The news of Britney Spears' upcoming appearance on How I Met Your Mother shocked not only the public, but the show's stars as well.

"I was shocked that Madame Spears was willing to come and do some acting! She hasn't acted in a while," Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the womanizing Barney, tells Entertainment Tonight.

Nevertheless, the Emmy-nominated actor thinks Brit would do well on the sitcom with her "very interesting role." Confirming early reports that the 26-year-old is playing a worker at Ted's (Josh Radnor) doctor's office, Neil provides a tad more detail.

"She plays the secretary to another girl that Ted is after," he says. "It will be very unlike any Britney we have seen before, and we have seen a lot of Britney recently."

But don't expect to see a lot of Britney on set. Because the CBS hit films on a closed set, the 34-year-old doesn't expect to deal with the swarm of paparazzi that follows the pop star everywhere.

However, he does consider the idea that the onslaught of paps and her year-long erratic behavior are not at all what they seem to be.

"What if she shows up on set and she is absolutely, totally normal and that whole thing has been a big ruse? She is smoking a cigarette and [says], 'Oh yes, it is all a big bit. I have a master plan.'"
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Britney Spears Shopping at Intermix Boutique in Beverly Hills

Lynne Spears is in Los Angeles to visit with her grandchildren, a source close to the family tells Access Hollywood.

Lynne Spears will see Britney's boys with Kevin Federline - Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1.

The grandmother is currently dividing her time 50/50 between Los Angeles, where Britney lives, and Kentwood, Louisiana, where daughter Jamie Lynn Spears, is holed up, preparing for the birth of her first child.

Lynne has been splitting her time between the two locales in order to support Britney, who is currently under a conservatorship and 16-year-old Jamie Lynn.

As for Britney, the family feels that lately, there has been an "upswing," in how things are going for the embattled pop star, the source told Access. The family acknowledges however, that they have a "long way to go," the source added.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Britney will appear in the primetime sitcom, "How I Met Your Mother."

She has also been teaching occasional dance classes to children at the Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles.

Britney and her father, Jamie Spears, who is co-conservator over his daughter, are getting along "OK," the source added, and the pop singer is said to be more "stable," of late.

The family is "hopeful for the first time in a long time," the source added over Britney's condition.
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Jamie Lynn Spears sporting around

Lindsay Lohan's friends and family are reportedly desperate to keep her away from 28-year-old lesbian Courtenay Semel.

Friends of the troubled actress - who completed a two-month stint in rehab last year for drink and drug problems - are said to be worried about her new friend, and are scared Lindsay will be susceptible to other "bad influences".

A source close to Lindsay's family told the New York Post newspaper: "They are all just leeches, and they are trying to drag Lindsay down and use her for her fame."

Meanwhile, Lindsay intends to have nothing to do with 'Living Lohan' - the E! channel reality show her sister Ali and mother Dina are starring in.

The 'Mean Girls' star was overheard blasting the program last week at a party.

A source said: "Lindsay looked like she was having a really good time, but she got annoyed when someone bought up the Lohan reality show, and snapped, 'I'm not going to have anything to do with it.' "
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Janet Jackson is sick—but not in the good way.

The reigning chart queen was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center late Monday after coming down with a nasty—again, not in the good, patented Miss Jackson way—virus.

"She's been battling this flu like everyone else," Jackson's rep, Patti Webster, told E! News, adding that the singer otherwise boasts a clean bill of health.

The 41-year-old has since been released, Webster said, but will not be appearing as the musical guest on this weekend's Saturday Night Live, as scheduled.

News of the singer's trip to the sick bay was first reported by Us Weekly, which claimed Jackson was admitted after experiencing "shortness of breath."

The ailment comes in the wake of some good news for the singer, whose new album, Discipline, debuted atop the Billboard album charts last week, her sixth disc to hit number one. She will tour later this year.

Not one for a lack of projects, Jackson also recently confirmed that she is in the process of cowriting a book about weight loss with her nutritionist, in which she will discuss her history of being an "emotional eater."

The as-yet-untitled tome will include tips on a healthy approach to eating (feed a cold, hospitalize the flu?) and is due out by the end of the year.

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A man who sent Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster threatening letters for several years was arrested on Tuesday on charges of mailing a bomb threat to a Los Angeles airport.

Michael Smegal, 42, of Holliston, Massachusetts, was charged in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts with mailing a threatening letter to Van Nuys Airport in early December.

The letter was one of more than 100 nearly identical letters with references to Foster mailed to celebrities, business executives, airports and other locations around Los Angeles from September 2007 to January 2008, an affidavit said.

Foster, a two-time Oscar winner who won her first Academy Award playing a rape victim in 1988’s “The Accused,” received anonymous letters from Massachusetts beginning in 2004. In 2005, Smegal admitted to police he had sent the letters and promised to stop, the affidavit said.

If convicted, Smegal faces up to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
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Dennis Hopper's teenage son is furious with Oscars host Jon Stewart, after he mocked the actor's drugs past during this year's ceremony.

During his monologue, Stewart joked the 'Easy Rider' star "didn't know" where he was - citing Hopper's years of addiction for his alleged memory loss.

But Hopper's guest at the bash, his 17-year-old son Henry, hated watching his father being teased.

The veteran actor says: "I think Jon's terrific. I think it's better to be noticed than not. My 17-year-old son was upset by it. He said: 'Don't they know you?' He's never experienced that with me since I've been sober for 24 years. It's not exactly a new joke."
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Patrick Dempsey unveiled a cancer center in his name at the Central Maine Medical Center in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine, on Monday.

The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing, which opens March 31, will offer education and support programs for cancer patients and their families.

The Grey’s Anatomy star, 42, says he was inspired after his mother successfully overcame ovarian cancer at the hospital.

“For a family to get a cancer diagnosis is devastating, and all the information out there can be overwhelming," he said. "A lot of the Web sites I went to just didn't have enough information.”

Dempsey, who provided a seed grant for the center, will also take part in the center’s public education campaign about cancer prevention and detection. His sister, Mary, a hospital employee, will run the center.

Dempsey has been wed to his wife Jillian for eight years. They have twins, Darby Galen and Sullivan Patrick, and a daughter, Tallulah.
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The two actors have been inseparable since they started dating in August. Their trip to Mexico is the latest in a series of romantic breaks.

EDWARD Albee is 80 today.

And he's going to work.

The celebrated playwright is directing revivals of his early one-acts "The American Dream" and "The Sandbox," opening March 25 at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

After that, he goes into rehearsals for "Occupant," about his late friend sculptor Louise Nevelson. It stars Mercedes Ruehl and opens in June at the Signature Theatre.

Then it's on to the Broadway transfer of his new play "Me, Myself and I," about identical twins, that opened to raves last month at Princeton's McCarter Theatre.

And just as soon as his schedule allows, he's returning to one of his favorite places on Earth - Easter Island - to spend three weeks writing a play set there called "Silence."

"I've been to some impressive places," Albee says. "Egypt was impressive. So was the Yucatan and my first glacier. But Easter Island, out in the Pacific, a thousand miles away from anything - wow! The silence is amazing."

In the twilight of his life, Albee isn't coasting on his Pulitzers (three), his Tonys (two) or even his proclamation from the mayor designating today Edward Albee Day in New York City.

The proclamation sits on the kitchen floor, propped against the wall, in the spacious Harrison Street loft he bought 35 years ago for $40,000 and shares with his kitten, Abby, who darts merrily about his vast collection of African art.

The Tonys and the Pulitzers aren't on view. Nor are any posters from his 31 plays, among them "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" "A Delicate Balance," "Tiny Alice" and "Seascape."

"When I was young, I was always embarrassed to go into theater people's apartments and see all their posters on the walls," he says. "I decided that, if I ever got a poster or an award, I would never put it up.

"Well, maybe I'll put up 'The Man Who Had Three Arms,' " he adds, referring to his most notorious Broadway flop, which resulted in a 15-year banishment of sorts from the commercial New York theater. He returned, triumphantly, in 1994 with the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Three Tall Women."
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Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch may temporarily be out of financial peril on Wednesday. But there’s been a mini-financial soap opera running in the background, one which Michael probably knows nothing about, and it’s a doozy.

Sources tell me that for the last several months, Jackson’s former manager and press person Raymone Bain has been spearheading a drive to refinance Neverland without actually bothering to tell Jackson or his legal representatives.

Indeed, she and a group of financial advisers she organized may have been doing it long after Jackson dismissed her as his manager.

The result is that a rock-solid investment group in Los Angeles has been taught the lesson that no good deed goes unpunished.

According to the story, a Los Angeles investor named Jason Cestero was located by a financial group called Genesis Group, run by Kevin Kinsey. Kinsey, I am told, sent Cestero letters identifying himself as lead adviser to MJJ Neverland Ranch Finance Restruct Project. Kinsey, this source says, told Cestero that he was brought on board by Bain, Jackson’s then-manager.

In correspondence and in conference calls with Kinsey and Cestero, Bain represented herself and her PR assistant Aidean King as a firm called North Star.

Based on the letters, e-mails and calls that then began, Cestero and wealthy East Coast investors planned for the refinancing of Neverland.

By last month, based on back-and-forth e-mails and telephone conversations, Cestero — acting on good faith — placed $46 million in escrow with the goal of refinancing the Neverland lien held by Fortress Investments in New York and getting Jackson out of trouble.

But then things started to sound strange to Cestero, sources tell me. The escrow company received a notice from Genesis indicating that $4.6 million of the Cestero money would go to it once escrow on the property closed.

At that point, sources say, Cestero began asking to speak with Jackson directly. When that didn’t happen, Cestero’s suspicions — which already had been brewing — blossomed. He demanded an answer. I’m told that at that point a rep for Bain contacted Cestero saying, suddenly, the deal was off.

Simultaneously: In New York and other parts of Los Angeles, Jackson’s legal representatives knew nothing about these transactions. They had no idea that such a large amount of money was in escrow or that Cestero and his investor existed.

What they did know was that Neverland was in danger of being auctioned off in public on March 19 on the steps of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

Similarly, unbeknownst to Cestero, Fortress was agreeing, albeit reluctantly, to renegotiate Jackson’s Neverland loan, charge him a hefty fee and extend the default arrangement for one year. The plan was for Fortress to avoid the public embarrassment of evicting Jackson from his home, and in broad daylight.

Ironically, while both sides proceeded, it’s more than likely Jackson also knew nothing of the $46 million placed in escrow for him, or anything of the Cestero deal.

Wednesday morning, sources tell me, Jackson’s people feel they may have a deal in place with Fortress. At the same time, Cestero — who did not return calls — is left holding a $46 million bag. He and his investor will get their money back, but not the time, aggravation or fees from dealing with Bain’s people.

Still, a major question lingers: the request for the $4.6 million from Genesis. I’m told Cestero was informed that was for fees for Kinsey, Bain, King and even possibly Michael’s brother, Randy, who was mentioned as being part of the deal to refinance Neverland.

"They were supposedly people who expected to be paid something for putting the financing into motion," a source says.

More to come on this issue…

Meantime…

So is Neverland saved? It’s still a bit foggy. But there is some good news on the horizon. The "Thriller 25" album has sold better than anyone imagined. A month later, the revamped package is holding its own in the top 10. Last week, "Thriller 25" was one of the few CDs that actually increased its sales, by 20 percent. It sold almost 50,000 copies. In this economy, with the record biz dead, that’s quite an accomplishment.

At a total 300,000-plus, "Thriller 25" is heading for gold certification with the RIAA. That would be quite an accomplishment for a CD that’s been reissued several times. It also might be a sign of how bad things are in the marketplace. Good music is being drunk like water in the desert!
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once joked that Sacramento was "death," apparently doesn't want to spend many nights in the graveyard.

As the Los Angeles Times reported last week, the governor has been spending nearly every night in his Brentwood mansion, shuttling between Sacramento and Southern California in his private jet.

The governor uses his own money to pay for his Gulfstream flights, which price out at about $10,000 an hour, the Times reports.

And what about the cost to the environment? The governor's staff says he purchases "carbon credits." Such credits are aimed at offsetting the greenhouse gases generated by his flights but do nothing about the particulates and smog-forming compounds they spew into the air.

Obviously, this green-leaning governor (pictured last year on the cover of Newsweek with a globe on his finger) is sensitive about the apparent hypocrisy of his daily jet-setting.

Yet he said in an interview that he needs to spend more time with his family, and thus is spending fewer nights at a penthouse at the Hyatt.

"I just don't have a home in Sacramento," Schwarzenegger said to the Times.

"The question is how can I be with my family, because that is extremely important, to be with my kids. They are all growing up. They are in their teens. They need their father around. … I felt it took a toll on my family not being at home every day. So what I am trying to do is find that balance between the family and running the state."

There's an easy solution to this homeless tragedy. It was pointed out by former Gov. George Deukmejian, one of many Southern California state leaders who managed to survive an extended occupancy in Sacramento.

Deukmejian suggests that Schwarzenegger buy a big house here, move his family into it, and then donate it to the state as a governor's mansion once his term is over.

It's a fine idea. There are, we hear, a few houses on the market around Sacramento these days.

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