After her turbulent early years, Willie says she went "buck-wild" on turning 18, snorting cocaine on her birthday, adding: "She has tried just about everything - cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy."

*****

On one occasion, he was invited to a Florida wrap party for Disney kids' TV show Mickey Mouse Club - which Britney fronted alongside JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and CHRISTINA AGUILERA. He says: "The kids were definitely drinking that night. While the adults talked, they were somewhere else, up to no good. They had a bottle of gin and slipped away to the bathroom to drink it. I saw them going." But Willie is certain Britney was exposed to drink and drugs long before she hit the big time. "Her brother Bryan was the star of the high school football team. They went to all the best parties where there were drugs and alcohol -- a lot." He believes her drug-taking started at 14 with marijuana but adds: "It got worse when she got famous and she found out that people would do what she wanted them to. She's tried just about everything. She wanted to drink, party and go where she wanted to go. She is a ruthless little thing, make no mistake. Nobody controls her. She bosses everyone around her." Willie says his brother JAMIE - Britney's dad -- must take a large chunk of responsibility for her boozy lifestyle. "Just about everyone in the Spears family is a drunk and Britney's dad Jamie was one of the worst. "He would drink from daylight to night. Britney saw him drunk all the time."

*****

He says: "Britney is in an unstable state of mind now and there is nothing anyone can do about it. She is not listening to anybody. She has fired all the people around her who cared because she simply doesn’t want people to tell her to stop doing the things she is doing."

Willie believes Britney's demise was inevitable. He adds: "She was a sweet young girl but as she grew up and saw the violence, the alcohol and everything, she became what she saw -- as mean and hard-drinking as the rest of the family. That kind of childhood would make anyone unstable. It did with me. If people think she has reached the bottom, they are very wrong. Suicide is the bottom line for Britney."

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Scarlett Johansson Jokes She's Engaged to Barack Obama

Scarlett Johansson didn't do Barack Obama any favors today when she joked to the press that she is engaged to the presidential candidate and that her heart belongs to him. She made the comments on her return from visiting the troops.

Scarlett Johansson returned from the Persian Gulf with a whole lot of soldiers' trinkets and a delusion of her own engagement -- to Barack Obama.

"I am engaged ... to Barack Obama," Johansson joked in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. "My heart belongs to Barack, and that is who I am currently, finally, engaged to. Yes."

Johansson, who showed her support for the Democratic presidential candidate at the Iowa caucus earlier this month, was really just deflecting a question about rumors she might be engaged (to actor-beau Ryan Reynolds).

Scarlett no doubt means well, but Michelle Obama can't be happy about this. She was certainly unhappy about the "I've Got a Crush on Obama" video. Michelle and Barack's little girls were teased about the video at school and Michelle was pretty steamed about it. Perhaps the Obama speechwriters could provide Scarlett with a script full of appropriate, yet seemingly off the cuff comments for when the press comes calling.

Posted on January 26, 2008
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Mary-Kate Olsen Statement on Heath Ledger

Mary-Kate Olsen has giving the following statement to ET about Heath Ledger's death.

"Heath was a friend," she says. "His death is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with his family during this very difficult time."

ET also says rumors that the New York Police Department wants to question Mary-Kate Olsen are untrue. They also released this timeline of Heath Ledger's death.

At 3:17 p.m. Tuesday, the masseuse, DIANA WOLOZIN, made a call to Olsen that lasted 49 seconds. At 3:20 p.m., Wolozin made another call to the former "Full House" star that lasted 1 minute and 39 seconds. At 3:24 p.m., yet another call was placed to Olsen, which lasted 21 seconds.

At 3:26 p.m, Wolozin called 911.

At some point, according to the NYPD, Olsen, who was in California at the time, sent over her personal security guards to the apartment to assist with the situation.

At 3:33 p.m., paramedics arrived and actually went up in the elevator with Olsen's security guards to Ledger's apartment. However, the paramedics did not allow the security guards into the bedroom where Ledger's body lay.

The masseuse then called Olsen a fourth time at 3:34 p.m. The length of the call was unknown.

At 3:36 p.m, the paramedics declared the 28-year-old Ledger dead.

Posted on January 25, 2008
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Museum Hosts Laziness Exhibit

The BBC reports that the Museum of Bogota in Columbia organized an exhibit

An event organised by the Museum of Bogota had sofas, televisions, hammocks and beds - anything associated with the avoidance of work.

The idea was to get people during the holiday season to think about laziness and its opposite, extreme work, and perhaps reach some balanced conclusion.

Visitors had to be a bit active to see the show though as it closed on Sunday.

The museum curator Marcela Arrieta told the Associated Press, "We always think about laziness as an enemy of work. So we wanted to explore that and make people think about the social issues implied in taking a nap, in being jobless or in feeling that maybe we are wasting time - so we want to ask ourselves about that."



Posted on January 24, 2008
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Scarlett Johansson Visits the Troops in Kuwait

Here is some video footage of actress Scarlett Johansson visiting troops in Kuwait as part of the USO Tour. The footage was provided by 50th Public Affairs Detachment.

"This USO tour to the Gulf region truly means a lot," Johansson said in a statement. "I've wanted to go over and visit for some time, and now my moment has arrived. It's one thing to reply to a letter or extend your thanks to service members in a speech, but it's another thing to visit them and spend time with those that do so much for us back home."



Posted on January 23, 2008
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Christopher Plummer Talks About Heath Ledger

Actor Christopher Plummer was co-starring with Heath Ledger in the Terry Gilliam film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The film was shooting in London last week and Christopher said they were all meeting in Vancouver next week to finish the shoot. Plummer confirmed that Heath had been suffering from a "nasty bug" which they all thought was walking pneumonia. He also rejects the idea that Heath would commit suicide.

Entertainment Weekly: There was an initial, seemingly groundless wave of speculation that it could be suicide, based on some inaccurate and incomplete reports about sleeping medications he kept in his apartment.

Christopher Plummer: That doesn't make any sense. He was looking forward - he was in such a good, happy mood about the picture. Looking forward to going to Vancouver. He was enjoying the film thoroughly, and I'm here to say so. He was also terribly excited about becoming a director.

EW: Right - he was going to direct a movie about a chess prodigy, called The Queen's Gambit.

CP: I think that's where most of his ambitions would have lain, for the future. That too is such a shame. He thoroughly embraced the profession, and loved it. He wasn't suffering for his art at all. He was enjoying it.

EW: Did he talk about wanting to direct?

CP: He was very friendly with Terry Gilliam. They became very good friends on The Brothers Grimm and consequently bonded. And [on Doctor Parnassus] they would consult and they'd look and he'd watch, and he was fascinated. They were having such fun on this one. He was very inventive, Heath, and very versatile, as indeed many Australian actors are. They have a marvelous ear for accents and for character. He gave some very good ideas and pointers. As we all tried to do, but I think he was very serious about directing. Such a shame. He was so talented in so many areas.

Christopher seems quite fond of Heath and quite disturbed by his untimely death. The future of Terry Gilliam's film is totally up in the air at this point, as it is only half filmed.

Posted on January 23, 2008
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Heath Ledger Dead At 28

Oscar nominated actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment this afternoon. He was surrounded by sleeping pills, and police suspect either an accidental overdose or a suicide.

At 3:31 p.m., according to the police, a masseuse arrived the fourth-floor apartment of the building, at 421 Broome Street, between Crosby and Lafayette Streets in SoHo, for an appointment with Mr. Ledger. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of the bedroom Mr. Ledger was in. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger naked and unconscious on a bed, with sleeping pills — both prescription medication and nonprescription — on a night table. They moved his body to the floor and attempted to revive him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities.

The police said they did not suspect foul play. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office of the city's chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, said that employees of the office were at the apartment and that an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's deputy commissioner for public information, initially said that the apartment was owned by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, but later reversed himself and said that was not the case.

A representative of Ms. Olsen said that the apartment did not belong to the actress. "It is not her apartment," the representative, Annette Wolf, a publicist for Ms. Olsen, said in a phone interview. "She does not own the apartment. She has never owned the apartment. She and her sister have an apartment in New York City but they are not in this building."

Us Magazine reports that a friend of Heath's told them that Heath had been battling substance abuse and depression for a long time and that he had recently fallen off the wagon. He leaves behind his baby girl, Matilda, who is with his ex-fiancee Michelle Williams.

What a tragedy -- he seemed to have it all. Our thoughts are with his family.

Posted on January 22, 2008
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Dr. Phil Apologizes -- Sort Of

In the wake of the tsunami of bad news that Dr. Phil has been getting, he talked to USA Today about his actions regarding Britney Spears. Now he says he was wrong to make a statement to the press about Britney's condition. But he's hardly contrite. He says he said that before he talked to her, as well. Like that helps.

"Was it helpful to the situation? Regrettably, no. It was not, and I have to acknowledge that and I do," the talk show host told his audience Thursday during taping of a Dr. Phil episode that will run Monday. "I definitely think if I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't make any statement at all. Period."

At the request of Spears' parents, McGraw says, he visited the pop star as "a friend and ally of the family," not as a psychologist. He stopped practicing years ago and is not licensed in California.

*****

He hoped for a "gentle and relaxed dialogue that might be of value" in helping Britney find medical professionals should she seek help. He would not discuss details of the conversation or respond to some reports that the 26-year-old singer did not take well to the visit.

McGraw says he issued the statement to ET because he knew the media would see him and he wanted to explain why he was there. He disputes those who say he inappropriately discussed her condition in the statement, which referred to Spears being "in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention." "I said that before I ever met her," he says.

When asked if he could do it again, would he still go see her, he replied "How do you not?" because her parents asked him to do it. But he wouldn't have issued a statement about it. Live and learn, Dr. Phil.

Posted on January 18, 2008
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Oprah Wants to Fire Dr. Phil

According to the National Enquirer Oprah Winfrey is furious at Dr. Phil for his mishandling of the Britney Spears situation (stalking her at the hospital, trying to do a crazy tv intervention with her family) and wants to fire him. Oprah made him a star and produces his talk show.

Dr. Phil got some more bad news as well: some psychiatrist is so incensed by Dr. Phil's unethical behavior he is trying to get the California licensing board to investigate him for disclosing medical information about a patient, thereby violating federal law. But Dr. Phil has no license to practice in California. So if he is found to have been practicing without a license, criminal charges could be filed against him. No wonder Oprah's so mad at him.

Posted on January 17, 2008
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Microsoft Product to Monitor Workers Through Their Computers

Microsoft has filed a patent for a system which would allow employers to monitor employees' physical states through their computers or laptops.

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker's productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer's assessment of their physiological state.

Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a "unique monitoring system" that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure", the application states.

The system could also "automatically detect frustration or stress in the user" and "offer and provide assistance accordingly". Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker's weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.

This is the most obnoxious, appalling invention from Microsoft yet. The privacy implications alone are mind-boggling. And if the economy slides into recession and the unemployment rate keeps rising, future workers will have no choice to submit to such intrusive monitoring if they want a job.

Posted on January 16, 2008
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Is Britney Converting to Islam for Adnan Ghalib?

The News of the World has really outdone itself this time: it claims that Britney is thinking about converting to Islam and marrying her new (already married) boyfriend/paparazzi Adnan Ghalib. The story claims that Ghalib (who is from a strict British Muslim family in Birmingham, UK), has planned all along to get close to Britney to sell intimate photos of her and make millions. But now they're getting serious and discussing marriage -- and his family has disowned him.

Last night HE was plotting to sell TOPLESS pictures of Britney, 26, and BOASTING in detail of their drug-fuelled sex life, saying she loves him to TALK DIRTY to her in his Birmingham accent. But SHE was telling pals how much she's in LOVE with Ghalib, 35 and that she plans to MARRY him and convert to his faith, ISLAM. In her crazier moments she's even been threatening to fake her own death to start a new life with him in Pakistan.

And this week she told one of his cousins in an astonishing phone call: "I love him." Giggling, the pop singer added: "Don't worry, I'll look after Addy the Daddy." Then on Friday, in a gesture seemingly aimed at ex-hubby Kevin Federline, Britney visited an LA car dealer in the dress she wore to their wedding. Now we can reveal that Ghalib's respectable Sunni Muslim family in Birmingham are so horrified by his antics they have disowned him. One family member told us: "His parents Ghalib and Saghra are devastated. This week his dad gave him an ultimatum, 'Give up Britney, or you are dead to me,' which Adnan ignored."

Instead, in a phone call to a relative, the photographer claimed he had deep feelings for the star, insisting they had discussed marriage. Fragile It was during the same call, Britney grabbed the phone to insist: "We're taking care of each other. He's the only one who understands me. It's serious." She also invited her new lover's family to visit them in the US when her current troubles are over.

*****

Our source said: "He was just a snapper stalking her for money until very recently. Now she's giving him unfettered access to her life. He's already saying he can get exclusive topless shots of her and wants big money in return." Meanwhile, unsuspecting Britney has told friends she is prepared to embrace Islam to spend her life with Ghalib. Incredibly, one of his relatives told us: "Although his father has disowned him, there is still a way back -- if Britney became a Muslim and they got married."

If even one tenth of this wild story is true (and there are quotes from Ghalib's family members), Britney is has taken her crazy to a whole new level. Moving to Pakistan? Hello! There's a near civil war there because of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto! Not that she reads the news, of course.

There is one other obstacle to this demented dream of wedded bliss: Ghalib is already married to an American, whom he married to get a green card. What a creep -- is there no end of the people who are taking advantage of this very ill girl?

Posted on January 14, 2008
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Zac Efron Wants to be Queen For a Day

Zac Efron may have revealed a bit too much of his inner self when he answered a question by Seventeen magazine.

Zac is the subject of Seventeen magazine's 17 questions in their new issue and this is his response to question Number 8.

Seventeen: If you could trade places with anyone in the world for one day, who would it be?

Zac: Queen of England. Why? No idea.

Admittedly, the teen heart-throb also dished on his first kiss ("I was like the only boy and there were a bunch of girls up there") and his adolescent crush on Tyra Banks. Zac is currently dating his High School Musical co-star, Vanessa Hudgens.

Queen for a Day, eh? This wouldn't have anything to do with a recent Page Six blind item about a rising young actor who uses individual false eyelashes to set off his baby blue eyes, now would it?

Posted on January 12, 2008
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Britney Thinks Dr. Phil is Really Cool

Dr. Phil just got his bacon pulled out of the fire by the Spears family who now says that the person who railed against the psychologist on television was not authorized to do so. In fact, the Spears family loves Dr. Phil.

A source close to the Spears family tells ET that BRITNEY's parents urged Dr. PHIL McGRAW to visit their daughter while she was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last Saturday.

The family source further contended that it was parents' JAMIE and LYNNE as well as her brother BRYAN's idea to appear on McGraw's show to discuss Britney's downward spiral. It was later mutually decided to postpone the show. Britney, the source tell us, found Dr. Phil "really cool" and even took his number and said she'd like to call him in the future.

When ET reached Britney's manager SAM LUTFI to comment on the above info, he confirmed it.

That creep Sam Lufti is now Britney's manager?? And he now says Britney thinks Dr. Phil is "really cool"? What a load of nonsense. In any event, Dr. Phil has stopped the flow of disastrous PR.

Posted on January 10, 2008
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Spears Family Blasts Dr. Phil

The Spears family has blasted Dr. Phil for his unprofessional behavior concerning Britney's latest breakdown.

Lou Taylor, the family's spokeswoman and a former business manager of Lynne and Jamie Lynn, appeared on The Today Show Wednesday to make the family's anger and disappointment over the betrayal known, as well as to clear up what part exactly they would have played in the scrapped Dr. Phil Now special—namely, none. "What's wrong with Dr. Phil's statement is that he made a statement," Taylor said, referring to the pop psychologist's public diagnosis that Spears was "in dire need of medical and psychological intervention."

"The family basically extended an invitation of trust for him to come in as a resource to support them, not to go out and make public statements. Any statements publicly that he made, because he was brought in under this cloak of trust, are just inappropriate. We feel like, to set the record straight, we need to say that." In previous statements made during his weekend media blitz, McGraw said he paid Spears a visit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Saturday morning, appearing just as she was being discharged, only at the request of the Spears family, whom he said contacted him for guidance roughly a year ago.

As for the highly touted special, Taylor did acknowledge that McGraw approached the Spears clan with his plan of an hourlong special devoted to the troubled singer, "but it was decided it would be detrimental for anybody to ever do that." "They were not going to do a show...he was not invited to make this a public display or part of the media."

On a personal note, Taylor said she felt the request itself was a sort of betrayal and that it was "inappropriate for him to even be self-serving in bringing something like that up, because that would not be a vector in getting Britney help." She also said McGraw's loose lips and handling of the aftermath of his brief visit has likely "compromised" the relationship between Britney and her mother and sister.

Dr. Phil has created a PR disaster for himself. He looks unprofessional and totally self-serving. Apparently his newfound fame has destroyed his good judgment.

Posted on January 9, 2008
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Dr. Phil Cancels Britney Intervention Show

Dr. Phil is in huge trouble. After announcing that he spent an hour with Britney Spears at Cedar Sinai hospital and that she needed immediate medical and psychological intervention, it was revealed that he only spent 15 minutes with her and that she didn't want to meet with him. To make things worse, it turns out he was trying to get her to appear on his tv show in some kind of "gotcha!" live intervention thing with all the Spears family.

The backlash over his unethical behavior has begun and now Dr. Phil has had to cancel his proposed Britney Trainwreck Show.

In a statement posted Monday on his Web site, McGraw said the 26-year-old pop star's situation was "too intense" for him to go forward with the show. He didn't say whether he planned to reschedule. Spears was hospitalized Thursday night after a child custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline resulted in an hours-long standoff with police. On Friday, a court commissioner gave sole physical and legal custody of 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston to Federline.

McGraw said he met with Spears for an hour Saturday before she left the hospital. But according to TMZ, Dr. Phil showed up in Spears' hospital room on Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles without the pop star's invitation. She had been admitted on late Thursday after a custody confrontation at her home that ended in hysterics by the troubled pop star, several media outlets reported.

Sources told TMZ that Spears' parents, Lynne and James, were the ones who asked Dr. Phil to help her. When he entered Spears' room, she reportedly walked out and returned later. Sources say he tried to speak to Spears for 15 minutes and later followed the star out to her car as she left the hospital.

Dr. Phil has been lambasted in the press by psychiatrists and mental health professionals for trying to get publicity from someone who is clearly suffering from a medical disorder. For shame, Dr. Phil!

Posted on January 7, 2008
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Britney Spears in Lockdown Psychiatric Ward

Britney Spears has been hospitalized at the Cedars Sinai psychiatric unit where she is under lockdown for a mental evaluation and suicide watch. Britney was strapped down to a gurney and hauled away by paramedics after a three-hour standoff with police when she refused to turn over Jayden James to Kevin Federline's bodyguard when her visitation time had ended. Britney is seriously ill and is in danger of permanently losing custody of her children. Here's the video of her being taken away by ambulance.



Posted on January 4, 2008
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Britney a No Show For Deposition

Britney Spears' life continues to spiral downward. TMZ reports that Britney failed to show up for the fifth time for her deposition by K-fed's lawyers. To make things worse, her lawyers have filed a motion to withdraw as counsel on the grounds that she doesn't talk to them.

TMZ has learned Britney Spears' deposition was scheduled today and she didn't show -- again!

If we're counting correctly, this is the fifth time her scheduled deposition in the custody case didn't happen. Last month, Britney claimed she was too ill to sit for her depo, yet TMZ caught her out partying that same night.

Sources say the fact that she didn't show for the depo was a factor in her lawyers' decision to file papers today asking to withdraw as counsel, but it was only one of many reasons. As one connected source put it, "Her whole life has become insane and it's impossible for anyone to get through to her."

Other sources say that Britney wants her sister Jamie Lynn to move in with her during her pregnancy. That hardly seems like a good idea.

Posted on January 2, 2008
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