English civil servants have been asked to consider David Beckham for the honour of receiving a knighthood.

Sir David Beckham has a nice ring to it…but Lady Victoria Beckham leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

From The Daily Mail:

There are concerns about Beckham’s move to play in the United States, where he will effectively be a tax exile, and also questions about whether his wife should become Lady Beckham.

Two lists are being prepared - the Queen’s Birthday Honours and Tony Blair’s resignation honours.

A source said: “His name has been put forward but there is a view among some officials that it should not be approved while there is a conflict between his future as an England player and his contract with an American club.

“Some officials feel that there is nothing wrong with honouring a player who is based in Europe and free to represent his country if required, but feel there is a big difference if the same player is earning his main income and paying tax in the United States and unable to play for England.”

Beckham, 32, is still a Real Madrid player but has signed a £25million five-year contract with LA Galaxy starting this summer. There is concern that the move means he is putting club above country.

He was dramatically recalled by England this weekend after being dropped at the end of last year’s World Cup.

Hmm…this is a bit of tricky thing for me to figure out, so I am going to do a Pro and Con list to help me come to a decision (my Magic 8 Ball is on the blink after I asked it one too many Lindsay Lohan questions):

Reasons why David should become a knight:

1) The man is gorgeous, rich, has an English accent. I would want to marry him for those reasons alone were it not for the fact that I am attached and he is already married to a stick figure with no soul.
2) He can play football well.
3) He loves kids and gives a lot of time and money to charity.
4) He dresses reasonably well.
5) He is an international icon.

Reasons why David shouldn’t become a knight:

1) He is married to annoying stick figure with no soul who hates celebrity bloggers (BOO! HISS!), is attention seeking, and is allergic to the following: food, reasonably priced shops, a day’s work.
2) He has a girly voice (when I think of David Beckham, I just replace his voice with George Clooney’s and everything is OK after that, much manlier).
3) He has one too many tattoos.
4) His wife will never ever let anyone live it down if she become Lady Beckham, and she doesn’t deserve to have a title by association, like Heather Mills did with Paul McCartney.

Tough one. I think there is only one solution for this. David Beckham needs to leave Victoria and run away with me. I am cute, dress (reasonably) well, cost a fraction of the cost in shopping expenses, and I have a little girl and he is always going on about how he likes little girls. Lady Jessie Beckham…it could work, right?

Time Magazine has a new interview with some of the cast of Oceans 13. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ellen Barkin talk about their film and discuss some of the pitfalls of fame. The transcript reveals the easy camaraderie between the stars that make the Oceans films so watchable despite complicated plotlines.

One thing revealed in the interview that was news to me is the fact that Bruce Willis was offered George Clooney’s part in the first Oceans movie and turned it down:

You’ve got Al Pacino in this movie, and previously you had Albert Finney and Julia Roberts. Are there any people you’ve approached who have actually said no?
CLOONEY: There is one. Bruce Willis turned down the first one.
BARKIN: Whose part?
CLOONEY: Actually, it was mine. He was supposed to be Danny Ocean, and he did end up doing the second one. I think he regretted not being in the first. But otherwise, pretty much anytime you go to someone with this, they sign on. We couldn’t believe Al wanted to do it.

The Oceans hotties also joke about how the paparazzi hound them, and say that Brad Pitt gets it the worst. They get nostalgic for the Hollywood days of yore when the celebrities’ lives were mysterious and there were no gossip rags:

On the subject of charisma, you’ve each been called the last great movie star at one point or another. Are we really running out of movie stars, and is that, like, a problem?
CLOONEY: The last real movie stars were probably Redford and Newman. And things were different then. There wasn’t this amazing amount of magazines and information about them.
DAMON: We didn’t know anything about them.
CLOONEY: There was mystique. They’re 60 feet high, and you paid your buck and a half to go see them. But that’s gone. People know everything about everybody now.
PITT: Jaws came along and proved you could make huge money with blockbusters, and it set this thing in motion that has lowered the subject matter. People like George have been getting good stuff out there, but it’s an industry that pushes people out on the big stage too fast, before they’re ready, and it eats them up as well. It’s a different kind of arena now.
BARKIN: Think about it. Do we know anything about Robert Redford’s children? Does he even have any?
DAMON: I worked with him, and I don’t know.
PITT: I have four, if you haven’t heard.

As we’re talking, there are paparazzi in boats out in the harbor taking pictures. Having just been through the celebrity muck of Cannes, who gets it the worst?
CLOONEY: There’s no question, it’s Brad.
PITT: Well, exponentially, with us together …
CLOONEY: But even before he was with [Angelina Jolie], we used to chum the water with him.
PITT: This is not a joke. They used to send me out to take the hits.
CLOONEY: We were at the airport in Italy. So I walk off the plane, and it’s “Hey, Giorgio!” And I go, “Look! Brad Pitt!” and they’re gone.
DAMON: You described it once as “People were stepping on our faces trying to get to Brad.”
PITT: Ah, well, I don’t take it as a compliment.

When asked about under appreciated leading men, George Clooney says he likes Clive Owen, especially in Children of Men, which Matt Damon calls his favorite movie of last year. Damon says that Christian Bale is one to watch while Ellen Barkin praises Ryan Gosling. Clooney mentions that Gosling goes out with Rachel McAdams, to which Barkin answers “Splitsville. Don’t you read Us?”

You can read the entire interview at Time.com, which is where the header picture is from.

Paula Abdul gave a statement to TMZ in which she called the leak of a recording of her weeping on the phone to new publicists illegal and highly unethical. She said her “privacy was violated” and that she is “deeply hurt” and “extremely dissapointed.”

Yesterday I reported on Page Six’s coverage of Abdul’s tape, and said if only someone had given the recording to TMZ then we’d be able to listen to it. Perez Hilton posted the recording, and although Paula sounds out of it you still can’t help feeling sorry for her. She talks about her extreme neck pain, and says the Addisons she developed is new and that stress makes the condition along with the pain from her spinal cord injury “hyper hyper bad.”

She just sounds really upset that her old publicist hurt her so badly and that seems to be what the whole phone call is about, along with her medical problems.

She also said that she has to clean up the diarrhea “everywhere she goes.”

At the end of the recording, you can tell it’s a voicemail message because an automated voice says “to save this message, press…” It sounds like someone recorded Paula’s conference call by calling themselves and saving it to their voicemail. Maybe Paula will figure out who leaked the tape and sue them.

Here is Paula at the FIFI awards in NY last night. While Paula said in a recent interview that she has had no work on her face and just got Botox recently, you can definitely tell that she’s had her boobs done.

Thanks to WENN for these photos.

Paris Hilton is going to work her trip to jail for as much PR as possible. She’s hired a hair and makeup team to show up at her place on Monday and prep her for her trip to jail. I wonder if she’ll be able to summon them to the prison before she’s released, because that’s when she’ll really need the help:

Sources say the jail-bound heiress has ordered a hair and makeup team to meet her at her Hollywood Hills home at 9 a.m. Monday.

It’s understood that the glamorous inmate-to-be plans to turn the perp walk into a catwalk, and she wants the media to see her looking her best.

“The timing is to make sure she makes all the celebrity weeklies,” an insider says.

“Paris is a genius at marketing herself. She managed to turn having a sex tape to her benefit, and she’s going to do the same out of going to prison.”

But the pal observes: “It’s not just about marketing, it’s about making money. If she can set up her entry into jail in a very grand way, the payoff will be greater.”

[From the NY Daily News]

Hilton is going to show Naomi Campbell what it’s like to serve real time - and cash in big time. She’s also rumored to be writing a prison diary to help her get through her three plus weeks of boredom. Sources quoted by the NY Daily News say she could get up to a million bucks for it if it’s believable. Given my knowledge of Paris’ writing ability gleaned from reading her letters and diaries found at ParisExposed.com, it’s possible that the GED-educated Paris can write a halfway decent book with extensive editing help. It won’t be revelatory or anything, but I think she can do it.

Meanwhile prison staff have been given written instructions on how to deal with Paris and are being told that anyone who takes pictures of her in jail will be disciplined. Cell phones, cameras and other electronic devices will be banned during Paris’ 23 day stay. She will have a roommate in her cell in the special wing of the jail, a woman who is already serving time for reckless driving and has been picked especially for her. At least she’ll have someone to talk to in order to stave off Blackberry withdrawl.

Paris has been working hard on her image in the past weeks, and has been seen out at church multiple times as well as buying spiritual-themed books. She was even painting pottery.

While Paris is in jail the world will go on, and we’ll breathe a sigh that we don’t have to witness her comings and goings for a few weeks this summer. She’s going to do her best to make sure we don’t forget her, though, and will turn her stint in prison into even more publicity for her bland brand image.

Thanks to SplashNews for these pictures of Paris.

Tori Spelling and her husband Dean what’s his name are in the UK with their new two and half month-old baby son to promote their fraudulent “Inn Love” reality show. They must also be trying to counter the negative publicity they received late last week when a new report came out about how callously Tori’s husband dumped his ex after falling hard for the miniseries queen.

Dean’s ex, Mary Jo Eustace, says they had just adopted a baby daughter when Dean broke the news that he was “soul mates” with his costar Tori, having known her a whole three weeks. Eustace has contributed a chapter to a book called The Other Woman, which contains stories by 21 wives whose husbands cheated on them:

We’re on vacation and I’m wearing my bikini with saggy faded bottoms. I know something is wrong. “Have you met someone?” I ask. He nods yes. “Is it Tori Spelling?” He nods. “We’re soulmates,” he says. “She loves me unconditionally.”

“What conditions?” I scream. “You’ve only known each other three weeks.”

I look down at my baby daughter. “We just adopted a baby.” The phrase single mother pops up in my brain. I start to feel weightless as I cross the divide between together and alone.

“I’m not leaving the kids,” he says. “I’m leaving you.” I begin to sob. I actually begin to worry that maybe it’s all because I look fat. Maybe he was undecided, and this dreadful bikini sealed the deal.

[From People.com]

A few weeks ago the news came out that Tori and Dean’s Inn was rented, not bought with Tori’s relatively meager inheritance, as the faux-reality show portrayed in its first season.

Tori and Dean posed for pictures last night outside paparazzi hotspot Nobu in London. They brought their son Liam along with them, and were seen rolling the stroller out of the restaurant. There were no cute pictures of Liam or I would have published them here.

Thanks to WENN for these photos.

Pregnant Naomi Watts was seen getting into a car outside her New York apartment with the help of the driver yesterday. She wore a cute sleeveless shift dress with a scarf and sandals. More than one photographer was present and Watts looked happy to have her picture taken. She looked like she was trying to keep from laughing.

Watts was also seen resting her hands on her bump while having lunch in New York on Wednesday.

Watts is thought to be due in July. Her partner, Liev Schrieber, said he will be taking time off his work in the theater production Talk Radio starting June 24th. Schrieber and Watts do not know the sex of the baby, and say they want it to be a surprise.

Thanks to Splash News and Hello! Magazine for these pics.

Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson are taking their budding relationship to the next level - with Ryan reportedly leaving some of his stuff at Scarlett’s Hollywood condo. He’s been said to be spending a lot of time there and Scarlet told him he may as well leave some necessities for convenience sake:

The “Lost in Translation” beauty has given Ryan the go-ahead to ove “some of his stuff” into her Hollywood home, say pals.

“Scarlett finally told Ryan to move some of his personal belongings into her condo,” a friend of the actress told The Enquirer. He pretty much stays over every night now anyway, so she wanted him to feel like it’s his place, too.”

[From The National Enquirer print edition, June 4, 2007]

The article goes on to recount the times the cute couple has been seen out together, including a Manhattan dinner at the Carlyle Hotel over Easter, and a May 14th Damnwell’s show at the Troubadour in Hollywood, where they were seen kissing and holding hands.

I haven’t seen any pictures of these two together yet, but since there are convincing details of their romance, it seems more likely to me than Reese and Jake’s vague lunch date.

Scarlett Johansson image by INFDaily.

Not even a week and Lindsay Lohan has been spotted out of rehab. It’s not like she’s off shopping or getting her hair done though, the girl was going to a local gym. The thing is, there’s a gym at the luxury rehab where she’s staying. Couldn’t she have used the gym there or hired an instructor to come visit her?

Lohan took a 45 minute session at a nearby gym on Wednesday and was seen trying to hide under her hoodie when photographers took her picture. According to insiders she has to show she’s serious in rehab in order to hold onto her role in Poor Things with Rosario Dawson and Shirley Maclaine. She is said to be too risky for most projects, and is off the “short list” of actresses considered for upcoming films. Because of Lohan’s history, she is expected to be required to cover her own insurance for any upcoming roles.

Isn’t it a bit arrogant of her to be taking a trip outside of rehab to go to the gym? It’s not like it’s our business, but she should probably wait a while. She was only in two days before she had her first field trip. Let’s see how seriously she takes this latest stay. She was out all the time during her last stint at Wonderland rehab, and we know how well that worked out for her.

The NY Times has an interesting article about how luxurious drug rehab facilites are the new spas for celebrities. Where rehab used to be kept secret by drug-addicted stars, they’ve now become a right of passage and a getaway.

Thanks to INFDaily for the pictures and story.

Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley went out to dinner last night in London along with their costar in the film The Edge of Love, Matthew Rhys, and Keira’s boyfriend, Rupert Friend. Keira’s boyfriend looks a lot less like a low-rent version of Orlando Bloom now that he’s died his hair blonde and cut it short.

Sienna and Kiera wore quite similar outfits, with black tights paired with black slouchy boots and thigh-length loose dresses. They both used red accessories and overall it looked like they got dressed together before heading out.

The two have been filming their Dylan Thomas biopic in Wales, a small country in the south west of Great Britain. It is known for its beautiful mountains and picturesque seaside.

Keira and Sienna are said to love the area so much that they’re looking for cottages next to each other so that they can vacation there together in the future:

We’re told Sienna and 22- year-old Keira have become inseparable on the set in New Quay, Wales, so much so they are currently househunting for neighbouring cottages overlooking the sea there.

We’re told: “Sienna and Keira feel it would be great to have homes there and go on joint holidays once filming stops, so they can keep up their friendship.

The source added: “They’re actively hunting for the perfect cottages in the area.”

Do you think they’ll stay friends long enough to ever vacation there?

Thanks to This is London for these pics and story. You may have already seen the ones of them filming together as they’re a bit older.

Brad and Angelina have said several times that they take turns watching the children to give each other a break. Despite the fact that they are said to have four nannies, one for each child, you often see them out with their children, you rarely if ever see a nanny and they seem to be very hands-on parents. Life & Style, which has featured fake cover stories of them splitting up several times in an attempt to move magazines, is now jumping on the fact that Brad and Angelina have been out photographed separately with their children. They do it so the kids don’t sense the tension between them, Life & Style ridiculously suggests:

As photos surface of Brad Pitt, 43, picking up his children from school in Prague or Angelina Jolie taking her sons to an aquarium in France, one element is constant: Angie and Brad are never with each other while they’re with their kids.

In fact, insiders reveal, Brad and Angie, 31, have made a conscious decision to alternate time with Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh so that they don’t expose their children to the tension that the couple feel when they’re together. “Brad and Angie have decided to take the parenting duties in turn, feeling the kids deserve to be spared the stress of their parents’ fighting,” says a friend close to Brad.

In our cover story this week, Life & Style explores Brad and Angelina’s novel parenting arrangement — and again raises the question of whether the couple can sustain their relationship as they face the demands of raising four children and traveling the world to meet their professional obligations. Do you think Brad and Angie will make it?

The only way these two can escape constant speculation like this is if they stop getting so much publicity. With dual movies coming out, that’s kind of impossible for them.

Angelina has an interview in the upcoming issue of Marie Claire this month, and she says a lot of cute things about her family, including the fact that Zahara tries to be manipulative and that she finds Brad sexiest when he’s with the kids. I’ll cover that shortly.

Thanks to InfDaily for the header photo of Angelina with Zahara and Pax. Used with permission.