Alo Ceballos/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) -- It's Lady Gaga to the rescue on this Sunday night's episode of The Simpsons, which is also the season finale. In the episode, Gaga arrives in Springfield and ends up helping Lisa, who's become a social outcast.
In an attempt to boost her social standing, Lisa anonymously writes positive things about herself on the school blog, but the plan backfires and she becomes even less popular. Gaga is the one who helps Lisa realize that being yourself is much better than trying to be like everyone else.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Gaga says she was "really excited and surprised" to be invited to lend her voice to The Simpsons, and notes that she had been "sort of itching to do some TV again" -- bonus points for if you remember Gaga's 2009 guest spot on Gossip Girl. Gaga calls the script for her Simpsons episode "incredible," and adds, "It's so funny. I come to Springfield on a train...I come to make the people of Springfield happy." Once there, she says, "I run into Lisa and I decide that it's my mission to pull Lisa out of her slump and give her hope again."
Gaga says that participating in the long-running show was actually a bit intimidating for her. "They're so wonderfully talented," she tells ET. "I think I was more nervous than I have ever been because I have so much respect for them I just wanted to do a good job."
ABC/Ida Mae Astute(NEW YORK) -- Get ready, New York. A “starmageddon” of presidential fundraisers is about to hit town.
The Obama campaign announced Friday that actress Sarah Jessica Parker will next month host President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and an expected star-studded cast of donors for an event dubbed “A New York Night” at her private Manhattan home.
Joining the crowd will be several lucky grassroots supporters and winners of an online sweepstakes by a contribution of “$3 or whatever you can,” Parker said in a fundraising email.
“As a woman, a mother, and an entrepreneur, I need to believe our country can be a place where everyone has a fair shot at success,” she wrote.
“This November’s election will determine whether we get to keep moving forward, or if we’re forced to go back to policies that ask people like my middle-class family in Ohio to carry the burden -- while people like me, who don’t need tax breaks, get extra help.”
Parker says of the event, “it should be fabulous.”
Earlier this month, the Obamas attended a similar event at the Los Angeles home of actor George Clooney. Ticket sales for the event and the online sweepstakes raised more than $12 million for the 2012 campaign. It was the president’s single most lucrative fundraiser ever.
The 150 tickets sold for the event went for $40,000 apiece. The online haul for the Clooney event alone was in the “millions,” an Obama campaign official said.
The campaign has regularly promoted contests to court grassroots cash, including chances to win an all-expenses-paid trip to have lunch or dinner with the president. The initiatives are reportedly highly lucrative.
Jamie McCarthy/WireImage(LAS VEGAS) -- This year's Billboard Music Awards, set for Sunday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, will be quite the star-studded affair. The telecast, which will air on ABC, will feature performances from Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber, LMFAO, The Wanted, Nelly Furtado, Usher, Linkin Park and Chris Brown.
In addition, Katy Perry will be debuting a new song, "Wide Awake," on the telecast, and Whitney Houston will be posthumously honored with the Billboard Millennium Award. Jordin Sparks and John Legend will perform a tribute to Whitney, and her daughter Bobbi Kristina and sister-in-law, Pat Houston, will be on hand to accept the award.
As if that weren't enough, Stevie Wonder will also be be presented with the prestigious Icon Award during the ceremony and will be saluted with an all-star tribute during the show.
Of course, there also will be some awards handed out -- lots of them, since Billboard has so many different charts. Adele, LMFAO, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne are the top nominees for the awards, with Adele leading the pack as a finalist in 18 award categories, including Top Artist, Top Female Artist and Top Billboard 200 Artist. LMFAO are finalists in 17 categories, while Rihanna is nominated in 13 categories and Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne are each nominated in 10 categories.
Taking a look at just a few of the top categories, the nominees for Top Artist overall are Adele, Gaga, Wayne, Katy Perry and Rihanna. The nominees for Top Billboard 200 album are Adele's 21, Michael Buble's Christmas, Lady Gaga's Born This Way, Drake's Take Care and Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV. The nominees for Top Billboard Hot 100 song are "Rolling in the Deep," "Party Rock Anthem," "Give Me Everything," "Moves Like Jagger" and "E.T."
Competing for Top Female Artist are Adele, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. The Top Male Artist category pits Bruno Mars and Chris Brown against Drake, Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne.
The nominees for Top Duo/Group are Coldplay, Lady Antebellum, LMFAO, Maroon 5 and The Black Eyed Peas, and the Top New Artist nominees are Foster the People, Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean, Scotty McCreery and Bad Meets Evil, featuring Eminem and Royce da 5'9.
Presenters at Sunday night's awards include Taio Cruz, Gavin DeGraw, Gladys Knight, Natasha Bedingfield, Julianne Hough and actor Jeremy Sisto. The show will be hosted by Modern Family stars Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell.
The 2012 Billboard Music Awards will air Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- Donna Summer died of lung cancer, but her condition was “not related to smoking,” according to a statement released by her publicist Friday.
“Although she lost her battle to lung cancer at the age of 63, it was not related to smoking,” the statement said. “Ms. Summer was a non-smoker. Obviously, numerous factors can be attributed to the cause of cancer in general, but any details regarding the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of Ms. Summer’s case remain between her family and team of doctors.”
Summer, popularly known as the Queen of Disco, died at her Naples, Fla. home on Thursday.
MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- After dodging questions about his notably public divorce from pop star Katy Perry, and heckling a fan who taunted him about his ex at a recent stand-up show, comedian Russell Brand has broken his silence about his failed marriage with a pointed confession.
“I still love her as a human being, but sometimes when you’re in a relationship, I suppose it doesn’t work out, does it,” he said Thursday during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“I was very happy to be married to her. She’s such a beautiful human being and I just have only love and positivity for her,” Brand added.
The 36-year-old comedian filed for divorce from Perry, 27, in December, citing irreconcilable differences. The two had been married for 14 months, and it was rumored he wanted her to cut back on her partying.
“The interesting thing about what Russell said now is this is what I’ve been hearing all along from sources,” Ian Drew of Us Weekly magazine told ABC’s Good Morning America. “That Russell and Katy didn’t really have this big crashing animosity, that what really was at fault in the relationship … Russell realized she wasn’t at a place where he was in his life.”
Fresh off the divorce, Perry expressed her pain freely in February on stage at the Grammy Awards, performing the song “Part of Me.” Many believe the lyrics were aimed at Brand.
Up until now, Brand has been quiet about the split, but it has been rumored that he sent her an email expressing regret about the breakup.
But Drew said Brand never reached out to Perry.
“We should hang up the notion that Katy and Russell are going to reconcile,” he said. “They are doing what many people should be doing, which is splitting and ending things on a good note.”
The CW(NEW YORK) -- The CW is shuffling its primetime lineup for the 2012-2013 season while adding three new series into the mix.
The network announced Thursday that 90210, America's Next Top Model, Supernatural and Hart of Dixie will all move to new nights this fall. America's Next Top Model is adding international male model Rob Evans as a judge and Johnny Wujek, stylist for stars such as singer Katy Perry, as a creative consultant.
Gossip Girl will end its run with a sixth and final season, consisting of 11 episodes. The season will focus on revealing the true identity of Gossip Girl.
The CW's new shows are Arrow, an adaptation of the DC Comics character Green Arrow; Beauty and the Beast, a new spin on the classic tale; and Emily Owens, M.D., starring Meryl Streep's daughter, Mamie Gummer, as a young doctor.
The network's much-publicized Sex and the City prequel, The Carrie Diaries, will replace Gossip Girl on Monday nights, beginning in January.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The movie may be named for Battleship, the game, but it has absolutely nothing to do with it. First of all, I don’t ever remember Brooklyn Decker standing on my grid. And I’m confident I would. I would also remember having to sink water-dwelling, lizard-eyed extraterrestrials.
This Battleship stars Friday Night Lights and John Carter lead Taylor Kitsch as Alex Hopper, a highly intelligent, underachieving bad boy whose older brother, Stone (Alexander Skarsgard), forces him to join the family business. That business? The Navy.
Turns out the Navy sort of agrees with Alex. He quickly ascends to the rank of captain, although we're given absolutely no idea how that happens: he goes from a civilian arrested for stealing a burrito to impress a girl, to a Navy captain in a matter of one scene. No exposition necessary, I guess.
By the way, the girl he stole the burrito to impress? Samantha Shane (Decker), daughter of Admiral Shane, played by Liam Neeson. Hopper is getting ready to ask the admiral’s permission to marry Samantha but the admiral is confounded by Hopper’s lack of discipline. You could say Hopper drives the Admiral INshane. Or not.
And then -- the aliens attack! Why? We kind of invited them. How? See the movie. Sure, Battleship is dumb, but only in a mindless-summer-blockbuster sort of way. The aliens are fantastic and the destruction is epic, magnificent and never boring. While we as yet have little clue how Battleship is going to play here in the U.S., it’s already making a fortune overseas. That's good news for Taylor Kitsch, a talented actor who didn't deserve the poor business and marketing decisions that plagued the box office failure John Carter. Hats off as well to director Peter Berg for infusing some heart and guts into a banal script that could’ve gone terribly wrong.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The Sacha Baron Cohen comedy The Dictator opened earlier this week. On Friday, it will be joined at the box office by two more new films. Here's a closer look:
-- Battleship: Loosely based on the popular board game, the action flick finds a fleet of naval ships defending the world against an alien attack. Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker and R&B/pop artist Rihanna star. Rated PG-13.
-- What to Expect When You're Expecting: The comedy, based on the best-selling book of the same, follows the lives of five couples who are all preparing to welcome a child. Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker, Cameron Diaz, Anna Kendrick, Jennifer Lopez, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid and Chris Rock star. Rated PG-13.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) -- On Thursday's Late Show with David Letterman, Conan O'Brien made his first appearance in 13 years. O'Brien's short-lived stint as host of NBC's The Tonight Show, and his ouster in favor of Jay Leno were topics of discussion.
Letterman has exhibited somewhat harsh feelings for Leno for what happened to O'Brien and himself. Letterman was famously skipped over by NBC when Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show in 1992. Leno got the job and that damaged the relationship between the two late night hosts.
It seems Leno's situation with O'Brien brought up some old feelings for Letterman.
When O'Brien first came out and sat down, he and Letterman didn't say anything to each other, but just smiled.
Finally, Letterman blurted out, "I think the longer we just sit here, the more uncomfortable it will make Jay."
O'Brien laughed, and said, "You know Jay's watching," and then, imitating Leno said, "Dave doesn't look happy...I think he's gonna pack it in, soon."
During the lengthy segment, Letterman said he's known Leno since the 1970s when they were both young comics in Los Angeles, and remembered Leno being "the funniest guy...the guy you always wished you could be."
However, Letterman quickly added, "He was also a bit of a brat."
Letterman told O'Brien that when the O'Brien/Tonight Show mess happened he thought to himself, "Oh, there's the Jay I know."
O'Brien stepped down as host of The Tonight Show in January 2010, and was soon replaced by Leno, after Leno's primetime talk show was canned. Letterman recalled relishing the criticism Leno got at the time from other comics who rallied to O'Brien's side.
Letterman told O'Brien, "I was delighted by everything that happened -- except you losing your job...I refer to that period as the golden age of broadcasting."
Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- A 27-year-old man has been charged with stalking Mila Kunis and will be arraigned Friday morning in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says Stuart Lynn Dunn was ordered in February to stay away from Kunis for three years after pleading no contest to an incident in which he broke into a vacant condo owned by the Black Swan star and temporarily inhabited the residence.
Dunn is now accused of waiting for Kunis in the parking lot of her gym for three consecutive days earlier this month.
Dunn, who is being held on $150,000 bail, is charged with one count each of stalking in violation of a restraining order and stalking. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.
Ryan Pierse/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- The second anonymous masseur who sued John Travolta, claiming sexual battery and sexual harassment, has hired lawyer Gloria Allred, much as the first accuser did earlier this week.
The second masseur withdrew his lawsuit on Thursday, but Allred is leaving open the possibility that the complaint may be re-filed.
She said in a statement obtained by People magazine, "We believe that the lawsuit should be filed in another court and, therefore, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice."
The first masseur has also dropped his lawsuit and hired Allred.
Travolta's lawyer, Marty Singer, is waving off any suggestion that the actor settled either case, telling TMZ.com, "Not one penny has been paid nor do we have any intention to pay any money for these ridiculous and false claims."
Singer also denies a National Enquirer report, detailed by the New York Post, claiming that Travolta once tried to perform a sex act on Grease co-star Jeff Conaway.
Singer tells E! News, "This spate of recklessly published tabloid stories is just part of a malicious tabloid agenda to boost lagging sales by running outrageous defamatory stories about my client sourced by people seeking notoriety or a payday."
JB Lacroix/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) -- Jenny McCarthy has agreed to pose for Playboy for one final time, following up on a 2009 comment that she’d love to show off her figure in the magazine before she turns 40.
A rep for Playboy has confirmed to Us that the model and actress will appear on the cover of its July/August edition double issue, which hits newsstands Friday, June 29. McCarthy, who will hit the big 4-0 on Nov. 1, was Playmate of the Year in 1993.
Last month, McCarthy told Us that her 9-year-old son, Evan made his first visit to the Playboy Mansion for an Easter Bunny Hunt. She admitted that Evan was lost for “probably 45 minutes” and eventually found him hanging out in the estate’s legendary Grotto.
ABC/RICK ROWELL(NEW YORK) -- With yet another talent show featuring singers about to debut, the battle of the judges is heating up. ABC’s series, Duets, debuts Thursday May 24, and one of its judges, John Legend, is not holding back with his thoughts on the competition.
When E! asked Legend for his thoughts on Britney Spears and Demi Lovato being drafted as judges for the next season of The X Factor, Legend replied, “It should be very interesting...It’s interesting when people, you know, are judging singing competitions when they aren’t really singers.”
Legend's fellow Duets judges Kelly Clarkson and Robin Thicke were more tactful with their responses. Clarkson told E!, “I’m excited for both of them. I’m a big fan of both of them. Both of those girls are super sweet."
Thicke added his two cents, telling E!, " ... Everything Britney does, she excels at. Demi is a lovely young lady, and I'm sure they'll do nothing but make the show a lot more fun to watch."
Duets will pair its star judges with contestants for, you guessed it, duets.
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) -- Rumors hit the Internet Tuesday saying that actress Tia Mowry Hardrict was fired from BET's The Game, the very series she helped bring back to the small screen after it was canceled by the CW.
And although many are saying Mowry Hardrict's departure was due to a breakdown in salary negotiations, a rep for the 33-year-old actress stated in an email to ABC News Radio: "It was a mutual decision and not based on salary negotiations."
"[She's] just focusing on all of her new and up-and-coming project," the rep added.
In fact, Mowry Hardrict has a lot on her plate right now. Her new pregnancy guide, Oh, Baby!: Pregnancy Tales and Advice from One Hot Mama to Another, just hit bookshelves on Monday. Also, her Style TV reality show with twin sister Tamera Mowry Housley, Tia & Tamera, premieres its second season on June 11. In 2011, the show became Style TV's most-watched series premiere ever. Not to mention, Mowry Hardrict is starring in ABC Family's upcoming musical The Mistle-Tones alongside Tori Spelling.
Sources say co-star Pooch Hall, who plays her husband Derwin on The Game, won't return for season six as well.
Ryan Pierse/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The first of two men to file a sexual battery and sexual harassment lawsuit against John Travolta may revisit his case after dropping his complaint earlier this week.
The unidentified masseur has hired high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred, who tells People magazine, "Mr. Doe's lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice which means that he is still legally entitled to file another lawsuit against John Travolta if he chooses. We are in the process of conferring with him regarding the next steps, which he may wish to take."
The masseur had claimed Travolta attempted to have sex with him during a massage at a Beverly Hills hotel, but photographic evidence released by Travolta's attorney to the media seemed to show that the actor was in New York at the time of the alleged incident.
A second masseur has made similar allegations in a separate lawsuit.
AFP/Getty Images(CANNES, France) -- The battle for bin Laden is on — that is, the battle to bring the killing of the Al-Qaeda leader to the big screen is on.
At the just-opened Cannes Film Festival, The Weinstein Company is close to buying Code Name Geronimo, a movie about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. And, according to the Los Angeles Times, company chairman Harvey Weinstein has pretty much decided to release it in the fall — ahead of the presidential elections and the release of another bin-Laden-assassination film, Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty.
Sony Pictures had decided not to release Zero Dark Thirty, which features Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain, until December 19, presumably to avoid politicizing the film. The movie was already the subject of Congressional scrutiny over whether the administration had leaked classified information to the filmmakers.
Weinstein, who rolled out Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11 the summer before the Bush-Kerry contest in 2004, apparently has no such qualms.
Code Name Geronimo is directed by John Stockwell, the actor-turned-director behind such films as Dark Tide and Blue Crush. According to industry gossip website Deadline Hollywood, the deal for the film, which is still in post-production, is being negotiated in the $2 million range on the basis of a trailer and additional footage.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the film centers on the CIA, U.S. military brass and the Navy Seals who took the risky mission. The film is reportedly more modest in budget and scope that Zero Dark Thirty. Though Geronimo may have first-to-screen advantage, Zero Dark Thirty comes with a more impressive pedigree. It’s by the same team behind the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker — Bigelow and fellow Oscar-winner, screenwriter Mark Boal.
By the way, The Hurt Locker producer who shared in the Best Picture Award, Voltage Pictures’ Nicolas Chartier, has switched sides in this battle. He’s the producer behind Geronimo.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Disco and pop music icon Donna Summer has died, according to multiple reports. The singer passed away after a battle with cancer and died in Florida, according to TMZ. She was 63.
Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, Summer -- a five-time Grammy Award winner known as the Queen of Disco -- revolutionized dance music with her seminal hits "Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love." Those tracks established her career and were followed by a string of hits, including "Last Dance," "Hot Stuff," "MacArthur Park," "Bad Girls" and "Dim All the Lights."
Summer continued her career into the '80s with hits like "She Works Hard for the Money" and "This Time I Know It's for Real." The first woman and the first African-American Artist ever to win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, for "Hot Stuff," Summer was shortlisted for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but to date has never been inducted.
Summer was most recently seen performing with Seal in David Foster's 2010 PBS special Foster & Friends and on America's Got Talent, performing with former contestant Prince Poppycock.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Forbes magazine has released its annual list of The World's Most Powerful Celebrities, and American Idol's Jennifer Lopez tops the list for the first time ever.
According to Forbes, once Lopez landed the American Idol judging job, it revived her career and gave her a platform to build her empire. She now has big endorsement deals with L'Oreal and Gillette, a clothing line at Kohl's, a fragrance line, and another show, Q'Viva!, with her ex-husband Marc Anthony.
She has a strong social media presence, with 12 million Facebook fans and 6.6 million Twitter followers, and she's reportedly earning $20 million for her second season on Idol.
Oprah Winfrey is in the number two slot, with pop sensation Justin Bieber rounding out the top three.
The rankings were determined by money earned and fame.
Forbes defines fame as "media visibility in print, television, radio and online, plus social media power," which the magazine measures by looking at a celebrity’s presence on Facebook and Twitter. Money earned was determined only by dollars earned between May 1, 2011 and May 1, 2012.
Other celebrities who made the Forbes list:
#7 -- Kim Kardashian #9 -- Tom Cruise #10-- Steven Spielberg #12 -- Tiger Woods #13 -- Angelina Jolie #20 -- Tyler Perry #22 -- Jennifer Aniston #28 -- Brad Pitt #29 -- Ryan Seacrest #34 -- Ellen DeGeneres
The Walt Disney Company/Marvel Comics(LOS ANGELES) -- It was only a matter of time, but Marvel's The Avengers is now the biggest movie of the year to date.
Through Tuesday, the superhero film has earned $389.5 million at the domestic box office, according to Hollywood.com. The total eclipses that of The Hunger Games, which raked in $387.9 million.
The Avengers currently ranks ninth all-time at the worldwide box office and 13th all-time at the domestic box office. It has earned $1.036 billion globally.
Paramount Pictures(NEW YORK) -- Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy, The Dictator, has irked some Arab-American groups who feel his character, a fictional North African dictator named Adm. Gen. Aladeen, casts an unflattering light on them.
For example, Nadia Tonova, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities, tells E! News, "I have not seen the film, but based on the trailer and interviews that I have seen him do in character, it really seems to be that it's perpetuating a negative stereotype against Arabs and therefore Arab-Americans."
Tonova previously criticized Cohen after he appeared on the Oscars red carpet as Aladeen and pretended to spill the ashes of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il onto Ryan Seacrest.
The director of the film, Larry Charles, rejects the notion that the character is offensive to Arab-Americans.
He tells ABC News Radio that Aladeen was inspired by several past dictators, such as Moammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, Augusto Pinochet and Idi Amin.
"There's a wide range historically of dictators that you can draw from and they share many personality traits. It's not an ethnic thing. It's a personality disorder, in a sense," he says.
Sonja Flemming/CBS(NEW YORK) -- TV's highest-rated network is keeping its primetime lineup mostly intact for the 2012-2013 season.
CBS confirmed Wednesday that it is bringing back 19 of its series in the fall, though a couple of them are switching to new nights. Two and a Half Men, which will retain Ashton Kutcher for a second season, will move from Mondays to Thursdays, where it will air after The Big Bang Theory.
The Simon Baker drama The Mentalist will shift from Thursdays to Sundays.
CBS will introduce four new shows in the fall:
-- Elementary, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes drama starring Jonny Lee Miller as the legendary detective and Lucy Liu as a female version of his sidekick Watson.
-- Vegas, a 1960s-era drama starring Dennis Quaid as a Las Vegas sheriff and Michael Chiklis as his gangster-rival.
-- Made in Jersey, a drama about a young woman with street smarts who works at a New York law firm.
-- Partners, a comedy about two guys whose "bromance" is tested when one of them gets engaged.
CBS also has three midseason programs in the works: the cop drama Golden Boy, the comedy Friend Me, and the Mark Burnett reality series The Job.
