It has taken a few months, but Katherine Heigl and her musiician husband Josh Kelley are now able to hold the darling 10 month old Korean baby girl they adopted.  They have named her Nancy Leigh after Heigl’s mother, Nancy and her sister, Margaret Leigh.  The little girl has been nicknamed Naleigh. 
Naleigh is a special needs child which, according to Heigl, made the adoption process move much faster.  Heigl said:  “They wanted to get her to us as quickly as possible”.
Adoption is not a new idea for Heigl.  She has always been set on adopting a child and even asked Kelley is he was ok with the idea before they became engaged.  She said:  “I just wanted to make sure that I was marrying a guy who understood that this was going to have to happen.”
Heigl’s sister, Meg, is also Korean and was adopted by Heigl’s parents before Heigl was born.

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When you think about Lady Gaga’s fashions this doesn’t really count as a failure.  Just another wild and crazy statement.  In this instance, she is wearing a button hat covered in hair.  Thankfully, it’s artificial, not real, hair.
Maybe she was hired by NASA to send messages to outer space.  “I am Lady Gaga.  I’ll get you hot.  Show you what I’ve got.”
Keep on Lady.  We love your wacky, weird ways!

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Evidently,  Jermaine Jackson planned a tribute to Michael Jackson in Vienna, Austria on September 26, without consulting the rest of the family or including them in any of the planning.   He said that both Mary J. Blige and Chris Brown would be two of the headliners to perform in the show but reps for both Blige and Brown have said neither will be taking part.  Others supposedly on the list are Natalie Cole, Akron and Sister Sledge.  Who knows who will and won’t be there.  In fact, if the rest of the family have their way there won’t be an event in Austria in September. 
The family, with matriarch Katherine in the lead, are against it because, in part, it doesn’t make sense for the first tribute to be held in a country that Michael Jackson had no real connection to.  However, Katherine eventually caved because of pressure from Jermaine and announced, in a written statement on August 21, that she is solidly behind the idea.  The rest of the family is still adamantly against it.  One Jackson family member says that it is a case of Jermaine disregarding what the rest of the family wants and doing what is best for himself.  The same person belittled the Vienna tribute calling it “The Jermaine Jackson show”.

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The funeral of Michael Jackson has, at last, taken place.  It was supposed to start at sunset (approximately 7:00 pm) but Jackson’s coffin didn’t arrive until 7:39 and the Jackson family arrived more than an hour late, leaving the guests waiting for an hour and a half in the hot, humid night.
The Jackson family hired their own company to video tape, and televise, some of the pre-show happenings such as glimpses of the famous guests, the 20 car Jackson family procession arriving and, just as the hearse bearing Jackson’s coffin arrived, the video came to an abrupt end.  What do you want to bet that the taping continued through the entire service and will be available for purchase on DVD or Blu-ray.
Randy Jackson was angry because there were news helicopters that continued to film the burial service.  He said he was dismayed when he saw television coverage of the ceremony and asked that the media pull all footage from the helicopter filming and “refrain from airing it in the future”.
I hate to be a cynic (although I readily acknowledge that I am) but could Randy Jackson’s anger come from the fact that the media scooped the Jackson video?  And, if they wanted this to be so private why not just invite those who were truly close friends and quietly gather, unannounced,  to carry out the final burial instead of making a huge, boisterous, hullabaloo out of it.  They announced, loud and clear, the date, the time, the place, had a police escort for the family funeral procession from the family “compound” in Encino to Forest Lawn.  Did they think no one would notice?
And speaking of the police a spokesman for the Glendale Police department said it appeared that the cost to the family would be around $120 to $125 thousand dollars but because the event started late it ran longer so the cost could be approximately $150,000.
Michael Jackson is in his final resting place in Forest Lawn, the actual location of which is being kept “secret”, (wink, wink) but I am absolutely positive this will not be the final chapter in this on-going saga.

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The hat that stunned the world

No who watched the January 20th inauguration of President Obama will ever be able to erase from their minds the image of Aretha Franklin’s hat.  She is the undisputed Queen of Soul so we should be remembering the song she sang and her “soulful” presentation of it.  I don’t.  Do you?
The hat may make a return appearance (although she should have learned after she wore it the first time) when she sings at Michael Jackson’s (finally) (maybe?) funeral on Thursday, September 3rd.  However, unless the Jackson’s have the funeral service taped, which I wouldn’t for a minute doubt, (think millions) we wouldn’t be able to see it if Franklin does wear it. 
That’s because the funeral is to be a “private sunset service for family and friends at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California”.   That’s a lot of information to be giving out for something that is supposed to be “private”.  Can you imagine the crowds of die-hard Jackson fans who will attempt to get as close to Forest Lawn as possible?  Not to mention the news media with all their vans, lights, cameras, satellite dishes, cameramen/women, and reporters?  I think if they wanted a private, quiet affair the Jackson family would have notified the friends they wanted in attendance and held the interment of Michael Jackson’s body with no advanced announcement, whatsoever.  It would also save them a bundle of money, at least the $150,000 they are going to have to pay to use the Glendale Police for crowd control and enforcement.
After all, Jackson’s body is already somewhere within the confines of Forest Lawn so the ceremony could be held with no hullabaloo.  Good news, though.  Katherine Jackson has persuaded the court to allow Jackson’s estate to pay for his funeral.  Guess they couldn’t really expect any city government in the state of California to pay for it after the City of Los Angeles shelled out $1.4 million bucks in costs for the Stapely Center show.  That, at a time when the city was $530 million in debt.  I remember reading  that the city of Los Angeles was asking Jackson fans for donations to help defray some of the cost and had set up a special website for for that purpose.    I couldn’t locate the website but Idid find one (mayor.lacity.org) that said “We are no longer accepting donations. Thank you to those who donated”.  Didn’t say how much, or if, money was received.
And, just to stir up your envy at not being invited to the “private” ceremony in the Grand Mausoleum, TMZ has obtained information that the Jackson family, who seems to have an obsession with a particular kind of doughnut from the Market Restaurant in Stamford, CT, is having boxes of them shipped in for the service.  The doughnuts are called “Ricotta Doughnuts” and they are described as “Cinnamon-sugared doughnuts made with fresh ricotta, crushed amaretti cookies and a creme angalaise. 
Me?  I’m happy going to my neighborhood grocery store bakery department and grabbing a custard filled, chocolate frosted doughnut for about .50.

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DJ AM

DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, was one of six passengers on board a private jet plane that crashed in South Carolina on September 20, 2008. Goldstein and drummer Travis Baker were the only two to survive the crash, although both were badly burned.
Goldstein was found, dead,  alone in his apartment in New York City on Friday, August 28th.  There were no signs of foul play, but drug paraphernalia was found.  It has been rumored his death may have been the result of a drug overdose.

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Dr. Conrad Murray

Well, the facts are in.  Michael Jackson’s death has been declared a homicide.
By his own admission, Dr. Conrad Murray gave Jackson enough drugs, over a nine hour period on the morning Jackson died, to put a good sized elephant to sleep.  The fact that they didn’t would indicate Jackson had built a high tolerance for these and other drugs.  So, Murray is most likely not the only doctor to over-prescribe controlled medications to Jackson.
Maybe, at the time, Jackson couldn’t foresee the consequences of his demands for more and stronger drugs  but that doesn’t relieve him of all responsibility.  You ultimately make your own decisions and his was to take more and more narcotic drugs and an anesthetic, propofol, which others had told him was very dangerous.
Conrad Murray gave Jackson the drugs that, in accumulation, killed him.  So he will inevitably be charged with the crime.  What the exact charge will be hasn’t been reported yet.
The responsibility for Jackson’s death certainly falls on Murray and all the other doctors who over prescribed addicting medications.  The responsibility for Jackson’s death also falls on Jackson, himself.  And, it is hard to believe that in a family the size of the Jackson family no one, not one of them, could see the road Jackson was on and where, without stopping him, that road would lead.

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Too Short

Todd Shaw, known as rapper Too Short, was pulled over by Las Vegas police Thursday morning at approximately 4:00 AM.  He was arrested for DUI, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, speeding and….burning rubber.  This is his second arrest in Las Vegas in three months.
Too Short seems to be Too Dumb to know it’s not a good idea to speed and burn rubber when you are Too Drunk to drive or in any other way impaired.  Like maybe your brain is Too Small.

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First Michael Jackson was to be buried on August 29th which would have been his 51st birthday.  The burial was to be at Forest Lawn Cemetery, or it wasn’t.  The casket is being held at Forest Lawn in a crypt owned (but not presently being used) by Barry Gordy, or not.  The burial is scheduled for Saturday, September 3rd at a cost of approximately $50,000 which will be needed to pay cops to keep traffic moving and uninvited guest away. Far away!  No, that’s not right.  It has been changed to Thursday, September 10th and if they stick to that date it will cost the Jackson family “at least triple the price”  to hire cops for a weekday burial.
Because the burial service is being limited to the Jackson family and “close friends” it seems it will take a ton of cops to keep the order. There will be cops patrolling from the ground and at least one police helicopter patrolling from the air.  Sergeant Tom Lorenz, of the Glendale Police Department, said in a statement directed towards Jackson fans, “Don’t even try and come, because you won’t even be able to see the green of the Forest Lawn”.  Sounds like he’s really serious, and I think I detect a note of final exasperation.
So, the Jackson’s will be asked to fork over at least $150,000 to bury Michael Jackson on a Thursday rather than $50,000 to bury him on a Saturday.  They could still change their minds, in the interest of saving $100,000, and bury him on Saturday September 12th.   At this point, I would be willing to chip in just to have this over and done with.  How about you?

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LeAnn Rimes and Dean Sheremet

Eddie Cibrian and Brandi Glanville

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian

LeAnn Rimes is married to Dean Sheremet.  Eddie Cibrian is married to Brandi Glanville.   Rimes is having a very open affair with Cibrian. Dean Sheremet is moving from the Nashville home he and Rimes shared to New York City to make a fresh start after his seven year marriage to Rimes has crumbled.  And he’s taking the dogs with him, thank you very much.  Glanville isn’t ready for a fresh start because she needs to vent, and loudly.  Rimes and Cibrian will now be able to continue their lives together without those pesky spouses in the way.
Sheremet is keeping a low profile about his failed marriage saying only, “Thanks to everyone for all the support through a very difficult time.”
Glanville, on the other hand, is being very vocal and venomous saying, among other things, “Eddie is a compulsive liar, cheater and a home wrecker.  And he has been an absentee father.  Eddie’s displays of poor taste have hurt our two children.  Eddie may just end up drowning himself in that ‘unfair fishbowl’”. Yowza!
Better to keep quiet and get on with your life or vent your anger publicly?  Different strokes for different folks.

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