Morning Briefing:
He's taken the fifth before: The New York Daily News has dug up an old interview with Boy George on the Howard Stern show. Talking to Stern's fill-in, Chaunce Hayden, the head-shaven pop singer bristled at questions about his sobriety: "If I wasn't clean and sober, why do you think I would tell you?" Laughing, he added, "I'm not trying to be funny, but why do you think I would tell you that? It's not like I ever announced that I was clean and sober in the first place. I'm just sick of talking about it. It's absolutely nobody's business as to what I do and don't do. Okay? What I do in my personal life is my own business. Period." (N.Y. Daily News)
Everything not so nice in Paris? Despite the feel-good press releases that flowed out like P.R. honey following the end of their engagement, all is not peaches and cream between Parises Hilton and Latsis. Page Six writes that Hilton phoned in the breakup, with her new Greek heir, Stavros Niarchos, in the room with her. But the last laugh may be on her -- after glibly announcing the end of the engagement, Hilton bragged to Us Weekly, "Paris says I can keep the engagement ring. He says I earned it." Now one of Latsis' pals says there's only one reason she got to hold on to the $5 million trinket: "How else did she earn it? With sex. Like a hooker. It's a dis and she didn't get it -- no surprise." (Page Six)
Sienna does not heart Daniel: A new morning brings fresh denials from the Sienna Miller camp over her rumored affair with Jude's good pal, actor Daniel Craig (who is in the running to play the next James Bond). Friends say, "It is no secret she has been looking for a place of her own and that says it all really." And her spokeswoman adds: "It's all a load of wild speculation. She has been friends with Daniel Craig for a long time." But the Daily Mirror also reports several versions of a showdown between Jude and Sienna, with one having him overhear her whispering on the phone: "I love you, Daniel." Another story says Jude's driver tipped him off, and then there's this report: "When Jude, 32, confronted Sienna last week she is said to have sobbed hysterically before lashing back: 'But you slept with the nanny!'" (Daily Mirror)
Also:
Even after getting bids over $60,000, Britney Spears yanked her used bra out of the eBay auction she was running to raise money for Hurricane Katrina, writing to fans on her Web site that she was "concerned that some of you might be confusing this bra with something that it's not." Without going into further detail over what seemed like a pretty straightforward transaction, she said, "I feel the correct thing to do is remove this item from the auction because I don't want any of you to feel misled" ... Drag queens rejoice: an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" wherein Larry David ends up trying on bras at Victoria's Secret signals a sea change in the store's policy toward allowing men in the changing booths. New York's Veronica Vera, who runs a finishing school for drag-queens-to-be, exults: "Hallelujah, our cups runneth over! They will find most men who want to try things on are very polite and very considerate of female customers. They just want to shop, and they value their privacy as much as the next girl" ... A report on European TV shows just how alike the U.S. and the E.U. are becoming: Despite having 4,000 channels to choose from, viewers in Europe are having a harder time finding news that actually gives them information. "Investigative journalism and minority programming are hard to find in both public service and commercial broadcasting," said the Open Society Institute, the Hungarian research group behind the report. "Viewers often do not receive the information necessary to make informed democratic choices" ... Comedian Louis Nye, best known for his work on "The Steve Allen Show" in the '50s but recently also a character on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," died in Los Angeles at age 92 on Sunday.
Money Quote:
Toni Collette on losing work to Renée Zellweger, twice in a row: "I was doing [the Broadway play] 'Wild Party.' I [had also been] offered 'Bridget Jones's Diary' at the time, but couldn't do it because I didn't know how long 'Wild Party' was going to play. Then the 'Chicago' lot said, 'We want you to do this, don't take anything else. We want to put you on tape just as a formality. Catherine [Zeta-Jones] is really excited to work with you.' Then 'Bridget Jones's Diary' came out and I guess the Weinsteins [who produced 'Chicago'] had their way." (The Scoop)
Turn On:
President Geena Davis faces struggles with her V.P. choice in a new episode of "Commander in Chief" (ABC, 9 p.m. EDT). Plus: Two new PBS documentaries -- "NOVA: Einstein's Big Idea" celebrates the 100th anniversary of E=mc2, while "Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove" revels in all that is P-funk, tracing the epic history of the group (check local listings for both).
-- Scott Lamb
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