Bobby Rachpoot, PacificCoastNews

Nicole Richie must be sweating in her uggs right now, as though she may have felt that she dodged a bullet when it came to Paris Hilton becoming her new sister in law, along comes another equally chilling notion. Britney Spears. Who for Nicole would be the lesser of two evils? Hard to say. But she may not have a choice, as last week Britney Spears was spotted out and about on a few secret dates with Paris’s ex and Nicole’s brother in law Benji Madden. And though it has not gone past Nicole’s watchful eye, it certainly hasn’t been missed by Paris either, who reportedly ‘saw red’ over the situation. In fact, Paris was so mad, she pulled out her entire arsenal of Mean Girl platitudes saying ‘that girl’s nothing but a dirty Southern trashbag who can only get my sloppy seconds’. That makes her look so classy, doesn’t it? And Britney’s side of the coin sounds like ‘pathetic loser’ when it comes to Paris, and acknowledges that Paris is just jealous because Brit is more famous than she is. Which is a pretty good point, I mean, out of the two, only one of them has a best selling album right now, right? So what is the real story here? Are Britney and Paris pulling out the claws, or is this whole Britney and Benji thing just a way to get some publicity? Or is it just someone starting a rumor to get Paris all riled up? Anything is possible, but I am leaning towards the all fact no fiction side of the coin. Has anyone seen Britney’s promotional calendar lately? Yep, as far as this rumor is concerned, go ahead and file it under when pigs fly.

Pacificcoastnews.com

Lauren aka ‘Lo’ Bosworth is seen here joining a host of celebrities while they party hearty at the popular L.A. hotspot the Crown Bar. And what we know of Lauren is that she is one of the more opinionated girls of The Hills and she is never afraid to speak her mind, or purse her lips accordingly when she finds someone doing something she disapproves of. Ah yes, we all know that ‘hm.’ she gives when someone says something she finds a little out of sorts, and you can’t help but wonder what is going through her head when she gives the disapproving tsk tsk. My, what a great mom Lo will make one day! And with this quality in her that we have all come to know and love, she has vocalized some thoughts on the Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag marriage. She says she was surprised to learn that her costars on The Hills got married in Mexico in a private ceremony, and did so after an evening of champagne and tequila. On The Hills: Live After the Show Monday night, Lauren said:

“I always thought they were going to get married. I just didn’t know when. I thought she always wanted a big, beautiful event wedding in L.A. I was surprised it turned out the way it did actually.”

On the show, Lauren told the world that she heard of the Montag marriage at the same time, and in the same way that we all did, on the Internet. She was very surprised by the alcohol fuelled chain of events when she saw the show air where Spencer had suggested that he and Heidi get married after they had been in the Patron all night. After they had discussed the idea, the two even ordered more Patron, as Heidi so eloquently put it, ‘you know what Patron does to me, it gets me crazy.’ Lauren thought it was hysterical that Heidi needed some tequila to make the final call, the Patron push she called it. She wasn’t too sure if she was drunk when they actually got married, but knows they were the night before when the decision was made. But at the end of the day, Lo does believe that regardless of the how’s or the why’s, that Heidi and Spencer will be married forever. Tough to say when you are dealing with a control freak and a girl that doesn’t seem to make her own decisions, but again, for this very reason this could be a match made in heaven.

Focus Pictures, PacificCoastNews.com

Well the ugliness that was Mr. and Mrs. Madonna has come to an end, and with a very high, or a very small, price tag. This is one of those situations where perspective is relative. For me? 75 mil is quite a big pocket of dabloons. For someone whose net worth is almost ten times that much, it’s lunch money. But yes, the divorce settlement between Madonna and Guy Ritchie has come to fruition, and Guy will be laughing his way to the bank over it. Madonna has been ordered to pay Guy an alimony and divorce settlement in the range of the 50 million pound mark, which translates roughly to about $75 million US. In this settlement Guy will get to keep the couple’s country home, the Ashcombe House, as well as the pub they (now onece) shared called the Punchbowl. So Guy Ritchie has been reduced to nothing more than a bar owner with a fancy home and a sweet bag of Christmas cash, and Madonna, well, she’ll make up that settlement and then some in her Sticky and Sweet tour. In fact, she already has, as this tour is another of Madonna’s record setting news makers, and has already grossed over $230 million dollars. Part of the cash settlement does include the value of the homes, so he won’t walk away with $75 million straight cash, but, does it matter? The issue that makes this sum so grotesque however is that this is the highest divorce settlement in the entertainment industry of all time. Oh yes, even higher than the one that Sir Paul McCartney had to pay out to his psycho ex-wife Heather Mills. In fact, it may even be the highest divorce settlement EVER, with the previously largest payout going to insurance tycoon’s John Charman’s ex wife who got just a little less, with $48 million pounds, which isn’t a whole lot less than $75 million USD, give or take a few million. The funny thing is that the Madonna divorce cost more than the McCartney divorce, and yet, they had the same divorce lawyer. What does this say about the entertainment industry? Does this mean that Madonna is a bigger star than Paul McCartney…..ouch, as we hear a collective protest rising up from any Beatles fan former or otherwise. Sir Paul McCartney is definitely an icon, and a name that will make money for many generations to come, but no, I don’t think this is what the settlement infers. I think the Heather/Paul thing was actually much uglier, and Paul just wasn’t budging for her, and with Madonna, I think she just wanted the whole thing to be over with plain and simple. Two tickets to a Sticky and Sweet concert, $100 bucks. One divorce settlement, $75 million. The cost of freedom? Priceless.

Juan Soliz, PacificCoastNews.com

We have been hearing a lot about this situation with Paula Abdul and her obsessed fan. Sadly, this was a fan story that that went way overboard in the tragic sense, with Paula’s obsessed fan coming to her demise with suicide. But this story although it seems new to us, is nothing new to Paula Abdul, as this particular fan had been obsessed with her for many, many years. In fact, it was not American Idol that brought this fan to Paula Abdul per se, but rather, this fan, Paula Goodspeed has been crazed over Abdul for years. Then it came to light that Paula Goodspeed wanted to audition for the show, American Idol, and in a recent interview with Barbara Walters, Paula Abdul expressed some concerns publicly for the first time since this incident happened. When Paula found out that her fan was wanting to audition for the show, she begged the producers not to let her into the room. But the producers ixnayed that request, and Paula feels that they allowed Goodspeed to audition for the sake of entertainment value. Paula specifically told the producers:

This girl is a stalker of mine. Please do not let her in.’ Everyone knew. I was shaking. She had been writing disturbing letters for 17 years, almost 18 years. We had restraining orders at times.

But, we all know how it turned out. And it may be this very audition that put Goodspeed over the edge. Or, at least it fuelled her obsessive flame when it comes to Paula Abdul. Shortly after this round of auditions, Goodspeed oddly appeared at other auditions in other cities where Idol auditions was being held. She also got Paula Abdul’s address as a result of this audition, because she followed her home from one of them. And Paula Abdul blames the producers of the show entirely for this. And it wasn’t just letters and home following that Goodspeed was guilty of. She had a history of sending naked pictures of herself to Paula Abdule, and even threatened Paula with bodily harm. She also told Paula (Abdul) that she will serve her final purpose when she is up in heaven being Abdul’s guardian angel. And it sounds like this is precisely what happened. When Barbara Walters asked Paula why she was still a part of Idol after all of this, Paula merely said ‘well, I’m under contract’. How long her contract is we do not know, but we do know that Paula will be with us for another season of Idol, and after that….who knows.

Dave Lucas, PacicficCoastNews.com

We’ve heard some rumors and mumbling for quite some time now about Gwyneth Paltrow and her marriage to Chris Martin. They’ve been having trouble, not having trouble, over and over again. Well, it sounds like they are back to having trouble, and in an even weirder twist, Madonna may be the one to blame. This will make the third marriage this year that Madonna is being blamed for bringing to an end, if you count her own and A-Rods, so her track record doesn’t seem to be doing that well. But Gwyneth and her hubby, Coldplay star Chris Martin have been having a work induced separation of sorts as Chris has been out touring and Gwyneth has been working, but the two are back home in London and trying to save their marriage. They are trying so hard that Gwyneth even passed up the chance to host New York’s preeminent lunch box auction, an event that she has hosted for three years straight, but Gwyneth gave it all up for the love of her marriage. Where Madonna comes in is that Madonna and Gwyneth have become BFF’s since Gwyneth’s move to London, and reports are that Madonna has a star effect on Gwyneth causing her to act a little loopy since the new found friendship. Sources are saying that Madonna has had an odd effect on Gwyneth, and Gwyneth has become a totally different person since Madonna came into her life. Gwyneth supposedly acts normal until Madonna shows around, and this character change has caused a rift in her marriage. And if they are trying to work on their marriage, they don’t have much time. Gwyneth’s hubby Chris is heading out to tour again with Coldplay come February. What is to become of this marriage? Hmmm….hard to say. But couples that are happy, rarely have splitsville rumors hitting them this hard, this often. I think this is one marriage we can put on deathwatch.

PacificCoastNews.com

Well, it sounds like the inevitable has finally happened. Tara Reid is one starlet that has earned quite the reputation for being one of Hollywood’s biggest party girls, and she has been referred to as an alcoholic more than once. So should it be any surprise that she has had to join the Hollywood bad girls by ending up in rehab? No, it shouldn’t. And it has happened. Tara’s rep Jack Ketsoyan has told People magazine that Tara has voluntarily checked herself into the Promises Treatment Center for rehabilitation. He hopes that we ‘respect her and her family’s privacy at this time’. And that’s about all that was said on the topic, with the topic of ‘why’ being delicately eluded, though it can’t be any real secret as to what landed Tara in the bin. Tuesday morning was when Tara headed out to Promises, and all that are around her are very supportive of her decision. And though we don’t have an official reason as to why she is in Promises, sources say it is even unclear as to whether or not she will be out before the holidays, so she must be in for something *serious*. All of this after Tara herself gave a candid interview with People telling them that she hated the alcoholic image she was given, and that she wasn’t that girl at all. She said that she was a ‘social drinker’ who enjoyed the occasional glass of wine with friends, and nothing more, nothing less. She was asked then if she would ever be tempted to fall back into her old habits, and she seemed pretty adamant that she wouldn’t be. She said no, she’s been there done that and had enough partying for a lifetime. But well….guess in Hollywood a lifetime doesn’t last all that long if she is in Promises now, huh?