Fan Fare

Perez Hilton — does he deserve a second chance?

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton turned from snarky observer of celebrities into a news topic in his own right on Wednesday when he appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres” show (and spoke with Reuters) to declare he was ending his bullying of celebrities — gay and straight — after being labeled a hypocrite  by the gay community.

Hilton, 32,  said his change of heart was motivated primarily by his conflicting efforts to speak out against the rash of gay teen bullying, while enjoying a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most vicious gossips, and the man who helped “out” celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and singer Lance Bass.

Hilton may be outspoken, but he is far from stupid — he admitted that he expected a lot of skepticism, and the loss of many readers,  now that his web site is less nasty than it used to be.

Hilton started out by apologizing via Twitter to Demi Moore — whose daughter Rumer has come in for more than her fair share of jibes from “Hollywood’s  most hated web site”.

“There’s too many to tell this to, but I thought I’d start with you. I’m sorry” Hilton said in a Tweet to Moore.

Good Charlotte” singer Joel Madden, also the boyfriend of Nicole Richie, was among the first celebrity to congratulate Hilton on his new positive stance. “way to be positive! Takes courage in a world filled with negativity”, Madden Tweeted.

New York gossip girl Kelly Will also congratulated Hilton on his “bold honorable choice.”

Jennifer Aniston vs. Bill O’Reilly in culture wars. Who wins?

They both have huge audiences in Middle America, making this week’s public quarrel between Bill O’Reilly and Jennifer Aniston one of the more widely-watched — and to some, perhaps, puzzling — celebrity feuds in recent months.

O’Reilly is known for his politically conservative fan base on “The O’Reilly Factor” and he enjoys a large following on Fox News with his commentary, so fans can expect him to mouth off. But Aniston is a tabloid favorite in large part because of her girl-next-door image, and she is rarely outspoken on anything much at all. So, it’s surprising when she fights speech with speech.

Aniston was targeted by O’Reilly on his “Culture Warriors” segment on Fox News this week after her recent comment that “women are realizing, more and more knowing, they don’t have to settle with a man just to have a child.” She made that statement when promoting her new movie “The Switch” about a similar topic.

O’Reilly and his fellow Fox commentators then got personal with her, pointing out she is 41 and unmarried and likely looking to still have a child — hence her comment. The 60-year-old, self-styled “traditionalist” and syndicated columnist said her statement surely was “throwing a message out to 12 year-olds and 13 year-olds that hey, you don’t need a guy, you don’t need a dad.” And finally, he said, “that’s destructive to our society.”

(We note: O’Reilly began his comments by cementing his place as a pop culture aficionado and Aniston specialist by asking, “Didn’t she marry Brad Pitt?”)

And though she may have seemed ill-equipped to take him on, Aniston had the last parting shot, telling People magazine by the end of week:  ”Of course, the ideal scenario for parenting is obviously two parents of a mature age” before adding tongue-in-cheek, “but for those who’ve not yet found their Bill O’Reilly, I’m just glad science has provided a few other options.”     Snap!

John Mayer apologizes again. But is it enough?

Some people may have heard enough from “Gravity” singer John Mayer this week after his expletive-filled Playboy magazine interview and  his (too much information! )  musings on black women, pornography,  ex-lovers Jessica Simpson and  Jennifer Aniston,  as well as  dropping the “N” word bomb.

It seems Mayer agrees with them.  After issuing an apology via Twitter, Mayer broke down on stage towards the end of his concert in Nashville on Wednesday telling fans he had fallen into a “wormhole of selfishness, greediness and arrogance”  in his quest to “be clever” and that he now wanted to get back to just being a musician.

“I quit the media game. I’m out. I’m done,” a choked-up Mayer told the audience in Nashville in footage now posted  on YouTube.  “I just want to play my guitar.”

By all accounts, it was an emotional ending to the concert and even had some of Mayer’s  band choking up. According to one fan at the show, one of Mayer’s black female back-up singers was crying as Mayer praised his band for standing by him  “because they support myself as a possible future grown-up.” .

But just like the Playboy interview, Mayer’s remorse has  split opinions between those who believe it’s either insincere and a further effort to seek attention, and those who think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion and who remain firm fans.

“It was a deep an honest apology, everyone felt it and there were few dry eyes. The man has always had a way with words,” wrote Molly, who was at the concert, on entertainment web site E! online.

But Melanie, who was not at the Nashville show, said in a comment  on the E! site;  “The dude is a major idiot with major issues. Maybe he should take some time off. He obviously has issues to work out. He is so needy for attention that it’s sad and now he has become offensive!.”

John Mayer’s Twitter abstinence is short-lived

Back on Sunday, “Waiting on the World to Change” singer John Mayer intimated on his Twitter page that he was looking to take a break from the social networking website for people with short attention spans.

“Suffering cerebral atrophy,” Mayer wrote. “Since I’ve been communicating in short pulses, I’ve been writing lyrics the same way.”

In a follow-up post, Mayer added: “The single-serve idea is killing my writing. Laying off a little in the coming weeks. Need books, thoughts, a sequence of ideas that build.”

All well and good. After all, communicating with your fans in 140 characters or less can be limiting. But then Mayer followed that pair of Sunday posts with a number of new Twitter updates.

Mayer is reportedly at work on a new album. So on Monday he wrote “Doing vocal warmups, trying to simulate that 1am singing vibe in the afternoon.”

Later in the day, he described the catch-a-butterfly feeling of trying to compose a song with the barest elements of it wafting around in his head. Then on Tuesday came these words of wisdom: “Writer’s block cure: accept temporary suckage.”

Since then, at least a dozen Twitter posts have appeared on Mayer’s page, including musings about a hummingbird and a statement about the disturbing use of the hardcore drug crystal meth by youths.

Jen’s still a “sweetheart” in Brad’s eyes

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis) 

For years,  the media has seized on the slightest signs of a feud between actresses Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie over their man-in-common, Brad Pitt.

But in an interview with W magazine released online on Wednesday, Pitt tried to put all that to rest. Pitt addressed a comment Aniston made in December, saying that Jolie was “really uncool” for talking about how her romance with Pitt blossomed on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” in 2005 – when Pitt and Aniston were still married.

“Listen, man, Jen is a sweetheart,” Pitt said. “I think she got dragged into that one, and then there’s a second round to all of that Angie versus Jen. It’s so created”       Pitt also told W that filming “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” took a year.      “We were still filming after Jen and I split up,” he said. “Even then it doesn’t mean that there was some kind of dastardly affair. There wasn’t. I’m very proud of the way that it was handled. It was respectful. (The film) will mean something to our kids. It will, that’s all.”      The interview with Pitt appears in the February issue of W.

Jennifer Aniston nude on GQ cover

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

“Friends” star Jennifer Aniston appears in a nude cover shot  – well, she’s wearing a tie — on GQ magazine that looks like a throwback to her days as a 1990s sex symbol. In that decade, many fans of the TV sitcom thought of her if not so much as the “girl next door” but more like the “girlfriend next door,” whose fictional relationships were a big part of the show.      The 39-year-old star is pictured on the cover of the magazine’s January issue with little but a cute smile and a red, white and blue tie wrapped around her neck. A cover line reads ”Is it just us or is Jennifer Aniston getting hotter?” And inside the pages, there are even more pix – along with the article, of course.       In recent years, Aniston has appeared in several movies, and often has found herself on the cover of one tabloid or another with her latest romantic involvement minutely scrutinized. She has a big Hollywood movie, “Marley & Me,” set to debut in theaters later this month.      Aniston talks to GQ about her relationship with rocker John Mayer, 31, who is often seen with her. But before things got too personal, she deflected some questions. “I am not having his baby. And I have not popped the question,” she says.

But one question seemed to go unanswered: is Mayer the lucky guy who gets to tie her necktie?

Leonardo DiCaprio, other celebs pump up youth vote

Celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio, Forest Whitaker, Tobey Maguire and will.i.am are out to convince young people to vote — and they have made a series of public service announcements for the cause in partnership with Google, YouTube, Declare Yourself and MySpace.       While many of the celebrities have shown their support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, the PSAs are meant to be non-partisan in tone and content, so don’t expect any digs at Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate.      In the first ad, stars including Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, and Ashton Kutcher, address viewers directly and urge them in a tongue-and-cheek way not to vote, before going on to not only call on the viewers to vote but to make sure they are registered and that their friends, too, are registered and are voting. You can watch it here.

The PSA was produced by DiCaprio’s company, Appian Way Productions. This past weekend, we interviewed DiCaprio and he talked about his desire to get young voters to the polls. “My big message on this next election is that, hopefully, the youth movement will come out in full force this time,” DiCaprio said. “Hopefully we will have a true representation of this country because enough young people who care about policies for the next 50 years will go out to the polls and vote for the candidate they think best represents the United States.”

Alot has been made about the youth vote in this year’s election, and Obama has had a great deal of success in engaging young Americans. He even listens to hip hop music. Yet, time and again in U.S. elections, young people have failed to turn out at the polls in the numbers that older citizens do. Maybe this will help; maybe not. But it can’t hurt. If you’re in your 20s, will you vote? The election is Nov. 4.

Owen Wilson put to the test

Owen Wilson’s popularity gets put to the test this weekend when his new movie, comedy ”Drillbit Taylor,” lands in theaters. Aimed at a young audience, Wilson portrays a cheap bodyguard hired by three young boys to protect them from a schoolyard bully.

“Drillbit” is the first movie to open in which Wilson, 39, has been the leading star since he was hospitalized in Los Angeles in August last year when it was widely reported that he had tried to commit suicide. Only his closest friends and family know exactly what happened because Wilson has avoided the media since then. During his hospitalization, his publicist released a statement from him in which he asked for time to “heal in private,” but the statement said little else.

Typically, a star of his calibre would be expected to sit for media interviews to promote his movie ahead of its debut, but Wilson’s lips have been sealed. Did he really take an overdose of pills? Did he cut his wrists? Both those details have been widely reported, and no doubt his fans want to know.

More important for Hollywood watchers is whether those fans, who have made his movies like “Wedding Crashers” ($285 million global box office) big hits, will turn out for this latest movie? Or, will they turn away? After all, it is show business, and if he cannot continue bringing fans to theaters, his career could turn south.

All people really know is that for the past two weeks, several celebrity gossip magazines have had Wilson in Florida working on a new movie “Marley & Me” and speculating that he has rekindled his love affair with actress Kate Hudson. It was a breakup with Hudson last year that, according to numerous reports, led to the apparent suicide attempt.