Beyoncé estimates that she's lost 15 pounds on a diet of protein shakes and fish for her role in "Dreamgirls" — which hasn't been easy for her. "I love to eat," she said. But since she wanted to truly transform into her character, she's happy with the results. "Between the black wigs and the '60s makeup and me losing the weight, when I'm dressed up, I don't look like myself at all," she explained. "That was the point." ...

R. Kelly appeared in a Chicago court Friday (February 10) to ask permission to travel to New York next week to attend to his civil case against Jay-Z. Kelly's child-pornography case was continued until February 17, when his lawyers will ask permission for him to travel for an upcoming tour. Kelly also added some dates to his trek: April 4 in Waterbury, Connecticut; April 10 in Baltimore; May 4 in Las Vegas; and May 5 in San Diego. ... Autographed Sundance photographs of Justin Timberlake, the Beastie Boys and Joel Madden are being auctioned on eBay to benefit Habitat for Humanity International's Operation Home Delivery, a program providing assistance and rebuilding opportunities in New Orleans. Terrence Howard, Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Smith are also participating. ... Britney Spears has called driving with her baby on her lap a "mistake." The singer told "Access Hollywood": "I made a mistake and so it is what it is, I guess." Spears was snapped on Monday driving with Sean Preston on her lap instead of in a car seat, and had blamed it on a too-aggressive photographer. "Being put in the situation that I was in, it was kind of bad with the paparazzi," she said. "Last week my mom and I went out and they were on us really bad, so you do instinctively what you need to do." ...

Pink has been married nearly a month now, and she's already confident that she and husband Carey Hart will "never get divorced," she told MTV Radio. "We're never together. We're not together long enough to fight," she laughed. "I'll see him in March, maybe, if he comes home for my brother's wedding, but that's unlikely." Still, she's happy in love, posting on her Web site that "Carey is a piece of pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pie." ... John Legend will perform during halftime at the 2006 NBA All-Star Game on February 19 in Houston. Legend will sing "So High" on the show, televised on TNT. ... Jack Black will host Nickelodeon's 19th Kids' Choice Awards. The show is scheduled for April 1 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. ... Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas is singing the national anthem at the Daytona 500. The race will take place February 19 in Daytona Beach, Florida, and will be broadcast on NBC at 12 p.m. ... Kid Rock has changed the title of his concert album to Live Trucker and bumped it a couple of weeks to February 28. The 13-track set captures the Detroit rocker and his Twisted Brown Trucker Band and was recorded in Michigan in 2000 and 2004. Look for the disc to feature "Bawitdaba," "Cowboy," "American Bad Ass" and "Only God Knows Why." ...

Fuel's founding frontman Brett Scallions has quit the band, according to an official statement posted on the group's Web site. No explanation for Scallions' departure has been offered, but guitarist Carl Bell described the split as "amicable." The remaining members of Fuel are holding auditions for his replacement and will soon begin recording their next LP. Material for the follow-up to 2003's Natural Selection has been written for months. ... Citing financial pressures, the Juliana Theory are disbanding after almost 10 years together. In an extensive posting on their MySpace page, the bandmembers detailed how poor business decisions and a series of unfortunate events led them to this decision. "Financially, we would have to take regular jobs now to keep this thing going," the statement read. "We've always given 100 percent to this thing and it would be an insult to our fans and to ourselves to do it less than 100 percent because we would be spending most of our time making a living elsewhere." ... Two more names have been added to the cast of "Control," the forthcoming biographical film about late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. Curtis will be played by newcomer Sam Riley while German actress Alexandra Maria Lara has been cast as Curtis' lover, Annik Honoré. They join Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Morton, cast as Curtis' widow, in the Anton Corbijn film that's expected to begin shooting this spring. ...

According to The Associated Press, a band fronted by actor Kevin Costner will make its debut April 29 at the close of the BMW Charity Pro-Am at the Cliffs in Greenville, South Carolina. The group does not have a name yet but features five members, including the singing actor/director. Costner participates in the celebrity-loaded event every year. ... Exene Cervenka may be playing with X this month, but she's got her new band to promote as well. The Original Sinners will release their second album, Sev7en, on March 7. Song titles include "Last Dance," "Tavern" and a cover of the Gun Club's "Ghost on the Highway." X's tour starts Wednesday in San Diego and concludes February 25 in San Francisco. The Original Sinners then kick into gear with their own jaunt on March 3 in Corona, California, and wrap March 11 in Denver. ... "Miss Seventeen" winner Jen Steele appeared Thursday with White House drug czar John P. Walters at a press conference in New York held by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Steele — whose parents are currently incarcerated for drug and alcohol crimes — talked about her personal experience and discussed new findings that girls are catching up to boys in the use of illicit substances and alcohol. ... The Fiery Furnaces just released their third full-length, Rehearsing My Choir, in late October, but they've already got a release date set for album number four. Called Bitter Tea, the album will hit stores April 18 and will be released — rather inexplicably — on iconic Mississippi blues label Fat Possum. The band recorded Tea and Choir simultaneously, and both albums were actually supposed to be released around the same time last year, but for reasons only known to the Furnaces, Tea was shelved. The band kick off a tour in support of, well, both albums Friday night in New Haven, Connecticut. ... The Flaming Lips have been added to the Noise Pop festival in the Bay Area. The group will play March 27 at Bimbo's.

02.09.2006

Linkin Park revealed on the green carpet at the Grammys and in a posting to their Web site that they'll be working with none other than producer Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay-Z) for their next album. "Right now, we're in the experimental phase of the writing process for our new record. There is no solid direction yet; we're trying to be as eclectic as we can for the moment and then we'll see what stands out the most out of all the music we write, which will give us more of an identity to strive for," DJ Joseph Hahn wrote on the site. "We wanted to step it up as far as working with a producer and really try to create an atmosphere that will challenge us in different ways. We chose Rick Rubin because his credits alone speak a lot about his ability and his open-mindedness as a producer. With this record, we're striving to come up with something different than what we've done before. We look forward to touring and sharing our new music with all of our fans, hopefully by this summer after our album is complete." ...

Ice Cube's releasing his new album, Laugh Now, Cry Later, through his own label, Lench Mob, on June 6. The rapper worked with Snoop Dogg, WC, Lil Jon, Scott Storch and Swizz Beatz on the 18 tracks that comprise his seventh solo album, including "Chrome & Paint" and the first single, "Why We Thugs," which is about weapons, narcotics, politics and the ghetto. ... Madonna's been hinting that she'd like to tour behind Confessions on a Dance Floor, and on Thursday (February 9), she made it official. While a guest on "Ellen," Madonna told the audience, "I can't hide it anymore. I'm going on tour this summer." To celebrate, she invited host Ellen DeGeneres to dance to her new single, "Sorry." Dates have yet to be announced. ...

Ashlee Simpson, who's dated Ryan Cabrera and is now going out with her guitarist Braxton Olita, has a thing for rocker boys, she admits in the March issue of Elle magazine (she's on the cover). "I only love musicians! I can't help it," she told the mag. "Bass, drums, guitar — you just got to play something." But despite the new love in her life, Ashlee's not completely blissed out, because she's really upset about the tabloid coverage of her sister, Jessica Simpson. "When I hear or read somebody say something about her, I want to kick them!" she said. "I'm like, 'What the f--- did you just say about my sister?' Those magazines are messing with people's lives! My mom always tells me, 'They better be prayin' that their babies are going to be OK when they're trying to destroy my kids' lives!' We're Texans." ... Hilary Duff denies that she has an eating disorder in the new issue of Cosmopolitan. In the cover story, she explains that she lost what she calls her "baby fat" because she cut out carbs like pasta, rice and bread during her tour, swam 30 laps a day, and got "obsessed" with Pilates, doing it three or four times a week. "Look at me," she told the mag. "You can see that I'm healthy." Duff doesn't know exactly how much weight she's lost because she doesn't weigh herself, she said, but she does admit to feeling some pressure to be thin. "There was a story [in Star magazine in 2004] called 'Hilary Duff Puffs Up.' What the hell? That is just so mean. You see that and you're like, 'Oh my God. Am I fat? Am I ugly?' " ...

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are expanding their brand to include makeup. The twins are launching a cosmetics collection for tweens and teens this month in Claire's stores, starting with products for lips and eyes. Other items are in development to launch in time for the back-to-school season later this year. ... Kristin Cavallari might be known to her "Laguna Beach" fans as a real party animal, but she says life is anything but a party for her furry friends. She's starring in a new campaign for PETA, which shows her hugging a bunny beside the tagline "Try Telling Him It's Just a Little Trim." "Who would want someone killing you for your skin? It's the same thing," Cavallari says. "Just think about where the little bit of fur you're wearing on boots or on scarves is coming from." Meanwhile, Cavallari gets busy on the next episode of "Get This Party Started," where she throws a surprise graduation party for Arizona State mascot Chris August (known to the campus as "Sparky"). The episode airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on UPN. ...

Steve-O allegedly refused to put out his cigarette on a domestic flight out of Atlanta a year and a half ago, and now he's facing a $25,000 fine for it. An FAA spokesperson confirmed on Thursday (February 9) that it has a pending case against the "Jackass" stuntman, while his lawyer said they're in the middle of trying to work it out. "My lawyer instructed me to 'not comment any further' about chain-smoking on airplanes," Steve-O said. "I agreed to go along with him, and I find it hysterical that it took me this long in life to 'not have a comment' about something. Yeah!" ... Spearhead's Michael Franti has got more than a new album on the way — he's also got a film, which he scored and directed. "I Know I'm Not Alone," which starts screening in New York on Saturday, captures his journey into the war zones of Baghdad, Palestine and Israel this past year, for which he was accompanied by two human-rights lawyers and a retired U.S. Army captain, among others. "This film came out of my frustration with watching the nightly news and hearing generals, politicians and pundits explaining the political and economic cost of the war in the Middle East, without ever mentioning the human cost," Franti said. "I wanted to hear about the war by the people affected by it most." ...

The next season of "Rock Star" needs, well, a new rock star. Though the show won't disclose which band will get a new singer this go-round, the producers are hoping hopefuls won't mind not knowing. Open-call auditions are being held in Austin, Texas, March 1, in Boston March 3, in Atlanta March 6, in New York March 8, in Chicago March 11, in Minneapolis March 16, in Seattle March 18, in San Francisco March 21, and in Los Angeles March 31. ...