Katherine Heigl: Asking for Too Much?

Although the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” left everyone hanging, we think it’s safe to say that Katherine Heigl is not returning to set next season.

As previously reported, the Izzy Stevens actress was leaving in order to pursue more movie roles, which she did…..until now.

It is being reported that Ms Heigl has been dropped from the cast in the upcoming romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” because she demanded an astronomical salary.

An insider told Page Six, “Producers at New Line originally had Katherine on their casting list. They wanted her for the project, but during the talks, she came back demanding $3 million for the role.”

Katherine will be missing out on star-studded cast including Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Shirley MacLaine and Bradley Cooper, with the flick scheduled to be released in February 2011.

Jessica Alba: Keepin’ Busy in LA

Enjoying a much-needed break from her motherly duties, Jessica Alba was spotted out running her errands in Los Angeles on Wednesday (May 27).

Dressed casually in rolled-up jeans, a grey t-shirt with a black scarf, cardigan and flats, the “Sin City” starlet first stopped off for takeout from Dino’s before heading to a nearby office building.

Taking swigs out of her coffee flask, Miss Alba then visited a private house where she was seen, with the help of an assistant, carrying boxes and bags into the residence.

The day’s outing follows a little mother/daughter bonding time the previous day - as Jess was busy taking daughter Honor out to a musical class.

Kendra Wilkinson: Promoting in Poland

Taking her latest work effort overseas, Kendra Wilkinson was spotted out for a promotional stop in Warsaw, Poland on Tuesday (May 26).

Changing into a few different sexy outfits, the Playboy beauty visited the E! channel studios as she continues to promote her reality television show “Kendra”.

Meanwhile, Miss wilkinson recently chatted about her upcoming wedding to Hank Baskett with People magazine।

The former “Girls Next Door” star revealed that “she worked with a very special designer to create her vision of a dream wedding dress — a white puffy corseted number that she calls ’so different’.”

Don’t forget to tune in for Miss Wilkinson’s all-new show, “Kendra,” which premieres June 7 on E!.

Rihanna: Single and Ready for Acting

With all of the recent rumors about romance in singer Rihanna’s life, friends are putting the relationship talk to an end, claiming that Rihanna is 100% single.

The 21-year-old split from boyfriend Chris Brown and has also been connected to other huge stars such as Kanye West, and Aubrey “Drake” Graham.

“Kanye is all over Rihanna’s album — not all over Rihanna!” an insider told the NY Daily News. “She’s feeling him [Graham] but wants to take things slow. Right now they’re just chilling.”

Flight attendant jailed for bomb hoax

A flight attendant was jailed for 18 months on Thursday for leaving a bomb hoax note on board an Emirates aircraft he was working on and sparking a scare that led to London's Gatwick Airport briefly closing.

Australian national Matthew Carney, 24, left a message in the toilet of a flight from Dubai to London in March which read: "Explosive material can be found in the FWD (forward cargo department). We have the Taliban to thank for this."

A passenger on board the Boeing 777 found the note 10 minutes before the plane was due to land and raised the alarm. When the flight arrived at Gatwick it was taken to a secure holding area and surrounded by armed police.

The 164 passengers and 16 crew were taken off the plane and interviewed and Carney was arrested shortly afterwards.

He pleaded guilty to communicating false information, namely a bomb hoax, at Lewes Crown Court, police said.

The court was told that earlier in the flight Carney told his co-workers he had "found" wires hanging down from behind a mirror in a toilet in the economy section, the Press Association reported.

But senior cabin crew members who inspected the area found the wires were not attached to anything and the plane carried on to Britain.

Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said that because of the earlier incident, Carney was arrested and his luggage searched.

Inside a pair of his shorts was found a piece of paper with the words "Cargo contains explosives," which handwriting experts linked to the note left in the toilet.

His lawyer Andel Singh said Carney had been under a great deal of stress and was "extremely tired" at the time having worked on flights on different time schedules throughout the world.

"He apologizes wholeheartedly and sincerely to all those individuals who were even the slightest bit inconvenienced," Singh said.

Sullivan said the hoax had left Emirates with a bill for 42,000 pounds ($66,340) for arranging ongoing flights and other measures, while some passengers were left with a fear of flying and said they would never set foot on an aircraft again.

Chinese hospitals ordered to kick the habit

China will ban smoking in all hospitals and medical facilities from 2011, the Health Ministry said Friday, as the world's most populous nation struggles to get its people to kick one of their favorite habits.

China is the world's largest cigarette producer and Chinese are the world's most enthusiastic smokers, with a growing market of about 320 million making it a magnet for multinationals and focus of international health concerns.

Chinese cigarettes are also among the cheapest in the world, with a packet costing as little as a few cents. More than half of all male Chinese doctors also smoke.

"Every department in every part of the nation must establish leading work groups to put into effect a smoking control framework," the ministry said in a statement on its website (www.moh.gov.cn).

"Workers must give up smoking, not smoke in their workplace or public areas (and) promote knowledge about the harm tobacco causes," it added.

Military hospitals will also be banned from offering cigarettes to important visitors, the rules state.

It remains to be seen how easy it will be to enforce the new regulation as non-smoking signs and laws are generally given short shrift in China.

Woman appeals ban on female metro drivers

A young Russian woman will challenge regulations that ban women from driving trains on the metro after the Supreme Court rejected her legal case on Thursday, local media reported.

Student Anna Klevets applied to work as an assistant driver on the chandeliered underground system in Russia's second city, St Petersburg, last November.

But she was turned down on grounds that women cannot work with dangerous heavy equipment, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Klevets took her case to the Supreme Court in March.

"The Supreme Court acknowledged the decision (that women are banned) and has made no amendments," Itar-Tass quoted the court's spokesman as saying Thursday.

Klevets will now appeal to a St Petersburg court to challenge the working conditions on the city's metro and make it acceptable for women, newspaper Izvestia said, quoting lawyer Galina Yenyutina at the Center for Social and Labor Rights.

"We need to create equal, safe working conditions, so that men as well as women can work in safety," she said.

In its Friday issue, Izvestia reports that a 2000 law bans women from 456 jobs, including stallion-breeding and oil drilling. Russia was the second country in the world to give women full voting rights after Finland.

Park plays high-pitch tone to discourage vandals

A Tokyo park has started playing a high-pitched tone at night that only young people can hear to help drive away teenagers who keep vandalizing the toilets and other facilities.

"We were having trouble improving the situation and trying to decide what to do, when we found out about The Mosquito and decided to give it a try," said Haruyuki Masuda, an official in charge of parks in Tokyo's Adachi district.

"The Mosquito" is a device that emits a high-frequency tone that is unbearable to those who can hear it, Masuda said.

The local authorities decided to act after young people hanging out in the district's Kitashikahama Park inflicted damage amounting to around 700,000 yen ($7,400) there last year.

"We could not do anything about it from just patrolling," Masuda said.

People's ability to hear high frequencies falls as they age. The device produces a high-pitch tone of around 17 kilohertz, which teens can hear but older people cannot.

While such devices are used at some convenience stores in Japan also troubled by teens, Masuda said district officials were hesitant at first.

"We were a little worried about whether the local government should be using such a device to exclude certain people, even if these are young people that are causing problems," Masuda said.

"But we have been unable to resolve the issue and many people said we should try it," he said, adding that the device would be tested at the park from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. each night until March 2010.

"Boom" sets off nonstop party from Black Eyed Peas

"As individuals, we're misfits," says Fergie, the sultry female singer of the Black Eyed Peas. "Together, we're like one big misfit. People are always questioning who the hell we are."

It's the day after the group's May 6 performance, in futuristic garb, on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Chilling out in a small, sparsely furnished room at Center Staging in Burbank, California, she and fellow members of the multiracial group -- Will.i.am, Taboo and apl.de.ap -- resemble a live version of a United Colors of Benetton ad.

Fergie is dressed in black-and-white capri-length leggings set off by a hot pink shirt and a sharp pair of black ankle-strapped heels from her self-named shoe line. Sitting next to her on the sofa is apl.de.ap in a lemon V-neck T-shirt, white-framed shades and his signature Mohawk. Opting for blue-green glasses, Taboo sports a black leather vest, an eye-catching cross on a silver chain and several impressive arm tattoos.

With his close-cropped hair hidden under a red plaid cap, Will.i.am sits astride a black chair, wearing a striped shirt and gray jeans tucked into black combat boots. He's pondering the question Fergie just answered: Who are the Black Eyed Peas?

"When something is different, authentically unique, it's always going to be questioned," the Peas' mastermind says. "By default, people aren't going to understand us because there aren't that many like us."

'THE E.N.D.' IS NEAR

After the multiplatinum pop success of 2003's "Elephunk" and then 2005's "Monkey Business," the Black Eyed Peas stood accused by fans of selling out: blunting its cutting-edge, live-band hip-hop in favor of lightweight pop crossover fare. As the June 9 release date for their fifth studio album, "The E.N.D." (will.i.am music/Interscope), approaches, some of the same criticism has cropped up. But what's not in question is the exploding popularity of "Boom Boom Pow" -- the first No. 1 single for this band of creative misfits.

Rooted in club beats and the 808 old-school kick sound, the energetic track is a runaway top 40 hit, and has been No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks.

The concept for "The E.N.D.," an acronym for "The Energy Never Dies," doesn't stray far from the Peas' basic formula, Will.i.am says. "We've always had a smorgasbord of sounds including dance," he notes, pointing to songs like "Be Free" from "Behind the Front," "Weekends" (on "Bridging the Gap") and "My Humps" ("Monkey Business"). This time around, Will.i.am became inspired while in Australia filming his first major movie role, as the mutant John Wraith in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." During downtime away from the set, he soaked up the electro dance and house club vibes in Sydney.

"The youth in those clubs are pumping a whole different thing," Will.i.am says. "It felt like hip-hop 1989, 1990, 1992. But they're not rapping. It's all beats. I came back just buzzing."

With Taboo, apl.de.ap and several band members in tow, Will.i.am flew to London, where Fergie was working on her first major film role, in "Nine." Setting up shop at the same studio where they recorded "Monkey Business," the Peas began working on "The E.N.D."

'ARTISTIC FACTORY'

"There's always a sense of Andy Warhol whenever we make a Black Eyed Peas album," Fergie says. "It's an artistic factory with several rooms going at the same time. We don't just sit down. We jump from room to room, all of us adding ideas to the recipe. If you get burned out on one idea or your ears get tired, you walk to another room and step into a whole fresh creative zone for more ideas."

Enlisted to help draft beats were MSTRKRFT, David Guetta, Boys Noize, Keith Harris and Paper Boy. The result is a nonstop party album fusing rock, soul, hip-hop, reggae and dub with thumping beats, tempo twists and turns, and memorable hooks. Beyond "Boom Boom Pow," there's the upcoming second single, "I Gotta Feeling," which apl.de.ap describes as a "college anthem for people looking forward to escaping life's pressures by going out and having a ball."

Picking up on the same escape theme is "Out of My Head." Channeling R&B veteran Millie Jackson, a slurring Fergie opens with three little words, "I'm so tipsy" -- which she was while recording the song. "This song reminds me of the fun character of 'My Humps.' I told Will we have to get some wine if I'm going to do this correctly. I'm not going to front on this song. So we all got a little tipsy."

Party spirit lacking in Cannes as crisis bites

Thumping dance beats still pound out over the Croisette and cream linen suits, tottering high heels and diaphanous little dresses are much on show, but the party spirit at Cannes is undeniably lacking.

The world's biggest film festival normally attracts stars to a celebrity-fueled riot of receptions and red carpets, but this year the economic crisis has left the paparazzi complaining of unusually thin pickings outside the party marquees.

The biggest stars in town, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, have made themselves scarce, staying away from the glitzy amfAR gala for AIDS research, for example. They did, though, attend the party for "Inglourious Basterds," in which Pitt appears.

Another big name, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, has been laid low with the flu.

"It's definitely down on last year," said one industry publicist. "The stars just aren't there and the studios are spending a lot less on parties. A lot less."

Television cameramen and photographers stuck on late night line-ups to snap the pictures needed for the gossip pages and celebrity magazines complain of having to settle for lesser stars when the A-listers fail to show.

Instead of "Brangelina," photographers at the amfAR event got rapper 50 Cent, up-and-coming British actor Robert Pattinson and former supermodels Eva Herzigova and Claudia Schiffer.

Publicists put out star-studded lists to attract media to the events they are promoting but often enough the lists are as fictitious as a film plot and the stars fail to materialize.

"Don't believe them. Ever," said one jaded photographer.

ECONOMIC CRISIS

In part, the dearth of stars is due to the Cannes selection, which this year features few of the Hollywood blockbusters that are guaranteed to bring the biggest names out.

But the economic crisis has also had an impact, eating into sponsorship budgets and making many more wary about flamboyant displays of conspicuous consumption.

It would certainly not be true to say there were no stars. Bill Clinton and Sharon Stone were at the amfAR party and singer Mariah Carey, actors Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Philippe and director Quentin Tarantino have been seen at several events.

Yves Hanania, an executive director for special events at resort chain Nikki Beach, which runs one of the big party tents on the Croisette, said sponsors had been more selective.

"But they're still willing to spend when it matters and there are still big names about," he said, as "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria Parker and her basketballer husband Tony Parker dined at a neighboring table.

Perennial party girl Paris Hilton was also in Cannes, although she generated less buzz than in previous years.

Given that many celebrities are actually paid discreetly to attend events, a certain level of star wattage is assured but party organizers, with tighter budgets, have been increasingly ruthless about who they will let in free.

"A lot of the D-listers who are just there for the swag are not getting in," said the publicist, who declined to be named.

Source: Carrie Prejean's Mom is Gay

The mother of Carrie Prejean might be a lesbian.

Valerie Vetrano tells Star magazine that she and Prejean's mother, Francine Coppola, were involved in a relationship that lasted until the very night Carrie finished second in the Miss USA contest.

"Francine and I dated," Vetrano said, while another source confirmed the affair, saying it never had a chance, due to Coppola's hesitance to be open with her family:

"Francine explained how she was a Christian and that her loved ones would never accept her if she were gay."