Gossip/Celebrity News

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"Raymond" star Heaton eyes daytime talk show

LOS ANGELES -Patricia Heaton could be the next sitcom star to host a daytime talk show.

Sources said the Emmy-winning co-star of "Everybody Loves Raymond" is in negotiations for a show targeted to launch in fall 2007. The project is described as being in the vein of ABC's daytime talker "The View," where Heaton would serve as one of multiple hosts, according to sources.

The project is being developed by Buena Vista Television, whose Disney corporate siblings Touchstone Television and ABC are already working with Heaton on an untitled comedy pilot being eyed for next season.

If the comedy and talk show were both to move forward, Heaton could follow in the footsteps of Kelly Ripa, who stars in the ABC comedy "Hope & Faith" and co-hosts Buena Vista's daytime talk show "Live With Regis and Kelly."

Megan Mullally, one of the stars of NBC's "Will & Grace," also is hosting a talk show that launches in the fall -- "The Megan Mullally Show" -- but her sitcom is ending this season.

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It's a Boy for Actor Chris O'Donnell

Actor Chris O'Donnell and his wife Caroline Fentress welcomed their fourth child, a boy, Thursday in Los Angeles.

The couple have not released a name. "Everybody is happy and healthy," says rep Leslie Sloane Zelnick.

The baby joins siblings Lily, 6, Chip, 5, and Charlie, 2. O'Donnell, 35, and Fentress, 33, married in 1997.

O'Donnell is best known for playing Robin in 1995's Batman Forever. He also starred opposite Oscar winner Al Pacino in 1992's Scent of a Woman.

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Olympian Johnny Moseley Marries

Olympic gold medal skier Jonny Moseley, who took the prize in freestyle skiing in the 1998 Olympics, married his longtime girlfriend and business manager Malia Rich on Saturday, in Telluride, Colo., PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

The two exchanged vows in front of 130 guests at a non-denominational church service, followed by a reception at a private mountaintop resort. The bride wore a dress by Monique Lhuillier.

"We feel so fortunate to have our friends and family here with us as we celebrate and create many lasting memories," Moseley told PEOPLE.

This is the first marriage for both Moseley, 30, and Rich, 29, who met in high school. The couple started dating five years ago and got engaged on April 20, 2003.

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Spanish singer Rocio Durcal dies aged 61

MADRID - Spanish actress and singer Rocio Durcal, who found fame as one of Mexico's most popular folk singers, has died following a long battle against cancer, her family said on Sunday.

Durcal, born Maria de los Angeles de las Heras Ortiz, became a star with a string of films in the 1960s and start of the 1970s, such as "Song of Youth" and "The Most Beautiful."

However she made her big breakthrough in Latin America, and in particular Mexico, during the 1980s for her albums of Mexican folk-music known as 'ranchera'.

Durcal was known as 'the most Mexican Spaniard' and sold some 40 million records around the world, later recording duets with some the Latin world's biggest stars, such as Julio Iglesias and Ricky Martin.

"I think I'm made of different stuff," Durcal told the Spanish Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers after learning she had cancer. "One thing you can say is that I'm not frightened of anything."

Durcal died in her home city of Madrid on Saturday after a five-year fight against cancer of the womb. She was 61.

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Ray Romano: I Miss Raymond

Ray Romano, who is reprising his role as a wooly mammoth for Ice Age: The Meltdown, says he had a bit of meltdown of his own after ending the nine-year run of Everybody Loves Raymond.

"It's weird. It was hard. It's hard," he said of his post Raymond career. "All of a sudden I had all this free time and I was excited, but then after about three or four months it's like you lost a family member…There's a sense of loss."

Moreover, Romano, at 48, says he wasn't prepared for the mourning period. Fortunately, he says, others were. "My therapist – I'm not kidding – I go see this guy when the show was ending, and I was stupid and happy, and he goes, 'Do you want to start coming twice a week?' I said, 'Well, what do you mean? What do you see that I don't see?' But he was right."

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Star Talks About Her Surgery

Phoning her cohosts on The View over live TV Monday morning, Star Jones Reynolds assured Meredith Vieira, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck that, contrary to tabloid reports about her recent hospital stay, "I did not almost die."

"I had a boob lift," she said. "I thought it would be nice to call you guys this morning and keep you abreast of the situation." She also admitted she'd gotten implants because she wanted her breasts to be "perky."

Asked why she underwent the elective procedures, Jones Reynolds, 44, explained that she needed the change following her recent 150-lbs. weight loss. "And do you know how hard it is to explain to your 87-year-old grandmother what a breast lift is?"

Her colleagues weren't so sure themselves. "Will we be able to touch them?" Hasselbeck asked. Jones Reynolds replied, "Elisabeth, you are such a freak." But, she added, "You'll be able to see them. … They're just normal boobs. It's not that I went and got triple Ds."

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Jessica Switches Homes – for Her Music

Jessica Simpson has a new nest when it comes to making music. Currently working on a successor to her 2003 CD In This Skin, the Dukes of Hazzard star is switching from Columbia to Epic Records after a six-year-run at her first label.

"I love all my friends and supporters at Columbia. I will miss them as I start this new relationship," Simpson, 25, tells Billboard magazine.

Referring to Epic's new president Charlie Walk, who formerly oversaw marketing at Columbia, as the one she trusts most "to present my new music to the world," Simpson says: "Charlie Walk was my first hero at Columbia. He believed in me before I really even got to meet the rest of the company."

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Bon Jovi's Sambora Breaks His Arm

Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was treated for a broken left arm after a fall at home in Los Angeles last week, his rep tells PEOPLE.

Sambora's arm is in a sling, but he will still perform when Bon Jovi begins the Japanese stadium leg of their "Have A Nice Day" World Tour on April 8th and will be fully recovered by the time the band's European swing begins in May.

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Prince tops US charts for first time in 17 years

Innovative funk rocker Prince scored his first No. 1 album on the U.S. pop charts in almost 17 years with his latest release, "3121," his record label said on Wednesday.

The album sold 183,000 copies in the week ended last Sunday, and also ranked as his first release to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, according to a statement from Universal Records.

Prince, 47, last topped the charts in 1989 with the soundtrack to the "Batman" movie, and also reached No. 1 in 1985 with "Around the World in a Day" and in 1984 with "Purple Rain." At that time, albums usually worked their way up the charts, based on the educated guesswork of the compilers.

Since 1991, the charts have been calculated with more accurate point-of-sale data collected by Nielsen SoundScan, and it is more common for albums to debut at No. 1.

Prince lost his commercial touch in the 1990s, but he has started to recover some of his glory in recent years. On the heels of his 2004 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he launched a successful tour and released an album, "Musicology," that debuted at No. 3 in April 2004 with sales of 191,000 copies.

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Paula Abdul agrees to three more years of "Idol"

Bubbly "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul has signed on for three more years as the counterpoint to brutally honest Simon Cowell on TV's hottest show, the Fox network said on Wednesday.

Abdul, a Grammy-winning singer and dancer and the show's lone female judge, has become a fan favorite for her effusive, sometimes fawning praise of show's aspiring stars in the face of bad boy Cowell's punishing critiques.

"Paula's warm and nurturing nature is vital to the balance of the show," Fox spokesman Mike Darnell said of Abdul, who is expected to join Cowell and judge Randy Jackson for the duration of her new contract.

"We are thrilled to have her alongside -- or actually in between -- Randy and Simon," Darnell said in a written statement.

The announcement comes less than a year after an internal investigation by Fox found no evidence to support claims by a former "Idol" contestant Corey Clark that he had a sexual affair with Abdul, 43, and that she coached him privately.

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Matt LeBlanc, Wife Melissa Split

Former Friends star Matt LeBlanc, 38, and his wife, Melissa, 41, are divorcing, the couple announced Thursday.

"Melissa and Matt LeBlanc have decided to end their marriage of three years," the actor's rep, Joe Libonati, said in a statement. "The dissolution is amicable. They remain devoted parents and friends. For the sake of their family, they ask that their privacy be respected at this time."

According to legal documents filed by LeBlanc, the actor is seeking “dissolution of marriage” based on “irreconcilable differences.” He lists the couple's date of separation at Jan. 1, 2006, and requests joint legal custody of their 2-year-old daughter, Marina.

Melissa, a former model, has two other children from a previous marriage.

The pair were originally introduced in 1997 by actor Lou Diamond Phillips and his wife, Kelly. After a five-year engagement, Matt and Melissa were married on May 3, 2003, in Hawaii in front of 75 guests that included former costars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow.

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Naomi Campbell Charged with Assault

Naomi Campbell was arraigned Thursday evening on second-degree assault charges for allegedly hitting her housekeeper with a phone.

At Manhattan criminal court, prosecutors charged that Campbell, 35, was preparing for an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show when she accused her housekeeper of taking a pair of jeans. Campbell then allegedly threw a cell phone at the woman's head, causing lacerations that required four stitches.

Campbell pleaded not guilty, and the housekeeper was granted an order of protection against the model. Judge Richard Weinberg denied a request that Campbell be forced to surrender her passport, since she is set to fly to South Africa tomorrow to appear at a benefit as a guest of Nelson Mandela.

Judge Weinberg also denied prosecutors' request for bail and released Campbell on her own recognizance. She will face a grand jury hearing on June 27.

Earlier on Thursday, the victim, identified only as a 41-year-old woman, named Campbell as her attacker when she spoke to police, who said the alleged incident occurred in Campbell's Park Avenue apartment around 8 a.m. on Thursday.

Campbell was taken into custody shortly after police responded to Lenox Hill Hospital to investigate what was described as an altercation, according to authorities. She was charged after questioning at the Midtown North Precinct.

Her lawyer, David Breitbart, told reporters, "When I left her at the station she was great, in a great frame of mind and thrilled at the way the NYPD had treated her."

In a statement, Campbell spokesman J.R. Johnson said, "We believe this is a case of retaliation, because Naomi had fired her housekeeper earlier this morning. We are confident the courts will see it the same way."

Upon entering a New York City courthouse for her arraignment Thursday evening, Campbell told reporters, "I'm fine. The police have been very nice. It wouldn't be the first time I've been extorted."

The London-born Campbell was sued in 2003 by a former assistant who alleged that the supermodel had thrown a phone at her during a tantrum in a Beverly Hills hotel in 2001. The aide also claimed Campbell grabbed her by the arms and threw her down on a couch.

In another incident, in February 2000, Campbell pleaded guilty in Toronto to an assault charge for beating an assistant during the making of a 1998 movie.

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Nicole & Keith Get Serious

She may be an Oscar winner, but Nicole Kidman has embraced the role of being her boyfriend Keith Urban's No. 1 groupie with gusto.

As her country rocker beau kicked off a surprise gig at Nashville’s Lipscomb University last month, Kidman was “just cheering like a fan,” a concertgoer tells PEOPLE in its new issue.

The actress has also embraced a surprisingly sedate life with the singer in Music City. The fellow Aussies, both 38, are now as much of a Nashville staple as the Grand Ole Opry – nesting at Urban’s mansion in the posh Green Hills neighborhood, dining out with neighbor LeAnn Rimes, flashing that whopping diamond ring of Kidman's all over town. (An engagement ring? The couple still won't say, though Kidman has been wearing it on her ring finger since November.)

Pals say there's no doubt Kidman and Urban are deeply in love. "They seem great together," says a source close to Kidman. "Real love just happens. You don't plan it. And that's what happened with them. They fell in love."

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Tori Separates Fact from Fiction

In the new VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous, Tori Spelling plays a fictional version of (wait for it . . . ) Tori Spelling. Tori-watchers will recognize this character as the Beverly Hills, 90210 star who grew up in a mansion complete with at least one gift-wrapping room.

But there are some differences: The faux Tori is single, while the real Tori is engaged to actor Dean McDermott, her boyfriend of seven months. To separate more fact from fiction, Spelling, 32, sat down with PEOPLE's Ulrica Wihlborg.

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Russell, Kimora Lee Simmons Split

Rap mogul Russell Simmons and his wife Kimora Lee Simmons are splitting, a rep for Kimora confirms to PEOPLE.

Russell issued his own statement Friday afternoon, saying: "Kimora and I will remain committed parents and caring friends with great love and admiration for each other. We will also continue to work side by side on a daily basis as partners in all of our businesses."

The statement also says the couple have been separated "for some time," but have continued living under the same roof.

Russell, 48, and Kimora, 30, married in 1998 and have two daughters: Ming Lee Simmons, 6, and Aoki Lee Simmons, 3. Both girls model for Baby Phat Clothing, Kimora's offshoot of her husband's Phat Farm clothing line.