Multiple car accidents, three stints in rehab and a court ordered spell at the morgue can put anyone's life into perspective. Lindsay Lohan tells PEOPLE that the last few years of turmoil have made her more focused on acting and singing than ever.

"My life was distracted by certain things and that got in the way of work," Lohan, 21, said Tuesday at the Paper Magazine and Diesel luncheon celebrating this month's cover story. "But now I'm back on track and figuring out what's next."

Alongside designer Jeremy Scott, who shot the cover, and DJ friends Samantha Ronson and Steve Aoki, the actress laughed and took personal pictures at the event in her honor held at the Sunset Marquis Hotel and Villas.

"Lindsay and I have been talking about doing a shoot together for some time and we hadn't had the chance," said Scott, who is also a friend. Though Scott is not the only one to have photographed the actress recently, he says, "Everyone always shoots her in a very generic [way]. So we took her and put her on a set and let her act." He adds: "She's an actress for God sakes, and sometimes people forget that."

So what is next for the starlet? She is getting ready to start shooting the comedy Ye Olde Times with Jack Black and David Arquette. Plus, there's another album in the works.

"I'm recording right now [with] Motown and being in the studio again has been really great," she said of her "dance, hip-hop and R&B album," adding, "It's all coming together."
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Lindsay Lohan out and about in Santa Monica

A judge on Tuesday ruled that the baby daughter of deceased model Anna Nicole Smith is the sole heir to her estate, meaning 18-month-old Dannielynn could inherit a multimillion-dollar fortune.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff's ruling also established a trust for Dannielynn that would be administered by Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, and Dannielynn's father, Larry Birkhead.

Smith, a former Playboy model and television actress, died in February last year of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, roughly five months after Dannielynn was born. Smith's son, Daniel, died only three days after Dannielynn's birth. He was 20.

Daniel had been Anna Nicole Smith's heir according to a will that was written well before his death, but the actress/model never changed the will. Stern, who is executor of Smith's estate, had petitioned the Los Angeles court in October to name Dannielynn as the sole heir.

"We and Mr. Stern always believed that Anna Nicole never intended to disinherit her daughter," Stern's lawyer, Bruce Ross, said after the hearing. "I'm pleased to say this chapter in the saga is closed."

At the time of her death, Smith was embroiled in a legal battle over the will of billionaire oil tycoon Howard Marshall.

She married Marshall when she was 26 years old and he was 89. He died 14 months later with a fortune estimated at $1.6 billion, triggering a battle between Smith and Marshall's family over his estate that still has not been resolved.

If that dispute is settled and Anna Nicole Smith's estate receives a large payout, the money would belong to Dannielynn.

The birth of Dannielynn and deaths of Daniel and Anna Nicole Smith were the subjects of a huge media frenzy last year due to the actress/model's celebrity.

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Patrick Swayze has five weeks to live, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has learned.

In a shocking world exclusive, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has uncovered the devastating news that the beloved Hollywood actor and dancer was diagnosed in late January with pancreatic cancer that has spread to other organs.

Swayze's rep confirmed the sad news Wednesday. Full details are in the print edition of the NATIONAL ENQUIRER that goes on sale Thursday.

For the past month, Patrick, 55, has been traveling to Stanford University's prestigious cancer center in Palo Alto for radical chemotherapy, but his doctors are no longer optimistic that the treatments will be successful.

Patrick and his wife Lisa Niemi — who both have pilot's licenses — have been flying their private Beechcraft plane into Palo Alto's airport, minutes away from the Stanford Cancer Center, where the actor has received outpatient treatment.

He received three doses of chemotherapy and the tumor shrank, but less than his doctors had hoped for — and Patrick was told he should prepare for the end.

"He was told he could have two more treatments, but his cancer was not responding. In short - they held out little hope for a cure," said an insider.

The man who danced into the hearts of audiences worldwide in the 1980s in Dirty Dancing and then broke them in the poignant love story Ghost in the early '90s has lost more than 20 pounds in the past few weeks and is restricted to a liquid diet because he has trouble keeping down solid food, added the insider.

"It's time to start praying for a miracle."
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Salma Hayek wears many hats -- actress, producer, activist, and most recently, mother. With the September arrival of Valentina Paloma, her daughter with PPR CEO François-Henri Pinault, the 41-year-old multitasker has more on her plate than ever before.

Sitting down for a Glamour interview in her kitchen with V-Day founder Eve Ensler, Salma nurses her now 5-month-old baby girl and chats about her pregnancy (yes, she did have gestational diabetes), her hopes for Valentina, and just how it is you keep a relationship going when your fiancé lives on the other side of the world.

On the transition to motherhood:

I believe that change keeps you young. I’m a late bloomer; I always have been. I’m 41, and I know a lot of women think that this is the time when you start getting depressed. To that I say, “No, no, no, no, no!” I’m having the best time of my life.

The best thing that’s ever happened to me is this thing that has happened to so many women, which is having a baby. Every second is magical, every smile.

I cannot get enough of it, because I am not sitting here thinking, "What am I going to do with my life?" I’ve already established my career. I think it’s very good to have a child at this age. I’m in a great place.

On her pregnancy:

I really embraced pregnancy. I enjoyed it. It came to me and I said, “OK, this is where I go now.” I had diabetes while I was pregnant. I became huge. And I said, “This is what it takes for me to have this baby, and I really want it.”

Then you don’t know if it’s going to be healthy; you are completely out of control. So the experience really makes you humble.

On what has surprised her most:

Well, I have to confess something -- I wanted a boy. At the beginning I did. Probably because I was afraid. I think women suffer a bit more than boys, and there is always conflict between mothers and daughters.

But now that she’s here, I’m so happy she’s a girl. And I can’t imagine there ever being conflict between us, because I’m in a state of innocence where I love everything she does. If she does a poop and I have to change the diaper, I love that moment!

On how Valentina has changed her personally:

I don’t remember very well who I was before. Part of me feels like it’s so new and so strange to have a baby, and part of me feels like I’ve known [her] face forever. Somehow I am really relaxed within the chaos of having a baby -- and anyone who’s a mother knows it’s very hard to relax, because there is so much to do and worry about!

I just feel so fortunate to be her mother, and it makes me excited about the rest of my life, because I will get to witness her transformation every day. I feel I was born to have this girl.

On how François is with Valentina:

He warned me from the beginning that he gets very nervous when babies are so little -- he thinks he’s going to break them! But he plays with her, sleeps with her, loves her, kisses her. He’s not obsessed like me. But he’s had two [babies] before!

How their relationship works -- François lives in Paris, Salma in LA.

To most women it’s crazy. But every relationship is unique, and in order to make it work you have to be willing to listen -- not only to your partner, but to the relationship itself. You have to be brave enough to say, “This is who we are: We might not look like the perfect couple, or like our parents did, but this is our love story.”

On if she wishes they could be together more often:

Wishing is a good thing. But wishing you could be together more is so much better than wishing you could get the hell away from someone. [laughs]

François is very generous in his respect for me: He not only gets out of my way, but he’s completely supportive. He pushes me in the right direction. He challenges me with a sense of humor.

I feel lucky to have found a man who is so smart and successful in his own right, so there is no competition between us. He understands I was happy and had a great life before I met him.

On if marriage is something she cares about -- she and François are currently engaged:

Right now I am just enjoying my baby. Do I think we are going to get married? Probably. Will it make a difference? I hope not.

I don’t have a need for marriage. You want to grow old with someone, you want to have a partner and to have children -- we have all those things. Some people need the commitment. Maybe we’ll just make the party!

On her hopes for Valentina:

Life will always be a struggle, and we will always have to work on making the world a better place. But then, working at it is what brings people together.

I hope Valentina will be much more involved than I have been, and smarter about it than I was, because she will grow up in the middle of our conversation and it will be a part of her everyday life. I will make sure she has activists and artists to talk to, and she is very lucky in that respect, because I’ve surrounded myself with extraordinary human beings in many different areas. She will grow up listening to conversations that she’ll be privileged to hear.

Perfection is the end of evolution. So there will always be something to work on. And what’s great is that I know she’ll be part of it.


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Now she's O-for-two.

A second memoir hailed by Oprah Winfrey's media empire was exposed as a fraud when author Margaret B. Jones - who claimed to be a biracial gang-banger - was revealed as Margaret Seltzer, a well-to-do San Fernando Valley girl.

"Love and Consequences" was published last week to generally rave reviews - and on her MySpace page, Jones/Seltzer trumpeted the plug from O, The Oprah Magazine.

A "startlingly tender memoir," read the enthusiastic blurb.

Uh-O!

Publisher Riverhead Books was forced to recall 19,000 copies of the book yesterday after Seltzer admitted her gripping tale of running drugs for a South Central Los Angeles gang was a work of fiction.

"Riverhead is saddened by this turn of events," the publisher said in a statement. "We feel bad for our readers, Peggy and her family."

Oprah's magazine also backed off its praise. "While it was a great read, we now know that it should have been classified as fiction, rather than as a memoir, said Amy Gross, editor in chief.

"Love and Consequences" was the second memoir revealed as a hoax in the past week - the first came when author Misha Defonseca acknowledged that her 1997 book "Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years" was a fake.

More memorably, author James Frey received a nationally broadcast, verbal spanking from Winfrey two years ago after admitting he invented or exaggerated sections of his best-selling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces."

Winfrey selected Frey's autobiography for her Oprah Book Club audience.

Seltzer, 33, was exposed by her sister, who read a profile of the author last week in The New York Times and then contacted the paper. The Times confronted Seltzer, who was tearful and contrite in admitting the deception.

Riverhead Books canceled a planned book tour for Seltzer. The publisher will offer refunds for anyone who bought the book.

The MySpace page set up by the author was yanked, and the voicemail box at her Oregon home was filled yesterday.

The latest scandal came despite the efforts of Seltzer's editors, who fact-checked the story. Riverhead said Seltzer's duplicity included bogus photos, letters and even fake foster siblings, whom she produced to verify her story.

The hoax demonstrates the difficulty publishers face in separating truth from fiction in memoirs.

"One cannot protect oneself 100% from a dedicated hoaxster any more than one can protect oneself 100% from a dedicated terrorist," said Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly.
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Karma is going to get Paris Hilton: The heiress/actress will guest-star in a one-hour episode of My Name Is Earl on April 3, when the comedy returns to NBC. In the episode, titled "I Won't Die With a Little Help From My Friends," Hilton tackles the role of Self, appearing in a vision that Earl (Jason Lee) has while in a coma.
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Lindsay Lohan has been in the spotlight for years. Now it's her family's turn! Lindsay's mom Dina, her sister Ali and her brothers Michael and Cody will star in the new E! reality series Living Lohan. The show debuts this summer and will focus on 14-year-old Ali's quest for fame under the guidance of her "momager" Dina.

"This is a family that knows how to roll with the punches and come out on top," Lisa Berger, E!'s Executive VP of Series Development, said. "Dina is an incredibly hard-working, passionate mom that I think our viewers will find both relatable and highly entertaining."
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A couple of weeks ago, in a column about a sneak-peek at the upcoming Broadway musical "Shrek," I made some minor - and, of course, constructive - criticisms of some of the songs, namely that the music wasn't tuneful and the lyrics weren't clever. (OK, maybe my criticisms weren't that minor.)

The column prompted an e-mail from someone whose address I didn't recognize and who objected to what I wrote.

Thinking my correspondent was some cranky old Broadway geezer, living in the past and longing for the old ways and rules, I fired off a quick response.

Turns out the "old geezer" was John Weidman, the 60-ish president of the Dramatists Guild of America and the co-creator of "Pacific Overtures," "Assassins" and the Tony-winning "Contact."

Since our e-mail exchange is making the rounds, I thought I might as well make it public today.

Dear Michael:

I don't suppose there are many rules, unspoken or otherwise, left in the world of the Broadway theater, but it has always been understood that a show would not be reviewed until its opening night.

In a letter to the Times several years ago, I took one of their Sunday feature writers to task for, in effect, reviewing a show which was to open later that week. In your column yesterday, you seem to have gone the Times one better by reviewing a show - a significant element of a show - before that show had even gone into rehearsal.

Inappropriate, irresponsible, and completely unfair.

John

I responded:

The world has changed. With tickets going on sale months and months in advance of a show's opening - and with prices at $200 to $450 - I don't think it's inappropriate for columnists to give their impression of a show. I hope people read my reports on "Young Frankenstein" and "The Little Mermaid" out of town. I would have saved them lots of money.

These people are not making art. They're in it for the money. Period.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Incidentally, I ran into Jeanine Tesori, the composer of "Shrek," the other day at Joe Allen's Bar Centrale.

"I'm not in it for the money!" she exclaimed, obviously having read the exchange.

Well, that was certainly true of her last show, the arty "Caroline, or Change," which, I believe, lost its entire investment on Broadway.

But "Shrek"?

Come on, Jeanine.

Surely this one's for the country house.

THE old guard and the new guard were one Thursday at the opening-night party of "Passing Strange," the hip new musical by rock musician Stew that's being produced by the venerable Shubert Organization.

A rave review was read aloud, like in the old days before BlackBerrys.

(The Shuberts don't have BlackBerrys. They still "hold the wire.")

The reader was the great Marian Seldes, an actress more attuned, you'd think, to an Edward Albee drawing room than to a rock musical about a black man's sexual and artistic awakening in Europe in the 1980s.

But Seldes, 79, is a big fan of "Passing Strange."

"I adore Stew," she says.

Seldes read the rave with her usual flair.

When Shubert president Phil Smith complimented her reading, she replied: "Thank you, darling. The material you gave me was wonderful!"
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Reese Witherspoon was at the U.N. Tuesday as part of an effort to raise money for a fund to end violence against women worldwide.

The Academy Award-winning actress was promoting a $3 bracelet with an infinity symbol signifying opportunities for women. She is the paid "global ambassador" and global face for Avon Products, Inc.

The Avon Foundation pledged to match the first $500,000 in sales of the "Women's Empowerment Bracelet."

Witherspoon said the money would go to a trust fund managed by the U.N. Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, to provide more education and job training for women and to push for new laws that benefit their standing in some countries.

"Every economic opportunity created for a woman helps a child, helps a community and raises awareness and education," Witherspoon said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Women who feel economically empowered are much more likely to stand up for their own rights, and the rights of their children."

Two of every three people living in poverty in the world are women, UNIFEM director Joanne Sandler said. And the violence against them is a pandemic hidden among the estimated $9.5 billion that criminal networks earn from human trafficking, mostly women and children.

Since its inception 11 years ago, the U.N. fund has granted nearly $18 million to 250 initiatives around the globe.
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