Britney Spears on 'X Factor': Would Jason Trawick come, too?

Britney Spears is rumored to be close to signing a deal to judge "The X Factor," filling one of the spots vacated by Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger at the end of the last season and possibly taking home a fat $15-million paycheck -- and she could see her fiance along for the behind-the-scenes ride.

None of the parties involved was willing to comment, Show Tracker reported, but talk has been building for days after Deadline reported weeks-long discussions were coming to a head.

Also going on in Britney's life: Changes in her conservatorship that would name fiance Jason Trawick as one of the folks overseeing Spears' well-being, with her finances staying the purview of daddy Jamie.

According to RadarOnline, that idea was Simon Cowell's, to make it possible for the sometimes-troubled pop star to join the show. 

"The last thing her father wants to do is be on the set for hours at a time. Jamie has conservatorship of Britney's finances and personal life," a source told the website. "Jamie just isn't comfortable in that world, but her fiance, Jason Trawick, is."

Trawick, who had been Spears' agent since 2006, gave up that role a couple of years ago so they could focus on their personal relationship. They got engaged in December, though word is there are no plans for a wedding any time soon.

A quick Show Tracker survey of fan responses to the idea of Britney at Simon's side shows excitement, tempered with caution. What say you?

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Photo: Jason Trawick and Britney Spears in May 2011. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

 

Marc Anthony files for divorce from Jennifer Lopez

Marc Anthony has put the legal machinery in motion, officially filing for divorce from Jennifer Lopez.

In the petition, filed Monday with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Anthony seeks dissolution for "irreconcilable differences," along with joint physical and legal custody of the couple's 4-year-old twins, Max and Emme.

As for the money? Well, that's to be determined, as Anthony "has not yet determined the full nature and extent of his separate assets and debts," according to divorce documents obtained by TMZ. Legal costs are to be paid by the separate parties, and he's suggesting she not seek spousal support.

The couple announced their split last July, making it two failed marriages for him and three for her.

Since then Lopez, 42, has moved on with dancer Casper Smart, who celebrated his 25th birthday recently by receiving a customized truck as a gift from his lady friend. Anthony, 43, and Venezuelan model Shannon de Lima went public with a relationship earlier this year.

Anthony and Lopez continue to work together on "Q'Viva," searching for new Latin American talent.

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Photo: Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez in 2010. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010, pleads no contest in DUI case

Rima Fakih, crowned Miss USA in 2010, cut a deal related to her December arrest in Michigan on suspicion of drunk driving and on Wednesday pleaded no contest in court to driving while visibly impaired.

The beauty queen -- who has since spent some time in the wrestling arena -- still faces up to 93 days in jail when she is sentenced May 9, but her attorney said he expected that she would get probation that could be served from afar, in California.

"You learn, you pay your price for making mistakes and you move on. I'm very happy I can put this behind me," Fakih, 26, said outside court. "I'm just going to move on and make sure I learn my lessons."

A trial on charges of drunken driving, careless driving and having an open container of alcohol had been planned; driving while visibly impaired is a lesser offense, and ostensibly the answer to Fakih's Twitter request earlier Wednesday: "Today is the big day...pray for me guys! Love u," she'd said, hours after tweeting that she couldn't sleep.

So what was she doing when she was pulled over in the wee hours Dec. 3? Police said Fakih was hitting 60 mph in a 30 mph zone and weaving in and out of traffic in a 2011 Jaguar -- in which officers said they found an open half-bottle of bubbly.

One breath test reportedly put her blood alcohol content at 0.20 percent, and another put it at 0.19 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Former Miss USA Rima Fakih is sworn in as she faces DUI charges in Highland Park, Mich., on Wednesday. Credit: Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News

Betty White joins Twitter -- and gets her flirt on

Betty White has joined Twitter, and why not? All the kids are doing it.

"Hello Twitter!," she wrote Tuesday afternoon. "And they said it would never happen. Oh wait, that was me."

Her debut on the micro-blogging site coincides with the premiere of "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," her new hidden-camera show on NBC that will have senior citizens pranking the younger generation. Which suddenly makes us wonder if the whole Twitter thing is actually a ... wait a sec ... whew. The account's verified, @BettyMWhite.

White then proceeded to flirt with Ryan Seacrest, whose longtime Fox ratings magnet "American Idol" is up against "Rockers" at 8 p.m.

"Hey @RyanSeacrest -- my new show airs tomorrow and I hear we're in the same time slot. I've always dreamed of sharing a night with you..."

Naughty Betty. But it's working: With only three tweets, the "Hot in Cleveland" actress is at more than 135,000 followers and counting in less than 24 hours. 

Let's hope the feed grows to include more than clever show promotion, and lots of that wicked White voice.

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Photo: Betty White at "The Lorax" premiere in Universal City on Feb. 19. Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Miley Cyrus praises Ashley Judd after dissing anorexia talk

Miley Cyrus, who on Sunday night dismissed eating-disorder rumors, was giving props to Ashley Judd on Tuesday after reading the latter's article slamming the national media for its recent discussion of her looks.

"Thank you @AshleyJudd," Cyrus said, responding to a tweet in which Judd marveled at the positive response to her words in the Daily Beast. "This article was music to my ears. Beautifully said and beyond inspiring. I hope everyone woman reads this."

Praise for Cyrus' recently slimmer appearance gave way to talk of anorexia Sunday night after she posted a picture showing her breathing deeply from bag of Carl's Jr. food, with the caption, "I can't eat it. So I'm just gonna smell the ... out of it! My mouth is LITERALLY watering."

Let the games begin, right? But Miley wasn't having any of it,

"For everyone calling me anorexic I have a gluten and lactose allergy," she said an hour later. "It's not about weight it's about health. Gluten is crapppp anyway!"

Judd's article addressed the media and public frenzy that surrounded a March 20 TV appearance, after which her supposedly "puffy" appearance was the subject of rampant speculation by many outlets about what she'd done to get her face looking like that. Cosmetic fillers? Plastic surgery gone wrong? Her rep released a statement saying the actress had been ill and was suffering the effects of prednisone use. Most comments along the way were not kind.

"It doesn’t actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance," Judd wrote. "We experience brutal criticism. The dialogue is constructed so that our bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others -- and in my case, to the actual public," Judd said before calling on other women to start a conversation getting at the roots of such "blatantly gendered, ageist, and mean-spirited content."

Which brings us back to Miley Cyrus and her body (which she unfortunately revealed a bit too much of while wearing a miniskirt in front of paparazzi last week).

After that explanatory I'm-not-anorexic tweet and a couple of follow-ups, including one suggesting "everyone should try no gluten for a week!," came yet another a wave of criticism -- this time over the wisdom of recommending a gluten-free diet for those who aren't allergic to the protein found in wheat.

Oy vey.

In Miley's case, at least when it comes to eating things like cake and drinking beer, we have to wager that the benefits of avoiding gluten will ultimately go way beyond helping her physical health.

Let's leave it at that.

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Photo: Miley Cyrus at the premiere of "The Hunger Games" in L.A. on March 12. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images

Alec Baldwin, stalker suspect Genevieve Sabourin dined in 2010

Genevieve Sabourin, the Canadian woman accused of aggravated stalking and harassing Alec Baldwin, was arraigned Monday in New York City, and Baldwin on Tuesday had something to say regarding recent events.

"Isn't it odd when an accused stalker is in handcuffs," the "30 Rock" actor wrote on Twitter, "being taken away by the cops, yet smiles for the cameras?"

Between March 31 and her arrest Sunday, Sabourin, 40, tried to contact Baldwin in person at least three times, police said, at his homes in the Hamptons and Greenwich Village on the weekends and at an event during the week.

Emerging Monday via the New York Post was the interesting tidbit that she and Baldwin, 54, actually had dinner two years ago, something sources close to the actor said was "strictly professional." Though Sabourin claimed the relationship was mutual and sexual, Baldwin told police there was no physical relationship, according to the Post.

"They met. They had dinner. They had a mutual relationship, with texts, emails going in both directions," Sabourin's attorney said Monday in court.

Among those emails, according to a court filing, was one saying, "Please Alec come and pick me up now. I am less than 10 min away from you tonight. Say I do to me." She referred to him as her "husband" in another that asked him to help her start a new life in her new country, with a new name.

The two met in 2002 on "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," which saw Baldwin in an uncredited cameo and Sabourin as a unit publicist, but according to an E! News source there was nothing between them until a friend asked him to give her some advice in 2010. Sabourin has a handful of minor acting credits to her name, according to IMDb.

She told her family she was headed to New York for two or three weeks to jump-start her career, her brother told the Post. "“I never, never, never imagined this," Frederick Sabourin said. "She’s not a freak.”

Also Tuesday, in case anyone wasn't clear about Baldwin being uninterested in the attentions of anyone other than 28-year-old Hilaria Thomas, he tagged his new fiancee in a tweet that read, "I am lucky and grateful in my life now, no matter what the motivations of certain others."

The couple, who live together, announced their engagement April 2. Sabourin was released without bail Monday and hit with a restraining order that prevents her from seeing, texting or emailing Baldwin.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Alec Baldwin in March. Credit: Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images.

Ricki Lake and Christian Evans are married

Ricki Lake married beau Christian Evans over the weekend -- and the bride on Tuesday shared a photo of herself in her wedding dress.

"Yup. This is me.... Sadie Sadie married lady. :) :) Love is in the air. Xo," she wrote to her followers on Twitter.

The secret ceremony occurred in Southern California on Sunday, 43-year-old Lake told People, describing the day as "a beautiful moment I will never forget."

She and Evans, 40, got engaged last summer, with the bride-to-be announcing her engagement Aug. 11 on Twitter with a photo of the couple. They dated for about a year before he popped the question.

Lake has described Evans as a "normal guy" she met through her best friend. "He's a nobody but he's somebody to me. He's everything to me," she told People.

It's a second marriage for the TV host and "Dancing With the Stars" alum, who has two sons, ages 15 and 10, with artist Rob Sussman. Lake and Sussman divorced in 2005.

"The Ricki Lake Show," Lake's upcoming daily syndicated talk show, debuts Sept. 10.

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Photo: Ricki Lake on Sunday. Credit: @RickiLake / Twitter

Miss Universe to allow transgender entries; Talackova to compete

Jenna Talackova is back on for the Miss Universe Canada pageant, now that the Miss Universe organization has stricken down its rule requiring a contestant to be a "naturally born woman."

The organization, along with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, on Tuesday announced that the competition would become open to transgender women. Talackova, whose Canadian passport lists her as female, had been disqualified in late March after the pageant became aware of her past as a man.

Though she specifically was allowed back in on April 2, Talackova held out for a larger rule change, arguing that in the future no other transgender woman should have to face what she did.

"The Miss Universe Organization today follows institutions that have taken a stand against discrimination of transgender women including the Olympics, NCAA, the Girl Scouts of America and the CW’s 'America’s Next Top Model,' " GLAAD spokesman Herndon Graddick said in a statement, which also thanked pageant owner Donald Trump and his team for what Graddick called their swift and appropriate response

So much for Gloria Allred on "The View" on Monday with a gracious Talackova at her side, framing the situation as "Donald Trump zero, Gloria Allred one"?

"The decision to include transgender women in our beauty competitions is a result of our ongoing discussions with GLAAD and not Jenna’s legal representation, which if anything delayed the process," Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, said in a statement. "We have a long history of supporting equality for all women, and this was something we took very seriously."

On Tuesday morning, Talackova's name and picture had been returned to the ranks of the Canadian pageant's 2012 contestants.

Watch Talackova's Monday appearance on "The View," which thanks to Barbara Walters includes discussion of her gender-reassignment surgery, below.

 

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Photo: Jenna Talackova and her passport at an April 3 press conference. Credit: Reed Saxon / Associated Press

 

Amanda Bynes' father says she wasn't drinking before DUI arrest

Amanda Bynes wasn't drunk when she was arrested last week on suspicion of DUI, according to her dad, who also said Monday that she wasn't to blame for the fender-bender that preceded her arrest.

"I was told that she blew a zero on the Breathalyzer," Rick Bynes told People, explaining that Amanda wasn't drunk and does not drink. She was arrested because she was upset and emotional, he said, adding that the arresting officer had pulled out in front of her when she was about to turn and caused the accident.

The former Nickelodeon star, 26, was arrested at 3 a.m. Friday after colliding with a Los Angeles County Sheriff's cruiser near the intersection of Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards, L.A. Now reported.

TMZ's sources contradict Rick Bynes, however, telling the website that she'd been drinking at the Standard on Sunset on Thursday night, and was allegedly turned away by the doorman there on Friday, post-arrest. People confirmed that the actress had been at Greystone Manor Supperclub in West Hollywood on Thursday prior to her arrest.

After being released from sheriff's custody Friday, the "What a Girl Wants" actress was photographed at an impound yard wearing her clothes from the night before.

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Photo: Amanda Bynes at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images

 

 

Whitney Houston's funeral cost Newark $187,000 for police

Whitney Houston's funeral reportedly cost the singer's hometown $187,000 in police overtime, and some residents of Newark, N.J., are not pleased by the idea of taxpayers picking up the tab.

"I think it was a waste of time.... It makes you think twice saying was it worth it or not," resident Minerva DelValle told the local CBS News affiliate on Friday. Another resident said he thought the family should cover the bill.

Houston's funeral, though televised, was strictly invite-only. Newark Councilwoman Mildren Crump defended the police presence, telling WCBS that she witnessed thousands of people who were desperate to attend but were held back safely by law enforcement at barricades.

In contrast to the Newark situation, the estimated $150,000 to police Michael Jackson's private funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale in 2009 was covered by that pop star's estate up front. The overtime budget for Glendale's police department in fiscal 2009 was just under $2.8 million, with regular salaries around $35 million.

The estimated $1-million bill for Los Angeles Police Department overtime generated around the public Michael Jackson memorial service at Staples Center was the subject of a yearlong fight, however. Concert promoter AEG ultimately agreeing to pay $1 million to the city's general fund and $300,000 to the Los Angeles Police Foundation for equipment.

About 17,500 fans were able to secure free tickets to the memorial, which was also televised worldwide. In Newark, no fans were able to attend the service.

The overall budget for the LAPD in fiscal 2009 was just under $1.2 billion, with about $700 million going to the patrol and traffic control departments.

Newark's police overtime budget in fiscal 2011 is $4 million, on top of a total regular-salary budget of around $113 million — though the overall number does include $2.2 million for crossing guards.

Houston died in Beverly Hills on Feb. 11, the night before the 2012 Grammy Awards. It was revealed last week that was found face down in her hotel bathroom after accidentally drowning, with cocaine use and a heart condition contributing to her death.

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Photo: Police keep spectators three blocks from the Whitney Houston funeral in Newark, N.J., on Feb. 18, 2012. Credit: Charles Sykes / Associated Press.