NewsOK.com - Oklahoma City,OK,USA - Alicia Keys was multitasking in Toronto with a long day of interviews, personal appearances and a performance ahead of her, but she didn’t seem the worse for wear quite yet on this sunny Saturday morning.

After all, long workdays come with the territory when one chooses two artistic pursuits. After a marathon round of interviews at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting "The Secret Life of Bees,” she’d be working late that night with Jack White of The White Stripes on a video of the theme song for the new James Bond blockbuster, "Quantum of Solace.”

smudailycampus.com - Dallas,TX,USA - Quincy Jones was on campus yesterday as the third speaker in this year's Tate Lecture Series.

Jones treated SMU students and members of the Dallas community to a fast-paced question and answer forum in the afternoon and followed with an evening lecture in the form of a live interview moderated by Robert Wilonsky in McFarlin Auditorium.

The Tate audience greeted Jones with a standing ovation before he began telling his story of growing up in Chicago and then becoming a major international musical icon.

The Associated Press - - LOS ANGELES — No Madonna kiss. No Michael Jackson cameo. No flying Howard Stern. Not even a Kanye tantrum. MTV has set a high standard for the unexpected at its Video Music Awards, but on the show's 25th anniversary, the network instead settled for throwing its full support behind Britney Spears' comeback. Spears won a leading three awards, including video of the year for "Piece of Me."

Any spontaneity was left to host Russell Brand, the British comic whose rock star style and outlandish candor gave the Los Angeles show a pulse. But at the end of the night Sunday, even

Belleville News Democrat - IL, USA - Billy Ray Cyrus stole the achy breaky hearts of about 200 Granite City residents Friday morning by appearing on a live radio broadcast outside the Park Grill restaurant.

The country music star patiently signed autographs, posed for photos and hugged people in the crowd while St. Louis station WIL-FM 92.3 produced "The Cornbread Morning Show" from a tent in the parking lot.

It turned out to be the perfect birthday present for Amanda Markle, 9, of Granite City, a dedicated fan of the Disney sitcom "Hannah Montana," which stars Cyrus' 15-year-old daughter, Miley.

Out & About - Nashville,TN,USA - David YoungI have never liked cruises. If the waves don't make me nauseous, the other passengers usually do.

David Foster Wallace got it right in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" when he described the experience as “a tragic exercise in managed fun.”  But hey - this was an Atlantis cruise, Foster Wallace isn't even gay, and this trip had a drag queen squirting antibacterial goo on my hands each time I got on or off the ship.  This was not going to be a typical cruise.

My partner Scott and I left Miami

AceShowbiz - USA - This week's addition of Kara DioGuardi in the judging panel of talent TV show "American Idol" have left some speculations, one of which says that the show will change their judge line-up. A source even claims that the show's producer is hiring a new younger female judge to ditch Paula Abdul.

Paula has recently showed her concern over the new judge and says that she is worried about the audience's acceptance. According to Us Magazine, Abdul has told Phoenix's KISS-FM, "I am concerned about the audience and acceptance. Time will tell. We'll see."

Speaking of Kara, Paula continues saying that they are

AXcess News - Carson City,NV,USA - New York - Britney Spears was nominated for this year's MTV Music Video Awards after the singer bombed on stage last year, suggesting that her popularity is still strong with music fans, having gone from ditz to blitz as Britney makes her comeback.

Britney was in fact nominated three times for this year's MTV Music Video Awards, which includes Best Female, Best Pop Video and the coveted Video of the Year.

Last year, Britney Spears lipsinked her music video "Gimmie More" and bombed terribly.  But the pop singers fans flocked to her music with her new video for "Piece of Me", voting

Access Hollywood - USA - In less than a month, Jennifer Lopez will pound the pavement, hit the water and put the pedal to the metal as she competes in her first ever triathlon.

The first time mom of twins Max and Emme, with husband Marc Anthony, joined “Good Morning America” on Monday and said the idea for taking on the heavy-duty competition, was inspired by her third trimester.

“It actually came up when I was about eight months pregnant, and I was beached… like a whale, and I was watching TV and I saw a triathlon and I said, ‘You know what? I think I could

PR Web (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA - Fresh on the heels of her recent "Dancing with the Stars" appearance on ABC, award-winning actress Marlee Matlin has agreed to speak at Starr Commonwealth's Founder's Day to be held Oct. 5, 2008.

Through American Sign Language and the assistance of her personal interpreter, Matlin will address the audience of students, staff, families and friends of Starr Commonwealth as the organization celebrates its 95th anniversary.

Matlin is an Academy Award winner for her role in "Children of a Lesser God," which also happened to be her film debut. She is the first deaf actress to receive the Academy Award and one of

TheImproper.com - New York,NY,USA - Two days after bitch-slapping "Page Six" Editor Richard Johnson, openly butch lesbian Samantha Ronson and her gal pal, sometime-actress Lindsay Lohan, took a victory lap around Manhattan, shopping, dining out and partying into the wee hours. Not a word of their escapades made it into The New York Post. Is Johnson giving the duo the silent treatment after his ass whuppin' by the mangirl?

It’s odd that the gossip column would take a pass on Samantha’s and Lindsay’s romantic day on the town. They shopped at Chanel in SoHo, ate a late lunch at Bar Pitti and had a romantic dinner

New York Times - United States - IN her one-woman show, “Wishful Drinking,” Carrie Fisher spends 90 minutes talking about herself. When she does advance publicity for it, she talks about herself talking about herself so that reporters can then talk about her talking about herself.

“It’s like a festival of narcissism,” she said dryly the other day.

It’s hard to do deadpan over the telephone. But Ms. Fisher, on the phone from her home in Los Angeles, succeeded, conveying with the sound of her voice the sardonic distance that informs “Wishful Drinking,” which runs at Hartford Stage from Aug. 6 to 17.

In the funny — and deadpan —

Los Angeles Times - CA, USA - Here's a news flash: The Rock is no more. It's not even Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson but merely Dwayne Johnson, plain vanilla, regular guy, would-be action-hero for the text-message set.

For us mere mortals, it's always slightly mystifying to watch celebrities and their names mutate. Madonna Ciccone to Madonna. Fabio Lanzoni to Fabio. Prince Rogers Nelson to Prince to The Artist formerly known as Prince to the unruly acronym TAFKAP.

And let's not forget Sean Combs, who seems to shuffle his handle with each new business incarnation. Just last week, he posted a bizarre video on You Tube, explaining that despite rumors

Casino City Times - Newton Center, MA, USA - Internet star, host, spokesperson, supermodel, actress, producer, author, and mother, Cindy Margolis, will make a guest appearance at Casbah Nightclub at Trump Taj Mahal on Saturday, June 21 at 10:30 pm.

Club goers can see this gorgeous icon as she celebrates her newest Playboy magazine cover and 8-page pictorial in the July 2008 issue—on newsstands this Friday, June 13. Fans can also register to win a date with Cindy to the Playboy Mansion by logging onto www.playboy.com/cindy.

This is Margolis' second appearance in Playboy. She previously appeared on the cover of the December 2006 issue and was featured nude for the first

San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA - Media superstar Oprah Winfrey delivered Stanford University's 117th Commencement address Sunday, telling nearly 4,700 graduates: Trust your gut.

"When you are doing the work you are meant to do, it feels right," she said, as the Class of 2008 snapped photographs with their cell phones and tossed beach balls to each other in the warm morning sun. "Feelings are really your GPS system for life. Check your ego at the door and check your gut instead.

"Every wrong decision was the result of me not listening to my voice. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it."

At the first commencement ceremony to

Stanford Report - USA - She came to dispense words of advice, encouragement and congratulations. But Oprah Winfrey's address at Stanford's 117th Commencement wouldn't have been complete without her giving away something more.

There were no car keys or envelopes of cash awaiting the 4,666 graduates who poured into Stanford Stadium doing the struts and stunts of the Wacky Walk, Stanford's unorthodox version of the traditional graduation procession. Instead, they found two ribbon-wrapped books—Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind—on their seats, gifts from Winfrey that she also highlighted in her speech about feelings, failure and finding happiness.

"I really wanted to

RTT News - Williamsville, NY, USA - Wednesday, Forbes published its list of the 100 most powerful celebrities, with U.S. television hostess Oprah Winfrey taking the top spot for a second year in a row.

According to Forbes's website, the list was compiled by estimates of celebrity earnings solely from entertainment related income from June 2001 to June 2008, web searches and mentions on TV, radio or print media.

Forbes estimated that Winfrey earned about $275 million within the last 12 months, despite sagging television ratings and magazine circulation.

She beat out golfer Tiger Woods, who took second place for the second year in a row with $115 million in

BuddyTV - Seattle, WA, USA - f there’s one thing you don’t want to do to Tyra Banks, it’s underestimate her. From the minute she became a model, Banks always felt that she had to prove herself and rise above stereotypes and assumptions. She recently landed on the cover of New York Times magazine, for branding herself and getting on her way to becoming the next Oprah or Martha. In the interview, on stands now, she opened up about growing up in the spotlight, making time for herself amidst a hectic schedule, and how she deals with media backlash. '

“I have to admit, I didn’t really

Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco, CA, USA - Zhone Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZHNE), a global leader in multi-service access solutions, wrapped up ZhoneTech 2008 last week, the company’s customer and partner conference held in San Francisco. The conference attracted the broadest audience in its eight year history and featured keynotes from Google’s Stephen Cho, Heavy Reading’s senior analyst, Adi Kishore, and Harvard University’s Doc Searls, author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. ZhoneTech opened with a gala reception at the Carnelian Room in San Francisco and featured a special celebrity appearance from legendary 49ers quarterback, Joe Montana, who spoke on the power of teams and the fundamental characteristics behind the

The Associated Press - Cameron Mathison has a new partner: Sherri Shepherd. The soap star and former "Dancing With the Stars" contestant will host the 35th annual Daytime Emmy Awards with "The View" gabber and actress-comedian live from the Kodak Theatre on June 20.

Neither Mathison nor Shepherd has ever hosted the Daytime Emmys, nor has either won one.

Mathison plays playboy Ryan Lavery on ABC's "All My Children" and hosts SOAPnet's competitive reality series "I Wanna Be a Soap Star." He was nominated for outstanding supporting actor in 2002 and 2004.

During the fifth season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," Mathison came in fifth place