Okay, I must confess … I do not watch How I Met Your Mother on CBS despite the fact that one of my fave TV actresses (Alyson Hannigan) and one of my fave out actors (Neil Patrick Harris) star on the show. It’s even more shameful for me that I don’t watch the show since it was the sitcom that allowed our dear Britney Spears to guest star twice this year, helping the girl get her professional life back on track. I keep saying to myself, You’ll catch up with the show on DVD — there’s time. After hearing about and seeing a few screencaps from last night’s ep, I think it’s time that I start catching up and watching the show. Last night’s ep of HIMYM was titled The Naked Man and in it, NPH‘s überstraight character Barney Stinson performed a few scenes completely nekkid … with only a few perfectly placed grooming product bottles to cover up his naughty bits:

I gotta say … Neil Patrick looks pretty damn good all nekkid and stuff. Click HERE to read a recap of last night’s ep written by someone who watches the show and click HERE to watch the entire episode online at CBS.com (which I think will only work for viewers in the US). After the jump, check out a few more screencaps of Neil Patrick Harris in all of his glory — as allowed by US network television decency standards …

Britney Spears caused a mild fracas yesterday afternoon when she arrived at LAX airport here in SoCal to catch a plane bound for Europe. Our dear Britney, whose new album Circus is streaming in full right HERE on Pink is the new Blog and who is featured on the cover of the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine, has made her way to Germany to do some promo work for her new album there before she makes her way to France to perform on Star Academy and then to London to perform on X-Factor. Homegirl has got a lot of work to take care of this week leading up to the release of her new album next Tuesday. Here are a few pics of Britney and her entourage upon arrival at LAX yesterday afternoon:

Although a long holiday weekend is right around the corner, Britney Spears is getting to work promoting her upcoming album, Circus, in Europe. The singer boarded a flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, Germany on Monday for several appearances in support of the album, which is scheduled to be released Dec. 2. Spears is traveling with several close associates and family members, including her father, Jamie, and manager Larry Rudolph. According to an eyewitness, the singer – dressed in a brown fedora, black sweatpants and a pink top – jumped out of her white Cadillac Escalade smiling and holding her dad’s hand at the airport. After a short time in Germany, Spears is expected to appear on the French program, Star Academy, and on Simon Cowell’s X Factor in England before returning to the U.S. next week. She is scheduled to go on a worldwide tour in the spring of next year.

Here we go. As I keep saying, I really hope that she is ready for the coming onslaught. There is a lot coming her way. I sincerely hope it all goes smoothly … successfully and, most of all … healthily for her.

[Photo credit: Splash News, INFdaily; Source]

Don’t try and fall out of your chair or anything but I’ve got some breaking news to report this AM … Amy Winehouse has been hospitalized … for a drug related matter:

Troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been admitted to a London hospital after suffering a bad reaction to medication, her representative said Tuesday. Winehouse, 25, went to the private London Clinic on Sunday, said her spokesman, Chris Goodman. He said Winehouse’s medication made her ill and her doctors asked her to come in so they could investigate. Goodman did not disclose what type of medication was involved, saying only it is part of her “ongoing treatment.” It was not clear Tuesday whether she had been discharged. Yesterday Winehouse’s husband Blake Fielder-Civil lost his appeal against his 27-month jail term for assault and perverting the course of justice. Earlier this month he was moved from prison to a drug rehabilitation unit. The Grammy-winning Winehouse has suffered a string of health problems in recent years, many related to her battles with drug addiction. She spent two weeks in a drug rehabilitation clinic in January … Another bad reaction to medication prompted Winehouse to enter a London hospital in July, but she was discharged the next day.

Uh huh. A “bad reaction” to “medication” that she has been taking as part of her “on-going treatment”. Sounds like code words for bullshizz to me. Oh Amy, please don’t die.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

Back in February of this year, Britney Spears graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with a feature coverstory titled Inside An American Tragedy. When that issue of RS was published, Britney had already suffered her two mental breakdowns and had already been admitted and then released from medical/psychiatric care. This week, our dear Britney graces the cover and is featured in the newest issue of Rolling Stone under very different circumstances — she successfully made two guest appearances on CBS‘s How I Met Your Mother, successfully petitioned the court to be allowed more visitation with her children (after having her custodial rights stripped from her earlier this year), was the big winner at the 2008 MTV VMAs, recorded a new album and a new #1 song and is about to release that album and a new world tour … the title of this newest RS feature coverstory is Yes, She Can. Here is the new cover of Rolling Stone magazine with Britney on the cover and a report on the coverstory:

Nearly a year after a breakdown, Britney Spears says she feels as if she has matured. To be exact, “I feel like an old person now,” she says in Rolling Stone’s next issue, out Friday. “I do! I go to bed at, like, 9:30 every night, and I don’t go out or anything.” Spears turns 27 on Dec. 2, the same day her album, Circus, hits stores. “This is going to be the album that cements her legend status,” says her manager, Larry Rudolph. Indeed, the pop star has come a long way from her two trips to hospital psychiatric wards this year, the magazine says. After the last trip, in early February, her father, Jamie, filed for legal conservatorship so that he and attorney Andrew Wallet would oversee her finances and personal affairs. Interviewing the star is a “rigorously micromanaged process,” according to Rolling Stone. “We were never left alone together, and my questions had to be submitted ahead of time for approval,” reporter Jenny Eliscu writes. Rudolph says, “Her job is to be Britney Spears, and unfortunately, that job bleeds into her personal life and creates this odd situation where she needs to have security people around her all the time.” That goes for dates, too. Recently, Spears was accompanied by her assistant, Brett, and Rudolph’s colleague, Adam Leber. “Right when we got there, we just knew it was just bad,” Spears says. “He looked like an older version of Harry Potter, but skinnier. … So I had to get dessert first. And the other date I had, the guy was really, really tall and a lot older. … We’re trying to ask him questions, like, ‘OK, you’re into martial arts, so what kind of martial arts are you into?’ And he was like, ‘Oh, all kinds.’ … But you know how silly we are, so we were just cracking up.” She turns serious on the topic of her children. Despite losing custody of her sons, Preston, 3, and Jayden, 2, to her ex-husband Kevin Federline, Spears has been able to see them more often, thanks in part to the conservatorship. “Every time they come to visit me, I think about how they’re such special people,” she says. She is critical of her ex and says the children “are starting to learn words like ‘stupid,’ and Preston says the f-word now sometimes. He doesn’t get it from us. He must get it from his daddy. I say it, but not around my kids.”

Altho the interviewer was closely monitored while talking with Britney, it sounds like this article will offer much info that might not be included in her new documentary Britney Spears: For The Record (debuting on MTV this Sunday night). It feels like Brit Brit is airing all of her dirty laundry in an effort to show the world that she is serious about making a comeback by offering us (almost) full disclosure. It’s a bold step, it absolutely sounds like an idea that svengali manager Larry Rudolph came up with. The man is a genius, he made her a star in the first place, he can make her a star again.

This morning, The Today Show interviewed this RS interviewer about this issue of Rolling Stone and offered a preview of the magazine photoshoot as well. Here are a few screencaps of Britney‘s Rolling Stone photoshoot:

After the jump, check out all of the photos that will be included in this new issue of Rolling Stone magazine and watch the Today Show feature in full …

Britney Spears‘s new album Circus won’t be available for sale until next Tuesday, December 2 but right now — courtesy of imeem — you can stream the album in full right here on Pink is the new Blog:

The self-proclaimed World’s First Supermodel Janice Dickinson was snapped making her way thru LAX airport yesterday afternoon …

… and by the looks of IT, I would assume that hordes of screaming men, women and children were running as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Ye gods, she is scary … good luck trying to get a peaceful night’s sleep tonight.

[Photo credit: X17]

Madonna is going on the record for the first time since she and soon-to-be ex-hubby Guy Ritchie were granted a “quickie divorce” from the London High Court last Friday. Talking to the Associated Press over the weekend, Madonna expressed her gratitude for having work requirements distract her from her personal relationship woes:

Madonna’s marital breakup is tough, but she says she’s grateful that her heavy workload “provides a distraction that keeps me going.” “I’m sad about my personal life, but I feel very blessed and very lucky that I have the opportunity to do what I do in my professional life,” Madonna told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday. “It would be horrible if I was just thinking about getting a divorce and had nothing to do.” Last week, Madonna and Guy Ritchie were granted a preliminary decree of divorce after eight years of marriage. Among her current projects is promoting her documentary “I Am Because We Are,” which explores the impoverished African nation of Malawi, where more than 1 million children are orphaned by AIDS. The film has its TV premiere on Sundance Channel Dec. 1.

Madonna has always been married to her work first. It will always be her first love. That’s just the sort of person she seems to be. While I am very sad that her marriage to Guy Ritchie couldn’t last, I fairly confident that Maddy will be able to live out the rest of her years happily on her own terms. I doubt she will ever marry again, after all, she is sure to have enough work in the coming years to keep her happily occupied and distracted.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

Yahoo! TV has posted a new, extended trailer for the upcoming MTV documentary Britney Spears: For The Record which offers a few extra scenes have have not yet been seen in the previous video trailers that we’ve been privy to up until this point. Yahoo! also posted a fairly extensive report on the doc itself, giving fans a pretty good feel for what’s in store when they tune in on November 30:

Two days before her latest album “Circus” drops, Britney Spears’ biggest fans and toughest critics will get a behind-the-scenes look into the life of the mega-star as she mounts what can only be described as a comeback of epic proportions. In the “Britney: For the Record,” an exclusive 90-minute documentary airing Sunday on MTV, the creators (a production house called @radical.media, known, quite interestingly, for heady historical works like the Oscar-winning documentary “The Fog of War”) were given unprecedented access to Britney for three months to document her day-to-day life. The film is beign billed as Britney’s opportunity to tell her side of her story in her own words. The filmmakers claim no topic was off-limits, so viewers will get a rare glimpse at what has actually been happening in the “Overprotected” pop princess’ life for the last several years and first-hand scoop about her aspirations for the future. Thing is, this television event sounds suspiciously similar to a few of the pop tart’s previous biographical projects, all of which depicted the superstar in the worst possible light. Can “Britney: For the Record” really set the record straight? Needless to say, we’re beyond skeptical. Previous attempts to show the world the real Brit leave us wondering whether or not this documentary truly marks her comeback. (Plus, wasn’t her “Blackout” album billed as a comeback in 2007?) Back in the summer of 2005, the now defunct UPN network aired the reality series “Britney & Kevin: Chaotic,” that chronicled the unlikely couple’s courtship and engagement leading up to their wedding. The show included personal video footage shot by Britney and K-Fed while on tour in Europe and as they lounged around “preparing” for their nuptials. The show was hard to watch as Kevin often struggled to put coherent sentences together and Britney was rambling about their sex life, going as far as to share the number of times they got busy during yet another lazy day. Coming out of “Chaotic,” Britney’s so-called “real-life” was nothing short of a narcissistic celebrity already bored with her fame. The following year brought a rapid sequence of negative publicity: Tabloids reported that Britney’s marriage was on the rocks and that she was a bad mother, she was caught speeding down LA’s Pacific Coast Highway with her son Sean Preston on her lap, and then she nearly dropped her baby in New York while holding the tot in one hand and a cocktail in the other. At the end of the PR nightmare, Britney was desperate for some damage control and sat down for a candid chat with “Today” show host Matt Lauer on “Dateline.” Despite her tears and her plea for the paparazzi to leave her alone, viewers were stunned and abhorred by her ragged and dishevelled physical appearance, which did nothing to improve her image. She chomped on gum throughout the entire interview, her makeup looked pitiful at best, her denim skirt was too short, her top was too low, and her hair looked over-bleached and in need of a good brushing. She was seeking the public’s empathy via one key message: She was just like any other ordinary woman. Unfortunately, all people felt for Britney after the interview was pity. Britney delivered her latest public debacle at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, where she butchered the opening routine. Her performance was lackluster and the entire presentation was atrocious, prompting fans to long for her heyday, when fabulous VMA numbers were second nature. It seems every time Britney tries to explain herself, she only makes things worse, so can you blame us for having our reservations about the special? Trust us, we’re not exactly Ms. Spears’ biggest fans, and we were certainly prepared to poke fun at what we thought would be another catastrophe courtesy of the former Mouseketeer, but when MTV and Britney’s longtime manager Larry Rudolph screened 30 minutes of footage from the documentary for the press Thursday night in Santa Monica, our eyes were glued to the screen in fascination as the jaded star finally admits that her rise from country girl to international celebrity came with a painful price tag she could have never imagined. As if to start with a clean slate and to mark the beginning of her latest comeback, the first day of filming for the documentary happened to coincide with the night Britney took home her first three VMA awards at the September 7th show. Before arriving at the VMAs, her father Jamie Spears (who has taken over management of her affairs following the infamous head-shaving fiasco of ’07 and has since helped get his daughter’s life back on track) cooked her Velveeta cheese grits, every Southern girl’s favorite breakfast. We also get to tag along as Brit and her entourage (Rudolph, another manager, her father, her personal assistant, bodyguards, and various folks ranging from make-up artists to hair stylists) into the recording studio… to her favorite boutique… to dinner with friends… to a Broadway show in Manhattan… to her mansion in Malibu… and everywhere in between … Filled with candid interviews, laughter, and tears, this intimate (and oftentimes hilarious) backstage pass should indeed provide unrestricted access to the world’s most-gossiped-about girl and clearly solidifies her status as the pop culture icon of her generation. We were captivated with a mere sneak peek, so we’ll definitely be tuning in to see the rest of the documentary, which we’re betting will end up as one of the year’s top television moments.

This doc is not to be missed, period. Fans, haters, the devoutly loyal, the pesky nay-sayer — they will all be tuning in to watch this film … of that, I have no doubt. It shant be long now … this doc will air on MTV this coming Sunday — I can’t wait. After the jump, check out the extended trailer in full …

In Touch Weekly is reporting today that The Hills villains Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt went and got themselves hitched late last week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and are quoting Spencer‘s sister Stephanie Pratt as confirmation. According to the mag, Speidi eloped to Mexico last Thursday to be wed in secret … Stephanie says that she isn’t at all surprised:

The Hills’ Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag have tied the knot in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico! Stephanie Pratt tells In Touch exclusively, “I am not surprised! I knew they would, and Cabo is definitely where they would do it.” But Spencer’s little sister wants the couple to come back and celebrate here in the States. “I hope they come home, though. Spencer always has said he wants to live there.” Heidi, 22, and Spencer, 25, eloped on November 20 on the beach at the One & Only Palmilla resort just outside of Cabo San Lucas. Congratulations to the happy couple!

I must say, while Stephanie claims that she isn’t surprised I deffo am. Nothing about the way that Speidi handle themselves makes me believe that they would marry in secret. I honestly thought they were saving the big day for a huge TV special or something. Maybe any such TV deals never came to fruition, mebbe the couple were just struck by the impulse to get married and figured, What the hell? Stephanie‘s comments do not deny that the nuptials took place, I would assume that she’d be in the know … her comments about not being surprised seem like pretty good confirmation to me. I suppose we won’t know for sure until the wedding pics make their way to the Internets (and you know the wedding pics are headed for the Internets). In any event, congrats goes out to the happy couple! May Speidi live long and happy lives together as husband and wife. What do y’all think … is this a match made in heaven? If this report turns out to be true, do y’all think it’ll last?

UPDATE: US Weekly is CONFIRMING that Heidi and Spencer DID GET MARRIED. The newlyweds are featured on the cover of this week’s new issue on newsstands Wednesday:

Introducing, Mrs. Heidi Montag Pratt! The Hills star wed her longtime beau, Spencer Pratt, in a secret ceremony in Cabos San Lucas, Mexico, on Nov. 20, Us Weekly reports in its newest issue. See exclusive photos wedding photos in Us Weekly’s new issue, on stands Wednesday. “The minute we said our vows, I couldn’t stop crying,” Montag, 22, tells Us. At the altar, Pratt, 25, told his bride: “Heidi, from the moment you came into my life, I knew my life would never be the same without you. You are the light in my life like the sun to the earth! Your loving warmth makes me want to be a better person. Being with you, I feel complete. I’m honored to even be able to call you my wife. You are the most amazing, loving and caring woman on this planet. I will love you forever and always.” Someone who might not be so thrilled? Montag’s mother. “I called her right before the ceremony, sort of hinted that something that happened, but her reaction was to ask me if we were breaking up! I told her it might be something else, and she said, ‘Well, if you ever plan on getting married just know that your stepdad is really upset that you want your father to walk you down the aisle,’” Montag tells Us. “She was starting so much drama, it kind of pushed me toward wanting to get married without that,” she adds. “I don’t know when I’ll tell her.”

Wow … those are some vows, Spencer! Who knew he could be so sweet? This issue of US Weekly is showing up in the mailboxes of subscribers today and will hit newsstands on Wednesday. Make sure to pick up a copy to see all the pics and read all the deets of this fairytale wedding.

[Photo credit: Wireimage; Source, Source]

Yesterday afternoon I met up with a friend for a quick dessert date at Susina Bakery in LA before meeting up with Steph and Alek for dinner at Pink Taco (yes, dessert came before dinner but if you had seen the apple crumble placed before me, you’d understand). From there we met up with Jordan, Darion and his friend Peter at the ArcLight Theater to see (at last) the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace:

While I was a bit worried by some of the bad press I’ve been reading about Solace, I was pretty confident that I’d still like the movie myself. Thankfully I dismissed the negative reviews and went out to see the film because it was a pretty kick-ass Bond movie. Right off the bat, the action gets underway and over the course of the film the audience is treated to action scenes that take place by land (both car and on foot), by sea and by air. I fully stand by my contention that Daniel Craig is the best James Bond ever. He just becomes the role so fully. Sean Connery may have been the best 007 back in the day but now, Daniel Craig totally owns the role. I really liked Casino Royale and I think I liked this movie better. The pacing moved along perfectly and the story, which bordered on being too complicated, held together nicely to round out the film. I like the idea of a new, unheard of shadowy organization that will, most likely, plague Bond in future films. I really hope that Daniel Craig will continue to play James Bond for years to come … he is just so great in the role, I’d love to see more. He’s deffo made me a fan of the franchise (a feat I never thought would be accomplished after Pierce Brosnan took on the role). This film rocked, I think action movie fans will really enjoy it.

No big plans for today … a meeting in town, dinner, the usual. I hear that rain is coming to SoCal — sadly apropos for this time of the year.