Tag Archives: Us Weekly
Britney Spears Steps Out For ‘X Factor’
It’s easy to see why Simon Cowell was eager to add Britney Spears to his panel of “The X Factor” judges.
The “Toxic” singer, 30, officially announced her participation in the show during the FOX Upfront event in New York on Monday. Spears slipped into a body-hugging, white minidress and Giuseppe Zanotti shoes to join Cowell, 52, L.A. Reid, 55, and new judge Demi Lovato, 19, on stage.
“I am so excited about this whole experience. It’s going to be so much fun and so different from anything I’ve ever done,” Spears told the crowd. “I’m ready to find the true star.”
Spears — engaged to Jason Trawick, 40, since December — changed into another sexy number backstage, opting for a purple Alexander Wang minidress. “I couldn’t be more excited to join The ‘X Factor’ judging panel. I’m a huge fan of the show and now I get to be a part of the action,” she told Us Weekly in a statement Monday. “Simon and L.A. better watch out!”
Also on display: Spears’ 3-carat Neil Lane engagement ring, worth an estimated $90,000!
Lovato, who recently dyed her hair blond, turned heads in a colorful design by Falguni & Shane Peacock. “I am totally stoked to be here,” she exclaimed. “I’m excited to represent my generation.”
Spears and Lovato have replaced former judges Paula Abdul, 49, and Nicole Scherzinger, 33, who were fired from “The X Factor” in January. Ex-host Steve Jones’ replacement has yet to be announced.
‘SNL’ cast shakeup
All good things must come to an end.
“Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels confirmed there will be casting changes on the show next season, but he’s not sure who will be leaving.
“I’m not really certain myself,” he told reporters during a conference call Wednesday on the casting changes. “I know there will be some. It’s just the nature of our work that no one talks about it until the season is done. Needless to say, I’d like everyone to stay.”
Two sources told US Weekly on April 4 that stars Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis will be leaving the show after this season.
“It will be a huge blow to the show,” one insider said. “Without Andy’s video shorts and Kristen saving every skit, they’ll need help!”
But there will be additions to the “SNL” cast. Lorne said “for sure” new cast members will be joining next season.
“Every summer we go out and make the rounds of Chicago, L.A. and New York, and various other places they do this kind of work. And that always leads to new people on the show,” he said. “We’ve always been about bringing new people in.”
Snooki: ‘I Would Die’ If My Baby Bump Looked Like Jessica Simpson’s
As expected, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi’s first child will be the hottest Guido or Guidette in town.
“My baby’s gonna be naturally tan,” the 24-year-old reality star told Us Weekly at the MTV Upfronts in New York on Thursday. “If you look at me and Jionni [LaValle], we’re very dark, so luckily the baby will be very dark.”
Polizzi’s “Jersey Shore” costar Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio joked that “she’ll have to wait until her baby is 2 or 3″ before she introduces her child to the second phase of GTL.
“Just like ‘Toddlers & Tiaras!’ They spray tan those babies,” Jenni “JWoww” Farley, 25, added. “I saw them do that!”
Polizzi then assured Us, “I won’t be spray tanning my baby.”
She will, however, be dressing her baby in typical Jersey fashions. “If it’s a girl, animal print everywhere and blinged out everything,” Polizzi said. “If it’s a boy, I would dress him like Pauly.”
Polizzi added that she hasn’t been wearing maternity clothes yet. “I’m so skinny that I can wear larges or extra larges. I only just bumped up to a medium,” she revealed. “I’m five months and you can’t really see anything. It’s gonna pop up in like a week.”
The pregnant star told Us that she’s afraid her baby bump will become as large as Jessica Simpson, who is due any day. “I would die if I were her size,” Polizzi laughed.
Joked DelVecchio, 31: “She’s like 45 months pregnant right now!”
TAMERA MOWRY PREGNANT WITH FIRST CHILD
From “Sister, Sister” to baby, baby!
Ten months after her twin sister, Tia, gave birth, Tamera Mowry and her husband, Adam Housley, are starting a family of their very own, a source tells Us Weekly. The two will become first-time parents this November.
Mowry confirmed the news to People, telling the magazine, “Adam and I are excited about having a baby and the blessing that he or she will bring to our lives and to our family and friends. “We can’t wait to meet this little miracle!”
Mowry wed Housley, a national and international correspondent for FOX News, on May 15, 2011, at the Vintage Estate in Yountville, Calif. Their nuptials were chronicled on the Style Network reality series “Tia & Tamera.”
Months after her nephew Cree’s June 28 birth, Tamera said having kids with Housley was likely a long way off.
“When my sister was pregnant, she told me everything that I needed to know about pregnancy, so I am not having kids anytime soon,” Tamera, 33, told Us in October 2011.
Tila Tequila In Rehab
Tila Tequila is finally getting the help she needs.
The petite reality star, 30, has decided to enter a rehabilitation facility later this week, E! News reports.
According to her rep, Tequila “has agreed to go into treatment … at Palm Partners in Florida. …That is all the info we want to give at this time.”
Her decision to seek help comes on the heels of a brain aneurysm that pals say almost killed her. Responding to a 911 call from her roommate, paramedics discovered she had suffered an aneurysm. The roommate claimed Tequila had overdosed on sleeping pills. (It isn’t clear, however, whether the aneurysm was related to the drugs Tequila ingested or if it was a separate, nearly simultaneous incident.)
Despite her recent health scares, Tequila’s manager says they’re optimistic about her recovery. Tequila, who left the hospital Monday, “is doing better,” her manager told Us Weekly in a statement. “We ask that her privacy is respected during this difficult time.”
Ashton’s show of support for Rumor Willis
He may no longer be Demi Moore’s husband, but Ashton Kutcher is still a father figure in the eyes of Rumer Willis, 23.
The Two and a Half Men star and a male friend arrived just before 12:30 a.m. Tuesday to support the aspiring singer during her performance at The Sayers Club in L.A. Wearing jeans, a white T-shirt and a red flannel knit, Kutcher “immediately joined Rumer’s large table,” an eyewitness tells Us Weekly. “Rumer seemed happy to see Ashton there, supporting her on her big night.”
The two chatted on the couch before Willis went backstage to prep for her mini-concert. Willis, who wore bright red lipstick to match her red nails, “didn’t say a word before taking the small stage,” the eyewitness says. “As she began singing, Ashton stood up and stood a bit closer to the stage so he had a clear and close view of Rumer.”
With the crowd cheering her on “non-stop,” Willis “looked confident and proud.” As she performed her second number, “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” Kutcher “smiled as he slowly bopped his head along to her song. He kept his arms crossed and never took his eyes off the stage,” the eyewitness says. “Ashton looked like a proud father. He was beaming!”
For her final song, Willis performed a cover of Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.”
“Alright, you guys,” Willis told the crowd. “I know you all know this one, so I want to hear the slow clap at first.”
“Ashton was swaying along and began whistling with his two fingers as she got into the song. Rumer nailed it! She sounded amazing — very soulful,” the eyewitness tells Us. “The crowd couldn’t stop cheering and clapping as she finished. Rumer had a huge smile and blushed as she took a small bow.”
Just before 1 a.m., Willis rejoined Kutcher and her friends at their table, where Kutcher “gave her a huge hug to congratulate her.”
“It was a very loving and genuine hug,” the eyewitness explains. “Ashton looked so proud and pleased to be supporting Rumer, and Rumer seemed so excited to have his support. They had a solid 10-second hug before Ashton got his guy friend and casually left through the back. He was strictly there to support Rumer.”
Happy Birthday Bobbi
It wasn’t a very happy birthday for Bobbi Kristina Brown on Sunday. The only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown turned 19 on March 4, just two weeks after the shocking death of her pop singer mom at age 48.
At her mom’s side in Los Angeles during her final days, the young woman was rushed to the hospital hours after her mother’s lifeless body was discovered in the bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Feb. 11. And on the day of an emotional three-and-a-half-hour funeral service for her mom Feb. 19 in Newark, N.J., Bobbi, who idolized her Grammy-winning mom, went missing.
“Bobbi is now with the family and going through the grieving process just with them,” a source explained to Us Weekly.
Another family insider adds that she and her maternal grandmother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, “have been getting along a bit better.”
Explains the second insider, “She really needs her own space right now to heal, and Cissy knows that.”
After many years apart, Bobbi and her grandmother are getting to know each other, the source says. “Cissy has a team of people helping her through this … right now. the goal is to make her feel special and loved.”
No Apologies
Spencer Pratt tried to make amends with Lauren Conrad on her 26th birthday via Twitter Wednesday, but the Paper Crown designer isn’t listening.
“Lauren has moved on way past the drama of the show,” a source close to Conrad tells Us Weekly. “She’s focusing on her career and barely has time to interact with the people she actually likes, so she’s not really going to get back in touch with Spencer or anything like that.”
The source adds that “in this case, like others, she’s going to continue to do what works best with Spencer and ignore him.”
Pratt, meanwhile, says he doesn’t “have a hatchet to bury” with his former co-star, who he frequently butted heads with on “The Hills.” (Pratt is the primary reason Conrad and former roommate Heidi Montag, 25, no longer speak.)
“I know we had our differences, but the fact is that Lauren was a big part of our lives, both personally and professionally, and after all this time, what point would there be in being angry?” Pratt, 28, tells Us. “I wish her nothing but the best in everything she does.”
Conrad, who flew to New York on business Thursday, doesn’t think Twitter is the appropriate place for Pratt to ask forgiveness.
“Lauren loves using Twitter to interact with her fans and promote her brands,” the source explains, “but obviously she doesn’t think it’s an effective way to apologize or try to mend bridges.”
‘Gossip Girl’ Star Kaylee DeFer Ends Engagement
“Gossip Girl” star Kaylee DeFer is no longer engaged to jewelry designer Mike Pereira, she tells Us Weekly exclusively.
“We just separated,” DeFer told Us while celebrating Gossip Girl’s 100th episode at Skylight Studios in NYC Thursday. “It’s OK. It really is.”
DeFer, who plays con artist Ivy Dickens on the CW soap, added: “I was engaged for a long time and this is me being single. I’m totally OK with it, so I’m spreading my love now.”
Despite their recent breakup, there are no hard feelings between DeFer and Pereira.
“I think sometimes you just realize it’s time to move on,” the 25-year-old actress explained. “It’s fine. Really.”
The Arizona native added that she won’t be spending Valentine’s Day solo, either.
“I’m going to sit down with a group of friends and make a bunch of old school Valentines like you did back in the day. We’ll send them out to all of these people from your past, present and people you want to get to know,” DeFer told Us. “Because who doesn’t want to have a Valentine on Valentine’s Day?”
The 100th episode of “Gossip Girl” airs Monday, Jan. 30, at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.
Oprah Is Not The Godmother
Blue Ivy Carter really is going to live her best life.
On Wednesday and Thursday, another rumor about Beyonce and Jay-Z’s infant daughter blazed the web: That the couple chose pal Oprah Winfrey to be Blue’s godmother.
When asked by Us Weekly about the story, a rep for Beyonce declined to comment. But Winfrey’s BFF Gayle King finally cleared things up Friday morning on CBS’ “The Early Show.”
“It’s absolutely not true that she’s the godmother,” King said. “She’s friends with them, of course, and likes them both very much. She’s working on sending them a baby gift. She hasn’t even had time to send a baby gift because she’s been away.”
She added, “Let me just say, if [that report is] true, it is news to her. It is news to her. You know, she was heading to South Africa when the baby was born.”
Before King debunked the story, Kathy Griffin joked about Beyonce’s famous pals. “R u fing kidding me??? Oprah is Blue Ivy’s godmother???” the comedienne tweeted Thursday. “Gwyneth must b PISSED.”
Beyonce, 30, and Jay-Z, 42, are close pals with Gwyneth Paltrow (she was among the first to tweet about Blue’s birth) and well as Winfrey, 57.
Hip-hop gossip site MediaTakeOut first reported the supposed news, adding that Jay-Z’s BFF Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith was named godfather.
Blue Ivy was born in New York on Jan. 7. “She is so beautiful,” Beyonce’s Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland recently gushed. The first-time mom has yet to emerge in public since giving birth.
