I’m not a fan of Nikki Blonsky after she and her dad got in that ridiculous airport fight with an America’s Next Top Model contestant and her mother in 2008. It’s possible that Nikki’s dad is the one who instigated the fight, if the other party is to be believed, but Blonsky has denied that account and said that she was the one who got punched in the face first. Whatever happened, it didn’t give me a good impression of her. Blonsky is the 22 year-old who starred in the movie remake of Hairspray in 2007 with Zac Efron and John Travolta. She had a pilot show on ABC Family last year, Huge, about a weight loss camp for teens. That didn’t go anywhere and got canceled quickly, although I don’t blame Blonsky. I watched half of the first episode online and just found it completely uninteresting.

According to Radar Online, Blonsky isn’t sitting around idle waiting for her next acting gig. She’s working part time in a high end shoe store on Long Island:

Nikki Blonsky was plucked from obscurity to play alongside Hollywood heavyweight John Travolta in 2007 hit movie Hairspray.

But it seems the voluptuous actress has fallen on hard times in her career and is now working in a shoe store in New York. The 22-year-old Big Apple native can now be found fetching size 9s for customers at the Steven Dann high-end shoe boutique in her home town of Great Neck.

After a short stint on Ugly Betty and a few small movie roles, the one time Cold Stone Creamery waitress has seemingly had to resort to more menial tasks than rubbing shoulders with A-List stars as she did just a few years ago.

But Nikki, who only started working at the store last week, is said to be unabashed about her new job and is doing it because she is a “lover of fashion.”

The actress who is known for her curvy figure is said to be a delight to work with and customers have been pleasantly surprised to see her when they walk in.

Store owner, Steven Dann told RadarOnline that Nikki is working at the boutique, “two to three days a week dependent on her schedule” but also has something huge coming-up on the work front.

“Nikki has something enormous coming-up at the end of the summer that will be bigger than Hairspray,” Steven said.

[From Radar]

Good for her! It sounds like the shop owner is using her for publicity, but I guess I can’t blame him. Can you imagine if other out of work actresses would get part time jobs to keep busy between gigs? You know I’m thinking about Lindsay Lohan. Whenever Lohan would bother to show up for work she’d end up “misplacing” half their stock.

Photo credit: WENN and Fame

Nikki Blonsky and her father Eric were involved in an altercation with America’s Next Top Model contestant Bianca Golden and her mother Elaine at Turks and Caicos airport in early August. It sounded serious at the time as Elaine was airlifted to an ICU in Miami, and Eric Blonsky was charged with grievous bodily harm. No details of the assault were released except that Elaine was treated for temporary paralysis of her left side. The attack was obviously quite vicious, and here are some details that Bianca Golden shares on The Tyra Banks Show. Bianca says Nikki even kicked her mother in the crotch when was laying on the ground after a blow to the face from Eric Blonsky.

Golden says on the Oct. 8 episode of The Tyra Banks Show that her family was at the Turks & Caicos airport on July 29 returning from a family reunion for her dying grandfather when Nikki Blonksy became “very rude to my aunt.”

An argument erupted between Blonsky’s and Golden’s families, then Blonsky’s father Carl “punched my mom.”

“He knocked her out,” says Golden. “He hit my mom with such force she stumbled back and when she stumbled back the whole family got up and attacked my mom.”

Then, when her mother was on the ground, Nikki “takes her foot and kicks my mom in her vagina, and that’s when my mom fell out completely,” says Golden.

“When Nikki kicked my mom I went and grabbed her arm and she grabbed my earring,” says she. “Her mom sat on her to get her off of me cause her mom saw what was happening and that was that.”

Golden says her mother was airlifted to the hospital with internal bleeding, a broken nose and a fractured skull.

“Her face is still black and blue,” she says.

People

This is only one person’s version of events, but I still can’t believe that anyone in their right mind would attack someone so violently when they don’t even know them. I know travelling can make people cranky, but who goes on holiday looking for a fight?

I also don’t think much of going on The Tyra Banks Show to talk about it, unless the appearance was scheduled prior to the incident. When something is before the courts, on serious charges, are you actually allowed to talk about it to the media? Doesn’t it influence the jury? Nikki Blonsky’s reps refused to comment as this is a ‘pending legal issue’.

A People report right after the incident says that Nikki was charged with assault with actual bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of two years, and common assault, also known as threat of assault, with a 90-day maximum term. Bianca Golden was also charged with assault with actual bodily harm.

Her father Carl was charged with grevious bodily harm, which has a possible sentence of five years.

Bianca Golden is shown on 3/28/08 at the Fiercee Awards in NY. Credit: Janet Mayer/PRPhotos. Nikki Blonsky is shown at the “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” premiere in NY on 5/21/08. Credit WENN. Note – an earlier image had a photo of Marissa Jaret Winokur that was incorrectly labeled by the agency as being of Blonsky. This has since been replaced and we are sorry for the confusion.

A week ago Hairspray actress Nikki Blonsky and her dad Carl got into a major brawl at the airport in Turks and Caicos with former America’s Next Top Model contestant Bianca Golden and her mother Elain.

Elain had to be flown off the island for medical attention and both of the Blonskys and Bianca Golden were arrested and charged with various levels of assault. Nikki and Bianca were released on bail but Carl has been held this past week because he was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm. Today he had his bail hearing and was expected to be released, but will be held for at least another week and a half, despite having health issues.

Nikki Blonsky’s dad will remain behind bars for a few more weeks. At a hearing Friday, the judge in Providenciales Magistrates’ Court ruled that Carl Blonsky must wait until August 19 for a trial, TMZ.com reports. The judge made the ruling despite Carl’s plea that he needed to return to the U.S. because of a kidney problem, according to TMZ.

Carl — who was slapped with a felony charge of grievous bodily harm — has been jailed since the July 30 airport brawl.

Elaine, who was badly injured in the scuffle, flew back to New York City on Monday. She is undergoing treatment for temporary paralysis in her left side.

Nikki — who was charged with actual bodily harm — was not at Friday’s hearing. She is due in court in December. Bianca, 19 — who is due in court in September 16 — was also charged with actual bodily harm. Like Nikki, she remains free on bail.

[From Us Magazine]

TMZ reported today that Elaine was still in the ICU at a Miami hospital, so I’m not sure where Us got the information that she’d flown to New York on Monday. Either way it’s clear that her injuries were pretty severe. There’s a cell phone camera video of part of the altercation on YouTube, but it’s fairly controversial so I’m not going to link it here. If you want to see it it’s not hard to find on the site.

It must be really frustrating to star in a movie that’s universally raved about, and then not get any other offers aside from a couple of Lifetime movies. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky’s unmitigated rage. Nikki and her father Carl were involved in some kind of serious physical altercation yesterday at the airport in Turks and Caicos. The two took on former America’s Next Top Model contestant Bianca Golden and her mother Elain – who was so seriously injured that she had to be airlifted to a Florida hospital!

“They were involved in an altercation at the airport in the departure lounge,” Sgt. Chase of the Turks and Caicos Islands Police Department tells E! News, adding that the fight was over some saved seats.

Blonsky’s rep declined to comment. The 19-year-old Hairspray star was charged with assault and actual bodily harm as well as common assault; her father, Carl, was rung up on a count of inflicting grievous bodily harm. Bianca Golden was also charged with actual bodily harm and assault. Golden’s mother, Elain, was hurt so badly she had to be airlifted to a hospital in Florida, according to Sgt. Chase.

Nikki Blonsky appeared in court this morning sporting a neck brace–”she received some kind of injury,” said Chase; a judge allowed her to be released on $6,000 cash bail and ordered to return to court on Dec. 1. Her father is being held until Aug. 8. Golden was also freed on bail. According to Chase, Golden and Nikki Blonsky’s charges carry a maximum penalty of two years, while Carl Blonsky could face up to five years in prison.

[From OK! Magazine]

Holy cow. This whole thing just reeks of Tracy Turnblad fighting for justice. Except I think Blonsky forgot Tracy’s message of not beating the crap out of people. Who knew the pint-sized girl packed such rage? I know traveling and airports can piss people off and make otherwise rational people do very irrational things… but this is pretty damn extreme. It resulted in airlifting someone off the island. And neck braces. And lots of criminal charges. I’m really anxious to hear a more gossipy account of what went on.

Bianca Golden is shown at the First Annual Fiercee Awards to Honor the Women of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ on 3/28/08. Credit: PNP/WENN. Nikki Blonski is shown at the Bravo A List Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom on 6/4/08. Credit: WENN

When I first saw this photo set, I though “oh that’s great that Queen Latifah got a star on the walk of fame,” and I assumed it was in Hollywood since she’s an accomplished singer/actress and all and it seems like she deserves one. Then I saw the actual star and realized it wasn’t your typical cookie-cutter sidewalk tribute. It turns out that her star is in Newark, NJ as part of their performing arts center walk of fame. Queen Latifah is from Newark so it all makes sense to me now.

The thing is, Queen Latifah already got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year, and she looked a lot more enthusiastic at that event. Maybe she’s just tired from all the promotion work for Hairspray.

Queen Latifah’s young costars from Hairspray were on hand to support her at the NJ ceremony. Amanda Bynes, Nikki Blonski, Elijah Kelley, and Zac Efron also attended.

Queen Latifah is going to open a franchise of Fat Burger, a fast food restaurant. She says “That was part of my Los Angeles education. On Sundays in California everybody would come out in all these low-riders. FatBurger was, like, the centerpiece for it all.” Queen Latifah’s Fat Burger will be located in Miami. Is this a decent burger joint and have any of you eaten there? I’ve never heard of it, although I lived on the East Coast all my life before moving to Europe and it sounds like a California thing.

Thanks to PR Photos for these pictures.

John Travolta is starring in the remake of “Hairspray,” which opens this Friday. This is his first musical since “Grease” in 1978… and Travolta looks nearly the same. Except that he’s thirty years older and one hundred pounds heavier. And has breasts. So he’s a fat old woman. He plays agoraphobic mother Edna Turnblad, played by transvestite Divine in the original film and Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway version. Apparently Travolta had some serious complaints about the wardrobe… but the fat suit, breasts, and dresses were not the problem.

John Travolta knows a lot about women’s footwear. In fact, when he talks about the shoes he wore in the new movie Hairspray, Travolta reveals more than knowledge – he betrays a sense of passion for the world of footwear fashion.

“It was tough dancing in high heels, but we did change the heels to more of a dance shoe – like a Capezio,” said Travolta during a recent press engagement for the movie, which hits theatres Friday.

“You know, they kept giving me these skinny high heels and it’s, like, ‘OK, I understand those. My mother wore those.’ However, when I was growing up and I saw girls in the chorus, they had a thicker heel and it was a dance shoe and I kept telling them to find these shoes. I knew they existed, and finally, they brought out a shoe and I said, ‘That’s the shoe! Now make it in many colors.’”

[From the Halifax Daily News]

I can imagine it’d be pretty hard to dance well on a thin heel, especially wearing a lot of extra padding. Back in the day I used to tap dance, and it can be a challenge even on a sturdy Capezio shoe. That’s right, I’m hardcore like that. So don’t mess. It’s kind of funny that John Travolta has such an interest in shoes. I’m just saying. Travolta also talked about what it was like to be a woman. “’I was so flirted with, so groped,” he said. “I was convinced I’d have been a slut had I been born a woman. It was like, ‘Go ahead, touch me. I don’t care.’” He also told the New York Daily News “’I love big boobs on a woman… so I wanted Edna to have them. My boobs and butt got a lot of attention on the set. The whole crew kept coming over and groping me. The scary thing is, I liked it.’”

The gay rumors have followed John Travolta around throughout the last few years almost as diligently as they’ve followed Tom Cruise. Travolta just doesn’t seem to sue over them as often. There were a few photos of him kissing a man on the mouth as he boarded a plane a few months ago… but who are we to judge? Women do that and it’s considered fine, so I’m not going to use that as evidence. I’m just saying he’s a friendly fellow. And he has his own plane, so I don’t want to ruin my plan to become his best friend and steal his plane by saying anything defamatory. Anyhoo, I know they said Travolta wore a fat suit, but anyone who has seen him lately probably wonders just how much padding he was really wearing versus how much was natural. I’m sure he was just really getting into character. And there’s no better way to do that than to eat a lot of bacon. Can you imagine if we all had to eat bacon for our jobs? That’s a pretty sweet deal.

I am so excited for “Hairspray.” I’ve been trying to bring musicals back since I first saw the “Sound of Music” as a kid. It seems like my efforts have finally been rewarded, and musicals are here to stay… for now. Ever since Moulin Rouge (I think that was the first recent one, correct me if I’m wrong) brought singing and dancing back into style, there’s been no stopping those buffalo-flapping dancers from breaking out in the movies. I think that dance fashion should take off, just like aerobic fashion took off in the ‘80s. Who doesn’t want to have shoes that click, bright lipstick, and sequined clothing?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Here are photos from the movie Hairspray, thanks to Allmoviephoto. John Travolta does make a fabulous woman. Also shown are Allison Janney, Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Marsden, Christopher Walken, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, Taylor Parks, Tabitha Lupien, Hayley Podschun, and Kelly Fletcher.