Celebrity Gossip, News and Entertainment

Leslie Bibb has joined the cast of the upcoming Adam McKay-directed and Will Ferrell-starring NASCAR comedy. She’ll be playing Carley Bobby, the wife of Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby character. Leslie Bibb as RB’s wife is a standout — she was always great on Popular and briefly on Nip/Tuck, and after The Skulls I guess she had to wait five or six years for another shot at a blockbuster — and she’s got 70s Hot Chick hair here. John C. Reilly is a pretty natural choice for a Ferrell second banana, and as all the press keeps pointing out, he may be the only actor to appear in two NASCAR movies (he was in Days of Thunder).

Leslie Bibb joins a cast which includes Sacha Baron Cohen aka Ali G, John C. Reilly, David Koechner, Michael Clark Duncan and Gary Cole. Read more!

80-year-old Playboy Hugh Hefner wants Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman to pose for Playboy, according to reports. was inspired to approach the actress after watching her perform naked in the play The Blue Room in 1999 - which critics described as “theatrical Viagra.”
Hefner said: “She’s bewitching and the vision of her with a cigarette in one hand and her knickers in the other as a delicious French au pair haunts my fantasies. I’d better add that she’s a terrific actress.”

While taking the interview, Hefner also offered an invitation to Australian celebrities Naomi Watts, Kylie Minogue and Elle McPherson to pose for Playboy.
Actresses that have already posed for the world famous Playboy include Kim Basinger, Alison Eastwood (Clint’s daughter), Erica Releniak and of course, the other Baywatch babe, Pamela Anderson. Read more!

Justin Timberlake says he’s well over the whole romance thing with ex-love Britney Spears as he opens up about his messy break-up with pop star Britney Spears in the new issue of GQ magazine, which hits stands July 25. He tells GQ that he wishes her well, and says people shouldn’t count her out yet because she’s “very clever.”
“I was in love with her from the start, I was infatuated with her from the moment I saw her.”

But despite having “loved that person half your life” he found the hardest thing after their split was seeing the girl he was so close to being disloyal. It was this frustration at Britney, he admits, that led him to write his hit revenge song ‘Cry me a River’. Justin — promoting his comeback album FutureSex/LoveSounds — admits that his heartbreak initially made him a playboy who pursued “the affections of many young females”. Read more!

Pamela Anderson and her “on/off again” boyfriend Kid Rock will be husband and wife by month’s end, US Weekly magazine reported. The former Playboy model and the Detroit rap-rocker will exchange vows on July 29 aboard a cruising yacht near the French Riviera town of St Tropez, celebrity magazine US Weekly has reported.
“Yes, I’m finally getting remarried,” Anderson, who was born in Ladysmith, B.C. who’s made a career out of (over)exposing herself — kept the blossoming relationship with Rock, 35, under wraps until confirming it, announced on her website Tuesday. “It’s been a whirlwind … spontaneous but well thought through,” wrote the former Playboy model and star of TV’s Baywatch, V.I.P. and Stacked. Read more!

On Monday Kellie Pickler, bubbly blonde “American Idol” finalist became the fourth season-five finalist to sign a recording contract, inking a deal with Sony BMG’s Nashville-based country label BNA Records and Idol producer Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings Limited. 19 Recordings is also home to fellow Idols Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia and Ruben Studdard.
First up for the 20-year-old North Carolina native, whom “Idol” judge Simon Cowell once deemed a “naughty little minx,” will be a single scheduled for release in September. Her debut album will arrive Nov. 14. Pickler is recording the album with producer Blake Chancey in between dates on the current American Idols Live tour.

Kellie enthused, “I’ve always dreamed of getting a record deal so now my dream has come true! I’m really excited about making my first album and giving something back to the fans who supported me on American Idol.” Read more!

Helen Fielding, 48, the creative force behind the book “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” welcomed her second child and first daughter on Sunday in Los Angeles, her publicist said on Tuesday. People magazine reported a 6-pound, 3-ounce daughter was born Sunday to the 48-year-old author and her husband, “Simpsons” executive producer Kevin Curran. “Mother and daughter are both doing fine, and everyone is delighted,” the publicist added.

This is the second child for Helen and her longtime partner Kevin Curran, 49 - they also have a son Dashiell, 2 1/2. Curran is an Emmy-winning writer who has worked on The Simpsons, Married with Children and The Late Show with David Letterman. Read more!

Since Jessica Biel took off most of her clothes in Gear magazine, she’s been one of most-desired starlets in Hollywood. This Hollywood beauty will go out for a lunch date with the highest bidder to raise money for a girl who was injured in a car accident. Molly Bloom, was run over by a Hummer stretch limousine and dragged nearly 40 feet on prom night and now she undergoing rehabilitation at Denver Children’s Hospital. Limousine driver Stanley D. Sample, 38, faces a misdemeanor charge of careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury.

Bloom’s supporters organized an event called “Mollypalooza” to generate money for her medical expenses. Read more!

Oscar winner Holly Hunter is in negotiations to topline the TNT drama series Saving Grace, while Michael Keaton will star in the channel’s six-hour event series The Company. In “Grace,”, she would play a jaded Oklahoma City police detective who is visited by an irascible angel and offered an opportunity to redeem her life after she encounters an angel. The cable network ordered the pilot almost a year ago and signing on to the project would give Hunter her first TV series role.

Nancy Miller wrote the script and will executive produce the pilot for “Grace,” which is expected to begin production shortly. E. Duke Vincent also will executive produce. Fox TV Studios will produce. If picked up for a full season, Saving Grace will debut in the fall. Read more!

Beyonce says in an upcoming issue of Giant Magazine that her manager/father, Matthew Knowles, didn’t know that she was creating her new album “B’Day.” The former DESTINY’S CHILD singer also says that she and her father often fought when she was younger and just emerging into stardom, particularly when “I’d say ‘no’ to something and he’d book it anyway. Then I’d have to do it because I’d look bad (if I didn’t),” Us Weekly reported Friday.
She spent months on her debut disc DANGEROUSLY IN LOVE and was left exhausted after
spending so much time in the studio. “It took a while for me and my dad to have an understanding, because he thinks everyone’s supposed to work like him,” she said. “When I turned 18 and started handling my business more, he went into shock.” Read more!

Pregnant Britney Spears says she’s not ready to retire from performing and planning on a musical collaboration recording a single with her wannabe rapper hubby Kevin Federline. K-Fed’s debut album was largely derided but that hasn’t stopped Britters teaming up with him on the mic. His debut hip-hop album, “Playing With Fire,” is expected to be released next month.
“I can’t wait to do that again,” Spears, 24, tells Harper’s Bazaar in its August issue, on newsstands July 25. “But I really have to take my time and do it right and be safe. Actually … not that safe. When you perform, you have to be dangerous.”
I’m so proud of Kevin. He’s been working so hard on his own album since I got pregnant with Preston.” Read more!

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are to star in a fifth series of their reality TV show ‘The Simple Life’. Hilton and Richie fell out in April 2005 and the format for the current fourth season of the series allowed their scenes to be shot separately, with very little interaction between the two. Because the party princesses have refused to kiss and make up since April 2005, their scenes have largely been shot separately, with little interaction between the pair.
E! Entertainment Television will air a fifth season of the reality-style series, which shows the tabloid-ready celebutantes thrown into everyday situations with real people, the network announced on Tuesday.

In separate reports, both Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie have issued conflicting statements about the status of their friendship and creative overlaps. “I don’t have any control over whether they’ll be friends by next season,” E! Networks president and CEO Ted Harbert tells PEOPLE. Read more!

Former supermodel Christie Brinkley is splitting from her fourth husband, architect Peter Cook after 10 years of marriage, her publicist confirmed yesterday. Brinkley and Cook, an architect, have an 8-year-old daughter, Sailor Lee. “Her immediate concern is for her children, and she’s hoping during this obviously difficult time that people will be kind enough to respect her privacy,” publicist Elliot Mintz said.
Brinkley has two other children from previous marriages.

The 52-year-old CoverGirl, who appeared in the 1980s comedy “National Lampoon’s Vacation” with Chevy Chase, has been married to French artist Jean-Francois Allaux, Piano Man Billy Joel and real estate developer Richard Taubman. She and Joel have a daughter, Alexa, 20, and she has a son, Jack, 11, by Taubman whom Cook adopted when the couple married in 1996. Read more!

Almost three months after the birth of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter, Suri Cruise, who was born at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., on April 18, has yet to be seen in public, either in person or photographically.
German TV station RTL, taking matters into its own hands, has produced a composite image of what Suri might look like. In May, Cruise reportedly had put out feelers for a family photo shoot, but backed out in the 11th hour before the bidding began, according to US Weekly. Gossip Web site Defamer.com has called the delay “profoundly strange” and upgraded its suspicion from “mystery” to “riddle that would make the Sphinx incontinent.” And TMZ.com, perhaps digging for evidence of Suri’s existence, obtained a copy of the official birth certificate, filed May 8 in Los Angeles. Read more!

Lindsay Lohan is allegedly romancing British actor Rhys Ifans. The Mean Girls actress is said to be smitten with Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, 37, - best known for his role as Hugh Grant’s eccentric flatmate Spike in Notting Hill - after being introduced to him by her friend Kate Moss. Lindsay’s attraction to Rhys has supposedly sealed the deal on the actress’ decision to purchase a home in London.

Another reason Lohan is keen on moving to England is the fact that the drinking age there is 18. The insider said, “Lindsay is branded a hellraiser in the US because the legal drinking age is 21. So it’s an amazing relief to be in England where things are more liberal. She loves that it’s different here.” Read more!

Hot Italian actress Sofia Loren, who turns 72 in September, will appear in next year’s Pirelli calendar wearing nothing and naked but diamond earrings, the Italian magazine Gente (People). Sophia Loren first featured on magazine covers half a century ago. And wowed millions.
Sophia Loren has always managed to look stunning, defying age like few others in the business of glamour. But still, revealing outfits at 71 call for a tremendous amount of courage, not to mention a body that still holds the capacity to excite.

The others in the calendar, which is known for it artistic portraits of women, include Spain’s Penelope Cruz, Australia’s Naomi Watts, US star Hilary Swank and France’s Lou Doillon who is the daughter of singer-actress Jane Birkin. Read more!