Before hitting the red carpet for the L.A. premiere of “Inglourious Basterds” Monday night, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stopped traffic outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, ambushed a tour bus, shook hands with fans and then dished about it.

“This is my neighborhood,” Pitt told me afterward, as the power couple headed down the carpet into Quentin Tarantino’s World War II flick. “I ride my bike up and down [Hollywood Boulevard] a lot, and there’s always fans and tourists out here, so I always try to give them a little wave.”

Heath Ledger as The Joker is an undeniably classic performance. And a tragic one. The Dark Knight landed in theaters only months after the actor’s death by accidental overdose and, thus, his role in the film became iconic in more ways than one.

But that wasn’t his final gig. Ledger died halfway through shooting his role in the whimsical Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam. Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell stepped in to make sure his final work could be completed.

The movie hits theaters on Oct. 16.

Here are ten “new necessities” you might find you can downsize or even live without from BankRate.com. Average prices quoted are courtesy of Costhelper.com:

1. Daily latte — Brew your own and save $25 a week, or $1300 a year.

2. Cable TV — Dropping premium channels should save you about $25 to $30 a month, or $300 to $360 a year. If you’re more ambitious, you can save a bundle by dropping premium and basic service

3. Manicure/pedicure — Standard manicures average $10 to $15 at nail shops and $20 to $25 at spas and salons. If you only skipped one of each per month, you would save $50 to $110 a month, or $600 to $1,200 a year.

4. Bottled water — Some people consider bottled water a necessity, even though the perfect low-cost alternative is available from any faucet in their homes. Drink tap water and pocket the $25 to $40 monthly fee for bottled water delivery, based on online averages.

5. Second car — Hands down, a second car is the highest-ticket “new necessity” in America today. Forget this and you’ll miss the car payment, maintenance, license, registration, insurance fees and outlay for gas.

6. Cell phone — You can save $40 to $60 per month on average, or $480 to $720 per year, for every cell phone you eliminate. A prepaid plan used sparingly will save you money over a contract plan.

7. Lawn service — The average cost for weekly mowing, hedge trimming and leaf blowing is $65 to $90. It’s hardly a savings to shell out $260 to $360 a month, is it? Mow your own and save the dough. If you do enough lawn and garden work, you may even save the $35 to $40 you shell out each month for your fitness club membership.

8. Clothes — Where would retailers be if we only bought clothes we need? But satisfying your wardrobe jones with a measure of frugality can save a bundle.

9. Private school — You’re already paying for public school anyway, so go public and save anywhere from $8,000 to $35,000 per year.

10. Pet grooming/walking — The cost of grooming your dog averages $30 to $50 for small breeds, $50 to $70 for midsize breeds and $70 to $90 for large breeds. A pet walker on average runs $15 to $27 per walk. To save money, invest in a $25 set of electric clippers and learn online about how to groom your pet.

John Hughes, the popular, almost-mythic filmmaker who made teen angst hurt so good in biting comedies such as Sixteen Candles only to leave Generation Xers largely on their own as the Molly Ringwald-ruled 1980s ended, died after suffering a sudden heart attack during a walk Thursday morning in Manhattan. He was 59.

“John Hughes wrote some of the great outsider characters of all time,” Judd Apatow, the currently hot filmmaker from the Hughes mold, told the Los Angeles Times last year.

It probably would be quicker to list the 1980s movies Hughes wasn’t responsible for as either a writer, director or producer.

His credits included: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, all starring Ringwald; Weird Science, Some Kind of Wonderful and She’s Having a Baby, all quotable—and quoted—in their own right; and, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the signature Matthew Broderick, if not Hughes, comedy.

Though most associated with the 1980s, the 1990s brought Hughes his biggest box-office hits via the Home Alone franchise. Hughes also produced the Michael Keaton hit Mr. Mom, the John Candy-Steve Martin hit Planes, Trains & Automobiles and the Chevy Chase blockbuster National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Born in 1950 in Michigan, Hughes’ writing career began in Chicago, the leafy suburbs of which served as future home to the Buellers, the Saturday-morning detention gang at Shermer High and nearly all his screenplay characters.

In 1979, the former ad copywriter and National Lampoon magazine staffer scored his first Hollywood credit on a short-lived sitcom spinoff of Animal House. Within five years, Hughes was in the director’s chair on Sixteen Candles.

”I stumbled into this business, I didn’t train for it,” Hughes told Entertainment Weekly in 1994. “I yelled ‘Action!’ on my first two movies before the camera was turned on.”

Actors whose careers were helped mightily by Hughes’ allegedly accidental one include Jon Cryer, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Home Alone revelation Macaulay Culkin. Some, like Sheedy, Estevez and Nelson, became members of the unofficial 1980s film society known as the Brat Pack. Some, like Culkin, featured in the Candy-starring Uncle Buck, worked on multiple Hughes films.

Hughes walked away from directing after the 1991 family film Curly Sue. And while he continued to produce and write (occasionally as Edmond Dantés, a pen name used on the Beethoven movies, Jennifer Lopez’s Maid in Manhattan and the Apatow-produced Drillbit Tayor), he abdicated his angsty crown.

Wrote Variety of Hughes in 2008: He “doesn’t give interviews, has no publicist and lives in Wisconsin.”

Meet Peter Rivera, formerly of the rock group “Rare Earth” for an hour of music and conversation! Charlie will be checking in from his studio on the phone with Peter!

Here are the coordinates and instructions for the event which starts at Wednesday, August 5th at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET!

http://www.ilinklive.com/music

The address for the broadcast and the chat feature is:

http://www.ilinklive.com/music/chat

The username and password will apply to both pages.

user: ilinklivemusic
pass: celebrate

That will lead to a bandwidth choice page.

The High Bandwidth page will be streaming at about 600K total and I would recommend cable broadband customers only for this page.

The Low Bandwidth choice will be at about 220K total and a solid DSL connection should work well although the quality of picture and sound will be better on the High Bandwidth stream.

If you would like to test their bandwidth, you can do so at http://www.speedtest.net and click on the “rotating star” to get a reading. Any reading above “1.5 Mbps Download” should be good for High Bandwidth. A lower reading will necessitate going to the Low Bandwidth page.

If there is an interruption in audio (the lowest priority for streaming video programmers…..of course) it should easily be restored by simply clicking on the internet browser’s “refresh” button (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome). If the problem is chronic and they’re on the High Bandwidth page, switch to the Low Bandwidth page

Paula Abdul’s “American Idol” journey has ended. Less than a week after it was confirmed Kara DioGuardi would be returning to the judges’ table, Abdul wrote on Twitter Tuesday that she will not be back for the show’s ninth season.

“With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to #IDOL. I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all…being a part of a show that I helped from day 1 become an international phenomenon,” read two tweets posted shortly after 7:30 p.m.

Fox confirmed the news shortly afterward.

“What I want to say most, is how much I appreciate the undying support and enormous love that you have showered upon me,” Abdul continued. “It truly has been breathtaking, especially over the past month.

“I do without any doubt have the BEST fans in the entire world and I love you all.”

“Paula Abdul has been an important part of the American Idol family over the last eight seasons and we are saddened that she has decided not to return to the show,” Fox and producer FremantleMedia North America said in a statement. “While Paula will not be continuing with us, she’s a tremendous talent and we wish her the best.”

Abdul’s rep didn’t immediately return a request for comment, but her manager, David Sonenberg, was rather blunt recently when asked about Abdul’s prospects in the wake of the $45 million deal inked by Ryan Seacrest and the even more mind-boggling sum reportedly being negotiated by Simon Cowell.

Sonenberg told the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago that producers hadn’t even approached Abdul with a number, a lack of action he called “kind of unconscionable and certainly rude and disrespectful.”

An Idol source said that the invested parties made Abdul what they considered to be a “fair offer,” but that she turned them down. And “Kara made her expendable,” the source said.

Michael Jackson’s final days are coming to a theater—or DVD rack, at least—near you. Sony-owned Columbia Pictures has purchased the rights to the King of Pop’s 2009 rehearsal footage from concert promoter AEG Live for $60 million, according to court documents filed Friday by Jackson’s estate.

MORE RAW REHEARSAL FOOTAGE OF MICHAEL SINGING “SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE”!

A judge still needs to sign off on the transaction, which would allow Columbia to craft a PG-rated, feature-length film revolving around Jackson’s preparations for what was supposed to be a 50-date comeback engagement in London.

The $60 million encompasses merchandising rights, product tie-ins, a special director’s cut, etc. AEG has said that more than 100 hours of footage exists, though the movie is allowed to be no longer than 150 minutes.

President Barack Obama has made a surprise visit to the White House briefing room on his 48th birthday.

Obama carried cupcakes into the room where reporters were gathered to quiz his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, at the daily briefing. The president took note of another birthday, however. He sat down next to longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas and and noted that she, too, was celebrating a birthday.

Thomas, a columnist with Hearst Newspapers, turned 89 Tuesday. Obama told her: “I will leave it up to you, Helen, how you want to distribute the cupcakes.” Obama joked that Helen was wishing for peace, no prejudice and a health care reform bill.

His own birthday didn’t go unnoticed in White House. Kids on a White House tour sang “Happy Birthday” on the North Portico steps.

Meanwhile, he spent his lunch with most of the Democratic Senate Caucus discussing a new health care bill.

During Monday’s Hot Topics segment on “The View”, the conversation between Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd turned acrimonious due not to religion or politics but to Cookie Monster.

Tempers flared when the ladies began discussing Sesame Street’s upcoming healthy eating PSA, in which the ravenous blue cutie is taught about the benefits of smart food choices by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and a particularly well-informed stalk of broccoli.

For the ad was Shepherd, who apparently blames C.M. for the poor dietary habits of our nation’s youth. In the other corner was the Whoopi, who had this to say: “Bull! I think it’s stupid!…It’s a puppet!”

Kevin Costner and his country band, Modern West, were moments away from taking the stage Saturday, August 1st, at the Big Valley Jamboree, a Canadian music festival, when a major storm hit the venue.

A huge, sudden gust of wind caused the stage to collapse, killing one person and injuring 75. The Field of Dreams star and his bandmates were caught underneath the fallen stage.
Costner offered up this statement following the incident: “We are so sad about the loss of life and injury that occurred on a day that carried so much promise, but turned so wicked so quickly. We hope to return to Alberta in the future to help with the healing.”

That would include participating in any type of benefit for the victims, the actor’s rep said.

ONLY THE ENGLISH COULD HAVE INVENTED THIS LANGUAGE OF OURS, READ ON!

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese..
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,
Grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
And get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns
Down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop?

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT IF PEOPLE FROM POLAND ARE CALLED POLES THEN PEOPLE FROM HOLLAND SHOULD BE HOLES AND THE GERMANS, GERMS.

A national furor over race relations paused Thursday as President Barack Obama, in a shady spot on the White House lawn near the Rose Garden, sat down for beers with a black Harvard professor and the white police officer who arrested him two weeks ago.

In a surprise move, Professor Gates drank Sam Adams Light beer — not Red Stripe — in his meeting with the president and Sgt. Crowley. Also unexpected — Vice President Joe Biden joined the threesome and drank Buckler, a non-alcoholic beer. President Obama went with a Bud Light and Sgt. Crowley has a Blue Moon.

For the two men who raised mugs of beer with the president — both of whom wore suits and ties and sat stiffly in what was meant to be a casual moment — the discussion of race and policing will go on.

The arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., police, said afterward that he had already discussed racial issues with the professor, African-American studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., and that the two had set plans to talk further.

But for Obama, the most anticipated happy hour in recent memory may be little more than a timeout in a debate over racial profiling and other racially charged issues.

Obama has tried gradually over the past week to ease the controversy, most notably by saying he regretted his choice of words and setting up what became known as a “beer summit.” The get-together Thursday had been described by the White House as a “teachable moment.”

A small group of camera people and reporters was permitted to witness the meeting only for about 30 seconds and from about 50 feet away, showing Obama, in shirt sleeves, seated at an oval able with the now-famous adversaries.

Gates and Crowley appeared to talk seriously, and at one point, Obama laughed heartily. Joining the three was Vice President Joe Biden, also in shirt sleeves. Crowley said later that no apologies were exchanged between him and Gates. The police sergeant called the discussion Thursday “cordial and productive” but declined to offer specifics.

Gates struck a calming tone in a statement to the Web site The Root. “The national conversation over the past week about my arrest has been rowdy, not to say tumultuous and unruly,” he said. “But … there’s reason to hope that many people have emerged with greater sympathy for the daily perils of policing, on the one hand, and for the genuine fears about racial profiling, on the other hand.”

In a written statement, Obama said he was thankful to Gates and Crowley for “joining me at the White House this evening for a friendly, thoughtful conversation. Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them,” Obama said. “I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode.”

Are you bold enough to skate against Luc Robitaille or get into the ring with Sugar Ray Leonard?? How about a tangle with Tito Ortiz?? San Manuel and Del Taco double dare you to find out in their Bold Challenges sweepstakes!

San Manual Indian Bingo & Casino and Del Taco invite residents of California, Arizona and Nevada to enter the Bold Challenges sweepstakes at (www.boldchallenges.com) where winners will have the opportunity to challenge the sports champion of their choice.

Winners can choose to challenge one of five champions: Luc Robitaille, Tito Ortiz, Matt Kenseth, Sugar Ray Leonard or Annie Duke.

Entries will be accepted from July 29 through August 28, and the winners will be notified in early September.

Participants can enter online at www.boldchallenges.com, or by texting the champion’s name to 34343 (for example, text Luc to 34343). Additional details and a special offer from San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino are available at participating Del Taco locations.

“San Manuel and Del Taco are giving lucky winners a chance to have a ‘money-can’t-buy’ type of experience,” said Steve Lengel, Executive Director for San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino.

“We are thrilled to be working with these talented athletes and San Manuel on a truly unique program. Being Bold is part of our culture and we are excited to be able to offer this opportunity to our customers,” said Jon Burke, field marketing manager at Del Taco.

Who can resist the chance to challenge one of the following?

- Recently selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame, Luc Robitaille is the highest scoring left wing in NHL history and the all-time Los Angeles Kings leader in goals after playing with the team for 14 years.

- Dubbed the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” Tito Ortiz began his UFC career in 1997. With a record of 15-6-1 (W-L-D), Ortiz continues to rule the MMA world.

- Matt Kenseth, who drives the number 17 Roush Fenway Dewalt Ford in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is the current defending Daytona 500 champion.

- Named “Fighter of the Decade of the 1980’s,” Sugar Ray Leonard holds an impressive record of 36-3-1.

- Annie Duke, professional poker player, entered her first World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 1994 under the direction of her brother and successful poker professional, Howard Lederer. Duke won her first champion’s bracelet for the 2004 WSOP Omaha High-Low Split.

Robitaille, Leonard and Duke also appear in the new San Manuel’ TV campaign called “How far is fun?”

Note: You must be 21 or older to enter this promotion and the San Manuel Casino.

HERE’S THE LINK TO SIGN UP BELOW!

http://boldchallenges.com/

More than five months after his alleged assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna, Chris Brown is finally speaking out.

“Since February, my attorney has advised me not to speak out, even though, ever since the incident, I wanted to publicly express my deepest regret and accept full responsibility,” he says in a video posted on his YouTube page. “I felt it was time that you heard directly from me that I am sorry.”

Soccer star David Beckham returned to the L.A. Galaxy Sunday night after a five-month, fan-resented loan to A.C. Milan. It wasn’t pretty as number 23 was jeered for nearly the entire duration of his 75 minutes of game time and was, at one point, even challenged to a fight by a fan in the stands.

To make matters more tense, the rival team for the exhibition game was none other than A.C. Milan.

Before cable television and satellite TV, There were just three TV networks, three nightly newscasts, and one Walter Cronkite. Cronkite, TV’s most famed and influential news anchor, died Friday after a long illness. He was 92.

“When I think of Walter Cronkite, I think of his high journalism standards, integrity—but most of all his humanity,” CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, said in a statement Friday night. “I think he was so trusted because he exhibited a sense of purpose and compassion, night after night. He was the personification of excellence.”

“We trusted him and that trust was well founded,” added ABC News fixture Barbara Walters. “He was also a jolly and supportive friend. He will be missed by each of us individually who knew him and by the whole country who loved him.”

As anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962-1981, the grandfatherly Cronkite—known as “Uncle Walter”—was a nightly dinnertime presence for the prewired, precable nation, walking viewers through the tumult and triumphs of the time: the assassination of President Kennedy, the first-ever manned moon landing, the Vietnam War.

“Old anchormen, you see, don’t fade away,” Cronkite said on his final telecast. “They just keep coming back for more.”

ZAC AND CHARLIE TUNA PICTURED AT MARINA DEL REY LAST JUNE 2008, JUST BEFORE HE SET OUT ON HIS RECORD SETTING ADVENTURE TO BECOME THE YOUNGEST PERSON TO EVER SAIL AROUND THE WORLD SOLO!

A second stadium worker, 23-year-old British man Charles Prow, passed away overnight at a hospital in Marseilles. Authorities have identified Thursday’s victim as 53-year-old French worker Charles Criscenzo.

The injury tally has also increased since Thursday: Officials now say eight people were seriously hurt, while more than 30 people suffered minor injuries and shock from the event.

In addition to confirming the second death, French authorities Friday, opened a manslaughter investigation into the stadium’s collapse. Initial hearings will take place Sunday or Monday.

Meanwhile, a tearful Madonna paid moving tribute to the workers during her concert in Udine, Italy, Friday night, reiterating her devastation at the loss

HERE’S A VIEW FROM INSIDE THE TRAIN TWO YEARS AGO AT THE “MOONERS”!