Quite often an actress will take their husband’s name privately, if not professionally, when they get married. It happens less often that an actress takes her partner’s name two years after their wedding has taken place.

Demi Moore married Ashton Kutcher in 2005. But she’s just getting around to officially taking his name on her driving licence and credit cards.

A source told In Touch magazine, “Demi did this for Ashton. She knew that this was something he wanted, so she finally made the switch.”

That means Demi will be Mrs Kutcher on her black American Express card, her passport and other documents, but in her working career, she’ll keep her name from her first marriage to Freddie Moore.

New Zealand Herald

Demi’s birth name is actually Demetria Gene Guynes, not quite as catchy as Demi Moore on a movie poster.

Demi Moore is the name the actress will be using when working, although she recently complained that at her age (44-years-old, in case you were wondering) there are no good roles for women.

Demi said in an interview with Red magazine: “It’s been a challenging few years, being the age I am, with so much focus now on how I look. Almost to the point where I felt like, well, they don’t know what to do with me. I’m not 20. Not 30.”

“But I’m certainly different from what most people feel someone in her 40s should be. For many female actors, who turn 40, it means the end of their career, it’s time to retire. There aren’t that many good roles for women over 40. A lot of them don’t have much substance, other than being someone’s mother or wife. If we are told we are not valuable once we hit 30, it is a problem. We all have more to give. We just can’t bend over and wait for something to happen.”

AHN

Demi, you are approaching the half-century mark. Don’t go looking for those roles for 20-30 year old women, you can’t compete. Dare I suggest you were never that much of an actress to begin with? There are at least a fair amount of roles for older women, but the roles for older women trying to look 25? Maybe you shouldn’t have spent the rumored $500,000 on plastic surgery, and instead asked your surgeon to make you more like Helen Mirren.

Note by Celebitchy: I think Helen is being kind of harsh to Demi. She has a good point that there aren’t a lot of roles for older women, and that there is ageism in Hollywood. JayBird suggested in a post about that issue that Demi start her own production company and make her own roles.

Demi is shown at New York Fashion Week on September 6th in Bryant Park. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Pamela Anderson may be 40 but people still want to see her naked in flattering light with the right amount of airbrushing. She has been offered $1 million to pose nude in Playboy together with Denise Richards, her co-star in the upcoming film Blonde and Blonder.

Pals Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards are considering a $1 million offer to pose nude together in an upcoming issue of Playboy magazine. Both blondes have disrobed for the men’s magazine in the past, and now Playboy boss Hugh Hefner wants the actresses to team up for a spread in the January 2008 issue of the publication. A source tells the Globe, “Neither Pam nor Denise has committed yet, but they’re seriously considering it.” Anderson has appeared nude in Playboy a record 12 times, while Richards stripped for the December 2004 issue.

Contact Music

In other Pamela Anderson news, friends of the blonde are concerned that she is partying too hard.

A source revealed to the New York Post that pals of the former ‘Baywatch’ babe were worried that she might be seriously harming herself with all the partying and drinking.

“She drinks, she does stuff . . . and she’s got hepatitis C. Her liver is shot but she keeps living this crazy lifestyle. We don’t think she understands how serious this is. She has two kids and may not be around to see them grow up at this rate,” the paper quoted a source, as saying.

And, things got even wilder when Anderson started hanging out with Paris Hilton’s sex-tape partner, Rick Salomon.

“They went wild over the VMA weekend. I just watched them party with my jaw open,” the source said.

topnews

It’s a girlfriend’s first responsibility to let their friend know, in the nicest possible way, that the guy they’re dating is a chump. I’m pretty sure the man who profited from his sex tape with Paris Hilton is going to be at best dubious boyfriend material. Then again, perhaps the same could be said for Tommy Lee, who gave Pamela Anderson Hepatitis C. Or even Kid Rock, who managed to remain married to her for four months before divorcing her. Maybe Pammy is taking man advice from good friend Denise Richards.

It turns out that Star Magazine and The National Enquirer were at least partially right about Lohan extending her rehab stay, because her mother is denying reports that she is set to be released back into the wild this weekend. We can all breathe a sigh of relief for Lohan and for ourselves. We have the gossip section of our brains already chock full with the unsettling minutiae of Britney’s everyday life, we don’t need to know every time Lohan takes a shit too:

Despite reports to the contrary, it appears Lindsay Lohan will not be leaving her Utah rehab facility this weekend.

When Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush e-mailed Lindsay’s mom, Dina, to find out if the reports of Lindsay coming home this weekend were accurate, Dina said that wasn’t the case.

“Not true staying in Utah,” Dina wrote to Billy.

Lindsay checked into the Cirque Lodge in early August, marking her third stint in rehab after previous visits to the Wonderland and Promises facilities in Los Angeles.

Dina, Lindsay’s siblings Cody and Ali and her father Michael have all paid visits to Lindsay since she began her stay.

[From Access Hollywood]

And there’s a new advertising campaign by an addiction treatment facility that’s trying to capitalize on Lindsay Lohan’s well publicized drug treatment issues. The attention-grabbing ads feature big block letters saying “Don’t Die Lindsay!” and include information about a supposed medical treatment alternative to extended rehab stays. The Canterbury Institute offers outpatient treatment for addiction, and claims in the ads to provide “innovative medical approaches” that allow patients to be in and out with their drug problems licked in just a few days:

While the rest of the world is going in and out of rehab, Canterbury Institute is changing the rules of addiction treatment. We’re offering innovative medical approaches to drug and alcohol addiction. It’s outpatient and administered by an ASAM-certified physician. All you need is 3-5 days to get back on track.

Someone from the ad agency who created this campaign e-mailed me the press release that this ad would run in the NY post, including PDF files and images so I could run it on the site, not that I don’t appreciate that. I guess because they’re not using Lindsay’s last name they figure they can’t get sued, but I wouldn’t count on it. You know Dina is going to try and squeeze something out of them. Lohan is said to go around asking people she barely knows for $10k all the time, if someone is using her name in an ad she’s probably going to try and make them pony up something. It’s called a violation of the “right to privacy” if celebrities’ names or likenesses are used in ads without their consent. I’m not sure how the law applies if a celebrity’s last name is not mentioned, if they are known by both names like Lohan.

If this treatment really works I hope that the celebrities don’t catch on to it. That would mean no more extended breaks from news about their antics when they get sent away for months at a stretch. Then again, it can only save lives if less drunken starlets are on the road with hoards of paparazzi trailing after them. That’s more important than not having to read unrelenting trivial gossip about these girls for months on end. Of course it is.

Update: I missed this story that Steve-O from Jackass told Howard Stern that Lohan once stole a bag of cocaine from him. If he had anything else worthwhile she surely would have nabbed that too.

Header image thanks to Pretty On The Outside.

Sir Elton John owns the largest collection of 20th century photography in the world, and has his own gallery, the Sir Elton John Photography Collection. He loaned 150 of his photographs by Nan Goldin to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England, which appeared to be what started the controversy. Nan Goldin’s images are very provocative and unusual and often elicit a very visceral response – however it hasn’t ever lead to her being accused of creating - and Sir Elton being accused of owning - child pornography. One of the photographs John lent was titled “Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing,” and depicts two young girls, one laying on the ground naked with her legs spread apart, the other standing over her belly dancing. The image doesn’t really seem that provocative to me, but more the playing of children who aren’t yet aware of the strict social morays that will come to govern their bodies. However an employee at the Baltic Centre complained that the images were pornographic, which has caused quite a stir for Elton and Goldberg.

“Police in Northumbria, in northeastern England, were called to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead after fielding a complaint from the gallery’s management. ‘We attended the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead last Thursday at the invitation of the management, who were seeking advice about an item for an exhibition prior to it going on public display,’ a police spokesperson told the Times of London. ‘This item is being assessed, and Northumbria Police, in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding it.’

“In a statement on his official Website, the 60-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer confirmed that he had purchased the picture in 1999 from the White Cube gallery in London. Titled ‘Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing,’ the image is one of 149 images comprising the ‘Thanksgiving’ installation of acclaimed American photographer Nan Goldin.

“‘The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world,’ the singer said in defense of the artist. ‘It can be found in the monograph of Ms. Goldin’s works entitled “The Devil’s Playground” and has been offered for sale at Sotheby’s New York in 2002 and 2004 and has previously been exhibited in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich without any objections of which we are aware.’”

[From E! News]

Elton John has an amazing photography collection that includes works by Richard Avedon, Man Ray, Ansel Adams, and Diane Arbus, my photographic hero. I don’t find the image to be all that provocative, or even that special from an artistic point of view. I truly can’t see what the problem is – though for the sake of not offending others, I’ve chosen not to put the image on the site but to link to it above. The gallery has chosen not to display this image, which I think is a shame. To let one person’s perception of art affect everyone else’s jeopardizes creativity. There is certainly a line, but I don’t think this image is near it.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Elton John and husband David Furnish at the GQ Magazine Men of the Year Awards on September 4th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Despite being a bit estranged, David Beckham flew home to London today after learning that his father Ted had suffered a heart attack. Two years ago, Ted Beckham had written an unauthorized book titled, “David Beckham: My Son” that had reportedly caused a rift between father and son. However David still rushed home upon learning of his father’s condition.

“David Beckham flew back to the U.K. Thursday after his father, Ted Beckham, suffered a heart attack. The Los Angeles-based soccer star, 32, dropped everything and dashed to the airport as soon as he was told the news. ‘His father has had a heart attack and is currently being treated in [the] hospital,’ the athlete’s rep confirms. ‘David is flying back to be with him. He is obviously incredibly concerned and wants to be with him.’

“The elder Beckham, 59, from east London, suffered chest pains Wednesday evening. A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirms that its dispatchers were called and arrived just after 9:20 p.m. Ted Beckham underwent an operation to unblock his artery, his son’s rep tells PEOPLE. A spokeswoman at the London Chest Hospital says the elder Beckham is in ‘stable’ condition. He is reported to be in the intensive care unit.”

[From People]

And where is lovely wife Victoria Beckham, you ask? Well she was supposedly on “business” in Japan, but rushed to join her husband. And when they say business, I assume they mean the business of shopping, as that appears to be all Victoria does. And Japan would make a lot of sense – it’s a virtual treasure trove of Victoria Beckham-sized outfits.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s some old, but cute, Beckham photos from last September. Images thanks to PR Photos.

“Grey’s Anatomy” star T.R. Knight was on “Ellen” the other day, and told a very cute story about getting a puppy from Katherine Heigl. You don’t often hear about celebrity friendships – it seems like once every couple of years “People” will do a story on celebrity best friends, and it’ll surprise everyone because no one had any idea those two actors even knew each other. Katherine Heigl was a very vocal supporter of T.R. Knight during the whole Isaiah Washington “fag” incident – though I’m not sure if the two became best friends as a result, or if they were close from the beginning. Either way, they’re close enough that Heigl surprised Knight at his house with a puppy for his birthday, which he named Arrow. That’s pretty much the cutest thing ever.

“‘I had been talking about [getting a dog] for a while. I guess there’s a point – too much talk and not enough action,” Knight said. “So she made the decision. It was great, yeah, she showed up at my house with it.’”

[From People]

Knight does tell a story that kind of explains some of the things that are wrong with the press… but does so in a way that doesn’t make me want to kick him. It’s actually pretty funny… though quite the insult to Katherine Heigl’s mom, which I don’t think he realized.

“Although he may be happier, Knight insists that coming out hasn’t much affected his love life.

“‘Recently Kate [Heigl] and her fiancé Josh Kelley and me and her mom went out to dinner, and it was reported that it was with me and my new boyfriend. But that was her mom,’ he told DeGeneres.

“‘So I guess I’m dating Katherine’s mom right now,’ he joked.

[From People]

Um, burn? Ouch! Katherine Heigl is beautiful, what must her mother look like to confuse the press into thinking she’s a gay man? I’m going to do my best to dig up some pictures of said mannish-looking mother. Knight also talked about the process of coming out under fire last year.

“‘I feel I’ve learned so much this past year, so, I’m grateful for that, so yeah, that changes you,’ he said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday. Knight, 34, previously told DeGeneres that hearing his Grey’s Anatomy costar Isaiah Washington refer to him with a homophobic slur gave him the courage tell the world.

“Asked what he thinks about actors who do not come out of the closet, Knight said, ‘Everyone has their own path. You just have to respect that… It don’t think it’s right to force that. It’s impossible to know. There’s a lot of soul searching you have to do.’”

[From People]

What he says makes a lot of sense. We all have a lot of soul searching to do in our lives, and I imagine that it’s hard to guess what it’s like to be a gay person that’s trying to figure out what type of life, and how public a life, they want to live. I think it’s really good that Knight did ultimately come out, but it would have been nice if he did it in his own time and his own way.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s T.R. with Kate Walsh at the Music and Lyrics premiere in February. Header image at Entertainment Weekly’s Pre-Emmy part on September 15th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

- Britney Spears drinks a margarita in the car [Celebslam]
- Britney Has Devil Eyes, Stains, Sad Nipples [yeeeah]
- Shilpa Shetty arrested in India for Richard Gere’s forced kiss [DListed]
- Rihanna on the runway [Bossip]
- Season two of Dexter is just as good as the first [Pajiba]
- Uma Thurman Shopping In Soho [I'm Not Obsessed]
- The Meg White Sex Tape is Real [Liquid Generation]
- Petra Nemcova at Clinton Global Initiative [Bastardly]
- Sarah Michelle Gellar at the US Weekly Hot Hollywood Party [ICYDK]
- Kim Kardashian’s Mom Jeans [Drunken Stepfather]
- Ugly Betty is back tonight [Seriously? OMG! WTF?]
- Daniel Radcliffe Is Totally Hetero [Agent Bedhead]
- Dallas dad pays $47,100 for his son to be an extra in new Will Ferrell movie [The Blemish]
- The Dianne Arbus Twins Today [CityRag]
- Calum Best Has A New Victim [Crazy Days and Nights]
- Us Weekly Hot Hollywood party [PopSugar]
- Danielle Lloyd Flashes her Ass [The Grumpiest]
- Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia deny a relationship [Evil Beet]
- Did Michael Jackson marry his nanny? [Gabsmash]
- Heidi Klum and Seal at a Volkwagon event where they were surely paid a lot to show up [CelebWarship]
- Phil Spector crime scene photos (warning) [Glitterati]
- Avril Lavigne eating ice cream [Derek Hail]
- Jenna Elfman’s baby, Bodhi [Celebrity Baby Scoop]
- Jennifer Garner outside The Late Show [Socialite's Life]
- Angelina Jolie Crying at Clinton Global Intiiative [Just Jared]
- 18.3 million viewers watch House [Lifeline Live]
- Kristen Bell Bikini Pictures [Egotastic]
- Who likes to be spanked? [Best Week Ever]
- Things just keep getting worse for Michael Vick [Rhymes with Snitch]

Header image from INFDaily.com

Simon Cowell’s acid tongue may actually have saved a person’s life. Cowell is also a judge on “X Factor,” which is the UK version of “American Idol.” Contestant Jacqui Gray auditioned in front of Cowell and Sharon Osbourne. Both seemed to sense something was amiss in the singer’s voice, though it’s hard to tell without actually seeing the episode if they were just being very specifically mean, or were actually concerned for the singer.

“‘You have a very odd-sounding voice,’ Cowell, 47, told the nightclub singer after she finished her rendition of Labi Siffri’s ‘Something Inside So Strong.’ ‘Something happens to your throat when you sing. It is quite raspy. It sounds as if you have someone else in there, like you were choking on something.’

“Fellow co-judge Sharon Osbourne, 54, advised the 46-year-old mother of two ‘get it checked out,’ and then cut her from the competition. Luckily, Gray took their advice. ‘I thought I was suffering from a chest infection or swollen glands,’ she said. She went to an ear, nose and throat specialist who found a shadow on her lungs during a chest scan and diagnosed a potentially fatal lung disease.

“‘I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and told if I had not got it seen to, it could have killed me.’ Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Cowell, said, ‘Simon was genuinely concerned about her voice and is glad she sought the proper medical attention and received the necessary care. He was happy to help.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Simon Cowell, brilliant diagnostician. I don’t know that I really buy the whole “Simon Cowell really cares/ Simon was really worried for her line” – I mean it is Simon Cowell, I doubt he could have resisted passing up an opportunity to make fun of something so specific. Either way, Jacqui Gray certainly doesn’t hold a grudge after being eliminated.

“Gray, meanwhile, may be the first contestant to be rejected by the judges and thank them afterwards. ‘I want to thank them both,” she said. ‘I may not have got through X Factor but they gave me something much more important than that…they really did save my life.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Now if only Simon could leave all the contestants a little better off than they were before they met him. A brain for one, a heart for another, courage for the one that ran out of the room crying. He seems to have this very unique ability to spot ailments that go undetected by less-evolved naked human eyes. So though I never thought I’d say it, today Simon Cowell is a Good Celebrity.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Simon at various “American Idol” promotional appearances. Does his haircut make anyone else angry? It makes me angry. What man has a part down the middle and a flat top? Images thanks to PR Photos.

Britney Spears jetted off to Atlanta this past weekend, for some spur-of-the-moment shopping. Two thoughts here: wouldn’t it be nice to have so much money that you could just jet off to the other coast for some last minute shopping? And the other thought… if you had that money, is Atlanta really where you should go? I’m not trying to slam or anything, but I never think of Atlanta and think “Great shopping.” Though to be fair, I never think of Britney Spears and think “Great taste” so she can probably find something to wear in the janitor’s bucket at Ross Dress for Less.

“[Britney] was spotted shopping at Hot-lanta’s Intermix by a spy for the New York Post’s Page Six, who overheard Britney proclaim ‘I HATE L.A., I’m so sick of that town. I don’t want anyone to know I’m here in Atlanta.’ In keeping with this wish, Britney apparently did her best to go unnoticed. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Britney told a Juicy Couture assistant manager that she was in the southern city to de-stress and avoid paparazzi. ‘Unless you actually spoke to her for a minute, you wouldn’t have recognized her,’ the assistant manager told the paper. ‘She was very well put together and she was really quiet. The people with her were actually causing more commotion. After a while, it was like, “Oh, please. You’re nobody. Stop.’ ”

“Another clerk told People that Britney was on her best behavior, sweet and complimentary to most everyone she met. ‘She was looking for something to wear that night and spent way less than $1,000,’ the saleswoman said. ‘Really, she was just in a rush, trying to get in and out. She was done in about 20 minutes.’ Britney’s purchases included a purple dog carrier, a brown eyelet bikini from the sale rack and a shirt or two, the saleswoman said.

[From MSNBC]

Well it’s not exactly an earth-shattering story, but it’s nice to once in a while hear a “Britney wasn’t a total jerk” story. Not that she was out there feeding street urchins or neutering the cat population, but she wasn’t being terrible either, and that’s just about the same thing for Brit. If I had her address, I’d send her a Cheetos-flavored lollipop. I’ve heard that’s her favorite. I would never be naïve enough to hope that this means Britney’s become a better person, but if she is mostly crazy punctuated by a few days of normalcy, that’s improvement, and we’ll all have to take what we can get.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Britney in a public restroom again – because how often can you do that? Header image of Britney leaving a recording studio in Burbank today. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

Remember back in April when Richard Gere caused that HUGE controversy in India after he kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty at an HIV/AIDS awareness summit? Well he’s finally apologized. I’m not saying he should or shouldn’t have, but if he was going to, I would have thought he would have done it a bit sooner than five months later. At first Gere was pretty pissy about the whole thing and refused to apologize, telling Jon Steward, “”There is a very small, right-wing, very conservative political party in India, and they are the moral police in India and they do this kind of thing quite often.” But now, for whatever reason, he’s singing a new tune.

“Richard Gere tried to quell the storm over a public kiss he gave a Bollywood star at an AIDS awareness event, apologizing Friday for any offense. Gere’s embrace and kiss of actress Shilpa Shetty sparked several noisy demonstrations by hard-line Hindu groups and a flurry of legal complaints, which ended with a judge in the northwestern city of Jaipur issuing an arrest warrant for the two stars for violating obscenity laws.

“‘What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you,’ Gere said in statement issued by the Heroes Project, an organization the 57-year-old actor co-founded to combat AIDS in India. ‘If that has happened, of course it is easy for me to offer a sincere apology,’ he said.

“The embrace, in front of about 4,000 truckers, was a failed parody of a move from Gere’s film ‘Shall We Dance,’ and ‘a naive misread of Indian customs,’ he said. Gere said he was confident the issue would be sorted out. ‘I don’t know that anyone has actually gone to jail, it has to go through a process. It goes to a reputable court, and they throw it out,’ he said on the TV show.

[From the Associated Press]

According to Indian law, Gere and Shetty could face up to three months in prison and/or a fine, if found guilty of public obscenity. He’s been a big supporter of various HIV/AIDS organizations in India, along with having a long friendship with the Dalai Lama, who has his headquarters in the Indian city of Dharmasala. It seems like most of the legal community in India are rather embarrassed by the scandal, and think the judge who issued warrants for Gere and Shetty should be censured.

“On Friday, Gere won support from lawyers and legal experts in India, who slammed the Jaipur court ruling. ‘The order is ridiculous. Even if this hugging and kissing was a bit vulgar, it does not amount to obscenity,’ India’s former attorney general Soli Sorabjee told The Associated Press. Sorabjee said the judge should not have issued an arrest warrant without hearing from Gere and Shetty. ‘They are just seeking publicity,’ he said. Another senior lawyer called the order ‘an act of judicial indecency. This is only for cheap publicity and the magistrate and lawyer should be restrained,’ Dushyant Dave told the Times of India newspaper.”

[From the Washington Post]

I try really hard to be respectful of other cultures and customs, even when I don’t understand them. So I don’t want to say that Gere should or shouldn’t have done what he did, or that Indians should have reacted in a certain way. I’m a big “when in Rome” type. But I think that the response from several members of the Indian legal community makes it pretty clear that they think the reaction to this has been a bit backwards. Gere also expressed remorse for the way that the incident has affected Shetty’s reputation and career. It’s pretty clear that he’s generally a good guy (gerbil rights incidents aside) and genuinely cares for the Indian people. I hope they cut him a break, and he keeps his lips to himself from now on.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s a video of the incident. Thanks to Seriously? OMG! WTF.