Earlier this week, we told you about E!’s new reality show, “Pop Fiction,” in which celebrities engineer pranks on the paparazzi and tabloids, to prove….I don’t know what. That you can’t believe what you see in a photo? The show was responsible for Paris walking around Hollywood with a fake shaman and Avril Lavigne shopping at baby stores wearing a prosthetic pregnancy belly. Well, it looks like the item we ran last week about Slater– er, I mean, Mario Lopez giving his BFF Eva Longoria a gold necklace from Cartier was all a big prank for “Pop Fiction,” too. Hardy har har.

It’s true that Eva Longoria-Parker and Mario Lopez are friends, but the Cartier necklace he gave her on March 6 is fake! In Touch can exclusively reveal that the pair were setting up a skit for Ashton Kutcher’s new reality show with a twist, Pop Fiction. In fact, a video crew even followed the friends to the Hornitos tequila-sponsored opening of Eva’s restaurant Beso later that night. The show picks up where Punk’d left off, with celebrities acting out fake scenes in front of paparazzi.

[From In Touch]

Big deal. It was pretty much a non-story anyway. Some oily, washed-up former teen star who’s hanging around with an about-to-be-over “It” girl, hoping some of her fame will rub off, pulls a prank on the paparazzi. Wow. That Ashton, he sure is clever!

I’m still confused about the concept of the show. Celebrities don’t like it when tabloids make up false stories about them, so they….intentionally set up false stories? Maybe I need to smoke what Ashton’s smoking, and then I’ll get it.

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano thinks the recent Saturday Night Live parody of him was hilarious. The diminutive diva, 21, responded to the SNL skit featuring Amy Poehler in a dead-on impression, in an e-mail to People Magazine. Luckily, he has a great sense of humor in addition to a great sense of style.

Christian Siriano caught Amy Poehler’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live over the weekend and the Project Runway winner has just one word — an ‘F’ word — for the skit. And, no, it wasn’t “fierce.”

“I thought it was SO FUNNY,” the 22-year-old designer wrote in an e-mail to PEOPLE. “Amy [Poehler] looked exactly like me which is kinda scary, but fabulous.”

Known for his catty commentary and catchphrase, “That’s fierce,” the pint-sized designer wasn’t the only Project Runway personality to be parodied in the three-minute sketch about a hypothetical Runway spinoff, which features Siriano giving someone an apartment makeover. While Poehler played Siriano, the skit also featured guest host Amy Adams playing Runway host Heidi Klum and SNL castmember Bill Hader imitating Tim Gunn.

“The fact that they are even talking about me is so fierce, fabulous and flawless and is such an honor,” Siriano told PEOPLE. “[Poehler] was hilarious and little. It was so crazy that she looked just like me!”

And Poehler didn’t just nail Siriano’s sassy tone — she perfectly approximated his flat-ironed hair. “The hair was absolutely perfect,” Siriano wrote. “I don’t think I could have done it better myself. It was fierce!”

[From People]

I saw the video clip of the skit, and I agree- it was pretty funny. I have to give serious props to Bill Hader for his perfect rendition of Tim Gunn. His impression is even better than my boyfriend’s! Yes, it’s true- my entire family sits around and does impressions of the people on “Project Runway.” My Heidi Klum is FIERCE.

Note By Celebitchy: Thanks to Best Week Ever for the heads up and for the video clip above.

Remember last week, when Paris Hilton was seen around town with a guy dressed like a shaman? That story turned out to be fake, but that wasn’t the whole story. Paris and her fake guru were part of a new reality prank show on E! Network called “Pop Fiction.” The show is executive produced by Ashton Kutcher and the premise is this: what if celebrities who are hounded by the paparazzi decided to ‘fight back’ by faking stories of their own? The goal of show, according to producers, is the shake up the paparazzi and celebrity gossip mags, to make them think twice about printing news. It’s like a vigilante version of “Punk’d.”

The half-hour show featured two segments. The first was Paris and her fake guru. Paris, in an interview, says that she decided to participate in the show after a fake item ran about her starting a charity to help save drunken elephants in India. That rumor was actually picked up by the AP News, and they were later forced to print a retraction. The show pointed out that within hours, news of Paris and her guru was all over the Internet and the subject of blogs around the globe.

“Next time you read the tabloids, ask yourself if it’s real or if it’s pop fiction,” she warned.

In the second segment, pop singer Avril Lavigne led on the paparazzi by sporting a fake baby bump while shopping on Robertson Blvd. in L.A. She predicted that she wouldn’t be able to walk one block without being submerged by paparazzi. “Robertson is where you go when you want attention,” she said. (Are you listening, Britney?) She then waded through paparazzi with her husband and some friends to shop at Baby Kitson and Lisa Kline Kids, trendy boutiques featuring kids’ clothes. She was quick to call her mother and warn her that she might see pictures or read about Avril’s pregnancy, and that it wasn’t true. Twenty minutes later, the show says, there were photos of Avril all over the Internet confirming her “pregnancy.”

Life & Style Magazine reports that Avril Lavigne went out of her way to hide a suspicious belly bump while eating at the Beverly Grand restaurant in Los Angeles on March 13th. “She insisted on putting on her jacket before she got out of the car,” an eyewitness revealed. “When she did get out, it was like, ‘Whoa,’ she looks so pregnant!’” The 21-year-old singer is currently engaged to Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley, 25.

[From Popdirt.com]

As a member of the so-called “gossip rag” militia, I have mixed feelings about this show. Here at Celebitchy, we really want to get the information right. We are probably one of the few gossip blogs that will correct our facts if we get them wrong, and we often have a “take this story with a grain of salt” attitude. But we’re well aware that Celebitchy is in the minority on this philosophy. These kinds of pranks are going to make it more difficult to get our facts in line, but I certainly understand the concept behind them. The paparazzi and many gossip outlets definitely overstep their boundaries these days and continuously cross the line into obscene amounts of privacy invasion. The actor who played Paris’ guru hit the nail on the head when, after the pair are swarmed by cameras, he says, “I would probably be the guy who punches a paparazzi.”

I wonder if Ashton Kutcher will continue to get high-profile celebs involved in the pranks on the show. I also wonder if anyone is actually going to watch this show: it’s on at 10:30 on Sunday night. On E! Network. Not exactly a ringer in the ratings department, if you ask me.

Note by Celebitchy: We covered that Avril Lavigne story, but it wasn’t a very original concept. A married pop star sports a little bump and goes shopping at baby stores at the largest paparazzi-target shopping area in the world. Of course people are going to say she’s pregnant. They need to step it up a little if they want to create decent shows. The Paris Hilton guru story was pretty interesting. JayBird covered that Avril shopping for baby clothes story and was quite subdued about it, she said “I would say the traditional ‘Congrats to the happy couple,’ but with someone like Avril Lavigne, she’s probably apt to punch me in the eye for it.”

No one really gives a shit about Avril except to say she shouldn’t reproduce.

One of the contestants on late-night Fox Reality Channel show “Paradise Hotel 2″ climbed up a tall phone tower and jumped to his death in an apparent suicide after being eliminated. Nathan Clutter, 26, died in what was described in Broadcasting and Cable magazine as a “climbing accident” on October 12, 2006. Police sources tell the Enquirer that an investigation determined that it was a suicide.

Reality TV turned into a deadly reality for a contestant on “Paradise Hotel 2″ who committed suicide after being eliminated from the steamy reality show.

Nathan Clutter jumped to his death from a 100-foot-high cell phone tower, The Enquirer has learned exclusively. Clutter’s family told police investigators that he had recently been depressed - and officials ruled his death a suicide.

But a broadcasting industry magazine reported that the 26-year-old bachelor died in a “climbing accident” and the show’s producer, Fox Reality Channel, is airing episodes in which he appeared with no mention of his suicide.

“Paradise Hotel 2″ follows the romantic entanglements of a group of attractive single men and women living together in a fancy Mexican resort.

Clutter, a sales manager from Phoenix, Arizona, made it through several episodes before being eliminated last September.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, March 17, 2008]

The guy was depressed before the show aired, and who knows if he would have taken his life if he wasn’t on that stupid reality show. You would think they would try and screen people properly to make sure they can handle the they way they’re forced into stupid situations and portrayed as stereotypes for the sake of cheap entertainment.

I fast-forwarded through the “webisodes” available on the Paradise Hotel 2 website, and the situations involve such riveting and original events as guys doing body shots off a chick in a little bikini, and a guy trying to convince a female contestant to give him a hand job. Those night vision sex scenes are so titillating.

The only time I saw this guy Nathan was in a group scene at the bar about half-way through the third webisode. The online episodes are mostly narrated by the grating host, who fills us in on who hooked up and fought with whom and all the stupid details like some chick rubbing her face in another woman’s breasts. From what I could tell Nathan didn’t figure it any of the hookups or problems between contestants as he was barely mentioned. He seems to have wisely kept a low profile on the show.

People generally know what they’re getting into as a reality show contestant, but it does seem like they’re incredibly manipulated and used for those shows, and it must be difficult to deal with if you’re already depressed. Many of them willingly make asses of themselves, but others might just be trying to further careers or get some money or exposure. The producers should do both a thorough psychological screening as well as arrange for exit counseling for the contestants, but it’s doubtful they did either in this instance.

The Paradise Hotel 2 website has a brief mention of Nathan’s death under his bio. It reads:

As Paradise Hotel 2 comes to air, we are saddened by the loss of Nathan Clutter, who passed away on October 12 of last year. The cast and crew, as well as Mentorn Productions and the entire Fox Reality Channel and MyNetworkTV families, join Nathan’s loved ones in mourning his loss and we hope that they are able to find some comfort in knowing that he touched everyone he encountered with his thougtfulness and decency.

I wonder if Fox Reality Channel executives had a wreath sent to his funeral.

JayBird reported earlier today that Ashton Kutcher has a new reality show in which he pulls pranks on the paparazzi and gossip media. Paris Hilton’s whole outing with the Swami guy was really just a staged prank that she was in on for Ashton’s upcoming show, in which he punks the paps and the gossip rags by planting fake stories. (You have to give props to JayBird because she thought that it was Paris who was being Punk’d by Ashton when she saw those pictures, and it turns out that the truth wasn’t far off.)

Kutcher’s new show is a great idea. He says he’s doing it because the gossip press is “a feeding frenzy,” and that the way they spread conjecture is damaging not just to the celebrities, but that it’s also “at the expense of the population, because they’re being sucked into it, too.”

It’s going to be called Pop Fiction and will cover the way that Ashton manipulated the media to report specific stories. In fact they’re trying to keep it under wraps because there are stories already out there that are completely made up by Ashton and his celebrity friends. We’re excited by this concept and it’s great to see someone expose how the gossip press works as well as show how we’re regularly fooled by fabricated stories.

So I was wondering which recent gossip tidbits were planted by Ashton and his friends, and I tried to figure out who he might have conspired with.

Cameron Diaz was the first one who came to mind, and she definitely knows Ashton because they just finished shooting What Happens In Vegas together. Today there’s a story that Cameron and Diddy are a new item. This sounds totally suspect to us, and I hope it’s one of Ashton’s fake stories:

According to a witness, the pair arrived and left separately through the kitchen to avoid being photographed, but once safely inside the restaurant, they shared a booth and appeared to be on a date. “They could just be friends, but it looked like more.” the onlooker says. “They sat very close to each other.”

[In Touch as reported on MediaTakeOut]

Here are the other stories I think Ashton planted as part of his show
Rumer Willis and Orlando Bloom
Rumer is Ashton’s step-daughter, and I bet he arranged for her to get all kissy-face with Orlando at Prince’s Oscar party so that all the tabloids would report that they were together.

Orlando Bloom Smells
This story was too funny, and it sounds completely made up, but it’s not the typical fabricated story you would find in a gossip rag. Orlando’s friend supposedly said that his new girlfriend Miranda Kerr is grossed out by him because “he’ll wear the same jeans for a week,” sleeps with his dog, and rarely showers. You can see Orlando and Ashton making this one up.

Paris Hilton’s “find a friend” reality show
This one sounds too good to be true, and I bet it was. Since Ashton admits a collaboration with Paris on the guru story, I bet he helped her cook up this reality show concept too. Only it’s never going to happen.

Paris Hilton and Benji Madden
Please let these two be the product of Ashton Kutcher’s imagination. A lot of people wondered why they were showing up all over town together holding hands, and maybe it’s because they’re trying to Punk us. They seem to be overdoing it, though. It could be true publicity-whore love.

In related news, Wilmer Valderrama said at the beginning of February that he was done womanizing and that “You want the media to focus on what you are creating.”

Let us know which other recent stories you think might be the product of Ashton and crew. This could get interesting.

Update: Many of you are pointing out in the comments that the Kate Hudson pregnancy rumor could be one of the stories planted for Ashton’s show. Kate is a friend of Ashton’s and recently went to his 30th birthday party. If they orchestrated that rumor by having Kate wear loose outfits for weeks, I have to give them a lot of credit because that was genius. My personal feeling is that they didn’t set that up, but if they did they really pulled it off.

Project Runway’s fifth-place designer, Sweet P., was asked by MTV to do a live blog on Oscar Night, covering the red carpet arrival of all the stars. Sweet P.’s first critique was of Project Runway’s host, supermodel Heidi Klum.

My first victim is … oh, how apropos …Heidi Klum in a great-fitting red Galliano gown. Of course, she is stunning, but I do not like the big collar thing — it looks as if Galliano was inspired by Christian & Chris’ avant-garde look. A bit too Cruella de Ville! She still looks gorgeous, though. I do like that her dress will be auctioned off to benefit a charity.

[From MTV.com]

Maybe it wasn’t the best move to criticize her former host and judge, but I have to say, I agree with Sweet P. In fact, when Celebitchy, Jaybird and I were chatting live during the red carpet arrivals, I had the very same opinion of the dress. Then again, if it weren’t for Heidi and her show, nobody would know who Sweet P. is, and she wouldn’t have landed that MTV gig. It also wasn’t very cool of her to slam Chris and Christian’s avant-garde look– after all, Chris and Christian beat out Sweet P. to the finals of the show and their avant-garde dress actually won the challenge. The whole thing has a faint whiff of sour grapes, if you ask me.

The open animosity between former spouses Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards just keeps boiling. After Denise went to court to gain the right to feature their two young daughters on her upcoming reality show, Sheen and fiancé, Brooke Mueller, have gone on the offensive, urging people to boycott the show and calling it exploitive. Now, Sheen is placing the blame squarely on the tiny head of the show’s executive producer, Ryan Seacrest.

Charlie Sheen is so furious with Ryan Seacrest for producing his ex-wife’s upcoming reality show that he wants to punch the TV host’s lights out–and that’s no “Idol” threat, say sources.

The “Two and a Half Men” star has been locked in a bitter feud with Ryan ever since Seacrest and E! Entertainment signed a deal with Denise Richards for a summertime series and her two small children with Sheen, Sam, 3, and Lola, 2.

“Charlie opposed this thing right from the start,” a pal told the Enquirer. “He thinks it’s wrong for Denise and Ryan to be exploiting the kids.”

Charlie, 42, was so livid her took the matter to court, but a judge gave the project a green light. After that, Charlie — who has been friends with Ryan, 33, for more than 12 years– called the “Idol” host several times, trying to convince him to stop working on the series.

But Ryan refused to budge, saying, “I’m sorry, but this isn’t about friendship, it’s about business.”

Charlie screamed at him: “How could you do this to me?” said the source. “How can you allow my children to be used as pawns like this just so you and Denise can make money off them? The two of you are despicable! You are the scum of the earth, lower than low! And you better watch out, pal. Right now, I’m so mad I could punch your lights out!”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, March 3, 2008]

The article goes on to say that Sheen’s publicist denies that this conversation ever happened. But I, for one, hope that this time, The Enquirer is right. I’d love to see Charlie wipe the floor with Ryan Seacrest, although it wouldn’t really be a fair fight. I’m so sick of Seacrest and his ridiculous antics. He’s been humping America’s leg for seven years as the host of “Idol,” and his ego seems to be out of control, as evidenced by his completely inappropriate interviewing skills during the red carpet segment of the Academy Awards.

The real victims in this whole situation are Sam and Lola. There has not been a single indication in these girls’ young lives that they have any desire to be in the public eye– in fact, every time Denise drags them to a movie premiere or event, they looks absolutely miserable. Why does she insist on thrusting them into the spotlight when they clearly do not want this kind of lifestyle?

Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller are shown below at An Evening with “Two and a Half Men” at The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on 2/27/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Paris Hilton is going to get another reality show after The Simple Life ended following way too long a run and her film career ran its course. It’s going to be a show that will air on either MTV or VH1 and will “be about her searching for a new best friend,” according to a source quoted on US Weekly’s website. The unnamed source goes on to add in a sentiment reminiscent of the social issues that plagued us in Jr. High that “Paris is tired of the haters and she’s looking for someone new. She’s looking for someone new and cool who she can trust.”

Of course a reality show will be the best venue for Paris to find a trustworthy buddy who will stick with her through thick and pharmacologically-maintained thin. It worked so well for her the last time.

Paris’ latest relationship sheds light on why she may need to turn to reality TV to find a fellow fame whore girlfriend. She’s been seen all over town with Benji Madden, the recently-single twin brother of Nicole Richie’s baby daddy, Joel Madden.

Paris and Nicole were said to have tentatively reunited after their long standing feud that had them filming scenes separately for the third season of The Simple Life. Their insincere make-up was caught on tape and used as promotion for the reality show, but it wasn’t too convincing. There were rumors that they were playing up their feud for publicity’s sake and were secretly staying friends behind the scenes, but it never seemed like there was much love lost between those two to me. Paris was a co-host at Nicole Richie’s baby shower, but was said to be miffed that Nicole supposedly gave away the expensive crib she gave her to charity.

Her new relationship with Benji Madden seems to be a dig at Nicole, but maybe Paris is just taking what she can get and using it for publicity. She seems to have made a very successful career out of doing that.

Paris Hilton and Benji Madden are shown out shopping yesterday at Fred Segal. These pictures are credited to the same day, but somehow Paris is wearing two different outfits. I’m sure they’re still the same day. Thanks to Splash.

Denise Richards and Richie Sambora on a Hawaiian vacation in January, 2007
Denise Richards has a reality show on E! to promote, so she’s not above talking about Richie Sambora and Heather Locklear again even though her relationship with Sambora ended a year ago. Some people thought she was behind her neighbor and supposed friend Heather Locklear’s breakup with her husband of 11 years, Richie Sambora, about two years ago. Richards started dating Sambora shortly after his relationship with Locklear ended and it all looked a bit suspicious to the outside world. Richards said at the time that she wasn’t really best friends with Heather Locklear, and now she digging up that old dirt again to say that her friendship with Locklear had ended before she bedded Locklear’s husband, and that Locklear and Sambora were over by then too. Richards tried to set us straight about the love triangle no one remembers or even really cared about at the time in an exclusive interview with Access Hollywood.

Honestly I knew that that situation was not going to go over very well and was going to be in the press. I had no idea that it would blow up the way it did. The truth of the matter is that my friendship with Heather ended before Richie and I even started dating and that’s one thing that people, I don’t know if they knew or not. I never had an affair. I never cheated on Charlie. Richie never cheated on Heather, and if I was still friends with Heather I never would have

[Transcribed from video of Richards’ appearance on Access Hollywood, shown above via Redlasso]

JayBird reported last week about how Richards said that she initially “was going to take the high road” and not respond to all the negative reports in the press about her, but now that two years have passed she thinks it’s time for a reality show so that people can judge for themselves. She won a court battle with her ex husband, Charlie Sheen, to have their two young daughters appear on the show. Even though we know Sheen loves hookers and porn, and probably e-mails pictures of his peen to women, he’s coming off as the more mature and trustworthy party in their divorce and custody battle.

Now we can look forward to clips of Richards everyday life, spliced and packaged and available in bite-sized bits for our Internet viewing pleasure. If there’s anything that will make her look bad, it’s reality TV. She’s sounding super naive when she says that she thinks it will give her a chance to show people what she’s really like. She’s going to become a caricature so that the show has a cohesive story line. Maybe she’ll just be portrayed as a bland ditz, though, and not a crazy conniving one to boot.

Here’s the video of Richards on Access Hollywood:

Header image is of Denise and Richie’s Hawaiian vacation in January, 2007 and is from SplashNews. It is thought that he broke it off with her during that vacation.

I guess life for Jessica Simpson just isn’t worth living unless she has a camera in her face. The singer, who starred in the hit reality show “Newlyweds” on MTV along with her then-husband Nick Lachey, is currently entertaining the idea of coming back to TV with a new show on Country Music Television (CMT). “Newlyweds” pretty much revived Jessica’s lukewarm singing career- at least for one album. But after the show ended, and Nick and Jessica divorced, her career went back in the crapper again. Now, with a new country album in the works, perhaps Joe - er, I mean Jessica - thinks she can boost interest with another show, but her rep insists that it is not a reality show.

Jessica Simpson may be returning to the small screen.

She is in talks with CMT to star in a special chronicling her life as she records her upcoming country album.

“We have had exploratory talks with Jessica’s camp, but nothing has been confirmed or signed,” a CMT rep tells Usmagazine.com.

Her rep tells Us it is “not for a reality show. Jessica is finishing her country album in Nashville. They’re in talks with CMT for a special timed to air when the album is released, but there’s no truth whatsoever to there being a reality show.”

Simpson, 27, rose to fame on her MTV reality series Newlyweds, which tracked her day-to-day married life with Nick Lachey.

In a recent interview, her father Joe hinted that a reality show may be in the works.

“With Newlyweds, she let everyone into her world,” her father Joe told Entertainment Weekly.

“Then she had to shut the world out. Now she can open it up again so people can see, here’s a girl struggling with self-esteem and finding her way. Country music is about storytelling, after all.”

[From Us Weekly]

Hey, guess what? I’m perfectly comfortable not being let into Jessica’s world. Papa Joe and his daughter’s rep need to talk, because they’re saying two different things. Is it or isn’t it a reality show? It sounds like the CMT program has a “reality show” component to it, something like that horrible documentary about Posh and Beckham coming to the U.S. Except, instead of Posh and Beckham, it’s that stupid twit Jessica, eating tuna and thinking it’s chicken.

Like I needed another reason not to watch Country Music Television.

Picture Note by Celebitchy: Jessica Simpson is shown at LAX airport on 2/11/08 after flying in with Tony Romo from a Hawaiian vacation. Thanks to WENN.