OPRAH LANDS LANCE ARMSTRONG INTERVIEW
Oprah Winfrey has landed the first interview with Lance Armstrong since he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles due to doping allegations. The interview will take place at Armstrong’s Austin, Texas home and will air on Oprah's Next Chapter, January 17th at 9 pm. He is expected to address the accusations that he used performance enhancing drugs throughout his cycling career and then lied about it to the public. The interview comes just days after the New York Times reported that Armstrong was considering confessing to using performance enhancing drugs.
IDOL ADDRESSES MARIAH/NICKI FEUD
American Idol producers are balking at accusations that feuding between the judges is being faked in order to garner higher ratings. “Whatever feuds there have been — and this isn’t just between Nicki (Minaj) and Mariah (Carey) but Keith (Urban) and Randy (Jackson) as well — are genuine,” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe said at yesterday’s Television Critics Association Press Tour. “Whenever you’re in this sort of passionate situation, these things happen.” Mariah, who has been very public about her battle with Nicki, added, “This is a passionate panel. There are a lot of strong personalities…I think the fighting is what it is. This is American Idol. It’s bigger than all of that. But this is not just a big trumped-up thing.” As for how they Mariah and Nicki worked things out, Mariah insisted, “the whole thing is convoluted, and it’s a distraction from the show and the contestants, and I think it’s unfair to them really.” Added Nicki, “We’re professionals.”
KIMYE BUY $11 MILLION MANSION
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have found the perfect place to raise their baby. The couple just purchased an $11 million mansion in the Los Angeles gated community of Bel Air Crest, the same area where stars such as Jennifer Aniston and Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis live. Kimye’s new pad was originally 10,000 square feet, but the couple is adding 4,000 square feet to the place. They’ve owned it for weeks, and are renovating it to add a gym, movie theater, hair and makeup salon, bowling alley, basketball court and indoor and outdoor pool.
CHARLIE LIVING WITH PORN STAR GIRLFRIEND
Charlie Sheen was spotted kissing porn star Georgia Jones in Mexico last week and TMZ reports the couple is already living together. According to the site, Charlie and the 24-year-old began dating in October, and she immediately moved into his LA home. A source claims Charlie likes Georgia because she only does girl-on-girl porn. Apparently his new relationship is the closest he’s gotten to a girl since he was dumped by porn star Bree Olson two years ago.
Q-What did Sheen like to call his porn star girlfriends? Goddesses
LINDSAY DOES MARILYN IN NEW MOVIE TRAILER
Lindsay Lohan is channeling Marilyn Monroe once again. The actress, whose Playboy pictorial was an homage to Marilyn’s old Playboy spread, dresses as the Hollywood icon in the trailer (NOTE CONTENT, NSFW) for the upcoming movie InAPPropriate Comedy, which stars Adrien Brody (and was directed by the Sham Wow guy). The clip features Lindsay in a takeoff of the iconic scene from The Seven Year Itch, where Marilyn’s white dress blows up over a subway grate. Lindsay then takes out a gun and aims it at a group of paparazzi.
Q-For what film did Adrien Brody win his Best Actor Oscar? The Pianist
HANGOVER DIRECTOR’S ONE-NIGHT STAND TURNS STALKER
The Hangover director Todd Phillips has taken out a restraining order against a woman who he says has been stalking him ever since their one-night stand back in 2011. Todd, 42, says 22-year-old Juliana Shiano has been harassing him, texting him non-stop, and showing up at his house. She even followed him to Las Vegas this past November and then turned up at his LA home and destroyed his girlfriend’s car. Shiano was arrested outside Todd’s place last week on suspicion of stalking, and the director claims she had been secretly staying at his pool house for days. She pled not guilty to the charges.
Q-In addition to The Hangover films, Phillips directed what comedy starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis? Due Date
ZERO DARK THIRTY FILMMAKERS DEFEND FLICK
The makers of Zero Dark Thirty are defending themselves against criticism that the movie condones torture. Kathryn Bigelow addressed the issue Monday while accepting the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Picture and Best Director. “I thankfully want to say that I’m standing in a room of people who understand that depiction is not endorsement, and if it was, no artist could ever portray inhumane practices; no author could ever write about them; and no filmmaker could ever delve into the naughty subjects of our time," she said. Writer Mark Boal added, “I stand here tonight extremely proud of the film we made…I think at the end of the day, we made a film that allows us to look back at the past in a way that gives us a more clear-sighted appraisal of the future.” In other Zero Dark Thirty news…the movie, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, picked up four honors from the Vancouver Film Critics Association, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress, Jessica Chastain.
WATSON MISTAKEN FOR A MINOR
Emma Watson grew up on screen in the Harry Potter films, but apparently she still looks like a little kid to some people. The actress tweeted earlier this week that over the Christmas holiday she was stopped at airport passport control and asked where her guardian was because they thought she was under 12. “Passport control: ‘Unaccompanied minor?’ Me: ‘Sorry?,’” she tweeted. “Where is ur guardian?” Me: ‘I’m 22!!!!!’ #neverwearingbackpackagain.” But apparently Emma is used to such mistakes. She later tweeted, “The really sad thing is that this is not the first time this has happened.”
Q – How old was Watson when the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was released in 2001? 11
ARMISEN ACCEPTS BLAME FOR FAILED MARRIAGE
Saturday Night Live star Fred Armisen has admitted he was to blame for the failure of his marriage to Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss. "I think I was a terrible husband, I think I'm a terrible boyfriend,” he said in a radio interview. "I want it all -- fast. I want to be married . . . the amount of girls I've lived with right away . . . and then somewhere around a year, two years, I get freaked out.” Added Armisen, “I feel bad for everyone I've gone out with.”
Q-Armisen currently stars alongside Carrie Brownstein in what IFC series? Portlandia
FISHBURNE TAKES OUT RESTRAINING ORDER
Laurence Fishburne recently obtained a restraining order against a crazed man who showed up at his Los Angeles home and tried to kick him out of the house. According to legal docs, Anthony Francis, whose real name is Mark Francisco, turned up at the former CSI star’s home on New Year’s Day and claimed he owned the house. He left a letter which said, “you are to leave this house immediately. This means all tenants are to evacuate ASAP.” Fishburne and his wife, actress Gina Torres (Suits), have owned the home for ten years. Cops told Fishburne that Francis had been released from prison the week before after serving time for cyber-stalking and making criminal threats. He also served time in a mental institution. The restraining order prohibits Francis from coming within 100 yards of Fishburne and his family.
Q-What was name of the character Fishburne played in the Matrix movies? Morpheus
TEEN MOM 3’S DOUTHIT ENGAGED
Another Teen Mom is off the market. Mackenzie Douthit from Teen Mom 3 has gotten engaged to her baby daddy Josh McKee. The 18-year-old announced the news on Instagram, writing “I said yes!,” along with a picture of her ring. Douthit and McKee, who are parents to 15-month-old Gannon, had been engaged once before but called things off in October.
CELEBRITY BABY NEWS
Flipping Out’s Jenni Pulos is pregnant. Pulos confirmed to Us Weekly that she and husband Jonathan Nassos are expecting their first child together. She also told the magazine that she suffered a miscarriage just months after their May wedding, but then got pregnant again in October.
Supernatural star Jensen Ackles is going to be a dad. The actor and his wife, One Tree Hill star Danneel Harris, are expecting their first child. The couple has been married since May, 2010.
TV TIDBITS
CBS’s How I Met Your Mother is bringing back Robin Scherbatsky’s (Cobi Smulders) alter-ego Robin Sparkles, and they’re doing so in a big way. What is being billed as the fourth and final installment in the Sparkles saga will feature a boatload of guest stars including James Der Beek (his second Mother appearance), as well as Canadians Alan Thicke (his fourth time on the show), Paul Shaffer, Jason Priestley, Alex Trebek, K.D. Lang, former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page, Rush frontman Geddy Lee and former Canadian hockey player Luc Robitaille.
Fox has renewed Bones for a ninth season.
Seth Rogen will guest star on the February 19th episode of The Mindy Project. He’ll play Sam, Mindy's (Mindy Kaling) childhood sweetheart from Jewish summer camp, with whom she shared her first kiss.
MISCELLANEOUS MOVIE NEWS
Nominees for the Directors Guild Awards were announced yesterday. Nominees include: Ben Affleck for Argo; Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, Ang Lee for Life of Pi, Tom Hooper for Les Miserables and Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Winners will announced February 2nd.
The Dark Knight Rises’ Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in talks to join Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, based on one of Frank Miller’s graphic novels from the 1990s. Gordon-Levitt will play a newly created character, Johnny, described as a smooth-talking gambler. The role was originally written for Johnny Depp.
Woody Allen’s next film has been given a title. The flick, Blue Jasmine, starring Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg, is being described as “the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife."
