You think the rumors don't hurt
Whitney Houston? They do. Deeply.
But it's not the drug rumors that sting.
Oh no. It's those other rumors
that cut her to the quick.
"The thing that hurt me the most was
that they tried to pin something on me
that I was not. My mother raised me to
never, ever be ashamed of what I
am," Houston tells Out magazine. "But
I'm not a lesbian, darling. I'm not."
And in case you missed that, allow her
to make herself perfectly clear. She is
"not lesbian, not gay, not all that B.S.
I don't want to hear that. It's
over."
What, you need to hear her say it again?
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What
would Lucy and Desi say?
"What I often do is think of what the
Little Ricky inside me thinks of what
the grown-up Ricky has become. I will
ask him: 'Are you happy with how things
have turned out? Are you proud?' And you
know what? Sometimes, Little Ricky isn't
proud."
-- Ricky Martin,
wrestling with his inner demons in the
U.K.'s Heat magazine.
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Playing
doctor ... on the sly
Name one Hollywood star who can keep a
secret.
How about George Clooney? It
turns out he didn't even tell his own
agent about his surprise appearance on
"ER" last week.
"I didn't tell anybody," Clooney told
reporters at Cannes. "I was on a plane
on Thursday with my agent, and he was
talking into a phone, saying 'He'll
never do it.' And I said to him: 'Well,
I did it.'"
According to Clooney, crew members were
given bonus checks that were valid only
if the secret never seeped out. What's
more, he said, John Wells, the
show's executive producer, kept the
top-secret footage in his fridge until
it was needed.
But Clooney was apparently none too
pleased that NBC opted to promote a
special surprise guest appearance the
day the show was set to air. "NBC can't
help stepping on their own feet,"
Clooney carped to Mr. Showbiz. "And to
promote it after we worked so hard to
keep it a secret."
Those NBC suits need 10 cc's of
discretion. Stat.
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Speaking of Hollywood secrets ...
Jody "Baby Doll" Gibson's little
black book sure could make for some
interesting reading.
Now that the alleged Hollywood madam II
has landed in jail for the next three
years, the Los Angeles Times is hoping
to pressure the court into releasing her
roster of high-powered, big-name
clients.
Where have we heard this story before?
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Marky
Mark: Eyes off my crotch!
"I dropped my pants for those Calvin
Klein underwear ads because I thought it
would look cool and get my
career started. It was good for a while,
but eventually I got sick of people
looking at my crotch and asking, 'Hey,
what comes between you and those
Calvins, underwear boy?'"
-- Mark Wahlberg on why he
stopped showing his skivvies, in Jump
magazine.
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Dialogue that's hard to swallow
Question: Which young actress refused to
take a part that required her to utter
the line "I swallowed your cum and you
won't let me sleep on your couch?"
Answer: Christina Ricci. She has
her limits.
Not so Mena Suvari, who accepted
the role rejected by Ricci in the
upcoming flick "Loser."
"If you take any line out of context, it
could seem rude or be misunderstood,"
Suvari tells Movieline magazine. "She
took it too literally."
Come again?
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Juicy
bits
There is nothing like a dame.
Elizabeth Taylor and Julie
Andrews were honored by the Queen on
Tuesday, when they were made dame
commanders of the Order of the British
Empire. Taylor told the press she wished
her late husband, Richard Burton,
could have been there to share her
moment, adding, "Today doesn't compare
to anything else that's happened to me
in my life." Andrews called it "the
greatest honor of my life." Positively
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Alanis Morissette is probably
belting out a happier tune these days.
The Canadian singer is fixing to sell
around $1 million worth of MP3.com
stock. But the 100,000 shares she's looking to
unload are only a small portion of the
330,000 shares she acquired in April
1999, when the Web site sponsored a tour
she shared with Tori Amos. Guess
MP3.com's stock dip (after a court ruled
that the site broke U.S. copyright laws)
was a jagged little pill, financially
speaking.
Boy George on the big screen? The
'80s icon's autobiography, "Take It Like
a Man," is set to be made into a movie.
Retitled "Karma Chameleon," the movie
will be "like 'Valley of the Dolls,'
only with bigger hair and a happy
ending," George told Variety. Kfir
Yefet will direct. What, they
couldn't get John Waters?
Helen Thomas is 79. Nevertheless,
her announcement Tuesday that she would
resign as UPI's White House
correspondent comes as a shockeroo to
those who regard her as something of a
Washington landmark. Thomas, who
reported for UPI for 57 years, departed
just one day after the struggling news
agency was purchased by News World
Communications, which publishes the
Washington Times and has informal
connections to the Rev. Sun Myung
Moon's Unification Church. Now who's
gonna say, "Thank you, Mr. President"?
Those crazy newlyweds! Angelina
Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton
are costarring with Matt Damon
and Penelope Cruz (who swear
they're "just good friends") in what the
Hollywood Reporter describes as
"'Midnight Cowboy' for the new
millennium." Pedro Almodovar may
direct. So much for a honeymoon.
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