• XM and Sirius may team up to spread Howard Stern, Oprah, Ellen, and satellite cancer waves together.
• Bonnie Fuller insists Courteney Cox's new show Dirt is wholeheartedly different than what goes on at Star. Which must be true, as some staffers of the fictional Dirt tabloid actually love coming to work each day.
• Unwilling to pay increased carriage fees, EchoStar's Dish satellite TV service sees CourtTV pulled, upsetting both customers.
• Star confuses Ashley and Mary-Kate, just like David Katzenberg and us.
• Upper echelon journos freak out at possibility of their peers being forced to testify.
• NYT national desk assistant editor Dana Canedy took over yesterday's front page to test out new design guidelines on news vs. commentary.
• Billy Bush looking to ditch.
• NBC's sports division claims ratings turnaround is due to the whole lotta people watching NFL games.
• Wired magazine moves to extend brand into TV. Viewers await Miss Seventeen levels of suspsene.
• The, ahem, lifetime friendship of Paris and Britney is over.
• Presidential cousin Billy Bush auditions for Today show's fourth hour.
• Marc Jacobs and his rentboy are, like, totally over.
• If convicted of her DUI charges, jail time may be mandatory for Nicole Richie.
• Miss USA might possibly lose the crown nobody cares about.
• Golden Globe nominations, Golden Globe nominations!
It was only Tuesday we were telling you the story of Billy Bush's hissy fit over Us Weekly's Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson scoop. Access Hollywood's Billy, who regularly hates on Janice Min's ode to eating disorders, accused the editor of using the mutual representation at Dan Klores to secure a backdoor scoop, delivered on a platter by also-anti-Us Joe Simpson.
And then, today, we see Us Weekly and Access Hollywood joining hands to deliver the news of Nicole Richie's breakup with DJ AM.
Granted, Us doesn't co-credit AH and AH doesn't co-credit Us, but Page Six has blended their scoops together in blissful merriment.
So is the feud softening or, as we're hoping (just to keep this interesting), they both happened upon the story independently and refuse to acknowledge one another? Either way, we're just glad there's more to the story than Nicole's eating habits.
Richie's New Single Life [Page Six]
Related: Janice Min's insider scoop on Nick & Jessica
• Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein is the one to blame for the breakup with Nicole Richie. The celebrity spinner couldn't take her obsession with her weight, or lack thereof. [Perez Hilton]
• Lloyd Grove's interest in Tucker Carlson and Billy Bush's teenage romances gets him called a "turkey" by MSNBC chief Rick Kaplan. [Lowdown]
• How did nobody actor Brandon Routh score the lead in Bryan Singer's Superman? By sleeping with the director, of course. [Radar]
• A judge has banned the sale of Jennifer Aniston's topless photos, causing sales of GQ's Man of the Year issue to spike. [TMZ]
• Jay-Z is being sued over .. his hand symbol. Copyright infringement, claims a wrestler. [Page Six]
• Ever since she gave birth, Heidi Klum just doesn't do it for Donald Trump anymore. [Page Six]
• "Hard-partying" and numerically inclined Timessa Jenny 8. Lee will reveal why there are more Chinese restaurants in the U.S. than McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's combined. [Page Six]
• Michael Jackson has until Dec. 20 to make good on $270 million in debt. But don't worry: If he can't pay we're sure brother Randy will come up with something. [NYDN]
• Now that Leo DiCaprio is a free agent, he's moving in on Sienna Miller. At this point, who hasn't? [The Scoop]
• Jermaine Dupri publicly prefers Imperia Vodka, despite being an investor in 3 Vodka. [Lowdown]
Did Us Weekly get the Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson scoop because the divorcing couple and editrix Janice Min are all repped by Dan Klores PR? The official line, of course, is "No," but Access Hollywood's Billy Bush has a different tale to tell.
While all the weeklies and tabloid TV shows were preparing to relax for a long Thanksgiving weekend, Us Weekly had the breakup story ready to run — and their Thanksgiving Eve announcement with Jessica and Nick's publicsts forced Bush's show, along with Extra, The Insider and all the rest, to cancel their pre-taped holiday shows and play catch up.
Billy Bush's long standing vendetta against Us Weekly is widely known, so he could be pushing his own agenda here. But daddy Joe Simpson has never been an Us Weekly fan – only a year ago he promised never to talk to the magazine again – and so suddenly he was giving them the exclusive.
It makes you wonder. For a few seconds.
Jessica Simpson's seeing a therapist didn't only grab Tom Cruise's attention, but pretty much the entire gossip industry. (Aside from that angry Vogue publisher and Tom himself dumping his publisister, it's been a slow week, mmm-kay?)
Her revelation to Teen People that she sought professional help to get through the relentless press coverage of her marriage to Nick Lachey was of particular interest to Access Hollywood's Billy Bush, who you might recognize as the president's regularly uninvited cousin.
So, camera crew in tow, he went out to Lancaster (north of Hollywood) to find out. Sure, he shot her questions about her clothing line and award-winning breasts (In Touch honored her with best cleavage), but the real story was about her rendezvous with the psychiatric community.
Unfortunately, her publicist (Cacee Cobb?) wasn't having it.
“You went into therapy. What was behind that decision because a lot of people do?†he asked, only to find Jess reluctant to answer the question.
“I mean, hmm, I don't wanna… Everybody's asking that question,†she softly said.
“I would stay away from that,†a publicist said from off-camera.
Silly publicists, forgetting it's people like Billy Bush (and people with worse hair!) who keep their clients in business. But Billy's therapy agenda just wasn't going to happen, as evidenced by pubby's continued defenses:
• “This is just about the line and that's all we're talking about. That's why we're here today. I need you to stay with that,†the publicist insisted.
• “I totally understand but that is the focus of why we're here today and that's all we're talking about today,†the publicist said.
• “That's just not why we're here. If you want to keep talking about the clothing line, that's fine. But that's all we're doing,†the pub said. “That's all we're doing.â€
• “That's it. No other questions,†the publicist interrupted one final time.
And with that, the interview ended — and Billy Bush left Lancaster with the veins in his forehead pulsating with speculation about her failed marriage to Nick Lachey.
And us? Well we're left wondering where the hell Jessica's publicist is when she's wrangled away for a Perez Hilton photo op.
Jessica Simpson won’t talk about Nick [Access Hollywood]
