Morning Briefing:
More Paris/Paris breakup rumors: Unidentified sources are running wild with speculation about the imminent demise of Paris Hilton's engagement to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis. Beginning with the weekend of the MTV Video Music Awards, She-Paris has been spending a lot of time in the public eye with producer Scott Storch -- no big surprise, as he was behind her upcoming album. But their behavior at the Play Station Portable fashion show in New York on Saturday put the rumor mill into high gear. "Scott showed up with some really cheesy dude and his ditzy girlfriend. He was wearing those tinted wrap-around shades he always has on and a shiny suit, like some extra from 'Carlito's Way,'" says a source for Radar Online. "All the paparazzi wanted to take his picture because they know he's her boyfriend." Her rep denies anything is coming between the engaged Parisii: "They're still engaged and Paris is still moving forward with the wedding plans." But when asked about her sometime-soon-to-be husband, Hilton gets very Katie Holmes: "I'm so happy. It's cool," Paris says. "I feel, like, really safe now, and he's just amazing." (Radar Online, MSN)
Baby got "I'll be back": The ties between bodybuilder/actor/governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer and Star magazine, grow ever curiouser. Just last month, it came to light that Pecker paid a woman who reportedly had a long-term affair with Schwarzenegger $20,000 to keep quiet -- even paying the woman's friend an additional $1,000 to not talk to the media. The publisher's motivation was said to be various business deals he'd made with the Governator, valued at over $8 million. Now the Los Angeles Times is also reporting that Pecker forked over $2,000 to try to cover up a 1983 Playboy video called "Carnival in Rio," featuring your host, Schwarzenegger, dancing with bikini-clad ladies. "At one point, he grabs a dancer's buttocks; she immediately clasps his wrists and pushes his hands away," the Times reports. "You know something," Schwarzenegger turns to the camera at one point and says, "after watching the [dancers] shake it, I can absolutely understand why Brazil is totally devoted to my favorite body part -- the ass." Pecker apparently didn't know the video was already widely available on the Web. (Page Six)
Also:
An Associated Press poll shows that the worm has turned when it comes to reality TV: Four out of five people asked think there are too many reality shows on, and 82 percent say they think the shows are either "totally made up" or "mostly distorted" Geraldo Rivera has found a strange ally in his crusade against the New York Times and TV critic Alessandra Stanley: Howard Kurtz. Rivera has gone on the warpath over Stanley's assessment that he "nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety." The former talk-show host has even called Stanley "Jayson Blair in a cocktail dress." Writing in the Washington Post, Kurtz defends Rivera, saying "a review of the videotape shows no nudging or other physical contact by Rivera so the refusal to even run a clarification gives Rivera free rein to call the paper 'arrogant'" Matt Damon has announced he's engaged to girlfriend Luciana Barroso. A publicist says he asked the big question "shortly before Labor Day" "Saturday Night Live" head writer Tina Fey gave birth to a daughter over the weekend in New York Getting into character for her role as Martha Stewart didn't require Method acting skills for Cybill Shepherd. For the upcoming TV movie about Stewart's stint in prison, Shepherd just went online to find her motivation: "Essentially, it's public record. When she went to prison she documented everything through her website and one of the first things I did was have that printed up in a notebook" Pete Doherty watch: Heading to the third birthday party in London for Jude Law and Sadie Frost's son, Rudy, Doherty taunted photographers by saying that he and girlfriend Kate Moss have secretly married, holding up his wedding finger and yelling, "This is not a rude gesture, I'm just showing you my ring."
Turn On:
"House" (Fox, 9 p.m. EDT) is back for a new season, the creep-show series "Supernatural" (WB, 9 p.m. EDT) and "Bones" (Fox, 8 p.m. EDT) both get their start, and "Rescue Me" (FX, 10 p.m. EDT) has its season finale.
-- Scott Lamb
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