Archive for June, 2008

Perhaps bread sticks soothe nerves?

Jessica Simpson, 27, met beau Tony Romo’s parents on June 27, when all of them had dinner at an Olive Garden in Janesville, Wisc.

Romo, 28, who grew up in nearby Burlington, was home to play in a golf tournament.

But making a reservation at the Olive Garden surprised even the restaurant’s general manager. “We thought it was a big joke,” said Doug Belfanz. “Jessica Simpson’s not going to the Olive Garden in Janesville, Wisconsin!”

Yep, actually, she did. Simpson, wearing a casual blouse and blue jeans, walked in holding hands with Romo, who wore a T-shirt and baseball cap.

Simpson had wine with her three-cheese ziti, but seemed more interested in Romo.

“She scooted up next to him during the meal,” says Belfanz. “They were acting like a couple.”

After dinner, they posed for a photo with the staff and signed autographs. Sneaking out through the kitchen, Simpson complimented the chefs on the meal.

“They were laughing,” Belfanz says. “It was just a big family being out.”

(source)

A weekend fire that destroyed a childhood home of Madonna has been deemed suspicious by arson investigators.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Arson Unit and the Rochester Hills Fire Department are investigating the Friday night blaze.

A passer-by had noticed flames coming out of the unoccupied house in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills and called the fire department.

Rochester Hills Fire Chief Ron Crowell told The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press the fire appears to have started in the living room area. He said it caused extensive smoke and fire damage throughout the two-story brick house.

The 49-year-old Madonna, known then as Madonna Louise Ciccone, spent some of her younger years as one of six siblings living in the home.

I LOVE a good celebrity feud – especially when it is between two catty American girls.

And - after a quiet period since PARIS HILTON and LINDSAY LOHAN made up - PAMELA ANDERSON and JESSICA SIMPSON have stepped up to the plate.

Jessica upset Pammi and all her vegetarian chums by wearing a T-shirt proclaiming: “Real girls eat meat.”

But now the former Baywatch babe has hit back with a spectacular insult.

Speaking on radio in Australia – where she’s waiting to go into the Big Brother house – the star slammed her rival buxom blonde.

Pammi blasted: “I think she is a bitch and whore.

“Actually, I don’t know if she was talking about food or men.”

She added that she is proud of not eating meat, saying: “I think it’s healthy, good for your body and good for the environment.”

Not so good for the old temper though, hey Pammi?

(source)

There is a different side to Heidi Montag that you don’t see on MTV’s The Hills, the 21-year-old budding singer tells USA Today.

“I have been the most religious person since I was 2 years old. I always felt this crazy connection to God,” says Montag, who identifies herself as “kind of non-denominational Baptist.”

Montag — who just released her latest single “Fashion” and frequently reads the Bible — says she even wants to record a Christian album.

She adds that she once planned on devoting her life to God as a missionary in Africa.

She and beau Spencer Pratt — who just attacked Mary-Kate Olsen after she said he had a bad temper in high school — will head there in August to “feed children and help build things.”

(Pratt noted that they could adopt a baby while there, but Montag said, “not right now. I think we’d be married before we do that.”)

Despite Jesus teaching forgiveness, Montag says that rule likely won’t apply to her relationship with Lauren Conrad.

“I don’t think people are ever going to get that,” she says of a reconciliation. (Still, she insists Conrad will “always have a place in my heart.”)

Of Conrad’s claim that Montag spread those sex tape rumors, Montag says: “God knows the truth in all of this, and at the end of the day, that is the only thing that matters. Jesus was persecuted, and I’m going to get persecuted, ya know?”

As for the new season of The Hills (the first of 19 episodes debut August 18), Montag says viewers will get to meet her old sister Holly, an aspiring filmmaker who once lived with her and Conrad.

“Holly and Lauren were inseparable for a while,” Montag says. “But they stopped being friends when Lauren and I stopped being friends.”

(source)

Britney Spears spent Saturday night with her boys at her Los Angeles home.

It was the singer’s first overnight visit with Sean Preston, 2 1/2, and Jayden James, 1 1/2, since she was hospitalized at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in January.

The boys were dropped off Saturday and picked up around 10 a.m. Sunday, according to a source.

“Britney was very upset after the kids left,” the source tells Usmagazine.com. “She now does not know when she will get them next for an overnight. She complains it could be next week, or it could be three months.”

At a hearing last Tuesday, Spears, 26, was granted overnight privileges.

Asked if she were pleased with the judge’s ruling, she smiled and told Us, “yes.”

Meanwhile, Spears and ex Kevin Federline — who was spotted partying in Miami over the weekend — are gearing up for a custody trial, set to begin August 25.

Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told E! that a mediation session last Thursday didn’t result in a custody agreement.

Federline is seeking sole physical and legal custody of sons Preston, 2 1/2, and Jayden, 1 1/2 and wants Spears to continue her current visitation terms.

Said Kaplan, “If the existing arrangement was acceptable to both parties … we wouldn’t have to go to trial. But that didn’t happen.”

(source)

A ringless Guy Ritchie was photographed Monday at London’s Heathrow Airport for a flight to New York, presumably to meet up with Madonna.

The two spent this past weekend apart as split rumors swirl.

Looking anguished, Madonna, 49 attended Sabbath service at the Kabbalah Centre in NYC on Friday and Saturday (along with her three children and daughter Lourdes’ biological dad Carlos Leon).

The singer — who was not wearing a wedding ring — ignored photographers’ repeated questions if divorce rumors were true.

As the singer prayed Saturday, Richie, 39, turned to pal Trudie Styler (who introduced him to Madonna) for support in London.

Madonna and Ritchie haven’t been spotted together in weeks (they were last photographed at London’s Kabbalah Centre on June 3).

Last week, The Times of London reported that she had met with high-powered British divorce attorney Fiona Shackleton, who represented Paul McCartney in his split from Heather Mills.

According to The Times, Ritchie has been meeting with a lesser-known law firm, Forsters

It is believed that the couple (who wed in 2000) did not have a prenup, according to The Times. (Madonna is worth an estimated $600 million.)

Ritchie’s mother, Lady Amber Leighton, denied any split rumors in an interview with London’s Mail On Sunday.

“They are no different to most other couples and we all know that being together can be hard sometimes and marriages are not always a bed of roses,” she said.

(source)

Maggie Gyllenhaal says motherhood made her a better actress, but now she wants to spend more time at home than in front of the cameras.

“I think having a child changes everything and has deepened everything in my life,” Gyllenhaal, mom to 20-month-old daughter Ramona, told reporters recently. “I think it has deepened my acting.”

Of motherhood, “It really does crack you open in every way,” said the actress. “I never knew that I could be so tired. I never knew that I could work so hard. I never knew that I could love so much or be so patient or be so excited by the tiniest, tiniest little thing. Everything about it has surprised me.”

It took the challenge of a unique and high-profile movie The Dark Knight, in which Gyllenhaal co-stars with Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, to get her back to work.

In the film, she plays Rachel Dawes, Batman’s love interest, taking over the role from Katie Holmes, who played the part in the previous film.

“I do think that it’s really difficult to get me away from [Ramona],” she said. “It’s difficult to find a script that’s good enough for me to think, ‘Okay, I really need to do this instead of being with my daughter.’”

Known for her edgy performances, Gyllenhaal filmed Farlanders for director Sam Mendes last spring, “but mostly I’ve been with her,” she says. “Some people have asked me whether I’ll choose things that … have a more sort of child-appropriate content, and I don’t think so. I think I’ll choose what’s interesting to me.”

Gyllenhaal says she receives tremendous support balancing parenthood and career from fiancé, Peter Sarsgaard. “We share absolutely equally,” she explained, and added that her brother Jake Gyllenhaal is “a great uncle.”

(source)

Saturday Night Live’s roster of veteran “Weekend Update” anchors – Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Dennis Miller, Tina Fey – is about to get younger.

“When [Amy Poehler] has her baby, her baby is going to host ‘Update,’ ” SNL star and “Weekend Update” co-anchor Seth Meyers cracked to PEOPLE at Sunday’s Journey to the Center of the Earth premiere, in L.A.

Meyers’s “Update” partner Poehler, is pregnant with her first child, due later this year. Fear not, SNLfans – it won’t affect the “Update” lineup … much.

“That’s the newest change. But other than that, it’s pretty much the same,” Meyers, 34, says, before catching himself. “No, we’re going to do it the same. I think her due date is later in the fall. So, we’re going to be fine to start.”

SNL has been on summer break, but Meyers says he’s heard Poehler, 36, who played a surrogate mom in this spring’s screen comedy Baby Mama, on the topic of kids.

“She talks about it, and I just groan and go, ‘Uhh, ladies talking about babies,’” he says. “Of course she’s excited. We’re all excited for her.”

Asked what kind of mother Poehler, who is married to Semi-Pro star Will Arnett, will be, Meyers says, “I think she’s going to be a great mom.”

(source)