Gossip/Celebrity News

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Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Wife Have a Girl

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, 32, and wife Lisa, 34, welcomed their second child, daughter Ava Lorenn, at noon on Sunday in Los Angeles, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

"Mother, daughter and family are all well," says rep Ame Van Iden.

Gosselaar, a star of ABC's Commander in Chief, and Lisa also have a son, Michael Charles, 2.

The couple met when Lisa had a small role on Saved by the Bell, the show that made Gosselaar famous. They married in 1996.

Gosselaar, a former child star who began modeling at age 5 and hit it big on Bell in 1989, also starred on NYPD Blue.

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Nicole Kidman: I Still Love Tom

Despite splitting from Tom Cruise five years ago, Nicole Kidman says that she still considers their 2001 divorce a "major shock" – and confesses that she still loves her ex.

"To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him." Kidman, 38, tells the Ladies' Home Journal in a new interview, in which she also reveals a certain premonition about something dire being about to happen.

"I always knew the rug was going to be taken out from underneath me at some stage," says Kidman. "I didn't think it was going to happen in the way it happened. I had seen my mother battle breast cancer, so I had a fear of my health being jeopardized – that was really where I was thinking mine would come.

After 10 years of marriage and adopting two children together – Isabella, now 13, and Connor, 11 – Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001, citing irreconcilable differences.

"I knew I was going to get hit with something," says Kidman, who stars in the upcoming Fur (about photographer Diane Arbus). "But I think a divorce, and the demise of what your family is, is a little death in itself."

Of her relationship with her children, Kidman says: "I feel enormous love for whoever my children's birth parents are. And if my children choose to go find them at some stage, I can't wait. Because – it's the weirdest thing – I actually feel (they're) very connected to us as a big, strange family, and whether they choose to search for them or not, who knows."

Cruise, who currently stars in Mission: Impossible III, recently welcomed his first child with his fiancée, Katie Holmes – a daughter named Suri. Kidman, meanwhile, has been keeping company with country singer Keith Urban.

"I'm pretty careful about who I share my life with," she says. "I surround myself with truthful, kind people, most of whom are not in the business. It's the life I want to have when I'm an old woman with long, gray hair."

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Idol Winner Carrie Underwood Graduates

Making good on her vow to go back and finish school, last year's American Idol winner Carrie Underwood is now a college graduate.

The country singer, 23, graduated magna cum laude, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern State University on Saturday, reports the Associated Press.

Underwood was among 1,800 students who walked across the stage at Jack Dobbins to claim their degree from university President Larry Williams.

Shortly before her victory on the FOX talent hunt a year ago, Underwood (who withdrew from school just three credits shy of graduating) told PEOPLE she planned to finish her Northeastern journalism degree – at some point.

"This is my time to see the world," vowed the native of Checotah, in eastern Oklahoma (pop. about 3,800). "Home will be there when I get back."

And back she went, majoring in mass communications with an emphasis in journalism.

Already under the new grad's belt are hits that include "Jesus, Take the Wheel," the video which won her two Country Music Television video awards in April. The song also won a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association last month.

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Lindsay on Her Life: 'Everything's Fine'

Lindsay Lohan found herself in the hot seat on Monday's Today show, facing a grilling from interviewer Matt Lauer – who introduced the 19-year old actress by saying she's "known these days as much for her night life as she is for her day job."

Lohan, who stars in the upcoming Just My Luck and A Prairie Home Companion, met his questions head on, though she did take issue when Lauer brought up a recent Vanity Fair cover story that suggested she had a problem with substance abuse. "Everything's fine," said Lohan waving off the remark.

Yet concerning what Lauer called the general "package of publicity" that has surrounded her, Lohan said: "What you read about is what you read about, and the only people who really matter to me – their point of view in my life – is my family and the people who work closely with me who I trust and admire and will continue to have in my life."

Regarding reports about her, she said, "There always are so many false accusations in those tabloids, and they manifest all these relationships and stories, yada yada. I just laugh it off."

Stressing that she's "not complaining," Lohan did reply, when asked if she finds it difficult to be her: "It's not that it's harder for me, but I work harder than most of my friends' parents, I think. I'm the hardest working person I know."

Still, she emphasized, she'd have it no other way "Hopefully," she said philosophically, "people will know me for my work – not my car accidents."

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Britney Spears Is Pregnant Again

Britney Spears is expecting her second child, she told David Letterman during a surprise visit to his Late Show on Tuesday.

"Don't worry, Dave, it's not yours," the singer joked.

"Oh. Well, I think that's good news for both of us," Letterman responded.

Spears, who walked out onstage unannounced after a commercial break (and then read off the evening's Top 10 List), gave no details about herself, including her due date. She also never mentioned her husband, Kevin Federline – though earlier in the program Letterman and bandleader Paul Shaffer made a wisecrack about him.

"I think that K-Fed is, you know, would have to be getting awful busy at a quick rate," to be expecting another child, said Shaffer.

"Well, what else does he have to do?" Letterman quipped.

After Spears came out, she said of their banter: "I liked the whole prep. It was cool I think you did a very good job."

"So, we've established now that you are, in fact, pregnant, is that right?" asked Letterman.

"Yes sir," Spears replied.

Spears’s appearance was a last-minute arrangment that came about after the singer’s rep called and "said (Britney) wanted to be on the show and this is what she'd announce," a Late Show insider told PEOPLE. "We were psyched."

Spears, 24, and Federline, 28, already have a son, Sean Preston, who was born in September of last year. For Federline, this will be his fourth child. He already has a daughter Kori, 3, and son Kaleb, 1, with actress Shar Jackson.

Of the anticipated addition to the family, "Kevin would love another little girl," a pal tells PEOPLE.

Spears wed Federline in September 2004, and the pair began talking about starting a family soon after. "I can see myself as a mom. Next year at 23, I am so there," she told PEOPLE shortly after the wedding. Just four days short of the couple's first wedding anniversary, she had accomplished that goal.

As for her career, Spears told PEOPLE in February, "I'm going to (get back to work), but I'm going to do it with definite balance for my baby because I want him to have the best of both worlds."

Spears, who lives with Federline and "Sean P" in their newly remodeled home in Malibu, calls motherhood "such an intense experience." Of her domestic life out of the spotlight, she added: "I'm happy. I'm very blessed. I have a beautiful home, a wonderful family, supportive, loving people around me. I have a great life.

Recently, she briefly returned to the spotlight by making a guest appearance on Will & Grace.

Meanwhile, Federline is following in his wife's footsteps: His debut album Playing with Fire is scheduled for release in August.

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Cruise's Daughter Said Don't Let Katie Go

Tom Cruise didn't just blindly take up with Katie Holmes – he had the approval of his 13-year-old daughter, Isabella.
After I began dating Kate, Bella looked at me and said, 'Don't let this one go. She's the one,'" Cruise tells Good Housekeeping magazine in its June cover story. (The issue goes on sale May 16.)

Not that the Mission: Impossible III star couldn't sense Holmes's attraction for himself. He says, "I knew almost as soon as I met her. I thought, ‘I'm going to be with this woman.’ And then after a couple of hours, I thought, ‘I'm going to marry this woman.’ I just knew."

Cruise, 43, also says that he didn't think that either one of his previous wives – Mimi Rogers, to whom he was married from 1987-90, or Nicole Kidman, 1990-2001, with whom he adopted Isabella and Connor, now 11 – would mind his being so public about his love for Holmes, 27.

"I mean, look, they're ex-wives," he reasons, adding: "But the happiness I'm feeling, that's absolutely what I wish for them. I really do."

He says he and Holmes haven't married yet because when she got pregnant he was so busy with M:I3, "and neither one of us felt like, Hey, let's just get married." He also says they need some time to make sure the ceremony and celebration will "be something special."

Besides, he says, "in many ways, we feel like we already are married. I know I'm with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. So the wedding – that's just the party."

He similarly looks forward to his 3-week-old daughter Suri's attendance at the ceremony: "It's going to be really special to have our new baby there."

Cruise doesn’t shy away from some of the debate that surrounds him. Of his fervid stance against anti-depressants, based on his beliefs in Scientology, he tells Good Housekeeping: "I know this is controversial. And people don't have to listen to me. But they should find out about this for themselves. I really do care about people, and I care about the way that lives are being harmed by these drugs."

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Lance's Ex Felt Smothered by Marriage

Lance Armstrong's ex-wife, Kristin Richard, revealed to Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday that the road she shared with the Tour de France record holder was far from smooth.

Although the 1999-2003 marriage produced three children before it ended in divorce, the union also left Richard feeling "smothered," and turned her from an opinionated career person into a "yes" woman, Richard, 34, said on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

"You and Lance looked like you had it all," said Winfrey, noting that Richard was swept off her feet by the stellar athlete, married him, had three children quickly and moved to the French Riviera. Richard, however, said that her role was strictly to cheer on Armstrong, prompting Winfrey to advise women not to make the same mistake.

"It wasn't Lance saying, 'You should be like this' or 'Do this.' It wasn't him making a mandate and me being a mouse. It was me trying to emulate whatever I thought would be the perfect wife or the perfect mother," said Richard, promoting an article she's written for the April Glamour magazine titled "What I Wish I Had Known About Marriage."

"We think we're trying to please somebody for the sake of our marriage, but then if you ask Lance today if he appreciated that, I think he would probably say, 'Well, that wasn't the woman that I fell in love with,'" added Richard.

As for first meeting Armstrong she said: "He had just finished up his chemotherapy. He was bald and cute." But once they were married she surrendered her job and her dog, as well as her independence, said Richard, who admitted also to being blinded by the huge diamond ring Armstrong gave her when they got engaged.

"I paid more attention to the rock on my left hand than to preparing myself for the journey ahead," Richard wrote in the article, which Winfrey said reduced her to tears. "This is why I never got married," said Winfrey. "I just wanted to always be myself."

Richard characterized her current relationship with her ex-husband as "good" – though "it's taken work and effort," she said.

As for her own life now, "I love God, my family, my friends, red wine, fireworks, going for a long, sweaty run, laughing until no sound comes out and taking my time," she said.

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Ashlee Laughs Off Nose Job Talk

When it comes to discussing the state of her profile, Ashlee Simpson's policy is don't ask, don't tell. But giggling is fine.

Asked about the widespread speculation – on the Web and in tabloids – that's she's had a nose job, the 21-year-old singer giggled and told the Associated Press: "Everybody's already saying it, so I just don't talk about it. I'm like, okay, whatever. It doesn't bother me."

Yet when the news service tried to put her nose to the grindstone and get her to confirm or deny the rumor, Simpson did neither – she just giggled more.

"Maybe," she said. "Who knows!"

Yet, a source tells PEOPLE that part of her new long-and-blonde look is, indeed, a nipped-and-tucked nose.
Simpson – the younger sister of Jessica – was more forthcoming about her love life to Teen People, for which she serves as the June/July cover girl. Discussing her boyfriend, Braxton Olita, the 20-year-old Hawaii native who plays guitar in her band, she said they were just friends before their relationship turned romantic.

"He's the yin to my yang; people call him my 'Little Buddha,'" she says. "When he comes around, everything changes. Braxton has taught me a lot."

Simpson, whose latest album is I Am Me, kicked off her summer tour last weekend in West Palm Beach, Fla.

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Idol Stunner: Chris Daughtry Dropped

In a shocking turn, American Idol frontrunner Chris Daughtry was voted off the show Wednesday night.

As the audience gasped and shouted no, host Ryan Seacrest asked a shell-shocked-looking Daughtry, "Surprised?" "A little bit," he answered.

Judge Paula Abdul grew tearful. The other contestants – Elliott Yamin, Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks – also looked stunned.

Tuesday night, Daughtry's rendition of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" drew unanimous praise from the three judges, prompting Abdul to tell the 26-year-old from McLeansville, N.C.,: "See ya in the finals."
Cowell was his usual self when it came to assessing Daughtry's second song, "A Little Less Conversation," however. Simon Cowell considered it "flat" and "not as good as the first."

Still, before the booted contestant was revealed on Wednesday, Simon said McPhee should be the one to go.

On Tuesday, McPhee, 21, forgot the words to one of her Elvis songs prompting Simon to say: "It hasn't been one of your best nights," said Cowell.

The finalist will be named May 24.

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Vince Muses About Future with Jen

Playing on the tabloid rumor that Oprah Winfrey was going to throw an $8 million wedding for Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, the comic-actor thanked the talk-show queen on Wednesday for her "very nice gesture" and noted, "I'm expecting a pretty good band for $8 million."

Even though Aniston and Winfrey shot down the report about the expensive wedding last month, Winfrey told Vaughn on her program Wednesday: "One of the things I asked Jennifer is, will $8 million be enough?"

"Yeah", said Vaughn, rolling his eyes for comic effect. "Come on."

As for living with such rumors since being linked to Aniston, Vaughn shrugged and said: "I just don’t pay much attention to that stuff. I find it to be really ridiculous."

Still, for the record, Vaughn and Aniston do not intend to walk down the aisle soon, he said. But he did say of Aniston, who costars with him in the new romantic comedy The Break Up, "Jennifer's great. She's one of my favorite people."

"She's one of mine, too," interjected Winfrey.

"She's just really smart and funny and easy to be with – very considerate," persisted Vaughn. "She's great."

When asked about starting a family Vaughn said he'd like to have children "at some point" – just not quite yet. "I think (having children) takes a lot of focus, takes a lot of attention. I think it would be nice at some point to have a different priority … I think that time would come. But not any time in the near future for me."

And, just in case anyone is wondering: "No, I have not talked about having kids with Jennifer," he said. "First we have to have the $8 million wedding."

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Idol's Chris: Getting Cut Was 'Gut Wrenching'

It wasn't only the audience that was stunned by rocker Chris Daughtry's exit from American Idol on Wednesday: Chris himself was "shocked."
It was definitely a gut-wrenching moment," he said Thursday. "I wasn't expecting it, not even a little bit."

If fact, the singer said he thought Ryan Seacrest, who abruptly announced that Daughtry had been cut, was kidding. "I thought he was building it up to be like people thought I was going home and then say, 'Chris you can sit down.' I thought there was going to be some sort of 'just kidding' factor there."

After receiving so much praise from the judges and fans during the competition, Daughtry said it's hard to imagine not being the next American Idol.

"It's weird because you have all these people telling you for weeks now, 'Oh man you're gonna win this thing. You're gonna win this thing. This is your thing to win. ' And when you have so many people telling you that, you automatically assume this is what American wants."

Asked why he thought he got cut, Daughtry said, "The only thing I can think of is maybe everybody just thought I was shoo-in and didn't vote."

The Idol judges – and the other finalists – were also taken aback by the news, said Daughtry. "Everyone was pretty much speechless. Randy was saying, 'Don't worry about it man you're gonna be fine.' Paula was crying too much to really say anything. And Simon was pretty shocked. He said he didn't see this coming and he just wished me the best of luck."

The luck has already started. The band Fuel has offered him a spot as their frontman. They first hinted that they were eyeing Daughtry in March when the group's Web site said they were looking for a singer and liked his performing style.

"He's perfect for Fuel. He has the right voice, the right look. It would be perfect," the band's manager, Paul Geary, told PEOPLE on Thursday.

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No Baby Blues for Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields, who suffered from severe postpartum depression after the birth of her first child, was concerned that she’d be in the same state after the arrival of her second daughter – but this time around has been "nothing like the first one," Shields tells PEOPLE.

Since Grier Hammond Henchy's April 18 arrival, the only discomfort Shields has felt is the pain from her C-section incision. Although she was prepared to ask for another prescription of Paxil, the antidepressant that helped her recover with daughter Rowan, now 3, she didn't need it this time.

"I was like, 'You know what? I think I'm okay now,'" she said to her doctor, PEOPLE reports in its upcoming issue.

This should come as good news to Tom Cruise, who admonished the actress last year for taking antidepressants. Speaking of Cruise, although Shields and Katie Holmes gave birth on the same day, on the same floor, of the same hospital, at first Shields wasn't even aware that there was another celebrity down the hall.

"Basically, I was being cut in two, so it wasn't the first thing I was going to ask about," says Shields. "I was just glad that everything for me was going well."

One month later, it still is. Shields, 40, and her husband, sitcom writer Chris Henchy, 42, have slipped into a happy routine, quickly adjusting to life with their littlest addition.

"Now it just really feels like a full-on family," says Shields. "I'd be lucky to just have the one, but with two, I realize they'll have each other after we're not here anymore, and to me, that really settles my mind."

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Charlie & Denise Make Peace

In a sign that Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen are trying to settle their divorce amicably, the estranged couple agreed to a temporary child custody settlement on Friday.

“Denise and Charlie are working with the Courts to privately resolve their differences regarding their children," the pair said in a joint statement. "They hope to resolve this matter outside of the public forum and will both continue to make every effort in this regard."

Sheen will be allowed supervised visitations one day per week with the couple's two daughters, Lola, 10 months, and Sam, 2. Sheen and Richards also agreed to hire a psychologist to evaluate the custody situation.

This gesture of civility is a change from last month when Richards filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that Sheen had threatened to kill her and had visited pornography Web sites featuring "very young" girls.

Sheen, 40, denied the claims. A judge, however, ordered him to stay 300 feet away from Richards, except during his visitation hours. The restraining order has been extended through June 7.

Richards, 34, originally filed for divorce in March of last year, when she was six months pregnant with Lola.

The pair appeared to briefly reconcile after Lola's birth in June, but on Jan. 4, they requested that their divorce proceed with a private arbitrator.

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Jerry Lewis to return to Vegas act

Comedian Jerry Lewis is set to return this summer to the Orleans Hotel and Casino for his first live Las Vegas performance since his health took a turn for the worse six years ago, his publicist said on Friday.

Lewis, 80, is booked for a four-night comeback engagement from July 13 to 16 at the Orleans Showroom, where he was a regular fixture before various medical problems sidelined the veteran entertainer, spokeswoman Candi Cazau told Reuters.

His old, 2 1/2-hour stage act featured a combination of singing, comedy, dancing and pratfalls, but Cazau said his new show would likely be somewhat less physically demanding.

"We don't know what kind of show's he doing," she said.

Lewis returned home in January 2004 from a three-month hospital stay where he had been admitted to undergo a managed withdrawal from the steroid prednisone, which he had been taking for a chronic lung ailment, pulmonary fibrosis.

He has not performed at the Orleans since 2000, Cazau said, adding that Lewis had shed all the excess weight he had gained from the steroid treatments.

"He's down to 176 pounds (80 kg)," she said. "He took off every pound from that damned prednisone."

Lewis also plans to bring his annual Labor Day telethon for muscular dystrophy back to Las Vegas, hosting this year's show September 3-4 at the South Coast Hotel and Casino, Cazau said.

He also recently taped two episodes as a guest star on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," for next season, and in March celebrated his birthday in Paris by receiving his second French Legion of Honor medal, that nation's highest civilian honor.

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Paul Simon playing fairgrounds during summer tour

Paul Simon will hit the road this summer in support of his new album, "Surprise," on which he collaborated with producer Brian Eno.

The trek will begin July 1 at Milwaukee's Summerfest and run through July 29 in Paso Robles, Calif. No dates have currently been booked in Simon's New York hometown.

The itinerary is highlighted by a July 4 show at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., the site of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Simon will also appear Saturday on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," on which he has guested countless times since performing on its second-ever episode in October 1975.

Simon is expected to return to the road for more dates in the fall.

Here are Paul Simon's tour dates:

July 1: Milwaukee (Summerfest)

July 2: Toledo, Ohio (Zoo Amphitheatre)

July 4: Cooperstown, N.Y. (Doubleday Field)

July 5: Montreal (Place Des Arts Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier)

July 7: Essex Junction, Vt. (Champlain Valley Fairgrounds)

July 8: Manchester, Tenn. (Verizon Wireless Arena)

July 9: Uncasville, Conn. (Mohegan Sun)

July 12: Columbia, Md. (Merriweather Post Pavilion)

July 14-15: Atlantic City, N.J. (Borgata Events Center)

July 16: Holmdel, N.J. (PNC Bank Arts Center)

July 19: Atlanta (Chastain Park)

July 28: Costa Mesa, Calif. (Orange County Fair)

July 29: Paso Robles, Calif. (California Mid State Fair)