Will jailbird Paris Hilton campaign for the rights of other birds in cages?
PETA thinks so. The animal-rights group has written to the incarcerated heiress asking her to use her time behind bars to empathize with other creatures in cramped cages — and to become a spokesperson for chickens’ rights.
“We’re asking Paris to narrate our Kentucky Fried Cruelty video showing how chickens are routinely crammed into tiny cages and suffer broken wings and legs,” PETA’s Dan Mathews tells The Scoop. “Unlike inmates at the jail in L.A., these animals get no reprieve or medical treatment.”
Do they really think that Hilton will respond? “We have a good track record at reaching celebrities behind bars,” Mathews insists. “When Martha Stewart was incarcerated we wrote her and got a very friendly reply saying that she’d stopped wearing fur, and when she got sprung she narrated PETA’s anti-fur video, still watchable at PETATV.com.”
The group has even come up with a slogan for Hilton’s pro-chicken campaign: “KFC — that’s not hot.”
Some want to can new ‘Hairspray’Some gay fans of the original “Hairspray” movie want to leave the remake in the can.
John Travolta is starring in an update of the 1988 camp classic which is due to come out next month, and some gay leaders are calling for a boycott of the film because Travolta’s religion has a tough stand on homosexuality.
“Travolta, a prominent Scientologist, has no business reprising an iconic gay role, given his [religion’s] stance on gay issues,” notes Kevin Naff, managing editor of the gay-oriented Washington Blade. “It’s well known that Scientology rejects gays and lesbians as members and even operates reparative therapy clinics to ‘cure’ homosexuality.”
Travolta plays mom Edna Turnblad in the flick — a role originally played by drag queen Divine. Laments Naff: “Divine is spinning in her grave.”
Notes from all overLooks like Justin Timberlake thinks that Britney Spears’ public-image woes are not the result of her private life — but because her music isn’t that good these days. “I think this goes for anyone: it all starts with the songs,” Spears’ former flame told London’s Mail on Sunday. “The truth of it is, she had catchy songs. If she had catchy songs again, I don’t think anybody would be chastising her as much as they are.” ... Antonio Banderas raised eyebrows when he picked up his "Shrek the Third" co-star Cameron Diaz in his arms while the two were promoting the film in Paris. ... Jessica Alba admits she used to wrestle with staying fit. “I used to be crazy, taking protein powders and eating high-protein, low-carb stuff — all that crap — but that was when I was training for ‘Dark Angel’ and I had to keep a certain amount of muscle on,” she told Seventeen. “I don’t have to anymore. Now I can have flabby arms and legs and it doesn’t matter!”
Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com