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BITS AND PIECES 09/28

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Sep 28, 2005, 9:22:53 AM9/28/05
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NY POST/DON KAPLAN
--WE'RE betting that Rachael Ray's wedding cost more than $40 for the
day. The bubbly cooking show cutie, host of three Food Network shows -
"30 Minute Meals," "$40 a Day" and "Tasty Travels!" - tied the knot
last Saturday with longtime squeeze John Cusimano in a ceremony held in
Montalcino, Italy. Ray, a frequent guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show,"
is going into business with the daytime queen's production company,
which has agreed to produce a pilot for a new syndicated cooking show
hosted by the celebrity chef. Ray is also the author of 10 books and is
launching a new magazine, "Every Day with Rachael Ray," next month.

NY POST/MICHAEL STARR
--Kelly Monaco has yammered on about the possibility of her appearing
on "Desperate Housewives," though nothing's been confirmed yet. Now you
can add former "Friends" star Courteney Cox to the list of "Housewives"
wannabes. Life & Style reports that Cox, 41, is negotiating to play "a
mental-institution escapee" on a future "House wives" episode. It would
be Cox's first appearance on TV since the birth of her daughter, Coco
(Cox is married to David Arquette). "Entourage" star Debi Mazar,
meanwhile, takes a shot at Paris Hilton in Inside TV magazine. "Now
there's this sort of 20-year-old, tacky, Paris Hilton-driven idealism
of what sexy is," Mazar says. "I don't think it looks classy."

--Wilmer Valderrama, voted one of People En Espanol's "25 Sexiest
Bachelors," says his mom doesn't have to approve of his girlfriends,
but does have to meet them. And good old mom does have other demands,
says young Wilmer. "The only thing my mother does say is that the girl
should know how to cook and do laundry." The issue hits newsstands Oct.
3.

--Last Sunday's "60 Minutes" was its most-watched season-premiere in
six years.

--Unlikely pairing: Match box 20 frontman Rob Thomas visits tomorrow's
"Nightly Business Report" to discuss "The Business of Music."

--Among Ray Romano's favorite New York restaurants is Il Mulino,
"probably the best Italian restaurant I've ever eaten at," he tells
Travel Savvy magazine.

--VH1's "Hip Hop Honors" snared 1.4 million viewers Monday night - up
40 percent over last year.

--Patricia Arquette, Rebecca Romijn, Barbara K. and others helping
Hurricane Katrina victims via Relief Spark last weekend.

NY POST/PAGE SIX...
--DIANA Ross is almost as bad a driver as Halle "on wheels" Berry.
Ross, who was arrested for DWI several years ago, got into a nasty
little accident in Los Angeles. Monday afternoon. A passer-by to the
melee e-mailed defamer.com: "I just saw Diana Ross had a huge
fender-bender (as in the whole freakin' thing came off!) on the corner
of Poinsettia and Sunset, and she was hiding in the doorway of a dry
cleaner!" The Web site also posted pictures of the superstar singer
hiding in that doorway as her car was towed away. Fortunately, no one
was hurt.

--WHO knew Patricia Clarkson was such a diva? The "Good Night and Good
Luck" star tried her best to become the center of attention at the
film's premiere at Alice Tully Hall the other night. According to a
spy, "Everyone was there in the green room - George Clooney, David
Straithairn and Frank Langella - and there, lying down on a sofa in
her beautiful designer gown with a full face of makeup, looking like a
doll, was Patricia Clarkson, moaning: 'I need to lay down and let the
fluids replenish my body.' Nobody was paying her any attention, it was
genius!"

--ARE Alex and Alexandra von Furstenberg headed for a reconciliation?
The son of designer Diane - who ditched his duty-free heiress wife
for a younger woman in 2003 - was seen partying up a storm with her
in Las Vegas last weekend. At Jermaine Dupri's birthday bash at Tao Las
Vegas, the exes were "snuggling, dancing, chatting and laughing a lot,"
says a spy. They left together around 2 a.m. and were spotted partying
again at Tao the next night. PAGE SIX recently reported that Alex is
helping his current gal pal, trust-fund hottie Ali Kay, launch a new
line of pricey pajamas and loungewear called Keep Me.

--SOCIALITE Hilary de Vries is hitting the small screen. Her book, "So
5 Minutes Ago," has been optioned by Touchstone for "a 'Sex and the
City'-meets-'Entourage' single-camera comedy series for UPN, to be
produced by Warren Littlefield," according to de Vries. Littlefield,
the former NBC Entertainment president, was responsible for "Friends"
and "Seinfeld" and is helping UPN president Dawn Ostroff make over the
network - signing Darren Star to a two-series deal and trying to turn
the channel into a hip, female-friendly place.

--"JACKASS" star Steve-O claims he can't remember any of his drunken
antics on Monday night's "Too Late With Adam Carolla." In an e-mail to
one of the show's producers, Steve-O says: "I just woke up with no
recollection of taping Adam's show. Wow. I can't help being more proud
of myself." On the show, an extremely lubricated Steve-O came out
swearing and spitting, tried to tackle Carolla and broke a glass coffee
table by smashing it with his fist - sending blood from his cut leg
spurting all over the stage.

--"HUSTLE & Flow" star Taryn Manning must have seen the light during
the almost-crash landing of Jet Blue Flight 292 last week. Manning is
now "about to get engaged" to her boyfriend of one year, fellow actor
Derek Magyar, according to her good pal and p.r. woman Siri Garber.
After the plane had a scary landing due to its broken landing gear,
Taryn told the press: "I wrote little notes to my boyfriend and to my
mom and brother. I was not wanting to be writing what I was writing."
The note to Magyar said: "I love you so much. Always remember that.
Please don't be sad. I'll always be with you." He got the message.

--JUDE Law wasn't the first famous Brit to get caught with his hand in
the nanny jar. In the latest installment of her memoir, "Extreme,"
being serialized in the London Sun, Sharon Os bourne writes that Ozzy
got caught in bed with their nanny on the night their son Jack was
born. "Ozzy was loaded when he got to the hospital," she writes. "Then
he collapsed and went home. My assistant popped in to see if he was OK
and found him in bed with the nanny. She wasn't a beautiful blonde -
she was an ugly old cow." Sharon says Ozzy only stopped cheating when a
faulty AIDS test came back positive.

--RANGERS star Jaromir Jagr and team mates Steve Rucchin and Martin
Straka at One, sending a bottle of Dom Perignon to Tiger Woods a few
hours after his victory in the U.S. President's Cup.

--JIMMY Fallon celebrating his 31st birthday at the National Arts Club
with Ethan Hawke, Heather Graham, Rachel Dratch, Trey Parker, Matt
Stone and Teresa Heinz.

--YESTERDAY was a sad day for celebrity marriages. Not only did Chad
Michael Murray and Sophia Bush call it quits after just five months,
but Kathy Griffin and her hubby of four years, Matt Moline, called it a
day. In Griffin's case, the couple split because of irreconcilable
differences - which can't be said of Murray and Bush. Murray, who
cheated on her during their engagement (he hooked up with castmate
Paris Hilton while filming "The House of Wax"), kept right on cheating
after they wed. According to Us Weekly, "He cheats on her constantly
and doesn't even try to hide it." Another cheater? A.J. DiScala, the
hubby/manager of "Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn DiScala, the magazine says.
Meanwhile, Tori Spelling, who cheated on and left her hubby Charlie
Shanian last week, has moved in with the object of her lust, actor Dean
McDermott.

NY POST/CINDY ADAMS...
--TREES are already looking wintry on 73rd and Lex. "The Devil Wears
Prada" crew needed the Meryl Streep-Anne Hathaway scene to look
fall-ish.

--Possible spinoff for "Everybody Loves Raymond" 's Brad Garrett will
focus on his character Robert Barone, his wife and in-law.

--At the "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" premiere,
Mercedes Ruehl helped a crying boy who'd lost his mommy. Didn't leave
the kid until security located the MIA parents.

NY DAILY NEWS/RUSH AND MOLLOY....
--Ben Affleck has Democratic hearts in Virginia beating wildly. The
politically active actor got state party officials aroused when it was
reported that he and his pregnant wife, Jennifer Garner, were
house-hunting in Charlottesville. Virginia Democrats are hankering for
a star to go up against Republican Sen. George Allen next year, now
that outgoing Gov. Mark Warner has dropped out. Rumors that Affleck
might run "spread pretty widely, at least in the political
underground," University of Virginia Prof. Larry Sabato told The
Washington Post, which reported that the name of novelist/lawyer John
Grisham has also been mentioned. Affleck's spokesman Ken Sunshine
confirms he's been contacted by the Virginia state party, but tells us
the "Armageddon" star isn't interested. "Ben and Jennifer were just
driving and stopped to look at some pretty houses," he adds. "But they
aren't moving there." Sunshine doesn't rule out that Affleck, who
impressed many with his speech-making for John Kerry, might campaign
for himself some day - but probably in his home state of
Massachusetts. "Right now, he's not running for anything except
diapers."

--Paris Hilton and her ostensible fiancé, Paris Latsis, defied talk of
a breakup Monday night when they went out for dinner at L.A.'s Koi. But
word is their romance is hanging by a thread. First, the hotel heiress
has been stepping out with her record producer, Scott Storch. Then,
last week, she turned up at Alison Melnick's Mood party in L.A. with
another Greek shipping heir - Stavros Niarchos. A spy reports seeing
Hilton "cuddling" with Niarchos, who used to date Mary-Kate Olsen. One
friend says Hilton wears her engagement ring only occasionally. She's
also said to be dividing her time between the mansion where Latsis
lives and the pad she shares with sister Nicky. "She's having second
thoughts about the wedding," says a source. "He wants to stay at home.
She lets him." A Hilton spokeswoman argues that Niarchos is just a
friend and the wedding is still on. As for the living arrangements, the
rep says, "She loves her sister and likes to stay with her when she's
in town."

--Lindsay Lohan has stripped for Vanity Fair. Mario Testino shot the
"Mean Girls" beauty in Malibu for a forthcoming issue. A source
cautions, "You only see an outline of her tush." ­Lohan is due back in
New York soon to shoot the video for "Confessions of a Broken Heart,"
her song inspired by her tense relations with her father, Michael.

--Whoopi Goldberg and Vincent D'Onofrio will serve as jurors in the
first-ever New York Television Festival, which will give aspiring
writers, directors and producers the opportunity to showcase original
pilots directly to network execs.

NY DAILY NEWS/LLOYD GROVE...
--The lingering feud between rival rappers 50 Cent and Ja Rule got a
jump-start Monday night at a celeb-glutted party celebrating Kevin
Liles' new book, "The Hip-Hop Generation Guide to Success." Lowdown
asked Ja, born Jeffrey Atkins, if he's going to see 50's new movie,
"Get Rich or Die Tryin.'" "I always study the enemy, so I might check
it out," Ja replied. "But it looks kinda bull-." Suddenly, hip-hop
mogul Irv Gotti - the CEO of Ja's record label, The Inc., and another
mortal enemy of 50 Cent - appeared at Ja's side. "Y'all say some pretty
crazy s- about me," Gotti groused. "No, the Daily News is all right.
That's the Post!" Ja told him. "Oh, the Post," Gotti agreed solemnly.
So will Gotti see "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"? "See, that's what the f-
I'm talkin' about!" he exploded and stormed away. As Jay-Z, Beyoncé,
Russell Simmons, Method Man, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Star Jones mingled
in a corporate suite 17 stories above Madison Ave., Sean (Diddy) Combs
insisted that he's smoothed things over with the mother of slain rapper
Christopher (Notorious B.I.G.) Wallace. In galleys for "Biggie: Voletta
Wallace Remembers Her Son," Wallace writes: "I believe Sean loved my
son - after he was dead. I used to tell Christopher all the time not to
trust Sean." Combs told Lowdown: "I spoke to her and she said that she
didn't say that and that anybody wants to write that she said it,
she'll speak to them directly. So if you wanna call my office, I'll put
you on the phone with her." But Diddy's people were unable to get it
done yesterday, and Wallace didn't respond to detailed messages left
with her reps. Her publisher, Atria, confirmed that the accusatory
passages remain.

USA TODAY/By Jim Cheng
--Mariah Carey's Shake It Off stays at No. 1 on the national radio
airplay chart for the fourth week, although its total audience is just
a whisker (2%) ahead of Gold Digger by Kanye West, according to Nielsen
BDS. Following in the top 10 are Bow Wow's Like You and Carey's We
Belong Together, then hits by David Banner, Young Jeezy and Bow Wow
(Let Me Hold You). Entering the chart's top 10 are the Black Eyed Peas'
My Humps at No. 8 and Pretty Ricky's Your Body at No. 10, with
Lifehouse's You and Me holding at No. 9.

--Director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) is bringing
The Monkey Wrench Gang to the big screen. The 1975 comedic best seller
by Edward Abbey follows a group of environmental activists who fight
overdevelopment in the American West by any means necessary. The film,
from Columbia Pictures, begins shooting in the spring, and filmmakers
are scouting locations in Utah and Arizona.

--Confidence in the media has jumped since last year but is still
slightly lower than in recent years, Gallup's annual media survey
finds. The poll, conducted Sept. 12-15, finds that 50% of Americans say
they have trust and confidence in the media, while 49% say they don't
have very much trust, or none at all. Last year, 44% said they trusted
the media while 55% said they didn't. The biggest split was along
political lines: Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to
express confidence in the media and much more likely to say there is
media bias. Most Republicans say the media are too liberal.

--Ludacris has signed with XM Satellite Radio to host a weekly music
show. Disturbing tha Peace Presents Ludacris' Open Mic will feature
music from Ludacris' personal collection as well as special guests and
interviews. The show will premiere in January on XM's uncut hip-hop
channel, Raw (channel 66).

--Ann-Margret has joined the cast of Walt Disney Pictures' The Santa
Clause 3. Tim Allen returns as Santa, who this time has to save
Christmas from Jack Frost (Martin Short). Ann-Margret plays Allen's
disapproving mother-in-law.

3 A.M. GIRLS/With Jessica Callan, Eva Simpson And Caroline Hedley
--DON'T let Robbie Williams sneak up behind you in the lavatory - the
Tripping singer dreams of beating people up in the loo! The star gave
listeners to Johnny Vaughan's Capital FM show an off-the-wall insight
into how he would take a leak in a dream. The 31-year-old admits: "My
fantasy violence takes place in toilets. I walk in but they haven't
noticed me. I go twat on their head, smack them into the ceramic, blood
everywhere, running claret. "They drop to the floor into the urinal, I
kick them in the stomach, break their ribs - and have a pee." And he
described a recent gents mishap. He said: "I went for a pee and I look
next to me and a fella is just looking up at me. I'm thinking 'this is
weird', I look down and I was peeing on his shoes." Oh well Rob - at
least he could tell his pals he'd seen a private performance of a No 1.

LAS VEGAS JOURNAL/NORM CLARKE...
--Chelsea Clinton's mystery man at the opening of Tao nightclub is no
stranger to family politics. Marc Mezvinsky's mother is former
Pennsylvania Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, a Republican, and his
father is former U.S. Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, D-Iowa, who pleaded guilty to
fraud charges in 2002. Longtime friends, Clinton and young Mezvinsky
have been spending a lot of time together since her recent breakup with
Ian Klass, her beau of three years and an Oxford Rhodes Scholar. They
were spotted hamming it up for paparazzi and dancing at Saturday's
grand opening of Tao, The Venetian megaclub that has New York roots.
She works for New York-based McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, and he
reportedly works for Goldman Sachs. Chelsea's dad, President Clinton,
has an Oct. 29 speaking engagement before the Nevada Development
Authority.

--Hollywood hellion Tara Reid was ready for her closeup. Host Jeff
Beacher was acknowledging celebrities in the crowd during Friday's
season-opening "Beacher's Madhouse" at the Hard Rock Hotel, when he
announced, "We have two very special ladies in the audience with us
tonight." As Reid stood up, Beacher announced, "Paris and Nicky
Hilton!" On her way out of the show, a wobbly and overwrought Reid was
overheard saying, "I should have been onstage. I'm bigger than Paris
Hilton." Her E! "Taradise" Wild-On series, a boozy tour of
international party scenes, staggered in the ratings and was not
renewed.

--Janet Jackson, dining at Nobu (Hard Rock Hotel) on Monday.

--Sheena Easton, backstage with the band after watching Lon Bronson's
All-Star Band at the Golden Nugget on Monday.

L.A. DAILY NEWS/Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
--Hockey great Wayne Gretzky is not only busy coaching the NHL's
Phoenix Coyotes, it appears he'll soon be strapping on his producer
gear to make a golf movie. Expect the announcement momentarily that
Gretzky, who loves golf and hosts his own charity tourneys, will
executive-produce "Dance the Green: The Moe Norman Story," with Suzanne
DeLaurentiis also executive-producing and Gretzky's wife, Janet, among
the producers as well. Record-breaking Canadian golfer Norman, who's
been referred to as the most extraordinarily accurate golfer on the
planet, died last year. He is thought by some to have been a
high-functioning autistic because of his many eccentricities, including
speaking in a sing-song voice, hiding from crowds and performing
seemingly-endless repetitions of certain motions - which in his case
included a perfect golf swing. Hugh Wilson ("First Wives Club," "The
Famous Teddy Z") is expected to direct.

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