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I just watched Jewel on the Today show thinking at first that I probably wouldn’t cover that story. She has a new children’s album out called The Merry Goes ‘Round. She explained that it’s a multi-genre effort that she put together by collaborating remotely while she was pregnant and later while caring for her now three month-old son, Kase. (I still think of “cheese” whenever I hear that kid’s name, I can’t help it!) Jewel impressed me so much with her story. This may be old news to some of you, so please humor me while I repeat it. I vaguely remember hearing that Jewel went through some hard times at the beginning of her career, but I never knew how desperate it was for her. She told Kathy Lee and Hoda that she was living out of her car after her boss fired her for not accepting his sexual advances. Then she was very sick with kidney problems and couldn’t get admitted to the hospital because she didn’t have insurance.

On Kase
I hit the baby lotto. He’s just a really sweet, easy-going little boy. I’m so lucky.

On her ten year relationship with Ty Murray before marriage
I pretended it was fine, I pretended it was cool but [whispers] it really wasn’t.

On being homeless and not being able to afford medical care
I ended up homeless because my boss propositioned me and when I wouldn’t sleep with him he didn’t give me my paycheck. I got kicked out of where I was living my rent was due that next day. I thought “Well, I’ll live in my car for a minute… get back on my feet,” but I had bad kidneys and I never could hold down another job because I got sick so often. I didn’t have insurance and ended up almost dying in the parking lot of an emergency room because they wouldn’t admit me because I didn’t have insurance. I ended up homeless for about a month and I went back to singing.

I’ve always loved the song “Who Will Save Your Soul,” and now that I know Jewel’s backstory it makes so much sense to me. She sings about sexual harassment at work, not being able to afford the bills, and feeling less worthy than other people. If it takes a famous singer to remind us of the fact that there are people who are not getting treatment that they need, so be it. Half of all bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills.

Here’s a link to Jewel’s new kids’ album. She’s doing great now and she seems like she’s so happy to be a mom.

Jewel is shown at the Emmy Awards on 8/29/11. Credit: WENN.com

Doesn’t it seem like Jewel had her baby a month or so ago at least? I know she was in that scary car accident earlier this year and that she was fine, but it’s been so long since we’ve heard anything about her I kind of assumed that she had her baby and we either forgot about it or didn’t hear anything. Well Jewel and her husband, Ty Murray, welcomed son Kase Townes last night in Texas. He weighed in at 7 lbs., 6 oz. Jewel is also working on an album of children’s music. She has such a beautiful voice and I bet her son will be musically gifted too.

The singer and her husband, professional bull rider Ty Murray, welcomed a son, Kase Townes Murray, on Monday evening in Texas, their rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Kase arrived at 7 p.m. CST and weighed in at 7 lbs., 6 oz.

“Ty and I are so pleased to welcome our new baby boy into the world,” Jewel tells PEOPLE. “We are overcome with happiness – it really is as great as everyone told us it would be – better even!”

Jewel found out she was pregnant on the first day of her job co-hosting Bravo’s reality show Platinum Hit. “I took a pregnancy test and it was positive!” she told PEOPLE. “It was so hard to keep it a secret.”

The Grammy-nominated singer, 36, who had struggled to conceive, was hit by a fire truck in March at five months pregnant. She was released from the hospital after tests concluded she and her unborn child were unharmed.

The couple, who live on a 2,200-acre farm in Stephenville, Texas, have spent the spring converting a guest room in their home into a nursery. Jewel has also been working on a new children’s album, The Merry Goes ‘Round, out in August.

[From People]

I live in Germany part of the year, and in German the word for cheese is “käse” it’s spelled just Jewel and Ty’s son’s name that except there’s an umlaut over the a. So when I heard this name I was like “Jewel named her kid cheese!”

You can’t anticipate or know what a name means in different languages. A trip to Google wouldn’t solve it either, because when you google “kase” without the umlaut you get a lot of different results – the German word for cheese doesn’t come up until the fifth result. So no judgment to Ty and Jewel for picking that name, it just sounds funny to me and makes me think of cheese.

So how do you pronounce Kase? I’m thinking it’s just an alternate spelling for “case,” which is kind of nice.

Congratulations to Jewel and Ty on their new arrival! They’re such a nice couple and I look forward to seeing baby pictures. I’d love to see their nursery too.

These photos are from 2/13/11. Credit: WENN.com

Pregnant singer Jewel, 36, was involved in a scary car crash over the weekend in Stephenville, Texas with a firetruck. (You can see the photo below, credit to the Stephenville Empire Tribune.) The truck hit Jewel’s car in the passenger side and caused a ton of damage to the point where it looks like if someone was sitting there they could have been seriously injured. Jewel was taken to the hospital for observation, and the Empire Tribune reports that it was just a precaution and was “only due to the fact that she is pregnant.” She’s fine and the baby is fine thank goodness. Jewel tweeted that her car, a Cadillac SRX (which is characterized as a mid size crossover SUV – it looks like a half sedan, half SUV), absorbed the shock of the accident and “kept me safe.”

It was a scary accident, but things could have been much worse.

Singer/songwriter Jewel, who announced in January that she was pregnant with her first child, had her car smashed by a volunteer fire engine in Texas on Friday. Luckily, she was okay, and she took to Twitter to reveal why.

“1 thing I do know is my car saved my & baby’s life-definitely going 2 get another Cadillac SRX! It absorbed all the damage & kept me safe!” the star tweeted.

Cadillac certainly appreciated that tweet.

She also gave an update as to her health:

“Hey everyone-just got released from the ER & my Dr’s office- everything is fine-me & the baby r ok- thanx 4 all your thoughts & prayers,” she wrote. “Dr said no working out- so I’m going to take it easy this weekend. Just a little sore and banged up- but feeling so blessed this morning.”

[From Huffington Post]

Those SUVs may by safe for the drivers, but they’re not considered as safe for other cars on the road since they’re so high and can hit smaller cars right where people are sitting. (Minivans are generally safer than SUVs, although what makes the difference of course is the driver.) Jewel’s car is lower to the ground though, and it looks like she could have been seriously hurt by the height difference between the truck and her own car. At least this story has a happy ending and everything is ok for Jewel and her baby. It’s unclear who caused the accident or if anyone is at fault. You never know what could happen when you’re driving and stories like this remind us that it’s important to stay alert and cautious.

Jewel and her husband Ty Murray are shown at the Grammy Awards on 2/13/11. Jewel is also shown on 2/11/11. Credit: WENN.com

I was just going to link this video when I saw it this morning on OMG Blog, but then I watched it and I’m such a sap that I almost started crying! It touched me like a kind of reverse Susan Boyle story.

Anyway the people at Funny or Die set up a scenario where Jewel donned a prosthetic nose, dark wig and glasses to go to a karaoke bar in Santa Monica with a bunch of actors playing her work colleagues. They got up the anticipation by yelling for “Karen” to take the stage. Then when Jewel started singing – and of course sounded just like Jewel – the crowd went wild. She sang another one of her songs to their delight and cheers, and eventually left. Jewel took off her disguise and came back to sing more while everyone marveled that she was there. There’s no way I can do this video justice, so please watch it when you get a chance. It’s a great concept and the way they played it off was kind of triumphant.

Contact Music has some quotes from singer Jewel, who was interviewed in the latest issue of Shape on her body image. It’s kind of hearbreaking to hear that Jewel was so affected by press coverage calling her chubby that she once ate a whole cake and then tried to throw it up. She wasn’t successful, and she said that she vowed never to hurt her body to stay thin:

Singer JEWEL was driven to the brink of an eating disorder when she was once labelled “the chubby RENEE ZELLWEGER”.

The Who Will Save Your Soul star was horrified when she heard about the nasty nickname during her first few years in the spotlight, and admits the painful jibe left her on the verge of bulimia.

She tells Shape magazine, “My feelings were so hurt by that story, I ended up bingeing on an entire cake. Afterward, I actually tried to throw it all up, but thankfully I couldn’t do it.

“It made me think, ‘I can’t go down this road.’ I had seen so many performers develop eating disorders or try to control their weight with drugs, and I decided I would do no harm to my body.”

[From Contact Music]

The other day I was a restaurant bathroom when I heard the woman next to me go in, throw up quickly, and then come out like nothing was wrong. It was really obvious that it wasn’t morning sickness or food poisoning and I wanted to say something to her but I kept my mouth shut. It probably wouldn’t have helped her anyway.

I have struggled with my weight and am back on track through Weight Watchers now but I can completely relate to eating to cope with problems. I still have a hard time when I’m stressed out as I just want to reach for a high carb snack to cope. It’s hard to replace those habits with healthier ones and it’s easy to fall into a trap where you gain a lot of weight quickly. It’s easy to get started and then eat a lot of calories quickly if you’re in that crazy eating mindset. I want to give Jewel a hug and tell her it will be ok. She seems to have come to terms with whatever she was struggling with, anyway.

Oh have any of you read that new book that Oprah is touting as revolutionary, Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth? I haven’t read the whole thing yet but I did see an excerpt in O! and read the preview on Amazon and found myself relating to a lot of passages. I’m not a spiritual person and it touts that heavily, although there are a lot of lessons to be learned about our emotional reasons for eating. I think whenever we can slow down and question our relationship with food it helps.

Update: Here’s Jewel’s Shape cover and more quotes from her interview, via The Huffington Post.

On being called “the chubby Renee Zellweger” in the media years ago:
“My feelings were so hurt by that story, I ended up bingeing on an entire cake. Afterward, I actually tried to throw it all up, but thankfully I couldn’t do it. It made me think, ‘I can’t go down this road.’ I had seen so many performers develop eating disorders or try to control their weight with drugs, and I decided I would do no harm to my body.”

Her advice to women:
“We should be more like men, God bless ‘em. They can take their shirts off and show their man boobs, and they don’t give a hoot. But women are so critical of themselves. We can be gorgeous and hot and still be embarrassed to wear a tank top. So if you can’t stop looking in the mirror, at least try to not think badly about yourself when you do.”

On her diet:
“I try to stay away from an all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to food. It’s like a pendulum: The more extreme I am–like saying, ‘I’m not going to eat any carbs’–the further it’s going to swing to the other side and I’m going to binge. My dad sends me fresh salmon and halibut from Alaska as well as dried nettles, which I like to put into soups. I also eat a lot of raw vegetables or bitter greens, like kale and dandelion greens, lightly sautéed in olive oil. People are so fat-phobic these days, but eating good fats is important, which is why I always try to get some olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado into whatever I’m making.”

[Shape via Huffington Post]

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Here’s Jewel in 1999 and 2000 (first two photos below, first one is with South Park Creator Trey Parker). This may be the time period she’s talking about as it’s the only time I could find in which she looked even slightly larger than how tiny she is now. She’s lovely and not at all chubby. I also included a photo of her from 2002 and one from the 2010 CMAs as you can see how she had her teeth fixed very slightly. The header photo and other photos are recent and credit: WENN.com

1999:

2000:

2002:

2010:

2010:

Last week singer Jewel told us she had suffered a minor setback in her appearance on Dancing With The Stars, but that she’d be back soon and she was in it ‘for the long run’. Jewel thought she had tendonitis, which is a very painful inflammation of the tendons, but after she failed to recover from this with rest she investigated further and doctors found that both of her legs were fractured.

Well, as many of you know I have been having trouble with my knees after rehearsing long hours for Dancing With The Stars. The doctors thought I had tendonitis, but when I wasn’t feeling better after some rest, I decided to get an MRI. When I heard the results I was in utter disbelief. The doctors told me that not one, but both of my legs were fractured!! He said my left one was particularly bad, and that I had to not only stop dancing, but stop walking and use crutches!!! He said I had just over done it with the rehearsals and training over the past few weeks and so my muscles became fatigued and transferred the overload of stress to the bones in my leg – causing the stress fractures! He says that type of injury can happen when athletes step up the amount or intensity of their training. Typical me- I throw myself 1000% into anything I do- that’s how I went from being homeless to where I am today- but I just had no idea I could over-do dancing!

From Jewel’s official blog

Jewel adds that she is disappointed not to be competing with her husband, cowboy Ty Murray, and that her partner/trainer/choreographer Dmitry has put so much effort into helping her and now she won’t be competing. She implies but doesn’t state that he has now left the show also. This surprises me, I thought he would just be given Jewel’s replacement to work with, but the statement is deliberately ambiguous so maybe she is unsure of the next step for Dmitry.

Jewel’s replacement is suggested to be Holly Madison, who (due to her recent nude playboy shoot) is probably in fabulous shape.

While it is hugely unfortunate that Jewel has injured herself, maybe it’s the universe putting things right. Isn’t Dancing With The Stars really for washed up C-list and former reality show stars, not people who have had/have a stellar career? Jewel might not have had as much success with her 2008 country music album as with her previous pop works, but she’s a step above the usual DWTS contestant. Previous contestants have included Lisa Rinna, Drew Lachey, and Joey Fatone. This year has a a few people who could more legitimately be branded ‘stars’, including Steve Wozniak, Steve-O, Belinda Carlisle and Lil’Kim.

Fellow competitor Nancy O’Dell has also withdrawn from DWTS with a knee injury that will require surgery.

Jewel is shown at the People’s Choice Awards on 1/7/09. Nancy O’Dell is shown at the SAG Awards on 1/25/09. Credit: WENN.com

Jewel, who was supposed to be on Dancing with the Stars this season along with her husband, cowboy Ty Murray, hurt her knee badly two weeks ago during strenuous practices. Although she has said that she is still going to perform this season and to not “count her out,” her tendinitis might force her to drop out. Replacing her would be another blonde (albeit bustier) beauty, Holly Madison, formerly of The Girls Next Door. Bridget Marquardt, Holly’s costar on the Playboy show, says that Holly has wanted to do the show for a couple of seasons now but Hef wouldn’t let her. Now that she’s moved out of the mansion (and subsequently broken up with Criss Angel), she’s ready to take to the stage. Us claims that a “DWTS” source has confirmed the replacement, but Jewel’s rep says that she will be there for the premiere.

“I’m so excited for her,” Marquardt — who next stars in a Travel Channel show called Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches — told FOX’s Strategy Room Wednesday.

“She’s wanted to do it for so long,” Marquardt added. “It just never worked with her schedule and Hef was always like ‘I don’t want you to do that,’ and now it’s her time, so I’m really happy for her.”

There is speculation Madison could be replacing Jewel, who has been struggling with knee problems, and blogged last week that tendinitis could force her to drop out.

“Unless there is a miracle healing, Holly is confirmed to be a part of the premiere,” a DWTS source tells Us.

Jewel released a statement last week saying she’d suffered a “minor setback,” and added: “Don’t count me out, as I am in this for the long run.”

A source close to Jewel tells Us she’ll still be on the show Monday.

An ABC rep would not comment to Us.

[from Us]

Although this is sad news for Jewel, Holly would be a really good addition to the cast of the show. She’s pretty, charming, and charismatic. And those short, low-cut outfits would surely look great on her. Considering that Bridget accidentally let this slip on live TV, I would tend to believe that the suits have told Holly she’ll be performing but haven’t broken the news to Jewel yet. It’s probably for the best – tendinitis is not something to play around with. It’s disappointing, but if she performed and practiced like the other contestants, her knee would only get worse. Maybe she can take a rain check for next season.

Holly Madison is shown on 12/20/08 at the launch of the Girls Next Door book. Credit: PRPhotos

There has been a lot of speculation on who will and who won’t perform on Dancing With the Stars for its eighth season, but now the official list has been published. The list includes some obvious contestants (Denise Richards), and some not so obvious (Lil Kim and Steve Wozniak, the man who co-founded Apple).

Lawrence Taylor
The former NFL star, 50, played his entire career as a linebacker for the New York Giants.

Belinda Carlisle
The singer, 50, was the lead vocalist and founding member of the 80s band The Go-Go’s.

Shawn Johnson
The 17-year-old Olympic-gold-medal-winning gymnast is the youngest DWTS competitor in the show’s history.

Denise Richards
After a contentious divorce from Charlie Sheen, the 37-year-old actress and mother of two daughters got her own reality show, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated.

Lil’ Kim
The Grammy Award winning rapper, 33, spent 10 months in jail in 2006 for lying to a federal grand jury.

Gilles Marini
The actor is best known for playing Kim Cattrall’s sexy — and predominantly naked — neighbor in 2008′s Sex and the City movie.

Steve-O
The daredevil performer, 34, showcased ridiculous stunts on MTV’s Jackass and the spinoff Wildboyz.

Steve Wozniak
Nicknamed “The Woz” by ex Kathy Griffin, the computer engineer, 58, co-founded the Apple computer company with Steve Jobs.

Jewel
The singer-songwriter, 34 – who became a household name in 1995 with her song “Who Will Save Your Soul” – has released seven albums.

Ty Murray
The former rodeo cowboy, 39, is married to fellow contestant Jewel.

David Alan Grier
The actor, 53, came to fame on In Living Color and currently hosts the Comedy Central sketch news show, Chocolate News.

Chuck Wicks
The country singer is currently dating fellow crooner and two-time DWTS champion Julianne Hough. Wicks, 29, will be paired up with the professional dancer this season.

Nancy O’Dell
The entertainment journalist currently serves as the co-host of Access Hollywood with Billy Bush. O’Dell, 42, also hosted NBC’s pre-show for the 2009 Golden Globe Awards in January.

[from Us]

The cast looks like it’s going to be an interesting one – there are contestants from every walk of life, every genre of entertainment. DWTS used to be considered the lowest of the low – the place you turn to when your career is on the downturn and The Surreal Life denies your application. But with people like Steve-O, Lil Kim and Jewel as cast members, maybe that stereotype is changing.

All photos credit: WENN

When Brad Paisley flew into the Nashville airport on his private plane after a concert with Jewel and Chuck Wicks, he was met with quite a surprise when exiting his plane. Waiting for him on the tarmac were two uniformed officers, and a camera crew, ready to intercept him.

Cuffing Paisley, the men said they had a warrant for his arrest for his involvement in “serious crimes.”

Replied a confused Paisley: “You’ve gotta be kidding me! I’ve never done anything wrong in my life.””

The country star, 35, was placed in the back of an unmarked car while one “officer” explained, “We have a Miss Jewel Murray who has filed 42 charges against you in the states of Texas and Tennessee for excessive noodling.”

[From People]

Paisley pled guilty to “noodling” on the guitar, a term I was completely unfamiliar with and had to look up, when he realized that he was being pranked and laughed and enjoyed the joke as he was cuffed. Noodling, for those as clueless as I was, is “to improvise a musical passage in a casual manner, esp. as a warm-up exercise.”

We’ve all heard the practical jokes tourmates pull on each other, and some of them get quite elaborate. Brad Paisley is one of those practical jokers on tour and he was getting as good as he gives from the sounds of things.

Paisley admired Jewel’s effort, which utilized two retired police officers. “This is absolutely as good as it gets. This is the best I’ve ever been had,” he said.

Paisley himself is no stranger to pranks, having once imprisoned tour mate Jack Ingram in a PVC pipe cage onstage.

More recently, he “tarred” (with syrup) and feathered fellow headliner Wicks while the “Stealing Cinderella” singer, 29, was performing, then played a video in front of the audience of Wicks’s girlfriend, Dancing with the Stars’s Julianne Hough – announcing she was dumping him.

[From People]

The best kind of sport is a good sport, and the best kind of practical joke adversary is one you know is going to get you back even better! Jewel should watch her back, I’m sure she’s next, and I’m sure it will be epic. The camera crew present at Paisley’s “arrest” was from Great American Country TV, so we should have filmed evidence of the joke soon.

Singer Jewel, 34, and her boyfriend, rodeo star Ty Murray, 38, eloped last night in the Bahamas. The two have been together for over ten years. Jewel has said that she doesn’t “know if there’s a point” to marriage, because her relationship has lasted longer than some of her friends who have been married and divorced. She called what she has with Ty “really special,” though and said she would probably get married if she had kids. Can we expect an announcement soon?

People reports that Jewel wore a gown for the ceremony while Ty was comfortable in his favorite jeans, a white dress shirt and cowboy hat:

The singer and her longtime boyfriend, rodeo champion Ty Murray, eloped to the Bahamas and exchanged vows in a private ceremony Thursday night, her rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“She wore a traditional wedding gown, while Ty wore his favorite blue jeans, white shirt and cowboy hat,” says Jewel’s rep. “The couple is very happy and look forward to enjoying their honeymoon.”

The pair, who never announced an engagement, have been together for ten years and share a 2,200-acre ranch in Stephenville, Texas. Murray, 38, who hosted Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull-Riding Challenge on CMT last year, currently stars in the video for his wife’s new country single, “I Do.”

At a charity event in Nashville days before the wedding, Jewel, 34, said of marriage, “It’s something that needs to be taken seriously.”

Just last year, she told PEOPLE that she and Murray were in no rush to wed.

“We don’t know if there’s a point – we’ve lapped our friends who’ve gotten married and divorced,” she explained. “We probably would if we had kids – we’re just not sure we want them yet. But we’ve had something really special already.”

[From People.com]

Congratulations to Ty and Jewel! We probably won’t be seeing the pictures at all, but I love seeing photos of these small beach weddings and find them so romantic.

Jewel is best known as a multi-platinum pop singer, but she recently made the crossover into country music. Her first country CD, Perfectly Clear, came out on June 3. It is currently number 15 on the Billboard country music charts after a debut at number one.

Here’s Jewel’s aptly named video “I Do,” which features Ty:

Jewel and Ty Murray are shown in the header at the “New York Premiere of ‘We Own The Night’” on 10/9/07. Credit : PNP/WENN. They are shown below on 7/2/07 in Hollywood. Credit: Adriana M. Barraza / WENN