Considering the fairly random people that have voiced their opinion on Miley Cyrus' recent rash of racy photos - from Bill O'Reilly to Joe Jonas - it's nice to hear from someone a bit closer to the situation for a change.

Annie Leibovitz is the woman behind the controversial Vanity Fair photograph that depicts Cyrus topless, albeit covered by a blanket; and she says the image "simple" and "beautiful."

A behind-the-scenes look at one of the Miley Cyrus topless photos from Vanity Fair. It's caused quite the uproar across entertainment news - and legitimate news - sources.

"I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted," Leibovitz said in a statement issued Monday. "Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."

It's also inappropriate for a 15-year old Disney star. But that's something Miley's parents and handlers should have been aware of long before this scandal spiraled out of control. Unless...

... they wanted it that way. What do you think?

Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the New Jersey hooker at the center of the New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer scandal, filed a lawsuit Monday against Girls Gone Wild owner Joe Francis for exploiting her name and image for profit.

The suit seeks more than $10 million in damages.

In legal documents, Ashley Alexandra Dupre claims Girls Gone Wild reps came up to her while she was vacationing in Florida in 2003 and offered her alcohol before inducing her to expose her breasts and sign a waiver.

All while she was underage at just 17. Classy organization.

Since 2003, when this occurred, Girls Gone Wild has illegally exploited the name of Ashley Dupre - or so her lawsuit claims - as well as her picture, voice and likeness in a number of "deceptive advertising campaigns."

Joe Francis - who was willing to pay Ashley Dupre $1 million to pose naked for his videos before realizing, y'know, she already had in 2003 - had no comment.

The multi-millionaire bag of sleaze was just released from a Nevada jail last month, and continues to face federal tax evasion charges in that state.

He is currently fighting separate charges in Florida for allegedly filming underage girls in Panama City. Joe Francis has claimed that the girls in question lied about their age and that he is therefore not liable.

Ashley Dupre, who turns 23 this week, has not appeared publicly since the Eliot Spitzer scandal broke and it was revealed that she exchanges sex for money at a staggeringly high rate - thousands of dollars an hour!

Follow the jump for a thumbnail gallery of all our Ashley Dupre pics - from racy Girls Gone Wild shots to MySpace candids innocent H.S. yearbook photos ...

Continue Reading...

By the cojones, no less!

What gossip fan can forget this celebrity photo classic, starring the newly-engaged and ultra-horny Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, from back in 2004. Ah, to be young, in love and grabbing your fiance's package on a hotel balcony...

After a brief courtship, Britney Spears and K-Fed married, fornicated a lot, had two kids, and called it quits about two years later. Good times.

Celebrating her single status as of late 2006, Britney embarked on an epic binge of clubbing (with no panties on most of the time), violating traffic laws, hooking up with (then quickly discarding) random boyfriends, neglecting Sean and Jayden, and being committed to the psychiatric wards of two different hospitals.

Maybe being with Kevin wasn't that bad after all...

What entertainment news story could knock a semi nude Miley Cyrus photo and a possible Roger Clemens/Mindy McCready affair off the front page?

How about an engagement between Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon!

While merely a rumor at this point, the singer wore a giant, sparkling ring on her left hand during the afterparty for her new film, Tennessee, on Saturday night. Cannon remained close by her side.

The new couple held hands at the party, which followed the movie's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Cannon's rep had no comment on the topic, but the man who once dated Kim Kardashian was asked what he liked about Carey and replied:

"Everything."

Awww, we're overcome with happiness, and nausea, for this couple already.

What made the fabulous but romantically-impaired Carmen Electra want to walk down the aisle for a third time with new fiance Rob Patterson?

"We have known each other for a long time â€" it's like we're really good best friends," Electra told Us Weekly recently in Palm Springs.

"He understands me, I understand him," she said.

So will the wedding be different from her two previous marriages to Dave Navarro and Dennis Rodman, which lasted a combined 45 minutes?

"You can't really compare people," Carmen Electra said. "This is something new and exciting, so we will see where it goes. I am very happy."

Carmen Electra wouldn't dish on how Rob Patterson popped the question.

"It's personal, but it was wonderful and sweet, I will tell you that," she said, adding that she and Rob Patterson don't have a date set yet.

"We are going to enjoy being engaged for now and just do that," she said. "It's funny because people think you are getting married tomorrow, and we just want to take our time and take things very slow."

As for rumors that Carmen Electra is pregnant?

"People always say what they want," she said. "I don't really have anything to say to that. It's silly."

The New York Post isn't known for its subtlety. Or its quality.

Therefore, it wasn't shocking to find the controversial, racy Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair photo adorning this newspaper's front page this morning, headlined by:

Miley's Shame.

The headline of the Post says it all. Here's the front page of the paper...

We do wonder, however, how long it took editors at this tabloid to decide that this quasi-naked photo of Cyrus deserved top billing over the Roger Clemens-Mindy McCready scandal.

Let's just say we'd be surprised if tomorrow's front page story on The New York Post isn't a shot of these two celebrities, accompanied by the headline:

Roger'd That!

Despite rumors of infidelity from both parties, singer Amy Winehouse and her junkie incarcerated husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, have made "no decision" about a divorce, a source close to the Grammy Winner reports.

"It is a tough situation," the insider added to People magazine. "I don't think that anyone who knows them and cares about them doesn't have an opinion about why they should [split], but it's not happening now."

According to the source, Amy Winehouse's "health and well-being" remain the most immediate concerns for those close to her.

The 24-year-old spent Friday night at a London police station after being found "unfit for questioning." This followed an incident in which she head-butted some dude who tried to hail a taxi for her drunk ass, trashed a bar and smoked drugs on the street.

Winehouse was released Saturday morning after having been arrested and jailed, and was issued a "formal caution" on the charge of common assault.

This romantic photo of Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil shows the searing passion and everlasting shared by the two hard-ass drug addicts.

On Sunday, Amy's father, Mitch Winehouse, told the U.K.'s News of the World that he wanted her locked up in a mental hospital for her own protection.

"I want her sectioned," he said, using the amusing British term for committed. "The situation is out of control. I want her off the street."

Amy Winehouse met Blake Fielder-Civil, a part-time gofer on video sets, at a London bar in 2003. The couple got hitched in Miami in May 2007.

THG NOTE: If there are "rumors of infidelity" from both, who is Blake Fielder-Civil cheating with, seeing that he's locked up - and does it count as cheating if you're somebody's bitch in a prison gang? Just asking.

Baseball star Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, beginning when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was the 28-year-old Boston Red Sox ace and married father of two, according to a shocking report in the New York Daily News.

Vivid details of the affair could surface in several media projects that Mindy McCready is already involved with - including a documentary that begins filming today in Nashville, a new album and a reality show.

McCready, who lives on a quiet, tree-lined street in Nashville, Tenn., is attempting a comeback following a string of legal and personal woes.

Through his attorney Rusty Hardin on Sunday, Roger Clemens confirmed a long-term relationship but denied that it was of a sexual nature.

"He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Hardin told the Daily News. "He's considered her a close family friend... He has never had a sexual relationship with her."

The revelations could torpedo claims of an "unsullied character" that are central to the defamation suit Clemens filed January 6 against his former personal trainer Brian McNamee, who accuses him of steroid use.

Rusty Hardin said the Rocket's wife, Debbie Clemens (left), knew Mindy McCready (right) and that the singer had traveled on his plane.

From a PR standpoint, Clemens' decision to file the suit against McNamee the night the Rocket appeared with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes could end up being the biggest risk he has taken yet in a bid to clear his name.

Under investigation for perjury, Roger Clemens already endured the ignominy of publicly throwing his wife under the bus - saying she took human growth hormone (HGH) - as well as having photos of bloody gauze and needles linked to him and undergoing scrutiny of an alleged injection-site abscess on his buttocks.

Continue reading in the New York Daily News ...

The controversial Vanity Fair photos, for which Miley Cyrus has already apologized for, have been released online.

In the accompanying interview to the magazine shoot, the young singer explained her decision to pose topless, albeit with a blanket covering her body:

"I had a big blanket on. And I thought, This looks pretty, and really natural. I think it's really artsy. [And] it wasn't in a skanky way.… And you can't say no to [photographer Annie Leibovitz]. She's so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look and you're like, O.K."

Is the infamous picture skanky, Miley? No. But is it inappropriate for a 15-year old? Yes. You and your family should have known better.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at a series of the Vanity Fair pics in question. Click on each for enlarged versions...

What do you think, readers? Did Miley Cyrus need to apologize for these shots? Are they too racy for someone her age? Do they change your view of her?

Typically, we post an American Idol Power Poll on Monday mornings.

But the competition is down to just five singers, so it seems almost fruitless to rank them. Especially seeing as David Cook and David Archuleta are so clearly on a path to the finals against one another.

Therefore, to change it up, here's a look at Archuleta and fellow finalist Jason Castro hanging out at the launch of BritWeek 2008 in Los Angeles last week.

This brainchild of American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe celebrates British contributions to the world of entertainment.