Sources close to “American Idol” are saying that producer Nigel Lythgoe is indeed returning to the show he helped create. That opens the door again for wild speculation about who might sit at the judges’ table when the audition rounds with the judges begin taping.
Lythgoe said last spring that he thought Usher, Elton John and Paula Abdul would make a winning panel.
Don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Usher or Elton John, but Paula? She’s a wild card. She tweeted on Tuesday night this Winston Churchill quote: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.”
Is there any larger meaning behind it?
“You never know,” said one source close to Abdul. “She’s pretty entrenched in her new dance show (which will air on CBS). But with Paula … you just never know what she’s thinking.”
Scandal around Chelsea Clinton’s wedding siteThe morning after Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky tied the knot, an advertisement for Astor Courts, the swanky 50-acre estate where the wedding took place, ran on page two of the New York Post. “Yes. It's for Sale . . . Home of Recent Celebrity Wedding” was the headline. It went on to call the property in Rhinebeck, N.Y., a “National Treasure.”
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Chelsea Clinton’s ‘royal wedding’
Astor Courts had been languishing on the market since September 2009, when it was listed for $12 million. After being taken off the market briefly, the onetime playground of John Jacob Astor is now back on the market for $13.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. (H.H. Hill Realty and SMPO Properties, which is handling the sale of Astor Courts, didn’t comment.) Thanks to the post-nuptial price increase and the ad, there’s Astor Courts backlash among locals and celebrities.
“The owners (Democratic fund-raiser Kathleen Hammer and her husband, real estate developer Arthur Seelbinder) are friends of the Clintons and they actually hoped at one point that Bill and Hillary would be potential buyers of the place,” said the source. “When they wanted to have the wedding there, they knew that would be the next best thing.”
Donald Trump for one, isn’t happy that Seelbinder and Hammer appear to be using the Clintons’ fame as a means to sell the home.
“Over the years, I've seen many tacky things take place in the wonderful world of real estate, but never have I seen anything so bad,” Trump told Page Six. “It was disgusting, and if I were Bill or Hillary Clinton, I would never speak to their ‘good friend,’ the owner, again. They were used.”
Winehouse has a new drinking buddyAmy Winehouse was spotted back to her boozing ways with a new friend in tow: Russell Brand’s father.
Ron Brand went out drinking with the singer at Camden, London's Hawley Arms on Monday. The two seemed to be hitting it off, according to UK’s The Mirror. “They were having such a laugh together,” a witness told the Mirror. “Amy was hanging off Ron's every word and linking arms with him.”
“They were the perfect drinking buddies,” the witness said. “Russell must have got his funny genes from his dad, because Ron had Amy in hysterics.”
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Amy Winehouse
The two reportedly met at a Professor Green concert in London earlier this summer. Russell Brand and Winehouse are friends, and it is rumored the he helped get her into rehab after dealing with addiction issues of his own.
But the Daily Star is reporting it was not as harmonious of an occasion. They are saying that Brand’s father was harassing the drunk songstress, and a fan had to come and rescue her.
“Ronnie was being really loud and reminding everyone that he was Russell’s dad,” the source said to the British newspaper. “He seemed drunk and everyone there was getting fed up with him.”
If that’s true, they must have made up. Brand and Winehouse were photographed walking hand in hand through Camden, London, that same night.
Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on today.msnbc.com. Follow Scoop on Twitter @courtneyatmsnbc.