One of Hollywood's most eligible bachelorettes, Drew Barrymore, is beaming about her newfound independence.
Asked what's the best thing about the single life, Barrymore, 31, told PEOPLE at Wednesday's Hollywood premiere of her new romantic comedy Music and Lyrics: "Just look at my face – I can't stop smiling!"
So it isn't scary at all? "No! I'm very happy."
Barrymore, who recently split with Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, continued, "I think it's important to give someone your heart and trust them and not be cynical. At the same time, I think being independent and strong and happy on your own and by yourself, it's probably what will make you a better lover.
"Because you'd be less needy. So I'm for both."
When asked if dating in Hollywood is tough, Barrymore said, "I think it's the same for everybody. Inter-office dating is as challenging as inter-Hollywood dating. It's a small school, small town. We are forced to be in these circles. There are little seas and those are the fish we swim around. I wish everyone good luck in love because it ain't easy, anywhere.
"But it can be found, and I am an absolute romantic and an optimist."
In Wednesday's New York Post, Page Six quoted a source who said Barrymore was "definitely dating" Scrubs star Zach Braff – but her rep told the paper, "There is no romance between Drew and Zach. They are simply friends."
And Barrymore herself told TV's Extra she was surprised by the rumor: "I talked to him at a party. If I make out with someone, all bets are off. If I go out with someone, all bets are off. But talk to somebody? This world has gone mad."
(She told PEOPLE on Monday she was looking forward to a girls' night out on Valentine's Day.)
Later that night, Barrymore chilled with her Fever Pitch costar Jimmy Fallon and Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight and Kate Walsh at the Music and Lyrics after-party at Hollywood + Highland's The Annex.
But she left after less than an hour, perhaps because, as she told PEOPLE, she was feeling "incredibly jetlagged" after flying to L.A. from Monday's London premiere.
Troubled Britney Spears was so worried she'd lose custody of her sons to her estranged husband she attempted to end her life after shaving her hair off last week (16Feb07), according to US reports.
The Toxic singer reportedly flew into a muddled rage after family and friends, including husband Kevin Federline, attempted to convince her to get help for her wild ways.
And after famously shaving off all her hair at a Tarzana, California salon, The pop superstar attempted suicide by walking into oncoming traffic.
Sources tell the National Enquirer Spears felt Federline's warning was a threat to seek custody of their baby sons and went into hysterics.
After her extreme haircut, Spears was taken home by family members and friends were told to keep watch on the troubled star.
A source says, "Sometime during the night, she escaped and tried to walk into oncoming traffic before her staff could pull her to safety.
"Clearly, she wanted to end her life. Her family immediately put her on suicide watch."
Spears checked into Malibu, California rehab facility Promises on Wednesday night (21Feb07) after two failed attempts in the past week to seek counselling for her ongoing problems fell through
With Britney Spears back in rehab, her family is still concerned about her well-being.
Her father, Jamie Spears, 54, told FOX News from his home in Louisiana on Thursday that Spears is "a sick little girl. ... We're just trying to take care of her."
He added that his daughter's problems are "not about what other people think" and that he and Spears's mom, Lynne, are "concerned about our daughter."
Meanwhile, a publicist for Kevin Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told FOX News that Federline and Kaplan had never called for an emergency family-court hearing, which was reportedly due to take place in Los Angeles on Thursday morning and then apparently canceled.
The rep, Michael Sands, said they believed someone made up the story about the hearing and told Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini about it.
"Kevin continues to be a very focused father with his children with hands-on management," Kaplan said in a statement read by Sands.
One person, at least, agrees with that assessment: Spears's childhood friend and first husband, Jason Alexander, whom Spears wed in Las Vegas in 2004 (their marriage was annulled 55 hours later).
Federline is "a good dude," Alexander, 25, told PEOPLE on Tuesday, the day before Spears checked out of the Promises rehab center after a one-day stay. "I know he takes care of those kids."
Alexander, who in November called Federline "an idiot," now thinks Spears's estranged husband "just got caught up and manipulated," he says. "Maybe getting Kevin out of her life wasn't the best thing for her."
Jessica Simpson has a big fan in Mexico: Mama Lupita, who runs the Casa Hogar Elim orphanage in Nuevo Laredo.
"Last week, someone asked Mama Lupita if she could use a van at the orphanage," a source close to Simpson tells PEOPLE.
"Mama Lupita said, 'Of course we could use it.' So then she was told that she was getting a brand new seven-passenger van from Jessica Simpson for the orphanage."
Adds the source: "She started to cry for three minutes straight and then said, 'I can't wait to give Jessica a big hug.' "
Simpson, 26, had won a Chrysler Crossfire sports car at a swag suite at the MTV's Video Music Awards in the fall, but she asked Chrysler to exchange it for a minivan so she could help out the orphanage, the source says.
A spokesperson for Chrysler confirms: "Instead of the Chrysler Crossfire, she decided to get a minivan for the orphanage instead. She went for the Chrysler Town & Country."
The van will be delivered early next month.
And Mama Lupita will soon have another reason to give Simpson a hug: The singer is auctioning off the sexy red dress she wears in her new Pizza Hut commercial, which debuted during the Super Bowl.
"She selling the dress on eBay," says the source. "Proceeds from the dress will also go to help Casa Hogar."
Why is she doing all of this? "The orphanage means so much to her," the source says. "She wants to help Mama Lupita and everyone in the orphanage."
Not only Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty has been offered the lead role in a West End musical but most importantly has also been invited as the guest of honour at the Princess Diana memorial concert this summer.
Prince William and Harry were so impressed with the way Shilpa handled herself on the scandal-packed reality TV show Big Brother that they invited her to the July 1 concert. In addition, she is also being lined up to become the first ever face on the new Indian version of fashion magazine Vogue.
Though, Shilpa has not yet decided regarding West End musical, producers of the show are in touch with Shilpa’s representatives over a deal for her to play the murderous Roxie Hart, played in recent years by famous Hollywood stars such as Ashlee Simpson, Denise van Outen and Claire Sweeney.
As Britney Spears was reportedly checking out of a drug rehabilitation center for the second time in a week, her estranged husband was making plans to go to court amid a custody dispute over their two children.
Kevin Federline and his lawyer were scheduled to appear at a downtown courthouse Thursday for an emergency hearing, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini told The Associated Press.
It was not known what issue Federline planned to raise.
Federline and Spears have two sons, 5-month-old Jayden James and 17-month-old Sean Preston.
Federline filed papers seeking spousal support and sole custody of the children after Spears sought to end their two-year marriage last November.
A temporary court order issued February 1 granted the couple joint custody until the end of this month.
Parachini said Federline's lawyer would try to convince a Superior Court commissioner that the matter is urgent enough to be handled quickly.
Britney Shears is wigging out.
The newly bald Brit covered her self-shaved head this afternoon with a short blonde wig, a source tells me. My insider spotted the dethroned pop princess lounging at the pool at the Mondrian hotel with a group of “dancer-looking types.”
Spears was wearing a green cap and what looked like the dancer's multicolored bikini top into which she infamously changed during a night of partying last weekend in NYC. "The bottom didn't match," my source said. "It was pinkish."
At one point, Spears left her group and returned wearing an orange bikini. "It didn’t look so hot, and she was smoking cigarette after cigarette," my source says. "At first, I couldn’t believe it was her—but then I heard her speak."
Meanwhile, sources close to Spears tell me they’re worried she’s alienating everyone around her. "She’s going to have no one who cares about her," one said. "Even her security is getting fed up. She keeps running them around town until 4:30 in the morning."
Spears' rep declined to comment. "There is no statement," the rep said in an email earlier this evening. "If and when there is, you will be copied."
Doherty Caught Taking Drugs Again.
Troubled rocker PETE DOHERTY has been filmed taking drugs again - just a month after a judge claimed he was "optimistic" the singer would battle his substance addiction.
The BABYSHAMBLES star was caught on a pal's mobile phone snorting drugs thought to be a mixture of cocaine and horse tranquilliser ketamine.
In the footage, friends can be heard warning Doherty: "You're doing them too big, Pete. It's dangerous - you need to calm down a bit, man."
Just last month (JAN07) District Judge Jane McIvor praised Doherty for battling his substance problems after the singer attended a review of his drug rehabilitation progress.
A friend of the star tells British newspaper The People, "Pete was snorting drugs like tomorrow. He was laughing about doing huge lines of the stuff and did not seem to worry he's meant to be kicking his habit.
"To think that the judge praised him for making an effort when all the time he's getting out of his mind is a joke."
It's not the first time the CAN'T STAND ME NOW hitmaker has been filmed taking illegal substances - he was caught in Thailand last month (JAN07) taking cocaine.
Gwen Stefani said that designing is hard work.
The singer revealed that she did not expect her L.A.M.B. clothing line to be so successful straight away.
The 37 year old said:" Suddenly I had to come up with all these designs last year after getting feedback from what kinds of clothes had been selling after four years of being put there on the market."
However successful her fashion designs are, Stefani’s first love is music.
She also told famous that designing is more like work for her compared to her passion for music.
" I don’t really feel emotional about fashion designing. It’s more a greedy thing about creating things that I would like to wear personally."
Gina Orr, spokesman for Britney's record label Jive, has released a statement, saying: "It is not true." Britney believes the reports are part of a smear campaign by Kevin to aid his custody battle for sons, Sean Preston, 16 months, and Jayden James, four months. A source said: "This is all part of a plan to smear Britney. They are close to agreeing a divorce settlement - so this is a warning shot if he doesn't get what he wants."
Britney Spears has vehemently denied claims she is a lesbian. The 25-year-old mother-of-two was left fuming over allegations she participated in wild same-sex orgies before splitting from husband Kevin Federline in November.
Kevin's friend, rap music producer Omar 'Iceman' Sharif, lifted the lid on Britney's alleged sexual exploits to In Touch Weekly magazine.
He said: "Britney was into threesomes and girls. There was tons of porn in the house - but it was mostly Britney's."
Omar also claimed that Britney would host X-rated parties at her Malibu marital home.
He said: "They were friends of her who she would invite to her house and they would drink and party. They had their hands all over each other." Another source said: "Sometimes it was three girls, and sometimes there were more like six. I heard about her being with girls at least 20 times while they were married.
Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale — Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother — died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.
She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.
Just five months ago, Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.
Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Smith's bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital.
Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief Broward County medical examiner who will perform the autopsy, said if her death was from natural causes, the findings would likely be announced quickly. He cautioned, however, that definitive results could take weeks.
"I am not a prophet, and I cannot tell you before the autopsy what I am going to find," he said.
Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.
Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out.
"Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel," said a former attorney for Smith in the Bahamas, Michael Scott.
Another former Smith attorney, Lenard Leeds, told the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ that Smith "always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there's no question she used alcohol." Leeds said it was no secret that "she had a very troubled life" and had "so many, many problems."
"She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner," Leeds said. Monroe died of a drug overdose at age 36 in 1962.
Smith attorney Ron Rale told The Associated Press that he had talked to her on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son.
"Poor Anna Nicole," he said. "She's been the underdog. She's been besieged ... and she's been trying her best and nobody should have to endure what she's endured."
The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550 million.
In a 2005 interview with ABC, Smith recalled meeting Marshall at what she called a "gentleman's club' in Houston. "He had no will to live and I went over to see him," she said. "He got a little twinkle in his eyes, and he asked me to dance for him. And I did."
Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later overturned. But in May, the
U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.
The stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.
Smith starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in "The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.
After news came of Smith's death, G. Eric Brunstad Jr., the lawyer who represented Marshall, said in a statement: "We're very shocked by the news and extend the deepest condolences to her family."
In a statement, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said: "I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole's passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally."
Smith's son died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.
An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he died accidentally of a combination of methadone and two antidepressants. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for March 27.
Meanwhile, the paternity of Smith's now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father.
Debra Opri, the attorney who filed his paternity suit, said Birkhead "is devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our No. 1 priority."
Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children. Her parents split up when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother, a deputy sheriff.
She dropped out after 11th grade after she was expelled for fighting, and worked as a waitress and then a cook at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken restaurant in Mexia.
She married 16-year-old fry cook Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.
Jessica Simpson has laughed off reports she has found love again.
The singer-turned-actress is said to be dating with US songwriter John Mayer, and the pair have been spotted out together on several occasions.
Jessica - who divorced husband Nick Lachey in June 2006 - insists she is not romantically involved with anybody and is convinced her fame frightens off potential suitors.
She told Britain's Star magazine: "Do I have a new love in my life? I wish I was in love! Everybody needs to be in love.
"I think I'm too hard to be in love with. It ends up on the cover of every magazine! I scare people away."
Meanwhile, Jessica has revealed she wants to adopt.
The blonde star would love a big family and is seriously considering adopting because she fears she may not be able to cope with childbirth more than once.
She said: "I want to adopt before I actually have my own kids. I want three kids - but I don't know if I can give birth three times. I'll have to see how much pain is involved the first time round!"
Christina Aguilera is Ellen DeGeneres' only guest Wednesday as the talk show host celebrates her 600th episode.
And what do the two talk about?
Getting naked.
When DeGeneres asks the pop singer to describe what a typical weekend day is like with husband Jordan Bratman, Aguilera says, "We claim ourselves to be coziest couple ever. We have something called naked Sundays."
Ellen: "Excuse me? Naked Sundays."
Christina: "You have to keep marriage alive, spice it up."
Ellen: "Because it's been how many years?"
Christina: "A big whole year. We just celebrated our first anniversary, and on Sundays we just do everything in the house, and we're just cozy and laid back, we don't need to go anywhere we're just with each other and have naked Sundays. We do everything naked. We cook naked."
Ellen: "You cook naked?"
Christina: "Yeah, we cook naked."
Ellen: "Nothing with grease... that could splatter."
Christina: "Well, unless you want the grease."
