How Old is Tina Turner

If you tuned in for the 2008 Grammys last night, you were likely asking yourself “how old is Tina Turner?” After all, she’s no spring chicken — but boy, does she sure still have it.

In a performance that matched Tina Turner with Beyonce, singing “Proud Mary,” Tina Turner showed that she can still do her thing. Take notice, so called performers who lip synch. This is how it’s done.

But how old is Tina Turner? She was born November 26, 1939, so Tina Turner is 68 years old. Remarkable.

And despite her age, Tina Turner didn’t sacrifice a dance step or wear an outfit indicative of her age — Tina Turner still pulled out all the stops for an amazing 2008 Grammys award performance and showed young Beyonce a thing or two.

If you didn’t catch the Tina Turner and Beyonce duet of “Proud Mary,” check out the video clip and picture below. Then ask yourself “How old is Tina Turner?”

Taryn Manning

Taryn Manning (born November 6, 1978) is an American actress, fashion designer, dancer and singer/songwriter. She has starred in films including Crossroads, crazy/beautiful, Hustle & Flow, Cold Mountain and 8 Mile. She is the vocalist for Boomkat, a band she is in with her older brother Kellin Manning.

Louisiana Technical College - Woman Shoots 2 Female Students, Self

Baton Rouge police say a young woman killed two female students in a classroom at a vo-tech college, then killed herself.

Sgt. Don Kelly says police don’t know the women’s names or ages, or whether the killer was also a student at Louisiana Technical College.

He says the first two women killed apparently were in their seats in the second-floor classroom.

The incident occurred shortly after 8:30 a.m. today. Kelly says Baton Rouge police got many cellphone calls saying people had been shot.

Heidi Fleiss Arrested!!!

Hollywood's former Madame to the Stars was busted in Nevada on Thursday afternoon.

Yes, it's a DUI, but so much more too!

Nye County Sheriff's Deputies arrested Heidi Fleiss after they got a call about a possible drunk driver. The cops found the car, driven by Fleiss, and pulled it over.

During the traffic stop, officers say they found prescription narcotics inside the car. Fleiss was unable to produce evidence that the medication had been prescribed to her. Very illegal.

So the coppers took her to jail (again)!

Fleiss was charged with driving without a license, possession of dangerous drugs without a prescription, under the influence of a controlled substance and driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

P.S. If she was driving drunk in the middle of the day AND had a bunch of pills on her, girlfriend's got some serious problems.

Watch "My Buddy Bill"

Last year while I was visiting Chicago, Mo Ryan told me she had tickets to see watch Rick Cleveland, a scribe for “Six Feet Under” and “The West Wing” (he shared the show's only writing Emmy with this guy), workshopping a monologue called “My Buddy Bill.” I had no idea what to expect, but the performance was a complete hoot.

The story starts out in the White House in the final months of the Bill Clinton administration -- he's the Bill in the title -- passes through Malibu and rural Arkansas (where Billy Bob Thornton somehow gets involved) and ends up with Cleveland trying to score illicit drugs in an Amsterdam coffee shop while hanging with Clinton and Christopher Walken. Much of the charm derives from Cleveland walking you right through the membrane that separates plausibility from absurdity, and you hardly notice a thing. He taped a polished performance in New York a few months later; it airs at 11 p.m. CT on Thursday on Comedy Central.

Izabel Goulart With Salita Ebanks and Karolina Kurkova

Izabel Goulart was born on October 23, 1984 in São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil. She is of Italian-Brazilian descent. She has four brothers and one sister. Goulart once said that “the hardest part about being an Angel is I spend time away from my mom’s food and away from my home with my five brothers and sister.”

Goulart has stated that school was a particularly rough time, as she was made fun of for her skinny build, and was even called names such as “giraffe”.

While shopping for groceries with her mother at age 14, a hairstylist suggested that she should become a model. She moved to the state’s capital São Paulo and started modeling.

Chuck Yeager

The man who broke the speed of sound is all over the news these days. Yes, Chuck Yeager is an aviation legend whose name and accomplishment continue to sound out to the ends of the globe. It was Chuck Yeager who in 1947 as a test pilot broke the speed of sound. He also was a war hero. His list of medals and commendations include:

Air Force Distinguished Service Medal
Silver Star
Legion of Merit
Distinguished Flying Cross
Purple Heart
Air medal
Presidential Medal of Freedom
World War II Victory Medal

The above citations are only a partial list, this guy is a living legend and a true American hero.

Chuck Yeager suprisingly never attended college yet no one doubts his intellect and wisdom. Chuck is considered by many to be the greatest pilot of all time.

We will update this blog regularly with anything and everything related to Chuck Yeager.

Rick Cleveland Solo

Comedy Central will air the Rick Cleveland solo, My Buddy Bill, which concerns his relationship with former President Bill Clinton and Clinton's canine companion Buddy.

Recorded from performances (June 15, 2007) at New York City's 92nd Street Y, the one-man comedy will debut in a one-hour special on the cable network (late Thursday night) Feb. 8 at midnight.

In My Buddy Bill, "Six Feet Under" and "The West Wing" writer Cleveland "spills the dirt on his relationship with former President Bill Clinton... from touring the White House to playing catch with the First Dog Buddy and flying in George Harrison's jet to Amsterdam... discovering that he and the former President have much in common," according to production notes.

The work debuted at the Geffen Playhouse in 2005 and was later featured at the 12th annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2006. Peter Birkenhead directed the solo play. Cleveland is currently working on the followup, My Pal George, based on current President George W. Bush � which will be workshopped at the upcoming Berkshire Theatre Festival.

Cleveland served as executive producer and writer for all five seasons of the HBO drama "Six Feet Under" and garnered an Emmy and a Writer's Guild Award in 2000 for his writing on NBC's "The West Wing." His work on the latter television series inspired My Buddy Bill. Other credits include his play Jerry and Tom (later adapted for the 1998 film) and his screen adaptation of John Grisham's "Runaway Jury." He is also a commentator for NPR's "All Things Considered" and is working on a new monologue play, The Nauseated Traveler.

Katie Rees Arrested!

Katie Rees found a new way to use her body last night.

The former Miss Nevada was arrested in Las Vegas for allegedly assaulting a police officer, TMZ reports.
The walking beauty pageant scandal was pulled over for a traffic violation. What went down? Well, it wasn’t Rees, for a change. But when cops attempted to arrest her, Katie began to elbow and kick them.

Police said they were just gonna cite Rees, but when she went all Mary Delgado on them, they had to take her in. FOX5 in Las Vegas broke the story.

Rees, of course, was famously stripped of her crown after she stripped down for a number of quasi lesbian photos that surfaced online.

Nettie Reeves Outstanding Citizen and NshapewithN Entrepreneur

Nettie Reeves has a resume that would make most people exceedingly envious. This successful Charlotte, NC woman has twenty years of experience as a personal trainer, fitness instructor, business owner and motivational speaker. She has recently been honored with several prestigious awards.

Reeves received the 2007 Hoodie Award for Outstanding Community Service and the 2008 Pride Award for Healthcare Services. She also has an online website NshapewithN that features a robust program of fitness and products.

Most Distasteful Super Bowl Ads

Despite costing nearly $3 million just to air, a barrage of Super Bowl ads managed to be not just unfunny or uninformative but aggressively unpleasant, clawing at viewers' attention with nothing more clever than national or racial stereotypes, anatomical gross-outs or baldly implausible claims. That American corporations waste money so visibly is, by now, unsurprising. But it can be fascinating and even fun to watch.

CareerBuilder's Follow Your Heart Ad

Three good things about this ad: It communicated a clear, positive message about the product; it takes you by surprise; and it makes you pay attention. But in the end, a heart leaping out of a woman's chest is too gross and disturbing and the punchline too obvious.

Bud Lite's Foreign Lortharios Ad

Have you heard? Apparently foreign accents and cultures are totally funny! Well, actually, they can be, but not like this. The South Asian guy says the girl has "the thighs of a Sherpa," the East Asian guy says "Hai" all aggressive and Japanesey; the African guy is carrying around a chicken; the leading Lothario is of course Latino. Not racist or xenophobic, just dumb and awkward.

SalesGenie.com's Two Salesmen Under the Gun ads

In the first ad, an Indian guy named Ramesh with seven kids (just one less than Apu on Simpsons!) uses SalesGenie.com to meet a deadline for his loudmouth boss. In case we miss the point that he has seven kids, we are hit over the head with it twice.

In the other ad, a Chinese couple named Ching Ching and Ling Ling, which are actually pandas, speak in broken English about how to save their business with a "sales miracle" and end up owning a superstore thanks to SalesGenie.

Racial, national and religious stereotypes can be employed in the service of humor; the Simpsons and, arguably, South Park and King of the Hill have used them to deliver some solid punchlines. But if they are pretty much all you got; and you're not obviously making fun of the stereotype itself; and your ad isn't actually funny then deploying accents and stereotype is just going to make you look desperate for attention.

Slightly less dumb

The E-Trade baby ads. They were fun enough as a visual gag, but the stock market fell steadily in January. With the market becoming less predictable by the day, do you really want to emphasize how unsophisticated your target customer is, or mount the implied claim that it's really easy to make money trading stocks right now?

No. 1 'Hannah Montana' at the top of her game

Long before Sunday's kickoff, the 15-year-old pop-culture sensation Miley Cyrus was on her way to breaking the first records of Super Bowl weekend.

Walt Disney Pictures' 3-D movie "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour" scored the highest gross ever for the big-game weekend with an estimated $29 million in three days.

The studio said its weeklong run would be extended to a second week, through Valentine's Day, as many had expected. "Exhibitors are over the moon," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion picture group. "We've got a great-playing movie that can get repeat business."

Despite showing at only 683 theaters because of technological limitations, the G-rated "Hannah Montana" opened better than expected and was by far the weekend's No. 1 movie, thanks partly to the higher ticket prices that 3-D movies can fetch. Some theaters charged $15 or more for the special event, leading to a whopping average of $42,500 per location.

A distant No. 2 for the weekend was Lions Gate Films' "The Eye," a PG-13 thriller starring Jessica Alba, which opened to an estimated $13 million. Twentieth Century Fox's romantic comedy "27 Dresses," starring Katherine Heigl, continued to hold up well, placing third with $8.4 million.

Super Bowl weekend is typically sluggish for the movie business. But with "Hannah Montana," business in the U.S. and Canada rocketed 37% from the same weekend in 2007, according to data tracker Media by Numbers.

Box-office analysts have been cautious about the outlook for 2008, noting that fewer major sequels are on the schedule, but the early results have been robust. Overall revenue is up 15% and attendance has climbed 11%.

Zoradi was optimistic about the second-week prospects for "Hannah Montana," noting that moviegoers surveyed by CinemaScore rated it a solid "A." Its ultimate total will depend on how many repeat customers and moviegoers outside the core audience of teenage and younger girls end up attending, he said.

Sales soared more than 50% from Friday to Saturday, when schoolchildren and the parents who shuttle them around became more available.

"Hannah Montana" was produced for about $7 million and shot with seven of the specially designed digital 3-D cameras that director James Cameron is using for his upcoming science-fiction thriller "Avatar," one of several big-budget, live-action movies being made in the format.

"Hannah Montana" will be released later in overseas markets that have 3-D theaters available, Disney said.

Studios and theater owners are eyeing the performance of "Hannah Montana" as they invest heavily in 3-D feature production and scramble to convert auditoriums to show the movies more widely.

"The Eye," meanwhile, matched or fell slightly below most industry expectations on a weekend often dominated by thrillers. The movie, produced for about $22 million by Paula Wagner's C/W Productions, drew crowds estimated at 56% female, which is typical for the suspense genre.

And 75% of the audience was age 17 to 29, the demographic "sweet spot" being targeted, said Steve Rothenberg, Lions Gate's president of domestic distribution. "The Eye," a remake of a Chinese horror film, got a moderate "B-minus" grade from CinemaScore survey respondents.

But Rothenberg said he was encouraged by the film's 17% bump in business from Friday to Saturday. Usually, films in the genre see business rise by 5% to 10%, he said.

The weekend's other major release was the Eva Longoria Parker-Paul Rudd romantic comedy "Over Her Dead Body," produced by Gold Circle Films and distributed domestically by New Line Cinema, which grossed $4.6 million to open at the lower end of expectations and apparently just miss the top 10.

The previous record for a Super Bowl weekend opening was held by "When a Stranger Calls," which grossed $21.6 million in 2006. And the Super Bowl record for a movie at any stage of release had been held by the long-running epic "Titanic," which grossed $25.2 million in 1998 during its seventh weekend.

"Hannah Montana" also was shown at the smallest number of locations for any No. 1 movie, according to Disney.

That distinction previously belonged to the raunchy comedy "Borat," which grossed $26.5 million when it opened in November 2006, averaging $31,600 at 837 theaters.

'Welcome to the Captain'

I very much wanted to like "Welcome to the Captain" -- the notion of a show exploring the odd and lovely personalities that collide among L.A. renters is so darn appealing. I would imagine that most people who ever lived in a great old apartment building in Los Angeles (or New York or Chicago) have, after five or six beers, looked around at the fascinating characters moving in and out of the charming but slightly dilapidated lobby/courtyard and thought, "This would really make a great TV show."

And so it has, with names as various as "Melrose Place," "Hot L Baltimore" and "Friends."

"Welcome to the Captain," however, is a particularly local breed, taking place in one of those fabulous residential landmarks that rise or sprawl, depending on the architecture, in various L.A. neighborhoods. (The El Royale on Rossmore Avenue seems to have been the model for the exterior and location.) Not surprising, the inhabitants of El Capitan are of the eccentrainment variety -- offbeat survivors of the Biz. And that goes, in some cases, for casting as well as characters, which is very promising.

Yet setting a comedy in Los Angeles is both tempting and perilous. There is so much to skewer here, but it's far too easy to swing at the easy shots. And swing writer John Hamburg (who gave us "Meet the Parents") does, with occasionally amusing but more often predictable and mildly dopey results.

Jeffrey Tambor, who helped define eccentric in "Arrested Development" and "The Larry Sanders Show," is Uncle Saul, former writer for "a little show called 'Three's Company" or "T. Co." Acting as den mother/gossip switchboard, with doorman Jesus (pronounced biblically and played by Al Madrigal) as his faithful, funny-faced sidekick, Uncle Saul is there to anchor the laughs. The requisite ditsy aspiring actress goes by the name of Astrid (Valerie Azlynn) while the other ingénue -- you know, the smart one -- is Hope (Joanna Garcia), an acupuncture student. (Hey, it could have been worse; she could work at a smoothie bar.) And yes, that is Raquel Welch, playing aging actress/class cougar Charlene with a Mrs. Robinson robe-drop and hair imported from "Falcon Crest."

If that were not a large enough compendium of Hollywood stereotypes -- er, I mean local characters -- we also have Marty (Chris Klein), accountant to the (B-list) stars, and guess what? He's girl crazy.

Still, it's Marty who gets the narrative ball rolling by convincing his best friend, Josh (Fran Kranz), to take the apartment recently left vacant by the death of an aging movie star. Josh is, if you can believe it, a hot young screenwriter-filmmaker. Only maybe not as hot as he was when he won an Oscar for short film right out of the box. In fact, Josh isn't sure he should have ever moved to L.A. from New York because he can't seem to write here. Still, that Hope is pretty darn cute, so why not give the legendary Captain a chance to work its magic?

Why not, indeed. Well, there are many reasons. Tambor, God bless him, gives it his all, capturing the absurdity and pathos of a grown man still living in what is essentially a dorm. Welch looks fabulous, but the less said about the cliché she embodies the better. Perhaps in future episodes she will be allowed an actual character to play. Josh is so earnest and callow it almost hurts to look at him; it seems impossible he has ever survived a pitch meeting much less the red carpet. He's amiable enough, as is Hope, so a hookup seems inevitable, and perhaps interesting complexities will arise, but I don't see how. Josh may be a writer, but as far as demons go, I think we're in dust-bunny territory.

Meanwhile, the joke of Jesus' name was wearing thin 10 minutes into the first episode, and Marty, well, I guess he's supposed to be the Ari character here. But there is, for better or worse, only one Jeremy Piven, and this ain't him.

All of which is an attempt to explain why, though one may want to like "Welcome to the Captain," it isn't easy to actually do this. It's not a terrible show by any means. It earns a few laughs, has some clever moments and in the midst of this darn strike, is new anyway. But after watching two episodes, I was left with the thought with which I began: An iconic apartment building full of wacky characters would make a great TV show. Would, though. Not does.

Live: The Jonas Brothers

In their hit cover of the English pop-punk band Busted's "Year 3000," the Jonas Brothers sing about a visit to the future, where "this song had gone multiplatinum."

If they keep proceeding at their current pace, they won't have to wait quite that long: Thanks in part to their opening stint on last year's blockbuster Hannah Montana tour, the band's self-titled sophomore disc (which includes "Year 3000") is on track to hit the million-sold mark within weeks.

A squeaky-clean trio of New Jersey natives who overcame an initial bout of record-label mishandling (with help from the kingmakers at Radio Disney), the Jonases have become three of the brightest lights in the tween-pop firmament, and Saturday night at the Gibson Amphitheatre, during the second of three headlining shows the band played over the weekend, the brothers basked in their newfound glory.

Literally: Several times throughout their 90-minute set, 15-year-old Nick, 18-year-old Joe and 20-year-old Kevin simply stood onstage and gazed out at the audience of shrieking girls, soaking in the adoration like victorious candidates on election night.

The Jonas platform is a canny one: They marry the high-energy crunch of today's emo acts to the blue-eyed R&B that has motored countless groups of young white men to boy-band success. That makes the songs on "The Jonas Brothers" feel fresh and familiar at the same time.

In a similar way, the band's show Saturday intermingled the cutting edge and the tried-and-true.

The stage's tri-level set offered the Jonases multiple opportunities for light acrobatics; midway through a new tune from the band's third album, due later this year, Joe dropped through a hidden trapdoor, eliciting a round of oohs and aahs like a veteran Las Vegas showman.

Yet the simple tricks proved just as satisfying to the Jonases' fans, as demonstrated by the roar that approved Nick's tearing the sleeves off his shirt. Getting to see these guys in the flesh (the more the better) was the point, not their musical mastery.

Still, the Jonases are tremendously more polished performers than predecessors such as New Kids on the Block; even if they relied on their four-piece backing band for most of the music's muscle, the brothers' singing and playing reflected the degree of sophistication their media-savvy fan base now expects.

Only near the end of the show, when Nick led the group through a soggy piano ballad that made you wonder how you'd ended up at a Counting Crows gig, did the energy falter. Fortunately for the band, the guy running the video monitors on each side of the stage found the perfect device to keep the crowd engaged: a close-up of Nick's face.

Britney Spears Placed Under 14-Day Hold At Hospital: Report

Britney Spears's hospitalization has been extended to an additional 14-day hold, People.com reported Sunday (February 3). TMZ initially reported the news in more speculative terms on Saturday.

People.com reported that only the singer's psychiatrist would have had the authority to request the involuntary stay, noting that she could be released earlier if she legally demands to be released or her doctor deems her well enough for outpatient treatment.

Early Thursday morning, Spears was rushed to the hospital by ambulance for the second time in a month. According to reports in the Los Angeles Times, Spears, 26, was physically removed from her home by police and put into an ambulance at around 1 a.m. PT, then escorted to the UCLA Medical Center by a phalanx of more than a dozen motorcycle officers, two police cruisers and two police helicopters.

Spears was taken to the hospital to "get help," a Los Angeles police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press.

On January 3, Spears was placed on a 72-hour mental-health evaluation hold when police were called to her house after she would not give up custody of her two children to a representative for ex-husband Kevin Federline, who had come to pick them up; she was released two days later. The troubled singer lost visitation rights of sons Sean Preston, 2 and Jayden James, 1, on January 4 after her hospitalization following her refusal to hand the children back to Federline.

On Friday, a Los Angeles judge decided that the hospitalized singer's father, who along with her mother called an emergency hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, should have control over their daughter's affairs, at least temporarily.

Jamie and Lynne Spears asked the court to establish a conservatorship, where they would be co-conservators, along with a third independent party, so they can make decisions in regards to health care and finances for their adult daughter. Commissioner Reva Goetz decided that Jamie Spears would be the conservator of Britney's person, as well as her estate, along with attorney Andrew Wallat, who was appointed by the judge. The conservatorship lasts at least through Monday, at which point the issue will be addressed in depth at another hearing that afternoon. Spears' custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline is due for a status hearing that morning.

Heath Ledger Remembered At Second Ceremony In Los Angeles

Friends and colleagues — including Tom Cruise, Sienna Miller, Ellen DeGeneres and director Todd Haynes — gathered at a private ceremony in Los Angeles to remember Heath Ledger on Saturday on Saturday (February 2), according to People.com. The actor died in New York on January 22.

The ceremony, which took place at the Sony lot, included industry figures and people connected to CAA (the agency that represented Ledger), including Cruise, the site reported.

Saturday's service reportedly began around noon on the lot, which is closed to the public. Attendees included Miller, who co-starred with Ledger in "Casanova," and speakers included Haynes, who directed him in last year's Bob Dylan film "I'm Not There."

Last Saturday, relatives and close friends — including Naomi Watts — paid tribute to the 28-year-old actor at a smaller service at a Los Angeles cemetery, and a memorial was also held in New York. People.com reported that a small group of black-dressed mourners, including Watts, was seen in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday evening; Australia's Channel 7 reported that a 30-minute service was also held at Westwood Village Memorial Park, during which Watts was "visibly upset."

Earlier that day, a message from the actor's father, Kim Ledger, was read by Australian Consul-General John Olsen to approximately 1,000 guests at an event in New York, according to Melbourne, Australia-based newspaper The Age.

"Heath did not become an actor for the fame or fortune. He loved his craft and he loved helping his friends. He loved chess and skateboarding too," said the letter, which was read at an event celebrating the end of the two-week G'Day USA/ Australia Week festival. "My image of Heath in New York is him with his skateboard, a canvas bag and his beanie. That was Heath to me.

"Heath is, and always will be, an Australian."

For more on Heath Ledger's tragic passing, read reactions from his peers and other admirers, as well as casting directors he worked with. Also, watch Ledger talk about his evolution as an actor in a 2005 interview with MTV News.

Michelle Williams Breaks Silence On Heath Ledger's Death: 'My Heart Is Broken'

Nine days after Heath Ledger was found dead at his New York apartment, Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams has issued her first public statement regarding the tragic death of her ex-fiance, pleading with fans and journalists to honor her need for privacy.

"Please respect our need to grieve privately," Williams said in a statement released Friday by her spokesperson, who also represented Ledger. "My heart is broken."

Williams and Ledger met and became romantically involved on the set of the 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain," where they played the Del Mars, a husband and wife separated by his relationship with Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Soon after, Williams gave birth to the couple's only child, Matilda Rose, on October 28, 2005.

It is through the spirit of his daughter that Ledger lives on, Williams said.

"I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father," Williams continued in the statement. "All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day."

According to Williams, that spirit manifests itself in Matilda's burgeoning curiosity, her love for all creatures and her fearlessness in tackling new challenges.

"His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals and takes steps two at a time, and we know that he is with us still," Williams said. ""She will be brought up with the best memories of him."

The filming of Williams' latest movie, "Blue Valentine," has been postponed to allow the actress time to mourn. It was set to begin filming February 25.

New Jay-Z Song Leaks -- Is Blueprint 3 In The Works?

Is Jay-Z pulling a Jay-Z and dropping another album just a few months after delivering his last LP? (Remember, he used to average a new album every eight or nine months.)

On Wednesday night, the Internet went crazy when a Timbaland-produced Jay song called "Ain't I" leaked.

The record had several drops from DJ Clue promoting it as a song from Blueprint 3 and saying that we can also find it on his mixtape I Am Legend Part 1. Needless to say, fans and music industry insiders alike started buzzing because talk of this album came out of nowhere. The song's leak is especially strange since it seems like Jay's current album, American Gangster, hasn't run its course yet. Only two songs have been released from that opus, and Def Jam recently sent out promo copies of the record "I Know," signaling that it's the next single.

Still, with lyrics on "Ain't I" that relate to Jay-Z's current state of affairs ("I took a pay cut to become a exec/ So the next mother----er can earn his paycheck/ And even though these n---as talk greasy 'bout me/ Ask these n---as how they gonna eat without me!"), people think that there's some validity to rumors about the impending release of Blueprint 3.

"I'm a hustler's hustler/ a gangster's gangster/ I'm a rapper's rapper/ Your favorite, ain't I?" Jay-Z spits. And the beat reminds you of the vibe from his back-in-day Timbaland collaboration "Lobster and Scrimp."

Well, MTV News contacted Jay-Z's rep Wednesday night. Jay's spokesperson said that, while the song may be new to the general public, it is an old recording that was previously unreleased. Jigga's rep also said he has made no announcement about a new LP, Blueprint 3 or otherwise.

Major Progress in Writers' Strike Talks

After weeks of stalled talks, negotiators in the entertainment writers' strike have suddenly made "substantial progress" in their discussions, people with knowledge of the talks said yesterday, raising hopes in Hollywood that a settlement could come as early as this week.

Representatives of the Writers Guild of America and the major movie studios and TV networks appear to have tentatively resolved the major issues that led the labor union's 10,500 members to walk out on Nov. 5, sources said.

Both sides have agreed to a media blackout regarding negotiations, and officials from the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers declined to comment yesterday.

"No one will say it's done," a person with knowledge of the discussions said, but a "staggering amount" of progress was made Friday after nine hours of informal discussions in Los Angeles. The next step, the person said, is to get the results of the negotiation on paper. "Until it's on paper, no one is saying anything" publicly, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the no-comment agreement.

A settlement would restart production of TV dramas and sitcoms, which ground to a halt not long after writers on both coasts walked out 13 weeks ago. A quick resolution would enable the broadcast networks to wind up this disrupted TV season with at least some original fare. However, industry executives say that, even if a deal is struck in the next few days, it could take a few weeks for benched series to get going again.

With television production effectively shut down in Hollywood and in much of New York, the networks have filled their prime-time schedules with reruns and "reality" series, some of which had been ordered as part of the networks' strike contingency plans. Movie production has been less impaired.

A more immediate beneficiary of a quick settlement would be the Feb. 24 Academy Awards telecast. The Screen Actors Guild has said that its members will not attend the event if the writers are still on strike, a move that probably would reduce the Oscars to a glamour-less, celebrity-free event. That fate befell NBC's broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards last month and sent its ratings plunging.

Word of progress in the negotiations, including a report yesterday on the New York Times Web site, set off a flurry of optimistic e-mails in the entertainment industry. Although several people said a deal could be announced as soon as late yesterday, those hopes were quickly dashed. The two sides have yet to commit their agreement to writing.

A member of the guild who writes TV comedies sounded a skeptical note. "I'm hopeful but wary, as these types of early, optimistic rumors have been deliberately seeded by the [producers] in the past to artificially raise and then dash our hopes as a bargaining bludgeon," said the writer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Writers Guild's negotiating committee has scheduled a videoconference for tomorrow to discuss developments. Any settlement proposal would have to be ratified by the guild's members.

The negotiations got a boost on Friday, sources said, when Peter Chernin, the president of News Corp., returned from London and rejoined the talks. Chernin's company owns the 20th Century Fox movie studio and the Fox broadcast network, and he is one of the powerful moguls leading the discussions, along with Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Co., as well as Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS.

The studios walked away from negotiations on Dec. 7. But Chernin and Iger resumed informal talks with top Writers Guild officials on Jan. 22 after producers reached an agreement with the Directors Guild of America.

Writers have been seeking bigger fees, known as residuals, from the sale of home videos, and compensation from Internet downloads and streaming of TV programs and movies. The big stumbling block has been the precise formula for Internet residuals.

Eva Mendes Getting Professional Support, Reportedly in Rehab

Actress Eva Mendes is getting "professional support" for some "personal issues," her rep said Friday on the heels of a report saying she's in rehab battling a substance abuse problem.

"Eva has been working hard for the past year and made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to proactively attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support," her rep told FOXNews.com.

"Out of respect for Eva's privacy, we do not wish to discuss further details," the rep added.

The "Ghost Rider" star, 33, has spent several weeks at Cirque Lodge in Utah, where Lindsay Lohan was recently treated, TMZ.com reported.

Mendes was just named "Sexiest Actress" of 2008 by Victoria's Secret, and Calvin Klein announced Friday that she will be featured in an upcoming Calvin Klein Fragrances advertising campaign, which will debut Fall 2008.