September 2007 Gossip Archive (Page 9)

In an interview with London's News of the World, Britney Spears' former bodyguard Tony Barretto claims the troubled star nearly suffered a drug overdose following her rehab stint last spring.

Tony Barretto recently filed a declaration detailing his former employer's drug and alcohol use in the child custody case between Spears and her former husband, Kevin Federline.

His account persuaded a worried judge to order Britney to be tested for drugs twice a week. Not shocking, given Barretto's dramatic account of how Britney...

• OVERDOSED in a drug-strewn hotel room on a binge with junkie lover Howie Day just days after leaving rehab. "She was in a bad state, sweating and shaking. Her pupils were huge... we thought she was dying," said Tony.
• SNORTED cocaine clandestinely with pals in a trendy L.A. club.
• ENDANGERED the lives of her kids by being under the influence of drugs and booze at home while Sean Preston and Jayden James were there.

The enormous Tony Barretto, standing 6'7" and pushing 300 pounds, earning the nickname "Fat Tony," says he decided to come forward because:

"Britney is out of control and needs help. I have done this for her children. She's not a good mother. She has mental problems. With her problems with drugs and booze, her home is no place for kids to be raised."

His remarks capped a nightmare week for Britney Spears in which she was dumped by her manager Jeff Kwatinetz and her lawyer.

She hired married dad-of-two Tony Barretto â€" a former private eye â€" days after checking out of Promises rehab facility in Malibu after one month on March 26, and publicly declaring she had beaten booze and drug problems.

Tony Barretto is a drugs expert after taking a 10 police course about their dangers. He realized Britney Spears' willpower was weak on the night of May 2, mere hours before the start of her "comeback mini-tour" in Anaheim.

On May 2, Britney Spears went on a date with musician Howie Day, 26, who she'd met in rehab, telling her worried protection team she didn't need them.

Tony Barretto said of the lame singer and drug addict: "We did security checks on Howie Day and told her he was trouble. But she ignored us."

Hours later, however, a hysterical, crying Britney, 25, called her aides, claiming that Day was refusing to let her leave their hotel room.

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You'd think a list of Hot Hollywood Players would include Eva Longoria and Megan Fox.

But the one just released by Us Weekly focuses more on rising talent than astonishing looks. Sometimes, of course, the two go hand-in-hand in the celebrity gossip world.

Here are three of the men and woman that comprise the publication's rankings:

The cast of Heroes
Who should we start with? Young hottie, Hayden Panettiere? Her possible boyfriend, Milo Ventimiglia? The entire cast of this hit show toured the globe this summer, meeting fans and spreading the word about their season season.

It begins tonight. And we can't wait to watch the new stories on Heroes. 

Jamie Lynn Spears
Britney, who? Granted, Jamie Lynn's older sister has been in the news just a bit these days, but the young lady dubbed "The High School Sweetheart" by Us is ready to make a name for herself. And not just by maybe being pregnant.

"I'd love to do a movie," Spears said. "I want somebody to look at me and say, 'Wow, she's a really good actress.'"

Miley Cyrus
Don't worry about Miley Cyrus pulling a Vanessa Hudgens. This star's clothes are staying on - and her albums are going up the charts. She's the youngest singer to ever have two number-one CDs in the same year.

Well, come on. Who wouldn't be?

Besides crazy fans of Isaiah Washington?

Anyway, over a year into his engagement to the Emmy Award winning Katherine Heigl, singer Josh Kelley is ready to start a family.

"I always thought I'd be scared, but I'm ready," Kelley said. "I'm 27, and I feel as though I've done more than most people will do in a lifetime. I'm ready to settle down, start a family and build a little Kelley empire."

The couple, who met when Heigl appeared in a music video for Kelley's song "Only You," got engaged in June 2006.

Kelley is certain that the 28-year-old Grey's Anatomy and Knocked Up star, who he will reportedly wed in December, is the right one.

"She's so great," he says of Katherine Heigl and himself. "We're kind of carbon copies of each other in some ways, and we also have our differences."

"I just finished an album called Special Company, which takes me through the emotional roller coaster of getting married," he said. "I'm becoming a real man."

Kelley was performing in Las Vegas Sunday, as part of the Hennessey Artistry Concert Tour, and couldn't be in L.A. to see his girlfriend win the award for best supporting actress in a drama at the Emmys. But he got the news immediately.

"My manager put her phone up to her TV so I could hear her speech accepting the award," he said. "It's beautiful. She works so hard, and she's so deserving of it."

The couple soon spoke by phone, and it was clear the actress was over the moon. "I couldn't even understand what she was saying, she was so excited," Kelley says.

Celebrities are sure able to convince people to drink a certain soda or eat crappy fast food, but when it comes to politics, their word carries little weight.

In other words, if Hillary Clinton wins the White House, it's probably not going to have much do to with the support given to her by 50 Cent.

According to a telephone survey of more than 1,000 people, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, celebrities' endorsements for U.S. presidential candidates don't do a whole lot - in fact, in some cases they would actually cause people not to vote for a candidate.

For example, when asked whether an endorsement from rapper Kanye West would make them more or less likely to vote for a candidate, just 4 percent said it would make them more likely, but 15 percent said they'd be less likely.

Kanye West: Great at rapping and complaining to the media about not winning awards for it; Bad at influencing the public endorsing political candidates.

Other celebrities who had a negative impact on voter choices were Donald Trump, Jay Leno, Toby Keith and - here's an absolute stunner - Bill O'Reilly.

The endorsement Barack Obama got from Oprah Winfrey was a wash - 15 percent said an endorsement from Oprah helps, while 15 percent said it would hurt.

Looks like Oprah should stick to recommending books! Barack, meanwhile, might want to think of making Amber Lee Ettinger his campaign manager.

They're talented, they're cute and they're 37 years old ... combined! After a day of cheering on the set of Heroes, Hayden Panettiere engages a fellow young starlet, Hilary Duff in conversation at Teen Vogue's Young Hollywood party Thursday.

In addition to Hayden and Hilary Duff, we're guessing Teen Vogue intern Lauren Conrad and her boss, Whitney Port, were on hand for the event. Although at 21, LC might consider herself a little old for the "young Hollywood" set.

Behold, the lovely Hilary Duff and Hayden Panettiere: Tell us, celebrity news readers, which of these barely legal hotties would you rather ... buy beer for?

Salma Hayek and her businessman fiancé, Francois Henri Pinault, are the proud parents of a baby girl, Valentina Paloma Pinault.

"Mother and daughter are doing well," Salma Hayek's publicist, Cari Ross, said in a statement.

No further details are available at this time.

A source said that the 41-year-old Mexican-born actress entered the hospital on Thursday and that Francois-Henri Pinault was present.

The newborn daughter is the first child for Salma Hayek. Pinault, 45, has two children from a previous marriage which ended in divorce in 2004.

The actress' pregnancy was first revealed in March.

At the same time, Hayek and Pinault announced they were engaged to be married. No word on whether the two have set a wedding date.

The pair had kept a relatively low profile since their relationship began â€" though Hayek joined Francois Henri Pinault, the CEO of luxury goods firm PPR, for the occasional public event, including at the inauguration of the Pinault Foundation's Modern Art collection in Venice.

Besides carrying her child, Salma Hayek has had her hands full on Ugly Betty, both as a guest star and as the executive producer of the show.

Speaking of Hayek, actor Michal Urie, who plays an assistant on the series, said: "She knows how to take care - like we have a ton of producers, and she's really caring. She's like the matriarch of the producers. She's already motherly."

Congratulations! Here's hoping that Salma's maternal instincts are a tad better than what Britney Spears has displayed over the past two years.

Isaac Cohen. J.R. Rotem. Matt Encinias. Criss Angel. So many men in Britney Spears' life have gotten to hit that and then run for the hills.

This particular Britney hit and run, though, is vehicular.

Officials say Spears has been charged with one count of hit and run causing property damage and one count of driving without a valid California license. Both charges are misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum of 6 months in jail.

She was also charged with five counts of clubbing in no underwear. Just kidding!

The charges stem from an August 6 incident in L.A. where Spears was in a private parking lot in the San Fernando Valley.

The Los Angeles City Attorney filed charges this afternoon. Britney Spears' arraignment is set for October 10.

The City Attorney sent the pop train wreck a letter notifying her of the charges. That letter was mailed earlier today.

The victim filed a police report at the LAPD North Hollywood Division on August 9 and filed a report.

After leaving her lawyer's office, Britney Spears drove over to a home in Bel Air. A neighbor says the home is owned by a nurse. No one knows why she went there. After that, she went to a pet store in Malibu, of course.

Pasadena attorney Richard Hutton, best known for representing Paris Hilton in her probation violation case earlier this year, says residents of the Golden State must get a California driver's license within their first 10 days as a resident.

Spears has been pulled over several times in recent years with being cited for the license violation. It's possible officers were persuaded she maintains a residence in Louisiana and Britney legitimately considers herself a Louisiana resident.

Overall, legal experts say, the charges are "minor stuff" and Britney Spears could escape with a modest fine and probation.

Probably nothing to worry about. When she violates that probation by driving drunk, which should happen in about 2-3 months, though, watch out!

  Tears (and bad fashion, and no common sense) for Spears.

George Clooney and girlfriend Sarah Larson were hospitalized for injuries and treated Friday after the motorcycle they were riding was hit by a car in New Jersey.

Clooney, 46, suffered a hairline fracture of a rib and road rash, and Larson, 28, suffered a broken foot, says the actor's representative.

Both Clooney and Sarah Larson were treated at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J. Both have since been released.

Clooney is in the New York area filming his new movie Burn After Reading, and has been spotted out with new gal pal Larson at restaurants.

Sarah Larson, who was originally thought to be named Sarah Lorraine, made her debut as his date at the Venice and Deauville film festivals this month.

A onetime Fear Factor winner, Sarah Larson now works as a cocktail waitress at Las Vegas' Moon nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort.

His film Ocean's Thirteen premiered there June 6.

They've reportedly been inseparable ever since Sarah Larson flew to France with Clooney on September 1 for the Deauville Film Festival.

The two also dined with Clooney pal Matt Damon, his wife Luciana and five other friends at the L'Auberge de l'Abbaye restaurant in Beaumont-en-Auge.

From cigarettes to lollipops to Criss Angel, we know Britney Spears has some kind of serious oral fixation. But pacifiers, that's taking it a bit far.

At least we think so, and it would appear our feelings on the matter are shared by others, such as her eldest son, Sean Preston Federline. Take a look ...

Sean Preston dreams of going on a show called "Mom Swap."

Counting down the days until he can legally emancipate himself from his parents, the cute, troubled Sean Preston wears this distressed look quite often these days.

It's easy to see why. When Britney Spears isn't out until the wee hours at clubs with no underwear, she's blowing smoke in his face or putting Jayden James' pacifiers in her own mouth. And the court didn't give K-Fed sole custody?

She and Snoop Dogg have some really good lawyers.

Brad Pitt loves bedtime.

And it's not because this is when he often sees Angelina Jolie nude.

As People magazine reports, the actor instead looks forward to tucking his kids in and talking closely with the slew of cuties.

"It is a really special time, a time I value and it's that one-on-one time where you really ask the questions and I want to make sure they have that," Pitt told Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer on Friday.

It all stems from Pitt's own childhood, which he relayed to Sawyer in 1997 on ABC's Primetime.

"The three of us siblings, we'd jump in our beds, separate rooms, and we'd all be yelling for [mom], because she'd take turns coming from room to room, right? And we'd just talk for hours sometimes. Just talk," he said.

They'd also dance sometimes. But the gorgeous actor doesn't wanna pass around this talent - or lackthereof - to his kids:  Maddox, 6, Pax, 3, Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 1.

"We hope they're not soaking up our moves because they'd be seriously lacking in their future. We'll get them some proper training," he said of himself and Jolie. "There's a lot of dancing around the house, a lot of music time."