Gossip/Celebrity News

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Desperate Housewives' Dougray Scott Engaged

Desperate Housewives actor Dougray Scott is engaged to actress Claire Forlani, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

Scott proposed to Forlani last month in Los Angeles. "It was very romantic," Scott, who presented Forlani with a ring he designed, tells PEOPLE. "I feel so lucky to have met her. She's an amazing actress and human being. I'm very happy."

The couple met 10 months ago through a mutual friend. Rumors of a romance between Scott, 40, and Forlani, 35, have been swirling since the summer. In July, they shared a romantic dinner at L.A.'s Chateau Marmont, and they also had been spotted holding hands on the Universal Studios lot.

Scott debuted as Teri Hatcher's love interest on this season's Housewives. Next up for the Scottish actor, who also starred in Mission: Impossible II, is the World War II movie The Cone Gatherer with Emily Watson.

Forlani has a recurring role on CSI: New York. She's also appeared in numerous films including Mallrats and Meet Joe Black.

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Brody Jenner & Lauren Conrad: An Item

Brody Jenner and The Hills star Lauren "L.C." Conrad are "seeing each other," Jenner tells PEOPLE.

"I don't know what you consider dating, but we're seeing each other, we're having a great time with it," Jenner tells PEOPLE. "She's an amazing girl. That's all there is to say. She's fun to be around. She's sweet. She's kind. There's nothing bad to say about her."

There had been speculation about a romance between the pair, who arrived together at Wednesday's Rock & Republic fashion show at the West Hollywood club Area. Last week they were spotted twice at Hollywood hot spot Les Deux, where an observer said they looked "very cozy."

Conrad, however, was coy about her relationship with Jenner, saying only, "He's a nice guy."

Earlier this month, Jenner split up with Nicole Richie, whom he'd been dating since August. They began seeing each other just weeks after Jenner, 23, ended his year-and-a-half relationship with Laguna Beach star Kristin Cavallari. (Conrad also starred on Laguna Beach.)

Asked if he's still in contact with Richie, Jenner tells PEOPLE: "Yeah, of course. Me and Nicole remain good friends. Nothing will change that."

Jenner, a Guess model who starred in The Princes of Malibu, and Richie have known each other since they were toddlers.

Conrad split from her fellow Laguna Beach alum Jason Wahler in August.

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Deadwood's Molly Parker Has a Boy

Deadwood actress Molly Parker and her husband, Matt Bissonnette, have welcomed their first child, son William Strummer Bissonnette, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

William, who was born last Friday in Los Angeles, weighed in at 8 lbs. and 12 oz.

"Both mother and son are doing well," Parker's publicist tells PEOPLE.

Parker, 34, plays Deadwood's Alma Garret, a New York society woman who reinvents herself in a 19th-century South Dakota town. Recently she co-starred with Ben Affleck and Diane Lane in Hollywoodland.

Up next for the actress: her husband directs her in the upcoming drama, Who Loves the Sun.

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Urban enters rehab for alcohol abuse

Keith Urban has checked himself into a rehabilitation treatment center for alcohol abuse, less than four months after his marriage to actress Nicole Kidman.

The Grammy-winning country singer released a statement Friday that said he entered rehab Thursday night with his wife by his side. His publicist would not give the location of the rehab center.

"I deeply regret the hurt this has caused Nicole and the ones that love and support me," Urban said in the statement.

Urban, who turns 39 on Oct. 26, has publicly acknowledged a former addiction to cocaine.

"One can never let one's guard down on recovery, and I'm afraid that I have," the statement read.

Urban's new CD, "Love, Pain, & the whole crazy thing," will be released Nov. 7 as scheduled, but he will postpone all upcoming promotional appearances.

Urban will also likely cancel a scheduled appearance on the Country Music Association awards next month, the publicist said.

Kidman and Urban, who were both raised in Australia, married on June 25 in Sydney. They then moved to Nashville, where Urban records.

Urban won a Grammy this year for best male country vocalist for "You'll Think of Me," and was named top male vocalist for the second year in a row by the Academy of Country Music.

A Country Weekly magazine reader poll this year named him country music's sexiest man.

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Hollywood Wax Museum founder Singh dies

Spoony Singh, who once said he founded the world famous Hollywood Wax Museum to give tourists who couldn't find any real celebrities in Hollywood the next best thing, has died. He was 83.

Singh died Wednesday at his Malibu home of congestive heart failure, his family announced Friday.

It was while touring Hollywood looking for famous faces in 1964 that Singh thought of the museum. The closest he came to spotting a celebrity was seeing stars' footprints in the courtyard of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

"So, I thought, let's bring the stars back to Hollywood Boulevard. Let's allow people to get close and look into the eyes of their favorite entertainers," he recalled years later. "Believe me, I didn't know if it would even work."

People lined up for half a mile waiting to get in when the museum opened on Feb. 26, 1965.

The nearly 200 figures of Hollywood stars have changed over the years as their fame has ebbed and flowed. Marilyn Monroe, however, has remained a perennial favorite.

Singh, who handed over day-to-day operation of the museum to family members in 1990, shrugged off critics who called the museum cheesy over the years.

"Look, I know other museums are more stately and artistic," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1970. "But on Hollywood Boulevard, dignity kind of gets lost in the shuffle."

Singh helped develop the Hollywood Guinness World Records Museum, which opened in 1991, and another Hollywood Wax Museum, which opened in Branson, Mo., in 1996.

Singh was born in Punjab, India, in 1922, and moved to Canada with his family at age 3. He operated saw mills and an amusement park in Victoria, British Columbia, when he paid his fateful 1964 visit to Hollywood.

Singh, whose given name was Spoony Singh Sundher, is survived by his wife of 63 years, Chanchil, six children and 11 grandchildren.

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"House of Wax" actress Phyllis K i r k

Actress Phyllis K i r k, famous for her role as the damsel in distress in the 1953 3-D horror classic "House of Wax," has died at age 79, her former publicist said on Saturday.

K i r k died on Friday from a post-cerebral aneurysm at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, publicist Dale Olson said.

Early in her career, the wide-eyed, sultry-voiced actress appeared in several Broadway plays.

After moving to Hollywood, she took on numerous television and film roles through the 1950s, including "House of Wax," where she was stalked by Vincent Price.

She is also well-known for her role as Nora Charles in the late 1950s television series "The Thin Man," with Peter Lawford playing her husband.

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Springfield aiding girl's cancer fight

Rick Springfield will perform a concert in southeast Missouri to help raise money for a 12-year-old girl's fight against brain-stem cancer.

The pop singer, whose string of hits in the 1980s included "Jessie's Girl," will perform Dec. 8 at the Show Me Center, center officials and Springfield's management firm, Doyle-*** Entertainment, said Thursday.

Proceeds will benefit Sahara Aldridge of Cape Girardeau, who was diagnosed with the disease this summer. Springfield is a longtime friend of Sahara's family.

When he learned of her cancer, Springfield began using his Web site to encourage fans to support the Aldridge family spiritually and financially.

"He is one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet," Sahara's mother, Amy, said. "He considers Sahara the daughter he never had."

Since her diagnosis, Sahara has spent most of her time receiving treatment at the Children's Hospital at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Amy Aldridge said Sahara has shown steady progress. The tumor's growth has been stopped, and Sahara has regained some of the motor skills the tumor interfered with.

Last week, Sahara came home for the first time in months and attended two benefit events that raised more than $20,000 to pay for travel and medical expenses.

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Oprah heralds N.C. black women's school

Oprah Winfrey headlined a fundraiser at a private college for black women, encouraging about 300 guests to support education and give back to their community.

"You can't continue to move forward unless you give back what you are given," Winfrey said Friday. "It is our calling."

The famed talk-show host spoke at Bennett College, which is in the midst of a $50 million fundraising campaign co-chaired by poet and novelist Maya Angelou, a close friend of Winfrey, and former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

Angelou, who sits on the school's board of trustees, and gospel singer Shirley Caesar, a native of Durham, also attended the gala.

Winfrey said she limits her speaking engagements to events that "really matter" and decided to visit the central North Carolina school because "Bennett really matters."

"It is important that this institution continues to thrive," Winfrey said, "and offer opportunities for women in this country and around the world."

She spoke about the importance of education, touting the college's renewal, and about the leadership academy she founded for girls in South Africa.

The gala was part of college president Johnnetta Cole's plans to leave office after five years with the school on a firm financial footing.

Bennett was running a $2 million budget deficit and was on academic probation when Cole, the former president of Atlanta's Spelman College, took over in 2002.

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Ford says he's fit to play Indiana Jones

Harrison Ford says he feels "fit to continue" to play Indiana Jones despite growing older. Ford, 64, said at the inaugural Rome Film Festival on Friday that he was delighted to team up again with directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for the film. Lucas co-wrote and executive produced the earlier films, which Spielberg directed.

"We did three films that stay within the same block of time. We need to move on for artistic reasons and obvious physical reasons," Ford said at a news conference. "I feel fit to continue and bring the same physical action."

"Indiana Jones 4" has been in development for over a decade, but the production has recently gained momentum. Lucas has said he and Spielberg, who would direct, are working on a script, though no details have been disclosed.

Ford played Indiana Jones in 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1984's "Temple of Doom" and 1989's "The Last Crusade." In the last film, Jones' father was played by Sean Connery, who Ford said might also appear in the planned fourth feature.

"He's part of the emotional fabric of these films. I think there may be an opportunity, I believe that Sean is still willing and I'd be delighted if he joined us," said Ford.

Connery, who attended the Rome event last week, has said that no offer had been made.

Ford declined to provide details about a shooting schedule or film locations, adding that the directors were not yet finished with the script.

"I think it's a real opportunity to make a film as successful ... as the ones we've made before," he said.

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