Barack Obama Will Be Sworn In Among The Stars

Barack Obama knows how to throw a party!

The future President of the United States will be host to Hollywood's finest during the upcoming presidential inauguration festivities.

An A-list crowd will take on Washington D.C. this weekend to celebrate Obama, who will be sworn in as the first African-American president in history on Jan. 20. The festivities, starting Friday and lasting until Tuesday night, include appearances by Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Sheryl Crow and Oprah.

The non-stop parties begin Friday night at a BET dinner for Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Denzel Washington, Jay-Z, Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman, Alicia Keys and Patti LaBelle, among others.

BET will host another event on Saturday. Joss Stone, Mary J. Blige, Terrence Howard, Stevie Wonder and Tyler Perry are some of the stars who plan to attend.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee's official kick-off event is the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Sunday show will feature performances from Bruce Springsteen, Crow and Beyonce. Also scheduled to hit the stage are John Mellencamp, Shakira, Garth Brooks, will.i.am and Josh Groban.

Forrest Whitaker, Jeffrey Wright, Adrian Grenier and Elizabeth Berkley plan to attend Rolling Stone's Rock the Vote event on Monday.

Meanwhile, Rosario Dawson plans to attend an event hosted by MoveOn.org, and stars including Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson will be at the Declare Yourself event.

Environmental activist and former Vice-President Al Gore will spend the evening at the Green Inaugural Ball.

The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus perform at the week's second big musical event, Kids' Inaugural Concert to honor military families on Monday. The show will be hosted by future First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the new vice-president, Joe Biden. Demi Lovato and Usher will also take the stage.

The Huffington Post Pre-Inaugural Ball will host some of the inauguration's biggest names on Monday evening. Hosted by the Huffington Post, the party is the first-ever interactive ball allowing web users to join in the event. Those attending the ball at the Newseum include Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Fall Out Boy, Samuel L. Jackson, Martha Stewart and Steven Spielberg, among others. Crow, will.i.am and Sting will perform live at midnight.

The parties continue after Obama's inauguration ceremony on Tuesday. Courteney Cox and David Arquette will join Rihanna at the Feeding America Ball that evening. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway, Kate Walsh, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Seal will be at the Creative Coalition Inaugural Ball.
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Jenny McCarthy Feels For The Travolta Family

Jenny McCarthy, who almost lost her son, Evan, to a seizure, is speaking out about the death of John Travolta's 16-year-old son.

"When I first heard the news about Jett, I slowly kind of sat down...because my heart went out to them -- you know, such compassion and understanding for what they've gone through," McCarthy told Access Hollywood.

McCarthy told Us late last year that she helped her 6-year-old son recover from autism, but he still suffers from seizures.

"Last year, Evan had another seizure where he seized for seven hours on and off," McCarthy said. "We had to put him in a coma for four days so he wouldn't go into cardiac arrest.
"So looking at Jett, I cried out of fear for my own son, and for, I can't even tell you how many children, with autism," she added.

Although it's been reported in the past that Jett suffers from autism, his parents have said he was diagnosed with Kawasaki Syndrome. His Jan. 2 death in the Bahamas was caused by a seizure disorder.

McCarthy, an outspoken autism advocate, says that if Jett did in fact have autism, she understands why Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, kept it out of the news.

"It's very difficult to go places where everyone sees who you are and then their eyes immediately go to the child -- because they know what the diagnosis is -- and they stare at the child," she said. "And no one ever wants that feeling, so they tend to keep it quiet.
"They should have the right to keep whatever they want to themselves, and share what they want with the world," she added.
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Lisa Marie Presley Introduces Her Twins To The World

Elvis Presley's only daughter, Lisa Marie, is now a doting mom to 3-month-old girls Finley and Harper – and she is showing off her tiny additions in the new issue of PEOPLE.

"I really wanted these babies," says Presley, 40, who tried for two years to get pregnant before conceiving the twins. "My blood was too thick and would clot, which caused several miscarriages," she tells PEOPLE.

"The moment I took blood thinners, I got pregnant."Presley and her guitarist husband Michael Lockwood, 47, also share their L.A. home with Presley's children from a previous marriage: daughter Riley, 19, and son Benjamin, 16. Life as a bustling family of six is "chaotic bliss," says Presley.

The outspoken star also opens up about losing her baby weight. "I was unable to see my toes by the fourth month," she admits. "But I only gained 30 lbs. total. I worked out up until the seventh month."
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Howie Mandel Jokes About Hospitalization

Howie Mandel isn't surprised fans may have thought his hospital trip on Monday to treat an irregular heartbeat was an elaborate part of his NBC hidden camera series Howie Do It, but his experience getting treatment could make a whole reality show in itself.

"It was no treat for me, being the germaphobe that I am," Mandel says. "It was really hard. I wouldn't put on the gown or the customary clothing. I remained clothed and in my boots on the gurney and in the hospital!"

Mandel, 53, discovered he had an irregular heartbeat after an insurance-mandated checkup while he was on location in Toronto led to an EKG test, which led to a cardioversion, a procedure that shocked his heartbeat back to normal.

But after leaving the hospital, Mandel passed out while walking through the lobby of his hotel, and was put on a gurney and rushed back via ambulance.

Dehydrated Before Passing Out"Apparently I passed out because I hadn't eaten, I was dehydrated and I was on medication," says Mandel. "It had nothing to do with my heart. I did not have a heart attack."

While Mandel was okay, his family fretted. "While I was being checked, I didn't have my cell phone with me and then when I pick up my cell phone, in a message, my daughter is in tears and going, 'Daddy, please call me, are you okay?'

You realize how important people close to you are and nothing else matters. My family and all of our health is paramount to anything." Mandel's wife Terry has since flown to Toronto. "I said I'm fine but she just wants to sit with me," he says. "So my wife just sits with me and laughs with me and that's what she's doing this week. We've been together 35 years and she's my rock."
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Idol Judge Kara DioGuardi Got Engaged In Smiley-Face Pajamas

Kara DioGuardi's engagement was both romantic – think candles and a Mexican vacation – and humorous. "I was in, of course, my thermal smiley-face pajamas that one of my best friends gave me for Christmas," recalls the new American Idol judge of getting engaged on her 38th birthday in December.

DioGuardi says her fiancé Mike McCuddy, 34, lit some candles before popping the first of two questions. "He said, 'I have a question: Do you know where my shoes are?'" she told reporters at FOX's Television Critics Association after-party on Tuesday. When she said she didn't know, McCuddy responded, "All right, well then will you marry me?"

The songwriter-producer, who met McCuddy, a schoolteacher-turned-general contractor, a year and a half ago, says she was hesitant to disclose her occupation at the beginning of their relationship. So, at the suggestion of one of her friends, McCuddy checked out the Grammy-nominee's Web site and called her to say he didn't think the relationship would work because she had "a Hollywood life," DioGuardi remembers.

Her response? "I have no Hollywood life, believe me," she told him. "I'm working 18-hour days, going home and catching a Law & Order episode and calling him at night."
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Grant Show Could Return To 90210 As A Love Interest For Jennie Garth

Grant Show would be up for making a return to the CW's new 90210 or its upsoming Melrose Place as hunky biker babe Jake Hanson.

However, Show tells us he’s got a couple of stipulations.

First up, Jake must be able to rekindle his love affair with Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth).

“That would be the only angle that would be really interesting,” Show told us Sunday at the In Style/Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty. “They never really explored that in enough depth.”

Jake was the “bad boy” from Hollywood who swept Kelly off her feet on 90210, only to break her younger heart. He then went on to become a regular character on Melrose Place.

Show also wants to look forward to going to work every day. “My whole world is about being fun,” he says. “If it’s fun, I’m there. If it’s not fun, I’m not there.”
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Girls Next Door Didn't Always Get Along

They may be chummy on their E! show, but Bridget Marquardt says off-camera she sometimes clashed with Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson.

"We got along relatively well for three girls living in the same house and shooting a TV show together and doing everything together," she told reporters at The Travel Channel's Television Critics Association event Wednesday, denying that there was any "jealousy" between them.

"But there was always moments where [it was], 'Oh, Kendra is late again.' You know, rolling the eyes, the irritation," she said. "There was definitely some of that."

Now that the three of them have fled the Playboy Mansion (Marquardt was the last to leave), "we are closer than ever and even more supportive of each other," she said.

Marquardt said her upcoming Travel Channel show is more satisfying than her E! series "in several ways.

"I was very happy with The Girls Next Door and my life there, but this is propelling me on my own and is what I went to school for [she has a broadcast journalism degree] and what I love. I've kind of got the best of both worlds now."
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Gossip Girl Spin-Off Announced

The buzzed-about Gossip Girl spinoff has been given the go-ahead, it was announced Wednesday.

The new CW pilot will center on a teenage version of Lily van der Woodsen (played by Kelly Rutherford) in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

After a falling out with her parents, Lily is forced to move in with her sister, the black sheep of the Rhodes family, and live on her own for the first time.

"Used to being a 'have,' attending a wealthy Montecito boarding school and living the high life, Lily is now forced into being a 'have not,' living deep in the Valley she once made fun of, and going to public school," a Warner Bros. statement read.

"Caught between two worlds, Lily dives into the fast-paced Sunset Strip and the Hollywood lifestyle of the '80s, journeying over the hill to a world of wealth and excess that used to be her own," according to the statement.

The spinoff will be produced as a backdoor pilot and air May 11 as an episode of Gossip Girl.
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Former American Idol Contestant Jason Castro's Brother Advances On Show

On Wednesday's American Idol, wannabe singers in Kansas City turned out -- including Michael Castro, the pink-haired brother of last year's finalist Jason Castro. Michael, 20, impressed the judges with his performance of Gavin DeGraw's "In Love With A Girl."

"Not bad," Paula Abdul remarked, while Simon Cowell called his performance "goodish." New judge Kara DioGuardi said it was "ballsy" of him to audition after his brother did the show last season. After he advanced, Jason (who was waiting for him in the lobby), joked, "I'm blown away. I've never heard him sing in real life!"

The show had another stunner: Daniel Gokey, whose wife passed away four weeks before his audition and who almost didn't try out because he was so wrought with grief. "I think you're one of the best we've seen," judge Randy Jackson remarked after Gokey sang "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." Gokey (whose best friend also auditioned and made it through) dedicated his win to his late wife.

DioGuardi was most impressed with the night's final singer, 23-year-old Lil Rounds. The mother-of-three -- whose family survived a tornado -- sang a soulful rendition of Stevie Wonder's "All I Do."

Jackson called her "a mixture of Fantasia and Mary J Blige," while DioGuardi said she was "one of the best" the judges have seen. "You are absolutely fantastic," praised Cowell. "There's something retro about you, very classy. A singer's singer."
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More Acting Nominations For Brad And Angie

Another day, another round of acting nominations for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. The two --who previously scored both Golden Globe and Screen Actor Guild Award nods -- are being honored by the British Academy for their dramatic acting roles.

In the best-actress category, Jolie is up against Kate Winslet (who is nominated for both The Reader and Revolutionary Road), Meryl Streep for Doubt and Kristin Scott Thomas for the French film I've Loved You So Long.

For the title of best actor, Pitt faces off against Dev Patel Patel for Slumdog Millionaire, Sean Penn for Milk, Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

The late Heath Ledger also scored a best supporting actor nomination for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Up for best picture: Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader.

The awards ceremony takes place Feb. 8 at the Royal Opera House in London.
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