Don't believe those stories you may have read elsewhere that Britney Spears has a new boyfriend in waiter Michael Marchand, who was photographed exiting restaurant Mirabelle with the pop star last week.

"Michael Marchand isn't a new one-time fling," explains Brit's closest friend to OK!. "He isn't a new boyfriend — He isn't even a friend... And he did not go to Las Vegas with her!"

So how did Brit, who celebrates her 26th birthday next Monday, end up being photographed with Michael? "The only connection she has with him is that she's eaten in Mirabelle, where he works," claims the friend.

However, the friend confesses, Michael did indeed attempt to make contact with the divorced mother of two. During one of their dinners at Mirabelle, Brit's ever-present pal Sam Lutfi left his cell phone on the table. Michael retrieved the mislaid mobile and drove out to The Summit, Britney's gated community looking down on Beverly Hills. "Michael was not allowed through the gates," Brit's friend reveals. "He has never seen Britney outside the restaurant."

In other Brit news, lawyers for the singer and her ex-hubby are scheduled to meet before the judge Monday for the latest round of legal wrestling over the former couple's two young boys, Sean Preston, 2, and 1-year-old Jayden James. OK! will be on the scene to bring you updates as they happen.
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Christina Aguilera is decorating a sailboat nursery especially for her bouncing baby boy!

Star Magazine reports is going all out the customized dwelling, complete with vintage accessories.

“All the bedding was custom made,” says a Star spy.

Xtina and her hubby Jordan are placing the finishing touches on the nursery with an early 1920’s French chandelier, a rocking horse built in Britain in 1880, and an antique mobile imported from the South of France.
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Success in her various professional guises, and her romance with best friend Pete Wentz, have Ashlee Simpson sounding positively giddy about life these days – and more resilient than she used to be.

Chief among her confidence-boosting achievements of late – her 2006 stint as Roxie Hart in the London production of the musical Chicago, Simpson tells CosmoGIRL in its December/January issue.

"There was a time when what people said about me could really get to me. But working on Chicago helped me come into my own," says Simpson, 23. "[Theater acting] had been a dream of mine ever since I was little, and being able to fulfill it ... was amazing. It taught me to be more comfortable with myself."

That self-possession, she says, helped her deal with fame better, too.

"I've gotten to the point where being credible with myself is more important to me than what anyone else says," she explains. "People make up stories about you, but they don't really know you. ... I'm not fazed by that anymore."

Simpson also credits boyfriend Wentz, 28, with providing encouragement in her private life that has boosted her professional work – in particular, her third album, due out next year.

"He's a great sounding board and very supportive," Simpson says. "Pete and I compliment each other. We are best friends, and we encourage each other. I think that is so important in any relationship – it builds a solid foundation."
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While lawyers were in two L.A. courthouses Monday arguing over her various driving violations and custody issues, Britney Spears spent her time readying for her next musical move: a new video.

Usmagazine.com has learned that production on the video for her single "Piece of Me" is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 8 a.m. at Social Hollywood. A source tells Us that the video will be directed by Wayne Isham, who helmed the video for the 2002 Brit hit, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman."

A set source tells Us that since Spears, 25, has a scheduled visit with sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, on Tuesday, she will only be available to film for two hours, between noon and 2 p.m. During that time she will shoot scenes where she dances on a bar and runs down a staircase. There will be 15 extras, as well as a body double for Brit.

Meanwhile, at a hearing in her ongoing custody battle with ex Kevin Federline on Monday, lawyers for both Spears and Federline discussed holiday visitation plans and whether a representative for Child and Family Services should have access to sealed case documents.

Following the hearing, court spokesperson Alan Parachini told reporters: "There was a great deal of interaction over issues that were important to the parties. There was an order made relating to DCFS access to the files. There were extensive discussions over a visitation agreement over the holiday period. Holiday visitation will be different from the existing schedule. There was another matter discussed that I can’t discuss. The next court hearing is January 23."
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A giggling David Beckham has revealed what enquiring minds have wanted to know for years — he wears NOTHING in bed!!

The sexy footballer made every girl’s dream come true when he admitted he didn’t wear pyjamas under the sheets.

Becks let the comment slip during an interview on TV’s This Morning. When asked what he preferred, pyjamas or know pyjamas, he cheekily grinned: “No pyjamas.”

The LA Galaxy captain also spoke about how well the family are settling into American life.

Becks on adapting to life in the USA: “I think the most important thing for us was that the kids settled. And the boys have settled, they love their school, they love their way of life. To be honest Romeo keeps saying awesome a lot and there’s other little certain things that they keep coming out with. But I’m from London, so is Victoria. I’m a little bit more common than my wife but them hearing my accent they sound as if they’re from London and that’s how I want them to sound. But they are getting little parts of the American accent.”

Becks on having celebrity neighbours: “I always get star-struck. Even if I’m in the coffee shop, you see someone buying a coffee and you’re like, is that who I think it is and you don’t want to look and be a fan but you can’t help it.”

Becks on Tom Cruise: “He’s been working in Berlin and he back in LA now and I’m looking forward to just hanging with him and just having some fun.”

Becks on his Christmas plans: “I love London, I love being back in England and I love being back in London. It’s where I’m from, it’s where Victoria’s from and Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without being back here.”

Becks on why wife Victoria was keep to reuinte with the Spice Girls: “She’s been busy since we arrived in America. Since I’ve been away she’s been dropping the kids off at school and then going straight to rehearsals. She’ll start rehearsals at nine, have a half-hour break and finish and be home at seven, so she’s working really, really hard at the moment. It’s definitely going to be an amazing show. She loves being with the girls, she loves being back with the girls and doing something that she’s not done for quite a few years now. Victoria always says all our boys know what daddy does. He plays football in front of all these people but they’ve never seen actually what mummy used to do. So that was one of the reasons why she really wanted to do it. It’s going to be amazing. All the boys are going to love it but especially Romeo, Romeo’s the performer in the family. He’s going to be the next Justin Timberlake hopefully.”

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Angelina Jolie has been voted one of the world’s ‘yummiest mummies’ in a poll held be British newspaper ‘The Sun.’ Jolie has three adopted children and one biological daughter with actor Brad Pitt.

New mother Myleene Klass was also made the list. Katie Homes, who has a daughter with Tom Cruise, landed in third place. Holmes was followed by the ‘Spice Girls’ Emma Bunton, who recently gave birth to a baby boy.

Britney Spears came in fifth place with another Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham, following in sixth place.
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Hulk Hogan's wife said in a divorce petition that she wants a share of the family's two multimillion-dollar Florida properties plus alimony and child support for their 17-year-old son.

Linda Bollea filed for divorce from Hogan — whose real name is Terry Bollea — last week after 24 years of marriage. The petition says the marriage is "irretrievably broken."

The marital assets that need to be equitably divided include the nearly 17,000-square-foot mansion in Belleair where the family lives and a 3,474-square-foot home on Clearwater Beach.

Pinellas County records place the market value of the Belleair mansion at more than $7.2 million and the Clearwater house at more than $2.2 million. The Bolleas also have a condominium under construction in Las Vegas.

Linda Bollea also seeks an unspecified amount for alimony and child support for their 17-year-old son, Nick, who was arrested this month in connection with a traffic crash that left a passenger with severe brain injuries.

Her attorney declined to comment.

The Bolleas have starred for four seasons in the VH1 reality show "Hogan Knows Best," which chronicles the lives of the famous wrestler and his family, including daughter Brooke, 19.

Terry Bollea, 54, told a reporter last week that the divorce filing caught him "off guard," saying his wife has been in California for the past few weeks.
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Marilyn Manson wants to break the world record for sharing a bath with snakes.

The controversial rocker - who is famous for his peculiar obsessions with death and taxidermy - wants to beat the 'Texas Snakeman' Jackie Bibby, who currently holds the world record by bathing with 87 rattlesnakes for 45 minutes.

A source close to the singer said: "Marilyn is desperate to get into the famous book, and wants to do it for something people will associate him with. He thought about all the wacky records he could try and break, and came across Jackie Bibby's record. That's when he decided he wanted to try and break it."

Father-of-two Jackie - who holds four world records including holding eight rattlesnakes in his mouth by their tails - has perfected the art of bathing with the venomous creatures.

He said: "They can go wherever they want as long as they don't start biting. The key to not biting is for me to stay still. Rapid movement scares a rattlesnake. If you move real slow and gentle, that doesn't seem to bother them."
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25. Sahara
Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $68.7 million
It was supposed to make Matthew McConaughey an action star and launch a lucrative new 'Indiana Jones'-esque franchise. Instead, the 2005 adventure flick became one of the most famous flops in history. Thanks to a much-publicized lawsuit filed by 'Sahara' author Clive Cussler months before release, the film rode a wave of bad buzz into theaters and never recovered. Of course, budget line items such as $200K for "local bribes" don't help a healthy bottom line, either.


24. Alexander
Budget: $155 million
Domestic Gross: $34.3 million
Oliver Stone's 2004 historic adventure drama seemed like a no-brainer: an Oscar-winning director, a fleet of A-list stars (Colin Farrell! Angelina Jolie! Anthony Hopkins! Val Kilmer!) ... but alas, not even the anticipated raciness of Jolie as Farrell's really hot mom could entice the masses to see this almost-three-hour epic misfire. Call him Alexander the Inferior.


23. Inchon
Budget: $46 million
Domestic Gross: $5.2 million
"Legend" has it Unification Church founder Sun Myong Moon began crying one day and could not stop until he went to see a movie, which he took as a sign from God to finance a film. The resulting 1982 Korean War drama starring Laurence Olivier, which took five years and way too much money to make, had the opposite effect on its viewers.


22. Poisedon
Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $60.7 million
Expectations were high for Wolfgang Petersen's 2006 return to the seas -- he directed the submarine classic 'Das Boot' and the tragic 'Perfect Storm.' But it was the film he did in '04 that can be most aptly compared to this one: 'Troy,' in that both are bloated, too silly for their own good ... and monumental letdowns. (Insert your own sinking ship joke here.)


21. Speed 2: Cruise Control
Budget: $160 million
Domestic Gross: $48.6 million
Did anyone think this was a good idea? Anyone? Transplanting the unlikely scenario of the first 'Speed' to the even more unbelievable setting of a cruise ship?!?! We can just hear the pitch now for this '97 stinker: "It's 'Speed,' but on a boat! No one thought the bus-thing would work, either, and that hit HUGE. This can't lose." And we answer, "Oh, but it can. It really, really can."

20. One From the Heart
Budget: $25 million
Domestic Gross: $636,769
After the difficult production of 'Apocalypse Now,' Francis Ford Coppola wanted something simpler and smaller, ergo this '82 musical romance budgeted at $2 million. But Coppola had a vision, and his vision pushed the costs to $25 mil, funded through his company Zoetrope. Unfortunately for the director and his studio, critics and ticket buyers weren't ready for a surreal, downbeat musical. Tom Waits got an Oscar nod (for the soundtrack). Coppola got a trip to bankruptcy court.


19. All The King's Men
Budget: $55 million
Domestic Gross: $7.2 million
The 1949 adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the rise and fall of a Depression-era politician took home the Oscar for Best Picture, and the '06 film was widely expected to do the same. Then people saw it. And despite its source material and a star-studded cast (Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Jude Law), critics hated it, and its box-office fall was so great that not even you-know-who could put it back together again.


18. Leonard Part 6
Budget: N/A -- i.e. too bloated and embarrassing to reveal
Domestic Gross: $4.6 million
Bill Cosby's first post-'Cosby Show' star vehicle -- a 1987 comedy about a spy battling a megalomaniac vegetarian who can control animals' minds (it's somehow dumber than it sounds) -- was so embarrassing for everyone involved that Cosby himself encouraged people NOT to see it. Fittingly, it earned the Cos three Razzies, including Worst Picture, and made us never want to eat another Jell-O pudding pop again.


17. Shanghai Surprise
Budget: $17 million
Domestic Gross: $2.3 million
Back in 1986, pop goddess Madonna seemed poised to conquer the big screen, too. Not only did her 'Desperately Seeking Susan' follow-up require actual acting (she played a 1930s missionary -- not a typo), but she also starred opposite new hubby Sean Penn. Oh, Madonna. Rookie mistake(s)! Critics pounced on the 1986 clunker, which doomed the Material Girl's acting career and earned her her first Razzie ... but not her last.


16. Basic Instinct 2
Budget: $70 million
Domestic Gross: $6 million
When the original grossed $117 million in 1992, a sequel was green-lit immediately -- and proceeded to languish in production hell for a decade. It finally hit theaters in '06, thanks mostly to Sharon Stone's $14 million "pay or play" deal (she gets paid, movie or not). But if the studio thought Stone's bare bosom could compensate for shoddy story and lack of thrills, their instinct should have told them this un-erotic stinker was 10 years too late.


15. A Sound of Thunder
Budget: $80 million
Domestic Gross: $1.9 million
Never heard of this Edward Burns-Ben Kingsley fiasco? That's because only like 117 people saw it. Originally slated for a 2002 release, the time-travel flick was delayed until '05 due to flooding in Prague (where it was filmed) and the original production company's declaring bankruptcy during post-production. As a result, the special effects were third-rate, which is not a good call when your film is supposed to be a dinosaur-filled sci-fi spectacle. Call this one 'Jura-Suck Park.'


14. Hudson Hawk
Budget: $65 million
Domestic Gross: $17.2 million
The early '90s were not kind to Bruce Willis. After 'Look Who's Talking Too' and 'Bonfire of the Vanities' came this absurd 1991 action-comedy that was light on both. Not-so-shockingly, it was Willis' first and only writing credit. But "credit" for this bust also goes to the cheesy sound effects, Willis-Danny Aiello musical duets and unusually high levels of Sandra Bernhard.


13. Howard the Duck
Budget: $37 million
Domestic Gross: $16.3 million
After the 'Indiana Jones' and 'Star Wars' trilogies, George Lucas was flying high. But the Force was not with him when he produced 1986's Marvel comic-based 'Howard' for screenwriter pal Willard Huyck. The ridiculously bad sci-fi comedy about a stogie-smoking, Earth-saving duck (played by an actor in a duck costume) became the subject of endless ridicule, and it proved the biggest mistake of Lucas' career. Well, until Jar Jar Binks.


12. Bonfire of the Vanities
Budget: $47 million
Domestic Gross: $15.7 million
Tom Wolfe's scathing novel about the excesses of the 1980s could have been a brilliant, era-defining movie, particularly with Brian De Palma at the helm. But nice-guy Tom Hanks was all wrong to play Sherman McCoy, the yuppie "Master of the Universe" brought low by a fatal car accident; and with the story rewritten to make McCoy more likable, Wolfe's satire lost its teeth -- and 'Bonfire' went down in flames.


11. Catwoman
Budget: $100 million
Domestic Gross: $40.2 million
Where did this 2004 super flop go wrong? Let us count the ways: 1) a whole new Catwoman completely unrelated to the REAL Catwoman; 2) an unknown one-named man at the helm (Pitof); 3) the apparent belief that fans would pay solely to see Halle Berry in a skintight leather unitard (they showed you, 'Catwoman'!). We just have to ask Ms. Berry a quick question: What were you thinking?


10. Battlefield Earth
Budget: $73 million
Domestic Gross: $21.5 million
How do you say "epic disaster" in Psychlos? John Travolta squandered a chunk of the goodwill he'd garnered in his 'Pulp Fiction' comeback with this god-awful 2000 adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's Scientologist manifesto. In a nutshell: Travolta plays a dreadlocked alien named Terl. We'd rather take the free stress test any day.


9. Gigli
Budget: $54 million
Domestic Gross: $6.1 million
It's hard to say which factor contributed more to the demise of this celluloid punch line -- America's unhealthy obsession with (hatred of?) Bennifer Part I or the fact that it's about a mob lackey who kidnaps a mentally retarded man and then falls in love with a lesbian assassin. But the lesson was clear: Gossip mag sales adversely affect box office dollars, and not even a little lesbian intrigue can change that.


8. Waterworld
Budget: $175 million
Domestic Gross: $88.2 million
The most expensive movie ever made when it came out in 1995, the post-apocalyptic epic came to stand for everything wrong with Hollywood fare: massive budget, self-indulgent star (Kevin Costner, who co-produced), all hype and no substance. It crashed and burned spectacularly; and though it made money overseas, in some ways Costner never lived down the failure (or the gills).


7. The Postman
Budget: $80 million
Domestic Gross: $17.6 million
What is it with Kevin Costner and post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies? He took another run at the genre with this misguided adaptation of David Brin's novel, directing himself as the savior of civilization -- a mythic messiah with a mailbag. Collapsing under the weight of its three-hour run time, jingoistic dialogue and Costner's hubris, the 1997 flop gave new meaning to the term "going postal."


6. Cutthroat Island
Budget: $98 million
Domestic Gross: $10 million
Geena Davis. Matthew Modine. They were both once hugely popular movie stars. Then came this excessive action-comedy about pirates who yada yada yada that actually ranks #1 on the Guinness World Book of Records more objective list of all-time box-office flops. But on the bright side, both actors have resurged lately with TV roles, and we all know the current state of bankability for movie pirates.


5. Cleopatra
Budget: $44 million
Domestic Gross: $26 million
Although Elizabeth Taylor's dramas -- a marriage-ending affair, a near-death illness -- were just the tip of the iceberg of troubles for this '63 epic, they may have been the nails in the coffin. Originally budgeted for $2 mil, the costs ballooned to $44 mil (current equivalent: about $295 mil), a cost that wasn't recouped partly due to public disapproval for the star's personal life. It was enough to almost bankrupt 20th Century Fox. Imagine a time when bad publicity was actually ... bad.


4. Heaven's Gate
Budget: $44 million
Domestic Gross: $3.5 million
Having just earned a Best Director Oscar for 'The Deer Hunter,' Michael Cimino scored a stellar cast (Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Kris Kristofferson) and unprecedented creative control for his 1980 follow-up. And he squandered it all, reshooting so much that the $11.5 million budget quadrupled, and the film was heralded as a cinematic debacle. The movie's failure forced the sale of United Artists to MGM, and reduced Cimino to directing bad Mickey Rourke movies.


3. Ishtar
Budget: $55 million
Domestic Gross: $14.5 million
It must've sounded like a fun, quirky idea for a comedy: Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as inept lounge singers who take a gig in Morocco and stumble into a CIA plot. But "lost in the desert" became more than a metaphor as production problems pushed the already high $40 million budget even higher, and negative word-of-mouth skewered the film even before its 1987 release. Beatty and Hoffman went on to better things ... but they'll always have Ishtar.


2. The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Budget: $100 million
Domestic Gross: $4.4 million
Loss? What loss? As our friends on Wikipedia put it, "the film grossed negative 95 million dollars," that's all. Believe it or not, the project floated around Hollywood for nearly 15 years before it was finally produced and made its subsequent historic crash. Don't feel bad for star Eddie Murphy, though. His last film, 'Norbit,' grossed a mind-boggling $95 million earlier this year. Look for more fat suits to come.


1. Town & Country
Budget: $90 million
Domestic Gross: $6.7 million
Reportedly, Warren Beatty's demands for multiple takes, rewrites and reshoots were primarily responsible for more than doubling the original $44 mil budget of what should have been a simple ensemble dramedy. Add in estimated marketing and distribution expenses and this staggering '01 failure lost its studio more than $100 million. If you say Beatty is just a perfectionist, then you obviously haven't seen this movie.
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The United Nations women's agency launched a campaign on Monday backed by actress Nicole Kidman to gather signatures on an Internet petition rejecting violence against women and urging action to stop it.

The launch of the petition titled "Say NO to violence against women," (www.saynotoviolence.org), is part of a 16-day U.N.-backed campaign to raise awareness about the issue and urge governments to make eliminating such violence a priority.

Joanne Sandler, acting head of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, said she hoped for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of signatures to add weight to calls for concrete measures to be taken by governments.

Kidman, an Australian who is a goodwill ambassador for UNIFEM, did not attend the launch at U.N. headquarters but said in a statement she was among the first to sign, calling violence against women, "an appalling human rights violation."

UNIFEM said statistics indicate that as many as one in three women will experience violence in her lifetime, whether it be domestic violence, genital mutilation, human trafficking or systematic rape in conflict zones.
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Hours after guiding his Dallas Cowboys to a Thanksgiving Day win over the New York Jets, Tony Romo grabbed dinner with Jessica Simpson in Dallas.

Romo, 27, arrived at the Dragonfly restaurant inside the swank Hotel ZaZa at around 7 p.m. Thursday, shortly after Simpson, also 27. They settled into a corner table with about 25 friends and family.
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Daniel Craig confesses he vegged out for months after he was done building up his beefcake body for last year's Casino Royale.

"After it finished, I stopped training," the blond James Bond, 39, tells Britain's The Times.

As for his physical routine, he says he "relaxed for three months and ate what I wanted, and then it's hell because as soon as you get back in the gym, you have to work all that off, and it takes much longer than it does to put it on."

Craig, currently promoting The Golden Compass, is already preparing for the next 007 outing, at this point simply called Bond 22 and set for release a year from now.

"Last time I did a lot of weights to bulk up because I had to do it quickly," he says. "This time I'm going to do more boxing and more running. I need to be physically strong for Bond and, as much as I looked in great shape, I got a lot of injuries, probably due to the fact that I wasn't doing enough running and jumping, which is what I needed to do in the film."

Alas, for those who like a Bond who is all meat, Craig confesses that this time he plans to keep the muscle growth in check. "I won't look physically much different, but I won't be as 'no neck' as I was last time."
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Natalie Portman was so desperate to maintain a normal childhood, she created her stage name when she became famous. When she was on set or in the press, she was Natalie Portman, but back home she was Natalie Hershlag. Kind of like a real life Hannah Montana minus the wig.

Portman says, "It was like having an alter ego. I was able to keep my public persona controlled and let the messiness be in private. I could be a human being. I don't want to have a perfect (life), but I know my actions may affect or influence people, and there is a little bit of responsibility in that."

Didn't the people back home realize Portman and Hershlag were identical? The whole alter ego thing could only have worked for so long, no? In case you were wondering, Portman/Hershlag found fame at 14-years old.
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Elizabeth Hurley is planning an alternative career as a TV celebrity chef.

The British 42-year-old, whose resume includes actress, model, film producer, bikini designer and businesswoman, now has her sights set on fronting her own cookery show.

And Hurley plans to use the program to teach women how to get a super-slender body like hers.

She says, "I really want a television show on healthy eating. Maybe you'll see me in front of the stove soon."
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