Morning Briefing:
The Rolo of Brando: It appears that Christian Brando, whom Page Six describes as "the creepy killer son of superstar Marlon Brando," has sold off one of his items of inheritance: his father's Rolodex. After the sale, the unnamed buyer then turned around and tried to put the Rolodex -- which has the cellphone numbers and addresses of Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro, Larry King, Al Pacino, Whoopi Goldberg, John Travolta, Bill Clinton and Leonardo DiCaprio, to name a few -- up for auction on eBay. Family friend Keya Morgan, who intervened to stop the auction, says he checked the numbers: "I discovered most were still valid. This really made Paris Hilton's address book ending up on the Internet seem like a joke." (Page Six)
Baba Wahwah no blog fan: Newsweek has a long profile of Rosie O'Donnell, whose gig on "The View" starts today. In it, we learn that Rosie has erased Oprah from her speed dial and that Barbara Walters isn't a big fan of Rosie's blog. "I didn't like the blog," Walters tells the magazine, saying that she wants O'Donnell to stop posting about the show. "I'm counting on Rosie's intelligence and sensitivity and humor. This is, after all, an entertainment show. It is based on people who like each other and are having a good time, not on people who are arguing and unhappy." (Newsweek)
Trailing Simpson's swag: After Jessica Simpson's swag spree during last week's MTV Video Music Awards promotional circus -- she reportedly walked off with thousands of dollars' worth of jeans and jewelry, plus a brand-new Chrysler -- her P.R. rep promised the goods would go to her favorite charity, Operation Smile, so as to avoid the tax man. This week, an Operation Smile spokeswoman told Lowdown it hadn't gotten anything specific from Simpson's people: "Maybe we'll do an online auction? I don't really know." Simpson's rep says she doesn't think the donation has been on Simpson's mind, but a spy overheard Simpson at a party asking a lawyer how the IRS would possibly find out about the gifts. After being told, "Each company has to file gift tax returns pertaining to everybody that received gifts, and then the IRS will compare those to the individual tax returns of the recipients," she is reported to have "looked dumbfounded." (Lowdown)
Also:
Despite whatever you may have read, Justin Timberlake says he's not engaged to Cameron Diaz. "We're not engaged," he told Ellen DeGeneres on her Monday show. "She hasn't given me a ring. I've waited for her to get down on one knee and ask." (People) ... In other non-wedding news, Dina Lohan says her daughter is also definitely not engaged -- rumors started swirling last week that boyfriend Harry Morton was out ring shopping for Lindsay. (Star) ... And while we're on the topic, Kelly Osbourne didn't get married over the weekend, gossip blog chatter notwithstanding. (Faded Youth) ... Another flare-up in the Liza Minnelli/David Gest divorce: In papers filed on Monday, Gest accused Minnelli of hiding that she had herpes until after they were married, while Minnelli alleges that Gest once tried to poison her. (Daily Mail) ... "Invincible" was No. 1 again at the box office over the Labor Day weekend, taking in $15.2 million, while Nicolas Cage's "Wicker Man" came in third with a paltry $11.7 million, followed by "Little Miss Sunshine" with $9.7 million. (Associated Press) ... It has been a solid summer for the movie biz overall -- attendance is up 3 percent over last year, and ticket sales rose 6 percent to $3.85 billion. (BBC News)
Money Quote:
Rupert Everett on the unique scent Julia Roberts gave off when they worked together on "My Best Friend's Wedding": "Julia smelt vaguely of sweat, which I thought was very sexy." (ContactMusic)
Author Germaine Greer on the late Steve Irwin's career: "There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle. Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin." (ContactMusic)
Turn On:
Katie Couric makes her prime-time news anchor debut on "The CBS Evening News" (CBS, 6:30 p.m. EDT), it's the season premiere of the plastic surgery drama "Nip/Tuck" (FX, 10 p.m. EDT) -- with guest star Brooke Shields -- and "Standoff" (Fox, 9 p.m. EDT) has its series debut.
On the Talk Shows:
Larry King (CNN, 9 p.m. EDT): Steve Irwin's manager John Stainton
David Letterman (CBS, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Jessica Biel, Christina Aguilera (repeat)
Jay Leno (NBC, 11:35 p.m. EDT): Scarlett Johansson, Greg Behrendt, Toby Keith
Conan O'Brien (NBC, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Julianne Moore, Godsmack
Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Kyra Sedgwick, Keith Olbermann (repeat)
Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, 12:05 a.m. EDT): Lauren Holly, private investigator Vinny Parco, the Roots
Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 11 p.m. EDT): Frederick Lane (repeat)
Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Gideon Yago (repeat)
-- Scott Lamb
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