Brit: Tough Love for Doctor Phil?

Like Britney doesn't have enough problems! Now, contrary to the quality time she's said to have spent with TV's Dr. Phil before leaving Cedars-Sinai, TMZ tells us the visit was actually more of an ambush.

And the instigators were reportedly none other than Brit's family, who inexplicably are rumored to be appearing on Dr. Phil this week.

The Website quotes sources on the floor where Britney was hospitalized as saying Dr. Phil showed up Saturday morning unbeknownst to Brit, and she was not happy to see him, even walking out of the room.

Sources tell TMZ Brit returned, and the good doc talked at her for about 15 minutes (not the hour of conversation he publicized in his press release). Further, it's now being reported that Dr. Phil didn't exactly walk Britney to her car but, rather, sort of followed her, presumably continuing to dole advice.

The Website got a "no comment" when it asked Cedars-Sinai why they "let a television doctor on a floor that has such fragile patients, particularly since Britney had no idea he was coming."

On Dr. Phil's show site, promos tease a "BRITNEY SPEARS EXCLUSIVE" this Tuesday, with this further description: "Dr. Phil paid an exclusive visit to Britney Spears just moments before she left the hospital where she was admitted. Get the details of his one-on-one with the troubled pop star..."

Not surprisingly, sources tell TMZ, "Based on the interaction between Dr. Phil and Britney this morning, it'll be a cold day in hell before Britney goes on his show."

So, we'll take that as a no, and it remains to be seen if her parental units show up, as Lynne is rumored to still be in Lousiana, where she was photographed at the grave of her sister on the day her daughter was being let out of the psych ward.

But maybe to Dr. Phil's daytime-TV-doctoring ears, all of these things taken together add up to a cry for help.

Read More......

Kiss-and-Tell Hell: Lindsay's Capricious Capritian

So much for LiLo being able to lay low courtesy of Britney's latest blowup.

First came quickie boyfriend Riley Giles' tell-all to a British tab, wherein among many graphic details of their romantic escapades, he says, "Lindsay’s definitely a nymphomaniac."

Now, one of Lindsay's many recent makeout pals from Capri, Italy, Alessandro diNunzio, has decided to peddle his story to British rag News of the World. Maybe he's just mad because he's not the guy smooching her above. (That's his countryman Dario Faiella. Whatever, dude.

Among the not-so-shocking revelations: "Lindsay was very, very good [in bed] and surprisingly experienced...She was extremely flexible and adventurous." The "article" goes on and on about how they went on and on.

Our take: So what if the girl likes to have fun. At least she isn't doing it for money, like kiss-and-tell media whore Alessandro.

Read More......

Katherine Heigl: outspoken

"I'm the laziest person I know," Katherine Heigl says.


The actress gets cast as goddesses of various kinds. But in this put-the-best-face-on-it town, that's not the only thing she's known for.

By Paul Brownfield, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 6, 2008

"OH, man, I'm tired," Katherine Heigl said.

She laughed. It was 9 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning and Heigl was wearing a full-length red Oscar De La Renta dress, black shawl over the shoulders. Her hair was blown out, face fully made up. This week very much promised to be busy -- and all about her. She was getting married in a few days to singer Josh Kelley -- a destination wedding on her property in Utah. She was still deflecting comments she made in the January issue of Vanity Fair. And she had her first big starring role in a movie to promote.

For now, Heigl was sitting under a heat lamp outside at the Four Seasons Hotel, smoking and drinking a pot of coffee with Splenda before heading back upstairs to her "holding suite" before a day's worth of promotion for her new movie, the romantic comedy "27 Dresses."

"I'm not a workaholic," she insisted. "I'm not. I'm the laziest person I know."

It was hard to believe this, coming from someone in De La Renta at 9 in the morning. Still, this self-effacing confession is in keeping with Heigl's growing reputation as being unusually frank, her comments coming in somewhere between Dorothy Parker-tough and diva-spoiled.

"Outspoken," people call her, although it could also just be said that she speaks. Jane Fonda in Vietnam was outspoken; Heigl in Hollywood, calling the character she played in "Knocked Up" a shrew, is merely being forthright.

"The press or the media has decided that I'm outspoken, and I guess that's my angle or something?" she asks. "I have been this way for the last five to seven years when I started saying, 'You know, screw it, I'm not going to pussyfoot around issues anymore.' I kind of say what I think. And if I feel passionately about something I will be honest about it, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Heigl also just might be the next big romantic-comedy heroine, joining the conga line of Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore -- actresses in whom men see a sex object and women see themselves.

"She's beautiful, but not in a cold way," said Elizabeth Gabler, president of Fox 2000, which is releasing "27 Dresses," a film that will test Heigl's box-office draw. "You feel like you could be working with her in the office."

In her best-known work -- Izzie Stevens on the ABC hit "Grey's Anatomy," Alison Scott in the Judd Apatow comedy "Knocked Up" -- Heigl comes off as a goddess who ends up falling for sweet, lumpish men. There is George (T.R. Knight), the menschy fellow intern on "Grey's," and Seth Rogan's frizzy-haired stoner Ben in "Knocked Up." But with "27 Dresses," which opens Jan. 18, Heigl is the unabashed star, and she is surrounded this time by more image-appropriate suitors.

Her new movie, written by Aline Brosh McKenna of "The Devil Wears Prada" fame, features Heigl as Jane, a people-pleasing bridesmaid so dutiful in her role helping friends pull off their weddings that she has no time to . . . wait for it . . . find true love herself. Here Heigl is choosing between Ed Burns as a dull-eyed yet suave boss who is oblivious to Jane's feelings for him, and James Marsden ("Enchanted") as her romantic foil, a cute-boy cynical reporter who covers weddings for his New York daily newspaper.

Funnily enough, "27 Dresses" is just the kind of hearts-and-flowers, all-about-me romantic comedy that propelled Apatow to offer his bracingly funny male tell-all in "Knocked Up," in which a bemused stoner stumbles into a one-night stand with an otherwise unattainable blond that leads him into a forced march toward coldblooded responsibility.

Heigl, of course, was that one-night stand, and her character helped enable Apatow to say all those things about immature men and the women who bring down the bliss of arrested male bonding. But Heigl still had to make us believe that Alison would see into the best of Ben's nature and ride off into the sunset with him (and their baby).

"I think people need to understand that [life is] not all about finding the most charming, sexy, fabulous guy and then making him yours," Heigl said of the thematic contrast between "Knocked Up," which is about compromise, and "27 Dresses," which is about the fairy tale. "[But] of course [in] '27 Dresses' she does just that." Finally, Heigl gives a wide berth to romance at the movies; she welcomes both the more jaundiced view of "Knocked Up" and the fanciful formula of "27 Dresses." This is someone, after all, who counts "Pretty Woman" among her all-time favorite movies but also can't stop watching "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."

Attention-getter

HER views on the male-female dynamics in "27 Dresses" were much tamer than the sentiments she expressed in the January issue of Vanity Fair, in which she said of "Knocked Up": "It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days."

Heigl likes to say that she and her manager-mother have pledged to never approach her career from "a place of fear." But in the aftermath of the "Knocked Up" comments Heigl released a quote that reaffirmed her admiration of the movie, lest anyone think she was biting the hand that had made her viable as a rom-com star.

"I wouldn't have said anything at all, except that it was getting so much attention," she said. "It would have just gone away had I said nothing at all. Because it wasn't that interesting, and it wasn't that outrageous."

Still, the incident encapsulated how Heigl has achieved her budding mainstream stardom -- charming on screen, attention-getting off it. But her popularity is rooted in her charisma. On both the big and small screen, Heigl comes off as earthbound if not earthy -- no doubt what helped Apatow put her in "Knocked Up." She allows you to see her characters unraveling; it's what plays as soap-opera emotionality on "Grey's" and as chick-lit comedy in "27 Dresses." Her ability to distract audiences from her glamour is key. Otherwise, why root for her?

Off-screen, Heigl is similarly open. Infamously, she publicly chastised then-"Grey's Anatomy" costar Isaiah Washington backstage at last year's Golden Globe Awards, a rebuke ("He needs to just not speak in public," was the gist of what she said) that was a continuation of the controversy sparked by Washington's alleged on-set homophobic slur against fellow "Grey's" cast member Knight.
"The sort of unwritten code is you say nothing," Heigl said. "You say nothing, you turn the question around or you spin it in a good light, and that's how you deal with these sort of things, you don't address it, you don't bring it up, and you don't have an opinion. And that's how I've pretty much understood things to be, especially about bigger issues."

But Heigl has become one Hollywood's most fearsome creatures -- an actress with opinions. She openly questions the direction of her character on her show and, more recently, became one of the few celebs to publicly declare that she wouldn't attend the Golden Globe Awards if the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike is still in effect.

"I don't particularly enjoy it," she said of the two times she's joined the picket line, both at the behest of "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes. "I'm not great with chanting, and I don't like circling around and around for hours or holding a sign. I do it when my boss asks me to."

In that same issue of Vanity Fair in which Heigl appears on the cover, all lovely and seductive, there is a profile of Angie Dickinson, in which the 76-year-old says:

"You get so used to being fussed over that when it stops you feel naked just going to the supermarket. You end up obsessed with your looks. If an elevator doesn't have a mirror in it, I'm finished. I don't care who you are, when you get to be past 50, it all changes. That's the way it is. It isn't wrong -- we want to look at young, beautiful things."

Heigl -- still a young, beautiful thing -- just turned 29. She has been managed by her mother, Nancy, since she was 9 and began modeling for Sears catalogs while a child in New Canaan, Conn. She acted through high school (most notably opposite Gerard Depardieu in "My Father the Hero") before moving to L.A. with her mother to pursue a show business career more aggressively. Her parents were by then divorced.

Heigl and her mother remain business partners "She doesn't love reading scripts," Heigl said, "so I usually read the scripts and I'll say, 'I love this role,' and she'll say, 'OK.' At the end of the day I'm the person who has to love this."

As a fail-safe against the day the Dickinson rule kicks in, Heigl and her mother recently formed a production company, optioning the novel "Lost & Found" by Jacqueline Sheehan. Heigl says there's no part for her in it, but based on the log line there certainly could be: Woman moves to an island in Maine after her husband dies, going to work in an animal shelter. Heigl's next scheduled starring vehicle, "The Ugly Truth," has her in another battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy.

Around the time she moved to L.A., Heigl said, she took an audition class -- where she learned that she rolled her eyes too much -- but has never had any formal acting training. Nor is she looking for a role that would completely upset her physical appearance, à la Charlize Theron in "Monster" or Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry."

"I like simpler things, I think. I like happy stories. I've had enough real life to live that I kind of don't want to go see it in the theaters, was sort of my point about 'Babel.' "

Earlier, she had said of her love for romantic comedies: "I'd much rather go see that than 'Babel.' Do you know? Like 'Babel' really depressed me. And I just don't need to spend three days feeling [lousy]. I'm aware. I'm aware of all the problems."

That had sounded flip, Heigl now realized. "Babel," of course, was a beautiful movie, she said, even if she is more of a "Pretty Woman," "40-Year-Old Virgin" kind of girl -- with a mind of her own.

Read More......

Radiohead CD tops UK album chart

Fans could pay anything up to £100 to download In Rainbows online

Sunday, 6 January 2008, 18:47 GMT

Radiohead have entered the UK album chart at number one with In Rainbows, while X Factor winner Leon Jackson has the top single for a third week.
The indie band released In Rainbows for download in October, with fans invited to pay what they thought it was worth.

However, this week was the first opportunity to obtain the album on CD.

Radiohead finished one place ahead of Take That's Beautiful World, while last week's best-selling album - Spirit by Leona Lewis - fell to number three.

UK ALBUM CHART
1. Radiohead, In Rainbows
2. Take That, Beautiful World
3. Leona Lewis, Spirit
4. Mika, Life in Cartoon Motion
5. Michael Buble, Call Me Irresponsible
6. Amy MacDonald, This is the Life
7. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
8. Hoosiers, The Trick to Life
9. Cascada, Perfect Day
10. Timbaland, Shock Value
Source: Official Charts Company
Mika, Amy MacDonald, The Hoosiers, Cascada and Timbaland all rose to positions within the top 10.

But it was a quiet week for album releases, meaning that Radiohead had the only new entry within the top 40.

On the singles chart, it was When You Believe by Jackson which outsold all other tracks this week.

Soulja Boy's Crank That climbed one to number two, while former X Factor champion Lewis dropped to third with Bleeding Love.

Lewis's single was the biggest-selling release of 2007, it was confirmed this week.

Nickelback's Rockstar moved up seven places to number eight, while the highest new entry was Basshunter's house track Now You're Gone, at 14.


UK SINGLES CHART
1. Leon Jackson, When You Believe
2. Soulja Boy, Crank That
3. Leona Lewis, Bleeding Love
4. Timbaland, Apologize
5. Take That, Rule the World
6. Mark Ronson/Amy Winehouse, Valerie
7. Girls Aloud, Call the Shots
8. Nickelback, Rock Star
9. T2, Heartbroken
10. Alicia Keys, No One
Source: Official Charts Company
Britney Spears, in the news this week after being treated in hospital in Los Angeles and losing custody of her children, was new at 19 with Piece of Me.

And Mika's single Relax, Take it Easy entered the chart a place below Spears.

The only other new entry was for the White Stripes, as Conquest went in at 30.

There was also a clearout of festive favourites on the first chart of 2008.

None of the three Christmas hits in last week's top 40 - by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, Mariah Carey and Wham! - remained on the chart.

Read More......

Arden Myrin and Dan Martin

WAITSFIELD, VT., DEC. 30 The bride, a comedian, takes advantage of a captive audience.

By MARIALISA CALTA
Published: January 6, 2008

DAN MARTIN realized he was deeply in love when his girlfriend, Arden Myrin, began dancing wildly to piped-in music in the frozen food aisle of a Hollywood supermarket.

Enlarge This Image
Dennis Curran for The New York Times
The first dance.
“I watched her reaching for the green peas and rocking out,” he said. “And I thought, ‘This is it. I could spend my life with her.’”

They met in early 2001 at a Los Angeles comedy club; Ms. Myrin was doing stand-up and Mr. Martin, a comedy writer, was in the audience. On the surface, at least, they had a lot in common. Both were raised on the East Coast — he in Northport, on Long Island, and she in Little Compton, R.I. — and both had moved to Los Angeles for their careers.

Both had staved off homesickness by listening to Howard Stern’s radio program. On their first date, in fact, Mr. Martin raved about an “amazingly funny” and engaging woman he had heard on Stern, but whose name he had forgotten. “Arden looked at me and said, ‘That was me!’” he recalled. “I was stunned.”

It took a while to get to that first date, however. Mr. Martin, now 36 and a writer for “Code Monkeys,” an animated series on the G4 cable television network, remembered being impressed by Ms. Myrin, a diminutive blonde. But he just assumed that she was dating someone. When he found out otherwise, he returned to the club every week for a month before marshaling the courage to ask her out.

Ms. Myrin, now 34, has always been focused on a stage career. “I never had a Plan B,” she said. After graduating from Colorado College, she dared herself to do stand-up at a comedy club in New York. Soon she had an agent and a small role in Woody Allen’s “Deconstructing Harry.” Other movie roles (“What Women Want,” 2000; “Kinsey,” 2004; “Evan Almighty,” 2007) led her to Hollywood, where two years ago she landed a job as a cast member of “MadTV,” a show now in reruns because of the Writers Guild strike.

Mr. Martin is “Arden in reverse” according to Ryan Hunter, his roommate at the University of Arizona. “Arden’s zaniness is on the outside, her caring and sweetness within. Dan is in some ways the opposite.” Mr. Hunter described his friend as “courageous and adventurous” and “deep down, mad as a hatter.”

Mr. Martin’s circuitous path to Los Angeles included dropping out of high school, joining the Air Force, marrying briefly, divorcing. He used his military benefits to study creative writing at Arizona, but quit, he said, when he decided that “I wanted to write scripts, not short stories.” He bounced around Los Angeles, making his living as a dog-walker and a hotel concierge before finally earning a paycheck from his writing.

When he and Ms. Myrin met, he was not looking for marriage, he said, “but, in my heart, I always thought that life would be sort of sad if you were not sharing it with someone.”

As for Ms. Myrin, she spent their first few dates wondering what was wrong with Mr. Martin. “He was so tall and handsome and he looked like every guy that had ever treated me badly,” she said. “I figured he was hiding something.” It took her “months to trust that he was as nice and sweet as he seemed,” she said.

As their relationship deepened, Mr. Martin was increasingly drawn to what he describes as her fearlessness, selflessness and goofiness. He explained: “With Arden you never know what you are going to get.” He recalled finding her one afternoon “peacefully napping in bed after a long battle with insomnia, dressed to go jogging and clutching a spatula.”

“I will never be bored,” he added.

For her part, Ms. Myrin saw in him a man secure enough to remain unthreatened by her work. On “MadTV,” she said, “mostly I just run around in my underwear and act like a ding-dong. It takes a confident guy to deal with a woman who is so out there.”

“A lot of men are competitive about being funny,” she said. “but not Dan.”

She did not think of marriage as a priority, but, “I began to think it would actually happen.” She thought that Mr. Martin was waiting until “he had his ducks in order.” And, after selling a script, he surprised her with a trip in November 2006 to Dublin, where he proposed.

The day, he recalled, was miserable and rainy, perfect for a couple that prefers “real weather” to the steady sunshine of Los Angeles.

The weather could not have been more real than on the frosty, windy afternoon of Dec. 30, when Mr. Martin and Ms. Myrin were married at Round Barn Farm, an inn at Waitsfield, Vt. Just minutes before the ceremony was to begin, the bride could be found with her mother, Janet, and her attendants, dancing wildly to rock music in the reception area.

“You are the most” — Mr. Martin said, pausing when reading his vows — “ridiculous human being I have ever met. And I am in love with you.” Ms. Myrin responded that he was her “Rock of Dan-braltar.”

The ceremony, witnessed by about 140 family members and friends, was led by their friend Steve Hytner, a comedian who became a Universal Life minister for the occasion. The wedding party included a male bridesmaid, and the singer Clare Muldaur finished a mellow Nina Simone number with a kazoo solo.

Then came the first dance, an elaborately choreographed disco number. As the couple dipped and spun, they looked at once both spontaneous and wild, and perfectly in sync.

Read More......

Cosmetic Imperatives

By ELLEN TIEN Published:
January 6, 2008

Some beauty products simply get the job done, while others become obsessions. Here are some of winter’s top-selling, most coveted items.

TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT

The Youth As We Know It cream by Bliss puts 10 anti-aging ingredients in one jar ($79 at Blissworld.com); its success has led to a complete Youth collection of face products ($28 to $75, available Jan. 15 at blissworld

.com).

This season, lush lashes are the thing: extension-hungry celebrities have been ordering Shu Uemura false lashes by the case ($15 to $50 at Shuuemura-usa.com), while high-fiber mascaras that resist smudging or running by Shu Uemura (Fiber Xtension Lengthening Mascara, $23, also at Shuuemura-usa.com) and Kevyn Aucoin (Curling or Volume Mascara, $25 at BergdorfGoodman.com) have become all-around favorites.

Patricia Wexler M.D. De-Puff Eye Gel has become a new staple, $19.50 at Bath & Body Works.

MIDDLE ROW

Kate Somerville Goat Milk Body Lotion keeps winter-battered skin soft ($28 at Bigelowchemist.com, also in a face cream for $55).

Beauty kits by the London-based Space.NK contain bath and body products in gorgeous boxes with graphics inspired by Japanese kimonos ($20 for mini-sets to $160 for full-size sets at SpaceNK.com).

That Gal brightening face primer by Benefit makes skin brighter, clearer and smoother; it can be worn alone or under foundation ($27 at Sephora.com).

BOTTOM ROW

Laura Mercier Stickgloss keeps lips hydrated and shiny yet has the longevity of lipstick; the color palette is subtle and elegant, with no tacky teenage shades ($20 at Lauramercier.com).

Vegetarian Miracle 10-Minute Mask for hair by Davines moisturizes and de-frizzes, keeping static at bay; $19.50 at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa in New York, (212) 546-0398.

Lime & Sage shower gel ($15) and Thyme & Sage facial gel cleanser ($21) by Korres fight acne naturally; the striped bottles are trophy items for the bathroom. At Korres Natural Products in New York, (212) 219-0683.

Read More......

Britney Spears 'leaves hospital'

Spears will hear on 14 January if she can see her two sons again

Britney Spears has been discharged from hospital in Los Angeles, according to a well-known TV therapist who said he had spent an hour with the troubled singer.
Dr Phil McGraw said he was convinced she was "in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention".

The star was taken to hospital on a stretcher after a hysterical outburst at her home, with police called to try to settle a dispute about her two sons.

A court commissioner then removed her right to look after or visit the boys.

As a result, Spears' ex-husband, Kevin Federline, now has sole custody of Sean Preston, who is two, and one-year-old Jayden James.

A further court hearing is to be held on 14 January to consider the welfare of the children.

'Very concerned'

Dr McGraw, who presents a self-titled programme helping people with their psychological problems, said he went to see Spears at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Dr Phil McGraw hosts a daily show about health and relationships
"She was released moments before my arrival and was packing when I entered the room," he told American TV programmes Entertainment Tonight and The Insider.

"We visited for about an hour before I walked with her to her car. I am very concerned for her."

No details have been given by the hospital as to why Spears, 26, was admitted on Thursday evening.

It was reported that, when police went to the singer's hilltop mansion, she was under the influence of an unknown substance.

After a three-hour stand-off, Spears was lifted into an ambulance, which was then chased by a number of paparazzi photographers.

Read More......