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DEMI LOVATO was the one handing out gifts on her 18th birthday on Friday (20Aug10) - she bought her family a house.
The singer/actress decided to celebrate her big day by giving back to t he family that has supported her through her career - and she handed them the keys to a Mediterranean style home in Los Angeles, according to Peop le.com.
She says, "For me to give (that) to my family on my birthday, that was the best present." Lovato plans to use the place as her base whenever she’s in California.
She adds, "It’s got pretty much everything you could possibly imagine i n it. It’s the most beautiful, homey-feeling house. I love it." (KL/WNWCP

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DANNY DEVITO will accept a film award on behalf of his actor pal MICHAEL DOUGLAS, according to new reports.
The actor, who teamed up with Douglas in Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, will jet to the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland to take part in a tribute to Douglas as the star undergoes chemotherapy for a thr oat tumour.
DeVito will accept the Golden Icon Award at the festival on 3 October ( 10), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film festival hit the headlines last year (09) - Roman Polanski was arrested there by Swiss police as he arrived to pick up a lifetime achie vement award.

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Reality TV star SPENCER PRATT is planning to go public with a sex tape fe aturing himself and his soon-to-be ex-wife HEIDI MONTAG.
Internet porn boss Steven Hirsch has revealed he has spoken with Pratt about the explicit footage and hopes to do a deal with him to release it via his Vivid Entertainment company.
He tells TMZ.com, "I just got off the phone with Spencer Pratt about a sex tape with Heidi Montag. We are in early negotiations to possibly come to terms for a deal." And Pratt tells UsMagazine.com, "I’ve been making films since I was in the seventh grade. I’m looking forward to people seeing my directorial debut!" The news of the deal comes just days after Montag threatened to sue her estranged husband if he went ahead with plans to write a memoir revealin g details about his romance with his The Hills co-star.

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ANNA NICOLE SMITH’s ex-lover LARRY BIRKHEAD fought back tears in court on Friday (20Aug10) as he testified about the late star’s drug lows.
The photographer, who is the father of Smith’s daughter Dannielynn, res umed testifying in the drug conspiracy trial of doctors Khristine Eroshev ich and Sandeep Kapoor and Smith=E2=80=99s former boyfriend and lawyer Ho ward K. Stern and told the court in Los Angeles that the actress/model of ten suffered seizures after taking drugs.
Birkhead also revealed Anna Nicole would fall asleep during meals becau se of the numerous prescription medications she was taking.
The doctors and Stern are accused of prescribing to an addict, as well as conspiring to provide excessive opiates and sedatives to Smith. All th ree have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to provide excessive drugs to t he star.
Birkhead, who once battled Stern for custody of Dannielynn and has rece ntly become the lawyer’s friend, said he saw Stern give Smith medicine wh en she didn=E2=80=99t feel well, and testified he knew the attorney was p icking up prescriptions for her.
And when he hid a powerful painkiller from his then-girlfriend, Stern c alled him and asked where it was.
But Anna Nicole always insisted she was not an addict, despite the larg e amounts of drugs she took for a number of ailments.
Birkhead revealed, "She would say, ‘I=E2=80=99m in pain. I=E2=80=99m no t a drug addict… I have a high tolerance because I=E2=80=99m in pain.’" The three-week-old trial continues.

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A former hip-hop executive who gave up his music career to dedicate his l ife to Judaism was shot and killed in New York City on Thursday (19Aug10) ..
Yosef Robinson, 34, was fatally shot during a robbery at MB Vineyards, a kosher liquor store in Brooklyn.
According to U.S. news network New York 1, a gunman walked into the sto re and demanded that Robinson’s girlfriend hand over her bracelet. Robins on was shot several times in the chest and arm while trying to protect he r.
He was taken to local Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced de ad.
Robinson was born in Jamaica, and worked as a hip-hop executive before converting to Judaism.
His lyrics were taken from religious book the Torah and turned into reg gae songs. He was reportedly working on a book about how he turned to Jud aism to escape a life of drugs and violence at the time of his death.
New York City Police Department officials are on the hunt for his kille r.

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DOOBIE BROTHERS singer MICHAEL MCDONALD, BOZ SCAGGS and STEELY DAN’s DONA LD FAGEN have reformed doo-wop supergroup DUKES OF SEPTEMBER.
The trio last played together in 1993 as part of the New York Rock and Soul Revue, and now they’ve joined forces once again for a U.S. tour.
The singers will play hits from their own back catalogues when they hit the road with members of Steely Dan’s touring group, and Scaggs admits i t wasn’t tough getting the guys back together once their schedules lined up.
He tells USA Today, =E2=80=9COne phone call is all it took to get me ou t with these guys. Our audiences like each other… and rhythm and blues from the late =E2=80=9960s and =E2=80=9970s is what I cut my teeth on.=E2 =80=9D Meanwhile Fagen is keen to bring his decades-old hits to younger audien ces, adding: =E2=80=9CWe don=E2=80=99t want this music to be forgotten."

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Rocker JOHN MELLENCAMP turned a recent recording session into a baptism c eremony after telling vergers at the church studio he had never been bapt ised.
The Jack & Diane singer has been recording an album on tour, turning fa mous "rooms" into impromptu studios - and when he stopped off at the Firs t African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia he decided it was time to g et baptised.
He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "I recorded right on the pulpit, and u nderneath me was the baptismal.
"On one song, I sing, ‘I ain’t been baptised.’ Someone from the church said, ‘We’ll baptise you.’" Mellencamp agreed, adding, "There were attendants taking care of me, dr essing me… I felt downright uplifted for a few hours."

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HEART sisters ANN and NANCY WILSON are still fuming over their public spa t with SARAH PALIN - they were forced to improve their security arrangeme nts after receiving death threats.
The Alone hitmakers blasted the former U.S. Republican vice-presidentia l candidate after she used their hit song Barracuda in her 2008 election campaign.
They issued an angry statement reassuring fans they do not share Palin’ s political views - but the incident caused some supporters to walk away from the band, and the rockers were later targeted by "crazies".
Nancy Wilson tells Classic Rock magazine, "Some of the fans decided the y didn’t like us and didn’t like our music any more. At least for a while .. We were out on the road, and the next show that we played after that wa s somewhere in Florida - which is not where you wanna be if you’re a Demo crat.
"We were kinda nervous, but we upped our security and kept a close watc h on people walking in. Luckily - knock on wood - of all the crazies who have threatened to take us down, nobody so far has done that." (ZN/CRM/KL

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Rapper T.I. turned counsellor for his fellow inmates in an Arkansas priso n, where he served time in 2009 for illegal weapons possession, after rea lising many of the convicts had no idea how to go straight.
The hitmaker, real name Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr., opted to be as con structive as he could be while behind bars and held a series of self-enri chment classes for inmates at Forrest City.
He explains, "While I was there I just noticed that so many cats that I was around was kinda like, ‘When I get out, I dunno what I’m gonna do. I don’t wanna get back to hustling but I don’t know what else to do.’ "So I got with the warden and the powers that be and they allowed me to do a class, basically just trying to change criminals ways of thinking..
.. It was an open conversation and just comparing points of perception and how you look at things in life.
"My main thing was to tell them, ‘To get something you’ve never have yo u must be willing to do something you’ve never done.’" The rapper spent six months behind bars last year (09) for possession o f unregistered machine guns and silencers, as well as firearms from a con victed felon. He was released from prison on 22 December (09). (KL/WNVKIM

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Hip-hop star WYCLEF JEAN has been told to put his political plans on hold - Haitian lawmakers have ruled he’s ineligible to run for presidential o ffice, according to reports.
The former Fugees star went into hiding earlier this week (beg16Aug10) after receiving death threats following his decision to campaign to becom e his native Haiti’s next President, replacing friend Rene Preval.
The defiant star insisted he would still make sure his name was on the ballot in November (10) if electoral officials gave him the greenlight to run for office, but they have dashed his hopes by ruling Jean fails to m eet the criteria.
Candidates must have lived in Haiti for at least five years before beco ming eligible for the top political office. Jean was born in Haiti but he moved to the U.S. when he was nine and his primary residence is in New J ersey.
On Thursday night’s (19Aug10) Larry King Live TV show, the singer/songw riter told the newsman he would concentrate on his charity efforts to imp rove Haiti following January’s earthquake, which left the nation devastat ed, if he is turned down as a presidential candidate.
He said, "If I’m turned down… what we will do is, we have the movemen t for the youth, which is called Fas a Fas and the political party, which is called Vive a Sum, living together. We will continue to fight in the sense of how can we work with the new government, the administration… t o give kids (a good education), which is one of the number one things in the constitution, the Haitian constitution, (that) says all kids should h ave privilege to a free education. And that’s something that we’re going to push on, whether I make it or not." One person who will be relieved by the news is Wyclef’s uncle, Raymond Joseph.
The publisher, who was the first person to translate the New Testament into Creole, is a candidate for the presidency.

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Reality TV queen SHARON OSBOURNE has blasted hit show JERSEY SHORE, insis ting it’s not a programme adults should watch.
The woman credited with kickstarting the current trend for fly-on-the-w all reality TV dramas with The Osbournes has had enough of the genre, ins isting the latest shows are "so c**p".
And there’s one series in particular she hates - Jersey Shore.
She says, "There’s a bunch of kids that love to party, let’s watch ‘em.
F**k, no. Why would anybody watch that as an adult? Why would an adult w atch Jersey Shore? "(But) it’s great for kids… and they get paid for it, so God bless th em."

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JENNIFER ANISTON was left red-faced during a recent TV interview with U.S .. comedian JON STEWART - when the smitten talk show host confronted the a ctress about a date gone wrong.
Aniston appeared on Stewart’s The Daily Show on Thursday night (19Aug10 ), and the host took the opportunity to remind her of a past dinner date that didn’t go quite as he’d planned.
Stewart thought he would be enjoying an intimate date with the actress, but she had other ideas - and invited her friends to join her.
He recalled, "I asked you out, we went out to an Italian restaurant. An d it was lovely… You brought so many of your friends. I remember thinki ng, ‘Wow, she’s so excited to be on a date with me that she wants me to g et to know her posse.’" The blushing actress admitted she remembered the awkward meeting but di dn’t do much to console her former admirer, telling him "That’s really sa d".

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U.S. TV icon HENRY WINKLER is set to get animated after signing on to voi ce a character on adult cartoon series CHILDRENS HOSPITAL.
The 64 year old actor has inked a deal with bosses at the Cartoon Netwo rk to play an overly nice hospital administrator on the late-night medica l comedy.
Network bosses will launch 12 original episodes of the show on Sunday ( 22Aug10) - and series creator Rob Corddry, the star of Hot Tub Time Machi ne, is already heaping praise on his Happy Days idol.
He says, "At the very least it is one of the greatest honours of my lif e (to work with) Henry Winkler, and he does not disappoint." (JMA/WNWA/KL

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LOST star JOSH HOLLOWAY is in talks to return to the small screen as icon ic private eye JIM ROCKFORD in a revamp of 1970s TV drama THE ROCKFORD FI LES.
The actor, who played stranded James ‘Sawyer’ Ford in the desert island drama for six seasons, has been taking a break to focus on his family si nce the show wrapped earlier this year (10) - but now he’s in negotiation s to front a new TV series.
Reports suggest he’s the favourite to take over James Garner’s title ro le in The Rockford Files.
Producer David Shore tells EW.com, "It=E2=80=99s too premature=E2=80=9D to comment on Holloway’s negotiations, but reveals actor/filmmaker Peter Berg is onboard to produce and "possibly direct".
The first attempt to revive the franchise, which was to feature Dermot Mulroney as Rockford, failed to launch last spring (09) when a pilot epis ode received a lackluster review from TV bosses.

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Soft-porn king JOE FRANCIS is waging a war of words with JERRY O’CONNELL after the actor hinted his character in new disaster movie PIRANHA 3D is loosely based on the GIRLS GONE WILD filmmaker.
O’Connell plays a pornographer filming girls in bikinis on Spring Break , who loses his penis to the ravenous flesh eating fish of the title, and recently joked, "I get to play Joe Francis! Oh, wait. For legal reasons I’m supposed to say, ‘I play someone loosely based on Joe Francis.’" But the remark has upset the filmmaker and his lawyers have been quick to warn producers and movie executives at the Weinstein Company, that "an y defamatory or disparaging statements… will be met with swift litigati on." And now Francis has broken his silence to take aim at the actor.
He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "I believe Mr. O’Connell may lose more than his penis if he and the Weinstein Co. choose to release this film a nd continue to falsely associate me with its questionable content.
"I appreciate a good parody as much as the next guy, but to associate m e with drugs and the filming of underage girls crosses a definite line. J erry O’Connell has repeatedly and emphatically stated on the public recor d that he is ‘playing Joe Francis,’ not a fictional character based on me ..
"Mr. O’Connell has done this despite having been warned by his own lawy ers not to admit this." Francis says he hasn’t seen the new film yet but his lawyers are monito ring the situation and will not hesitate to sue.
He adds: "The actors, producers, distributors and others associated wit h this film are on notice that my legal team will be evaluating their fil m and monitoring their promotional activities. Clearly, this film was int ended to be more than a mere parody, and I intend to seek damages if and when the film is distributed." A Weinstein Company spokesperson says, "We don’t comment on any pending legal matters." Piranha 3D is released across America on Friday (20Aug10). (JMA/WNWA/KL

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MADONNA is urging fans to stop referring to her as the MATERIAL GIRL - be cause she "hates" the "materialistic" undertones of her famous nickname.
The pop superstar is often called by the title of her hit 1985 single, but the singer has long wanted to drop the moniker as she doesn’t like th e inference that she is obsessed with wealth.
She tells Britain’s Daily Star, "Everyone relates that title to me beca use of the song I did like 300 years ago. It’s a title I got stuck with. When I first did the song it was meant in an ironic way, as I don’t think of myself as a materialistic person. I hate that name but I do love clot hes and fashion and I love beautiful things.
"As the years went by strangers would see me in the street and shout, ‘ Yo it’s the Material Girl!’ and I was like, ‘Ahh, I’m not. I hate that na me.’" But Madonna has accepted she will struggle to shake off her famous titl e and is trying to see the funny side.
She adds, "I realised I needed to get a sense of humour and embrace it.
"

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Singer MIKA employs members of his family as aides when he’s on tour - be cause nobody else would help him when he first launched his career.
The Grace Kelly hitmaker was desperate for hired hands when he started out in the music business but struggled to find a suitable entourage.
So he turned to his relatives for help - and the arrangement worked so well, he stuck with it even after shooting to fame.
Mika says, "We travel separately but we see each other at shows. We wor k together but don’t all live together. We’ve just become a strange circu s family. When I was starting out, I couldn’t find anyone. I didn’t have any money and nobody wanted to work with me. I hadn’t even signed (a reco rd deal) at that point so my family said they’d help and it just worked, so we kept it that way."

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Singer FLORENCE WELCH is going back to basics for her next album - she’s making music using saucepans, tea trays, and pens.
The Florence and the Machine frontwoman shot to fame in her native U.K.
last year (09) when her critically-acclaimed debut album Lungs was nomin ated for a string of awards.
Now she is set to begin work on the follow-up record - and is adamant s he wants a more simple sound for the tracks.
The Dog Days Are Over hitmaker says, "I’m going back to work in my frie nd’s tiny studio… You’re supposed to get a massive studio but I’ve neve r really liked them. We’re just going back to bash pots and pans against walls and stuff. We’ll be using tea trays and pens as instruments." (ZN/W

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