You may have already seen these pictures from the upcoming film, The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. They’re new to me, though. Damon plays a CIA agent who is suspicious of the new agency and ends up at odds with his family and coworkers.

The Good Shephard is getting mixed advance reviews, and has just a 45% aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is directed by Robert DeNiro, who is lauded for his attention to historical detail, but it is said to be a little too long and clocks in at almost three hours.

The film is out on December 22nd. Here is the trailer:

Pictures from allmoviephoto.

80s punk rocker Billy Idol has a new Christmas album out. His myspace includes video and a clip from the album along with an interview about it. He seems to be aware his latest release might come off as a bit lame, but he doesn’t really care. Idol says he has bills to pay too, and that it’s a gift for his friends and family:

A Billy Idol Christmas album is one of those ideas so profoundly wrong; it’s right — so deeply uncool that, in the end, it’s strangely cool. Now ready for wrapping, Happy Holidays is not just another Billy Idol album; it’s a revealing and even heartwarming Yultide expression of love….

Happy Holidays is an excellent Christmas gift, but who’s it for?

Well, I see this album as just a massive happy holiday’s greeting card. It’s a musical gift for my loved ones, but everybody else has to pay. Hey, I have bills to pay too [laughs]. Really, it’s just meant as my way of saying “Happy Holidays” to my fans and my family.

Were you always a big Christmas fan?
Not at all. In the 70s and 80s, I would just get stoned for Christmas - a very different way of celebrating. But during the 90s, my parents, my kids and some of the rest of the family started coming to my house in L.A. for Christmas. I basically became the hose, the guy in charge of the music - The Christmas DJ. And that’s the best gig in the world because you get to find a soundtrack that gets everybody in the Christmas spirit

The album includes Christmas favorites like Silver Bells, White Christmas, and Let it Snow. There are two new Christmas songs from Idol titled Happy Holiday, and Christmas Love.

Reviewers on Amazon note that it’s typical holiday fare and doesn’t have the rock edge they expect from Billy Idol.

You can judge for yourself from the video clips below, found through Idol’s myspace.

Here’s Idol’s version of White Christmas

And here is his original song, Happy Holiday:

It’s kind of a disconnect to me to see Idol doing Christmas songs, but he still looks hot and he seems to have a sense of humor about it.

Everyone is saying Britney stepped out with a “mystery guy” yesterday, but this is the same guy she bought toys with about three weeks ago, an agent at the William Morris agency called Jason Trawlick. She ran into him back then at one of Paris Hilton’s parties and is said to have spent a night or two with him. People are joking that Britney is too lazy to date people she doesn’t work with after she was spotted kissing music producer JR Rotem last week, having just ended a marriage with a guy she also met through work. This latest guy seems to fall into that same pattern, although if he is indeed dating Britney he seems surprisingly clean cut for her.

Britney was seen out with her little sister Jaime Lynn at the LA Lakers game last night. She seems to have forgotten a few buttons on her shirt. Jaime is wearing a “Little Miss Naughty” shirt, similar to the “Little Miss Sunshine” shirt that Britney wore for nearly a week straight when she also thought it was a good idea to flash her vag. I wonder if it was a gift from Britney?

Pictures from Splash News Online and Faded Youth.

Update: TMZ is reporting that when Britney’s face was shown on the Jumbotron at the game, she was booed loudly by the crowd, upsetting her so much she left before halftime. Aww.

- Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman are having trouble in their marriage [Gabsmash]
- Pink and Carey Hart are never together and could be splitting [DListed]
- The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith is really sappy, but it will suck you in [Pajiba]
- Paris Hilton’s next victim is Elisha Cuthbert [Celeb News Wire]
- Extreme closeup of Britney’s semi-clad ass in that lace excuse for a dress [yeeeah]
- Gwen Stefani says she prays for another baby, and thinks nursing gives her super powers [CelebWarship]
- Kingston’s baby mohawk [Celebrity Baby Scoop]
- The Spice Girls might reunite. Really. Maybe. [Socialite's Life]
- Renee Zellwegger wants to world to know she gets laid by holding a press conference with JBF hair [ICYDK]
- Anna Nicole Smith is back in the states to fight for that billion she thinks she earned by sucking off an 89 year-old man for a year, and while she was here her lawyer got served papers to prove he’s the father of her baby. Stay tuned. [I'm Not Obsessed]
- Britney Spears is getting fat again [CelebSlam]
- Holiday wishes from Adriana Lima [Bastardly]
- The Golden Globes and The Oscars will be swag free thanks to Edward Norton [Glitterati]
- Lindsay Lohan sends another less than coherent e-mail to everyone. This one was about her one day experience stripping. [Best Week Ever]
- Lohan has been partying again, and people are acting afraid to talk about it [Mollygood]
- Beyonce is the weakest link in Dreamgirls [IDLYITW]
- A very junkie Christmas [Agent Bedhead]
- Pete Doherty says his ex band mate, Carl Barat’s new band, Dirty Pretty Things, is “rubbish,” but that he used to get him good drugs so he misses him [Hollywood Rag]
- Kate Hudson says that she and Kate Moss are the kind of people that wear what’s laying on the floor [PopSugar]
- Tara Conner will be dethroned as Miss USA, giving everyone a chance to hear about her for the first time [Hollywood Tuna]
- Look who’s channelling Donatella Versace [Haute Gossip]
- Happy birthday Brad Pitt [Celebrity Puke]

Penelope Cruz looks effortlessly gorgeous leaving a dance studio in Hollywood last Friday. She was recently nominated for a best actress Golden Globe for her role in Almodovar’s Volver, for which she donned a prosthetic derriere. Advance buzz is that she’s going to be nominated for an Oscar too. One person rooting for her is her super-fit ex, hottie Matthew McConaughey. He said, “[Penelope's] going to get an Oscar nomination - or she should. She’s incredibly excited about that film.”

Pictures via SuperiorPics.

Nicole Kidman attended a special screening of the animated children’s film Happy Feet, in which she voices the character Norma Jean, for sick children from the Sydney Children’s Hospital. Around 400 children saw the film in Australia on Monday.

Kidman is a long-time supporter of the hospital and donated the screening for the children:

Kidman paid for and hosted a preview showing of her new movie, Happy Feet, for more than 400 patients at the Sydney Children’s Hospital and their families.

Kidman, who provides the voice for Norma Jean - mother of the animated star Mumble, the dancing penguin - in George Miller’s hit movie, met privately with a number of the terminally ill children before the screening.

“It puts life in perspective,” Kidman, who was accompanied by her daughter, Isabella, said as she walked into the theatre past a horde of photographers and television cameras.

But the screening was so low-key that there was not a fan in sight at the Hoyts complex at Sydney’s Fox Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park.

“It is just lovely to be able to do something for the children,” Kidman said.

The actor - who has been a financial supporter of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation for years - smiled sweetly for the cameras and then disappeared into the theatre with a young patient who was so enamoured with the Hollywood star that he told her he had handcuffs to keep her tied to her seat.

A number of doctors and nurses from the hospital also attended the screening in case the excitement proved too much for any of their patients.

A medical spokesman for the Sydney Children’s Hospital said that Kidman’s support was invaluable as she not only helped projects financially but also interacted with the children and their parents.

“She has known many of our long-term patients for a number of years,” he said.

A steady stream of obviously ill children - many in wheelchairs, others being carried and many with the distinctive baldness caused by treatment - stopped to cuddle a bloke in a Mumble penguin suit on the way in.

“This is just fantastic,” said Lindy Kingsford, whose son is being treated for leukemia.

“We usually can’t take him to the cinema because of his condition.

“This is the first movie he has been to since he was diagnosed last year.

“We didn’t tell him he was coming until this morning because we have had too many occasions where his illness has, at the last minute, prevented him from going.”

It was the first time Kidman had returned to her native Australia since her June marriage to country star Keith Urban. Urban is out of his latest stint at rehab and will spend his first Christmas with his new bride.

Kidman looks a bit fake to me, and I think her dress is too young-looking, but since she’s donating her time to a good cause I’ll leave it at that.

Pictures from Gossip Rocks and ICYDK.

One of Britney’s main points in her message to fans on her tiger-themed website was the fact that she hadn’t celebrated her birthday in two years. Mike Walker of The National Enquirer notes that Britney did have huge birthday blowouts the last two years that were well publicized. Britney, better get your facts straight before you try and make a worthless point:

On your Web site, you defend your insane headbanging - pre/post/and during your 25th birthday - by wah-waaah-ing: “It’s been so long since I’ve been out on the town…it’s also been two years since I’ve even celebrated my birthday!” LIAR! The press reported that you whooped it up big-time on your 24th birthday at LA club LAX, “dancing into the wee hours with friends” - and a photo showed you there! On your 23rd birthday, Ms. Pinocchi-a, you staged a major blowout that made worldwide headlines - boogie-ing at LA club Concorde with hubby KEVIN FEDERLINE (remember him?). Then the two of you checked into the posh Bacara Spa and Hotel in Santa Barbara and hung out the “Do Not Disturb” sign for a long weekend that was described as a “48-hour sex marathon.” Too bad you fired your ace Hollywood PR firm, Britney. They’d have warned you against publishing such amateur-ish lies!

I guess that depends on what your definition of “celebrating” is, because if you do it with your ex, it doesn’t count.

The paparazzi websites don’t have new pictures up of Britney yet, so it’s possible she stayed home last night. It’s more likely that her stock is dropping since the market is flooded with pictures of her.

Here are two more pictures of Britney after the Lakers game from FlynetOnline.

Britney Spears appeared in a clip on Access Hollywood last night promoting her fragrances for the holidays. It looks like the first time she was home in ages, and true to form the celebrity news program reports that she was out partying again that night:

Britney has purchased a new home in Beverly Hills for $7.2 million, and from the looks of this video she seems to be already set up there.

Thanks to BreatheHeavy.com for linking this video.

Britney Spears was just named the worst celebrity dog owner of 2006 after she abandoned her accessory chihuahuas after she had children. Considering that the world has yet to get a glimpse of her newest child, neglecting her pets seems to be the least of Britney’s worries. Paris Hilton came in a close second to Britney for similarly using animals as props.

Being a dimbat dog owner is much less damning than wearing fur, which kind of shows that you advocate killing animals needlessly. Using fur in a celebrity clothing line takes that arrogance one step further.

Now comes news that Puffy might be in hot water for using - get this - dog hair in his coat line. Best Week Ever reports that The Humane Society warns people that the “real raccoon” in Sean Jean winter coats might be made from raccoon dogs!

if you happen to be the proud owner of a Sean John puffy coat with “fur” trim, there’s a slight chance that fur is actually made from the skin of a dog. Or so says the Humane Society of the United States, who is claiming that Macy’s is selling the coats under the guise that it’s “imitation rabbit fur”, when the label inside the coat claims it to be “real raccoon” — and not the adorable rabid raccoons that scour your trash for last night’s dinner, but raccoon dogs… DOG FUR COATS!

So is Puff Daddy, who claims to be the designer behind Sean Jean, the Cruella Deville of the new century? The jury is still out, test results are not back yet, and we won’t know for sure for a few days. So we’re going to ask you, the readers, what you think. Go to the coat closet, reach your hand in, close your eyes, and feel that fur trim on the hood of your Sean John jacket… does it remind you a little bit of Sparky, your childhood Yorkie who went to “live on a farm” when you were 11? Because we smell a big controversy here, and it’s got wet dog stink smeared all over it.

I love how they tell you to feel the “fur,” because that gave me a little chill of disgust. I try not to sneer at old ladies in fur coats, but it’s hard not to judge.

If Puffy’s line is using actual dog hair, look for an “I didn’t know about it” statement soon. We’ll have to wait and see what those test results show.

Jennifer Lopez also uses real fur in her clothing line. Ashley Olsen, Madonna, and Beyonce have been spotted out in fur coats recently, which Nicole Richie topped PETAs worst-dressed list.

Lace Bass’ partner, Amazing Race reality TV star Reichen Lehmkuhl, has blogged on his myspace about Perez Hilton’s claims that he’s been cheating on Lance. He says he and Lance are still together, and that Perez makes shit up to increase his traffic:

Mario Lavendeira (PerezHilton.com) is a Big (blank) Ugly Liar, an Accused Thief and Criminal

All,

From the Horse’s Mouth: Just a friendly reminder that when you read websites like PerezHilton.com, you are reading lies and are being taken advantage of as you make more money for a person who does nothing but fabricate stories to make his site look interesting.

That anyone would trust someone like Mario Lavendeira (PerezHilton.com) who STEALS from photographers, bloggers, and the general population, is beyond me, really. This person is a common criminal.

Contrary to what this ugly wind-bag has reported, I have not broken up with my boyfriend. I did not go home with anyone from “Survivor” from any party. I have not “made out with” anyone at a party while I have been with my boyfriend. The opposite has been written on his site. It is all a complete and blantant lie. This person is a liar. Period.

My book was done before I ever met Lance. I do not date people so that I can “use” them. I’m self-sufficient and happy to be that way. I have served my country, I have made my own money, my own career, written my own books, bought my own homes and other possesions, and I’m proud to be this way, on my own. I am not broke. I am individually financially sound. I date people because I happen to love them. Period.

I will only post this once. This disgusting person and his site makes up blatant lies to create interesting stories. I am one of this criminal’s targets. Understand that. So know, from here on out, that if you read anything about ME on PerezHilton.com, you are 99.9% sure to be reading a lie or an exagerrated, incorrect version of something that is 0.01% true.

Merry Christmas Everybody!!

Love, Reichen

Meanwhile it is indeed true that Perez is being sued by paparazzi photo agency X17 for $7.6 million. The major news outlets have picked up the story, and Perez remains defiant, saying “All successful people get sued. It just happens. The more successful you become, the more high profile, the bigger target you are and I’m an easy target.” X17 says they tried to settle with him amicably many times, and he was openly rude about it. They say that they have lost business with celebrity glossies as a result of Perez pilfering their photos. The gossip rags claim that Perez’s first use of the photos keeps them from having an exclusive scoop.

It sounds to me like Perez wanted to get sued again so he can get lots more free publicity.

Header image is an original illustration from Gallery of the Absurd, and you can view it full on their site. Reichen image found on Oh No They Didn’t!.