Rupert Everett has described Michael Jackson as a “freak” who resembled a cartoon character.

The actor claimed that Jackson would not have been able to survive the pressure of performing his planned 50-date London O2 arena residency.

“I think it was fortuitous that he died,” he told The Mirror. “He was supposed to be doing 50 concerts in London. It wouldn’t have mattered how good or bad he was. He wouldn’t have managed to do them all and the press would have destroyed him.”

Despite the pop icon being cleared of ten counts of child molestation in 2005, Everett insisted that he never recovered from the ordeal.

“He was a freak. He looked like a character from Shrek. He was a black to white minstrel. He was crucified by that court case when he was accused of child molestation – that killed him,” he said.

“He personified the pain anxiety of a black man in a slave country. We all watched as he changed from black to white. He was living performance art.”

Everett appears in upcoming movie Wild Target.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick shared a steamy kiss while filming a scene for the television series.

Yum!

Bauer-Griffin

We’ve gotta give it to Australian radio DJ, The “Fabulous” Adam Richard, who slyly brought up Balthazar Getty during a radio interview with Sienna Miller and her G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra co-star Rachel Nichols and got away with it.

If Sienna wasn’t happy to hear her ex’s name, she did a good job of hiding it: After Adam brought up Rachel’s work on Alias, he mentioned that she’d worked with Balthazar, then turned the question on Sienna, asking, “Sienna, you’ve met him, haven’t you?”

“Oh piss off! Honestly, we’re here to talk about a film…. we’re not here to talk about him,” she retorts with a laugh. “As you know, I do know Balthazar. What a scoop, congratulations, you’re really really clever.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Kendra Wilkinson won’t be tuning in to TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8 when the show returns from hiatus Aug. 3.

“We don’t watch that anymore,” she tells E! News. “I watched back when it was good and they weren’t all Hollywood. I feel bad for the kids.”

The 24-year-old reality star — who is expecting her first child with husband Hank Baskett on Christmas Day — previously told Usmagazine.com that she would never allow her new baby to appear on her hit E! show Kendra.

“That will be all private,” she told Us. “I want to be able to spend my quality time with what’s been growing inside of me for nine months!”

On Wednesday, it was announced that Wilkinson and Baskett have signed on to star in a second, 12-episode season of her E! show.

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With buzz building about the possible connection between Michael Jackson’s death and painkillers, actress Jamie Lee Curtis has made a powerful admission: She was hooked on them – and understands how hard it is to quit.

“I too found painkillers after a routine cosmetic surgical procedure and I too became addicted,” Curtis, 50, writes in a blog for the Huffington Post. “The morphine becomes the warm bath from which to escape painful reality. I was a lucky one. I was able to see that the pain had started long ago and far away and that the finding the narcotic was merely a matter of time.”

Though she does not disclose more details – a timeline of her addiction or what kind of treatment she sought, Curtis says she has since stopped using drugs. “My recovery from drug addiction is the single greatest accomplishment of my life,” she writes. “But it takes work – hard, painful work.”

Still, the actress empathizes with Michael Jackson. “I believe Mr. Jackson was in pain,” she writes. “Mr. Jackson was an addict. It is coming out. Everywhere. He wanted relief and would get it in any name, place or method he could. It was and is a conspiracy of silence and I’m sure there were attempts to intervene and I’m sure his family and friends tried … but the addict gets what the addict wants, relief from the pain of their life.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

A week after she was placed under psychiatric hold, Mischa Barton is “still seeking treatment but making improvements,” says her rep Craig Schneider.

Schneider would not elaborate on Barton’s condition, but said that the actress, 23, plans to report to work on her new CW series The Beautiful Life later this month.

A rep for the show, which stars Barton as a struggling supermodel, tells Usmagazine.com shooting is slated to start July 31. (Entertainment Weekly quoted “multiple sources” Tuesday saying that producers “are quietly readying a Plan B” in light of the actress’ hospitalization.)

The hard-partying Barton was placed under involuntary psychiatric hold at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center July 13.

“She’s going through a rough patch,” says Benji Kohn, producer of Barton’s new thriller Homecoming.

Director Morgan J. Freeman tells Us, “I hope Mischa is doing OK. My thoughts and prayers are with her.”

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Whitney Houston’s much-anticipated new album, I Look to You, doesn’t hit stores until Sept. 1, but the singer gave a star-studded audience a sneak preview of nine songs on Tuesday night.

Diane Sawyer, Martha Stewart, Alicia Keys, Vivica A. Fox, and Oprah Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King sat front and center at the listening party Tuesday night, hosted by Houston’s longtime producer Clive Davis in New York City.

“It took us three-and-a-half years to reach this point,” an energetic Houston told the crowd, which also included her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, 16, mother Cissy, and cousin Dionne Warwick. When she spotted King, she told her, “Please tell Oprah I said hello.”

Among Houston’s new tunes are “Million Dollar Bill,” written by Keys and Swizz Beats, which Davis described as “a feel-good song.” (Keys stood up, danced, and recorded the scene while the song was playing.)

Davis also previewed two ballads reminiscent of Houston’s classic hits, one written by songwriting legend Diane Warren (“I Didn’t Know My Own Strength”) and one by R. Kelly, who also penned the beat-heavy “Salute.”

Houston also collaborated with Akon for “Like I Never Left,” which Davis said was the result of her request for “a great island song.” Afterward Davis said of Houston – whose last album was released in 2002 – “You realize how much we miss her.”

And that was obvious during the final track, a cover of the 1970′s classic, “A Song For You,” which Davis revealed had only been “completed rough last night.” Sawyer led the audience to their feet, and the dancing lasted as Houston took the stage.

In her brief remarks, Houston said her mother had told her, ” ‘I’m tired of the old songs on the radio. I’m tired of people taking off their clothes … I want to hear a beautiful lyric and a beautiful melody.’ And I just hope that what you heard tonight, that’s what you got.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin