What's Tori Spelling's kid doing? And do we need to know?

This blazing news just in from megalo-mommy Tori Spelling:

"[Liam]'s 1st reaction to mama after new baby ... He immediately looked down at my stomach, saying, 'Mama do you have a hole in your belly now? You look so much prettier without that big belly.'"

Thanks to a tweet linking to the rest of that on her blog, we now know how much prettier mommy looks -- thanks Liam! -- and that, hey, Tori is still out there, doing stuff. Of course the revelations came via a minor who had no choice but to see his remarks distributed to millions, but so? It’s Tori, people! The world needs to know everything that happens to her!

Of course Spelling isn't the only celebrity out there who tweets routinely about what their children are doing in supposedly private settings. Sherri Shepherd recently tweeted an intimate moment between her son and her new husband: "What shall I call you, Stepdaddy? Hmmm, I think I'll call you Daddy." And Brooke Burke-Charvet overshared this tidbit: 
"I drive all the way to school to see my big girls off, first day. And they were too embarrassed to hang! Aaah the joys of motherhood :( ."

If it ever occurred to Burke that embarrassed adolescents might not want that fact broadcast across the planet, thus furthering said embarrassment, she hasn't tweeted about it. It may be the only thing she hasn't tweeted.

The Ministry summoned a family therapist and ran such scenarios past her. Psychologist Jenn Berman didn't have a huge problem with parents tweeting a kid's private comments, but she did take issue with stars blabbing particularly sensitive conversations.

"Where it becomes detrimental is when a Hollywood parent tweets something that the child considered to be private and the parent either doesn't recognize that to be private," Berman said, "or just doesn't honor the boundary."

By way of example, Berman told us a (possibly hypothetical) story of a star whose kid had a crush on another kid in class; the parent then disclosed that to the public.

In those cases, "The child becomes an extension of the star's brand, sold out for the sake of the brand," she said. "I see it enough for it to be a concern that comes up in my practice."

So what happens when Berman gently points out that maybe a celeb should put a rein on what he or she tweets?

Well, here's a bit of good news.

"The reaction is, 'Oh wow, I never thought of it that way,' and they change."

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-- Leslie Gornstein

Photos: Tori Spelling with Liam and Victoria at an event in August, before third child Hattie was born -- when Mom had a "big belly." Credits: Getty Images

 

Scarlett Johansson speaks: 'I'm entitled to my privacy'

Scarlett Johansson is speaking up about nude photographs of her that circulated online after they were allegedly hacked from her smartphone.

"Just because you're an actor or make films or whatever doesn’t mean you're not entitled to your own personal privacy," Johansson said in an interview with CNN.

"If that is sieged in some way, it feels unjust. It feels wrong," she added. The shots that leaked in mid-September showed the "Avengers" actress nude from behind and topless from the front.

Though the shots were a far cry from the sex tapes of the world's Kim Kardashians, Johansson says their distribution felt beyond violating -- and is the kind of thing that has taken some getting used to.

"It's an adjustment, but I think there are certain instances where you give a lot of yourself and finally you have to kind of put your foot down and say, 'Oh wait, I’m taking it back,'" Johansson said.

Scarlett has reportedly enlisted the FBI to get to the bottom of the intrusion. Meanwhile, she'll wrap up  "Avengers" with Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr., and will appear with Matt Damon in the upcoming "We Bought a Zoo."

RELATED:

Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn call it quits

Scarlett Johansson enlists FBI over allegedly hacked naked photos

Demi Moore is back with another naked picture of herself on Twitter

-- Matt Donnelly
twitter.com/MattDonnelly

Photo: Scarlett Johansson in Milan, Italy, on Sept. 25 for Fashion Week. Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images

 

Pink and Carey Hart show off new baby; picture looks oddly familiar

Singer Pink and husband Carey Hart have released their first baby picture — of, you know, their first baby.

It's clear after viewing this photo that the couple have mastered Principle No. 1 of Celebrity Baby Portraits: Beaming broadly, as if they've each gotten a full night’s sleep. Which they have not.

However, the couple have yet to remember Principle No. 2: Gazing down at said baby with Virgin Mary-style adoration. We're sure the Harts will remember to do that when they have their second child.

The Hart baby is cute and everything, but, like every baby of that age, little Willow Sage (no comment) doesn't look like her parents. Willow Sage, of course, looks like Winston Churchill. This is not meant as an insult. It's meant as science. Every single baby on this planet is born looking like a bald gentleman whose top hat went missing during the last Blitz. And yet celebrity media fight for these first baby photos — fight for them so fiercely that Pink recently accused the paparazzi of "harassing" and "stalking" the new family.

We here at the Ministry could not understand why these first baby photos — which routinely fetch between $10,000 and $1 million — are so sought after, given that, as we have established, every baby looks the same.

So we asked someone who would know.

"Everybody just loves to see a new baby," says Mark Pasetsky, former managing editor of OK! magazine. "How many times do you get to see a celebrity with her first baby for the first time? It may not be the most descriptive photo, but it's special for her and her fans."

So let's see if we understand this correctly: It's the when, not the what. People don't want to see famous baby photos to see the famous baby. They want to see the specialness of it all.

Fair enough, we guess. But we would've given Pink more credit if that baby had been wearing a top hat and toy cigar.

RELATED:

Pink and Carey Hart welcome baby girl

Report: Pink expecting first child with Carey Hart

Pink to name her baby after a whiskey? Hey, it could be worse

— Leslie Gornstein

Photos: Pink, left, and Carey Hart, right, have released the first picture of their baby — who is not shown, center. Credits: Larry Busacca /  Getty Images, left; Joe O'Donnell / The Arts Co., center; Danny Moloshok / Reuters, right.

Oscar De La Hoya enters rehab, promises swift comeback

Former boxer Oscar De La Hoya has checked into a California rehab facility to be treated for substance abuse.

"After doing an honest evaluation of myself, I recognize that there are certain issues that I need to work on," he said in a statement Saturday. "Like everyone, I have my flaws, and I do not want to be one of those people that is afraid to admit and address those flaws."

De La Hoya, 38, entered the facility a few weeks ago for treatment. The former champion boxer last fought in 2008 and had been fronting his boxing company Golden Boy Promotions since 2005.

"Throughout my career and my life, I have always met all challenges head-on, and this is no different," the statement said. "I am confident that with the support of my family and friends, I will become a stronger, healthier person. I ask for respect and privacy as my family and I go through this process."

De La Hoya was last seen publicly May 6 at the Boxing Writers Assn. of America event in Las Vegas. Though the statement did not specify what he was being treated for, TMZ indicated that the Golden Boy had been drinking and using cocaine before entering treatment. Its source said that De La Hoya did not believe he had hit rock bottom but went to rehab before things got out of control.

Over the weekend, he tweeted about the rapture, his wife, Millie Corretjer, and viewing the Shane Mosely-Manny Pacquiao matchup. But once the story broke, fans began pouring in the love, prompting him to address their concerns through tweets.

"I'm sincerely humbled by the support I've been receiving and promise you that I will knock out this disease I have. There is no doubt [in] My mind that I will become stronger and more humble with this experience," he wrote.

The former Olympic gold medalist said that in recent weeks he had "grown as a person" and had found a "higher power" who gives him strength to live life in "a humiliating way," adding that he was learning to love himself first "so I can love those around me."

He also said he planned to come back soon, stronger than ever.

RELATED:

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— Nardine Saad
twitter.com / NardineSaad

Photo: Oscar De La Hoya reacts after announcing his retirement from boxing on April 14, 2009. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images.

Natalie Portman likes Ashton Kutcher's parenting skills

Natalie Portman says she'd take parenting advice from "No Strings Attached" costar Ashton Kutcher.

The newly knocked-up actress told MTV News that Kutcher would come to their movie set with sweet stories about advice he gave his stepdaughters, which showed her that he was a committed parent to Demi Moore's kids.

Did we mention that everyone's all up in Portman's business these days?

Recently engaged to choreographer Benjamin Millepied, she oh-so-ungraciously included mention of their sex life in her Golden Globes acceptance speech.

The once-private starlet is basking in the limelight thanks to critical acclaim for playing a psycho-ballerina in "Black Swan." Honestly, we think awards should go to the actors who take on roles where they have to naturally pack on the pounds, then shed them by award season. Hear that, George Clooney, Jake Gyllenhaal and Matt Damon?

Pounds or no pounds, she's likely getting more awards if "Strings" doesn't ruin her chances, as "Norbit" did for Eddie Murphy. Her laugh has also taken on a life of its own.

"The weird thing is people knowing about something that's so private," she told MTV about her pregnancy. "But I mean, you get used to it. It's just wild to walk down the street and have a complete stranger be like, 'Congratulations!'"

Rex Ryan, Michelle Ryan and those foot-fetish videos: a holiday small-talk primer

Rex Ryan and those videos allegedly of his wife Michelle Ryan's feet -- it's a story few Christmas gatherings will be able to avoid. The New York Jets coach wouldn't normally be on the Ministry's radar, but seriously, once "The View" gets involved, with the ladies going barefoot during a foot-fetish discussion like they did Thursday, we're all over it.

The Rex Ryan foot story comes from Deadspin (home of the Brett Favre penis-picture saga) and involves "mature" foot fetish videos posted under the username "ihaveprettyfeet" and featuring a woman who resembles Michelle Ryan. One video, shown on "The View" clip embedded below, is narrated by a man whose voice resembles that of the popular NFL coach.

Tipped by a reader who frequents a foot-appreciating discussion board, Deadspin followed the ihaveprettyfeet trail from YouTube onward, noting coincidences between profile information and the Ryans' personal details. Dare we say, the site even tiptoed into the online foot-fetishist dating world, which until now the Ministry didn't even bother to imagine was a real thing.

Saying that he understood he was going to be asked the question six ways from Sunday, Ryan wouldn't say much to reporters Wednesday.  "This is a personal matter ... ," he said repeatedly, looking rather pained. "I really don't want to discuss it." (See that video below also.)

Asked about Michelle, he said, "My wife's beautiful ... been married for 23 years, and she's awesome." Michelle Ryan was among NFL wives who recently modeled for a line of league clothing aimed at women 29 to 40.

PREACH IT! How much would you pay to read about LeAnn Rimes' engagement?

When stars ask us to respect their privacy, they're often really asking us to respect their bank accounts. In Hollywood, a celebrity's most tear-jerking moments -- a wedding, a first portrait with a new baby -- often are guarded to preserve not intimacy, but rather exclusivity, so that those private moments can be packaged and sold to a tabloid for the highest amount possible.

Take, for example, chronic oversharers LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian: According to a new E! Online report, they were hoping to sell their engagement story to a tabloid -- until that uppity media disobeyed.

Per E! Online:

"Rimes and Cibrian are 'pissed' that the engagement news broke, since they were planning to cash in on their personal life by giving the exclusive to another outlet, complete with happy couple photos and the now requisite 'over the moon' pullout."

(For the record, Rimes has denied all engagement-related activity, in a very long, very angry tweet.)

Rimes and Cibrian may be even angrier when they hear this: Tabloids probably didn't want their engagement story anyway.

From my perspective, this certainly wouldn’t be a main cover story," says Mark Pasetsky, former editor of OK! magazine. “The photos that sell the most are the actual weddings, the baby photos. The engagement itself is not going to be a win for them. It would fetch $10,000 to $20,000 at best.”

And no, that’s not a lot of cash.

"Real money?" says Pasetsky, who also founded the website Cover Awards, "That would be like 100,000 or something. For a star like, say, Carrie Underwood."

Ouch.

But lest we dismiss all celebrities as sellouts, here's another bit of data: Not all celebrities care about money. Orlando Bloom wedded supermodel Miranda Kerr in secrecy, for example, and Katherine Heigl gave away a single wedding photo to all news outlets, for free, at the same time.

-- Leslie Gornstein

Photo: Leann Rimes and Eddie Cibrian at Disneyland on Oct. 8. Credit: Paul Hiffmeyer / Disneyland / Associated Press

Related dispatch from the Ministry of Gossip:

LeAnn Rimes, Eddie Cibrian will be shacking up

 

PREACH IT! Hey, Katy, Celine, Portia, thanks for sharing! Or not.

It's been quite the banner week for celebrity oversharing. And we're not even talking about David Arquette. That oversharing happened, like, a week ago. This is a brand-new slew of way-too-personal stuff that stars think we need to know.

Such as? Hey, glad you didn't ask.

Katy Perry wants everybody to know that she's amazing in the sack. “Like Ludacris rapped, 'I'm a lady in the street and a freak in the bed,' " she told Now Magazine. "I can't rate myself, but if you ask [husband] Russell [Brand], I'm sure he'd give me a ten out of ten."

Meanwhile, Portia DeGeneres is telling all about her past bout with anorexia, as part of a publicity junket for her new memoir. "It wasn't that I was proud of it," she told Oprah Winfrey. "But it was certainly a recognition for my self-control. I definitely had some pretty amazing willpower to get down to 82 pounds. And that's what I was holding on to. I didn't think about anything else."

PREACH IT! Justin Bieber, as grounded as he's always been

Justin Bieber is a little man with a taste for revenge on a large scale.

After some kid named Kevin Kristopik apparently hacked into the Twitter account of Bieber’s friend, Bieber retaliated, in a major way: He publicized Kristopik’s phone number. On his own Twitter account. Which -- because it’s Justin Bieber’s Twitter account -- means that Kristopik’s number went out to more than 4.5 million delirious Bieber fans.


Bieber represented Kristopik’s number as his own. The result? An estimated 26,000 texts from people hoping to connect with Bieber, he of the swooshy hair and the feverishly coached swagger -- not, you know, a 15-year-old Michigan teen named Kevin.

Bieber's revenge tweet has since been deleted. Kristopik, meanwhile, has changed his number and shut down his Twitter account.

Whole bunches of people -- probably the same yokels who think flight attendant Steven Slater is a shining champion of the oppressed -- will see Bieber’s actions as justified, an understandable attempt to defend himself and his friends from privacy violations.

Yeah, no.

When you’re a celebrity, there’s a reason you retain neck-snapping publicists and squadrons of lawyers who file their teeth into sharp points. And that reason is Kevin Kristopik. Bieber’s people could ...

PREACH IT! Celebrities, if you're not blogging your breakup, you are SO 2009

Celebrities are all supposedly very private people. That’s what they love to tell us, anyway, in between interviews about where they like to have sex. Even so, public breakups are rare in Hollywood. While it’s considered more than OK to share the happy days of a relationship, airing the details of the bitter end is considered poor form. Or, rather, it was. Thanks, Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi. Way to keep it classy.

But, by focusing so much on the scorched-earth tactics of the onetime “winners” of "The Bachelor," we’re missing out on other fine contenders in the public-breakup department. Yes, there’s Mel Gibson, whose leaked abuses to baby mama Oksana Grigorieva fall far beyond the pale of the typical he said-she said. But there’s also Tammy Lynn Michaels, soon-to-be ex of singer Melissa Etheridge, who has taken to blogging about her breakup in free-form verse.

"SMACK!!!!!!!!!!!!/FILE FOR DIVORCE!!!!!!/even though we both promised/agreed/
handshook/pinkyswore/no filing until after tour/in the fall/her broken promises/told to me/by headlines"