Justin Timberlake

Paris Hilton broke up with Benji Madden so she could return to pursuing attention full time. [US Weekly]

Bill Clinton and David Paterson bonded over a back massage at yesterday's Triborough Bridge renaming ceremony. [P6]

Jessica Biel will not be overseeing a handbag line for boyfriend Justin Timberlake's William Rast label which, given the quality of most celebrity handbag designs, is probably for the best. [The Cut]

James Franco is perfectly comfortable doing two gay roles in a row. [R&M] 

Fidel Castro has approved Steven Soderbergh's Che for Havana's New Latin American Film Festival, though the cast will have to receive permission from the U.S. to attend the screening. [P6]

Unlike the Los Angeles outpost, New York's Nobu will not be offering a recession special. [Grub Street via Blackbook]

If you think every single episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live was exactly the same (Another Digital Short about Laser Cats? Really?), you're not alone: So does Justin Timberlake, who offered an Evolution of Dance-esque two minute run-through of an entire episode of the 34-year-old comedy-variety show during 'Weekend Update.'

Call it celebrity lifehacking: Mr. Timberlake, who was scheduled to appear on next week's show but had to cancel, saved viewers 90 minutes (or 30 minutes with DVR) by revealing all, from the host's repetitive monologue to the groan-inducing recurring characters.

Judging by this week's show, which featured guys French kissing, painting each other nude, gay cartoon characters, a cellphone in a man's butt, and three male dancers in high heels, it'll also save you an ass-load of gay-panic jokes.

Slowly but surely, wayward popstar Britney Spears seems to be reclaiming--or perhaps establishing--some dignity. 

Last night, Ms. Spears appeared onstage at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles with Madonna, walking out in a fitted tuxedo shirt and a pair of not unreasonable, shiny wide-leg trousers to sing the last verse of "Human Nature." Though she was not joined by ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake (he sang later in the performance), Ms. Spears was treated to a hand-kiss from Madonna, who also took it upon herself to tell the audience, "She's not your bitch!"

   read more »

One of the more salacious post-election stories released about Sarah Palin involves her greeting Mark Salter and Steve Schmidt wearing only a towel. [US Weekly]

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake will appear onstage with Madonna tonight in a performance so awesome that they will surely get back together. [US Weekly]

French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who is married to actress Ariel, spent Election Night "getting cozy" with heiress Daphne Guinness. [R&M]  read more »

If we're lucky, R&B is in a state of flux; if we're not, it's dying slowly. Since the 90's, the genre (especially its male component) has rewarded banality, whether in the form of sexist histrionics dressed up as seduction, the sort of stuff that gets Chris Brown and Akon hits, or the too-often bloodless smoothness of Usher, Anthony Hamilton, and, maybe best of the bunch, John Legend. And then there's R. Kelly, who is, for reasons too complex to address here, unassailable. Club bangers and crooner crap are great, and everybody needs a little stupid fun, and that Usher sure can dance, but the alarmist tends to wonder whither the thoughtful, sensitive, passionate R&B of yore, the genre that brought us everything from the Temptations to the Jackson 5 to Jodeci? When did the beat start to eclipse, well, everything?

Two very different artists, Ne-Yo and Raphael Saadiq, both veteran songwriters, producers and singers, offer different answers to such sky-is-falling questions with albums out this week.  read more »

Tuesday evening, for VH-1 and Vogue's "Fashion Rocks" show, the Black Eyed Peas performed a hip-hop version of the Rolling Stones' "Miss You." Turning one of the sexiest songs of all time into a dead-eyed, fake-funk abomination is a real accomplishment, though to be fair, it's just another day at the office for B.E.P.

Two nights earlier on the MTV Video Music Awards, the night's loud-mouthed, big-haired Brit emcee, comedian Russell Brand, told one too many jokes at the expense of clean tween stars the Jonas Brothers (and their purity rings), and precious American Idol season six winner Jordin Sparks went off script and shot back: "It's not bad to wear a promise ring because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut.  read more »

Carolina Herrera, who was ready to begin her show on time this morning, had to wait for special guest Renee Zellweger to arrive. [WWD]

Rachel Zoe felt sorry for herself, but then she got her own reality show. [NY Post] 

Sheer is in for Spring. [The Cut] 

Editors at Justin Timberlake's William Rast show were disappointed upon learning that the pop star would not be performing for them. [WWD] 

Christy Turlington is studying "maternal and child health" at Columbia. [Vogue UK]

Guests at Thakoon's show today were furious as the show started almost an hour late due to Kanye West's late arrival. [WWD] 

Athletes like Maria Sharapova and Nastia Liukin are the new celebrities in the front rows of fashion week. [WWD] 

Justin Timberlake will perform twice during Fashion Week—once for the Fashion Rocks show, and once more at the Roseland Ballroom during a showing of his own collection. [WWD]

Zara has officially beat out The Gap as the world's largest fashion retailer. [Guardian]

A preview of Comme des Garcons's line for H&M, which will hit stores in November, is now available. [The Cut]

Meet the Ronsons dressed up as the Royal Tenenbaums. [Harper's Bazaar]

Diane von Furstenberg is the new celebrity columnist for travel magazine Departures. [Vogue UK]

Tiffany and Co. has filed an appeal in federal court of the court's ruling last month that eBay is not to be held accountable for trademark infrigement on the Tiffany brand.  read more »

In his profile of Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse on Sunday, The Times' Richard Pérez-Peña noted:

Some extravagances have been curtailed, but no one in the business disputes that Condé still spends far more money than its competitors. Magazine publishers and editors in chief haul in $400,000 to $2 million in salary and bonuses, current and former executives say, and many executives have clothing allowances in the high five figures.

Perhaps one indication of tightening belts at the glossy empire may be a memo sent out to employees asking them shell out their own money for tickets to the Fashion Rocks benefit at Radio City Music Hall in September.  read more »

While most of us have forgotten about the day we were traumatized by the sight of Janet Jackson's breast almost fully exposed by Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Federal appeals court apparently did not. According to The Associated PressIt wasn't until this morning that it dismissed the $550,000 indecency fine against CBS for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that left Ms. Jackson's pastie-covered nipple hanging out in front of 90 million people.

The court ruled that the FCC acted "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine, departing from its established practice of applying equal standards to indecent words and images and fining indecent programming only when it is "pervasive as to amount to 'shock treatment' for the audience.  read more »

In his first scripted-TV venture, Justin Timberlake will executive produce an American remake of a hit Peruvian comedy My Problem With Women for NBC. He'll partner with production company Reveille, which is behind the most successful U.S. adaptations of foreign scripted series on the air: NBC's The Office and ABC's Ugly Betty. Tapping into the In Treatment craze, the show will follow Jose, a thirtysomething bachelor who begins seeing a therapist in an attempt to understand why all of his romantic relationships fail, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Mr. Timberlake might have to tapinto the origins of his own Britney drama for this one! "

While researching his upcoming movie role as a fictional Corpus Christi Hooks baseball player, Justin Timberlake tried to get some battling stance advice from the Houston Astros' Double-A team this week. It didn't work out due to scheduling conflicts. Bummer! We would've liked to see some pics of JT in a baseball uniform getting up close and personal with the boys of summer. Kind of brings a whole new meaning to Dick in a (Batter's) Box, eh?  read more »

Last night, Barbara Walters’ much anticipated The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2007 aired on ABC. Before viewers got a chance to assess the lineup, Ms. Walters said that she was going to avoid any “tabloid stuff.” And she did…sort of. As promised, Bill Clinton, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Don Imus were all in fact honored. But so, too, were Victoria and David Beckham, who were asked to dish on their much-publicized friendship with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. (Even Bill O’Reilly asked Ms. Walters “Why? Why? Why?” after learning that Posh ‘n’ Becks would be featured on her program.) Then came Justin Timberlake. The former ‘N Sync pop singer told the television journalist, among other things, about his romance with Hollywood starlet Jessica Biel—also a topic touched upon a time or two in, well, the tabloids. Katherine Heigl, who called her recent hit film, Knocked Up, “sexist,” was also on Ms. Walters’ short list. From Heigl, the former 20/20 anchor learned that the actress is not happy that her Grey’s Anatomy co-star was fired after he slung homophobic slurs at T.R. Knight.

The days immediately following Thanksgiving are supposed to be a frenzy of shopping, but nobody seems to have told the record labels, who on this Tuesday seem to have left the shelves a little bare. Fans of “too latin for hip hop, too hip hop for latins” rapper Pitbull or metal band Mudvayne will perhaps forgive us for saying so.

At least Justin Timberlake has a present for his fans: a deluxe edition of his 2006 album FutureSex/LoveSounds. Just in time for Christmas! It’s the one-two punch of a CD, which includes his “Until the End of Time” duet with Beyoncé, and a DVD of music videos and live performances. Once again, Justin makes life a little bit easier for men trying to please their ladies.

In terms of truly new music releases, however, Kanine Records stands out for trying to make a little noise for U.K. import the Rumble Strips, who are an Arctic Monkeys manqué—but with a horn section! Their EP, Alarm Clock, is meant to whet the appetites of ignorant Yankees, as the band heads back to the studio to record a full-length album. Hear them now before you’re nauseated by the hype.  read more »

When Justin brings sexy back to HBO, viewers will see his moves, but what they won't see is the lust, which seemed to permeate the very air inside MSG.  read more »

Bottles of single-barrel Jack Daniel’s line a glass case at the entrance of Justin Timberlake’s latest addition to the New York City restaurant scene.  read more »

"Uhm...I'd have to say absolutely, positively not," he replied.

I tried making a "please, don't you feel bad for me now that I'm making a sad face" approach, but that didn't work.

I'm not sure why and am slightly embarrassed about this, but my taste in music tends to mirror that of a 14-year-old adolescent girl. I love Mariah...I love Pink...I love Madonna, but most of all I love Justin. I don't put posters up on my walls anymore, but if I did, I'd likely hang one of JT in the living room above the couch. I have over 1000 songs on my ipod and still...I mostly just listen to Justin. But Greg's conviction was unshakable.  read more »