Celebrity News & Gossip

Howard Stern found the loveliest way to say Gabourey Sidibe should have won Best Actress for Precious on his radio show Monday. “There’s the most enormous, fat black chick I’ve ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone’s pretending she’s a part of show business and she’s never going to be in another movie. She should have gotten the Best Actress award because she’s never going to have another shot. What movie is she gonna be in?” Sidibe has already scored roles on Showtime’s The C Word and the indie drama Yelling To The Sky, but Howard was too busy complaining about Oprah Winfrey’s ego-boosting to check IMDb. “Oprah’s another liar, a filthy liar. She’s telling an enormous woman the size of a planet that she’s going to have a career.” Considering the lack of precedent for Oprah’s success, is she really that far off base? Let us know in our poll if you think Howard has a point about Sidibe’s chances to maintain stardom, or if he’s just a simple-minded jerk…or both.

We assumed that, given the very dirty details John Mayer revealed about Jessica Simpson she would be angry. (You remember, it went something like “Sexually, it was crazy. It was like. . .sexual napalm.”) We figured she, being a wholesome girl who saved herself for Nick Lachey all those years ago, would lash out, maybe deliver some kind of public reprimand and come out a sympathetic winner in this whole mess. Turns out, a reprimand isn’t necessary, Jessica is getting her revenge another way.

In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, set to air today, Simpson explained that she was definitely upset by Mayer’s comments saying “I’m a little bit angry. I guess I could have been a lot worse.” (Uh, how much worse?) However, Simpson is actually reaping some benefits from what was said about her too, telling Opes that as far as her dating life is concerned “My phone is ringing off the hook, I have to say.” Funny, we were pitying her this whole time and never even considered the up side. Work that napalm, Jess! [Photo: Getty Images]

At 4PM EST, join VH1 for a live Oprah Blog Party.

John Mayer’s racist, sex-filled Playboy interview has the singer riding the D-List express, and once you’re on the train to Celebrity No Man’s Land, it’s hard to hop off. Normally when stars screw up they seek redemption in Oprah Winfrey’s arms, but a source tells PopEater she’s basically banned the singer from her show. “Oprah is the smartest person on TV and will not let John use her or her show to ask for forgiveness. If John really wants to apologize for his racist and sexist comments, he should find somewhere else. The only way Oprah, who is a dear friend of Jennifer Aniston, would ever book him is if John were interested in having a much deeper conversation about race, women and fame.”

Finally, Team Aniston scores big! John hasn’t lost all his fans, however. Vivid Entertainment, a big name in the world of f*cking on film, has offered John a chance to write and direct one of their videos, after he declared in Playboy, “My biggest dream is to write pornography.”

As for our biggest dream, of John Mayer vanishing into obscurity, well…we hope he pays it forward and makes it come true. Fingers crossed! [Photo: GettyImages]

It’s always nice when Oprah Winfrey tells us her favorite things (”UGG boooooots!” “Velour sweatpaaaants!”) so we can buy them and live our best life by using them. But that doesn’t get to the heart of America’s true Oprah obsession. Sometimes we actually want Oprah’s own gently used favorite things, you know? With their sloughed off bits of Winfrey DNA stowed away on them, so we can clone her in our basement science lab. Or whatever. People, that time has come!

Oprah will be auctioning off 150 pieces of her clothing, shoes and accessories on eBay to benefit her Leadership Academy in South Africa. The auction begins March 1 and includes items like Jimmy Choo shoes, Chanel bags and a Carolina Herrera dress. If you want to check out her eBay page when it goes live, it’s here. The auction ends March 11. [Photo: Getty Images]

Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best ad ever, but certainly the best of this year’s Super Bowl (sorry, talking babies). Dave Letterman got his frenemy, Oprah Winfrey, and his enemy, Jay Leno, to join him for a hilarious “Late Show” commercial, proving that adults can put their differences aside for the sake of commercial success.

According to “Late Show” producer Rob Burnett, the ad was Letterman’s idea, and Oprah and Jay eagerly hopped on board. Last week, Jay was shuffled into the Ed Sullivan Theater wearing a disguise (so no Conan O’Brien fans would stone him, probably). Says Burnett, “We snuck him through the front door on Broadway. Jay wore a disguise …a  hooded sweatshirt, dark sunglasses and a mustache. Fifteen minutes later, Oprah arrived … but not in a disguise.”

Amazingly, both Jay and Dave were good sports about the whole thing. When Jay first heard the idea he apparently said, “This is the way show business should be,” and Burnett swears that “there was no frostiness” in the room. Well played, gentlemen. You’re adults after all! For a few minutes, anyway.

While admitting he told a “little white lie” by claiming he’d retire back in 2004, Jay Leno is refusing to shoulder much blame for the NBC late-night battle that left Conan O’Brien, whom he admits to not contacting throughout the drama, without a show only seven months after taking over The Tonight Show. “If [the network had] come in and shot everybody, I mean, it would have been people murdered, but at least it would have been a two-day story,” he told Oprah Winfrey on her show yesterday. “Yes, NBC could not have handled it worse, from 2004 onward.” Does he wish they didn’t give him a 10pm slot and that they didn’t give him his old show back when it flopped?

“Well, going to another network, boy, it’s a lot of work,” he said, explaining why he didn’t leave NBC like he allegedly planned. “I mean you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know who you’re dealing with.” Though Oprah repeatedly tried to ask if he was being selfish in taking back a show that he had handed over less than a year ago, Leno wouldn’t budge. “If Conan’s numbers had been a little bit higher, it wouldn’t even be an issue, but in show business, there’s always somebody waiting in the wings.” Ignoring the irony of the guy in the wings being him, Leno also refused to believe that Oprah will retire her show (”I believe you believe it”) or admit his jokes about rival David Letterman’s marital issues were, as Oprah put it, “beneath him” (”I had a cheap shot thrown at me [a joke about Leno's chin], I threw one cheap shot back and I moved on”). We’ll find out just how many people hold a grudge when he returns to the Tonight Show in March.

For the last year, Gabourey Sidibe’s star has risen higher than she probably ever thought possible due to her star turn in Precious. The awesome thing is that. as famous as she’s become, she is completely unaffected, in addition to being an amazing soundbite machine. One recent interview in the Daily Mail was a gem though, and we pulled some of our favorite quotes to prove our point.

On what it was like being a newcomer working with seasoned performers: “There were definitely no egos during filming and it was so exciting working with people I consider to be heroes. I just spent most of my time pretending that I actually belonged there.”

On Mariah Carey’s prep for her role: “It wasn’t a big deal for me to dress down for the part. Mariah had it all stripped away and she had to put on the uglies every day!”

On her new fame: “I’m aware that people want to be friends for shady reasons and a lot of boys have suddenly come out of the woodwork, wanting to be with me. I’m thinking: ‘Do you really believe I’m that dumb?’”

On where she gets her sense of humor: “My mom was so proud of me in the film, but she laughed at inappropriate times.”

On meeting Oprah Winfrey: “I was on her show, so I know there’s documentary evidence of me having been there, but I can’t even begin to remember what she said. She’s such an icon, I kind of blacked out.”

We totally would black out if we met Opes, too, Gabby! If you have any other fun stories you want to share or if you just wanna hang out, call us - seriously.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The official Hope for Haiti Now telethon lineup has just been announced, and this show is going to be even bigger than we had imagined. Rarely, if ever, have so many of the world’s biggest musicians mobilized so quickly with Hollywood elite (plus President Clinton and Oprah) to lend a helping hand in a time of tragedy. If only George Clooney, the mastermind behind the telethon, had been responsible for the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina!

We already reported that the Hope for Haiti Now lineup will include Robert Pattinson, Bono, Jay-Z, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Sting, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Shakira. Now we can provide the full, official lineup. Of particular interest will be headliners Jay-Z and Bono (a rock/rap collaboration for the ages) and Justin Timberlake.

Performing in Los Angeles:

• Alicia Keys
• Christina Aguilera
• Dave Matthews
• Emeline Michel
• John Legend
• Justin Timberlake
• Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban and Kid Rock (Group performance)
• Stevie Wonder
• Taylor Swift

Performing in New York:

• Bruce Springsteen
• Jennifer Hudson
• Madonna
• Mary J Blige
• Shakira
• Sting
• Wyclef Jean

Performing in London:

• Beyonce
• Coldplay
• Jay-Z, Bono and The Edge (collaboration)
• Rihanna

Presenters and speakers in Los Angeles (except where noted differently) include:

• Anderson Cooper (from Haiti)
• Ben Stiller
• Brad Pitt
• Chris Rock
• Clint Eastwood
• Denzel Washington
• Drew Barrymore
• George Clooney
• Halle Berry
• Jon Stewart (from New York)
• Julia Roberts
• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Matt Damon
• Meryl Streep
• Morgan Freeman
• Nicole Kidman
• Oprah Winfrey
• President Clinton (from New York)
• Robert Pattinson (from London)
• Samuel L. Jackson
• Tom Hanks
• Will Smith with Muhammad Ali

Turn on your television at 8PM EST to witness history in the making. Hope for Haiti Now will be on just about every channel, including VH1 and MTV. Donations will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation. Facebook and MySpace have signed on as official social-media partners to help drive donations.

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It’s hard to imagine a world of daytime television without Oprah Winfrey, but according to the queen of daytime, she will be ending her syndicated talk show on September 9, 2011. Oprah will reportedly explain her decision to end the show and focus on her cable network on today’s episode. While some of her pals were celebrating Diddy’s birthday over at the Plaza Hotel last night, they weighed in on the shocking announcement. “She’ll do another show. She’s evolving. She’s fabulous,” Martha Stewart said. BFF Gayle King said that she is not worried about the future of her longtime gal pal. “When you think about it, Oprah Winfrey has been No. 1 every single year since she started,” Gayle said. “We don’t need to worry about her filling her time, I promise you that. Life is good for her.” So what do you think is next for O? [Source: People, Photo: Getty Images]

Jennifer Aniston is apparently in talks to host a weekly talk show on her pal Oprah Winfrey’s cable channel, OWN, starting sometime in 2010. A source close to the negotiations says, “She is doing this for one reason only; she absolutely wants to do it.”

Oh goody! Just what we need, another perfect looking woman with dysfunctional relationships talking about herself on daytime TV. In case Jen’s searching for topics for her chat-fest, allow TheFABlife to help her out:

• What to do when hot bi-sexual Oscar-winners steal your man.
• Reuniting David Schwimmer with his long-lost career.
• Why do women always fall for tattooed bad boys with mediocre musical talent?
• Dogs: Why pups make the perfect shoulder to cry on in tough times.

[Photo: GettyImages]