Celebrity Gossip, News and Entertainment

Singer Christina Aguilera’s recent friendly gesture is sure to turn her one-time foe Britney Spears into a friend. She splashed out on the ultimate baby gift to finally end her feud with Britney Spears. Aguilera recently treated Spears with a $500 gift basket to congratulate her on the birth of her new son, Sutton Pierce.

The gift basket for Spears’ new baby Sutton Pierce is crammed with goodies like a set of porcelain crockery, a cuddly elephant, a hooded towel, slippers and a nightlight, accompanied by a card that read: “Congratulations on the new addition to your family. Love Christina and Jordan”

Shakira, 29, the Colombian music star famed for her suggestive hip movements, has told a German teenagers magazine that she has taken up gardening and would like to live permanently nude.

“My latest interest is gardening,” Shakira told the Munich-based magazine Bravo. The garden has been laid out around her Bahamas home.
“The whole house is surrounded by red and pink flowers. It looks like paradise.” Read more!

The Pussycat Dolls are to add a new group member as part of a new reality show in the US and a national casting call has already begun, inviting applications from females who can sing and dance with confidence. The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll - airing on new network The CW - will see the band expand from six members to seven with McG, Jimmy lovine and “America’s Next Top Model” producer Ken Mok.
The show will take place over eight one-hour long episodes. It will be a cross between “America’s Top Model” and “American Idol” and the winner will receive a spot in the pop group Pussycat Dolls, Daily Variety reported Wednesday.

The show does not have a title as of yet, but the first reality project to be produced by the newly formed Warner Horizon Television, is to air sometime during the 2006-07 season. 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!

Canadian singer DIANA KRALL and husband ELVIS COSTELLO announced Sunday that the jazz singer is pregnant and due in December — just in time for their third wedding anniversary. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and his wife were wed in December 2003, and word of her pregnancy was provided by a New York-based spokesman for the couple.

Costello, 51, is currently touring with Allen Toussaint in support of their album, “The River in Reverse.” The veteran British rocker’s songs include “Veronica,” “Pump It Up” and “Alison.” The 41-year-old Krall will release a new album this September.

The couple live in New York. This is Costello’s third marriage, and his wife’s first.

The supermodel Heidi Klum- who is married to British singer Seal - already hView the profile for Heidi Klum on Celebrity Spotlightas a son with the pop star. The couple, who were married last May, have a 9-month-old son, Henry Guenther Ademola Dashtu Samuel. Klum also has a 2-year-old daughter, Leni, from a previous relationship with Formula One manager Flavio Briatore.
The ‘Kiss From A Rose’ singer is quoted by America’s People magazine as saying: “It gives me great joy to announce that Heidi, Leni, Henry and I are expecting a new addition to our ever increasing family.” Seal said in a statement Wednesday, “We all feel both excited and fortunate to be able to share this experience once again.”

Last year, Seal, 43, revealed how much he loved beiing a dad. He explained: “What I love most about fatherhood is the opportunity to be a part of the development process of a new life. Read more!

Pete Doherty was fined $1,900 after police found traces of cocaine in his blood following a performance by his rock band at the Hultsfred music festival. Just out of Portuguese rehab, controversial British rocker Pete Doherty, 27, just can’t stay off the goofballs.
Pete Doherty was arrested in Sweden last night after being escorted off a plane in a “drug-fuelled high.” Babyshambles frontman was detained after the concert because “he showed signs of being under the influence of narcotics,” Ulf Karlsson, a police spokesman in the city of Kalmar on Sweden’s southeastern coast, said Saturday.

Tests showed traces of cocaine and the tranquilizer benzodiazepine, Karlsson said. He said Doherty had a prescription for the tranquilizer.
Reports say when he arrived at Arlanda airport, according to witnesses “he was obviously under the influence of something.was pushed through customs in a wheelchair. Read more!

Not long ago, they were locking lips on MTV, but now, Madonna’s friendship with Britney Spears comes over because Britney doesn’t continue the Kabbalah studies.
Madonna first introduced Britney to the religion several years ago, spending months teaching Britney the Kabbalah system, and splashed out thousands on the ancient scripture for her, as Feminine.co.uk informs. But now Hot Stars magazine is reporting that she is demanding the return of the 12th-century Kabbalah book she gave the star as a wedding gift.

Spears revealed she was quitting Kabbalah on an announcement on her personal website last month where she said that her new ‘religion’ was caring for her son Sean Preston.
The comment read: “I no longer study Kabbalah, my baby is my religion.” Read more!

Mega-popstar Madonna will be the new face of Swedish retailers H and M, after the company decided to drop model Kate Moss after her battle with drug allegations late last year. The 47-year-old, who is currently on tour promoting her latest album, ‘Confessions on a Dancefloor,’ will appear in the campaign alongside her dancers.
According to reports, the Swedish store will supply off-stage wardrobes for Madonna, her dancers and the crew on her Confessions world tour. All members of her “Confession Tour” – including the band, dancers and crew – will wear H&M designs.

Madonna says of her new job: “Partnering up with H&M feels like a perfect fit. We’ll all get to express ourselves in our individual ways. The dancers and I are excited to go shopping together.” Read more!

Drag queen and recording artist, Kevin Aviance, was brutally attacked and mugged in New York City’s East Village and four people were arrested on hate-crime charges, police and the singer’s publicist said. Kevin Aviance, 38, underwent surgery for a broken jaw after the attack Saturday, said his publicist, Len Evans. Police said the singer, whose song “Alive” hit the top of the chart in 2002, was in stable condition.

The brutal incident unfolded after Aviance, whose real name is Eric Sneed, left Phoenix, a gay club on E. 13th St. where he had met friends for drinks after posing for Homo Xtra magazine. Aviance’s publicist, Len Evans, said the attackers yelled anti-gay slurs while they beat the singer. A group of six or seven men attacked Aviance early Saturday, and passers-by did not stop to help as they threw objects at him, Evans said. Read more!

R&B star Beyonce Knowles is holding open auditions for an all-girl band to play on her forthcoming world tour. The former Destiny’s Child leader is looking for an all-female group to support her on tour for her second album, B’Day, which is due this fall. The catch? She needs musicians as soon as possible, the Associated Press reports. B’Day is scheduled for international release on Sept. 4 – Knowles’s 25th birthday – but won’t hit U.S. shelves until the following day.

She is looking for drummers, keyboard players, bassists, guitarists, horn players and percussionists and auditions will take place in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Burbank, California and Weehawken, New Jersey, next Monday (12.06.06).
Finalists from the local auditions will have to travel to New York to perform for Knowles later in the week and to begin performing on tour by 20 June, Columbia Records said.
Aspiring band members must be 18 or older and will be asked to play Knowles’ Work It Out, as performed on the Beyonce: Live At Wembley DVD. Read more!

A home video that appears to show R&B star R Kelly performing sex acts on a 14-year-old girl, who is now 21 and denies she’s the underaged teen seen in the tape, will be made public during his child pornography trial in Chicago, local media reported on Friday.
“It’s hard to understand what the public benefit is of seeing this tape,” said Jane Doe Inc. spokeswoman Toni Troop. “The way that cases are handled have a chilling effect on other victims when deciding whether to come forward about a sexually violent crime, for fear that they will be the ones that are put on trial,” Troop said yesterday.

Earlier this month, the singer — real name Robert Sylvester Kelly — and prosecutors requested Judge Vincent Gaughan bar the public and media from watching the video because it would embarrass the girl — who is now 21. Read more!

Mariah Carey, who recently signed on to front Gillette’s “Legs of a Goddess” ad campaign, has insured her legs for $1 billion (GBP555 million) after agreeing to front shaving giant Gillette’s Legs Of A Goddess campaign.
According to the UK’s Daily Mirror, a source close to Carey said the move was to insure the best possible medical care should the singer hurt herself while on tour she will soon be beginning. The US tour will be the first since 2003 for Carey.

“Mariah Carey was our hands-down choice for the first Venus ‘Celebrity Legs of a Goddess’ title,” said Peter Clay, Vice President Premium Systems, Gillette Global Grooming. “She has gorgeous legs, and she radiates the inner beauty and confidence that embodies the Venus brand.”
Read more!

Brooks & Dunn added to their record stash of nearly two dozen trophies and continued as the most honored artists in the history of the Academy of Country Music’s awards show with a gospel-laced song they admitted was risky to record. Brooks & Dunn won their 20th and 21st awards for top vocal duo and song of the year, “Believe,” co-written by Ronnie Dunn and Craig Wiseman. Kix Brooks said the duo knew the song was good but wasn’t sure it would be a hit.

Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards proved to be triumphant for Brad Paisley, who won three of the evening’s top awards. His “Time Well Wasted” (Arista Nashville) was named album of the year. Read more!

Fans of ousted “American Idol” contestant Chris Daughtry and some U.S. radio stations are demanding Fox TV bring back the rocker for a new vote. The Web site, TheDaughtryGang.com, is circulating petitions that charge problems with the talent competition’s voting phone banks after Tuesday night’s show warrants a recount of the votes, The Los Angeles Times reported.

So far, more than 33,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition posted at ThePetitionSite.com, The Times said. Read more!