Showbiz News, Celebrity Gossip, Movie News

Patricia Arquette and Thomas Jane will remain married.
Court records show the “Medium” star requested and was granted a dismissal of the couple’s divorce case, which she filed in January.
The one-page dismissal didn’t indicate a reason for the 41-year-old actress seeking a dismissal. Records show her request was filed on Tuesday and approved on Thursday.
The couple was married in May 2006 and have a daughter, Harlow Olivia Calliope Jane.
Arquette won an Emmy Award in 2005 for her portrayal of a paranormal expert on “Medium.” The 40-year-old Jane appeared in the 2007 film “The Mist” and 2004’s “The Punisher,” and he stars in the new HBO series “Hung.”
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Paris Hilton hated her 2006 movie “Pledge This!” and refused for months to make promotional appearances for it despite a contract requiring her to do so, lawyers for the film’s investors said as trial opened Thursday in an $8 million lawsuit against her.
“During the six-month period, at no time would she take 10 minutes to do a phone interview,” attorney Bryan West, who represents the investors, said in opening statements.
With Hilton nodding vigorously from her defense table seat, her attorney Michael Weinsten insisted she did numerous appearances for the movie but was unavailable to meet many requests by the film’s producers because of her extremely busy schedule. Hilton also had the right to refuse some promotion events that might harm her “brand” and never agreed to plug the DVD release of the movie from December 2006 through May 2007, he said.
“Paris Hilton is a promotion machine,” Weinsten said. “For 2 1/2 years, she relentlessly promoted that movie.”
One of the movie’s executive producers, James DiLorenzo, testified that Hilton’s handlers rejected a series of suggested promotion efforts, including popular late-night TV talk shows and interviews with magazines, newspapers and radio outlets in the U.S. and abroad.
“In order to make the public aware of the product, she was the most powerful way of doing that,” DiLorenzo said.
Hilton, a 28-year-old heiress, actress and model, is expected to testify Friday. She traveled to Miami for the trial from Dubai, where she has been filming episodes of her “My New BFF” reality show. Wearing a sleeveless black-and-white dress with a large bow on the back, Hilton sat quietly at the defense table during opening statements, occasionally taking notes or fiddling with her twin ponytails.
The lawsuit is being heard by Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who has a well known sense of humor. Moreno at one point asked West whether the contract allowed Hilton to refuse even the most outrageous promotion requests.
“If you said, ‘She has to parade nude down the Champs-Elysees with a Pledge This! banner’ … and she said no, would that be breach of contract?” Moreno asked. Then, answering his own question, he added, “No, of course not.”
The lawsuit seeks $8.3 million in damages, essentially to recoup the money spent to make and distribute the film. It was filed by attorney Michael Goldberg, a court-appointed receiver for a now-defunct Miami company that was the movie’s key investor. That company was shut down as a $300 million Ponzi scheme by the Securities and Exchange Commission, with its operator now living in Brazil.
Weinsten acknowledged that Hilton wasn’t pleased with the final cut of “Pledge This!” - which concerns the antics of a fictional sorority at equally fictional South Beach University - but he said she did what she could to plug it. She was paid $1 million to act in the lead role, yet the movie only made about $2.9 million and appeared on just 25 theater screens.
The investors claim it could have done much better as a DVD release if Hilton had done more promotion, particularly in Japan and Europe where she is a huge star.
“It might have made a difference. It would have done better,” West said.
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Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia on “The Brady Bunch,” claims Eve Plumb, who played her sister Jan, is upset because McCormick claimed they had a lesbian affair on the set of the ’70s sitcom. McCormick, blogging this week on Fancast.com, said all six Brady “kids” were invited to re unite on the Oprah Winfrey show in September: “All of us said yes except for one person, Eve Plumb, who used to be my best friend but now apparently wants to distance herself from the show and, most troubling, from me . . . I have no idea why, unless she’s mad at the joke I made a few years ago that we’d had a lesbian love affair. I made the crack to be funny — and for shock value. I’m sorry if she took off ense.” McCormick “joked” about their sap phic sex last year just before her autobiog raphy, “Here’s the Story,” was published. The “joke” made the book a best seller. Plumb’s agent, Mark Measures, down played any animosity: “No one from ‘Oprah’ called. We haven’t turned down anything. There is no feud.”
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To the untrained music ear, Mariah Carey’s performance during Michael Jackson’s memorial was perfect.
But the Grammy-winning singer thinks she could have done better at the Staples Center event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
“Trying to sing today was basically impossible for me,” Carey Tweeted. “I could barely keep myself from crying.”
While Carey, 39, performed her cover of The Jackson 5 hit, “I’ll Be There,” with Trey Lorenz, images of the King of Pop were projected onto a huge screen above the stage.
Upon seeing photos of the late singer, Carey became emotional.
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to pull it together and really do it right, but I was literally choked up when I saw him there in front of me,” Carey explained on Twitter.
The singer added, “One thing I know is, we will never really have to say goodbye to MJ. His legacy lives on through his music and the millions of people he inspired with his timeless music. He will be forever in our hearts.”
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Michael Jackson’s glimmering casket took center stage at the Staples Center, sitting for more than two hours as celebrities memorialized the King of Pop under the watchful eyes of millions. And when the ceremony was over, it was gone.
By law, the golden casket that presumably held Jackson’s body should be exactly where his death certificate says it is: back at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills cemetery, the site of a private family memorial service held before the Staples ceremony. Los Angeles County records show the cemetery as the temporary location, where it must stay until those records are officially updated.
But where Jackson’s body will eventually be laid to rest remained a mystery, fed by the same level of rumor and speculation that surrounded much of his life. Will he be interred at Forest Lawn? Is Neverland Ranch still a possibility?
What if he’s not buried at all, but cremated? The family isn’t talking - and may not even have decided yet.
The casket was first seen leaving the mortuary at Forest Lawn, where it got into a hearse for the 10-mile trip to the Staples Center. But before the service even started, the hearse was seen leaving the facility - empty - and wasn’t spotted again.
But to keep in good standing with the law, the casket would have needed to return to Forest Lawn at some point, presumably after the crowds went home and the television cameras were long gone.
Robert J. Biggins, a former president of the National Funeral Directors Association, said Jackson’s body is likely in his casket which he identified it as a custom-made, top-of-the-line coffin made by the Indiana-based Batesville Casket Company that is called a “Promethean.” The casket is probably in a temporary holding area - perhaps a mausoleum - pending a final location, he said.
“This happened so quickly that it’s something that has to have an awful lot of thoughtful consideration,” said Biggins, who is the owner of Magoun-Biggins Funeral home in Rockland, Mass. “This is bigger than your average burial.”
Conjecture about Jackson’s final resting place has been as fraught as the rumors about where his memorial service would be held in the days before the Staples Center was announced. His 5-page will, signed in 2002, does not include final wishes for his body.

Forest Lawn is one likely possibility. If Jackson is buried there, he would join other celebrities such as Liberace, Gene Autry, Bette Davis and Andy Gibb. Recently deceased actor David Carradine and “Tonight Show” sidekick Ed McMahon also are buried there.
The Jackson family seems divided over whether the body should go to Neverland, which would surely turn the Santa Barbara County ranch into a West-coast Graceland. But Jackson abandoned the 2,500-acre estate after going into seclusion following his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005, and many of the things that made it unique - the merry-go-round, Ferris wheel and zoo - are gone.
Billionaire Thomas Barrack, who owns Neverland in a joint venture with Jackson, has expressed an openness to the idea of having the singer’s body buried at the ranch. The family would need to get permission from local land-use officials to bury Jackson on private property, then submit an application and paperwork with the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.
The state application would then need to be approved by the funeral board, a process that could take anywhere from seven to 30 days.
Beyond that, accessibility remains an issue at Neverland. A single two-lane highway leads to the property about 130 miles north of Los Angeles, and infrastructure changes would likely be necessary to accommodate the additional traffic.
Another possibility is cremation. State law requires that the person who has control of the cremated remains obtain written permission of the property owner or governing agency to scatter on the property.
Funeral experts said the delay in Jackson’s funeral may be due to the fact that such celebrity deaths create logistical, security and legal headaches.
“One of the issues you’re going to run into with any high-profile name, whether it be a former president of the United States or somebody of Michael Jackson’s stature, is what does the cemetery - if it’s to be a burial - do to establish security, to protect the remains, to protect the privacy of the family during the service, to protect remains afterward and what kind of built-in overhead comes with it,” said Paul Elvig, former president of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association.
Experts said even a two-week delay between death and funeral is not unusual. The body of singer James Brown was kept in a sealed gold casket inside his South Carolina home for more than two months before being interred in 2007 at the home of one of his daughters.
“You’re probably talking more about an impatient public and an impatient press wanting to know what’s going to happen and that impatience needs to be understood,” Elvig said. “If a body’s been properly prepared by an embalmer, it can be held for a considerable period of time with minor touchups to it.”
Biggins said he is even encouraged by the delay.
“I think the fact that there’s this pause is a wonderful thing because it’s being given thoughtful consideration,” he said, “to make sure this is done right and this is done in a way that honors his legacy.”
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Since Michael Jackson died June 25, fans from around the world have expressed their grief in flowers, balloons, teddy bears, candles, pictures and handwritten notes left throughout the city - at his rented Holmby Hills mansion, at the Jackson family home in Encino, at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.
Now that the King of Pop has been memorialized publicly and privately, some say it’s time to start clearing the mementos away. The family has yet to decide what to do with the keepsakes, spokesman Ken Sunshine said Wednesday.
Just as the sun was rising, city workers began packing up flowers, cards and gifts left on Jackson’s star on Hollywood Boulevard. By afternoon, they had filled five boxes, which they delivered to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for safe keeping.
Chamber spokeswoman Ana Martinez-Holler, who has overseen activities on the Walk of Fame for more than two decades, said she has never seen so many mementos left for a fallen star.
“This has never happened at this magnitude,” she said. “We didn’t want to throw things away. This was a tribute paid to Michael by his fans. We just want to know if the family wants them and we’re hoping to hear back from them soon.”
Fans continued to contribute to the makeshift memorials outside the family compound and Neverland Ranch on Wednesday.
Sandra Darvish, 42, was moved by Tuesday’s televised memorial to pay respects in person at the family’s home. As she left a bouquet of tulips, the official export from her homeland of Holland, Darvish said she wasn’t always a Jackson fan.
“But after yesterday, I sort of understood the family,” she said. “It was very touching.”
While she and others added to the collection of flowers, balloons, posters and flags from around the world in front of the home, a groundskeeper piled up the mementos to give to the family. Dead flowers peeked out from one of eight black plastic trash bags sitting nearby.
Anjanette Butler, who went to Encino from Ventura, said she hoped the family would keep fans’ cards and letters for Jackson’s children.
“Maybe they can show it to the kids to show how much everyone loved Michael,” the 32-year-old Butler said. “It was their father, not this whole icon.”
Sisters Tanya and Yolanda Vasquez, who left a colorful bouquet of flowers, were sad to see the keepsakes being cleared.
“They’re taking them down and it’s kind of upsetting,” said Tonya Vasquez, 23. “I think we should still be able to leave stuff.”
Her 27-year-old sister suggested that the family might take the mementos to Neverland as part of a permanent display.
Scores of fans gathered Wednesday at Jackson’s sprawling ranch north of Los Angeles, where hundreds of flower bouquets flanked the estate’s front gates.
One woman left a velvet painting of Jackson. Others left flowers and stuffed toys. One note read, “Hawaii loves you, Michael.” Another said, “Angels aren’t supposed to live on Earth. Thank you for trying.”
Fans decorated the outside walls with posters and hung toys and flags in the trees.
Owen Blicksilver, a spokesman for Colony Capital LLC, which owns the ranch with Jackson, said there are no plans to move any of the tributes.
“Out of respect to Michael and his family we will continue to be a steward for the tributes, flowers and mementos brought to Neverland by his extended family of loving and respectful fans from all parts of the globe,” he said Wednesday.
Police said that representatives for the Jackson family also began packing up the photos and flowers left outside Jackson’s rented home.
When Princess Diana of Wales died in 1997, fans left toys and nearly 15,000 tons of flowers outside her homes at St. James Palace, Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace. About five days after her funeral, Diana’s family donated the stuffed toys and some of the flowers to local children’s hospitals.
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From the looks of things she has clearly been hitting the gym, so who can blame Mena Suvari for showing off her toned body in yet another skimpy bikini on her Mexican holiday.
The actress, who wore a tiny, pink floral bikini yesterday, made sure she had all eyes on her again by stepping out today in an equally eye-catching patterned turquoise number.
It’s been ten years since Mena caused a stir as the teenage cheerleader in American Beauty - but she is clearly still turning heads.


The, 30-year-old star, whose enjoying the relaxing holiday in Mexico, today looked a bit apprehensive as she took the ocean with her fiance Simone Sestito on a jet ski .
Yesterday Mena revealed a tattoo of the number 13 on the centre of her chest, a lucky number obviously shared by Simone, who had a matching etching on his upper chest.
Suvari also has the the face of a lion etched on the base of her neck and a script which reads ‘Word Sound Power’.
The couple proved they are still going strong as they interrupted their gruelling sunbathing session to share an affectionate kiss.


Suvari began dating Sesito last year after they met at the Toronto International Film Festival while she was promoting her film Stuck.
She was previously married to cinematographer Robert Brinkmann, whom she divorced over three years ago.
Suvari has kept a relatively low profile since her star turn as the precocious high school cheerleader Angela Hayes who dazzles Kevin Spacey in the 1999 Oscar-winner.

She recently starred on the big screen in The Garden Of Eden, based on the Ernest Hemingway novel, where she played the protagonist’s wife.
She is set to appear in new project You May Not Kiss The Bride, starring Vinnie Jones, due to be released in 2010.
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