Morning Briefing:
Kate Moss watch: The swirling rumors that future antidrug spokeswoman Kate Moss checked into a rehab center in Arizona this week have finally taken on enough form for the Associated Press to pick them up, so they must be true: "Friends of the 31-year-old supermodel who was photographed apparently snorting cocaine told [England's] The Times that Moss flew to The Meadows clinic, where she will spend a month in 'medical treatment and therapy.'" While the demise of her career has fueled a huge outpouring of schadenfreude, there is one genuinely tragic side to the story: Moss' ex, Jefferson Hack, is fighting for sole custody of their 2-year-old daughter, Lila Grace. Adding a seamy aspect to the whole thing, though, are the rumors that Lila isn't actually Hack's, but was actually fathered by -- who else? -- Jude Law. (AP, Radar Online)
No news on prez booze: E!'s Ted Casablanca has been trying to get to the bottom of the rumors about Bush's alleged Katrina-inspired return to drinking but, sadly, with few results. After the National Enquirer reported last week that George W. Bush has been back at the sauce -- "Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster" -- Casablanca decided he needed to investigate: "I only choose to report on those who are overly whooping it up if the story (a) becomes unavoidable news like train wrecks Courtney Love, Robert Downey Jr. and Matthew Perry or (b) involves the leader of the free world." Attempts to reach the president's press corps got him nowhere, but the first lady's people at least got back to him, saying, "No, Mrs. Bush will most likely not be responding. Thank you for calling." (The Awful Truth, National Enquirer)
Blake takes the stand: Robert Blake was in court again on Thursday. After being acquitted of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, during a criminal case this spring, Blake is now the focus of a wrongful-death lawsuit being brought by Bakley's relatives. It was a typically part-nuts, part-genius performance by Blake, who often raised objections to the questions he was being asked, some of which were sustained by presiding Superior Court Judge David Schacter. He blamed any inconsistencies in his different versions of what happened the night of the killing on the fact that he's "a human being, not a machine," though he kept repeating, robotlike, "I'm 72 years old," until Schacter was forced to interrupt by saying, "We already know that." (USA Today)
Taradise lost: Following the cancellation of her nominally travel-related show "Taradise," Tara Reid has apparently gone into a (new) public tailspin. In an interview for Steppin' Out magazine, Reid -- well, we'll let her speak for herself:
"How many more years are [the media] going to pick on me? There's other new young bad girls. Move on to someone else! ... I need one more great movie role so they say, 'Wow, she can act! She's a great actress.' Then I think they'll leave me alone ... If I'm going to try and do something, it has to happen this year. I'm not stupid."
"Listen, if I could get good movies, you would never see me going out. But when there's nothing to do, what am I supposed to do, just sit in my house and go crazy? But going out is not all I do."
"I've had a million publicists, and they've done nothing for me ... Publicists are supposed to fight for me and believe in me, and they don't do that. They don't!"
"I thought 'Taradise' was going to help me ... I wanted to show the whole world the truth -- I'm fun ... But do I think it was cut like that? No. It could have been a better show ... I didn't want to look like a total party-girl drug retard."
(Page Six)
Also:
Apparently, Sienna Miller merely looking glum is grounds for wild speculation. After Miller was seen looking down at her sister's wedding last weekend, gossip columnists Rush & Molloy are floating the theory it had nothing to do with her Jude Law woes, but rather with the fact that she miscarried the pregnancy she has been so adamantly denying. A source tells them, "She's only told her family and closest friends. Naturally, everyone feels terrible for her." Her rep, meanwhile, calls the story "complete and utter balderdash!" Madonna's new album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," includes at least one decidedly non-dance song: an ode to 16th century Kabbalah founder Isaac Luria, featuring a spoken-word section by a member of the London Kabbalah Center Riding the wave of publicity surrounding Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance in "Capote," Random House is going to publish the author's recently found, unpublished first novel, "Summer Crossing." Found in a box of old documents put up for auction last year, the manuscript was long thought to be lost, even by Truman Capote himself. It tells the story of a postwar New York socialite carrying on a secret affair over one summer It's the 50th anniversary of James Dean's fatal car accident in California, but despite only starring in three movies and dying at age 24, he still earned $5 million in 2004 (making him the 15th highest-paid dead celebrity) An overzealous "Da Vinci Code" fan was arrested on Thursday for interrupting filming of the movie version of the book at Rosslyn Chapel -- he was trying to get Tom Hanks' signature, despite the fact the chapel has been closed to the public this week to shoot scenes for the film Despite the fact that their almost week-old marriage still isn't "official" news -- meaning their representatives haven't confirmed it with major media outlets yet -- OK magazine has apparently paid $3 million for pictures of the Demi-Ashton wedding ceremony. Celebrity mag insiders see the big payout as representative of OK's circulation dire straits -- a source tells gossip scribe Lloyd Grove, "They're desperate! They can't save for a rainy day because the rainy day's here. They need something to get some attention fast."
Money Quote:
Nicole Richie, when asked what thing teens do better than adults: "I can't answer that because I've never been an adult." (The Awful Truth)
Turn On:
The fall season openers continue with "Malcolm in the Middle" (Fox, 8:30 p.m.). And on Saturday, Steve Carell hosts and Kanye West appears on the premiere of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 11:30 p.m. EDT).
-- Scott Lamb
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