Morning Briefing:
Somebody stop him: In a taped appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Monday, Tom Cruise reportedly jumped up onto Winfrey's couch and got down on his knees in an effort to show how smitten he is with Katie Holmes. "I can't be cool. I can't be laid-back," Cruise said. "Something happened and I want to celebrate it." Possibly at the altar. "I'm going to discuss it with her," the actor said when asked about possibly tying the knot with his new girlfriend. "Honestly, I haven't [had this kind of experience before]." Then Cruise brought Holmes out onstage and necked with her. (Associated Press, BBC News)
School of hard knocks and repeated blows: Here's a Trump one-two punch . Donald Trump has announced plans to offer online classes in marketing, entrepreneurship and real estate in a program he's calling Trump University. Students will pay $300 per course and be taught online by Trump and various other faculty members. "The problem with school is that school is a little academic, a little theoretical, not really practical," Northwestern University's Roger Shank, who is Trump U's "chief learning officer," told the New York Daily News. "We want to give people experience." In other Trump news, Todd Everett, the Donald's first firee on "The Apprentice" this past season, was reportedly asked to leave a New York club the other night after publicly receiving a certain sexual favor from a woman -- and then boasting about it to his pals from the show. A spokeswoman for Trump commented, "It's probably a good thing he was fired." (N.Y. Daily News, Page Six)
Jackson trial update: Monday was a big day for the defense. In seeking to paint the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser as a greedy habitual fraud perpetrator, the defense called to the stand a series of witnesses, including a welfare worker who testified that the mother had failed to disclose a big financial settlement that would have affected her welfare benefits, a community newspaper editor who said that the woman had "duped" her into publishing a story about her son's struggle with cancer in an attempt to "make money" from the crisis, and the boy's aunt, who burst into tears as she described the mother's reaction to a blood drive she'd organized for the boy. "She told me she didn't need my f- - -ng blood. She needed money!" the aunt said the mother told her. Also on Monday, a Neverland maid testified that Jackson's bedroom was equipped with a loud alarm that sounded whenever anyone entered the room -- and that it would have been operational at the time Jackson's accuser's brother says he came into Jackson's room undetected to find the musician molesting his brother. Jay Leno and Chris Tucker are expected to be next up to testify for the defense. (Reuters, Associated Press, N.Y. Post)
No Lil' show: Is Lil' Kim turning her lemons into lemonade? Talk of Lil' Kim's plans to peddle a reality show about her trial for perjury and conspiracy, which resulted in a conviction, is not dying down -- despite recent rumors that the diminutive rapper does not even own the footage she's trying to sell to cable channels. But her lawyer says she has no intention of making a TV show about her trial: "In preparation for the release of her forthcoming album and in hopes that she would be acquitted of all charges brought against her at the time, Lil' Kim had her life documented," the attorney told Lloyd Grove's Lowdown. "However, in light of her perjury conviction, yet acquittal of obstruction of justice, Lil' Kim is currently in a state of remorse, taking responsibility for the jury verdict and instructions by the judge. She has no interest at this time to exploit any such footage, but instead, would rather focus on finishing up the recording of her new album and spending time with her loved ones." (Lloyd Grove's Lowdown)
Also: Rumors are afoot that Bob Geldof is planning a sequel to Live Aid this summer, rounding up musicians old and new for another benefit to help fight AIDS and extreme poverty the world over. (Rush & Molloy) ... Two men who arrived with Bobby Brown at an Atlanta bar owned by Sean "Puffy/P. Diddy" Combs were rushed to the hospital to be treated for knife wounds after they allegedly got into a fight with another group at the bar. (Associated Press) ... "Daily Show" co-creator Lizz Winstead has filed a lawsuit against Air America, for which she briefly worked as a talk-show host, claiming that the station stiffed her out of almost $300,000. (N.Y. Post) Naomi Watts reportedly has a new boyfriend, Liev Schreiber. (Page Six) ... A judge has ruled that the jury in the Phil Spector murder trial can hear testimony from four different women who claim that Spector pulled a gun on them. (BBC News) ... Gwyneth Paltrow has been tapped to replace Elizabeth Hurley as the new face of Estee Lauder. (Reuters)
Money Quote:
Reality TV producer Michael Davies on why he's creating a Comedy Central show around "Jeopardy!" champ Ken Jennings: "He's funny. He's disarmingly funny." (Washington Post)
Turn On:
Tuesday night, it's the season finales of "The Contender" (NBC, 8 p.m. EDT), "NCIS" (CBS, 8 p.m. EDT), "One Tree Hill" (The WB, 8 p.m. EDT), "House" (Fox, 9 p.m. EDT) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 10 p.m. EDT). Or you could take a break from finale-land and watch a biopic of The Donald, "Trump Unauthorized" (ABC, 9 p.m. EDT) or -- heaven help you -- "Rob and Amber Get Married" (CBS, 9 p.m. EDT).
-- Amy Reiter
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