Celebrities

SACRAMENTO -- Tapping into the fear of public humiliation to get Californians to pay delinquent taxes, the state has released a list of the 224 worst scofflaws, including a developer whose firm has been awarded tens of millions of dollars in subsidies from the city of Los Angeles and celebrities Dionne Warwick and O.J. Simpson. The list originally included 250 people.

One of New York's best-known photo studios said Friday it will open a large branch in Hollywood to take advantage of America's changing tastes in magazine covers and advertising campaigns. Professional models based in New York were the first choice of magazine editors and big advertisers for decades, said Mazdack Razzi, creative director of Milk Studios. Now they demand celebrities. "Celebrities are the new models," said fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski, who is himself based in New York.

The octo-spectacle just won't go away. And instead of running from the limelight, Octomom Nadya Suleman and her zany cast of characters have thrust themselves head-on into the circling, hungry maw of the 24/7 cable-radio-Internet-Twitter news cycle. Suleman's media juggernaut reached new highs this week, starting Monday with her ex-boyfriend, who tearfully went on national TV to demand a paternity test.

This summer at Dearly Departed Tours, business has never been better -- and that was before Michael Jackson's sudden death. In the days since, the company that drives tour buses to spots where celebrities have met their end has added a stop at the rented Holmby Hills mansion where the pop star collapsed. People are so fascinated with Hollywood's history of death and crime that Dearly Departed has added 100 tours a month compared with a year ago, said owner Scott Michaels.

For more than 2 1/2 years, Farrah Fawcett's battle with cancer has sparked a flurry of headlines for celebrity tabloids. But it has also stripped the actress of her ability to seek treatment while maintaining her privacy, she said in an interview.

Four days after a profanity-ridden audiotape of Christian Bale ranting at the director of photography on the set of "Terminator Salvation" hit the Internet -- launching a veritable tsunami of fan reaction, Web creativity (including a dance remix) and comedic skits on late-night talk shows -- the actor has finally done what many professional public-relations types have advocated all along: He owned up to his mistake and apologized for his bad behavior.

The glittering frenzy of the Paula Abdul Road Show moves swiftly through the lobby of the Universal Hilton, trailing publicists, managers, assistants and a miniature dog. At the center of the promotional sideshow -- a flashy and inescapable satellite component of the relentless publicity machine behind Fox's "American Idol" behemoth -- is Abdul, smiling as she listens closely to her minders, who whisk her from one hurried appointment to another. It's a familiar sight.

Some of the actors on NBC's drama "Heroes" are among those in Hollywood who may have the superpowers to help Twitter break into prime time. Greg Grunberg, who plays a Los Angeles cop with the ability to hear people's thoughts, pulls out his iPhone nearly everywhere, including between takes on the studio lot, to tap out the short Twitter messages known as tweets. He broadcasts them to the more than 20,000 friends and fans following him.

The stars are not twinkling bright this summer. Hollywood's movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren't winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood's A-list talent.

A woman held a BlackBerry over the crowd surrounding Linda Ronstadt to get a shot of the onetime queen of country rock. Someone else thrust an album insert and pen at Josh Groban. "Just one more photo, please," followed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis out of the room. The three musicians were among a group who appeared Tuesday on Capitol Hill to speak in favor of increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to $200 million in the 2010 budget.