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Gwyneth Paltrow Talks Jay-Z Collabo; Plus Hilary Duff, 'American Idol,' John Mayer, Arcade Fire, Velvet Revolver & More, In 'For The Record'

Duff lines up fashion-crafts line; 'Idol' hopeful goes into labor during audition; Mayer on for 'Austin City Limits.'

Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't so into the initial idea of singing onstage last year with Jay-Z at London's Royal Albert Hall, she admitted to W magazine for its September issue. "Jay was playing at the Albert Hall on my birthday, and he said, 'Will you sing on this song?' " the actress told the mag. "At first I didn't want to do it!" Paltrow also talked a little about her husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who was also onstage for the strange collabo. "When Chris gets home, we're not going to do anything other than what any regular couple does," she said. ...

A day after Amy Winehouse canceled two European festival dates following a trip to a London hospital to deal with what her label termed "severe exhaustion," a spokesperson for the singer said doctors have ordered Winehouse to rest in bed. For now, she's still expected to perform at the Virgin Festival in Toronto on September 8 as well as a string of U.S. dates in September. Winehouse's spokesperson would not comment on British tabloid reports that said the collapse that led to the singer's hospitalization was possibly drug-related. ...

Ciara is making her directorial debut with a video for Paula Campbell's "Ain't Nobody Stupid," and she will premiere the clip Monday at the 20th Century Fox Studio Lot in Century City, California. Los Angeles area fans can go here for details on how to get into the free Nissan Live Sets event. [article id="1566775"]See snaps from the "Ain't Nobody Stupid" photo shoot right here.[/article] ...

Jamie Foxx portrayed Ray Charles and Andre 3000 is set to play Sammy Davis Jr., so you'd probably expect another big name to be taking on the lead role in the long-in-the-works Notorious B.I.G. biopic, right? Not necessarily. An open casting call will be held to determine who will play Biggie, and actors and non-actors alike are being allowed to try out for the part. Audition videos can be sent here beginning Sunday at 3 a.m. ET. In 1995, Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired the rights to the movie, which is being produced by Biggie's mother Voletta Wallace and two of his former managers. ...

A woman is peeved that no one from Britney Spears' camp has contacted the woman about her car, which the singer was seen driving into earlier this week in Studio City, California. Kim Robard-Rifkin told CelebTV.com on Wednesday that, "It was simply like my car didn't matter to her, my inconvenience didn't matter to her." Robard-Rifkin, who filed a police report Thursday (August 9), added, "I'm not asking for money. I'm not asking for a new car. ... I simply want my car fixed, the same as I would fix somebody's car if I had done that." ...

Hilary Duff is branching out. The singer/actress has partnered with Michaels stores for Stuff by Hilary Duff, a new fashion-crafts line that includes bracelets, necklaces, charms, patches and more. All Michaels stores will host in-store demonstrations of the products on August 26 from 1-3 p.m. local time. ... An "American Idol" hopeful went into labor during her audition on Monday at Texas Stadium and had contractions as she was singing, People reports. After that, Antoria Gillon, who was taken to a local hospital, gave birth to a healthy son. She will be on the next round of the show. ...

John Mayer has been confirmed for the upcoming season of "Austin City Limits," Pitchfork reports -- but the program will be heavily weighed toward indie-rock acts too. Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Decemberists, Regina Spektor and Wilco have also been booked for the PBS series, which will start airing in October. ... The lineup for the first-ever Monolith Music Festival, to be held September 14-15 at Denver's historic Red Rock Amphitheatre, will include the Flaming Lips, Kings of Leon, the Decemberists, Editors, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Spoon, Cake, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Das EFX and many more acts. ...

Thrice have pegged October 16 as the release date for The Alchemy Index: Vols. I & II - Fire & Water, the first two parts of a four-volume concept effort. The other two chapters, Vols. III & IV - Earth & Air, will be released in the spring. Both sets will be issued by Vagrant, the new label the band calls home after parting ways with Island in June. Earlier this year, frontman Dustin Kensrue called the Alchemy project "daunting" in an interview with MTV News. ... If you've been exchanging MySpace messages with Chris Cornell in recent weeks, chances are you were dealing with an imposter. The real Cornell logged onto his MySpace page on Wednesday to clear up matters. "Over the past several months, several incidents have taken place where others felt the need to engage in activities pretending to be me," he wrote. "I have been wanting to make a clear statement to fans, friends and anyone this may concern." He added the confounding remark, "Under no circumstances, under any name or address, do I or have I ever communicated or corresponded with anyone online or otherwise." ...

Want to get up close and personal with Velvet Revolver? You can get your chance for $250, thanks to meet-and-greet packages being offered for the hard-rock group's Tuesday gig at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The package includes a VIP laminate, personal photograph with the band, exclusive 8x10 color poster and autograph. ... Alice in Chains's Unplugged CD and DVD are being packaged together for a revitalized version of the release due September 18. ...

Expect to catch an eyeful of U2 rehearsing songs from their new album in "Here It Is," a documentary about the band's longtime producer Daniel Lanois that is set to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, RollingStone.com reports. The feature film captures Lanois and the band in a studio in Morocco, with Billy Bob Thornton, Willie Nelson and others making guest appearances. ... Ricky Martin wants to start creating "a family of many colors" this year by adopting "one [child] from each continent," the singer told reporters Wednesday in his Puerto Rico homeland. The 35-year-old Martin is not married. ...

A fifth woman will be allowed to testify that Phil Spector threatened her with a gun, the judge in the music producer's trial ruled Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Former Spector employee and girlfriend Devra Robitaille was expected to testify Thursday after jurors returned from a tour of Spector's mansion in Alhambra, California, where he allegedly killed actress Lana Clarkson. The defense -- which on Wednesday called to the stand a neuropathologist who said the way Clarkson's body was found was consistent with a suicide -- objected strongly to the decision to let Robitaille testify.

08.08.07

Kevin Federline's lawyer filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday (August 8) for primary physical custody of his two sons with Britney Spears, People reports. Less than two weeks ago, the couple's divorce was finalized, at which point they agreed to joint custody of Sean Preston and Jayden James. Federline, who previously resisted the 50/50 custody agreement, has been worried Spears has been exposing the boys to unnecessary risk, a source told the magazine. ...

Zac Efron may be showing off his assets in his revealing Rolling Stone cover shot, but he's more modest when it comes to talking about his star-making turn in "High School Musical." "I didn't even sing on the first album," he told the magazine. "It wasn't my voice in the movie. Even though I wanted to do it. So what do you do when the entire cast is supposed to accept an award at the Billboard Awards and your voice is only on the album in a select few lines. I felt extremely guilty." He also explained why he refused to go on the "High School Musical" tour: "If I had to hear the 'High School Musical' songs anymore, I probably would have jumped off something very tall," he said. ...

Fresh from her slightly tardy performance at last weekend's Lollapalooza, Amy Winehouse was hospitalized on Wednesday for "exhaustion." According to a press release from the 23-year-old "Rehab" crooner's U.S. label, Universal Republic, "Amy Winehouse was admitted to [University College London Hospital] this morning, suffering from severe exhaustion. Amy was discharged from the hospital this afternoon and has been advised to take complete rest. Scheduled performances in Norway and Denmark this week have been canceled." ...

Jennifer Lopez has a new flick in theaters and an album on the way too, but her purse is getting even heavier thanks to a court decision awarding her almost $545,000 in a lawsuit against her first husband, The Associated Press reports. Lopez had filed the breach-of-contract lawsuit over Ojani Noa's plans to publish a tell-all book in which he was expected to claim the singer/actress had multiple affairs. The court-ordered arbitrator who made the Monday decision also decided that Lopez should be awarded a permanent injunction barring Noa from criticizing or disparaging her. In other J. Lo news, she'll shoot a video for her new single "Do It Well" in Los Angeles on August 16-17. ...

Beyoncé is turning up all over the place -- ads for the singer's new Emporio Armani Diamonds fragrance are appearing in September issues of magazines. The scent is available at Macy's exclusively in August and will hit other major department stores next month. ... A 16-year-old French boy was arrested and spent a night in jail for allegedly translating "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" into French and posting it online within days of the book's late July release. The boy was released Tuesday after being questioned and could face charges of violating intellectual property, although prosecutors say he was likely not seeking commercial gain by posting the translated book online. The official French translation of "Deathly Hallows" is due October 26. ...

50 Cent knows Kanye West better than you think. After accepting a challenge on BET's "106 & Park" to debate with West the merits of their respective new albums -- which will go head to head in stores when they street on September 11 -- Fiddy replied, "Kanye, he's not going to want to show up." During the VMA announcement Tuesday, West made 50's prediction come true, declining the proposed debate and calling it "the stupidest thing." "What am I going to debate about?" he said. "I'm going to go in the studio and make music." But 'Ye, who said he doesn't have beef with anyone, had something positive to say as well: "With 50's album dropping and my album dropping on the same day, everybody wins because you get a lot of good music at the same time." ...

Jack White and his wife, model Karen Elson, welcomed their second child, a boy named Henry Lee White, on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the White Stripes frontman. The couple's first child, a daughter named Scarlett Teresa White, was born in 2006. White and Elson were famously married on a canoe by a traditional shaman priest in Brazil in 2005. ... Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson "still talk every day," the actress told Harper's Bazaar for the magazine's September issue, adding that her ex-husband "still cracks me up." Hudson also revealed that she hopes to eventually have four children. ... Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter are expecting their second baby, People reports. It's due in December. ... Melanie Brown, who has been speaking out publicly about her child with Eddie Murphy, has been married since June, AP reports. A marriage certificate filed with Nevada's Clark County lists the date of her nuptials with boyfriend Stephen Belafonte as June 6. ...

Sum 41 have a new twist in their tour schedule: more dates on the Warped Tour. In addition to playing the Tuesday show in St. Louis and the Bonner Springs, Kansas, gig the following day, Deryck Whibley and the gang will grace the fest for four additional California dates August 22-25 (Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego and Carson). ... Avenged Sevenfold's forthcoming self-titled LP will be in stores October 16. The disc is the follow-up to 2005's City of Evil and is the band's first self-produced effort. ... Former "American Idol" finalist Gina Glocksen's longtime boyfriend Joe Ruzicka proposed to her onstage during the American Idols Live Tour stop in Rosemont, Illinois, on Tuesday -- and she accepted, Illinois' Daily Southtown reports. The rocker, who hails from nearby Naperville, often referenced Ruzicka on the show and dedicated her performance of Heart's "Alone" to him. ...

Rock fans, do your bidding: speakers, cabinets, a Jacuzzi and more items from Jerry Garcia's house in Marin County, California, will be auctioned on eBay beginning Sunday. The house was purchased in 1997 by Henry Koltys, an attorney and software developer, after which he put into storage the items that he's auctioning. Meanwhile, a piano that Bruce Springsteen owned in the late '70s is also up for bidding on eBay, RollingStone.com reports. Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have also played on the piano, which had a starting bid of $10,000. ... The farm that hosted the legendary Woodstock music festival in 1969 is up for sale, AP reports. The asking price is $8 million. ...

Killswitch Engage have pumped out a cover of Dio's "Holy Diver" that will appear on the special-edition version of the band's 2006 effort, As Daylight Days. The reissue, due in stores August 28, will also be bundled with three additional tracks and a DVD featuring a trio of song clips and two rehearsal performances. ... Black Tide, the young metal outfit from Miami that had encountered problems joining Ozzfest's second stage because of age issues, are in luck. Since the band is too young to perform on the fest's Jägermeister-sponsored second stage -- its youngest member is only 14 years old -- it's hopped onto the main stage instead. Black Tide will be the stage's opening act and will make their fest debut Friday in Tinley Park, Illinois. ...

The Chemical Brothers have sketched out the first three dates for their upcoming U.S. tour. The electronic heroes will play New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on September 21, the Concourse in San Francisco on September 28 and Los Angeles' Nocturnal the following day. ... The lineup for the first-ever Farm Aid show in New York, on September 9, has been set. It will include the Counting Crows, Guster, Matisyahu, Ditty Bops, Derek Trucks Band, Allman Brothers Band, the Supersuckers, Warren Haynes and Montgomery Gentry. Those acts join a bill that already includes Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. ... Tom Hanks is suing one of the producers of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," claiming he is still owed profits from the 2002 flick. The suit -- which was also filed by Nia Vardalos, who wrote and starred in the film -- seeks unspecified monetary damages.

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