NBC Gives Conan Hefty Severance; Lindsay Makes Out With New Man
Latest- Don’t cry for Conan O’Brien. Sources say NBC is giving him a $32.5 million severance package. In return, Conan can’t host another show until September and NBC gets to keep his characters, including Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
- Conan probably won’t receive the full amount from NBC because the network will deduct any money he makes during the rest of his contract period. (For instance, if FOX pays him $22.5 million, he’ll only get $10 million from NBC.) [TMZ]
- Representatives for Conan and NBC are still haggling over how much severance pay Tonight Show staffers will get. Conan’s manager said, “We’re fighting to do better for them,” but an NBC spokesman pointed out, “It was Conan’s decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work. We have already agreed to pay millions of dollars to compensate every one of them. This latest posturing is nothing more than a PR ploy.” [NYT]
- Howard Stern said he was asked to be one of Conan‘s final guests on The Tonight Show, but he’s not going to do the show because he doesn’t want to fly to L.A. [The Wrap]
- Last night Conan posted an ad in Craigslist’s “Casual Encounters” section that said, “TALL SLENDER REDHEAD AVAILABLE FOR NIGHTTIME RECREATION.” He described himself as, “6’4″, completely ripped, VERY Caucasian,” “currently homeless, must meet at your place” and “can go a whole hour (with scheduled breaks every 7-10 minutes).” The ad was “flagged for removal” by the site. [The Wrap]
- Hmm… last week someone registered the domain name ConanOnFox.com. [TMZ]
- Mariska Hargitay says The Jay Leno Show “ruined our numbers” on Law and Order: SVU. “Nobody knew when the show was on. Finally, we’re starting to find our audience again,” she said. [People]
- Lindsay Lohan was spotted making out with 29-year-old French actor Aurelien Wiik at Church Boutique on Santa Monica Blvd. [TMZ]
- Courtenay Semel says Casey Johnson frequently went to the emergency room during their relationship. “I definitely think she was on drugs, 150 percent,” she said. “I cannot wait for that autopsy to come back, and if there’s OxyContin in that autopsy…” [E!]
- In a new interview with Radar, Kate Major says Jon Gosselin is a “user and a huge loser… He seems to go for nice girls from nice families and, in my case, with good careers. I would love Jon to get into the boxing ring with Michael Lohan so he could get his butt kicked because, let’s face it, we all know he needs the money.” [Radar]
- Would you like to hang out with Scarlett Johansson after opening night of her show A View From The Bridge on Sunday? She’s auctioning off a meeting to benefit Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake Response Fund. [Just Jared]
- Jay-Z and U2 have recorded a song to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief. The Edge said, “Last night we wrote a song. Bono got a call from a producer, Swizz. He and Jay-Z wanted to do something for Haiti. So, Bono came up with the phrase on the phone, and last night we were here, we wrote a song – finished, recorded and send (sic) back to them. So, that might be the next thing you hear from us!” [Daily Express]
- “Bono commits the crime of rising above your station. To the British, it’s the worst thing you can do,” says producer/musician Brian Eno. “Bono is hated for doing something considered unbecoming for a pop star – meddling in things that apparently have nothing to do with him. He has a huge ego, no doubt about it. On the other hand, he has a huge brain and a huge heart. He’s just a big kind of person. That’s not easy for some to deal with. They don’t mind in Italy. They like larger-than-life people there. In most places in the world they don’t mind him. Here (in Britain), they think he must be conning them.” [Daily Express]
- ZOMG, Beyonce wants a baby… someday. “I definitely want to have a child, but I know from my nephew it’s a lot,” she says. “I hope that those things will just happen naturally. I still haven’t had time to relax.” [People]
- A judge rejected Robert Halderman‘s motion to dismiss the David Letterman extortion case. He’ll stand trial and could do 15 years in prison if convicted. [TMZ]
- Chidi Benjamin Uzomah Jr., has been ordered to stand trial for allegedly stalking Ryan Seacrest. [LAT]
- Steven Richard Burky, the man accused of harassing Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, pled not guilty today to felony stalking charges. [E!]
- Wow. Prince William isn’t having much luck with the kids Down Under. Yesterday a 12-year-old boy from New Zealand hit him in the groin with a rugby ball and today a six-year-old Australian girl asked him, “Did your mummy die?” He replied, “Yes she did, it was pretty sad.” [News.com.au]
- Neil Patrick Harris will guest star in an upcoming episode of Glee directed by Joss Whedon. [EW]
- When Josh Duhamel, who met Fergie on the set of Las Vegas, was asked if they’ll ever work together again he said, “I don’t know… there’s that movie with Madonna.” [E!]
- Mel Gibson may have looked surprised at the Golden Globes when Ricky Gervais said, “I like a drink as much as the next man…unless the next man is Mel Gibson,” but Gervais had actually run the joke by Gibson beforehand. It’s called acting. [Deadline]
- An “insider” says Chris Pine and Olivia Munn actually haven’t split. [Us]
- Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle died at her home yesterday of cancer. She was 63. [LAT]
- A rep for Playboy says Real Housewife Kelly Bensimon “will be featured on the cover and in a 6-page nude pictorial in the March issue.” [Us]
- Matt Damon and Brad Pitt have signed on to voice characters in Happy Feet 2. [Movieline]
- Earlier today TMZ reported that Snooki was making out with “some random dude” last night. She wrote in, “it was not a random brajole it was VINNYS COUSIN thanks. i keep it in the jerz shore fam no creepers allowed.” [TMZ]
- “In high school, I really wouldn’t eat,” says Snooki. “I would only have lunch, and I would only have salads. She says she “would go into the nurses office every day and I would weigh myself. When she [the school nurse] realized that I hit 80 pounds, she was like, ‘This isn’t good.'” The nurse notified her parents and, “My parents told me, ‘You need to eat, this is very dangerous. So I gained my weight back to like 98, where I always was.” [Us]
- When asked about the proposed dating reality show Snookin’ For Love, Snooki said, “Definitely there is no set thing, but it has been talked about… I got offers from VH1 and other reality networks.” [Us]
- Jane Krakowski says she and her fiancé, clothing-designer Robert Godley, call her hairstylist “cupid” because he set them up. “He knew I had a thing for English men, and he knew I needed to be with a good guy. And that’s what I met and fell in love with,” she said. [People]
- “I want to try yoga this year,” says Audrina Patridge. “I just want to try something stress-free and spiritual.” [Us]
- Candy Spelling says her relationship with Tori Spelling is now, “absolutely great. We are terrific!” [Us]
- Barneys creative director Simon Doonan says that at red-carpet events, “you wait for Johnny Depp, because he’s always going to look super-groovy and unconventional. … It doesn’t matter if Johnny Depp’s lying in a ditch – he’s always going to look incredible.” [USA Today]
- Victoria Beckham‘s Christmas gift for David Beckham was a $3,300 flight from London to L.A. on PetAir for their bulldog puppy K9. [N.Y. Daily News]
- Simon Cowell says Victoria Beckham isn’t being considered to judge the U.S. version of The X Factor. “That’s not going to happen. Absolutely not. Not because I don’t like her. It’s just not going to happen,” he said. [The Sun]
- David Beckham‘s tattoo artist was asked, “What if he came to you and said Brooklyn wanted an LA Galaxy tattoo?” He replied, “Well, he wouldn’t, as the law in the UK is 18 years of age to get your first tattoo. I think that’s a good age.” [Blackbook Magazine]
- James Franco, who is starring in the film Howl says, “When I was about 16, my friends and I really got into the Beats, certainly Kerouac and On the Road, but also Burroughs and Ginsberg, and ‘Howl’ was, at that time, my favorite poem… This film does a really good job of making some of the key personal moments in the poem a little more accessible and understandable… Doing the research, you see how autobiographical it is and how biographical it is about some of the other characters like Cassady and Kerouac, and so a lot of that stuff has come alive to me, whereas when I was younger, it was like, it’s got great energy and rhythm but some of the stuff didn’t necessarily make sense.” [Vanity Fair]
- Gabriel Byrne revealed that as a child in Dublin he was molested by a priest. “Unfortunately, I experienced some sexual abuse. It was a known and admitted fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man and you didn’t want to be left in the dressing room with him,” he said. “It took many years to come to terms with it and to forgive those incidents that I felt had deeply hurt me.” [The Independent]
- Courtney Love says she had to dumb down her new song “Skinny Little Bitch.” She explains: “I went to the site of the World Trade Centre at 3am and rewrote the song so it wouldn’t be clever-clever. It’s just completely visceral, kind of stupid. And it’s really, really important to keep that stupid part of yourself alive, otherwise you start getting all smart and growing stupid facial hair. Including me. I shave every day.” [Contact Music]
- Apparently Kid Rock is a Taylor Swift fan. “She knows how to play guitar and she writes her songs so God bless her. I wish there was more of that out there,” he said. “Hopefully she gets better and grows and keeps it all going.” [People]
- When a reporter asked Jane Lynch what she had in her bag on the red carpet at the Golden Globes she said, “My invitation, a little bit of lipstick and … a tampon, to be perfectly honest… I’m feeling real lucky tonight. I’m menstruating, I’m in my lady power — and I am young enough to still be menstruating!” [Salon]