Brad Pitt is on the cover of the October issue of “Details” and in it, he talks about the only three things he’s really afraid of: something happening to his kids, something happening to Angelina, and something happening to his relationship with Angelina. Awww. He also had a few great things to say about Paris Hilton, calling her “blissfully oblivious.” Here’s a few excerpts from the interview:

On turning 40:
“I liked it, man. Maybe I had a crisis earlier or something. Maybe I had it in my thirties. You know, it’s…” [PAUSE] “One thing sucks, your face kind of goes. Your body’s not quite working the same. But you earned it. You earned that, things falling apart.

On claims of his humanitarian work as self-consciously pious efforts:
“Oh, I don’t give a shit about that. People have been saying crap about me for 15 years.”

On Paris Hilton’s quest for fame:
“This Paris Hilton quest for fame…she’s blissfully obvious. Oh my god, we’ve been away for…Where were we? We hadn’t seen television for…like a month. I’m probably exaggerating. And we just got back to the United States. And we turned on CNN. And on comes Paris Hilton, going to jail. And so we just turned it off again.”

On his kids:
“Well, I had one kid, then two kids, then three kids. Two-and-a-half years or so. Listen, I’ve always embraced extremes, so it doesn’t feel odd to me. There’s a couple weeks of finding your balance, and then it’s in stone.”

On having an international family:
“You just look at them and go, my daughter’s from Ethiopia, two sons from Asia, a daughter who’s born in Namibia-and they are brother and sister, They have the same dynamics I had growing up, and I…It pleases me so much. I get so warm. I don’t even see in that, anymore, what their lives could have been. I have to intellectually think about that. They are a bond, they are a family. And I want to see those bonds and that family grow. And that right there, sitting in our kitchen, is how I want to see the world. It’s how I want the world to be.”

On having more kids:
“We’re not done.”

On security and paparazzi:
“It’s not going to keep our kids caged in. The only thing that frightens me today is something happening to my kids, or something happening to Angie, or something happening to Angie and I. That happens when they follow you, right. It is the defining annoyance of my life. I just think how strange it is for my kids. Mad, Z, Pax-they really believe that every time you go outside there is a herd of people with cameras snapping flashes in your face [who] are going to kind of block your way when you’re trying to get somewhere. That is their vision of the world outside. Very strange, isn’t it? It’s an everyday thing for them. They don’t really see it as bad or good. Z will point and go, ‘Cameras!’ Pax will point and say ‘People.’ Maddox is keen to where his parents are coming from. I don’t want them to be tensing up, and I don’t want them to see or feel any kind of threat. But man, when [photographers] cross the line, you know-if it happened to one of your kids, it’s hard not to want to take them down.”

[From Us Magazine]

That’s so sweet and fatherly, that he’d want to beat up photographers for his kids. I’m not being sarcastic this time. I wouldn’t blame him or nearly anyone else if the went of on the paparazzi – I can’t imagine what it’d be like to live your life under that kind of scrutiny. Yeah I know they make a ton of money as a result, and they chose that life. But the kids didn’t, and they often look exhausted and/or frightened, as many of our commenters have pointed out. Though at this point, what can you suggest they do about it? Go far away? They do that a lot, and get followed just as much when they’re in Africa as they here. Either way, Pitt looks like he’s holding up pretty well. Brad, your body may be falling apart, but I personally know about 109384837272044 ladies (and men) that’ll gladly be the glue that holds you together.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Brad at the The Assassination Of Jesse James Movie Premiere at the Annual Deauville American Film Festival in France on September 3rd. Images thanks to PR Photos.

- Britney Cleared Of Child Endangerment Charges [Crazy Days and Nights]
- Brad Pitt got a new tattoo: Angelina Jolie’s birthday in Khmer [DListed]
- Spike Lee & Brad Pitt catch a baseball game with their boys [Celebrity Baby Scoop]
- Is Gwyneth Paltrow’s marriage in trouble? I bet it is. [IDLYITW]
- Shaquille O’Neal filed for divorce [Bossip]
- Danny DeVito cashes in on drunken View appearance, launches own line of limoncello [Celebslam]
- Gwen Stefani Still Dresses Like an Ass [yeeeah]
- Gwen Stefani in a polo shirt with targets on it. [PopSugar]
- Cameron Diaz Will Throw Oranges At You [I’m Not Obsessed]
- Asia Argento - GQ Magazine Pictures [Bastardly]
- Faith Hill Talks About Crotch-Grabbing Incident [ICYDK]
- Jessica Simpson at LAX [Drunken Stepfather]
- Jon Bon Jovi puts down the Brits [Hollywood Rag]
- Michelle Williams stuck with a kid that looks just like the guy who dumped her [Seriously? OMG! WTF?]
- Pete Doherty didn’t make a court appearance ’cause he’s in yet another rehab. [Agent Bedhead]
- What the Hell is Keira Knightley Wearing? [Egotastic]
- Tommy Lee had sex on a table in a club [The Blemish]
- Paul McCartney and Renee Zellweger had a romantic date [CityRag]
- Pam Anderson is dating Rick Solomon, the guy who made the sex tape with Paris Hilton [Gabsmash]
- [CelebWarship]
- Amy Winehouse made an appearance at the Mercury Awards [Glitterati]
- Madonna and Elton John made up [Socialite’s Life]
- Kanye West vs. 50 Cent on the cover of Rolling Stone [Just Jared]
- Eddie Griffin was cut off ten minutes into a comedy set for using the word “nigga” repeatedly [Rhymes with Snitch]
- Pavoratti is ill with cancer and in in “very serious condition” [Lifeline Live]
- Lucy Pinder nude in NUTS Magazine [Celebworm]
- Drew Barrymore making out with the guy from the Mac vs. PC commercials [Best Week Ever]

Luciano Pavarotti has died, aged 71, his agent has confirmed.

Pavarotti, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer last year. A local television station in his home town of Modena, Antenna Uno, said the singer was surrounded by members of his family and close friends.

AGI news agency cited sources as saying the 71-year-old opera star was in a “very serious condition”. In a dispatch from Rome, the agency said he was being attended to at home by cancer specialists.

Pavarotti - often described as the greatest tenor since Enrico Caruso - was released from the Policlinico hospital in Modena on August 25, after more than two weeks of tests and treatment.

He was taken to the hospital on August 8, suffering from a high fever and respiratory problems.

Guardian

Pavarotti’s death is a tragedy for his family, friends and fans.

It is particularly sad that Pavarotti did not get to complete his farewell tour, which he was undergoing when he became ill in July 2006.

He will be best remembered for his performance of Nessun Dorma, in 1990 for the World Cup Soccer competition.

He died at home, surrounded by family and friends.

Note by Celebitchy: try to watch any of these videos of Pavarotti performing and not cry. It wasn’t possible for me.

Luciano Pavarotti sings “Caruso” from Caruso the Movie

Luciano Pavarotti sings Ave Maria by Schubert

Luciano Pavarotti sings Nessun Dorma by Puccini

It sounds like Drew Barrymore is having a damn good time this summer. She’s been linked with three different guys, and there wasn’t one story of a painful breakup. A lot of people thought she might be in a long term relationship with director Spike Jonze as she was first seen out with him in March and they were spotted together again in August. They would have seemed like a couple, except Drew was seen holding hands and making out with Zach Braff in July.

And if two emo guys didn’t a good summer make, Drew was making out with Justin Long, the Mac guy who appears in the Mac vs. PC commercials, in Vegas last weekend. It seems like there’s more to it than just a quick hookup, because the pair were out together in LA earlier last week.

They are starring together in the new movie Drew is producing, He’s Just Not That Into You, so maybe what started out as business relationship turned into something more:

The He’s Just Not that Into You costars seemed really into one another over Labor Day in Vegas, where the two were “all over each other, making out the entire time,” a witness at Jet Nightclub tells PEOPLE.

First spotted together at Chateau Marmont on Aug. 28, Barrymore, 32, and Long, 29, brought their holiday weekend to a close back in Los Angeles at a trendy sushi restaurant with friends.

According to a Barrymore pal, “the relationship is very new.”

So new, in fact, the actress dallied with Scrubs star Zach Braff in June and rekindled old flame Spike Jonze in August.

[From People.com]

Last week there was a rumor that Drew was trying to hook up Jennifer Aniston with their other costar in the He’s Just Not That Into You movie, Bradley Cooper. Cooper was said to have invited Aniston over for a romantic dinner at his house on Drew’s suggestion, but not much more seems to have come of that. Cooper was also supposedly dating Cameron Diaz last week when they were seen out together too.

Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Kevin Connolly are also in the He’s Just Not that Into You movie. Connelly and Affleck are married and ostensibly out of the running for co-star hookups, (not that it’s stopped other celebrities) but there are plenty of possibilities of hookups on this film set. According to IMDB it’s “in production” and I’m not sure if it’s even started filming yet. It usually seems like a bad idea to date people you’re working with because you’re stuck with them every day no matter what happens to the relationship. At least actors and actresses have the advantage of being on a limited time schedule so they know they’re only going to have to see the person for a few months and at some events afterwards.

A very wise older friend of mine once offered this advice about dating guys at work, “Don’t shit where you eat.” I know she didn’t come up with it or anything, but it usually comes to mind when I hear of situations like these.

I wonder who will end up avoiding each other at the premiere and if there will be any drama on set.

Here’s a video of Drew and Justin making out at dinner, thanks to Hollywood.tv via Best Week Ever:

Drew Barrymore is shown in the header on 5/1/07 at the Tribeca Film Festival. Thanks to PRPhotos.

Chris Benoit, the World Wrestling Federation performer who in June killed himself, wife Nancy and son Daniel, 7, may not have been under the influence of steroids, but suffering from dementia.

Neurologists with the Sports Legacy Institute who examined Benoit’s brain found it pockmarked throughout with evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), whose symptoms include depression, dementia and erratic behavior.

CTE is believed to afflict 20 percent of professional boxers and was found in four professional American football players aged 36 to 50 who died in recent years — two by suicide — after showing erratic behavior, the institute said.

The private research institute’s experts believe Benoit’s brain damage “is enough to very likely explain aberrant behavior including suicide and even homicide,” Julian Bailes, chief of neurosurgery at West Virginia University, told a news conference in New York.

New Zealand Herald

Brain injury seems like reason enough not to pursue a career as a professional wrestler.

Chris’ father Michael had this to say about the injury, “The human skull just isn’t built to get hit with a table or a chair.”

I honestly thought the wrestling was more in the way of theatrics then competition, particularly the WWF, so I am surprised they are actually getting that severely injured.

Note by Celebitchy: Maybe this tragic case will bring more awareness to the need to prevent brain injury in contact sports. If boxers, football players and wrestlers are having their lives and sanity ruined for a few years of play, it hardly seems like the lifestyle and high pay are worth it.

In January a guy started a blog at blogspot called “If I Blog It They Will Come” with the express purpose of getting a picture of Kevin Costner reading his blog. He said once Costner sent in a picture, he would move on to other celebrities.

He was quite flattering to Mr. Costner, calling himself a “genuine fan,” declaring that his efforts were sincere, and penning countless open letters to Costner referencing his work, making conversation, and begging for a picture. The blogger was relentless, writing 20 posts a month until May and then kind of slowing down over the summer to about two a week. He said he was on a mission and wouldn’t give up.

Finally in September his dream came true and he got two pictures of Costner reading the blog!

His first post from January 24, 2007:

The primary aim of this blog is to get Kevin Costner to visit a blog about Kevin Costner and send a picture of himself looking at said blog.

Once we’ve achieved this with Mr. Costner we shall move onto other celebrities. Perhaps, we’ll go down the list of his Field of Dreams co-stars, perhaps we’ll just seek out random celebrities. In any case…the game is afoot.

Before signing off on this maiden posting voyage, I shall first say that this blog is not in the interest of defaming any public figure. It’s mere goal is to acquire photographic evidence that the public figure in question has seen this blog.

So with that in mind…Mr. Costner…a word, please. Mr. Kevin Costner, you are a fine actor-director who has warmed our hearts and expanded our minds through your fine work in the cinema. You have educated us on the plight of the American Indian, captured the emotional fervor we all feel over America’s Pastime and while Al Gore was busy inventing that Internet thing, it was you who provided us with a frightening picture of what the world might be like after it is destroyed by global warming.

Kevin Costner, we honor you by making you the inaugural subject of this here blog. We merely ask that you honor us with a photo of your blog patronage…a simple request that we hope you deem necessary to grant.

Thank you for your time Mr. Costner…we have enjoyed you in many films and eagerly await your next motion picture. We are certain it will be phenomenal.

And in the latest entry, they’re positively effusive to have received some e-mails and pictures from Costner:

Dear Mr. Costner,

Where to begin? We started this site with a faint glimmer of hope that our postings would somehow get your attention. Out of all of the Hollywood stars, you always came across to us as one of the more genuine, down-t0-earth good guys. However, we were under no illusion that our efforts would impress you enough to actually warrant a response to our good-natured badgering, but respond you have. We here at “If I Blog It They Will Come” were quite taken aback by the generosity you have displayed in sending us these photos. We know you’re a busy man and we’re flattered that you would take the time from your hectic schedule to do such a nice thing for a couple of your loyal fans. You’ve metaphorically led us to our dry land, dug up “the dom”, and built our Field of Dreams. Is this Heaven? No, this is Kevin Costner doing us a solid.

Your sending of these photos constitutes (sadly for us) the end of your obligation to “If I Blog It They Will Come”. However, it occurs to us that we promised to send you an “If I Blog It They Will Come” T-Shirt in an earlier post. We’re more than happy to fulfill our end of the bargain. Take a look at our online store and whatever you want, it’s yours.

I started a now-defunct fan site in 1996, and I’m pretty sure the actual celebrity (who is a younger guy, I’m not namin’ names) e-mailed me and commented on the bulletin board about a year later. It was kind of thrilling, but I didn’t know where to go with it, like I felt guilty that he was even reading the silly crap I was posting about him. I know a lot of celebrities read the gossip we write (and that’s a collective we meaning all the other gossip bloggers) and I don’t want to think about it too much or I might start fawning over them like Perez does to Paris.

This guy should move on to other celebrities soon and just have a blog trying to get specific celebrities to respond, that’s an excellent idea. Maybe if he picks younger celebrities that are more Internet savvy he’ll get pictures after a couple of weeks now that his blog is successful.

Thanks to Fark for the heads up about this story.

This Week’s National Enquirer has a story about how 23 year-old America Ferrera has lost weight, and if you compare pictures of her recently with those from several months ago, she seems to have lost about 10-15 pounds and she’s looking great. She doesn’t look like a stick though, and she certainly doesn’t look like she does on the new cover of Glamour Magazine.

Remember when Faith Hill was airbrushed to hell on the cover of Redbook? She looked great before, at a healthy low weight with some minor eye wrinkles. On the cover of Redbook herarms were made to look even thinner and her face was given virtual plastic surgery.

Jennifer Hudson made history as a rare full-figured woman on the cover of the march issue of Vogue, but many bloggers and commentors pointed out that her pictures, taken at the Apollo theater by Annie Liebovitz, were unflattering. She was bending over with her mouth hanging open and baring her cleavage on the cover.

At least Ferrera’s boobs aren’t made the emphasis of this cover, but it looks like her skinny younger cousin, not her. Features listed on the cover of the magazine include “101 ways to dress your body better” and “the secret reasons women gain weight” as if it’s something we’re all striving for behind closed doors. They also declare that it’s the “1st Annual Figure-Flattery Issue!” They sure flattered Ferrera’s figure with the clone and airbrush tools.

Women are told to work with their curvier figures and dress sexy, but the real message is that we’re not acceptable unless we’re a size six or below. Even gorgeous famous women can’t make it on the cover of magazines unless they’re heavily edited.

Oh and America is said to have lost weight the old fashioned way with exercise and by eating more vegetables. She didn’t starve herself, but surely the fashion magazines would have preferred it if she did.

Angelina Jolie has (perhaps indirectly) influenced Brad Pitt to get additional tattoos, travel more, get involved in charity work, and become a doting father. It seems she’s now influenced him to give way too much information in interviews, too. Never one to hold back incriminating information about sexual proclivities or psychological failings, Angelina is known for giving quotes that will haunt her until the day she dies. Now Brad Pitt is giving us TMI and is trying to explain how he made sure that Jennifer Aniston was ok with it before he gave in to the seductive wiles of Angelina.

He’s trying to let us all know that he and Jennifer were at a standstill in their marriage and made a mutual decision to end it before he let Angelina do more than whisper sweet nothings to him over the phone and hold his hand in public. Don’t the guys always say that their marriages sucked before they cheated? Maybe he didn’t actually “have sexual relations with that woman” before he left Aniston proper, but he’s a fool to remind us about it.

In a new interview with V magazine, Brad Pitt claims he maintains a “deep friendship” with his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston, 38, and defends how he ended their four-and-a-half year marriage in January 2005. Among his bombshells: that he stifled his attraction to Angelina Jolie, 32, until after he and Aniston had ended the relationship.

“The most important thing about that time was for Jen and me to figure out if – how do I put it? – if we didn’t want to go on without any outside influence,” he tells the magazine of the last days of his marriage, which were marked by media reports of an affair with his Mr. and Mrs. Smith costar.

“Is this where we got off? Have we taken this as far as we wanted to go?” He concludes, “Those questions had to be answered before an attraction to Angie could be answered.”

Asked if he still approves of how he handled the split, Pitt, 43, saying that protecting all parties involved was most important to him, replies, “I don’t know how better to have handled it…The thing guiding me then was you don’t know how many days you have, and you need life to be everything you need it to be.”

[From US Weekly]

Angelina has said quite a lot in defense of her hookup with Brad on the set of Mr. of Mrs. Smith. She said that it wasn’t that exciting because they were friends first and then gradually it turned into something more:

“And it took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realize that it might mean something more than we’d earlier allowed ourselves to believe…Not as exciting as what a lot of people would like to believe. We spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking and talking about what we both wanted in life and realized that we wanted very, very similar things.”

[January, 2007 issue of Vogue via IDLYITW]

The thing is, that was two and a half years ago, we’ve all moved on, and through Angelina they’ve already said that they weren’t hitting the sheets before Brad left Jen. Why bring it up again? There’s really no need, and it’s got to be painful for Aniston to keep hearing it in the press. Brad shouldn’t talk about it anymore, and should just move on with his life. I know people are harping on it and there are some that will never forgive them for what happened, but to me it’s old news and Brad should know better than to dig that shit up again.

While earlier rumors had the Jolie-Pitts settling in Berlin, it’s looks like they’ll be in NY for a while. Maddox, 6, has enrolled at the Lycee Francais de New York on the Upper East Side. Lessons are given in French. Brad Pitt and Maddox were seen at the Yankees’ game on Tuesday night along with director Spike Lee and his son.

Brad and Angelina are shown at the Venice Film Festival on 9/4/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Jack Nicholson is pretty hot for a 70 year-old guy. I don’t care if he’s not all buff like Jack LaLanne (who is 93 this month by the way) there’s something sexy about his attitude, and unflattering pictures like these don’t deter me. Before I looked up his age I was under the impression he was under 60, and maybe I’m blinded by lust, but the guy is charismatic. Those eyebrows just do it for me.

So it’s kind of amusing and a little sexy to hear that Nicholson once spent three months in the nude. A new biography that’s coming out about him called “Five Easy Decades” claims he was so “obsessed with nudity” in the early 70s that he even refused to put on clothes for interviews promoting a movie he had out at the time.

When I heard that I was still under the impression that he was younger and thought “Oh he must have been in his 20s,” but he was actually in his late 30s in the early 70s so that is much more eccentric than a lot of drugs and youth can excuse. There were a lot of drugs involved though of course, Nicholson was said to be a pothead who tried to get fellow actor Larry Hagman to enjoy the herb with him.

“The book reports that in the early 70s, Jack became obsessed with nudity. He even sat buck naked for interviews for the movie ‘Drive, He Said,’” a publishing source told The Enquirer.

“The previous summer he had lived for three months as a nudist at his home - refusing to wear clothes even for producer Roger Corman.”

The bombshell bio by author Dennis McDougal - to be published in October - also says Jack turned hard-drinking buddy Larry Hagman on to marijuana.

Nicholson and Hagman were in Mexico in 1964 filming “Ensign Pulver.”

“Jack was smoking weed, and when he saw Larry knocking back pina coladas, he suggested something better,” said the publishing source.

“‘Hag, you drink too much,’ he told him. Larry - who eventually lost his liver to alcohol - didn’t think so, but Jack persisted, scored some Acapulco gold and ‘pulverized’ Hagman and the rest of the cast.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 10, 2007]

And in other recent Jack Nicholson news, he described a scene at journalist Hunter S Thompson’s house when he got spooked by Thompson waving a gun around and jumped out a window. He said “One of the first times I met him, he pulled out a gun in the middle of a house. Me and a friend of mine jumped out the window.” [Holymoly.co.uk]

I wonder if he was just paranoid from all the weed and if he tucked it before he went out the window.

There’s also another claim in that upcoming biography that Nicholson is hiding a handicapped son, a story he denies. According to Wikipedia, he has five children by four different women, and is reported to have slept with 2,000 different women.

I honestly don’t know who this chick is except for the fact that she stars with Zach Efron in those High School Musical shows. She’s supposedly dating Efron, but the last woman he was said to be dating was his previous costar, Nikki Blonski from the Hairspray movie, and I tend to believe the rumors that he’s of the other persuasion.

In the last Enquirer there’s a story that Vanessa had some nude pics that she would be devastated if they got out, and low and behold, here they are. I know 18 year-old Hudgens is a teen star and is supposed to have a wholesome image, but I personally believe this whole nude photo thing was orchestrated for maximum publicity, especially considering that we were told that the photos were coming so that it could generate buzz.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from The Enquirer:

Naked pictures that star Vanessa Hudgens - intended only for costar/boyfriend Zac Efron - recently surfaced, and their discovery could bring down the wholesome Disney blockbuster that’s captivated millions of teen fans

“Vanessa took some suggestive shots of herself in the buff as a surprise for Zac,” a source told The Enquirer…

But [High School Musical, which has been a huge success[ could go down in a flaming scandal.

The Enquirer has learned that a third party has obtained the sexy pictures that were meant just for Vanessa and Zac.

“Vanessa’s only 19, [sic: according to IMDB she’s 18] so she had no idea how her flirtatious act could threaten the future of the multimillion-dollar plans Disney has for the show,” said the source.

“She just wanted to keep Zac interested!”

[The National Enquirer, print edition, September 10, 2007]

Now the Enquirer says in the September 10 issue, which came out last week, that the photos “recently surfaced ” Today is the first day they’ve hit the net, so I don’t see how they could have surfaced anywhere else if we weren’t all over them last week. It’s also suspect that they’re emphasizing that these pics were for Zac alone - as if it makes their relationship seem that much more legitimate.

This is a pretty damn wholesome naked picture, so I don’t see how it could ruin the “wholesome Disney blockbuster.” The young woman is standing smiling, there are no booze bottles or drugs visible in the background, and she’s not posing suggestively, wearing high heels, or even trimmed for bikini season. There is no one else in the picture leering or making gestures or trying to rub up on her.

In Europe we go to the coed saunas and nudity is matter of fact. I don’t think we should get to see everyone nude, but in my opinion I don’t see how a totally normal-posed nude picture is going to ruin anyone’s career. The girl is hot, it’s only going to help her image, and some PR person figured that out and set this all up.

It could have gone down like they claim, but I doubt it. Still, I might be wrong. I didn’t see the big deal with Janet Jackson’s boob flash either.

This is the same photo in different resolutions, thanks to Ninja Dude and Geece.org via DListed.

Update: A new higher-res version thanks to NS4W.org

Update 2: Photos removed by legal request.