Paula Abdul has announced her plans to release an autobiography.

The American Idol judge was encouraged to do so after meeting with Richard Branson. "I reconnected, after 16 years, with Richard Branson, who's publishing my life story," eecho.ie quotes Paula as saying. "It's so exciting."

--I'm sure there will be a whole chapter on how she "almost died" from a bad manicure.

Source: Digital Spy

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A young police officer dying from a bullet to his chest shot two burglars early Saturday, one of them identified as an actor who played a misfit mobster on "The Sopranos."

Officer Daniel Enchautegui, 28, collapsed in the driveway of his Bronx home and died shortly afterward. The wounded suspects were quickly captured. Investigators identified one as Lillo Brancato Jr., an actor who got his break in the Robert De Niro-directed film "A Bronx Tale" in 1993, and played doomed mob wannabe Matt Bevilacqua during the 1999-2000 season of "The Sopranos." Brancato, 29, of Yonkers, was also arrested in June for alleged heroin possession.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the actor and another man were breaking into a vacant home when Enchautegui, who had just finished a late-night shift, heard the sound of smashing glass next door. Enchautegui was off duty and in his street clothes, but he alerted his landlord and dialed 911 to report a possible burglary in progress. Then he grabbed his badge and a gun and went out to investigate. His landlord heard Enchautegui shout, "Police! Don't move!" followed by a burst of gunfire, Kelly said.

The alleged gunman, Steven Armento of Yonkers, was shot four times and was in serious condition. Brancato, who police said was unarmed, was shot twice and was in critical condition.

Source: CNN--Thanks for the tip, Rev.

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Steven Spielberg's "Munich," which centers on the aftermath of the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, and the oil-industry thriller "Syriana" were named Sunday among the American Film Institute's 10 best movies of 2005.

The other films AFI selected were: "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "King Kong," "Crash," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "The Squid and the Whale" and "A History of Violence."

The institute also named its 10 best television programs, with honorees including "24," "Battlestar Galactica," and "Lost."

The AFI Awards honor film and television creative ensembles as a whole, both in front of and behind the camera. A luncheon recognizing the honorees will be held Jan. 13.

Source: New York Daily News

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Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Music producer Quincy Jones described Pryor as a true pioneer of his art. "He was the Charlie Parker of comedy, a master of telling the truth that influenced every comedian that came after him," Jones said in a statement. "The legacy that he leaves will forever be with us."

Source: Foxnews

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Country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood married in Oklahoma on Saturday, Brooks's publicist has told Access Hollywood.

"It's the perfect Christmas gift to each other. We could not be happier," Brooks said in a statement. News first began circulating about their impending nuptials when they filed for a marriage license in Oklahoma's Rogers County in Claremore on Friday morning.

Brooks and Yearwood first met in the late 1980s when Yearwood was an opening act on Brooks' tour, and this will be the second marriage for him and the third for her. Her previous husbands were musicians Chris Latham (to whom she was married from 1987-91) and Robert Reynolds (1994-2000). Both unions ended in divorce. She has no children.

Source: People

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Here's one university's take on words/phrases from the past year that should be banned:

BLUE STATES/RED STATES – Who’s who, anyway? “I remember when I was a kid and Georgia was purple,” says Peter Pietrangelo, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. “A good map has more than two colors.”

FLIP FLOP/FLIP FLOPPER/FLIP FLOPPING – They belong at the beach, not in a political dialogue. “Republicans used it; Democrats used it back. Flip-flop back and forth it goes.”

POCKETS OF RESISTANCE – “Are we talking about someone not buying a round of drinks or people shooting at each other?” “Sounds like someone having trouble pulling their hands out of their pants pockets.”

ENEMY COMBATANT – “Makes no sense. Do we have friendly combatants? Neutral combatants? Or how about enemy bystanders? If they are your enemy, just say so.”

CARBS – low carbs, high carbs, no carbs, carb-friendly… Meant ‘carburetor’ in a previous life. Needs to be purged from our system.
“You’re not fat because you eat bread; you’re fat because you eat too much!”
“What’s the point of low-carb beer? A person that concerned about ‘carbs’ shouldn’t even be drinking beer.”

YOU’RE FIRED! – “…and the little hand movement, too!”

‘IZZLE’ – SPEAK – By far, the abomination that received the most nominations. Some sort of ‘Rap-Latin’ suffix, as in fa’shizzle, which means ‘for sure.’ “It was clever for about five minutes, or should I say five ‘minizzles?’”

WARDROBE MALFUNCTION – “Janet Jackson’s bodice did not ‘malfunction.’” “Justin Timberlake pulled too much and too far and I could hear the cogs turning in his publicist’s head trying to come up with that excuse!”
“It wasn’t the wardrobe’s fault!” “Sure to be this generation’s Watergate, misapplied to all situations both imaginable and not so.”

BLOG – and its variations, including blogger, blogged, blogging, blogosphere. Many who nominated it were unsure of the meaning. Sounds like something your mother would slap you for saying. “Sounds like a Viking’s drink that’s better than grog, or a technique to kill a frog.”

BODY WASH – “Also known as ‘soap.’”

Source: LSSU

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Rumors are swirling in the gossip blog world that Brangelina has tied (or will tie this evening) the knot at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Florida.

We'll see if this one pans out...stay tuned.

Source: Pink is the New Blog and Perez Hilton.

UPDATE: The story is total BS.

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"Access Hollywood" is reporting that actor Matt Damon and his fiancee Luciana Barroso are expecting a child.

This will be the first child for Damon, who has been romantically linked to actresses Claire Danes, Minnie Driver and Winona Ryder. Barroso, a former bartender at the Miami nightclub, Crobar, has a daughter from a previous marriage. The couple got engaged in September.

"Access Hollywood" is also reporting that Barroso is approximately three months along in her pregnancy.

Source: Teen Hollywood

UPDATE: Matt Damon and his girlfriend of two years, Luciana Bozan, were married Friday morning in a private ceremony in Manhattan, his publicist confirmed. Source: People.

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Mary-Kate Olsen has opened up to W on why she dropped out of NYU and moved back to Los Angeles.

"I'm happy that I kind of realized that, OK, I just need to take care of myself right now," she told the fashion monthly. "I need to be able to go to yoga and work out and just read scripts and go on auditions, because that's what makes me happy. You know? Like, papers don't really make me happy."

--Like, papers didn't really make me happy either. But, like, I did it anyway.

Source: New York Post

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"Dancing with the Stars" returns to ABC on Thursday, January 5 with a new bevy of wannabe ballroom stars.

Tying on their tap shoes for the second cycle are Tia Carrere, journalist Giselle Fernandez, George Hamilton, WWE diva Stacy Keibler, Nick's brother Drew Lachey, Kenny Mayne, Tatum O'Neal, Super Bowl champ Jerry Rice, Lisa Rinna and Romeo.

Each will be paired with a professional dancer and perform choreographed routines.

Source: ET

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Mischa Barton says she would never have a boob job - because she's scared she would be too sexy.

When asked if she would prefer bigger boobs and more curves like co-star Rachel Bilson the gorgeous 'The OC' actress said: "No! I feel tall and lanky next to her, but I'd be scared of having her boobs and voluptuousness!

"I would never have a boob job. I like being understatedly sexy. Rachel's curves make her more overtly sexual than I am."

Source: FemaleFirst

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The TV series CHiPs is set for the big screen.

That '70s Show star Wilmer Valderrama is set to star as Ponch, the role originally played by Erik Estrada.

CHiPs ran from 1977 to 1983 it followed the pursuits of California highway patrol officers reports Variety. Warners still has to cast the role of Baker, as well as a director.

Source: Ananova

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Joaquin Phoenix took Method acting to extremes while channeling Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line."

Rumor has it that Phoenix had a steamy on-set fling with Ginnifer Goodwin, who played Cash's first wife, during filming. But he supposedly broke it off the day that the two actors shot an emotional break-up scene.

Source: New York Post

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David Schwimmer will make his Broadway debut in a revival of "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," Herman Wouk's stage adaptation of his best-selling novel that later became a hit movie.

The courtroom drama will open May 7 at a theater to be announced, with preview performances to begin April 14. Schwimmer will play the role of Lt. Barney Greenwald in the production, which will be directed by Jerry Zaks.

Zeljko Ivanek will co-star as the infamous Lt. Com. Philip Francis Queeg, a role played in the movie version by Humphrey Bogart. Schwimmer, one of the stars of the long-running television series "Friends," has extensive stage credits, particularly in Chicago where he was a co-founder of the Lookingglass Theatre Company. "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" originally opened on Broadway in 1954 starring Henry Fonda as Greenwald and Lloyd Nolan as Queeg.

Source: AP

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Matthew McConaughey, always reticent to talk about his love life, really must be in love.

He's gushed forth about how fabulous Spanish lady friend Penelope Cruz is - and how 'poetic' their relationship is.

Although Penelope has starred in several Hollywood movies, the Madrid-born star still speaks in heavily-accented English. But Matt told Now magazine the little issue of language doesn't get in the way.

"It's amazing how much better you can communicate when you get rid of all those damn words!" he said. "You start behaving like you do with a child who can't speak yet - you do charades. And it really works. "I know a little bit of Spanish - I can get a noun and a verb - and then I act out the rest. You're more able to say what you mean by talking less. "And then sometimes when you are talking, you don't say what you're meant to say and it becomes kind of poetic."

"The first thing I noticed was that she's pretty easy on the eye," he told Now. "The second was that she has a lot of respect for herself: her history, her past, her family. She's proud of where she comes from - which you don't see often. "She's a full Latin woman and there's an earthiness to the Latin blood."

Source: Ananova

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Time is on the side of free-spending Porsche lovers.

A $150,000 titanium Porsche watch — the world's first with a digital automatic chronograph — will be unveiled today at Tourneau on Madison Avenue. Each watch has 800 moving parts and takes a week to create — only 50 are made each year. The watch will be sold at Porsche Design's new flagship Manhattan boutique, which is set to open this February at Madison Avenue and 59th St.

The store is part of a new group of interactive Porsche Design stores around the world that use technology in unique ways. The Manhattan store, designed by Matteo Thun, pioneers what Porsche Design Group CEO Siegmund Rudigier calls "night shopping."

The storefront becomes a limited Internet store after hours, when shoppers can touch arrows on the windows to learn more about Porsche products inside. The store expands Porsche's brand into lifestyle products, selling everything from $50 pens to the $150,000 watch. "But the $50 pen is an exception," Rudigier told The Post. "We are really oriented toward high-end luxury products."

Source: New York Post

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Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld is planting a seed in the minds of soon-to-be holiday travelers: Dress up.

Lagerfeld packed his own (many) trunks and arrived in Manhattan for two special fashion shows Wednesday of Chanel's Paris-New York collection - one show was for the fashion press, the other for celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Claire Danes and Ashley Olsen.

The Chanel boutique was decorated with vintage luggage tags and airmail stamps, and the models had their hair styled in wavy bobs and wore bright red matte lipstick. Other 1940s touches were round-toe shoes, fur hats and, dark pantyhose.

The clothes were chic, feminine and classic Chanel and without any hints of outrageousness that Lagerfeld sometimes uses in an attempt to move the iconic brand forward. Almost every look was black or white, with occasional flashes of gold or silver.

An outstanding black skirt suit featured quilting - like Chanel's signature handbags - and a white bow tie at the neck, while a check-pattern pantsuit had fringe at the trousers' hemline. That was paired with a pleated white blouse. A jeweled leather jacket in winter white had puffed sleeves; a sportier take was a leather ski jacket.

Source: AP

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The "Today" show's stars wanted to talk about the past: A glorious 10-year winning streak. But what about the future: Is Katie Couric, the broadcast's leading lady, about to jump ship?

"There really is nothing to announce and nothing to report," said Couric at the outset of Thursday's teleconference.

Even as NBC's "Today" marks an unprecedented 520 weeks beating its morning competition - notably ABC runner-up "Good Morning America" - the rumor mill has focused on this key member of the winning team: Will Couric, who began her "Today" hosting chores in April 1991, be staying? Or might she leap to CBS to anchor its evening newscast?

"I know there's been a great deal of speculation in the press," Couric said. "My contract ends in May, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do. "I'm fortunate to have a couple of opportunities that I'm thinking long and hard about," she said. "But in terms of any imminent announcement, there won't be one."

Source: New York Daily News

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The Simple Life star Nicole Richie and her fiancé, "DJ AM" Adam Goldstein, have broken off their engagement, her rep said.

"They have called off the engagement," publicist Cindy Guagenti confirms, saying the decision was mutual.

Richie, the 24-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie, and Goldstein, 32, announced their engagement in February after dating for a year. By then the pair had already moved into a Hollywood Hills home together.

--I have to say, I'm a little surprised by this one.

Source: People

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So, Sean Preston's birth certificate has been released:

Um, who is surprised that KFeddy's middle name is Earl? "Goodbye.....Earl!"

Source: Pink is the New Blog

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