Ashlee Simpson coy about rumoured nose job
NEW YORK (AP) - Ashlee Simpson is laughing off rumours she had a nose job - but she's not denying it, either.
Recent photos splashed across the Internet and in tabloids suggest the multiplatinum singer has made an alteration to her profile, removing the bump that made her nose distinctive.
When asked about the speculation during a phone interview Wednesday, Simpson giggled and said: "Everybody's already saying it, so I just don't talk about it."
"I'm like, OK, whatever. It doesn't bother me."
But when asked whether the rumour was true, the 21-year-old singer didn't confirm or deny it but just giggled more.
"Maybe - who knows!"
Simpson - the younger sister of Jessica - is about to launch a summer tour in June. Her latest album is I Am Me; her first album, Autobiography, was released in 2004 and sold three million copies.
BROTHER IN ARMS
'My Name is Earl" comes full circle in its season finale tomorrow night, minus one very important thing: 42 percent of its audience.
That's the difference between the number of people who tuned in for the premiere of "Earl" last Sept. 20 (15,249,000) and the number who watched the show just last Thursday (8,798,000).
Part of the dropoff was likely due to "Earl's" move Jan. 5 to Thursday nights at 9 from its original, less-competitive time period, Tuesday nights at 9.
But still - where'd those 6,451,000 viewers go? "CSI" on CBS? "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC? Probably both of the above.
And all this time I thought Earl-ism was catching on. Maybe that's because I was such an early, willing convert to Earl Hickey's easy-to-digest brand of instant karma.
But, hey, that's me - I'm a sponge for any new religion that comes along, especially one as simple as Earl-ism, which basically says this: Do good things for others, and good things will happen to you.
In actual practice, this has never worked for me, but in "My Name is Earl," it has always worked for Earl (Jason Lee), ever since he bought, then lost, then found again a lottery ticket worth $100,000.
And it is that moment - the moment that started it all - to which "My Name is Earl" returns in the final episode of its first season tomorrow night.
The episode answers the question that has hung in the air since the series premiere: How on earth did that lottery ticket float in the breeze all the way from the street in front of the convenience store where Earl was struck by a car to the parking lot of the motel where Earl and brother Randy (Ethan Suplee) were picking up trash days later?
The answer is complicated. And I won't spoil the episode by revealing it here except to say that the saga of the fateful lottery ticket involves Willie the One-Eyed Mailman (Bill Suplee); Earl's ex-wife, Joy (Jaime Pressly); her current husband, Crab Man (Eddie Steeples), who sets the finale episode in motion; and Paul the pizza delivery man (guest-star Max Perlich).
Despite its declining viewership, "Earl's" survival is virtually assured since NBC renewed it months ago for a second season.
For the network, it's a good deed that deserves one in return - namely, a high-rated, end-of-season sendoff for "My Name is Earl."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Host 'SNL'
NEW YORK - Julia Louis-Dreyfus will return this weekend to "Saturday Night Live," where she began her career over two decades ago.
"It's exactly the same schedule and pattern as it was 21 years ago — except more fun," Louis-Dreyfus told The Associated Press on Wednesday, shortly before the show's customary "table read" of potential sketches.
She hosts Saturday's show (11:30 p.m. EDT, NBC), with Paul Simon as musical guest.
Louis-Dreyfus first honed her comedic skills at improv theaters in Chicago. She was just 21 when she moved to New York and joined "SNL." Her eventual husband, Brad Hall, made the same trip from Chicago to the NBC show as a cast member.
But Louis-Dreyfus' three seasons at "SNL" — mostly during Eddie Murphy's heyday — were tense for her.
"I think a lot of it was my own fault. I didn't know how to navigate the waters of show business in general and specifically doing a live sketch-comedy show," she says.
"I've learned a little bit since then."
Of course, Louis-Dreyfus, 45, went on to play Elaine Benes in "Seinfeld," and currently stars on CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine."
She is, to her surprise, the first female former cast member to host "SNL."
"How's it possible that Gilda (Radner) or Jane (Curtin) or all of these people didn't host," Louis-Dreyfus wonders. "For some reason they didn't, and here I am."
Louis-Dreyfus says she had been approached in the past to host "SNL," but thought raising her two children with Hall took precedence over a week of rehearsing and then hosting the show. Now that the kids are a little more grown, she says, the timing is right.
"We're going to get a huge kick out of being able to show the whole place to our kids," Louis-Dreyfus says of herself and Hall. "We spent a lot of our lives here."