumping into the ocean, presumably to prevent a stream of salt water from flooding her sinuses.

A newly snapped paparrazi shot shows the actress as she leaps from a yacht off the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea. Her Swiss financier fiance looks on, seemingly unfazed by Thurman's precautionary pose.

Not me, man.

While some readers might have noted how good the 38-year-old, 6-foot starlet looked in her skimpy white two-piece, and others drowned in envy spying on the couple's life of luxury, my takeaway was much more critical of an actress I've traditionally enjoyed.

I say it again: Uma Thurman is a nose-holder.

The same Uma Thurman who has played a superhero (albeit in a romantic comedy opposite Luke Wilson); the Batman villainess Poison Ivy; and an all-around asskicker in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series.

The same Uma Thurman who had a raw turn in another Tarantino flick, "Pulp Fiction," as Missus Mia Wallace, where she famously snorted enough of John Travolta's heroin to need an adrenaline shot to survive the shock. No problem putting things up her nose in that role.

Never again will I be fooled by these onscreen alter-egos. Suspension of disbelief is dead. This woman can't execute a pencil dive from a marginal height without the self-imposed fleshy facemask.

I love to swim. Always have. I love diving boards, rope swings, waterslides, and jumping from tall rocks into the ocean. Nose-holding has never been an issue for me. Sure, water has gone up my nose before. Miraculously, I survived.

My bias against nose-holders likely grew out of my sister's inability to jump from the side of the pool without the facial clampdown, and the repeated scoldings that followed from my mother for my incessantly teasing my  responsible elder sibling.

I did a little research on the topic and found plenty of online How-To guides for jumping into bodies of water without the nasal security blanket. Simple tips include taking a deep breath before jumping, blowing out of your nose as you submerge and continuing to exhale as you rise to the surface.

I don't know the statistical breakdown -- whether the majority of swimmers around the world (I'm assuming the safety practice is universal) are nose-holders or, instead, people who reinforce the fact that the nose-hold is not only an awkward pose, but an unnecessary one.

In any case Thurman is not alone. There are noseclips available in several colors. But I challenge her, and all of her ilk, to get over the phobia, even as she approaches 40.

I doubt Michael Phelps ever held his nose.

David Schoetz

August 14, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (69) | TrackBack (0)

Sexy & Sweet: Is the Old Britney Back?

August 13, 2008 2:49 PM

Britney Spears is working to turn her past wrongs into rights.

After her glazed-over, half-hearted performance at last year's MTV Video Music Awards, many doubted she would ever set foot on that stage again. But according to an MTV spokesperson, Spears is in talks to make an appearance at the Sept. 7 ceremony, and she's already starring in promos for the show.

In one of the two spots, Spears, clad in a curve-hugging black dress, flirts shamelessly with VMA host Russell Brand, who teases her about remembering his name as an elephant paces in the background. She seems sexy and confident, ready to laugh off last year's failures and shine in the spotlight again.

And in latest issue of OK! magazine, Spears seems as if she's ready to reclaim her role as a mom as well. She poses on the cover looking like a modern-day Southern belle, a dapper Sean Preston and Jayden James by her side. In her first interview in two years, she tells the magazine she'd "rather not" have her sons follow in her famous footsteps, saying, "I'd just as soon they have a more normal childhood."

It's a far cry from her last attempt to talk to and pose for the magazine. At a July 2007 photo shoot, Spears reportedly let her dog soil a $6,700 Zac Posen gown and walked off the set with thousands of dollars of clothes and accessories.

With a new album in the works and her child custody case closed, a killer VMA performance could turn Spears' uptick in behavior into a bonafide comeback. And for MTV, it would be a ratings coup: Last year's VMA's was up 23 percent over the 2006 show.

So hit it, Britney, one more time -- if you get it right, it's an all-around win.

Sheila Marikar

August 13, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (27) | TrackBack (0)

Sting’s Beard Shorn – Live and In Person

August 08, 2008 10:57 AM

A week ago, I never expected that last night I’d be alternately gently swaying my arms and shaking my tush to the sounds of a band (albeit a legendary one) that hadn’t released an album in 25 years. But that’s exactly what happened when my husband and I scored free tickets in blissfully good seats to see The Police at Madison Square Garden. And while hearing the familiar tunes of “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle” and “Don’t Stand So (Close to Me)” wasn’t really a surprise, seeing two blond bombshells shave Sting’s “tour beard” backstage was.

For the most part, the show was free of the egomaniacal histrionics and pyrotechnics typically associated with aging rockers’ reunion tours, perhaps due to the band’s ability to project itself back to the late ‘70s: Sting’s voice sounded fantastic, Andy Summers truly wailed and, even at 56, drummer Stewart Copeland was practically bouncing off the walls.

But after the first set and before the encore, Sting headed backstage to shed the beard that he had presumably been growing the whole tour. There, two blondes wielded an electric shaver and a straight razor on Sting’s face and neck, as another off-camera technician buffed his nails and wrapped his feet in a warm cloth. The crowd cheered, but as Sting’s antics, which were broadcast on huge screens in the sold-out arena, dragged on longer and longer and became more outrageous, the audience went from ecstatic to just plain weirded-out.

Finally, Summers and Copeland bounded back on stage, apparently as Sting finished up his grooming regimen. When Sting joined the crowd, he was smooth-faced and bare-chested.

True, it’s likely that the over-the-top shaving scene was all part of the show, which was being filmed for PBS. But still.

Note to Sting: Yes, you have stage presence, an amazing voice and a reputation for being gifted in the boudoir. But we don’t want to watch you shave while we’re waiting for your encore – especially when Copeland is drumming right behind you, just waiting to steal the show.

Ashley Phillips

August 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)