What’s next on Speidi’s list of self-publicity ploys?

A baby, of course!

Now that buzz has died down since Heidi Montag’s embarrassing lip-synching act at the Miss Universe competition last week, the “Hills” star is hatching up a new plan to drum up attention.

And oddly enough, hubby Spencer Pratt isn’t complying.

Montag’s sister-in-law, Stephanie Pratt, says that the buxom blonde has “baby fever,” but her brother, Spencer, wants to continue enjoying his kid-free life.

“Heidi is the one with the baby fever; Spencer is not,” Stephanie told MTV News, adding that the wannabe singer, 22, might be taking her motherhood cues from the local book store.

“Here’s the deal: Basically, Heidi got married; [then] she’s like, ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’” she explained. “I really feel like she went to a bookstore and saw ‘Newlyweds: The Wife’s Edition,’ and so now she’s like, ‘I still want to get a house with a white picket fence… and then probably a dog, and then we’ll move on to kids. And I want to take cooking lessons.’”

Though she is meant to look like the reality show’s airhead, Stephanie, 23, actually has words of wisdom for the couple.

“I’m like, ‘You don’t have to do that,’” she said. “I keep telling her, ‘You don’t have to get a dog [either].’ A dog is a kid. They’re just too busy.”

There has yet to be any Speidi baby announcements (fingers crossed), but Stephanie says the married couple’s next step, for now, is “looking for a house.”

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Her smile is radiant, her eyes no longer bloodshot and her once-skeletal frame is elegant again.

Billed as the comeback of the century, Whitney Houston’s long-awaited return to the microphone could mark her salvation. The troubled diva, who had been trapped in a squalid spiral of substance abuse, is putting out her first album in seven years today. Friends believe the release caps the rescue of an American icon whose talent was nearly snuffed out.

“We all crossed our fingers that her beautiful story would end happily,” said actor and musician Jamie Foxx, speaking about the new R&B collection, “I Look to You.”

“This is a new beginning.”

Houston credits her 15-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, with giving her the confidence to try to resurrect her career.

“She was with me every step of the way,” the 46-year-old former icon has revealed. “She encourages me and inspires me. When I look at her eyes and I see myself, I go, ‘Okay. I can do this. I can do this.’”

If anyone could do with another chance, it’s Houston.

Many people are still shocked that the one-time goody two shoes, responsible for an astonishing 170 million record and video sales, could fall so spectacularly from grace.

Now apparently free from the drugs and alcohol that brought her down — as well as 180 pounds of useless flab in the form of thuggish ex-husband Bobby Brown — she is determined to reclaim her self-respect and the love of fans.

Houston’s rehabilitation involves the inevitable TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, scheduled for Sept. 14. The performer is expected to reflect on how her charmed life was rudely interrupted.

Born into music royalty in Newark (mom Cissy was a Grammy Award-winning soul and gospel singer, Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick were cousins, Aretha Franklin was her godmother), she was cosseted by a deeply religious family who closely monitored her early career.

Houston declined a number of recording offers until 1983, when music mogul Clive Davis, then head of Arista Records, offered her a 20-year recording contract.

Houston, also in demand as a model, went on to win six Grammys, was named by Rolling Stone as one of its “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” and starred opposite Kevin Costner in a 1992 romantic thriller, “The Bodyguard.” Further movie projects included the lead in the critically acclaimed “Waiting to Exhale” and The Preacher’s Wife” with Denzel Washington.

But it was her heart-stopping, supercharged voice — belting out chart-topping hits like “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and “Greatest Love of All” — that made her Forbes magazine’s highest-earning African-American woman in 1987.
Then she wed Brown. Six years her junior, the rapper had a bad-boy image at odds with his gorgeous bride’s. The union had mismatch written all over it.

Reports soon surfaced about the couple’s erratic behavior. There were claims of domestic violence, drug use and unsuccessful spells in rehab. In 2000, Houston was fired from the Oscars telecast because she kept fluffing her lines. A year later, she appeared at a concert in New York looking so thin and disoriented, shocking headlines implied she was close to death.

In 2002, in a now-infamous interview with Diane Sawyer coinciding with the release of her last album, a jittery Houston scoffed at claims she smoked crack.

“I make too much money to ever smoke crack,” she declared. “Let’s get that straight, okay? We don’t do that. Crack is whack!”

In 2005, she agreed to “star” with her husband in his train-wreck reality series “Being Bobby Brown.”

A few years earlier, her father, John, had warned: “Stick with him [Brown], and you’re gonna die.” His prediction almost came true in March 2006, when she hit rock bottom. The National Enquirer published pictures of Houston’s bathroom in Atlanta, a scene littered with the drug paraphernalia of a junkie.

Mercifully, the horrendous publicity proved to be a wakeup call, the start of a long trek toward stability. Eighteen months later, Houston finally divorced Brown and won custody of their daughter.

She reconnected with her Svengali, Davis, 77, now head of Sony Music. With the help of teen Bobbi, he has led her back into the light.

“Whitney is Whitney,” Davis told MTV, reaffirming his faith in his protegée. “And there ain’t nobody like her.”

Veteran singer Freda Payne, a Houston friend best-known for the hit “Band of Gold,” endorsed her return to the recording studio.

“The public will embrace her because we miss the Whitney we adored,” said Payne. “I’m so happy she is coming back. She is in my prayers.”

And in the prayers of all her fans.

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Mianda Kerr (above) learned that walking the red carpet can be dangerous the other night at the launch of Victoria’s Secret’s Heavenly Enchanted fragrance at The Grove in LA. The Aussie model, who dates Orlando Bloom, was momentarily blinded after being accidentally spritzed in the face with a bottle of the perfume by Melissa (”Dancing With the Stars”) Rycroft. “Melissa was telling people later she felt really bad,” laughs a spy. Kerr eventually pulled through. Also there were Gavin Rossdale and son Kingston.

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NBC’s “Today” show has hired someone with White House experience as a new correspondent – former first daughter Jenna Hager.

The daughter of former President George W. Bush will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television’s top-rated morning news show, said Jim Bell, its executive producer.

Hager, a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, said she has always wanted to be a teacher and a writer, and has already authored two books. But she was intrigued by the idea of getting into television when Bell contacted her.

“It wasn’t something I’d always dreamed to do,” she said. “But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change.”

She’ll essentially work two part-time jobs as a correspondent and in her school, where she will be a reading coordinator this year.

Bell said he got the idea after seeing Hager in two “Today” appearances. She was on the program two years ago to promote her book about an HIV-infected single mother, “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope,” and it went so well that a short interview was stretched to nearly a half hour. She and her mother, Laura Bush, also co-hosted an hour of “Today” around the time their picture book came out.

She “just sort of popped to us as a natural presence, comfortable” on the air, Bell said. Hager will work out of NBC’s Washington bureau.

“I think she can handle it,” he said. “I think she knows something about pressure and being under some scrutiny. When she came here for a handful of appearances, she knocked it out of the park.”

He expects her first story, most likely concerning education, to be on sometime next month.

A first television job on “Today” is, in her father’s world, sort of like a run for president as a first attempt at elective office. Hager said that people on the show “have always made me, whenever I’ve been there, feel very comfortable.”

Bell said Hager won’t be covering politics. He said he didn’t consider the job as a down payment for a future interview with her father, who has been living quietly in Texas since leaving office earlier this year. Attacks on NBC News by conservatives for the liberal bent of MSNBC also had nothing to do with it, he said.

“I hope to focus on what I’m passionate about because I think I’d do the best job on them – education, urban education, women and children’s issues and literacy,” said Hager.

Married to Henry Hager in May 2008 at her family’s ranch in Texas, she doesn’t plan to do is talk about her experiences as the daughter of a president.

“I don’t think it’s that interesting,” she said. “I’m pretty normal.”

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Those rumors of an imminent Chelsea Clinton wedding have picked up steam. A Post reporter yesterday spotted preparations in full gear for a very large gathering on Chappaquiddick island. A big stage was being built and a large tent, capable of seating hundreds, was going up near the property’s breathtaking water view. Martha’s Vineyard has been abuzz all summer with speculation about Chelsea’s supposed nuptials with her investment-banker boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky. But so far, there have been nothing but denials from the Clinton camp, and talk that President Obama was going to attend seems to have no foundation, as he returns to work today. Still, rumors persist that Chelsea’s daddy, Bill Clinton, has rented property on the island.

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It’s no surprise that most celebrities consider themselves above the law.

But for Chris Brown, who was recently found guilty of brutally assaulting ex girlfriend Rihanna, he is also learning that sometimes in life what goes around, comes around – even if you’re a famous RnB star.

In these never seen before pictures taken in February this year – the same month in which the violent attack took place – Chris can be seen illegally spray painting a wall in downtown Los Angeles.

And now the shamed singer, who is facing 1,400 hours of community service, will be expected to wash cars – and remove graffiti from walls.

The footage shows Chris engaging in the illegal activity as he paints a face, before tagging his nickname, Breezy, for unplanned promotional shots by the LA river, near his recording studio.

Earlier this month, a judge sentenced Chris to five years’ probation and six months’ community labor for the beating of the Umbrella singer and ordered hm to stay away from his former girlfriend for the next five years.

LA Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg told Brown that he could be sent to state prison if he violated any terms of his sentence, including an order to stay 90 metres away from Rihanna unless they’re attending music industry events.

Brown will serve his sentence in his home state – Virginia – and his community labor will be overseen by the police chief in Richmond.

The judge said she wanted to ensure that Brown, 20, performs physical labor instead of community service, such as mentoring young people. He will also undergo a year of domestic violence counseling.

(source)