Jill Serjeant

She made history at the Country Music Awards last week, is the biggest selling female artist in the United States this year, and she comes magically to life in December's edition of InStyle in the first ever 3D magazine cover.

But how good is teen sensation Taylor Swift at actual singing?

Not so great, if the growing amount of chat on the Web is to be believed. The higher her public profile rises, the louder are the whispers that Swift often sings flat in live performances.

Some country music fans were particularly miffed at Swift's trophy for female vocalist of the year at the CMA awards in Nashville last week, where the 19-year-old also became the youngest artist ever to win the coveted Entertainer of the Year award.

"Flat, off key, and just really bad! Taylor Swift is no Reba, Martina, or Carrie, these are the real vocalists. TS must have some real geniuses in the studio to fix that crap," wrote one admitted Rebafan on the Great American Country web site.

And country fans are not alone. Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker wrote in a blog that Swift was a "terrific songwriter" but described her voice as "thin, and sometimes as wobbly as a newborn colt."

With the American Music Awards coming up this weekend, and Swift's leading six nominations, all eyes will again be on the young star whose rise to fame has been meteoric over the past two years.

Will the ears of the public also be listening a little bit harder?

She broke Chase's heart and even her manipulative boss House seemed moved -- for a second, anyway -- when Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) walked away from both the diagnostics team and from Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Monday's broadcast of the medical drama "House".

Cameron's presumed departure -- although you never can tell with "House" -- comes just a few weeks after she and on-screen husband Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) made their long-hoped-for return to the central cast of the show after being sidelined for a couple of seasons to the  bowels of the fictional hospital.

Viewers seemed to welcome more screen time for the blond duo (who were once engaged in real life) . "House" is getting a hefty 16.6 million viewers on average per episode this season -- a 17 percent increase on the same time last year, according to Nielsen ratings figures.

So is this just another smart plot twist or is it really good-bye for Dr. Cameron?

Turns out that the actress is not even sure herself.  "I don't think anyone really knows...they're always just a couple of episodes ahead, and [executive producer]  David Shore has always been very true to the writing of the characters and what he believes them to be," Jennifer Morrison told  reporters at a Hollywood event on Monday.

"I'm still a series regular, technically. I really don't know. All I know is that I don't know. And they keep making it very clear to me that I don't know," Morrison added.

Meanwhile, "13" (Olivia Wilde) and Taub are back on House's team, as are  Chase and Foreman.

But what's Chase without Cameron?  And can "13" ever take Cameron's place?  And what can the show's producers be thinking of?

Never one to go down without a fight, Mike Tyson is claiming self-defense in an altercation with a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport that ended with both men being arrested.

The former heavyweight boxing champ said he was attacked by "an overly aggressive paparazzi" and that he "acted in self-defense as a father protecting his child," Tyson's rep Tammy Brook said in a statement to celebrity news sites.

Tyson, traveling with his wife Lakiha (pictured at right) and 10-month-old daughter, said the photographer hit him first. Both men are said to have thrown a punch, but photographer Tony Echevarria -- not surprisingly -- appears to have come off worse and ended up with five stitches on the head .

Echevarria told celebrity web site TMZ.com that Tyson lashed out four times, and called the incident "traumatizing."

"When you're being hit by Mike Tyson, it's really the worst thing in the world that you can imagine," he said.

No word so far on the extent of any injuries suffered by Tyson.

Tyson isn't the first celebrity to be unnerved by the paparazzi who hang out at LAX but he may be the first heavyweight champion to have laid one of them low.

Britney Spears? Lip-synching? "Whateverrrr" as the pop princess might put it herself.

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?

The upcoming threesome episode on "Gossip Girl" seems to be getting everyone's knickers in a twist, even before the much-anticipated episode of the scandalous TV show about rich New York teens airs on Monday.

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.

They're "really good friends" with major chemistry and "a multitude of feelings for each other"... BUT "Twilight" stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart say they are getting really, really fed up with persistent media  reports claiming they are in love, or secretly dating.

"It doesn't make any difference  what you say (to the tabloids). I've literally been across the country (from Kristen) and it's like, 'Oh, they were on secret dates!' It's like, 'Where? I can't get out of my hotel room!'" Pattinson tells Vanity Fair in its December issue.

Stewart sounds even more impatient: "It's so retarded," she tells the magazine. "We're characters in this comic book."

That might prove the end of the tabloid match-making of the past year.

But "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke revealed that the couple did share major chemistry while filming the first movie in the vampire book series -- a fact that was obvious to the movie's millions of fans, and which has given some credence to all those off-screen romance rumors.

"What Rob and Kristen had is a multitude of feelings for each other. Complex feelings for each other. It was what we needed. Complex, intense fascination," Hardwicke tells Vanity Fair.

As Hardwicke wasn't on board for the much-anticipated "New Moon" sequel, guess we'll have to wait and see whether all those multitudes of complex, intense, fascination feelings between the pair have progressed in the second movie.

Meanwhile, Pattinson protests yet again that he is not exactly comfortable in his role as a global heartthrob.

"I'm trying not to drown. I guess I'm not the type of guy cut out to do a franchise. I'm not much of a crowd person," he tells Vanity Fair.

Well, if Rob is not the franchise type, someone else may be... Looks like co-star Taylor Lautner is fast catching up in the swoon stakes, according to a poll of tweens and teens last week that ranked the buff young actor a clear favorite over the moody Pattinson.

Remember "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert?

Last season, his penchant for flashy costumes and eye makeup on the No. 1-rated TV talent show earned him the nickname "Glambert".  After the show ended, he disclosed publicly that he was gay. You can read about it here and here.

The cover of his forthcoming debut album "For Your Entertainment" is getting people talking about Lambert all over again, six months after he lost the "Idol" title to Kris Allen.

In a Twitter entry, the glam rocker called the album cover "deliberately campy" and said it was designed to be "ridiculous".

"Thank you to those who appreciate and understand that the album cover is deliberately campy. It’s an homage to the past. It IS ridiculous,” Lambert wrote.

“For those that don’t get it: oh well… Glad to have gotten your attention,” he continued. “Androgyny. Rock n Roll.”

Lambert recently told Entertainment Weekly about his goals for the album, saying: "I wanna rock; I want people to dance, I want people to cry, I want people to smile and laugh. And I wanna play dress-up!”

Kris Allen releases his own debut album a week ahead of Lambert on Nov 17, called simply "Kris Allen". Whose album will you be buying?

Miley Cyrus's status as a teen idol has taken a knock in a poll of teens and tweens, reflecting the tough time many celebrities have making the transition from child star to a young woman. But is she really the worst celebrity influence -- on tweens -- of the year?

The poll of 9-15 year olds on the web site JSYK.com seemed to suggest that Miley's star might be fading after a roller-coaster three-year reign as one of the most popular teens in the world.

In some unsettling results, Miley was deemed to have a worse influence on her younger fans than the likes of Kanye West -- who was almost universally condemned for hijacking Taylor Swift's moment of glory at the MTV Video Music Awards in September -- and Britney Spears -- a sad example of the price of huge fame at an early age.

But Miley's standings in the role model stakes don't seem to be hurting her popularity. Her "Hannah Montana" show is still bringing in bumper ratings for Disney Channel and her latest single "Party in the USA" (the one that caused the fuss about pole dancing) is currently No.2 on the iTunes download charts.

So can Miley be seen as a bad influence but still retain her global popularity, or has she been overtaken by Taylor Swift?

And why do you think she has slipped so far in the opinion of the young fans who helped to rocket her to fame?

It's hardly news these days when a celebrity launches their own web site.

But when it's Jim Carrey, who is best known for for portraying multiple and often manic personalities, you've got to wonder which Carrey you're going to run into online.

The Canadian-born star of "Me, Myself and Irene" and "Liar, Liar" tantalized reporters on Friday by announcing that his new website would show off "the psychedelic landscape of my brain."

"We think it will be fun," he added enigmatically.

Carrey has been Hollywood's go-to favorite actor for physical comedy for more than 15 years. His next outing is on November 6 in a new animated version of "A Christmas Carol" in which he plays not only of the miser Scrooge, but also the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come.

Carrey, inexplicably sporting a bushy beard when talking to reporters on Friday, dropped the jokes briefly when asked if there was anything he'd like to change about himself.

"I would like NOT to have a personality," he said, adding mysteriously "Peace lies beyond personality."

The web site www.jimcarrey.com, launches Oct 29.

They're rolling out the red carpet in Los Angeles for television's prime time Emmy Awards on Sunday but some experts are already predicting a winner's line-up  in the main categories that looks much the same as last year.

That means that popular favorites like hospital drama "House", animated comedy "Family Guy" and the "Law&Order" actress Mariska Hargitay could again lose out to shows like "Mad Men", "Damages" star Glenn Close and the Tina Fey comedy "30 Rock".

With the exception perhaps of "30 Rock" and the reality series category that acknowledges the mass appeal of shows like "Dancing With The Stars" and "The Amazing Race", the Emmy awards seem to be moving away from mainstream viewing in the same way as the Oscars has done with mainstream films in recent years.

Public opinion polls are showing big differences between what the vast American public would like to see win, and the shows like "Breaking Bad" and "Little Dorritt" that are winning lots of prizes but small audiences. Yet, the Emmys are supposed to honor the best of the best, rather than the highest-rated shows and the stars that appear most on celebrity websites.

So on Sunday, will you be paying more attention to the winners on the podium, the red carpet fashion, or the entertainment which will be hosted by "How I Met Your Mother" actor Neil Patrick Harris and includes a live band for the first time since 2004, as well as a dance segment?

Which stars are you most excited about seeing? And is there anyone, in your opinion, who shouldn't be there at all?