Country-music star Shania Twain says doing a reality show on Oprah Winfrey’s new cable network is another step toward embracing life as she continues to recover from heartache.

“I feel like in a way I’m starting over, with everything,” Twain, 44, told Winfrey in an interview at an event in New York on Thursday. “This is a very personal experience that I think is important to share. This is an experience of recovery. I was in a very deep, dark slump, and I needed to find a way to get myself out of it. I had to force myself back out into life, back out into experiencing things.”

Twain’s marriage of 14 years to Robert “Mutt” Lange collapsed in May 2008 due to Lange’s relationship with Twain’s longtime friend and assistant, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. In the months that followed, Twain said, there were times when she had no passion or interest in anything.

“There were moments when I really just thought, I don’t need anything and I don’t need anyone,” she said. “I just want to go away and disappear. So, that was a bad slump.”

Twain’s upcoming show, Why Not? With Shania Twain, follows her life as she emerges from that slump. Its very title is a reference to the first step she took in her recovery.

“One day, someone said to me, ‘Do you want to go jump out of an airplane?’ ” she said. “I felt like I had nothing to lose anymore, so I said, ‘Why not?’ And every day since then, I ask myself that question.”

Twain, who has a son Eja, 8, and is now dating Thiébaud’s ex-husband Frédéric, emphasized that she is still in the process of healing. “There’s a lot of recovery to accomplish,” she said. “I’m not there yet. I’m on my way there. I’m not sure I’ll ever be there.”

Winfrey interviewed Twain during a so-called “upfront” presentation in New York introducing OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network to advertisers.

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Kenny Chesney may have taken the year off from touring, but that doesn’t mean he has been staying home, either.

The country superstar spent several weeks this winter in L.A. editing his new concert film Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D, which hits theaters April 21, and managed to squeeze in his first-ever Italian vacation.

“We went to Capri, Positano and a little town called Ravello,” Chesney says. “I ate a lot of bread, drank a lot of wine and ate some really good cheese. And it was great. It’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go my whole life, but I never afforded myself the time to do things like that. Now it’s one of my favorite places in the world.”

Though taking the time off “was the hardest decision I’ve ever made,” Chesney says, “I’m so glad I made it. I haven’t felt this content in a long time.”

The drive that had made the singer the biggest North American ticket seller of the past decade had also taken a toll on his personal life. “Someone said ‘You sure do give a lot of your life to this’ and I said, ‘No, this IS my life.’ There’s no room for anything else. And that’s gotta change.”

Step one has been spending more time with the people closest to him. “I’ve been getting reacquainted with people who you shouldn’t have to get reacquainted with: my family,” he says.

Chesney, 42, is also opening himself up to romance. “If I want a relationship, I have to give to it too.”

Not that the singer is racing down the aisle. Although he has been dating Nashville nurse Amy Colley since 2008, “it’s not like I’m taking a year off so I can get married again,” he says. ” ‘Cause that could or couldn’t happen.But I want to put myself in a position to do it if it did happen. I want to put myself in a position to have a relationship in my life.”

He also has more travel on the horizon. “I want to go to places I’ve never been,” he says. “China? The Pyramids?”

“Who knows? I want to go explore,” Chesney says. “I want to taste everything. I want to take a big spoon, dip it in and taste it all.”

Source, Fame Pictures

Despite wearing a swastika armband in a photo shoot, Jesse James’ alleged mistress Michelle McGee claims she is not a Nazi.

In her ongoing custody battle with ex Shane Modica, McGee, 32, has filed filed papers denying any affiliation with any anti-Semite group.

“I do NOT have a swastika tattoo on me,” she says in the unsworn declaration, according to TMZ (which, incidentally, claims to have seen the disturbing body art on her).

“I do NOT show my children how to ‘Nazi salute,’” she also says.

As for reports that she once spelled out White Power in magnets on her fridge, she says: “The child block magnets spelling ‘white power’ was NOT of my doing. Friends of Shane’s did this and gave the picture to Shane upon HIS requested (sic) so he could use it against me in court.”

She also denied her ex Modica’s claims that she exposes their 5-year-old son Avery to “pornography.”

The San Diego-based stripper and tattoo Internet model also states: “I do NOT do any webcam ‘sessions’ from my home with my children present.”

James, 40, with whom McGee claims to have an 11-month affair while Sandra Bullock was filming The Blind Side last year, recently came under fire after Us Weekly unearthed photos of him posing as Hitler. His lawyer said James was just joking.

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Gossip Girl’s resident queen bee, Leighton Meester has just nabbed a coveted new role–Herbal Essences global ambassador.

“My first memory is those iconic [Herbal Essences] commercials back in the day. My mom used it, too,” she tells WWD of wanting to partner with the brand known for its cheeky ad campaign. And while her television alter-ego is known for her prim-and-proper style, the real-life fashion risk-taker says she’s not afraid to cut loose on the red carpet.

“I try different looks and I’m happy that I can achieve them and not look like a clown. I like to have fun with hair and makeup,” Meester says. “I’m lucky because expressing my personal style is fun and I have fun with it. Everyone should love their own look. Don’t copy; do your own thing.”

Tell us: What do you think of Leighton Meester’s new role as the face of Herbal Essences?

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Dame Elizabeth Taylor may soon be walking down the aisle … for the ninth time.

A source close to the Oscar-winning actress, 78, tells UsMagazine.com exclusively that Taylor recently got engaged to Jason Winters, 49, of Sterling Winters Management.

Taylor — who now predominantly uses a wheelchair — and Winters — who recently became Janet Jackson’s new manager — have yet to confirm the news.

Says another insider: “It’s no secret that they’ve been together forever and are in love, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they were engaged. Right now they are keeping it between them.”

In 2007, British papers reported that Taylor and Winters took a romantic vacation together at a Hawaiian resort. Taylor spent “the evening caressing the face of [Winters],” reported the Evening Standard. At the time, the paper quoted a source as saying: “She didn’t think she’d fall in love again, but since Jason came into her life that has all changed.”

The screen legend has also gushed about Winters to gossip columnist Liz Smith, describing him as “one of the most wonderful men I’ve ever known, that’s why I love him.” He even reportedly bought a house for them.

The screen legend has been married eight times — twice to love Richard Burton. Her last union, to construction worker Larry Fortensky, ended after five years in 1996.

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Her daughters with former husband Bruce Willis – Rumer, 21, Scout, 18, and Tallulah, 16 – may be grown, but Demi Moore, 47, hasn’t ruled out having another child, this time with husband (since 2005) Ashton Kutcher, 32.

“We talk about it and it’s something that we would like,” Moore tells U.K. Elle for its May issue. “He’s an amazing father to my daughters already, so I have no doubt that if it’s in our future, it would be another incredible part of our journey together.”

Pregnancy is a trip Moore’s taken before, and memorably – posing naked for Vanity Fair in 1991, while she was carrying Scout.

“I was brave. I was so brave! I had no sense of the impact that it would have. I just wanted to push the boundaries,” says Moore. “I wanted to remove the limitations that I felt were being imposed on me. Why couldn’t I be a mother and have a career?”

Miley and Motherhood
That career is due to kick-start again: In July, Moore begins shooting a comedy with Miley Cyrus, titled LOL, Moore Tweeted this week. Based on a French movie of the same title, it involves a teen dealing with her first heartbreak and with the recent divorce of her mother.

As for being a real-life mom, Moore suggests that next time around she might be less concerned with the effect a pregnancy could have on her figure.

“I had an extreme obsession with my body. I made it a measure of my own value. I tried to dominate it, which I did, and I changed it multiple times over,” she says. “But it never lasted and ultimately it didn’t bring me anything but temporary happiness. Does being thin resolve anything? No.”

She adds, “The irony is that when I abandoned that desire to dominate my body, it actually became the body that I always wanted. But it only happened when I stopped trying to control it. At the end of the day, this kind of obsession is pointless and meaningless.”

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After much debate with Dancing With the Stars producers, Pamela Anderson gave up the idea of going commando during her dance routines.

However, there is one lingering wardrobe issue.

“They continue to tell Pam that she must make her costume designs more modest, or she has to wear a bra and pasties,” a show source tells the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.

“They live in fear of a Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction,” continues the insider. “But Anderson is fighting them every step of the way.”

Another problem for the Baywatch babe?

Despite the fact that the judges have given her good scores, the show’s 22 million viewers haven’t been impressed.

“That upsets her,” says a source close to the former Playboy model, 42, who landed in the bottom two during the first elimination round. “I guess she’s too sexy, so only men vote for her!”

But she’s found fans in her castmates, whom she charms with her humor.

Before the first show, Anderson sent each female competitor a rose with a note reading, “Break a lash! Love, Pam.”

And when recently offering the other women Altoids, she jokingly said, “Hey, ladies, come get dinner!”

Source, Fame Pictures