Gossip/Celebrity News

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Mariah Carey Leads Grammy Nominees

Thursday brought good news to Mariah Carey. With the announcement of the 48th annual Grammy Awards nominations, the songbird finalized her storied comeback by earning eight nods, including record, album and song of the year, as well as for best female pop vocalist.

Also earning eight nods were John Legend and Kanye West. Soul crooner Legend's nominations included best new artist, while his mentor West is up for album of the year for Late Registration and song of the year for "Gold Digger."

"This is incredible," Carey told CBS's Early Show. "I feel blessed to be a part of today. I feel blessed for having this incredible year. I'm just grateful for everything I have."

She said she felt best over the nomination for The Emancipation of Mimi as album of the year. ("We Belong Together" is up for song and record.) As for how she found the strength to rebuild her career after it seemingly fell apart in the wake of her disastrous movie and album Glitter, Carey, acknowledging that she's managed "a comeback," said: "It's about spirituality and getting back to a place where you have as much faith in yourself and in God as you can."

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Matt Damon & Girlfriend Marry

Matt Damon and his girlfriend of two years, Luciana Bozan, were wed Friday morning in a private ceremony in Manhattan, his publicist confirmed to PEOPLE. Also present was Bozan's 7-year-old daughter, Alexia, from a previous marriage.

Asked by PEOPLE how it felt to be married, Damon flashed his silver wedding band and said, "Great!" before jumping in a car and heading off.

But it was soon back to work for the actor, who headed to the Yonkers, N.Y., set of his CIA thriller The Good Shepherd after his nuptials. "I had to be here today," he told PEOPLE. "I had to come to work."

Damon pal Marc McGovern told PEOPLE that Luciana is great for Matt. "She’s very grounded, very intelligent, very caring" and has adjusted well to his crazy celebrity life. McGovern added that Damon enjoys being a stepfather to Alexia.

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LOS ANGELES - Chris Rock won't be back to hand out Oscars next year, according to reports.

The comedian's publicist, Matt Labov, told the New York Times Friday that Rock did not want to do the show "in perpetuity" but would "like to do it again down the road." He did not elaborate.

Rock took over as host for the first time last year. He drew younger viewers, but his barbs skewering stars like Jude Law, Tobey Maguire and others alienated some members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

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Jennifer Aniston, whose ex-husband Brad Pitt is preparing to legally adopt Angelina Jolie's two children, says she too wants to start a family.

"Ideally I'd like to have a couple," she tells InStyle magazine in its January issue. "But who knows."

The actress adds that her dreams of a family in the future are "part of the unknown that I like."

As for her romantic life, Aniston says she never made a conscious decision to start dating but that she gradually got ready for it. "You just wake up one day and you start to feel like, 'Yeah I think I'm open to that now.' It's not mapped out. It just sort of happened."

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Jessica Simpson plans to spend her first Christmas since splitting from husband Nick Lachey with her parents and sister in Hawaii, PEOPLE has learned.

As for how she's faring after filing for divorce on Friday, "She's doing okay," a source close to Simpson tells PEOPLE. "She is emotional, and as upsetting as this is, she knows she made the right decision."

Though the couple announced their split last month after three years of marriage, the source says that Simpson and Lachey got together on Friday for a short time. "He came over to her parent's house. They spent a little time together and they said their goodbyes."

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Renée & Kenny's Marriage Annulled

Renée Zellweger and country star Kenny Chesney's brief marriage is now officially over. The couple's annulment was finalized with court papers filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

According to the legal papers, obtained by PEOPLE, Zellweger, 36, and Chesney, 37, waived their rights to motion for a new trial and the rights to appeal.

The Oscar-winning actress filed for the annulment on Sept. 14, just four months after their picturesque, beachside wedding in the Virgin Islands. Unlike a divorce, an annulment essentially erases a marriage, declaring it null, as if it had never happened in the first place. Zellweger signed the paperwork Nov. 18 and Chesney signed on Dec. 12. A judge granted that request Tuesday, effectively removing one of the more curious celebrity romances from the books.

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Gwen Stefani: I'm Pregnant

Pop star Gwen Stefani and her husband of three years, Bush guitarist-frontman Gavin Rossdale, are expecting their first child together. She announced the big news Wednesday night during a concert in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., her final U.S. tour stop.

No other details were immediately available.

Stefani, 36 – who during her current break from No Doubt is up for five Grammys (including album of the year) for her first solo effort, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. – and Rossdale, 38, married in September 2002 in two separate ceremonies on both sides of the Atlantic.

A U.K. wedding took place at St. Paul's Church in London's Covent Garden, while another was held in Los Angeles two weeks later.

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Actress Laura Dern Marries

Actress Laura Dern and her longtime partner, musician Ben Harper, married Friday in a small private ceremony at their home in Los Angeles, a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE.

Dern, 38, and Harper, 36, have two children together, a 4-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter.

The couple met at one of his concerts in the fall of 2000 while he was separated from his wife of four years, Joanna. (They divorced in 2001.) His children with Joanna – son Charles and daughter Harris – visit him often.

At the time she and Harper met, Dern was rebounding from a broken relationship with former-fiance Billy Bob Thornton.

She most recently appeared in the films Happy Endings and We Don't Live Here Anymore.

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LOS ANGELES - Months after splitting from her first husband, former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star Tori Spelling is engaged to her new boyfriend, actor Dean McDermott, celebrity magazines Us Weekly and People reported on Tuesday.

Us Weekly, which broke the news of the engagement, said McDermott, 39, proposed to Spelling, 32, on Saturday evening after a moonlit ride in a horse-drawn carriage on a Christmas tree farm outside Toronto.

"We have searched our whole lives for each other and can't wait to now start our lives as one," the couple said in a statement issued to Us Weekly. "We both finally found our soulmate and we are beyond in love."

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Jessica & Nick Move On

Less than two weeks after filing for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court on Dec. 16, Simpson has begun her new life – by purchasing a $3 million Beverly Hills home and moving in.

"She's happy to have a house that's hers," someone close to the pop star tells PEOPLE. "This is the first time she's making her own decisions." Among them: keeping the divorce proceedings as quiet as possible by requesting the case be assigned to a private judge and not aired in open court.

Some details are known, however. Simpson asked that she not pay alimony to her soon-to-be ex-husband, Nick Lachey – though it’s not clear that Lachey ever wanted it.

Says a source close to him: "There is no squabble, and we are hoping for a quick and private procedure." Which may be why Simpson did not oppose a judge helping settle issues such as distribution of property, according to the divorce papers.

As for the split, Lachey "knew it was coming," says the source. "He was hoping for the best, but as time went by he was prepared for what became inevitable."

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Singer Small makes big TV splash

NEW YORK - Five years after the release of her solo debut album, singer Heather Small may finally get her due in the United States.

The photogenic Small recently was featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," where she performed "Proud," the title track from the 5-year-old set. Cash registers tend to become active when Oprah Winfrey champions an artist. And in the case of Small, such exposure may finally catapult her into the pop spotlight.

Small was a member of '90s British dance-pop outfit M People, a quartet that scored global hits with "Moving On Up," "Excited," "Open Your Heart" and other buoyant jams.

"It has been an experience," Small told Billboard. "And I must give thanks to one of the show's producers."

According to Small, a "Winfrey" producer heard "Proud" in a workout class. "She thought the song might work for an upcoming theme on the show," Small said. The producer played it for Winfrey, and things took off from there.

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It's not unusual to call Jones Sir Tom


LONDON - Veteran crooner Tom Jones, jazzman John Dankworth and playwright Arnold Wesker received knighthoods in the British New Year's Honors list announced Saturday.

The U.K.'s top lifetime achievement awards, the Queen's honors, which include varied ranks, go to people from all walks of life. Among them, punk-era designer Vivienne Westwood was made a dame (the equivalent of a knighthood) for services to British fashion.

Welshman Jones, 65, becomes Sir Tom, joining other pop star knights including Paul McCartney, Elton John and Mick Jagger. His 40-year career kicked off with the hit "It's Not Unusual," which, along with recordings such as "Delilah" and "She's a Lady," has been featured in many movies.

Jones sang the title songs for feature films "What's New, Pussycat?" and "Thunderball" in 1965 and had a hit musical show, "This is Tom Jones" on ABC-TV 1969-1971.

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Lindsay Lohan Hospitalized

Lindsay Lohan was admitted to a Miami hospital Monday night after suffering a severe asthma attack and is now "resting comfortably," a source close to the actress tells PEOPLE.

The Mean Girls star celebrated New Year's Eve in Miami, hosting a party at Prive Nightclub.

Lohan, 19, is set to begin shooting her new film, Chapter 27, in two weeks. The movie, about John Lennon's killer Mark David Chapman, stars Lohan as a Lennon fan who befriends Chapman (played by Lohan's once-rumored beau, Jared Leto) just days before he assassinates the musician in New York.

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Actor Nick Nolte completes drugs charge probation

LOS ANGELES- Actor Nick Nolte on Wednesday successfully completed three years' probation imposed for driving under the influence of drugs, a judge in the Southern California beach enclave of Malibu ruled.

Nolte, 64, was arrested in Malibu in September 2002 after police spotted him driving erratically along the winding coast road. Dazed and drooling, he failed a sobriety test and three days later checked into a rehab center for three weeks.

He later pleaded no contest to driving under the influence of the banned "date rape" drug GHB which also acts as a sleeping aide and mood enhancer.

Nolte has appeared in more than 40 movies including "Prince of Tides," "Cape Fear" and "The Deep," and has admitted having an alcohol and drugs problem stemming back 20 years.