I’m pretty sure the single greatest advantage to being a celebrity is getting to date other celebrities. Let’s face it, they’re hot, they’re rich, and the odds are pretty good you won’t have to be with them more than a year or two. Talk about variety. Plus you can use them in your projects (advantageous if they’re hotter than you) or try to talk them into using you in their projects (advantageous if you’re hotter than them).

I’m not going to say who’s less hot (and thus reaping the greater advantage) in the Natalie Portman/Devendra Banhart relationship (though we’ve all got eyes and know it’s clearly the latter), but the two have joined together to create the music video for Banhart’s latest single “Carmensita.”

Folk rocker Devendra Banhart has enlisted girlfriend Natalie Portman in his latest project: the music video for his new single, “Carmensita.”

Styled as a Bollywood send-up – with cheeky subtitles and silly special effects to boot – the musician casts Portman as a princess whom he must save with his “rebellious beard.” (You just have to see it!)

When they’re not in sync onscreen, battling snakes and fire, the happy couple have been spotted together, hanging out everywhere from New York’s West Village to Israel.

[From People]

Banhart and Portman have been dating since about March, according to most reports. They’re frequently spotted around New York City looking all lovey-dovey, but not in a nauseating, I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face way. Because Natalie Portman is too classy for that.

Here’s their new music video.

Hayden Panettiere loudly proclaimed that she wanted to be a pop star, and my goodness she stuck to her guns. Despite a mounting heap of evidence that she shouldn’t have. I really like Hayden. I don’t watch her show, but I appreciate that she doesn’t go out clubbing and DUIing every night like a lot of other actresses her age. And she is super passionate about dolphins. Not normally something that makes me change my opinion about someone, but I like that she actually has something to say.

So Hayden vowed to become a music star, and unfortunately it appears that she’s too hot for any producers to have said no. Which they should have. If there’s any young starlet that I would wish to have a successful crossover musical career, I guess it’d be Hayden. But I don’t think that’s going to happen, even with a lot of the successful but generic pop music out there these days.

Hayden’s first single, “Wake Up Call,” is pretty bad in my opinion. Her voice is obviously digitally altered a la Paris Hilton. In fact she sounds nearly the same. There’s a reggae-esq backbeat that doesn’t really work with the lyrics or tone of the song. The video is pretty much different angles of Hayden over and over again. Hayden bares her thong. Hayden lounges around. Hayden pulls up her pants. Hayden wears dark makeup in a club. Honestly, considering the resources I assume she has access to, I’m surprised the whole thing came out so bland and generic.

It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but I doubt it’ll go anywhere. It’s not Heidi Montag-level embarrassing, but I’m guessing in 20 years Hayden’s going to deny that she had anything to do with this.

Hayden Panettiere is shown at an ESPYs party on 7/15/08. Credit: Starbux / WENN

Britney Spears is back for a second time on the CBS show How I Met Your Mother. Her first appearance on March 24 in a cameo as the secretary to a dermatologist earned the show its highest ratings ever, so it makes sense that they would ask her back. Her episode will air Monday May 12.

Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Barney on the show, hinted at a potential conflict on set about whether to bring Britney on again. He said in April that “I’m in the minority that our show does not need stunt casting in order to succeed… I just am a real fan of our content. I think we have a great show going, and I hope it’s not screwed up by the desire for 700,000 more viewers.” He later clarified and retracted that statement, most likely after a tense conversation with his employers:

Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby. Look, that episode garnered our highest ratings of the season — I would never ignore or disrespect that fact. I am just very protective of our show, and its content. I have a high standard of quality, and hope to maintain it on every level. Television is big business, I understand that. I have great faith in our casting department, as well as [Twentieth Century Fox Television] and CBS, to find the appropriate person for every role on our show. I was remiss in speculating otherwise. My job description is to act, and I should really do just that. Britney Spears fits into our make-believe world very well — if she chose to return I can only imagine that Carter [Bays], Craig [Thomas], and the rest of the writers would create a humdinger of a storyline for her. We should be so lucky.

[via Hecklerspray]

Someone got in trouble with some bigwigs at CBS for speaking his mind. The Associated Press originally stood by their article and said “Harris told us unequivocally that he did not believe that Britney should be on the show,” but then they issued a “clarification” and said “Harris did not say that he opposed a return engagement for Spears, and our lead said that he did.”

Either way, Britney is back and looking normal. She’s an adequate comedy actress and it’s not bad stunt casting. In his original anti-stunt casting statement, Harris said “I worry that if they start `Will and Grace-ing’ us too much, that the show will suffer.” Or maybe it will get more attention than it ever has, but all attention is not necessarily good as Harris is likely to argue, especially when Britney is involved.

Break the Ice

There was a lot of anticipation built up for Britney’s new music video after some stills were released yesterday. It features a superhero-style animated Britney battling bad guys in Las Vegas. The style of anime is reminiscent of that “Aeon Flux” show that used to be on MTV’s “Liquid Television.” I’m not a fan of Britney’s repetitive video-game dance music, but this song isn’t bad.

It was reportedly Britney’s idea to use animation for the video and that was a wise move given her many image problems lately. She should just become an animated character permanently like Gorillaz, only venturing out as an alter ego of her cartoon self.

Heidi Klum was on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night to promote Project Runway, and they had a big trampoline on the stage. Heidi and Seal have one at home, so Kimmel brought one on to add some variety to the show. It’s pretty amusing watching them jump up and down and try and talk.

Klum took off her shoes and urged Kimmel to remove his socks, and he said “no” at first but then gave in. When he removed his socks he had polish on his right foot, and said “I have something embarrassing. Ben Affleck painted my toenails the other day, and there’s still some of it on there.”

Yesterday Klum was on Ellen, and there was a cute kind of flirty exchange between the two. Ellen gave Klum a t-shirt to cover up her legs because her dress was too short. The t-shirt featured Ellen’s face, and Ellen said “Hopefully we have an overhead shot of that, because that’s fantastic” Heidi looked down at it said “You have the bluest eyes.” Ellen said “Thank you” and looked a little embarrassed and laughed, saying “that’s ridiculous.” Heidi said “I’ll wear pants next time,” and Ellen answered “No you look great.”

Klum sure knows how to promote her shows, and she comes across as genuine along with being a lot of fun.

Say what? Jane Fonda and new BFF/”Vagina Monologues” playwright Eve Ensler appeared this morning on “The Today Show” with Meredith Vieira to promote V-Day, a global awareness campaign that happens every Valentine’s Day. V-Day is a worldwide project that includes readings/performances of “The Vagina Monologues” to build awareness of violence against women. Jane was talking about how she was reluctant to perform the play at first because she hadn’t seen it. “I was asked to do a scene called ‘Cu*t,” she told a shocked Meredith Vieira. “I don’t do cu*t!”

I was watching the broadcast, and let me tell you, I nearly choked on my morning coffee! At first, I thought I’d misheard. But after seeing the video, I can confirm that Jane Fonda dropped the C word on national television. I guess she didn’t want to be outdone by another older actress, Diane Keaton, who let an F-bomb slip on Good Morning America a few weeks ago.

Maybe the TV sensors were asleep this morning? At any rate, I have to admit, it was pretty awesome.

Note by Celebitchy: Thanks to Redlasso for the video clip above. It seems like it’s the hot older chicks who are swearing on the talk shows lately. They must not give a shit.

Here are as many of the Grammy performances as I could find, in order as far as I can tell, thanks to Redlasso and Mahalo. My favorites were “Jungle Love” by The Time, Keely Smith and Kid Rock’s “Old Black Magic” duet, Alicia Keys’ “No One,” and Amy Winehouse. I thought that Tina Turner rocked, but I wasn’t that impressed when Beyonce joined her on stage. I am still looking for the video of Little Richard, John Fogerty and Jerry Lee Lewis playing “Coming Down The Road”, “Great Balls of Fire” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.” That had to be incredible. I’ll update the post once I locate that.

Alicia Keys Duet with Frank Sinatra

Carrie Underwood “Before He Cheats”

Morris Day and The Time “Jungle Love” and Rihanna “Umbrella”

Kanye West’s “Stronger” and “Hey Momma”

Fergie - “Finally” featuring John Legend

Beyonce and Tina Turner, introduced by Cher

Foo Fighters “The Pretender” with John Paul Jones
Aretha Franklin gospel performance including Madison Bumblebee, Mary J. Blige, TRIN-I-TEE 5:7, The Clark Sisters, and Israel & New Breed.

Feist - “1234″