Turn On:
Thursday night brings the season finale of MTV's "Making the Band 3" at 10 p.m. EDT and Pat O'Brien's post-rehab, post-Dr. Phil return to "The Insider."
Morning Briefing:
Coulter war: A 19-year-old student was arrested during a speech by Ann Coulter at the University of Texas in Austin on Tuesday night for asking Coulter a question about anal sex. According to the university newspaper, the Daily Texan, Coulter was heckled and jeered throughout her chat, beginning early on when she cracked, "I wonder why those 'I Heart Partial-Birth Abortion' T-shirts aren't selling better." Things escalated from there, then lulled. But when Coulter said, during the question-and-answer portion of the evening, that she believed marriage should be defined only as a bond between a man and a woman, sophomore Ajai Raj stood up and asked, "You say that you believe in the sanctity of marriage. How do you feel about marriages where the man does nothing but f--k his wife up the ass?" Campus police immediately took Raj into custody, charging him with disorderly conduct. In the wake of Raj's forced departure, students left the auditorium in large number, chanting "Let him go, let him go " (The Daily Texan via Drudge, The Smoking Gun,)
Abdul, abdunnit? Corey Clark, the former "American Idol" contestant who claims to have been privately coached and to have had a sexual relationship with judge Paula Abdul, may not have seemed like the most reliable source to begin with (he was "released from" the 2003 competition for failing to disclose an arrest), but the evidence of the relationship he laid out on ABC's "Primetime Live" Wednesday night was surprisingly convincing: phone logs, witnesses, a smoking voice mail message. What will it all mean for Paula? Salon's Heather Havrilesky gives her take on the scandal here. (ABC News via N.Y. Daily News and N.Y. Post)
Jackson trial update: The prosecution -- somewhat abruptly -- rested its case on Wednesday, following the uninspiring testimony of Jackson associate Rudy Provencio. The defense immediately moved to have all charges against Jackson dismissed, though the judge is not expected to do so. Now we're in for weeks of witnesses, including Macaulay Culkin, called by the defense to refute claims of molestation and conspiracy made by witnesses for the prosecution. Meanwhile, there's been some speculation that one of the jurors may get dismissed for having an indirect link to one of the prosecution's witnesses. (Associated Press, N.Y. Daily News, N.Y. Post, ABC News)
Jolie/Pitt, going far to be near? Despite Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's most fervent protestations that there's nothing -- nothing -- between them, the celebrity press is again airing evidence to the contrary. The latest: They've been spotted together in Morocco. According to People magazine, the two followed up their well-publicized Kenya frolic by tending to some individual business and then flying on a private jet to Morocco, where they spent a night in a hotel together. Pitt had to be in Morocco for a cast party for his upcoming flick "Babel." Jolie didn't stay long, though. She's now on a four-day mission in Pakistan, where she has met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. (People via Rush and Molloy)
Using the Force: "Star Wars" creator George Lucas says he's getting "a lot of flak from parents" for the amount of violence in "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," but says he had to be true to the story. "I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters," he told the Associated Press. "I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended." Such a purist. Meanwhile, he's signed up his characters to peddle everything from cellphones (Chewbacca for Cingular Wireless) to carbonated beverages (Yoda for Diet Pepsi), cereal (Darth Vader for Kellogg's) and candy (several characters for M&M's). (Associated Press via BBC News, Reuters/Hollywood Reporter)
Also: Comedy Central has announced -- without explanation -- that it has suspended production on "Chappelle's Show" indefinitely and will not start the acclaimed show's new season on May 31 as planned. (Fox News) ... An online casino, GoldenPalace.com, has shelled out $5,001 for a home pregnancy test purported to have been used by Britney Spears to find out if she was, in fact, with child. "It's hard to put a price on Britney Spears' urine," a spokesman for the casino said of the test, allegedly recovered from the trash outside Spears' L.A. hotel room some months back. (Associated Press) ... A Los Angeles judge has thrown out the $9 million palimony lawsuit brought against Bill Maher by his ex-girlfriend, Nancy Johnson (aka Coco Johnsen). (Associated Press) ... Goldie Hawn is expecting to apologize to Star Jones after publicly accusing her of spreading rumors that Hawn and longtime beau Kurt Russell had split. It was Jones' "View" colleague Barbara Walters, in fact, who spread the rumor. (Page Six) ... Colin Farrell reportedly spent two and a half hours trying to convince his "Ask the Dust" co-star, Eileen Atkins, 70, to have sex with him. (The British TV show "Loose Women" via Page Six)
Money Quotes:
Jessica Alba, allegedly exclaiming to a friend after a chance meeting in Las Vegas with a tubby Tobey Maguire: "He's f---ing huge!" (Lloyd Grove's Lowdown)
Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times about Christina Applegate in the musical "Sweet Charity," which just opened on Broadway: "While she executes her steps with care and precision, dance is not a transcendent form of self-expression for Ms. Applegate. And let's face it, neither is song. Nor ultimately does she have the sheer freakish force of personality to make her numbers work despite this, as the musically challenged Melanie Griffith did when she joined the cast of 'Chicago.' ... Thus it is that 'Sweet Charity' concludes a Broadway season weak on musicals not with a hoped-for fanfare but with an all-too-appropriate wistful whimper." (N.Y. Times)
Paris Hilton -- who, by the way, has just lost her laptop computer -- speaking to the Associated Press:
AP: Do you read what's written about you? Do you pick up the tabloids?
Hilton: I don't read any of it. I just look at the pictures to see what I was wearing last week and if it was cute.
AP: Do you read blogs?
Hilton: What's that?
AP: Um, they're these things on the Internet where people write about news and stuff.
Hilton: No, I don't really read anything on the Internet except my AOL mail. I don't like people who sit on computers all day long and write about people they don't know anything about.
AP: What did you want to be when you were a little girl?
Hilton: A veterinarian, but then I realized I could just buy a bunch of animals.
-- Amy Reiter
Bookmark The Fix here. To send a hot tip to The Fix, click here.
Shares