Several celebrities have visited Capital Hill in the past two weeks to testify and represent causes. In many cases the celebrities went through tragedy and adversity and became committed and knowledgeable about issues that personally affected them. In other cases they became involved with specific causes they feel passionate about. Either way, they’re bringing attention to important issues and making a difference. I’d rather see a celebrity testifying in front of a committee than shopping, eating out, or worse getting a DUI, but unfortunately the latter get a lot more attention.

5/21/08: Breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow testifies in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee to support a bill funding breast cancer research. Crow emphasized that she has no family history of breast cancer, and said “I want to know what causes this disease. We need to put more resources into figuring out what the environment has to do with breast cancer.” [Paraphrased from Houston Chronicle. You can view Crow’s testimony as a Real Media file thanks to C-Span.org]

5/21/08: Michael Douglas meets with Indiana Senator Richard Lugar at The Capitol to urge him to prevent the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as a director of the Ploughshares Fund organization [Description verbatim from WENN]

5/20/08: United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) goodwill ambassador Geri Halliwell and Care ambassador Christy Turlington hold a rally and press conference with congresswomen and fistula survivors. They urged support of a new bill promoting maternal health throughout the world. [Details paraphrased from Baltimore Sun]

5/14/08: Ed Norton testifies in front of the The House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming. He is a trustee of Enterprise Community Partners, which was founded by his grandfather and builds affordable homes using green building practices for low income families. He said “The legacy of my generation is going to hinge on how we respond to these revelations that we’re not living sustainably, and that we’re altering the environment.” [Quote and details paraphrased from Peopletreefilms. Video is available on Globalwarming.house.gov - scroll to the last video in the list]

5/14/08: Dennis Quaid testifies in front of the House Reform and Government Oversight Committee urging Congress not to support a measure by the drug companies that would make them immune from lawsuits. He is suing company Baxter Healthcare Corp after a known second preventable mixup in which his newborn twins almost died after being given 1,000 times the dosage of Heparin, a blood thinner. Batches of Heparin have since been recalled for an unrelated incident in which the drug became tainted at a manufacturing plant in China, resulting in 19 known deaths. Dennis Quaid’s twins are healthy at five and a half months old, and are not thought to suffer lasting effects from the near-fatal overdose. [Details paraphrased from MSNBC. Quaid’s testimony is available on House.gov as a PDF file and the video is available as a Real Media file from C-span.org]

5/8/08: Cancer survivor, founder of a cancer advocacy nonprofit organization, and seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, testifies in front of The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Cancer: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century. [From Senate.gov, where there’s also a video of Lance’s testimony]

Thanks to WENN for these photos.

It seems like the Team Aniston/Team Jolie loonies aren’t the only ones who just can’t let this story go.

Sheryl Crow, who became chums with Jennifer Aniston during her battle with breast cancer, recently mouthed off about Jennifer’s three-year-old split from Brad Pitt. Sheryl was comparing the media coverage in that breakup to the coverage of her own split from bicyclist Lance Armstrong. She claims that both she and Aniston dumped their men, but the media says it was the other way around.

Sheryl Crow has claimed that Jennifer Aniston dumped Brad Pitt rather than the other way around.

The couple split in 2005 after five years of marriage amid rumours that Pitt had fallen for Angelina Jolie on the set of their movie Mr and Mrs Smith.

However, Crow said she learned the truth when she became friends with Aniston after the actress ditched Pitt and she split from cyclist Lance Armstrong.

She said: “For both of us, the perceived idea is that, in our big relationships, we both got dumped. Believe me, this is not true. Neither one of us has ever gotten dumped. No one ever knows what goes on in relationships.

“Unfortunately, for some people like Jennifer and me, so much is written about things that you don’t say, and so many emotions are attributed to you that you haven’t had.”

A friend also insisted that Aniston had called time on the marriage, telling the National Enquirer: “Once Jen saw the writing on the wall, she dumped Brad.

“She took a cold, hard look at her marriage and realised it was irretrievably broken. She and Brad had vastly different personal agendas and feelings about love, career and having a family.”

From Showbizspy UK]

Does anyone really care about Lance and Sheryl or Brad and Jen anymore? I mean, really care? It seems to me that in the Brad-Angie-Jennifer triangle, those three individuals are more than over it and moved on years ago. As for Lance and Sheryl, I never gave a crap about them in the first place. Both of them are boring as hell, so together, they were twice as boring. Who cares who dumped whom? My guess is, Sheryl was looking for some free publicity to promote her boring new CD and she knows that there’s no faster way to get attention than to bring up the Pitt-Aniston divorce.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Sheryl Crow taking her son Wyatt on a shopping trip in West Hollywood yesterday. Images thanks to WENN.

Singer Sheryl Crow is known for memorable pop songs and and for occasionally talking smack. She was widely quoted as recommending that we all do our part to save the environment by limiting our toilet paper usage to a single square, a quote she says was taken out of context from a campus comedy routine on global warming and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.

Now she’s joking around about going to rehab and saying that it might revive her career. She supposedly said this during a performance, and while it’s also taken out of context and seems to be meant as a joke, it’s something that she maybe should have kept to herself:

The singer/songwriter, who has battled depression for years, joked about recording a duet with troubled British singer Amy Winehouse during a show at London’s Scala venue on 19 February (08) - before poking fun at stars in rehab.

Crow told fans, “I want to collaborate with Amy because she’s really hot and cool right now. I know one song, Rehab, was very popular, particularly because a lot of young people are in rehab. “In fact, I’m thinking about going. It looks like loads of fun and I know my career will benefit from it.”

[WENN via Hollywood.tv]

Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but if she said it that way, that’s rude! At least Sheryl is one of those celebrities who says what she feels and doesn’t tiptoe around things she is passionate about, but calling rehab “fun” and talking about how it will help your career is asinine.

It sounds like someone is pissed because they’re sober with a little kid at home and aren’t as successful or famous as another musician who was taped smoking crack. She has a point in that we keep giving chances to drugged-out singers and celebrities, but it’s not like rehab is fun or people enter into the decision to go lightly.

Sheryl Crow’s album, Detours, has been well received critically, but is not a huge commercial success. The CD sold about 92,000 copies in its first week of release. According to Billboard, it is her “lowest sales debut since her 1996 self-titled sophomore album bowed with 80,000.”

Sheryl Crow has a new interview with Newsweek in which she talks about her own celebrity status as well as our obsession with the rich and famous. She says that she wasn’t a paparazzi target until she hit the lowest point in her life, having broken up with Lance Armstrong and learning she had breast cancer shortly afterwards. When asked about how she feels about what Britney is going through, she says we all need to step back and stop distracting ourselves from this celebrity nonsense because it’s taking away from more meaningful things in life:

As a mom, can you even imagine what Britney is going through?
The only way for paparazzi to stop chasing people around is to not buy the magazines. I would strongly encourage anyone who’s interested in that kind of stuff to not watch because every moment you spend rejoicing or distracting yourself with that is a moment that you can’t get back in your life. It’s fast food and it’s not good for us.

You’ve been a tabloid target yourself.
I was never top-shelf celebrity. I was never chased by paparazzi until my lowest point—when my public relationship [with Lance Armstrong] fell apart and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. What’s that say?

[From Newsweek via ONTD]

She makes a good point about how too much of a celebrity diet is harmful and how we should just try not to watch. The way she phrases it reminds me of the way that traffic stalls around a car crash. I’m one of those people who tries to drive at a steady pace and will myself not to waste everyone’s time behind me looking, but the temptation is hard to resist. This is the woman who also told everyone to use one square of toilet paper in order to save the environment, though she seems to have said it half-jokingly. She is right that too much gossip about other people doesn’t add much to our lives, although I feel guilty contributing to that.

Crow’s adopted son Wyatt is nine months old and she also talked to Newsweek about how active he is and how he adds a purpose to her life. She said he is trying to walk and that he crawls fast and pulls himself up. She said that having a child helps her feel a sense of urgency for how things need to change in the world and that “until you have a kid and you’re really emotionally invested in what kind of planet you’re leaving for your kid, you don’t realize the sense of urgency that you’ll feel.”

Sheryl Crow has a new CD out next week called Detours. Rolling Stone gives it a three and a half star review and says that each song is unique, but “What holds [them] together is Crow’s unwavering emotional commitment.” The LA Times calls it “a bold album that puts Crow’s convictions - and her chops as a singer and songwriter - front and center.”

You can send in taped questions for Sheryl Crow for an interview with RollingStone.com next week. They’re taking submissions through YouTube.

Here are some non-paparazzi photos of Crow at The Annual Black Ball Concert for ‘Keep A Child Alive’ on 10/25/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Yesterday we published the story that Aniston was partying it up in Los Cabos, Mexico with Courteney Cox, Sheryl Crow and Courteney’s family for the holiday. Flynet online has some pictures of the group out to dinner, and it looks like Los Cabos is a favorite with celebrities this season. Apprentice winner Bill Rancic and his girlfriend E! star Giuliana DiPandi were there along with Nicollette Sheridan and Michael Bolton. Flynet reports that they all ate together at the same restaurant on New Year’s eve. Adam Sandler and his wife were also seen out in Los Cabos that day.

Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and her family spent the week between Christmas and News Years at an exclusive resort in Los Cabos , Mexico. The former stars of Friends and the pop music singer spent a relaxing week in the sun along with Courteney’s husband, David Arquette, and their two and half year old daughter, Coco:

Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox enjoyed a tropical holiday in Mexico during the week between Christmas and New Years, Star has learned. Singer Sheryl Crow went along with the two BFFs, as well as Courteney’s husband David Arquette and their daughter Coco, who’s now 2 and a half years old. “They flew into the Los Cabos airport on Dec. 27,” an insider tells Star. “They were shuttled to their resort in a new, luxuriously Chevrolet Suburban. They stayed at the posh, five-star resort, Esperanza.” The resort is a luxurious, top-of-the-line Auberge hotel, known for its plush amenities, fantastic location on the gorgeous turquoise Sea of Cortez, and high level of guest security. Both Jennifer and Courteney have vacationed in Los Cabos before.

Aniston recently beat out her nemesis, Angelina Jolie, in a Parade magazine poll of best celebrity bodies. Aniston came in second to Jessica Alba, with Beyonce in third. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were voted top celebrity mother and father.

Advance buzz on Cox’s new show on the FX Network, Dirt, is mixed. Cox plays a ruthless tabloid editor with conspirators that include a schizophrenic paparazzo. Some reviewers claim the show isn’t fun enough and can drag at times. Dirt premieres Tuesday night at 9:00 PM.

Here are some older pictures of Jennifer Aniston in a top that clings to her nipples. Chances are you’ve already seen these pictures, and/or have already glimpsed Aniston’s nips on Friends.

Sheryl Crow needs to do us all a favor and tell us the name of the tanning salon that did this to her. It looks like they forced her to wear a baseball cap during the tanning session, and sprayed her with four “4″s in a row. Then they bra-jacked her. What a shame. Please Sheryl, get the word out and tell us the name of this salon. We don’t want this bad tan job to happen to anyone else.

Sheryl Crow, 44, needs some help in the dating department. She calls dating “terrifying,” and uses the tired excuse that she could always meet a guy in the supermarket. Unless you’re really forward, that never quite works.

It doesn’t really matter that Crow is bad at dating. She is said to be seeing a director that Courteney Cox set her up with.

That’s nice of Crow to say she would like to adopt, and it would be great to see her settle down.

Although she was with Lance Armstrong for a while, I don’t think Sheryl Crow is entirely straight. In 1999 I went to a show by a NY-based all-girl band who have since hit it big. Their new lead singer at the time had a song called “Eating Crow” that she dedicated to a “famous lady she used to work for.”

Sheryl Crow was said to be dating John Stamos a couple of months ago, but that obviously didn’t work out.

She is now hanging out with Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, and is said to be helping Aniston get over her failed relationship with Vince Vaughn.

Here’s Sheryl Crow in August, 2006 Vanity Fair and performing on the Today Show on 7/12. [via]

Sheryl Crow made a public appearance yesterday at the Rock & Republic Fashion Show in LA. She looks to be recovering well from her breast cancer scare last month and we wish her all the best.

Crow has surprised her fans with an announcement that she will be touring this Summer:

Here she is at the Rock and Republic fashion show and with Patricia Arquette.