LePaparazzi News Updates
Nick Lachey and Kim KardashianWhat's left of
Nick Lachey six months after the breakup of his marriage to Jessica Simpson? Plenty, it seems. The singer – while managing to escape the attention of the press – has been dating stylist
Kim Kardashian for the past month, sources tell PEOPLE.
The twosome chatted the night away at Hollywood hot spot Shag May 15 and were photographed May 24 at an afternoon showing of The Da Vinci Code in Westwood. (The pair held hands as they exited the theater, but separated when photographers started snapping.)
"They're sweet on each other," a source close to the couple tells PEOPLE. "It's the beginning stages of a relationship." (His rep had no comment.) What's the attraction? Friends point out that Lachey, 32, and Kardashian, 25 – who met at a party for Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart last month – have at least one thing in common: failed marriages.
Kardashian, whose father is the late O.J. Simpson trial attorney Robert Kardashian, divorced music producer Damon Thomas in 2004.
"Part of the attraction is they have both gone through similar life situations," says the source. "They developed a bond." Still, Lachey may be going slow. "For Nick to settle down," says a pal, "it will take someone who is a lifelong partner."
SourceTaylor Hicks Inks Record Deal
Taylor HicksAlert the Soul Patrol: A week after being named the latest American Idol,
Taylor Hicks has signed the record contract that comes with winning the FOX competition.
According to the Associated Press, the deal links the 29-year-old Alabama crooner with 19 Recordings Unlimited, the label managed by Idol creator Simon Fuller, and music mogul Clive Davis, who will oversee Hicks's first album.
Hicks's versions of the original song "Do I Make You Proud?" and the Doobie Brothers' "Takin' It to the Streets" will be released on June 13, with a full-length album due later this year. Hicks's edge, Davis tells PEOPLE in its new issue, "is that he is charismatic and soulful at the same time."
For his part, Hicks tells PEOPLE, the Idol win and upcoming American Idols Live! tour, which kicks off July 5, are the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
"As a (rising) performer, working at small venues and bars, you never get to experience the echo of the arena," he says. "Now I'm gonna hear that echo and it's a dream come true."
SourceAnna Nicole Smith: 'Yes, I Am Pregnant'
Anna Nicole SmithAnna Nicole Smith is finally putting to rest rumors that she's pregnant – by confirming that she is with child, as she reveals in a video clip posted on her Web site.
Floating on an inflatable raft in a swimming pool and with a dog barking in the background as she looks directly into the camera, the former Playmate and reality star says: "Well, let me stop all the rumors. Yes. I am pregnant.
I'm happy, I'm very, very happy about it. Things are goin' really, really good, and I'll be checking in and out periodically on the Web, and I'll let you see me as I'm growing. There are no further details in the posting, such as how far along she is or who fathered the baby.
Early last month, playing along with the rumors that were rising, Smith's attorney, Howard K. Stern, said in a written statement: "If Anna Nicole is pregnant she obviously doesn't want anybody to know yet.
If she is not pregnant she's not denying the rumor because she thinks it's funny how much of a stir it's causing. She'll leave it up to you to guess which one it is." The rumors had followed published reports that the 38-year-old former pinup and weight-loss pitchwoman was pregnant by an unidentified man. Smith already has a 20-year-old son, Daniel, from a previous relationship.
Meanwhile, the same week as Stern's statement, Smith won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gives her another chance to collect millions of dollars from the embattled estate of her late Texas oil tycoon husband J. Howard Marshall. Smith, whom met Marshall in 1991 when she was a 26-year-old topless dancer, wed the 89-year-old Texas oil tycoon in 1994. Marshall died the following year.
His son, Pierce Marshall, claims his father's various wills and trusts make him the sole heir of a fortune estimated to be as high as $1.6 billion – which triggered the family feud that has been played out in courtrooms in both California and Texas and then, finally, in the Supreme Court.
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Lance Armstrong Cleared of Doping Charges
Lance ArmstrongLance Armstrong has been cleared of doping charges stemming from the 1999 Tour de France, the Amsterdam-based International Cycling Union announced on Wednesday.
According to the Associated Press, the agency also accused France's World Anti-Doping Agency of misconduct in unfairly targeting Armstrong. Armstrong, 34, who had called the investigation a "witch hunt," had repeatedly denied using banned substances.
On Thursday, NBC News reported that Armstrong says he is "pleased" with the findings. In its 132-page report, the International Cycling Union suggests considering "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations" by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the AP reports.
In August 2005, the French sports daily L'Equipe reported that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999, when he won the first of his record seven-straight Tour de France titles, came back positive for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO when they were retested in 2004.
By October, the International Cycling Union had appointed Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman to investigate. Vrijman said Wednesday his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely with respect to alleged use of doping in the 1999 Tour de France."
Armstrong, a cancer survivor, retired from professional cycling after his 2005 Tour de France win. On July 16, he will host the 14th annual ESPY Awards, benefiting the V Foundation for Cancer Research and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
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