Oprah vs. Angelina: Who's Got the Power?
Hollywood's latest power couple could also be one of its oddest.
Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie (Oprangelina?) have come out tops in a pair of the Hollywood Reporter's annual Y-chromosome-deficient countdowns: the Power 100 list of Hollywood's most influential women and the roundup of the top-banking actresses, respectively.
The kingmaker's (or, more accurately, president-maker's) nonshocking placement at No. 1 is based on "her dizzying array of Oprah-branded media and her immense cultural influence…[she] might just be the most influential woman in America."
The only thing she doesn't have, it seems, is box-office pull, with Brad Pitt's other half outranking fellow top-tier leading ladies Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon by commanding $15 million per picture. Her 2008 films, boosted in large part by Kung Fu Panda, grossed nearly $1 billion.
Those spreads on the French Riviera aren't going to pay for themselves.
Jolie landed at No. 24 on the Power List, where she and Winfrey were joined by budding moguls Tyra Banks (No. 36), Tina Fey (No. 51), Rachael Ray (No. 65) and Miley Cyrus (No. 100).
A-Rod: Just "Friends" With Madonna. Honest. Really.
Alex Rodriguez is finally playing ball with the media. Unfortunately for scandal lovers everywhere, the New York Yankee claims that he and pal Madonna have never even gotten to first base.
"We're friends," the 33-year-old slugger told People, addressing for the first time rumors that he and the pending divorcée have become romantically involved.
"We're friends—that's it."
Say it often enough and maybe somebody'll start believing it...
The Office: Mazel Tov, Dwangela!
Holy Schrute shocker!
Who else is under Dwight's spell right now because of last night's hilariously sweet-stupid turn in the Dwangela relationship?
If you missed it, turn back now, because it's good!
If you've seen it, get in here and join the festivities!
Best of the Year: The Soup Blog's Crazy '08
Did you hear the one about the golden Oprah Winfrey burial mask? Or the Bozo the Clown tragedy? Or the George Michael bathroom? No jokes, mind you, these are 2008's great, zany, real stories from the world of celebrity.
The Soup Blog rounds up the weirdest, tallest tales from the year in our Crazy '08 gallery—all part of E! Online's year-end spectacular Replay '08.
Breaking News
Bye George! Crooner Guilty of Cuffing, Roughing Up Male Escort
In the eyes of a British jury, Boy George really did want to hurt him.
A London court found the former Culture Club crooner guilty on Friday of falsely imprisoning a male escort George hired for an erotic porn shoot.
The 47-year-old entertainer, whose full name is George O'Dowd, faced charges for handcuffing 28-year-old Audun Carlsen to a wall in the singer's apartment last April and roughing Carlsen up before the man managed to wriggle free of the restraints, flee the flat and seek help.
Rise 'n' Shine: Heath Ledger's Apt. Still Up for Grabs
• Heath Ledger's apartment has been taken off the market because potential tenants find it too spooky. The $26,000 per month rent might have something to do with it as well.
• Are David Duchovny and Tea Léoni purging their ex-files as easily as we skipped the X-Files movie this summer?
• Shania Twain goes all Wife Swap on us and is dating her ex-husband's girlfriend's ex. And, yes, that does sound like a country song.
• You wouldn't like Barry Manilow when he's angry.
• I wouldn't recommend crossing Christian Bale on a dark night either.
• Dear designer Phillip Lim: Thank you for this fantastic dress. Kate Bosworth looks great in it. Love, Rise 'n' Shine
Want more celeb scoop? Check out our Big Picture Gallery!
Are You Smarter Than a Gossip Columnist?
We’re so livin’ large for today’s Smarter session! Can you guess which of the following de-luxed dish headlines is accurate? Bet you can’t!
Get an answer after the jump...
Tina Fey: Mean Girl?
Is Tina Fey getting uncomfortable with fame?
If we were armchair psychologists—and we are!—we'd wonder if there was some Fey-related subtext in tonight's episode of 30 Rock about the confusing, sometimes painful limits of popularity. Considering the ep comes as Fey makes the cover of Vanity Fair, and gets dissed in The New Yorker, well, all we can say is…blurgh.
Anyway, Fey's Liz Lemon attends her high school reunion to find she wasn't a pathetic nerd in high school: She was a mean girl who terrorized her classmates (like The West Wing's Janel Moloney) with withering sarcasm and lispy, brace-slurred comments. At least Alec Baldwin's Jack finds temporary solace pretending to be a guy who drove a Camero...well, until Liz is mean to him.
Plus, there's a bucket of blood!
Jennifer Hudson: Grammy Nods "Truly a Blessing"
It's very nice that Jennifer Hudson has something to smile about.
The Oscar winner, whose personal life has tragically overshadowed her professional accomplishments in recent weeks, said Thursday that she's "honored" to be among the nominees for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.
"It's been a childhood dream of mine to release an album, so to receive four Grammy nominations is truly a blessing. I'm extremely honored and humbled by the nominations," Hudson said in a statement released by Arista Records.
The 27-year-old singer-actress' self-titled debut is a contender for R&B Album of the Year, while the tune "Spotlight" has her in the running for Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Hudson also shares a nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for her duet with Fantasia on "I'm His Only Woman."
Natalie Maines, Fellow Dixie Chicks Courted for Libel
Another Dixie Chicks cause, another angry reaction.
A man whose 8-year-old stepson was killed in 1993 has sued all three members of the country-pop group for defamation, singling out frontwoman Natalie Maines for her comments suggesting he played a role in the boy's death.
Maines, whose outspokenness has won her lifelong friends and mortal enemies alike, appeared last December at a rally in Little Rock, Ark., for the three men, tagged the "West Memphis Three" by their supporters, who were convicted as teenagers of killing the plaintiff's stepson, Steve Branch, and two other 8-year-old boys.
According to the six-page complaint filed Nov. 25 in Pulaski County Circuit Court, the "Not Ready to Make Nice" singer told the crowd that new DNA evidence from the crime scene implicated Steve's stepdad, Terry Hobbs, and that Hobbs' behavior following the boys' deaths was suspect.















