Mango Out

Happy Wednesday and away I go.  And might I add, Happy Birthday Britney.

Television actress Meredith Baxter told People magazine she is a lesbian and began dating women seven years ago.   Baxter, 62, has been married to three men, but the marriages all ended in divorce. The real-life mother of five adult children is best known for her work on the 1980s sit-com “Family Ties.”   ”I’m a lesbian mom,” she told People, adding that until several years ago being gay “had never crossed my mind.”   The actress, who also runs a skincare company, admitted coming to terms with who she is was not an easy process.   ”I was never comfortable with myself,” she explained. “That doesn’t mean I was questioning.”   Baxter went on to say she has been living with building contractor Nancy Locke for the past two years.   ”I feel like I’m being honest for the first time,” she told the magazine.   Alright, two things.  No not Mrs. Keaton, and a building contractor?  Really?  I guess who is the butch in that relationship.

In a follow-up to a story I reported Monday, Golfer Tiger Woods, engulfed in media speculation over his private life after a car accident in the middle of the night, apologized on Wednesday for “transgressions” in a statement that apparently addressed allegations he had extra-marital relationships.   Woods, the world’s number one golfer and a married father of two young  children, said in a statement published on his website that he had “not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves,” without directly addressing the allegations of infidelity.   ”I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart,” Woods said.  Woods, perhaps the world’s richest athlete with a fortune estimated at $1 billion, suffered facial cuts and bruises when he ran his Cadillac SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree while pulling out of the driveway of his home in Windermere, Florida at around 2 a.m. last Friday.   Your family?  What about your huge sponsors?  Didn’t you let them down?

Susan Boyle soared to the top of the U.S. album charts with her debut album, setting a 2009 record of 701,000 copies sold, record sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan said on Wednesday.   Boyle, 48, a frumpy Scottish singer who became an international YouTube sensation in April after appearing on TV show “Britain’s Got Talent”, also topped the British album charts earlier this week.   Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream”, which was released last week, marked the best U.S. opening of a female artist’s debut album since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, Billboard.com said.   So what is the over-under on when she will have her next breakdown?

Singer/songwriter Kelis said Wednesday she will release her next album through will.i.am Music Group/ Interscope Records. Her most recent offering, the David Guetta-produced album “Acapella,” can be bought through her Web site www.iamkelis.com. The CD features production work by some of today’s most influential producers, including will.i.am, David Guetta, Free School, Boys Noize, Burns and DJ Ammo, the record label said.   ”I love that I am now a new part of the Interscope family,” Kelis said in a statement. “2010 is around the corner and I can’t wait to put out new music and spend time with real music fans on tour again.”   ”Kelis represents the kind of edge that pushes all of us not just musically but stylistically as well,” will.i.am added. “She has always opened new doors for her audience and we’re ready to walk through this next one with her.”   ”Kelis is a true artist and we’re so excited to start this new chapter in her musical life,” said Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records.  Um I don’t think her milkshake is bringing the boys to the yard much anymore.

Nicole Sullivan and Valerie Bertinelli are about to be in even better company as Eastwick star Sara Rue joins them as the newest spokesperson for Jenny Craig. The 31-year-old actress tells PEOPLE that she can’t wait to start the program. “My weight has fluctuated my whole life, and because I’ve been on television since I was 11 years old, everyone has seen it,” she explains. “I think like so many women in this country I have a problem controlling what I eat sometimes based on my emotional health.” Bertinelli, who lost 40 pounds on Jenny Craig, tells PEOPLE that Rue “is me three years ago. She’s every woman who’s ever started a diet.” She will be a good spokesperson because, “she’s real. She’s honest.” Rue’s initial weight loss goal is 30 pounds. Then, she says, “we’ll see how my body looks, how I feel, and go from there.” Her first post-weight loss goal? “Rock climbing or wind surfing!” Rue says. “The things that I’m just too intimidated the size I am now to do.” Eh, a better question is Sara Who?

Speaking of Tiger Woods, A second woman has stepped into the spotlight in the Tiger Woods controversy – and this one whole-heartedly claims that she and the champion golfer had an affair.   Jamie Grubbs, a cocktail waitress who appeared on the VH1 show Tool Academy, tells the British tabloid the Sun that she and the pro golfer had a 31-month fling that included around 20 sexual encounters, the first just days before Woods’s wife, Elin Nordegren, gave birth to the married couple’s first child.  Oh that is just classic, I totally watched Tool Academy.

It’s a baby girl for singer Lisa Loeb and her husband Roey Hershkovitz, her rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.   Lyla Rose Loeb Hershkovitz arrived Sunday morning at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and is the first child for the couple.   Loeb, 41, and Hershkovitz, 31, a music production supervisor for The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, announced that they were expecting in September.  I wonder if Lisa Loeb still has benefits?

And finally, Natalie Portman, everywhere now thanks to the release of her new film “Brothers,” is also in the new issue of Marie Claire. A condensed version of the interview is online on the magazine’s web site, and at the very end the Harvard grad explains how sheltered her life has been since she’s worked from a young age.  She argues she was a late social bloomer because of her work:  “OK, so I didn’t really go to high school parties,” she says, “and yeah, I didn’t touch pot till I was in my 20s. I didn’t get flat-out drunk until I went to college. But I think that’s a good thing in many ways.”  Portman also explains how “Brothers” costar made it easier for the vegetarian to be vegan.  Oh can Nats do no wrong?  I think not.

You Know The Drill

Mango Out

Happy Monday Kiddies and away I go.  It is next to impossible for me to do updates when I am at my parents house and my macbook is here, so sorry.

Singer Adam Lambert’s sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards has caused the Walt Disney Co-owned ABC-TV to review the steps it takes in preparing for live broadcasts of performers, Disney’s head of television said on Monday.   Lambert, the runner-up on this year’s “American Idol,” gave a controversial performance during ABC’s broadcast of the American Music Awards on November 22, in which he simulated oral sex on-stage with a backup dancer, kissed a man and gave the middle finger to the audience.   ABC edited Lambert’s performance during the West Coast broadcast of the night-time awards show, and later canceled Lambert’s scheduled November 25 appearance on its “Good Morning America” program.  Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney told Reuters that in reaction to the Lambert performance, Disney was reviewing the steps it takes to vet live performances by getting assurances from artists that their stage shows will resemble their rehearsals, and using contractual obligations to hold them to that.   Well why didn’t MTV edit out the Britney / Madonna kiss from 5 years ago. 

Golf star Tiger Woods took responsibility on Sunday for crashing his SUV outside his Florida house and said his wife acted courageously to help him, but again canceled an interview with authorities investigating the incident.  The world’s top golfer said he wanted to keep details private of the accident in which his SUV crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree outside his mansion, but a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) officer said charges were still pending.   The accident occurred after Woods pulled his Cadillac Escalade out of the driveway of his house at about 2:25 a.m. EST on Friday, the FHP said. He was taken to the hospital with injuries and released.   ”This situation is my fault and it’s obviously embarrassing to my family and me,” Woods, 33, said on his official website.  “I’m human and I’m not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn’t happen again.   ”This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way. Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.”  I suggest Kobe’s lawyer.

Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal’s representatives say the dating Hollywood stars have not broken up, contrary to a report claiming they did.   People.com quoted an unnamed source as saying, without elaboration, that Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal recently ended their romantic relationship after about two years.   However, representatives for the celebrities told the magazine’s Web site the insider has the story wrong.   ”It is not true,” the stars’ publicists Nanci Ryder and Carrie Byalick said in a joint statement. “They are still together.”   Witherspoon, a divorced mother of two, won the 2006 Oscar for her work in “Walk the Line.”   Gyllenhaal is best known for his performance in the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain.” His new film “Brothers” is to open in U.S. theaters Friday.   Anything for publicity to keep his name out there for his new movie opening.

Oprah Winfrey’s production company says there are no plans to air the traditional favorite things episode of her show this year.   The decision was confirmed by TVGuide.com Wednesday but no reason for the change was reported.   Since 2002, Winfrey has bestowed her favorite beauty products, food, books, appliances and other items on all the members of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” studio audience one day around Thanksgiving. The special episode is usually wildly popular with her fans.   However, a Harpo Productions representative told TVGuide.com there are no plans for such a show this season.   Winfrey recently announced her intention to wrap up her show in 2011 after 25 years.   Damn it Oprah, you really suck as of late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In his VH1 show My Antonio, Antonio Sabato Jr. traveled to Hawaii in search of love – and he found it!   The actor, 37, stepped out with his new love, singer-songwriter Cheryl Moana Marie, on Sunday at the Hollywood Christmas Parade, introducing her as “my girlfriend.”   Shortly after Sabato’s show wrapped, a source tells insiders, he and the Hawaiian-born Marie began to date. “They are so solid, so happy together,” the source says.  See people, level B celebs really can find love on reality TV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’ll be a first-family wedding for former first daughter Chelsea Clinton. The daughter of President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, it has been confirmed to MSN.com.   Clinton, 29, of course, is the former first couple’s only child. Mezvinsky, a banker and fellow Stanford alumnus, is the 31-year-old son of former Iowa congressman Ed Mezvinsky and former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinksy. The two became engaged on Thanksgiving, which they spent in New York.  I bet he is doing it for the celebrity status.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the stuff country songs are made of. David Hasselhoff and his ex-wife Pamela Bach are having a troubled start to the holiday season – one landing in the hospital, the other in jail over the Thanksgiving weekend.   Hasselhoff was hospitalized for two days, PEOPLE has confirmed, though his attorney Mel Goldsman would not disclose the nature of his illness.   “David is home now and he’s fine,” says Goldsman. Hasselhoff’s troubles began at home on Friday. Though authorities did not identify the name of the patient or the owner of the home, a fire department spokesman did confirm that paramedics responded to a call for medical aid at 11:51 a.m. at a home in Encino, and the patient was transported by ambulance to a local hospital. People learned that the address of the home matches the one owned by Hasselhoff.   Also, Hasselhoff’s ex-wife Bach was arrested on a DUI charge by the California Highway Patrol on Saturday night while driving down the 101 Freeway near Laurel Canyon Blvd. According to a Los Angeles Police Department jail spokesman, she was taken into custody at the Van Nuys jail and later released on her own recognizance.  When will the cops stop hasselling the Hoff?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fourth time just might be the charm for Tom Arnold, who wed Ashley Groussman in an intimate ceremony on Saturday in Maui, PEOPLE has confirmed.   More than 75 family and friends attended the ceremony at Shep and Renee Gordon’s home, including actor Dax Shepard, who served as Arnold’s best man. Andrea Groussman was the maid of honor and designed the couple’s rings.  Arnold and home organizer Groussman, who wore a Claire Pettibone gown, met through mutual friends in April 2008. “I knew that if I could get Ashley to fall in love with me, I’d never have to worry about anything else as long as I lived,” Arnold wrote on the couple’s weddingchannel.com page. The two became engaged this past March at Arnold’s 50th birthday party. “I’m the luckiest girl in the world!” Groussman wrote.  Wow, 4^th time?  Does he still have any money?  Because he isn’t that attractive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These days Stephanie Pratt looks like a shell of her former self – but unlike most Tinseltowners who are quick say they popped the pounds with “diet & exercise,” the 23-year-old said being down in the dumps lead to a dramatic weight loss. “It was 6 months of hating life! It was a great secret,” she told Tarts at a recent Hollywood bash when we asked how she lost so much weight. “I got backstabbed by half of my friends, and people stopped looking at me as a friend and more of a commodity and what they could get in the end. I am a very sensitive person to a fault, and I’ve never been mean to anyone and I kept on thinking, ‘What’s wrong with me that makes these people treat me like this? What did I do to attract this?’”  And according to New York nutritionist and founder of SkinnyandtheCity.com Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD Pratt’s now scary skinny body isn’t exactly healthy and she estimates the reality starlet has probably gone from 140 pounds to 112 in the last four-five months.  Eh, my guess is that it was a liquid diet, remember she got a DUI a couple of months ago.

And finally, Now that Rihanna has gotten much of the explaining and documenting of her infamous night with Chris Brown that left her beaten and bloodied, she’s free to talk about less serious things, like naked photos of herself and sex in general. The ‘Russian Roulette’ R&B queen boldly opens up in an exclusive interview with Britain’s The Sun, telling the newspaper that she thinks “Every woman should have naked pictures taken.” Her reasoning? “In five years my body might not look like this!”  Um Rihanna, didn’t this get you in trouble a couple of months ago, when the naked pictures were “leaked” on to the Internet.

You Know The Drill

Mango Out