The Divine Miss M., as she likes to be known, is participating in an online auction that ends on Friday. One of the items in the auction is the chance to meet the “Wind Beneath My Wings” singer and watch her perform from the front row at her Las Vegas show. The auction is handled by CharityFolks.com with proceeds going to the New York Restoration Project, a group Midler founded 15 years ago to put a green shine on the Big Apple by restoring parks and community gardens.

Midler will perform the last show in her nearly two-year Las Vegas run on Jan. 31, and that’s the ticket fans are getting a chance to bid on.

As of Monday afternoon, the latest bid for that ticket stood at $2,000. This for a package that comes with round-trip airfare. Is that the best Midler fans can do?

Britney has been lip-synching her way through her “comeback” world tour for the past six months, so it’s a bit of a mystery why it’s caused such a fuss in Australia.

As singer John Mayer , who has been in Australia promoting his own album, put it in a wry weekend tweet,  “If you’re shocked that Britney was lip-synching at her concert and want your money back, life may continue to be hard for you.”

Britney’s not the first performer to lip-synch during fast-paced, live song-and-dance performances, and she’s certainly not the last — even classical musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman played to a recording at President Barack Obama’s outdoor inauguration in the bitter January weather.

But the practice seems to be news to some Australian politicians, who are suggesting that tickets should carry a disclaimer about whether parts of concerts are pre-recorded or mimed.

Britney’s fans — in Australia and elsewhere — are coming out in support of their idol, whose slick “Circus” tour went around the United States before going Down Under.

“oh my god Britney i’m so embarrassed by how Australia has treated you since you arrived in our country. You have been nothing but slammed and put down since arriving and it’s pathetic. I’m from Australia and my entire family is beyond inspired by yourself, your music, your life and your morals,” wrote one fan, Katie D, on the official Britney Spears website.

So if most fans seem happy, does it matter anymore whether Britney, or anyone else, lip-synchs at “live” concerts? After all, as Britney sings on the title track of her latest album “I’m runnin’ this like-like-like a circus.”

Or are audiences at pop concerts getting short-changed after sometimes handing over more than $100 for a ticket?

But does that spell “humbug” for “A Christmas Carol”? Maybe not.

You can read about the movie here and the box office here. Or, you can watch the video below and see what people coming out of the theaters thought.

(Video by Marc Price)

Fans might remember that the same scenario played out for 3-D adventure “The Polar Express” from the same director, Robert Zemeckis. Like “Christmas Carol,” “Polar Express” was an expensive, motion-capture animated movie, and it too opened in November to just over $30 million. At the time, that figure was deemed a disappointment by  box office watchers, but the film kept on chugging along at box offices throughout the holidays. It eventually earned more than $180 million in total domestic ticket sales ($300 million worldwide) and has become something of a modern holiday classic.

Meanwhile, Oscar hopeful “Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire” also debuted over the weekend in a limited number of theaters, 18, to a whopping $100,000 per theater for a total $1.8 million. This dark drama about a young woman who must overcome a dismal urban life, is widely picked among Oscar watchers as an early awards favorite for the movie and for its two key actresses, newcomer Gabourey Sidibe and comic actress Mo’Nique. You can read about it here and here. And we asked fans about it, too,  which you can see in the video above.

Twin act John and Edward Grimes (aka Jedward) survived a popular vote while singer Lucie Jones was shown the door. The two acts ended up at the bottom of the heap in a phone vote, and it was up to the judges to decide which one to throw out. But if the judges are split 2-2, the results of the public vote come back into play. Cowell had the deciding vote with the panel split 2-1 in Lucie’s favour, and he decided for the twins.

The Daily Mirror’s headline (because the X Factor has long been headline news in Britain) was “Farce Factor” while rival The Sun wrote: “‘Ward a Load of Cobblers“. Quoting fans, the latter newspaper added: “Cowell’s gone too far … show is ruined.”

Readers may reasonably ask if any of this matters. Well, it may matter to Cowell, who has become one of pop music’s most successful managers through his appearances on X Factor and similar singing competitions here and in the United States. It may also mean something to ITV, the channel which airs the show in the UK. With peak audiences approaching 15 million, its advertising revenue from the biggest show on British TV must be healthy to say the least.

 For those who follow the show, and care about it, many feel that Cowell’s decision to refer the decision back to the popular vote, rather than voting off Jedward, smacked of a stitch-up. He had been Jedward’s most vocal critic for weeks, and popular opinion would appear to support the argument that loser Lucie had far more talent than the twins, whose performances have been variously described as “bizarre” and “ridiculous”.

Theories abound as to why Cowell might decide to save the twins. The most popular is money — like them or loathe them, the twins seem to get the crowds going and Cowell might be looking ahead to the X Factor tour when the show is over. The removal of strong vocalist Lucie may also remove a potential threat to the singing acts on the show which he endorses.

Will his decision backfire? Will less people tune in to the show because they feel the whole thing is rigged? Or has Cowell pulled it off again by ramping up the stakes and getting the nation talking about the show again? It wouldn’t be the first time.

The TV watchdog group the Parents Television Council says the “3SOME” tryst is “reckless and irresponsible” in view of the “impressionable teenagers” that it says are the show’s main target , and has urged affiliates of the CW network not to air it.

Fans of the show however, seem to be more concerned about trying to figure out which of the fabulously rich, beautiful young things  — now out of high school and supposedly at college — will be involved in the three-way hookup.

Judging by the bed-hopping enjoyed so far by the characters on the show,  pretty much any of them could be persuaded (or maybe tricked?) into a brief menage a trois,  although we’re betting that bad boy Chuck (Ed Westwick) and scheming Blair (Leighton Meester)  will be playing a major role.

Like all publicity ,  good and bad, the PTC warning may have the opposite effect in whetting the appetite of lapsed “Gossip Girl” fans to the scandalous story line.

As Britney Spears sang in her recent No. 1 single “Three” (on the same subject) “Three is a charm, Two is not the same.”

“Gossip Girl” is currently getting an audience of about 2.2 million a week, and although the CW as a whole is aimed at women between the ages of 18-34, the network says the median age of “Gossip Girl” viewers is 27 years old.

Try telling that to your teens.

In excerpts from Brown’s interview released Wednesday by MTV News, Brown said he is “confused right now as far as the public perception of me…I got the people that come out and support me and I got the people who don’t want to see me do anything. They want to see me, kind of, basically, in jail.”

Brown’s excerpts follow by one day the release of an interview Rihanna gave to Glamour magazine in which she talked publicly about the incident for the first time. She told Glamour she wanted to alert young women to the “big secret” of abusive relationships. “Teenage girls can’t tell their parents that their boyfriend beats them up…It’s one of the things we (women) hide because it’s embarrassing,” Rihanna said. You can read a story about it here.

Brown, 20, already had been interviewed before by Larry King (read about that here), but the chat with MTV News promises to be even more revealing. It airs on Friday, Nov. 6, at 6 p.m. ET/PT. Rihanna, 21, will talk to Sawyer on ABC’s morning chat show “Good Morning America” on Thursday and Friday.

The interviews, not coincidentally, reach fans as both singers promote the release of new albums. They had to talk about the assault at some time — Rihanna to share her side of the assault and Brown to try to redeem himself in the public eye — and promotion seems as good a reason as any for the singers. Brown has already apologized, pleaded guilty to assault and been sentenced to five years probation and community service.

Rihanna, whose hit singles include “Umbrella” and “Disturbia,” sees her new CD “Rated R” hit record stores on Nov. 23, and Brown’s record label said on Wednesday that the release of his “Grafitti” has been pushed forward by one week to Dec. 8. He also begins a “Fan Appreciation Tour” on Nov. 14.

How are the big cats doing? Just fine, Tippi says.

“They’re just great, and they were beautiful when they came to us,” Hedren told reporters on Tuesday, on the red carpet of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, which was celebrating its 100th anniversary.

“It took awhile to adjust, because anytime anybody moves, it’s a period of adjustment. But they’re wonderful and very beautiful,” said Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie “The Birds.”

The tigers are named Thriller and Sabu, and they are kept at Hedren’s Shambala Preserve, less than 40 miles from Los Angeles. The preserve was threatened by a wildfire that began in late August and lasted into September. It was in the mandatory evacuation zone, but fire officials determined that moving all the animals, which includes more than 70 big cats, would be a “logistical nightmare” and they decided against that.

On the red carpet in Hollywood, Hedren said that the preserve is well-equipped for fire, with water tanks, hoses and a generator on-site.

Hedren, who never met Jackson before his June 25 death, also said that to her knowledge, there is no provision in Jackson’s estate to pay for the care of the two tigers she adopted from him.

“I was hoping that his legacy would include his tigers,” she said.

A dozen Reuters reporters, photographers and television crew will be covering the event, one of the pop world’s biggest nights. From the news conference on Wednesday to the after-show party on Thursday we’ll bring you the highlights and low-lights. We’re using the #mtv as the hashtag if you want to follow us on Twitter:

The two-hour long show was the final round to be decided entirely by the panel of three judges before voting is handed back over to viewers on November 10.

It was a packed show, with all nine couples performing ahead of the same-day elimination.

The night started off with Noelle Marsh, freshly recovered from an injury that kept her out of the competition last week, and partner Russell Ferguson in a tennis-inspired hip-hop battle.

The routine, choreographed by first-time contributor Jamal Sims, was fast-paced, but fell short for all three judges.

“It was just so fast that I think you really didn’t get a hold of it,” said judge Nigel Lythgoe, adding that he found the routine disappointing.

Ashleigh Di Lello and Jakob Carr were up next with a Viennese Waltz that prompted judge Adam Shankman to gush, “I am madly in love with you guys.”

Also evoking rave reviews were fan favorites Mollee Gray and Nathan Trasoras. The show’s youngest couple aced a tough Bollywood number prompting host Cat Deeley to rename the genre “Molleewood.”

Latin dancer Karen Hauer, who was the first contestant this season to board judge Mary Murphy’s Hot Tamale Train, was so spicy in this week’s hip hop routine that Shankman fell out of his chair – literally.

Meanwhile partner Kevin Hunte’s dancing was so “hot, hot, hot” that Murphy invited him to hop on the Tamale Train too.

Contemporary dancer Katheryn McCormick shone in the most “compelling” act of the evening, a Stacey Tookey contemporary number about a woman and her fear — potrayed by partner Legacy Perez, who was praised for his growth in the competition.

“Legacy, you are a different man than I have ever seen before,” said Shankman. “You turned a corner, buddy… you were dancing.”

Also garnering rave reviews were Ryan Di Lello and partner Ellenore Scott — who danced the majority of a challenging Argentine Tango with her dress stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

Falling short this week were Bianca Revels and Victor Smalley, who struggled with their Tyce Diorio Broadway routine.

Meanwhile, Channing Cooke and Philip Attmore were criticized over the lifts in their piece, but praised for their support of one another.

After a brief meeting, the judges decided Revels, Smalley, Attmore and Marsh would have to dance for their lives. After the solos, Lythgoe announced that, in a split decision, tapper Revels was being sent home.

Attmore was also sent home, with Lythgoe adding that it broke his heart to let two tappers go in one night.

Next week, voting is back in your hands.

Are you glad to have the power to vote again? Do you think the judges made the right choices? Was it a good idea to let two tappers go in one night?

(Noelle Marsh (L) and Russell Ferguson (R) perform a Hip Hop routine choreographed by Jamal Sims on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE . ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Michael Becker/FOX)

(Nathan Trasoras (L) and Mollee Gray (R) perform a Bollywood routine choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Michael Becker/FOX)

(Ellenore Scott (L) and Ryan Di Lello (R) perform an Argentine Tango choreographed by Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Michael Becker/FOX)

After all, their only two pull quotes from the press release issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ranged from Martin’s mildly funny “I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” to a decidedly mixed statement from Baldwin, “I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars — it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Baldwin’s first reference is, of course, a joke about Martin’s love of the banjo, but the last half of the statement sounds rather serious.

It seems like salt and pepper, oil and water, but maybe that’s exactly what Oscar organizers are hoping for. And, if nothing else, it looks to generate some publicity and maybe even some controversy given Baldwin’s history with social and political activism. Yet, no matter how you slice it, it’s an odd pick and left more than one or two Hollywood publicists scratching their heads in Hollywood.

So, we leave it to you. Martin (the standup comedian) and Baldwin (the actor) co-hosting the world’s top film awards. Good choice? Bad? Or somewhere in between, which in some ways would be the worst choice of all because it might not elicit any reaction. And if they were successful, could it be a new comedy team: Martin and Baldwin? Or would it be Baldwin and Martin? We’d love to be a fly on the wall in that conversation among Hollywood agents.