Afternoon Briefing:
Don't blink or you'll miss them: For about two seconds during a TV ad for the remake of "The Stepford Wives" you can see an almost-naked body with Condi Rice's head on it and a buxom blonde with Hillary Clinton's head. A spokesperson for the film's distributor, Paramount, said that they hadn't received any complaints so far. (Local 10)
Sean John style: Sean "Puffy/P.Diddy" Combs is being honored for his contributions to the world of fashion. He's been handed the top designer award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. (Playbill)
Money matters: During a legal battle with Hello! mag for rights to her wedding pictures sometime back, Catherine Zeta-Jones commented that a million bucks was "not that much money." Now, in an interview with W she says, "Ask Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, anybody in our industry. Everyone knows we get paid a lot of money, so why pretend otherwise? So people will like me?" (Ananova)
Madonna comes out shooting: There's a casting rumor afloat that the Material Girl will play a gunslinging gal in a film called "Hello, Sucker" based on the life of silent-screen star Texas Guinan. The movie is said to be a musical, produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Jeremy Scott, to be shot next year. (Sky News)
Hold the bikini wax: Tobey Maguire says he had to go through unexpected depilatory hell when being fitted for his Spider-Man costume. They put a body cast on him and when they took it off it "ripped probably two-thirds of the hair out of my legs." (IMDb)
-- Karen Croft
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Turn On:
On Tuesday, funnyman Jay Mohr hosts the second edition of "Last Comic Standing" (9 p.m. ET; NBC), a sort of "Surreal World"/"American Idol" hybrid, but with comedy instead of, you know, famous has-beens or singing. There's also "Blow Out" (9 p.m. ET; Bravo), which is very much like "The Restaurant," but featuring a Beverly Hills salon run by Jonathan Antin instead of a New York restaurant and Rocco DiSpirito.
-- Scott Lamb
Morning Briefing:
Morrissey in mourning: Standing before a crowd of people during a concert in Dublin, Ireland, over the weekend, Morrissey commented that he wished it had been George W. Bush who'd died rather than Ronald Reagan. The audience went wild. Said a spokesman for Morrissey's record label, "We do not have a recording of the gig, but as far as we can tell, Morrissey was just alerting the audience to the fact that Ronald Reagan had died. He then simply followed that up with his comment about George Bush, which was his own opinion. He is no stranger to controversy." (Manchester Online via Drudge)
More condolences: Morrissey may not be directly quoted, but Christopher Hitchens can. Here he is on Ronald Reagan: "The fox, as has been pointed out by more than one philosopher, knows many small things, whereas the hedgehog knows one big thing. Ronald Reagan was neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He was as dumb as a stump. He could have had anyone in the world to dinner, any night of the week, but took most of his meals on a White House TV tray. He had no friends ... His children didn't like him all that much." (Slate)
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes ... Is Jennifer Lopez pregnant? Friends of hers say yes, and her business manager "hemmed and hawed before declining comment." What's more, Page Six reports that Marc Anthony's brand-new bride has nothing lined up once she finishes filming "Monster in Law" and has "been very careful not to show any cleavage (a heaving bust line gave away Gwyneth Paltrow's pregnancy) and has been wearing loose clothing." That clinches it. (Page Six)
Night rider: David Hasselhoff was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley on Saturday night. Hasselhoff, who has struggled with alcoholism in the past, was released on Sunday morning. (Associated Press)
Osbourne again: Meanwhile, Kelly Osbourne is out of rehab and back on the party scene -- but so far she's been seen drinking only water. (Page Six)
Ageism in the ER? Alex Kingston, the 41-year-old British actress who plays Dr. Elizabeth Corday on NBC's "ER," says she was fired from the show because she was too old. "I, according to the producers and the writers, am part of the old fogeys who are no longer interesting," she told a London magazine. But Warner Bros. TV and the show's producers explain their decision not to renew Kingston's contract as follows: "Story lines run their course over time. The situation with Alex Kingston's character ... is no exception." (N.Y. Daily News)
Who knew? Celebrity assistants have their own association, and while they all sign nondisclosure agreements before plunking over their annual dues ($150), they will reveal that Barbra Streisand insists on having rose petals strewn over her bathroom and that Elaine Stritch likes her assistant to dress just like her, "a sweater vest, a tie, a shirt and everything matching." (N.Y. Times)
Money Quotes:
John Hendrickson on the reaction of his wife, Marylou Whitney, when her horse Birdstone bested Smarty Jones at Belmont: "The first thing Marylou said was, 'I'm sorry. I feel sorry.' She knows Smarty Jones captured the imagination of Americans." (Rush and Molloy)
What "Today" show host Katie Couric hollered when she spotted "Good Morning America" weatherman Tony Perkins broadcasting in front of Washington's Union Station: "I love 'Good Morning America'!" (The Reliable Source)
What Donald Rumsfeld says about waking up with his wife: "When I walk out of the bedroom in the morning, my wife frequently rolls over and says, 'Where's UBL [Usama bin Laden]?'" (BBC via Wonkette)
-- Amy Reiter
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