RENEE ZELLWEGER - ZELLWEGER PUTS ACTING ON HOLD

RENEE ZELLWEGER is taking a break from acting, so she can spend time doing nothing and "getting bored".
The actress has worked non-stop since she shot to fame in the 1990s and hasn't had time for any vacations.
But Zellweger admits she is in need of a break and has instructed her agent to turn down all movie offers until she's fully rested.
She tells America's Glamour magazine, "I'm working on getting bored, and it's really hard! I need to sit still long enough to see where my brain goes. I'm taking time to figure out where I want to go and what I want to do next. In this line of work, you become so (defined by your job)."
And Zellweger insists she's having fun rediscovering life's simple pleasures.
She adds, "I'm actually going into the bathroom to use my bathroom stuff - rather than to the suitcase where I usually keep it. I'm learning how to use a chest of drawers! I am determined to sit still long enough to get past the existential crap of the moment.
"I want to learn more. I want to know more. That's what taking this time is about. I'm curious about so many things, but haven't had occasion to be exposed to them enough to really appreciate them."

Simpson Doesn't Blame 'Newlyweds' for Marriage Split

Jessica Simpson has no regrets over her reality TV show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, insisting the doomed program is not to blame for her divorce from husband and co-star Nick Lachey.

The couple put their love and arguments on display for all to see when they signed up for the MTV show in 2003, which documented their life as husband and wife.

The show aired for four seasons and wrapped in early 2005 -- just months before the singers split.

But Simpson is refusing to blame the invasive show for contributing to her and Lachey's divorce, insisting she only has fond memories of her time on the small screen.

She tells the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine, "In all honesty, I believe it did not affect our marriage because we enjoyed watching those episodes, and that will always be a time I cherish. It made me understand what marriage is, what love is, what commitment is.”
And Simpson reveals her new beau, football star Tony Romo, was also a fan of the series: "(He's seen) a couple episodes. He thought I was cute."

MTV's reality series have become famous for documenting the lives of doomed couples -- Britney Spears and Kevin Federline split in 2006 after appearing on Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, while model/actress Carmen Electra broke up with rocker Dave Navarro in 2006 after shooting 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave.

'Twilight' Leads MTV Movie Award Nominations

Vampire blockbuster Twilight and Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire will lead the charge at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards after scooping seven and six nominations, respectively.

The bloodsucking love story, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, will compete for prizes including Best Movie, Best Female Performance for Kristen Stewart, and Breakthrough Performance Male for both Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

Slumdog Millionaire stars Freida Pinto and Dev Patel are also up for the Breakthrough Performance accolades, while the film will go up against Twilight, The Dark Knight, Iron Man and High School Musical 3: Senior Year> in the Best Movie category.

Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway (Bride Wars), Angelina Jolie (Wanted) and Kate Winslet(The Reader) join Stewart in the Best Female Performance lineup, and Zac Efron (High School Musical 3), Shia LaBeouf (Eagle Eye) and Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder) will fight it out for the Best Male Performance title.

Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana: The Movie) and Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical 3) will go head-to-head for the Breakthrough Performance Female award, while Cyrus is also nominated for Best Song From a Movie for Hannah Montana.

Real-life Slumdog Millionaire lovebirds Patel and Pinto have also earned recognition in the Best Kiss category, along with Twilight's Pattinson and Stewart, James Franco and Sean Penn for Milk, and Paul Rudd and Thomas Lennon in I Love You, Man.
The Dark Knight's Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger will battle it out for Best Fight alongside Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride for their scrap in Pineapple Express.

The Golden Popcorn prizes, nominated and voted on by MTV viewers, will be handed out in Los Angeles on May 31.

Gibson's Girl Slammed by Ex

Mel Gibson's new girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva has come under fire from an ex-boyfriend who has called the Russian beauty an "opportunist."

Gibson's wife Robyn filed for divorce last month after 28 years of marriage, amid rumors that the actor had been dating 39-year-old Grigorieva.

And the Braveheart star unveiled his new relationship in public last week by taking his lover to a movie premiere in Los Angeles.

But Grigorieva, who previously dated Timothy Dalton, has come under fire from another former partner, businessman Alan Bergman, who claims the brunette dumped him as soon as she met the James Bond star.

He says, "She married a guy and they lived in a council house. I had more money and she left him and moved in with me.

"She then met Timothy Dalton at a party we went to, and within a week had moved in with him. She's a lovely girl but a bit of an opportunist."

Johansson's Directorial Debut Is Dumped

Scarlett Johansson has suffered a major blow to her dreams of becoming a director -- the film segment she shot for a new movie has been cut from the final version.

The 24-year-old was among a number of stars, including fellow actress Natalie Portman, who took part in making upcoming film New York, I Love You -- which is a series of love stories all shot by different directors.

But Johansson's contribution, her directorial debut, has been edited out, with producer Emmanuel Benbihy insisting the short was too "conceptualized" to fit in with the rest of the picture.

He tells New York Post gossip column PageSix, "The story did not specifically involve an interpersonal relationship, and it was conceptualized to be filmed in black and white -- both of which were extreme departures from the other films.
"Scarlett presented me with an extremely compelling, albeit unconventional, narrative that appeared as though it would not necessarily conform to the overall approach of the entire collective.

"I was very much moved by her vision (but) after months of editing I had to admit that there were editorial decisions to be made in the interest of serving the overall narrative and composition that resulted in previously filmed scenes and footage not getting used."

Can Angelina's Bodyguard Get Away With Telling All?

Brangelina's looking to squash a bodyguard's tell-all, but with Hollywood confidentiality contracts, what makes former employees think they can get away with spilling dirt?

Greed? Naïveté? Something in between? Naïvetreed? For a split second, elbow-throwin' bodyguard Mickey Brett apparently was poised to write a tell-all on Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and other Hollywood royalty.

Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere—great day in the mornin'! Would no star be spared?

When Brangelina attorney-slash-pit bull Marty Singer padded into the fray, he claimed that Brett had signed a nondisclosure agreement, and we haven't heard word one from Brett since. NDAs are powerful magic, but they do have weaknesses...

And I've found out what they are.

According to employment attorney Nancy Bertrando of the power firm Greenberg Glusker, many NDAs spell out specific penalties that violators must pay—say, $10,000 or $50,000.

"But the information that the employee has could be of much greater value," Bertrando points out. A six-figure advance on a book deal sure would wipe out five figures in penalties, no? That's why Bertrando's NDAs usually outline penalties on a sliding scale. It's not clear what type of penalties appeared in Brett's NDA, if there indeed was one.

Another possible scenario: misinformed lawyers.

"An attorney may tell an employee that an NDA is unenforceable," Bertrando speculates. The employee later learns otherwise, but not before he or she has floated the book idea to a few publishers, and the whole mess has been leaked to the press.

"Maybe they think they can make a bunch of cash, and worry about the NDA detail later," says investigative journalist Mark Ebner, author of Six Degrees of Paris Hilton. "But then they learn it's a legal nightmare."

Many, many celebrity employees of course do leak info to the press, even under NDA, albeit the information is usually published under anonymity.

Simply put, employees "feel it's important to talk," Ebner tells me. "I've spoken to people under NDAs; it's their business to decide whether to break the NDA."

Dad Speaks Out Against Madonna's Adoption Appeal

The man believed to be the biological father of Mercy, the 4-year-old Malawian girl Madonna is trying to adopt, says he he wants to raise her in his own culture. "I want to take care of her, and I'm capable of taking care of my baby," James Kambewa told CBS's The Early Show in an interview to air Monday, the same day the court will hear Madonna's appeal of the rejected adoption. "Mercy, she is a Malawian, so [I] need her to grow as a Malawian ... with our culture," he said. The hearing in Madonna's appeal case will be led by the head of the judiciary in Malawi. The southern African country's High Court had previously rejected her application to adopt Mercy Chifundo James. In his interview, Kambewa tells The Early Show that he's never met his daughter and has only seen her "in newspapers and TV, not face to face." Madonna spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg said she doesn't know if Kambewa is the girl's father and that Mercy has been in an orphanage all her life, according to the Associated Press. The singer, 50, found Mercy, whose teenage mother had died, at Kondanani Children's Village in the town of Bvumbwe when she first visited Malawi in October 2006, the same time she found David Banda at a different orphanage. Madonna is not required to attend Monday's hearing.

Scarlett Johansson's Directorial Debut Cut

SCARLETT Johansson's dream of being a director was dashed on her first try.

Johansson -- who's said in the past she'd prefer to direct rather than act -- helmed a segment for the upcoming movie "New York, I Love You," a series of intertwined love stories shot by several auteurs, including Brett Ratner and Natalie Portman.

But unfortunately for Johansson, her segment, starring Kevin Bacon and shot in black and white, was deemed "unwatchable," sources said.

"It was really bad, so it was cut," one insider told Page Six. Andrei Zvyagintsev's segment starring Carla Gugino and Goran Visnjic was also cut from the final edit.

But the film's producer, Emmanuel Benbihy, told us Johansson's bit ended up in the scrapheap not because it was bad, but because "the story did not specifically involve an interpersonal relationship, and it was conceptualized to be filmed in black and white -- both of which were extreme departures from the other films."

Benbihy added, "Scarlett presented me with an extremely compelling, albeit unconventional, narrative that appeared as though it would not necessarily conform to the overall approach of the entire collective . . . However, I was very much moved by her vision and I did not want to pass on the opportunity to help her develop it. All that matters to me is the genuine movie language of the author."

He continued: "Scarlett and I nonetheless agreed that a final determination of its appropriateness in the context of the other contributions and the overall story would be best made in the editorial process. And after months of editing . . . I had to admit that there were editorial decisions to be made in the interest of serving the overall narrative and composition that resulted in previously filmed scenes and footage not getting used."

Johansson and Zvyagintsev's "visions" will be shown on the DVD, however.