Celebrity Gossip News

We know celebrity weddings are big sellers for gossip magazines.

Naturally, Kendra Wilkinson wedding photos would be no exception.

That said, Us dropping $120,000 on exclusive rights to pictures of Kendra's wedding to Hank Baskett in L.A. Saturday seemed like a reasonable sum, if not low.

But Michael Jackson's death quashed plans to run them on the cover.

"They were trying to get out of paying so much because they have to put Michael on the cover," a source said. "But the documents were already signed."

Melissa Joan Hart, who was nearly hosed out of a People cover by Farrah Fawcett dying (the nerve of some people with terminal cancer) can sympathize.

A rep for Us said, "The wedding pictures were purchased after Michael died."

In any case, we don't expect the lovebirds care too much. They are on their honeymoon and likely focused strictly on boning. Congrats, Kendra and Hank!

After California authorities issued four child-labor law violations against Radar Online for videotaping Nadya Suleman's octuplets, attorney Gloria Allred held (of course) a press conference Tuesday to discuss the impact of the citations.

"Because Nadya Suleman has chosen to commercially exploit these babies, she and those with whom she has contracts must follow the law that is there for their protection," Allred said. "If the parents and the media do not protect them, others will."

Allred has long been slamming Octomom for putting her children in danger, and claims that the mother of 14 only cares about them "when cameras are rolling."

The loudmouth lawyer may be a publicity fiend in her own right, but she does not make awful points. In May, she filed a petition against Nadya Suleman and has worked with California's investigation to protect the financial interests of the babies.

Regarding celebrity gossip site Radar Online, California Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet said that it failed to take out the required permits before taping two of the octuplets - Noah and Isaiah - without safeguards to protect their welfare.

Attorney Gloria Allred has made it her mission to take down Nadya Suleman, a.k.a. Octomom, as well as her unofficial mouthpiece, celeb gossip site Radar Online.

She alleges the site taped the infants at hours and for periods of time banned by state regulations and failed to provide a supervisor to watch over them.

"These babies were put at risk, exposed to conditions violaying California labor laws," Bradstreet said. "In this case, we're dealing with premature babies."

The four violations - which could carry penalties up to $3,000 - occurred on March 17. They involve the first videos of the newborns when they came home.

Octomom was also hit with a child labor lawsuit in May.

Radar Online, which has posted more than 100 items about Nadya Suleman and her kids - said that like other newsgathering organizations, it is not required to obtain permits and is not restricted to certain hours in its journalistic pursuits.

Nadya has admitted to ruining the kids' lives but seems to have no qualms about being a complete drain on society and milking all the attention she can.

Seriously, Star ought to start publishing itself as fan fiction.

According to the venerable celebrity gossip tabloid, whose writers really need a raise, after making secret plans for a 1 a.m. rendezvous, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston got together at a New York City hotel and spent two hours - alone!

In a "blockbuster exclusive" - which is pretty easy to snag when you make up the story - Star reveals, thanks to a tell-all interview with the driver who brought Jen to the Gramercy Park Hotel, that the ex-couple went to great lengths not to be seen.

This explains why there were no photos of Jen and Brad together ... just a cover featuring two separate photos made to look like they were together.

"It was well planned so no one would see them," says the anonymous driver, who claims that the pair spent more than two hours alone together in the back of the Gramercy's nearly deserted 18th floor Private Roof Club and Garden.

"They were really careful not to be spotted."

This isn't the first time Brad has engaged in a made-up rendezvous concocted by Star Magazine that ended with him getting to see Jennifer Aniston nude.

They were not even remotely shuttled around New York City in a black SUV on April 23, sipping Starbucks and chatting in separate cities with other people.

Knowing how Angelina Jolie reacted when she first caught Brad talking to Jen on the phone recently, insiders say she's not going to be happy about this.

Well, she probably be wouldn't if it were true anyway.

"When Angelina finds out about this reunion, she'll go ballistic," says a fictitious source, assessing the situation with great expertise and wisdom.

There's a new celebrity war raging. Well, a celebrity news war.

Us Weekly has launched an offensive against InTouch Weekly, using two full pages of their new issue to rip their rivals' bogus Brangelina gossip over the years.

Us reproduced 21 InTouch covers dating back to 2005, then shreds the fake stories one by one, killing its celebrity gossip counterpart over their articles.

Some of which are pretty great. At least three wedding reports and five accounts of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie splitting up, with some inventive Jennifer Aniston stories tossed in for good measure, made it into the collage of lies.

InTouch fired back: "We are flattered that our competition pays so much attention to InTouch that they were willing to devote a 2-page spread to us."

Mmm. They've got a point there, but come on, look at these headlines. After you've blatantly lied 17 times, doesn't the 18th fail to carry the same weight?

All we know is somewhere, Star Magazine is celebrating for not being called out.

Click to enlarge the hilarious photo montage below ...

Whoever imagined Jordan Miller, who started a Britney Spears fan site while a high school sophomore in 2004, would one day receive half a million visits a day?

Whoever imagined Miller, now a typical college student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, would be threatened with legal action by her dad, Jamie Spears?

Miller's world was turned upside-down last fall after he received an angry phone call from the pop star's father-guardian, accusing him of copyright violations.

"I'm working my ass off to report on this girl," Miller said.

In February 2008, after Britney Spears was forced into a treatment program for bipolar disorder, Jamie Spears was awarded conservatorship, giving him the authority to make legal, financial and medical decisions on behalf of his daughter.

Miller posted several blogs begging for Britney to be "freed."

One fan site creator's opinions on Britney and posting of stories about Jamie Lynn Spears apparently have not gone over well with the stars' father and chief handler.

He also posted about a magazine story that suggested Britney's younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, was expecting her second child. Then his cell phone rang.

Miller said Jamie Spears told him, "I am going to destroy your ass."

"I was really freaking out for a good three or four weeks," Miller said. "Lately, I've been doing my own thing. I just kind of want to keep it going."

Each day, Miller scans the Internet for stories about Britney Spears, posts them on his site, BreatheHeavy.com, and adds his own comments. He encourages her fans to send him Circus tour photos or updates regarding her.

Miller said the site keeps him busy, but it is not as demanding now as it was when the troubled, out-of-control singer was shaving her head, bashing vehicles with an umbrella, being photographed without no underwear, and so on.

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Is someone trying to dig up good gossip on Tom Brady?

Someone besides us (we really just care about Gisele Bundchen pics)?

The New England Patriots star, actor Matt Damon and various other celebs are apparently the targets of numerous, superfluous searches conducted by law enforcement authorities across the state of Massachusetts.

Officials privy to the audit that turned up the head-scratching statistics told the paper that law-enforcement officers performed 968 searches on Brady.

Inquiries into his home address, gun-ownership record, driver's license info, Social Security number and other stats on the QB were conducted.

Other high-profile types who were also the target of "repeated searches and queries" included Damon, James Taylor, and Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce.

The verdict: The Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information system is highly flawed and is vulnerable to use "without any apparent work-related justification," according to state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci's findings.

Really? After 968 searches? You think?

On the flip side, the system is utilized 13 million times a month, so the total number of inappropriate searches is relatively minuscule - and who wouldn't want to see if there were random celebrity mug shots kicking around somewhere?

"I'm fairly comfortable in saying that 99 percent do not misuse the system," executive director Curtis Wood told the Boston Globe.

Not exactly.

The First Lady's appeal is widespread, but she hasn't emerged as a celebrity magazine-selling fixture equivalent to the late Princess of Wales, despite publishers' hopes.

Vogue's March cover story on Michelle Obama called her "The First Lady the World's Been Waiting For." No doubt she's been embraced by the media world, appearing on magazine cover after cover, from People and Us Weekly to Newsweek.

Michelle Obama fashion is all the rage these days, and her approval ratings are quite high, but magazine sales of issues featuring the First Lady are mixed.

A Michelle cover doesn't hurt a general-interest magazine, the numbers suggest, but it doesn't produce more than an occasional lift either. New York magazine's March 23 issue (below) looks to have produced only average sales.

When Michelle appears in a magazine with strong African-American readership, however, or when she appears with the president, sales seem to jump more.

Essence, O and Ebony covers featuring Michelle solid far more copies than usual.

Celeb gossip magazines are mixed. Us Weekly's November 17 cover, "Their Amazing Journey," sold 923,161 copies, 16 percent more than average. Yet summer's "Michelle Obama - Why Barack Loves Her" cover sold just 2 percent above average.

On the bottom end? The September Ladies' Home Journal, picturing both Obamas, sold 182,233 copies - 21 percent below average. Although the teaser about saving money at the pump didn't help. Way to play up your cover photo.

Click to enlarge Michelle Obama photos on magazine covers in the past year:

"I thought this was going to be my last job."
- Celeb gossip photographer Rolando Aviles

This minor detail was, for some reason, left out of mainstream media reports of the decadent Tom Brady-Gisele Bundchen wedding in Costa Rica Saturday: a pair of paparazzi say they “narrowly escaped death” after being shot at.

Bundchen’s security guards apparently fired at celeb gossip photographers outside her beachside wedding to the New England Patriots quarterback. No one was reported hurt in the incident, but Costa Rica police are investigating.

“Are they insane?” asked photographer, who was covering the wedding for INF Daily. “I could have lost my life for the sake of some pictures Gisele didn’t want published. I couldn’t believe it when I realized what they had done.”

According to spokesmen for the celebrity photo and news agency, the shutterbugs were hiding in the brush near Gisele Bundchen’s estate taking some pictures when they were accosted by the newlyweds’ security guards.

The photographers, Cortez and Rolando Aviles, were marched up to Bundchen’s villa, where they were ordered to surrender photos and video. Bundchen had a deal with a Brazilian magazine for exclusive rights to the wedding pics.

They refused and fled with the security guards in hot pursuit.

Cortez and Aviles ran to a waiting SUV and jumped in as a guard fired a shot at them, the photo agency said. The bullet shattered the Suzuki’s rear window, passed between the two men in the front seat and bounced off the windshield.

“No one was hurt, but one of their cars was messed up,” the INF spokesman said. The agency posted pictures of a photographer standing by an SUV with a shattered back windshield. A second image shows a photographer holding a bullet.

It is unclear if Mr. and Mrs. Brady and their guests knew about the incident, but it gives new meaning to the term "shotgun wedding." Or maybe "38mm wedding."

Harvey Levin, the executive producer of TMZ, one of the web's biggest celeb news and gossip sites, went on Fox News' On the Record show on Friday night.

The purpose of his visit? To address the escalating controversy surrounding the battered Rihanna photo, which the LAPD has insinuated was leaked illegally.

"Now, I should be quick to say that we got this picture legally," a Fox News transcript of the show quotes the celebrity gossip publisher as saying.

"And we - when we got the picture, we believed it was not an LAPD picture, and we still are still not convinced it is. The police department is sounding like they say it is, but they haven't said that unequivocally, either."

The Los Angeles Police Department has not officially identified Rihanna as the alleged victim in the Chris Brown case, in which the entertainer was arrested and charged with battery and suspicion of criminal threats February 8.

The LAPD launched an internal investigation after receiving "numerous inquiries about the release of a photograph associated with a domestic violence incident that occurred on February 8, 2009, involving entertainer Chris Brown."

Levin said TMZ has heard a lot of rumors surrounding what Rihanna will do next in regards to Brown, but most of what they have heard is unsubstantiated.

"There are a lot of rumors going around about this case, and I don't really put a lot of credence in any of them, which is why we haven't put any of that stuff up on the site, because I don't think it's concrete enough," he said.

"But I think the fact is, with those pictures, I've got to tell you, I mean, I don't think the DA is going to be completely stymied if she doesn't cooperate."

We have not posted the photo in question on our homepage as it is so graphic. Follow the jump to see how badly Rihanna was hurt:

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Whether they're dropping an early-morning f-bomb or just misspelling headlines at the bottom of the screen (the word in question was education, ironically), cable news shows are lowering themselves to our level more and more frequently these days!

Today's offender: CNN!

Amid fears of a salmonella outbreak, airlines are getting complaints from travelers about certain snacks often served in coach. This, unfortunately, forces news anchors to say the surprisingly difficult word "peanuts" when thinking of something else.

Twice!

CNN Anchor Goes Nuts