Troubled Hollywood

33-year-old Drew Barrymore was rear-ended in a hit and run accident Monday in West Hollywood. Uninjured, the ex-Charlies Angel star took off in pursuit of the other vehicle, and took down the license plate number, later handing it into the authorities.

There was no information available about damage to Barrymore’s car, but she was uninjured. The police admit it can be dangerous to follow someone in this type of situation, but they probably don’t realize she used to be an angel. That’s what she gets, I assume, for NOT riding in cars with boys.

How is it halfway through May already? It seems just last month I was complaining about snow and cold. Oh wait. It was last month. I just can’t believe the kids only have a few weeks left of school, meaning I only have a few weeks left of sanity. Yet, good celebrity gossip doesn’t seem to care what time of year it is. So, let’s get going and dish a little.

Are Paul McCartney and Heather Mills having the longest divorce ever or what? How can it still not be over yet? We settled their finances a few months ago, and now today a judge is granting them a “preliminary” divorce? Preliminary? If at the end of six weeks no one objects, the divorce will be granted. Just who is going to object? Certainly not Paul or Heather, and most certainly not the legions of Beatles fans out there.

Someone else who keeps reliving her divorce is Carly Simon. In the best-seller Girls Like Us, it combines the stories of Carly, along with her counterparts Joni Mitchell and Carole King. Carly was the only one offo the three to actually interview with the author, Sheila Weller, as most of the stories included in the book are from family and friends. That alone was hard on Carly, as the time in her life that was being retold was that of her failed marriage to James Taylor. I think he’s probably the one that was “so vain.”

While we’ve always been taught you don’t have to grow up in Neverland, apparently you do still have to take care of your debts. Michael Jackson owes $24.5 million on his Neverland Ranch, forcing it into default when he couldn’t pay up after being acquitted of child molestation. The ranch was due to go into auction on Wednesday, but an investment company ended up buying out the loan. That’s too bad. I feel sorry for him.

Nah, not really.

Just in case you can’t get much more weird that Jacko, a biologist is naming a newly discovered spider species after Neil Young. Apparently the biologist, Jason Bond, has also named spider species after Nelson Mandela (Stasimopus mendelai) and his wife, Kristen (Apomastus Kristenae.) I don’t care what their names are, I don’t want any of them, including the newly crowned and discovered Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi.

Off to kill a few spiders and to see if I can afford a new ranch.

Photos courtesy of virginmedia.com and rollingstone.com.

Yeah, I know, I really should be writing some celebrity gossip this morning. Some days there isn’t much, but today, we have jurors thinking Uma was being less than honest, Star calling out Babs, Amy being arrested, and talk of Charlotte teaching Adam the Facts of Life (that would be Mrs. Garrett and Mr. Sandler) in a love scene, but today, all I can think of is Jason Castro.

Jason, I’ve been a faithful viewer of American Idol for seven seasons, and I’ve been writing about it for four. I started writing about it after the last dismissal of a contestant that had me this upset, when Jon Peter Lewis left in season three. Like you, Jon, was truly an individual and a one-of-a-kind performer. He was just out there doing his thing, to steal a phrase from Randy Jackson.

Still, in all these years, I have never seen American Idol chew someone up and spit them out the way they did to you this season. They needed you this season. You brought something different to the show, something we hadn’t seen before. You brought a different vibe to the show. At first it was just a different type of fun, but once you sang Hallelujah, we saw there was something there behind what seemed like indifference earlier. You let your feelings come through in that, and it was something we weren’t really seeing in the other performers at all. Read the rest of this entry »

With an American Idol season that started out with so much hope, it just seems to get more and more weird the further we get into it. The surprising eliminations just don’t stop, and there are plenty of other oddities to go along with it. All this after the show had promised changes for the better this time after a very lackluster final two of Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis.

With Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame music, I figured it would be a fantastic week! Well, they got rid of some of the best rock ‘n rollers on the show too early for that. If we were going to do rock ‘n roll, shouldn’t we have Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, and even Chikezie and Amanda Overmeyer? Now that would be a good show! But they were taken down too early by The Beetles, inspirational music, songs from the years they were born, and Neil Diamond, waiting to get the chance to sing the greatest rock ‘n roll that ever was.

So here’s what our final four chooses to sing in a week to showcase how well they can rock it out. Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Bob Marley, Ben E. King, The Who, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, and Elvis Presley. There isn’t anything wrong with these selections, but together as a whole, it leaves you scratching your head. The only one that had me rocking was Baba O’Reilly. I certainly wasn’t rocking to the way David Archuleta arranged his songs into ballads.

And just what is up with Jason Castro. He’s been very unprepared the past three weeks, the first of which he was forced into singing Memory from Cats. It’s like he realized no matter what he did, American Idol was not going to allow him to win. Almost as if he figured why bother. Then it all got much worse for him last week when Paula trashed his second performance before he even did it. That must have felt great walking onstage to.

Who leaves tonight is a mystery to me, but it has to be either Jason or Syesha. She’s been in the bottom three so often, she’ll very likely end up there again. While she’s been better than Jason the past few weeks, I think you have to judge on the whole season. But if people are only judging on last night, it could very well be him. Either way, with them as the bottom two, Simon will tell America they got it right, and Paula will go on and on about it being the beginning of their careers. Randy will just tell Dawg, gee, he just doesn’t know what to think.

And after last night and the season as a whole that we’ve had … I don’t know what to think either.

Photos Courtesy of americanidol.com

For more information on American Idol, see SirLinksalot: American Idol, and for a recap of Tuesday night’s performances, see Reality Shack.

This seems to be the big day Britney Spears has been waiting for for several months. After her children were taken away from her, and given to her ex, Kevin Federline, Spears has been working towards improving her life to get her little boys back, or at least it seems so.

Britney has started being visible at only the most important times, instead of the most inopportune times. She has been seen getting serious about workouts again, and has been seen working, and getting good reviews in the process, doing a cameo on How I Met Your Mother with Neil Patrick Harris. She did so well, according to the executive producer, that they were thrilled to have her tape another episode that will air May 12. Since their audience grew by a million viewers the last time she was on, though, I’m thinking that has more to do with it than her acting chops.

Today, it all comes to fruition as Spears and Federline are in court discussing their custody issues once again. While she had custody stripped originally after her stint in the psych ward, Federline has been allowing her to see the boys here and there. Perhaps today they’ll either get split custody restored, or she’ll get legal visitation rights.

Somehow this whole thing is ending up to be just as gripping as Meryl Streep wanting her kids back in Kramer vs. Kramer.

Photo courtesy of evilbeetgossip.film.com.

Check out my post about Meryl Streep over on the Movie Zen blog. She’s done everything from heavy dramas like Sophie’s Choice to cartoon voices like The Queen in Ant Bully and now this summer she’ll be starring in the musical, Mamma Mia! I’m kind of interested to see how she’ll do jamming to the ABBA music.

Hola! Happy Cinco de Mayo! And a beautiful day it is, with the sun shining with a nice warm glow. There’s no rain in sight until at least tomorrow, and I think we might finally be done with snow. Okay, so I knocked on my hutch after that. I guess you never can tell with that weather we’ve been having lately. Hopefully with that behind us now, let’s dish a little.

Redneck Woman no more! Country singer Gretchen Wilson, despite being extremely successful as a Grammy winner, decided to go back to school. At 34 years old, the Tennessean pursued her G.E.D. and will attend her graduation ceremony on May 15th. Previously dropping out as a Freshman Wilson decided she didn’t want her daughter to think you can normally be a success without an education. I have to send some kudos out for this. I’m hoping she’ll inspire some kids to stay in school or others to follow suit and get their own G.E.D.

Maybe she could be mentoring other young singers. I just don’t know what to think of Miley Cyrus these days. I keep wanting to think the rumors and innuendos just aren’t true. Looking at her Vanity Fair photos, I have mixed feelings. They’re certainly simulating a sexy image, but should we be letting a young girl think it’s not okay to be proud of her body and who she is? She didn’t expose anything other than a little skin. Although in some of them, they make her look younger than she is, and it reminded me of Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby. I’m still not ready to condemn the girl just yet, but I do think I need to issue out a warning to Billy Ray to watch his daughter very closely so that she doesn’t join the ranks of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Read the rest of this entry »

This week should have been a lot better than it was. Neil Diamond, People! While others were more excited over Beatles or Mariah Carey it was Neil Diamond music that I was waiting to hear. I grew up on it, as my mom was a huge fan. By the time I was an adult, I found myself at one of his concerts. It’s a comfort to me.

Yet, here I was this week listening to Idol after Idol not do Neil’s music justice. I just didn’t get it. It should have been a great week. They could have all found something in that song catalog to sing. David Cook did the best, yet found music that wasn’t widely known as Neil’s, so maybe he made the best choices. Most of us didn’t have that much to compare it to.

There’s a magic that David has when he changes songs to fit him, whether it’s his original arrangement or not. It just works. Yet, when others make changes to the arrangements, they fall short. I don’t know who it was that advised David Archuleta to change Sweet Caroline the way he did, but that was just miserable. He murdered a classic that is a singalong anthem of sorts. Thankfully he was able to redeem himself with America. And Simon called him on it. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems we’ve been fighting to keep you in the contest since the beginning, and I’m sure you feel the same. For you it has gone on for a few years years, as first a visa was stopping you, and now it’s hard to figure out what it was that stopped you, but when it comes down to it, I think it was none other than trying too hard to be what you thought we wanted.

What we want, as American Idol fans, is for you to be yourself. We don’t want that diva-ish stuff you sang in the beginning, as you were hoping to show us your talent. We know you’re talented, and if you would have just sung stuff that meant something to you and/or that you had fun with, we all would have enjoyed ourselves much more, and in the process we would have found your talent.

From the very beginning I have sounded like a broken record as I begged you to sing music that is closer to your heritage. What I wouldn’t have given to hear you sing a Van Morrison tune. Since we’ve never heard any of his music on American Idol before, other than Jon Peter Lewis’ audition, I’m thinking the show can’t get clearance for his music. However, there has to be some Irish folk rock music somewhere you could have gotten your hands on. I think you would have brought the house down. Read the rest of this entry »

I have no idea why I was once again so short-sighted, but I have once ago bought decaffeinated tea. Why do I keep doing that to myself? Thankfully, today is such a gorgeous day out there that that alone is keeping me awake. Before I go out and enjoy the day, let’s dish a little.

In Massachusetts to film The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds, due next year, Sandra Bullock and her Monster Garage husband Jesse James were the passengers in an SUV, and a drunken driver in a station wagon crossed over the center line, hitting the SUV. The vehicles are both totaled (maybe Jesse can make something of them now), yet no one was hurt. The drunk driver, identified as Lucille Gatchell, had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit at .20. The driver of the SUV should have put Sandra behind the wheel to reenact her Speed experience.

It’s hard to say exactly what Ray Charles’ descendants have on their mind, but it’s not Georgia. They’re accusing Charles’ manager of mismanaging his estate and trusts and tarnishing his legacy. This comes about because of the release of two posthumous CDs that Charles’ children claim he never would have approved of. Didn’t he make them to begin with? They claim that in a 2002 family meeting, Charles told them of the trusts he was arranging for them, and he hinted there could be more “down the line” for them. They figured that meant they would have control of his likeness, instead of his manager. His will doesn’t mention his likeness, and in fact doesn’t mention the manager at all. The children, of course, feel they are entitled to the proceeds from the two CDs, figuring this is what their father was hinting at in the family meeting. Read the rest of this entry »