Canadian diva Celine Dion is mostly squeaky clean, but every now and then her wackiness shows. She sometimes has a habit of oversharing- about her sex life, about her body, and many other odd topics that surprise me. In a recent interview, Dion admitted that she and some friends tried some pot while in Amsterdam…but nothing happened. Celine, you’re supposed to hold it in!

Celine Dion has admitted she once tried marijuana - but quit smoking before she was caught by camera-wielding paparazzi.

The Canadian singer was visiting Amsterdam and decided to try the drug in a local cafe.

‘The only time I did one puff was in Holland, where it’s legal. And I went to a cafeteria with some girls, with the little boats and the canals and we stopped and I tried.’

But the 39-year-old insists the substance had no effect on her: ‘Nothing. No. But I didn’t choke. I took one puff and I said, ‘Okay, nothing happened!’ It was funny.

‘It was, for us, like cheating. ‘Oooh!’ You know, there might be paparazzi!”

[From Celebrity Stoners via The Daily Goss UK]

Poor Celine, somebody should have showed her how to inhale. But it sounds like she had fun anyway. I have a hard time believing people when they say that they’ve only tried it once, and it had no effect on them. The last time I tried it, I laughed for about 7 hours straight, then ate an entire bag of Funyuns. I’ve never been to Amsterdam, but I hear that there’s a lot more to the city than legal weed and canals. There’s also the Red Light district, where prostitution is legal. It definitely sounds like a great place to go for an “adults-only” vacation. I think I need to start saving my money now.

Celine Dion is shown performing in Brisbane, Australia on Sunday

Rite Aid has started selling DNA paternity tests over the counter. For just $29.99 plus a $119 lab fee, US dads can figure out if that kid they’ve emotionally invested in and raised for years is actually theirs.

All it requires is a cheek swab from the mother, the man, and the child. You send it in and 3-5 days later your family could be torn apart.

The results are not admissible in court, so in order to nail that deadbeat dad for child support he won’t pay anyway you’ll need to follow up with a traditional expensive DNA test:

Identigene, which runs a DNA testing laboratory, said its DNA Paternity Test Collection Kit went on sale at the 4,363 Rite Aid drug stores throughout the United States, except New York.

The swab in the kit is used to collect a saliva sample, to be mailed to the Identigene laboratory for an analysis that costs additional 119 dollars.

It takes three to five business days to get the test results, which are delivered by mail, email, or online through a secured Web service.

The paternity test kit is already a hit in California, Washington and Oregon states, where they have been selling on a trial basis since November, Identigene said.

“Demand has been very strong, store sales are brisk and Identigene has been inundated with questions regarding the product’s availability,” it said in a statement…

Sold without prescription, the paternity kits are not allowed as evidence in court, where more precise and costly DNA tests are required.

[From AFP]

The implications for a widely available and relatively inexpensive DNA test are wide sweeping. Maury Povich’s show will have to change focus for one. This also might change human behavior over time in that men might not be so quick to deny that a baby is theirs and women might not try to pin an unexpected pregnancy on whichever hapless guy is around. And just maybe it will result in increased use of birth control.

Baby photo from Morguefile © P.Winberg

A 34 year-old transgender man, who was born a woman and still has the necessary parts, made the difficult decision to bear a child after his wife had a hysterectomy due to severe endometriosis. Thomas Beatie wrote an article for The Advocate in which he detailed the difficult and often humiliating process of trying to bear a child for his wife, during which doctors shunned him and his family discouraged him.

Beatie underwent breast reduction surgery and took testosterone for years to reassign his gender, but was not sterilized. He is legally a man and has all the benefits of marriage with his female wife. They live in Bend, Oregon and run a screen printing business.

When the couple made the decision that Beatie would bear their child after his wife’s hysterectomy, he stopped taking testosterone, and consulted many doctors about the decision, but did not take fertility drugs. Ultimately he chose to be artificially inseminated through a sperm bank, and the insemination was performed at home to save costs.

Beatie’s first pregnancy was ectopic and life-threatening, but his second is successful and he says he’s due in July:

He decided to carry a baby for his wife, Nancy, because she had a hysterectomy years ago. He was able to get pregnant because he kept his female organs when he switched genders.

“Sterilisation is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights,” he writes. “Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire but a human desire.” The couple, who have been together for ten years, run a custom screenprinting business in Bend, Oregon, where neighbours do not know that Mr Beatie was once a woman.

“Our desire to work hard, buy our first home and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child,” he wrote.

Before becoming pregnant, Mr Beatie stopped the testosterone injections he was receiving as part of his gender reassignment. “It had been roughly eight years since I had my last menstrual cycle so this wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. My body regulated itself after about four months and I didn’t have to take any exogenous oestrogen, progesterone or fertility drugs to aid my pregnancy,” he wrote.

The couple bought donor vials from a cryogenic sperm bank and, facing resistance and prejudice from doctors, resorted to home insemination. “Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Healthcare professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognise Nancy as my wife. Receptionists have laughed at us. Friends and family have been unsupportive; most of Nancy’s family doesn’t even know I’m transgender,” he said.

Mr Beatie’s first successful insemination ended in a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy with triplets that required surgery, resulting in the loss of all his embryos and his right Fallopian tube. “When my brother found out about my loss, he said, ‘It’s a good thing that happened. Who knows what kind of monster it would have been?’,” he wrote.

The second pregnancy resulted in a baby girl who is due to be born on July 3. “I will be my daughter’s father, and Nancy will be her mother. We will be a family,” he wrote.

[From Timesonline.co.uk]

Beatie’s neighbors only know him as a man and don’t really believe he’s pregnant. This is likely not the first pregnancy in a transgendered male, according to medical experts. Beatie says he still feels like a man and that being pregnant has not changed his gender identity.

At first I was kind of shocked to see this picture and thought it was some kind of hoax, but it’s perfectly natural when you think about it. It’s someone who made the decision to bear a child when his wife was unable to. He just happened to have the parts for it when most dads don’t. Congratulations to him and his wife.

A new report from the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston reveals that both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are tied to two political candidates by blood. Barack Obama is a distant cousin of Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie is a distant cousin of Hillary Clinton.

This could make for one odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt’s girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain…

Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.

“It shows that lots of different people can be related, people you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Child said.

Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

Obama often jokes about his cousin Cheney at campaign appearances.

“His kinships are across the political spectrum,” Child said.

Child has spent the last three years tracing the candidates’ genealogy, along with senior research scholar Gary Boyd Roberts, author of the 1989 book, “Ancestors of American Presidents”…

Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.

Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, declined to comment on the senator’s ancestry.

Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed, both related to Jean Cusson who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.

[From Yahoo! News]

If this proves anything, it’s that the gene pool on this planet is getting way too close for comfort. No wonder the new generation is so stupid– they’re all cousins! I have never been curious about my ancestors, and with reports like this coming out, I want to know where I came from even less. With my luck, I’d turn out to be related to Hitler or Jack the Ripper or something. Who needs that kind of pressure? It’s bad enough that my immediate ancestors had a history of cancer, mental illness and heart disease!

Note by Celebitchy: I didn’t see what the big deal was here, except to highlight that we’re all related somehow through genealogy.

Perez Hilton, the swishy, often blue-haired gossip blogger who has as many enemies as he does fans, threw himself a bash for his 30th birthday. Dubbed his “Quinceañera (Part 2),” the party included performances by the Pussycat Dolls and was attended by celebs such as Marc Jacobs, Amanda Bynes and Jerry O’Connell, as well as a gaggle of has-beens and annoying reality show stars. My guess is, either they wanted Perez to mention them on his blog, or they want to make sure he says something nice about them and not draw rude lines on their photos. Perez, ever the shameless self promoter, detailed the party this morning– using the royal “We,” of course– on his blog.

We had asked Pussycat Dolls founder and creative director Robin Antin to put together a special “Perez Dolls” for our big 30th birthday bash.

She had an audition at the Millennium Complex, Britney’s fave, and hundreds of dancers showed up. That’s what we were expecting.

Perez got the surprise of his life when The Pussycat Dolls appeared on stage at our party this past weekend.

He had NO idea!

And, he was especially shocked that lead Doll Nicole Scherzinger agreed to do it, and, we’re told, she was very excited about.

“I have been lucky enough to be featured on PerezHilton.com on several occasions,” said Nicole. “When you’ve reached my stature, perhaps you too can have cum dripping out of your mouth,” she joked.

LOVED it!

[From Perez Hilton.com]

I love how that item was written to make us think that Perez himself wasn’t writing it. The party was sponsored by a variety of advertisers, including, hilariously enough, Burger King and KY lubricant. Perez, dressed all in white and looking more like a deranged ice cream man than a celeb, posed with The King, that creepy mascot from Burger King commercials. Supposedly, Perez has been on a diet with the goal of looking svelte and fierce for his birthday. Mission not accomplished.

Note by Celebitchy: If I made 1/10th or what Perez does in a year I would be elated. The guy seems like a douche of the highest degree, but he also works super hard and does break some exclusives despite his willingness to take credit for a lot of other people’s work. It’s not easy being a gossip blogger, and Perez does deserve some kudos for putting his fat face out there. Although he could be called a fame whore for it too.

I would also like to say that Jerry O’Connell is teh sex.

Shown at Perez Hilton’s birthday party are Jerry O’Connell, Marc Jacobs and Austin A, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, Amanda Bynes, Dannii Minogue, Nick Cannon, Khloe Kardashian, Harvey Levin of TMZ, Candis Cayne, and DJ AM. Thanks to PRPhotos.

On Saturday night, the Ventura County Fire Department received a 911 call claiming that someone at Heather Locklear’s residence was in danger of attempting suicide. When the fire department arrived at the actress’ house, they found nothing out of the ordinary.

TMZ has learned the Ventura County Fire Department and two paramedics units were sent to the home of Heather Locklear yesterday after getting a “suicide attempt” call. Sources say the person they responded to was Heather Locklear — however paramedics quickly determined there was no suicide attempt.

Capt. Barry Parker of the Ventura County Fire Department tells TMZ they received a 911 call last night and went to Locklear’s home in Thousand Oaks, but the call did not originate from her home. An engine, a squad and two ambulances were dispatched. When they arrived, they spoke to Heather and found “no problem.”

A Fire Department source added, “If there was a problem, we would have taken her with us.”

Sources tell us when responders arrived, Heather was fine, completely responsive, and they left after about ten minutes. These sources say Heather was never in any danger and there was absolutely no need to take her in on a 5150 hold.

As we first reported, the person who called 911 was not at Heather’s home.

[From TMZ]

I’m glad to hear that Heather was fine. Why the heck would she want to kill herself? She’s Heather friggin’ Locklear. She’s still hot, she’s got a gorgeous kid, and she’s dating Jack Wagner. This is complete speculation, but I smell a rat…. a rat named Denise Richards!

Picture note by Celebitchy: Heather Locklear and her daughter, Ava Elizabeth, 10, are shown on 1/17/08 at the “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” film premiere, thanks to PRPhotos.

Update by Celebitchy: TMZ reports that Heather’s psychiatrist the the one who called 911 after speaking to her on the phone, and was worried that she might overdose on prescription medication.

Her rep said earlier that she is “fine” and that “she never requested medical assistance and did not place a 911 call. Nor did anyone from her house call 911 or place a call requesting medical assistance.”

The ever-diligent journalists at the UK’s Daily Star are reporting that druggie/rocker/crazy person Pete Doherty is planning on opening up an animal sanctuary… quite possibly in his house. Pete was once famously photographed giving crack to a kitten, so it didn’t exactly seem like he was the biggest animal welfare advocate. But apparently that’s all changed, thanks to the love of a three-legged hedgehog. No I’m not being sarcastic. Pete Doherty really did rescue a three-legged hedgehog that he found in the road. As an aside, I’m pretty sure the fact that hedgehogs run around in the wild is the greatest thing about England. They’re freaking adorable. Anyway, Pete named the little pig Mrs. Tiggg-Winkle, after Beatrix Potter’s famed hedgehog. And apparently his life has been forever changed.

An insider said: “Pete rescued the hedgehog. It had a leg missing and he felt sorry for it.

“He made sure it got the proper help it needed from a vet and set up a special section for it in his garden.

“Pete has a big heart. He also loves rats and is looking after one with no tail.

“He has lots of kittens, too, and hopes that by the end of the year he will be able to open his pet rescue centre at Marlborough to local schools so they can educate children about animals.”

[From the Daily Star]

Well this sounds like an all-out fabulous idea. You’ve got a three-legged hedgehog. You’ve got a rat without a tail. You’ve got kittens upon kittens. Really, what more do you need to educate children about animals? This is what I imagine Pete Doherty’s tour will sound like. “Here’s a broken spiny thing. Here’s my crack pipe. Here’s a broken pointy-nosed thing that ought to have a tail. Here’s some cats mating. That makes more cats. Here’s my collection of bongs. Don’t touch the glass one. Here, play with the plastic one.” It’ll be very informative. And what parents in their right mind wouldn’t want to take their kids over to Pete Doherty’s to hang out with some animals and acid? That’s right, boring ones. Pete Doherty’s had a lot of bad ideas. Throwing a vial of his own blood on a camera. Dating Kate Moss. But an animal sanctuary has got to be the absolute worst.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s Pete performing with Babyshambles in Concert at Olympia Hall in Paris - January 14, 2008. Images thanks to PR Photos.

One of the largest white truffles ever found went for a record-breaking $330,000 at a charity auction held in three locations yesterday. White truffles are fungi that typically grow in northern Italy and Croatia. Truffles come in other varieties, including the well-known black truffle, which can be found in the French countryside. White and black truffles are rare and highly sought after as food. Truffle hunting can be extremely lucrative, as the prized delicacies can be priced at around $11,000 a kilo. (2.2 pounds.)

Dogs are specially trained to hunt the truffles and locate them in the wild. Rocco, an Italian mutt, found the 3.3 pound white truffle near Pisa, Italy at the base of a tree and abut 2.5 feet underground. His owners, Christiano and Luciano Savini, auctioned off the huge fungus for charity. It went to a Hong Kong casino owner in Macau after a bidding war with controversial artist Damien Hirst. The proceeds will be donated to different charities in London, Macau, and Italy.

First sniffed out by a mongrel dog in the woods of Tuscany, the biggest white truffle unearthed in half a century fetched a record $330,000 (£160,000) yesterday at a charity auction more passionate and raucous than if a Rembrandt or Titian had been at stake.

The knobbly, soil-encrusted 1.5kg (3.3lbs) white tuber magnatum pico was the subject of fierce bidding and was finally claimed by the Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho, nicknamed ‘The King of Gambling’ and one of Asia’s richest men.

Bidding was linked by satellite between Macau, Florence and London’s Refettorio restaurant, where guests included the DJ Chris Evans and his wife, Natasha. Giorgio Locatelli, consultant chef at Refettorio, took instructions from the artist Damien Hirst, in Cornwall over a mobile phone. After bowing out at $130,000, Hirst told him: ‘I’m walking down the beach. Fuck it!’

The value was heightened by a dry summer which has made white truffles - dubbed ‘white gold’ and the fungal equivalent of caviar - more precious than ever. Trade prices hit £3,500 per kilo at the start of the brief season, from October to December, with Harrods charging £5,500. The previous auction record was set only last month when a white truffle fetched $212,000 in Hong Kong.

At the Grand Lisboa hotel in Macau, 500 guests attended a black tie dinner, many arriving via a heliport on the roof. Fourteen truffles were up for auction at the three locations, some presented on red silk, culminating in the 1.5kg colossus which was announced as ‘the truffle of the century’.

‘It is a beautiful truffle,’ said Locatelli. ‘There is a long decline in truffles from 50 to 100 years ago because of pesticides and the way we are using our planet without respecting it. To produce truffles you need a purity of environment.’

[From The Guardian]

The article notes that a 5.5 pound truffle was given to President Eisenhower in 1954.

I started to cover this because Madonna and Cate Blanchett were expected at the auction, but neither attended according to reports. It doesn’t seem like bidding suffered much due to lack of star power, and the scene sounds like something out of a Bond movie.

The truffle must be cooked and eaten within the next week, as truffles need to be consumed within 20 days or they will become moldy and inedible.

When I read this article I was trying to remember if I’ve ever eaten truffles other than the chocolate kind, and I’ve had meals at restaurants that claimed they were made with truffle oil. It turns out that truffle oil usually doesn’t contain the pricey ingredient, and is typically just olive oil infused with a synthetic truffle flavor. At prices like that, it’s no wonder the oil doesn’t have any real truffles in it.

Here’s a video about the largest truffle, thanks to Telegraph.co.uk:

The header image is of Angela Leong, the wife of the winning bidder Stanley Ho, holding the prized truffle. Image from Reuters.

Once in a while, I enjoy feeling superior to others. Don’t we all? Okay maybe more than once in a while. But let’s be honest, it’s especially satisfying to feel superior to famous people. Not the famous people that are running your country (because you generally want to believe that they’re smarter than you) but actors, singers, those types of famous people. So with that, we bring you the top 10 dumbest celebrity quotes. That’s right, you can puff up your chest with pride now.

Christina Aguilera
Quote: “So, where’s the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?”

Ivana Trump
Quote: “Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.”

Jessica Simpson
Quote: “I’m not anorexic. I’m from Texas. Are there people from Texas that are anorexic? I’ve never heard of one. And that includes me.”

Tara Reid
Quote: “I make Jessica Simpson look like a rock scientist.”

Dan Quayle
Quote: “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century.”

Alicia Silverstone
Quote: “I think that the film ‘Clueless’ was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it’s true lightness”

Linda Evangelista
Quote: “It was God who made me so beautiful. If I weren’t, then I’d be a school teacher.”

George Bush
Quote: “I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don’t always agree with them”

Brooke Shields
Quote: “Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life”

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Quote: “I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman”

[From Mr. Sock Monkey via Digg]

Now don’t you feel a little better about yourself? To be fair, it’s not easy to pick just one dumb George Bush quote. Tomes have been written on the dumb shit that comes out of that man’s mouth. But I digress. It’s nice to know that even smart people (ie Brooke Shields) can say incredibly dumb stuff.