On a charity mission, Simpson joins up with a medical team working to help children with facial deformities
INTO AFRICA
"I needed to escape," says Jessica Simpson, reflecting on her recent 10-day trip to Kenya. "I needed to get away from life and surround myself in that which is good." For the pop princess, that meant being a goodwill ambassador for Operation Smile, an international charity that provides free reconstructive surgery to kids born with facial deformities.
STEADY HAND
Simpson, 25, rode a bus from Nairobi to the town of Nakuru in western Kenya, where she sat in on an operation to correct the cleft lip and palate of 18-month-old girl Boke, (top), one of 158 procedures that Operation Smile's plastic surgeons performed during Simpson's visit. "I was there from scrub up to the end," she says. Adds Dr. William Magee, Jr., cofounder of Operation Smile, "She was great – she didn't flinch."
CHILD'S PLAY
"They were in awe of the blonde hair," says Simpson (with children in Nakuru). "It's so cute because they look at you like they are just trying to figure you out." And out there, no one knew her as the celebrity she is back home. "It was refreshing. It was nice to be normal."
CULTURE SHOCK
"The women hunt, and they build the houses," says Simpson (with a mother and child in a Masai village near Nakuru). The hut "is not mud. It's actually cow dung. Interesting, right?" Via cell phone, she described to husband Nick Lachey, 32, who was in Sweden recording a new album, how she was roughing it. "I told him, 'Nick, you would be so proud of me. I had spiders in my bed, and I didn't even care because I was so tired.' "
WORTH IT ALL
Toward the end of the trip – which "Simpson and her group paid for themselves," says an Operation Smile executive – she fell ill for a day. Simpson, who left Nov. 1 (but not before seeing some African wildlife), says, "It wasn't a big deal, just a high fever." In the end, the journey was worth it. "It's crazy, to go there to bring blessings to these kids," she says, "and they end up blessing you more."
Jessica Switches Homes – for Her Music
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson has a new nest when it comes to making music. Currently working on a successor to her 2003 CD In This Skin, the Dukes of Hazzard star is switching from Columbia to Epic Records after a 6-year-run at her first label.
"I love all my friends and supporters at Columbia. I will miss them as I start this new relationship," Simpson, 25, tells Billboard magazine.
Referring to Epic's new president Charlie Walk, who formerly oversaw marketing at Columbia, as the one she trusts most "to present my new music to the world," Simpson says: "Charlie Walk was my first hero at Columbia.
He believed in me before I really even got to meet the rest of the company."
She adds: "Epic is in a new place with a new leader. It just seems the right place for me as I begin my new journey."
In This Skin sold 2.9 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. The new album reportedly is due by the end if the year, though an R&B single is due any time now, says Billboard. Both Columbia and Epic are part of the conglomerate Sony Music.
Celebrity Makeovers
See the latest star transformations – and vote for your favorites
WIGGING OUT
Naomi Campbell modeled a shorter, softer look – for one night only – in Berlin recently.
TOFFEE TALK
Hilary Duff stars in a Cinderella Story of her own, transforming her flaxen tresses to chocolate locks.
GOLDEN GIRL
Erstwhile brunette Brittany Murphy debuted a Veronica Lake look at Vanity Fair's Oscar party in Beverly Hills.
CLOSE SHAVE
Brad Pitt, who grew a goatee for his just-wrapped movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, played it smooth in Santa Monica recently.
WHITE NOISE
Kelly Osbourne turns the color dial again, amping up to blonde bombshell in Hollywood just weeks after rocking red.
MARY JANE GIRL
Natural blonde Kirsten Dunst – who plays red-headed Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man movies – showed off a new, reddish-brown hue in West Hollywood recently.
LOOKING SMART
At a Hollywood club recently, accessory-loving Lindsay Lohan added a new dimension to her look: a pair of glasses.
LIGHTENED UP
She's known for her brunette locks, but in Chicago recently, Alanis Morissette looked on the bright side with a new blonde do.
A CUT ABOVE
Out in Los Angeles on Dec. 10, formerly long-tressed songstress Amerie showed off a new do: a chin-length bob with dramatic sideswept bangs.
HAIR PLAY
Rock 'n' roll mama Sharon Osbourne has traded in her spiky burgundy locks for a honey-colored bob, which she showed off in London recently.
CHOP SHOP
Tara Reid debuted a sassy shorter hairstyle while getting a jump on her holiday shopping in West Hollywood on Thursday.
EXTENDED VACATION
Kirsten Dunst, who usually keeps her bouncy blonde hair cropped above her shoulders, tried out a longer look (via extensions) in Los Angeles recently.
FLIP-FLOP
After going back to her blonde roots, Mandy Moore – who gets "bored easily" with one hair color – revealed she's a brunette again in L.A. on Oct. 30.
BRUNETTE BOMBSHELL?
Natural redhead Lindsay Lohan, who went platinum blonde earlier this year, hit the bottle again – this time to darken her locks to a deep chocolate brown (in Los Angeles on Oct. 20).
SUPER SWITCH
For her role as a scorned superhero in the comedy Super Ex-Girlfriend, Uma Thurman turned to the dark side, covering her blonde locks with a brown wig (right, in New York City on Oct. 18).
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Star Tracks
FREQUENT FLYER
Brad Pitt, who was taking flying lessons in Santa Monica before setting up house in Paris with Angelina Jolie, continues his education in the South of France on Friday.
LIP SERVICE
Laguna Beach star Kristin Cavallari primps her pout outside the Los Angeles nightclub LAX on Wednesday.
NO MORE QUESTIONS
Natalie Portman channels her Saturday Night Live bad-girl rapper Thursday in Toronto, where she's rehearsing for new movie, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, about a mysterious toy store.
RADIO DAZE
Kevin Federline rocks the mic, sort of, as a guest on a morning-radio show in Atlanta on Friday. Mr. Britney Spears was in town for a Saturday night appearance at the nightclub Vision. "It's unbelievable how high he ranked as a club draw," booker Chris Kappy told a local newspaper. "Only Paris Hilton ranked higher in the survey we did."
STICKY FINGERS
Pamela Anderson tries out her namesake cooking spray alongside Jason Harley, a.k.a. Chef J, at the opening of his BlackSteel restaurant Thursday in Hollywood. Anderson, who hosted the party and is a partner in the restaurant, created a special vegetarian menu for the bistro.
SIGN O' THE TIMES
Once a pin-up, always a pin-up: Farrah Fawcett signs 8x10s from her Charlie's Angels days after leaving Beverly Hills restaurant Mr. Chow on Thursday.
DADDY DAYCARE
Colin Farrell plays dad to a young costar on the New York City set of his movie Pride and Glory on Thursday. The actor is himself dad to son James, 2.
TWO-FORE
Pro golfer Michelle Wie, 16, poses with Cindy Crawford at the Omega Boutique in Beverly Hills on Thursday. Wie recently signed an endorsement deal with the watchmaker, and Crawford already models for the company.
RODENT ROCK
Jon Bon Jovi, vacationing at Walt Disney World in Florida, gets to meet the theme park's resident rock star, Mickey Mouse at the Magic Kingdom on Friday.
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Final Appearance of Dana Reeve to Air
Dana Reeve
An introduction to a medical documentary that Dana Reeve taped last year, three months before her death from lung cancer on March 6, is set to air on PBS this week. The appearance on
The New Medicine marks the final professional engagement of the widow of actor Christopher Reeve. "She was very hopeful at that point that she would survive. She was buying Christmas presents for her son that day, and really had a tremendous amount of energy," the documentary's director, Muffie Meyer, tells the Associated Press.
The film examines how mainstream doctors are embracing the idea that true healing involves treating the whole patient, not merely the symptoms of a disease. In her introduction to the first segment, Reeve tells viewers: "Your emotional state has a tremendous amount to do with sickness, health and well-being.
For years, my husband and I lived on – and because of – hope. Hope continues to give me the mental strength to carry on." With her posthumous appearance on the show, Reeve helps underscore the point that holistic medicine is but one tool for fighting illness, yet certainly not a cure-all.
Speaking off-camera with the film's producers on the day she taped her segments, Reeve said she had consulted with integrative medicine guru Dr. Andrew Weil and was doing "creative image work" – a technique in which patients learn to relax by evoking images and sensations.
With the blessing of her medical team at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center, Reeve added, she also was combining botanical supplements with her prescription medicines.
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Caught in the Act!
Check out where the stars (J.Lo! Dr. McDreamy!) have been seen and heard
• Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, dining privately with Miami power-couple millionaires JR and Loren Ridinger in the cozy, wood-paneled library room at The Forge in Miami Beach.
• Rachel McAdams and boyfriend Ryan Gosling, giggling and hugging as they did some midnight drugstore shopping in Los Angeles.
• Josh Hartnett, beer in hand, going table-to-table to hug his costars Bruce Willis and Lucy Liu at the Lucky Number Slevin premiere afterparty at New York City's Home.
• Grey's Anatomy stars Patrick "McDreamy" Dempsey, Kate Walsh and T.R. Knight, picking up their TV Land Future Classic Award at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Dempsey, who was there with wife Jill, called it a short night, saying he had to "get home to my daughter," while Knight, who plays George, lamented his newly cropped hair ("It's short, it's short ...").
• Liv Tyler, dressed in Marc Jacobs and Christian Louboutin heels at her Lonesome Jim premiere in New York City. Of her favorites shoes, "which are sickeningly tall," she tells us: "In my size, they're like drag queen shoes. I have the biggest feet ever."
• Adrien Grenier, dining and drinking with a blonde friend at Café Stella in L.A.'s hip Silverlake neighborhood.
• Naomi Campbell, hosting the black-tie Don't Stop the Music gala in Atlanta for the Dallas Austin Foundation. The $1,000-a-plate bash raised money for schools and drew singer Yolanda Adams, Ted Turner and Natalie Cole, who performed – leading OutKast's Big Boi to ask: "How did Dallas get Natalie Cole to do an hour and a half show? That's crazy!"
• Patricia Arquette and daughter Harlow, 3 (dressed in a pink raincoat with pink cowboy boots), strolling through the Los Angeles outdoor mall The Grove. Also there that day: Matthew Perry, in a black wool coat walking into the movie theater.
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Lohan the One for WONDER WOMAN?
Lindsay Lohan
Although no talks have even begun, Lindsay Lohan thinks playing the role of Wonder Woman in the upcoming feature would be "cool."
Everybody is wondering which woman will be Wonder Woman. If it were up to starlet Lindsay Lohan, she says she'd take the pilot's seat in the invisible jet in a heartbeat. Buffy the Vampire Slayer vet Joss Whedon is currently developing a feature film based on the comic book superheroine for Warner Bros. Pictures.
While Lohan admits that she's currently looking for roles outside her current milieu of teen a kiddie films, she thinks playing Diana Prince would be too cool. "Wonder Woman would be cool. I'm trying to find roles right now that are different to anything I've done to show my abilities, to show that I have some sort of stretch in me. Because most of the things that I've done so far are aimed at younger girls and are light-hearted," she recently told OK! magazine.
Before focusing on any other film projects, however, Lohan wants to get her album completed. “I’m trying to work on some lyrics for my next album in my free time. It’ll be a little different to the last one – I’m starting recording next month," she said in OK!.
For three seasons Lynda Carter played the Golden Lasso of Truth-wielding, bulletproof cuff-wearing, American flag-donned hero on the CBS television series. One just wonders what Carter would thing of Lohan filling her red, patent leather boots.
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