Actress Lindsay Lohan stands on the red carpet as she arrives for the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, April 28, 2012Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
MISSED OUT
Now it can be told: Lindsay Lohan was almost in The Avengers – or at least that's how she remembers it. On Sunday night's new episode of the OWN series Lindsay, the controversial actress said that she was up for a role in the 2012 superhero blockbuster, but her manager didn't push hard enough for her, after which the film's producers "went with an unknown" for the part. Said Lohan: "If I don't work in a film, he passes it to [High School Musical star] Vanessa Hudgens, he passes it to one of his other clients…" Most of the online speculation has it that Lohan is referring to the secondary Avengers role of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, which went to Vancouver native and How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders. Lohan also groused that, "Every day I'm not on a film set, I'm wasting my talent because that's what I was born – and live – to do."
Source: Time
MAKING IT WORK
Tori Spelling and her husband Dean McDermott will attempt to repair their marriage under the glare of the reality-TV camera. The U.S. cable channel Lifetime announced Monday that the new unscripted series True Tori would premiere on April 22, less than three weeks after it began filming. Rumours that Spelling and McDermott were on the verge of separation intensified following his rehab stint last January for "health and personal issues." Best known for her 10-season stint on Beverly Hills, 90210, Spelling, 40, and the Toronto-born McDermott, 47, were married in 2006 and have four children together. The couple previously starred in the reality series Tori and Dean: Inn Love and Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.
Source: Newsday
SHOW TUNES
If you watch only one viral video today, make it Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel performing a classic scene from Les Miserables. The How I Met Your Mother co-stars recently appeared on Inside the Actors Studio where they were persuaded by host James Lipton to perform an impromptu duet of the song Confrontation from the Tony-winning stage musical. And if their performance seems a tad polished, remember this isn't the first time Segel and Harris performed the song: Back in 2006, the pair belted out the same tune during an appearance on the daytime talker The Megan Mullally Show.
Source: People
WHEN BARACK MET ZACH
Who could have guessed Barack Obama's appearance on Between Two Ferns really would increase public enrolment in Obamacare? The U.S. President restated his pitch for the healthcare plan during his recent appearance on the parody Web series hosted by Zach Galifianakis, which airs on the website Funny or Die. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said that the recent bump in people signing up for Obamacare – currently on track to reach the seven-million enrolment plateau – is directly attributable to the American president's appearance on BTF. "The website traffic surged once the Between Two Ferns segment went on," said Sebelius. "As a mother of two thirtysomething sons, I know they're more likely to get their information on Funny or Die than they are on network TV."
Source: Gawker
HAPPY DAYS
The remarkable win streak of Pharrell Williams just keeps rolling along. The Happy singer has signed on to be a mentor-coach for the seventh season of the reality singing-competition series The Voice. NBC confirmed the news on Monday with the tweet, "Okay, we can OFFICIALLY say it! WE ARE SO HAPPY to announced PHARRELL WILLIAMS = NewVoiceCoach for SEASON 7." Williams guest-mentored on The Voice last season at the behest of fulltime coach Usher. His performance knowledge prompted New York Magazine's Vulture column to headline their recap with "Pharrell should be a coach."
Source: CNN