David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert will return to their respective talk shows this week. Letterman’s company has struck an agreement with the Writers Guild of America that allows him to use writers for “The Late Show.” Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show” is controlled by Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, and also has the advantage of falling under the interim agreement and being able to use writers. Leno and the rest of the late night hosts will have to make due with whatever they can muster that doesn’t violate the WGA contract. That is expected to entail longer celebrity interviews and more off the cuff audience interaction. “On the street” segments are also anticipated.

The first celebrity guest booked on Letterman’s show is Robin Williams. Both Letterman and Ferguson have an added edge over their talkshow host competitors in that guests don’t have to cross picket lines to appear. Williams is one guest who certainly wouldn’t need a scripted Q&A to appear, however. He is particularly gifted in off the cuff absurdity which can sometimes be hard to follow.

Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart are expected to be scrambling to come up with material that’s not prepared. They rely on scripted segments for their shows and will be hard pressed to ad lib. Under the WGA contract they can’t even use ideas that are prepared ahead of time by writers. These two strike me as cleverer than most, so we’ll have to see how they deal with the situation. It will also be interesting to see if Letterman and O’Brien have shaved their “strike beards,” or if they’ll grace us with their unshaven faces at least for one night.

As for how the writer’s strike continues to affect television, I read an interesting article that compared the 1988 strike to the current strike and said that there’s evidence that television lost 10% of its viewership almost permanently after the five month strike from March to August. This current strike could result in a nearly 30% drop in television viewers and could go a long way toward strengthening the audience for online content and web-based shows. And we may have to make due with more open-ended interviews with lesser-known celebrities on the talk shows. Maybe that’s an added benefit to refusing to cross picket lines - celebrities don’t have to worry about sounding stupid if they can’t rehearse their answers ahead of time.

Here’s a link to a wikipedia article that has an updated list of how many episodes are available for specific shows.

Thanks to the NY Times and The Wall St. Journal for the details for this story.

Letterman is shown on 10/20/05 with a horse, but I swear to you this picture is captioned “Madonna Visits The Late Show with David Letterman” by the photo agency, PRPhotos.

Lily Allen, always one to call a spade a spade, thinks her pregnancy isn’t a good example for young girls. Lily, 22, is expecting her first child with boyfriend of four months Ed Simons.

She said: “I’ve had a lot of offers from people to do my own maternity range but I don’t think it is the right message to send to young Britain. I’m not the best example. I’m pregnant and a bit young, aren’t I? My demographic is generally young girls, so I don’t think a maternity line is suitable. It isn’t the best impression to give them.”

NME

While I’m sorry Lily won’t be designing maternity wear, pregnancy clothes being completely style-less as a rule, I’m glad she isn’t setting herself up as a good example. She’s not the worst example out there *cough* Jamie Lynn Spears *cough* and at least she’s taking responsibility for her actions, and not profiting from her pregnancy with an OK! magazine exclusive. Hopefully she’ll hit paydirt with the baby photos though.

On top of making a baby, Lily is busy making a television show for the BBC, and a new album. She’s got an idea for a song.

Lily, the daughter of actor Keith Allen, said: “I was with mum dad, his wife and my sister. We were all sitting round and I said my nipples really hurt today.

“My dad’s wife said maybe you’re pregnant. I said no I’m not pregnant and my dad went: ‘Are you telling me you and your boyfriend have had sex?’

“I said: ‘Well yes but I didn’t think you could have sex by having it in the bum bum!’

“I thought I would write a song about it that goes: ‘I didn’t know you could pregnant from the bum bum’.”

Showbiz Spy

I hope she does write that song. I’m no record company executive, but I think it has number one written all over it. Actually, I’m sure there’s a joke here about number 2’s, but I’m not going there. Ever.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Lily Allen is shown opening Harrods Winter sale on 12/28/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Eddie Murphy’s New Year’s resolution seems to be a simple one - get married.

The Shrek star swapped vows with fiancée Tracey Edmonds Tuesday on a private island off Bora Bora, reps for the newlyweds confirmed to E! News.

The couple sealed the deal in “an intimate sunset ceremony” on the beach as 25 friends and family members looked on.

Edmonds was sheathed in a custom number by the tandem of Sugia Nazel and Jill Baracci, described in a statement as “off-white with a beaded French lace and silk tafetta ruffled train.”

E! News

Wow, Eddie Murphy still has 25 friends?

Still, the whole ‘not meeting my daughter’ thing now makes more sense. He’s clearly by far too busy with his wedding plans and moving his new wife into his home (they didn’t live together before the marriage) to see his latest progeny. Things are probably going to be busy for the newly married couple - he’s got five kids (plus Angel Iris, but she doesn’t count) and Tracy Edmonds has two children.

I’d love to predict that these two will be divorced in a few months, but what could possibly end this marriage? His wife has accepted the fact he’s fathered a child, tried to deny it, and then refuses to see her. What’s a little lyin’ and cheatin’ compared to that?

Congratulations to the happy couple. I hope that his new wife will prevent Eddie Murphy from making a sequel to Norbit.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds are shown at “Movie Rocks” on 12/2/07, thanks to PRPhotos. I love her dress but those implants are ridiculous.

There was a story a couple of weeks ago that Lohan was “dying for some rich guy to take care of her,” and that she was hoping it would be billionaire playboy Stavros Niarchos, but that Paris took offense when her ex hooked up with Lohan and quickly snatched him away from her. This week’s Star Magazine says that Lohan is dating a billionaire Australian art dealer, but that’s old news already because she publicly kissed at least three different guys when she was in Italy over the holidays and picked one to sleeo over her hotel. And earlier this month she was said to be living with a rich woman, the daughter of Yahoo’s CEO, who was also thought to be her lover. Lohan will do just about anyone in exchange for brand name luxuries.

To make this story even more complicated, Lohan was dating some other guy before she met the billionaire, and it wasn’t Riley Giles, her boyfriend of a few months who sold photos of her to newspapers and bragged that she was a voracious lover. Is there any doubt at this point that Lohan gets around?

Last week, [Lohan] was seen out with 24-year-old graphic artist Spencer Guilburt, but the 21-year-old is now dating Australian billionaire heir-turned-art dealer Andy Valmorbida. The pair hooked up more than a month ago, says the insider, but Lindsay was seen leaving Andy’s room at The Beverly Hills Hotel on December 18 and also dining with him at Madeo Ristorante the following night.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 7, 2008]

There are photos of Lohan making out with an older greasy-haired guy in Italy where she attended the Capri film festival, an actor named Eduardo Costa. She was seen having dinner with the guy and kissing him afterwards, but she still made time for another Italian actor and a waiter, and was photographed in intimate situations with both. The younger actor, Dario Faiella, won out and was seen lounging on her hotel balcony shirtless the day after.

So who is Lohan dating now? I think the answer is whoever is around that will have her. I was all ready to make prostitute comparisons, but she seems to be an equal opportunity slut. She’s not above giving an average guy the time of day too. Maybe she thinks she’s better off covering more ground than focusing just on the few ultra rich men who can keep her in the lifestyle she’s accustomed to.

Photos via The Daily Mail.

Britney Spears’ photographer boyfriend of the past couple of weeks is married, according to OK! Magazine, but that hasn’t stopped him from seeing more of her. He even spent New Year’s Eve with Britney, her boys and the court appointed monitor. I hope his wife has moved on by now if she had to spend New Year’s alone while her husband slept with one of his targets. OK! also reports that he was bragging about his night with Britney. Eww.

According to a source close to the Spears family, Britney, Adnan, who made headlines on Dec. 22 when he stayed overnight with the singer in her Beverly Hills hotel room, and her two boys, Sean Preston, 2, and 1-year-old Jayden James, are spending New Year’s Eve at a private beachfront residence near Dana Point, Calif. The source says they will also be joined by the court-appointed monitor who is responsible for overseeing all of the boys’ visits with their mom.

While Adnan recently told ABC’s 20/20 that he and Britney were only having “lunch” during their overnight visit, he’s telling a different story to his fellow shutterbugs. “He was bragging last week that the night he spent with her at the Peninsula was ‘the best night of his life,’” one insider reveals to OK!.

Now that Britney’s young sister is pregnant everyone is speculating that she’ll ratchet up the crazy in order to get more press in her time of need, but maybe this guy will help calm her down. She’s getting some much needed personal attention, and since that’s what she’s been crying out for it could be enough for her. Do you think this guy will last though? OK! says that he got Britney to leave a store by the front door just so he could get clearer pictures of her. She’s money to him, and he’ll probably sell her out faster than most once their “relationship” ends. He probably videotaped everything too.

Britney is shown shopping at Virgin Megastore on 12/28/07, thanks to WENN. Adnan Ghalib is shown in stock photos, thanks to Splash News.

Janet Charlton reported that Tyra Banks didn’t give her talk show staff any kind of Christmas bonus and that she had the holiday office party at a dive bar. Instead of serving food, she showed up with a guy dressed in a santa suit toting cold McDonald’s cheeseburgers and then took off. Staff got predictably wasted, and an ambulance had to be called after a woman was injured falling on the street. There was also a drunken brawl. The National Enquirer has more details, and they confirm Charlton’s story.

The night got off to a bad start after the employees arrived at the [Christmas] bash, held December 6 at Pianos, a Manhattan dive bar.

“First there was no food and guests began drinking heavily. Soon everyone was drunk,” another insider said.

Tyra showed up late, saying she was on her way to Italy.

“She told staffers, who relocated from LA to NY for her: ‘I want to thank you guys for working so hard. I have a special guests - here’s Santa!’”

According to an insider, the staff rushed over to Santa expecting to be handed a Christmas bonus. Instead, they were served dinner - burgers from McDonald’s!”

Things went downhill from there.

“People were getting sick on the dance floor. Then drunken fights started breaking out! It was a complete fiasco!” the source said.

A Pianos bartender told The Enquirer: “After Tyra left, some guys had a fight in the room and then a female member of the group fell outside and broke three of her teeth on the sidewalk. An ambulance had to be called for her.”

“When we went upstairs to clean up, there were McDonald’s burger wrappers all over the place.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 7, 2008]

In case you wonder if either of these stories is fabricated, In Touch has confirmation from Tyra’s PR person that McDonald’s was served at the Christmas party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that:

A rep for Tyra says the [McDonalds] burgers weren’t meant as gifts. “It is not true,” the rep tells In Touch. “Cheeseburgers were provided as a late-night snack for the staff at the party.”

[From In Touch, print edition, January 7, 2008]

So Tyra Banks’ PR person doesn’t say she did give staff bonuses, or that they didn’t have their Christmas party at a bar, just that the burgers weren’t intended as their Christmas gifts. It sounds to me like Tyra showed up with McDonalds as reported and that she stiffed her staff on Christmas. Janet Charlton also reported that Tyra received a whopping $30 million for moving from LA to NY. You think she could arrange for the people who moved to keep working on her show to get a small piece of that.

Kylie Minogue is an Australian icon, and I grew up in Australia when she was at her biggest. There were so many babies named Kylie (and quite a few named after the Dynasty characters), but it seems that there might be more people in Kylie’s head then named after her.

Kylie said: “It’s not about having two different personalities - it’s about having a whole committee in your head.

“It’s about having this discussion with the committee about something really important, and assuming it took place for real.

“Like, recently, I was telling my friend William Baker about my next tour and what we’re going to be doing on it, and he was looking at me, like, ‘What tour, when?’ And suddenly I remembered I hadn’t actually told anybody I was planning to go on tour again besides myself.”

The Age

Riiiight. I’ve always suspected that one fo the keys to success in the music industry is reinvention, but I guess Kylie is taking it one step further when she brings out a new album and just lets another personality out. Which is healthy, possibly. I’m not a doctor!!

Kylie is planning a big tour to celebrate her 40th birthday next year, which should be pretty amazing, and hopefully her skimpy outfits will stem a few of those pregnancy rumours.

Kylie was also honoured for her contribution to music by the Queen, receiving an Order of the British Empire. This is quite an honour, as close to knighthood a non-British citizen can get. While Kylie resides in London permanently she is an Australian citizen.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Kylie is shown on 11/12/07, outside of BBC Radio 1, thanks to PRPhotos.

I read the much-anticipated tabloids’ take on 16 year-old Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy, which she announced through celeb-friendly OK! Magazine, and they have more details that suggest that she was fibbing to OK! We already reported on the news that she’s more than just three months’ pregnant as she claims and that it is suspected that her on-off boyfriend Casey Aldridge is not the father. (Most of you have heard that she may have been the victim of an older producer on her tween-oriented series Zoey 101, and that he could be the father of her baby.)

Star focuses on Casey, as we reported, and how he was fooling around behind Jamie Lynn’s back and may have even fathered another young woman’s baby while he was dating her.

The National Enquirer also reports that Casey is a cheater, and says that Jamie Lynn is due on March 7, which would make her six months’ pregnant, not three as she claims. They say that her mother Lynne Spears didn’t want her to have the baby at first. They skirt around the topic of abortion, but it seems clear that’s what they mean. It was Casey who talked Jamie Lynn into keeping the baby, they claim:

Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby is due March 7 - and an ultrasound shows that it’s a girl, the Enquirer has learned exclusively. And while her mother demanded she not keep the baby, Jamie Lynn refused - and how the 16-year-old has set her heart on marrying the baby’s father, boyfriend Casey Aldridge, a close source reveals.

“Jamie Lynn learned she was pregnant in late July, but her mother Lynne didn’t want anyone to know,” the source told The Enquirer…

“To keep is quiet, Lynne whisked Jamie Lynn from California back to her home in Kentwood, LA, as soon as she finished filming… Zoey 101 in August.

“The Lynne demanded that Jamie Lynn not keep that baby. At first, Jamie Lynn agreed, but then Casey talked her into keeping the baby.

Determined to have her way, Jamie Lynn threatened to run away, marry Casey, who’s 18, and go live with her big sister Britney, said another insider.

Lynne, 55, dropped her demand, but she’s suspicious of Casey’s motives, sources say.

“Lynnes doesn’t believe Casey loves Jaime Lynn, even though he wants to marry her. She thinks he got Jamie Lynn pregnant on purpose for money and the fame of being the father of her baby,” said the source.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 7, 2008]

How complicated can this story get? Jamie Lynn wanted to get married to Casey and move in with Britney, and that would have been entirely possible if they could have hired an organization expert and cleaning team to sanitize the mansion. Britney doesn’t live there anyway.

I guess it’s not surprising that Lynne wanted Jamie Lynn to have an abortion, even though the family is reportedly Southern Baptist and pro-life. I’m pro-choice, but understand the strong feelings that people have on both sides. To me it is an individual choice, although I respect the pro-life stance and belief that it’s wrong not to carry a pregnancy to term. My opinion on it changed quite a bit after I had my own baby, and I’ve had disagreements with family members about this very emotionally-charged issue.

It’s just a sad situation all around. Hopefully this baby will get the love and care it deserves and everything will work out for the best, no matter who is the father. It seems like Casey at least thinks he’s the dad if he’s supporting Jamie Lynn so much. Either way, once Jamie Lynn’s daughter reaches googling age she’ll be able to find out that her grandmother didn’t want her mom to have her. Maybe she’ll have other reasons to hate her by then anyway.

Jamie Lynn and Lynne Spears are shown at the LA Airport on 10/6/07, thanks to Splash News. Jamie Lynn would have been a few months’ pregnant by then, but it’s hard to tell.

Prison Break star Lane Garrison is serving 40 months in prison for a drunken car crash in which a 17 year-old passenger in his car was killed. He plead guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter and DUI and could get out in a year and half on good behavior.

Jessica Simpson knows Garrison well and he is said to be like a brother to her. They are the same age and grew up near each other in Texas. Garrison even lived with Jessica’s family for a year when he was 17. Her father, Joe, was his minister and he was a troubled teen when he was sent to live with the Simpsons.

Jessica was said to be devastated when she learned that Garrison caused a car crash which resulted in a teen’s death. Her terrible performance at the Dolly Parton tribute at the Kennedy Center is rumored to be due to her heartache at learning of Garrison’s accident right before she went on stage.

Jessica has tried to make Garrison’s stay behind bars a little more bearable. She sent him 12 inch color TV to keep him company in the slammer. Former TV star Garrison is supposedly broke after lawyer’s fees and must have appreciated the gesture:

Christmas came early for former Prison Break star Lane Garrison - his good pal Jessica Simpson bought him a 12 inch color TV!… Permission to get a TV was granted to Lane, 27, for good behavior and Jessica… was happy to make is happen. “Lane’s broke,” his pal explains. “He didn’t have enough money to buy a TV, so Jessica was nice enough to send him one for the holidays.”

[From In Touch, print edition, January 7, 2008]

Doesn’t a 12 inch television sound small? Flat panels go for around $120 so Garrison must be really scrapped if he can’t afford one. Maybe Simpson thought that anything bigger than a 12 inch would have drawn attention to Garrison, or it’s possible he didn’t have permission to get a bigger TV.

After his drunk and drug-fueled accident Garrison recorded a tearful public service announcement to warn of the dangers of driving drunk, wrote a long letter to the court apologizing and taking responsibility for his actions, and personally apologized in court to the family of the 17 year-old teen who was killed in the accident he caused, Vahagn Setian. His sister also wrote a letter to the judge in which she described a very difficult childhood in which their father was either absent or abusive towards them. She said that her brother was “near suicidal” and “despondent” after the fatal car crash. Jail time is more than warranted in this case, but Garrison also seems genuinely affected and remorseful. He’ll have to live with his actions for the rest of his life.

A: Land him a Scandal Proof BabyMama in ‘08

B: Prove that FedeX Still Delivers the Goods

C: Bring Both Ends of the White Trash Spectrum Together and Let the Healing Begin

D: What Happens in Vegas Stays in Paris

Picture note by Celebitchy: Header image is original art by UrbanDK for Celebitchy.