- Following complaints from PETA, Britney has announced that she won’t feature animals on the Circus tour. A PETA spokesperson explained what they think changed Brit’s mind (and it wasn’t the potential animal cruelty lawsuit).
- PETA applauded Britney for not “forcing chained and beaten exotic animals to perform confusing and uncomfortable tricks” and said she must relate to the caged animals’ plight as she herself is a “victim of the paparazzi and always crying about how she hates to be held up in her guarded house.” [Daily Express]
- Executives at a luxury private jet company were indicted in New Jersey federal court on charges that they recklessly overfueled private planes, endangering the lives of celebrities including Beyonce, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Harvey Weinstein. [ABC News]
- In this video, Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead talk about mourning Anna Nicole Smith two years after her death. Stern says after Anna died, “I realized how important she was to my life—she was my whole life. I gave up my whole world for her.” [E!]
- Natalie Cole is fighting hepatitis C and hopes to have a kidney transplant in the near future. She says: “My son may be a possible match, which would be great. It’s very sweet and kind of strange to have people offer something like that. It’s a big deal for the recipient more than it is for the donor, because they’ve got two kidneys and we just need one!” [E!]
- Cole currently undergoes dialysis three times a week and also has liver disease. [People]
- Farrah Fawcett is doing well after fighting a second battle with anal cancer. She has stopped getting chemotherapy treatment but is still receiving follow-up care. [The Daily Express]
- You can watch Sean Penn’s new PSA for the United Nations World Food Program here, plus a behind the scenes video reminding people that shockingly, poor people suffer in a bad economy. [Ad Week]
- Apparently Ashton Kutcher is addicted to Facebook as well as Twitter. His production company, Katalyst Media, is launching a Web series on Facebook. The first episode of the mock reality series comes out today and features Kutcher preparing too seriously for an acting role. [Ad Week]
- Has Vivica A. Fox actually found worse job than Psychic Friends Network spokeswoman? She’s going to host a TV Land reality show called The Cougar, a dating show in which an older woman hunts for love in a pool of younger men. [PR Newswire]
- Tony Parker bought the second largest share of the French basketball team ASVEL, and will begin serving as the team’s Director of Operations immediately. He may play for the team someday too. Says Parker: “When I’m 36, 37 years old, who knows how my NBA will go. Why not play one more farewell year in France afterwards? I’ve raised the subject with Eva, and she has nothing against living in France.” [People]
- Tiger Woods hasn’t been playing competitive golf since his knee surgery over the summer and now he’s putting off his return until his wife gives birth to their second baby this spring. Also, Barack Obama told Woods at the inauguration that he wants to play golf with him. [People]
- Hank Azaria and his girlfriend Katie Wright are expecting their first child, a baby boy. [People]
- Ryan Reynolds ran the New York City marathon to raise money for Parkinson’s, which his dad has been fighting for 15 years. [Men’s Health]
- Ben Lee says his new album The Rebirth of Venus, which comes out next month, is a tribute to the feminine way of doing things in life. “In this world, masculine traits are usually rewarded and feminine traits basically get punished. Like President Obama last year talking about how he went to go negotiate [overseas] – which wasn’t seen as a manly thing to do,” said Lee. “They call it feminine and masculine archetypes. But [at the same time], they all go on inside all of us. So we all need to deal with that.” [Blackbook]
- Jennifer Aniston recently directed a short for Glamour and says she is really interested in directing, which she describes as, “pull it all apart and put it back together again.” [CBS News]
- Jorge “Papito” Serguera, the man who banned the Beatles from radio and television stations in Cuba, has died at the age of 76. He has said he was a fan of the group, but he recived orders from government officials who felt the band was a threat to communism. [Reuters]
- In a new interview, Stephen King says that Twilight author Stephanie Meyer isn’t a good author. King says: “It’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”[USA Weekend]
- Drew Barrymore answered questions fans sent to People and one guy asked if she’d consider dating a guy who owns a gas station. Drew said: “I think my dating record shows that I definitely don’t believe in discrimination. So, yes – why wouldn’t I?” [People]
- Sarah Jessica Parker says her biggest fashion regret is wearing black on her wedding day, rather than a traditional white gown. We can think of quite a few bigger fashion faux pas, which are now immortalized on the Sex and the City DVDs. [Entertainment Tonight]
- Could Jessica Alba‘s star power save us from this economic mess? Stockpickr.com and Stockerblog.com have compiled the Jessica Alba Stock Index, which works like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but tracks companies based on how they are connected to Jessica Alba through her films and endorsements. [The Street]
- Brenda’s back! Shannen Doherty has signed on to do one more episode of the new 90210. [People]
- Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony recently purchased the house next door to their Long Island mansion. Judging from this photo gallery of the ugly colonial decor, they’ll be doing some remodeling. [TMZ]
- Fantasia is going to return to the role she played on Broadway in The Color Purple this summer in a Washington, D.C. production of the show. [The Daily Express]
- A New Jersey congressman is demanding an investigation after fans from the state who tried to buy Bruce Springsteen concert tickets were shut out of the Ticketmaster website, which then ran an ad for more expensive tickets at TicketsNow. [AP]
- Freddy Krueger will be getting a makeover in the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie, but the producers say they won’t change the way the characters look. They said: “in Texas Chainsaw the chainsaw was the weapon, in Friday the machete is the weapon for Jason, and in Nightmare there is no changing the glove.” [Perez Hilton]
- “I love women. I like them as friends, as interesting people to speak with. But I love gay men. I always say it. Inside me there is a gay man who wants to come out! With heterosexual men I have nothing in common – excluding my husband, brothers and father, you understand.” – Victoria Beckham in Italy’s Vanity Fair. [Just Jared]
- This headline says it all: “Michael Phelps has extraordinary lung capacity. Does that mean he can get extraordinarily stoned?” [Slate]
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