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SIMON COWELL has stepped up his relationship with an AMERICAN IDOL make-up artist, whisking her away for a luxury vacation before his 50th birthday bash on Saturday (03Oct09).
The music mogul has previously dismissed reports he is dating 36-year-old Mezhgan Hussainy, insisting they are "just good friends".
But he was more than happy to fly the beauty into Miami, Florida last week (26Sep09) to join him for a private break, according to Britain’s Daily Mirror.
The couple is said to have enjoyed five days basking in the sun and relaxing poolside at the Setai Hotel before jetting off to the U.K. for Cowell’s lavish birthday celebration this weekend (03Oct09).
A source tells the publication, "Simon knew he wouldn’t get too much time with Mezhgan at his big party so this was the perfect way for them to spend quality time together and give her his undivided attention."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

U.S. comedian PAUL RODRIGUEZ is recovering after he was hospitalised in Washington, D.C. on Thursday (01Sep09) for crippling stomach pains.
The funnyman/actor was in the U.S. capital to chair a meeting of the California Latino Water Coalition when he started to feel unwell, and was later found in his hotel room unable to move due to severe stomach cramps.
He was rushed to nearby George Washington University Hospital, where is currently recuperating in the intensive care unit.
Jamie Masada, a longtime friend and owner of West Hollywood’s Laugh Factory, insists the Rat Race star will be back on his feet in no time.
He tells EOnline.com, "It was either some type of food poisoning or abdominal infection. But it was something not life-threatening. They don’t know what it is (he’s suffering from)."

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NICOLAS CAGE is in more financial trouble - a bank is suing him for breach of contract.
The actor is facing a $2 million (GBP1.3 million) lawsuit for allegedly breaching contract on an agreed monthly sum to East West Bank.
The bank officials claim they extended Cage a line of credit in August 2007 and he agreed to pay $11,590 (GBP7,726) per month until the debt was paid.
But in documents obtained by TMZ.com, the bank bosses allege Cage missed payment for May, June, July and September (09).
East West financiers are now demanding the return of the entire sum, plus costs.
It’s another financial blow for the National Treasure star - Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials reportedly filed tax lien documents against Cage this summer (09), alleging the star failed to pay $6,257,005 (GBP4,171,340) to cover his income tax in 2007.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

KATE BECKINSALE has been named Esquire magazine’s Sexiest Woman Alive.
The Underworld star, 36, takes the crown from Halle Berry, who was named last year’s (08) top lady - but the feisty Brit insists her brothers won’t let the new title go to her head.
She says, "This whole notion of being named Sexiest Woman Alive is going to earn me quite a beating. You can’t have that title with four brothers. I’ll get wedgies. Headlocks. Noogies (knuckles to the head).
"I’m feeling that I must earn this - I need to go out and become much better at pole dancing or something."

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BRAD PITT and ANGELINA JOLIE took a low-key trip to Damascus in Syria on Friday (02Oct09) to meet Iraqi refugees.
Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency, visited two families who had to pay for their freedom after members had become kidnap victims of former leader Saddam Hussein.
One woman the couple met had been kidnapped alongside her son and assaulted. She was eventually released after her family paid a $40,000 (£26,600) ransom.
After hearing the woman’s traumatic story, the actress told her, "I’m grateful to you for sharing this story. It helps to make it easier to understand your problems. There’s a lot of suffering in this part of the world; you’re a very brave and strong woman for putting this behind you for the sake of your children." According to Us Weekly, Pitt and Jolie also met Syria’s leader President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma al-Assad.
Following the high-powered meeting, Jolie stated, "It is clear that the Syrian people, no matter the challenges or difficulties they may face, have always shown generous hospitality to people in need. I hope that the rest of the world recognises that we all have to share this burden and continue to take care of Iraqi refugees."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

MADONNA is the queen of Europe after taking her new hits album CELEBRATION to the top of the continent’s charts.
The compilation topples Muse’s The Resistance to debut at the top of Billboard’s European Top 100 Albums countdown.
Celebration tops album charts in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Ireland and Denmark and debuts at two in Spain, Portugal and Finland.
The album gives Madonna her 11th number one in her adopted Britain - equalling Elvis Presley as a solo artist and putting her four albums behind the Beatles.
The Muse album falls to two and Pearl Jam’s new release, Backspacer, debuts at three.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

BEYONCE claimed Billboard magazine’s prestigious Woman of The Year Award at a gala brunch in New York on Friday (02Oct09).
The annual event recognises the year’s top 30 women in the music business, and publication editorial director Bill Werde insists picking Beyonce this year was an easy choice.
He says, "Beyonce is a multi-platinum artist and a multi-talented woman who clearly embodies the qualities of excellence and achievement that the Billboard Woman of the Year Award was created to honour.
"She has not only influenced pop culture with her hit songs and her signature dance moves, but has inspired women everywhere with her unique style, business savvy and dedication to charitable causes.
"It is theoretically possible someone on some other planet had a better year than Beyonce, but I’m not buying it." Staten Island school group the P.S. 22 Chorus then paid tribute to the hitmaker with renditions of her hits Halo and Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It).
Lady GaGa was also among the 2009 honorees - she took home the Rising Star Award.
The thrilled Paparazzi singer said, "Twelve months ago I never would have imagined being here and receiving this award."

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PARAMORE star HAYLEY WILLIAMS has joined MILEY CYRUS on the sick list after pulling out of a series of shows with a sore throat.
The singer struggled through the first gig on the band’s U.S. tour in California earlier this week (beg28Sep09), apologising to fans for not being on top form.
But now her sore throat has been diagnosed as laryngitis, forcing the band to postpone gigs until 9 October (09).
In a post on Twitter.com, Williams writes, "I have never felt more support nor have I been more thankful for our fans. You have no idea how much your encouragement means to me." Cyrus pulled out of shows earlier this week when she was struck down with a sore throat.

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BEYONCE’s manager/father is at the centre of a new paternity case, filed by a 30-something Los Angeles woman.
Alexsandra Wright claims Mathew Knowles is the father of her unborn child, due in December (09).
And what gives her case considerable weight is the fact top lawyer Neal Hersh is representing her.
TMZ.com reports Wright works in the name-branding business.
News of the lawsuit broke just hours after Beyonce had picked up Billboard magazine’s Woman of The Year Award in New York.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

TLC star TIONNE ‘T-BOZ’ WATKINS has been battling a brain tumour for the last three years.
The hip-hop star, who also suffers from sickle-cell disease, reveals she was diagnosed with a non-cancerous acoustic neuroma in 2006 after years of painful headaches prompted her to seek professional medical treatment.
Watkins was sent for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan, and medics discovered she had a tumour the size of a grapefruit on her brain.
She tells People magazine, "Because of my sickle-cell disease, I have a high tolerance for pain. By 2006, I’d had headaches for six years. I thought it was stress. But when my vision went blurry, I got an MRI." She underwent a seven-hour operation to remove the growth in November 2006, but she almost didn’t pull through after experiencing complications related to her life-threatening blood disorder.
Watkins explains, "When I awoke, I could hear and I looked normal, but then I had a sickle-cell crisis. With the pain meds and steroids, they said I kept flopping and hitting my head. They gave me IV (intravenous) fluids in order to stop it.
"After I was released (from hospital) more than a week later, the ride to my Los Angeles apartment was like vertigo to the 10th power. I had to sit up in bed for two months. They propped me up, but I kept sliding down, which made my head swell. It was so painful. At one point, fluid poured out of my nose.
"I was readmitted (to hospital). I couldn’t walk or really see. I heard screeching noises. They said, ‘We may have to cut you open again…’ I prayed and the fluid stopped." The setback in her recovery became so bad, Watkins was left unable to speak for months: "In rehab, I had to relearn how to walk and how to say my ABCs." Watkins regained her speech within a year and went on to appear on U.S. TV’s Celebrity Apprentice in March (09), keeping her diagnosis a secret from her fellow contestants even though she was still a little unsteady on her feet.
She explains, "I didn’t want pity."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Pop star KATY PERRY has fuelled speculation she’s dating funnyman RUSSELL BRAND after the pair was spotted walking arm-in-arm through London on Friday (02Oct09).
The I Kissed A Girl hitmaker is rumoured to be romancing Brand after they met backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards last month (Sep09).
They reportedly jetted to Thailand recently to get better acquainted - and now they appear to have taken their relationship to the next level as Brand was seen on Friday showing Perry around Hampstead in North London, where he lives.
The funnyman wrapped an arm around the singer as he escorted her to a coffee shop, and they were also spotted holding hands before walking through nearby Hampstead Heath park.
A WENN photographer who took a series of shots of the pair during their stroll says, "They make a great couple. Both of them were wearing sunglasses but they weren’t trying to hide away. Russell was very tactile and touched Katy affectionately a number of times during their walk." The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor reportedly wooed Perry by writing a poem in her honour and asking for a verse in exchange, prompting the saucy singer to send back a snap of herself with the word ‘poem’ written across her chest.

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Sporting legends CHRIS EVERT and GREG NORMAN have split.
The couple wed in the Bahamas last summer (Jun08).
A statement from the two 54 year old stars reads, "We will remain friends and supportive of one another’s family."

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Seminal horror movie BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is set for a 10th anniversary sequel, with the original directors behind a new concept.
The low-budget 1999 movie was an instant cult hit and now co-directors Ed Sanchez and Dan Myrick have revealed they plan to follow the success of the original.
An ill-fated sequel, Book of Shadows, was released in 2000 - with Sanchez and Myrick onboard as writers, but it was slated by critics and fans alike.
Now the duo want to revisit the original and make a proper sequel.
Sanchez tells website Bloody-Disgusting.com, "We are about as far along on a sequel idea as we’ve ever been. This is the first idea that Dan and I have really latched onto that we thought, ‘It would be cool.’ It’s a completely different kind of film, but we think it’s in the original spirit of the first one.
"In the next couple of weeks, something should happen; either a yes or a no or a maybe… The news is coming soon." Myrick adds, "We’ve been working on an idea and it’s a concept that we like a lot… Ed and I feel that the timing is right and enough time has gone by that the backlash to Blair Witch (Book of Secrets) has kind of subsided and a new generation of kids are out to embrace a Blair Witch franchise on the merits of the movie itself, rather than it trying to live up or be what the first film was, which it never will be.
"Our hope is that the sequel will stay within the mythology that we created in the first film and stand on its own two feet."

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A U.S. TV news producer has pleaded not guilty to charges of blackmailing late-show host DAVID LETTERMAN.
Robert Halderman has been charged with attempted first degree grand larceny after allegedly threatening to expose Letterman’s affairs with employees unless the TV titan paid $2 million (£1.3 million) to silence him.
Letterman addressed the allegations against him on his The Late Show on Thursday night (01Oct09) after testifying before a grand jury earlier in the day.
The talk show host confessed, "I have had sex with women who work on this show." Halderman, who produces CBS news show 48 Hours, has been suspended from his job pending an investigation.
He was arraigned in Manhattan on Friday (02Oct09). His bail has been set at $200,000 (£133,300).
Halderman has posted bail and is scheduled to appear in court on 10 November (09).

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Actress HAYDEN PANETTIERE was the one who suggested her HEROES character should be involved in a lesbian romance on the hit show this season.
The Canadian star, who plays cheerleader Claire Bennett in the sci-fi series, will fall for her college roommate, Madeleine Zima, in an upcoming plotline and she reveals it was her idea to get sexy with another girl.
She explains, "I kinda threw it out there… They (writers) put you in relationships and I was like, ‘Can I just be with a girl or something…? Let’s do that.’ "So they took it and ran with it. She’s a great girl… and we have a blast."

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Jailed moviemaker ROMAN POLANSKI agreed to pay the girl he had unlawful sex with $500,000 (GBP333,300) 16 years ago, according to newly-released court documents.
Papers obtained by the Los Angeles Times newspaper suggest the director agreed to pay Samantha Geimer as part of a civil settlement after she filed suit against him in 1988, accusing the director of sexual assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and seduction.
In October 1993, Polanski agreed to pay Geimer $500,000 with interest, according to the settlement documents, and was given two years to pay up.
The papers suggest Geimer’s attorneys had to fight for the full settlement after the director missed the 1995 deadline. It is not made clear if Polanski paid up in full.
Geimer was just 13 when Polanski plied the aspiring model with alcohol and drugs and then had sex with her in a bedroom at his Chinatown star Jack Nicholson’s house.
Polanski was arrested in Los Angeles and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, before fleeing to France in 1978.
On Saturday (26Sep09), he was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland in connection with the 31-year-old case and is now fighting extradition to the U.S.

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JOSH BROLIN has stepped in to replace pal SEAN PENN in upcoming crime film CARTEL.
Penn was the first choice to play the lead in the film about a man battling the Mexican drug cartel bosses who killed his wife.
The movie was one of several projects Penn pulled out of in June (09) - when he took a hiatus from film for undisclosed personal reasons. His announcement came two months before his estranged wife Robin Wright Penn filed for divorce.
Brolin is scheduled to begin shooting Cartel in January (10) in Mexico City, reports Variety.

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Soul superstar MARY J. BLIGE and supermodel NAOMI CAMPBELL will be honoured for their career achievements at the upcoming Black Girls Rock! Awards in New York.
The pair will be hailed alongside actress Raven Symone and singer Janelle Monae at the ceremony, which celebrates women of colour.
Previous honourees include rapper Missy Elliott, Jennifer Hudson, Iman and Erykah Badu.

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