People: New BFF? Close, but no Nicole
Paris Hilton is looking for a new best friend.
Hilton will choose from 20 potential confidantes on an MTV reality series, tentatively titled “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF,” premiering later this year.
Production is scheduled to begin in late May.
In true reality-formula fashion, the contestants will live together in a house and try to prove themselves worthy in the areas of loyalty, endurance and “girl politics.”
Hilton, an executive producer on the show, will “teach the secrets of celebrity living – how to turn your enchanted life into a multimillion dollar brand, how to manage public feuds and always rise above, how to survive scandal and then make it work for you, all the while wearing 6-inch heels.”
A casting call has kicked off on ParisBFF.com, where visitors can vote for Hilton’s aspiring hangers-on.
The 27-year-old hotel heiress has had an on-again, off-again best friend in Nicole Richie, her co-star in “The Simple Life” reality series.
Hilton’s latest boyfriend is Good Charlotte rock guitarist Benji Madden, twin brother of Richie’s husband, band singer Joel Madden.
Driver: Baby on board
Minnie Driver, who stars in the FX cable series “The Riches,” said on Thursday’s “Tonight Show” she’s expecting her first child.
“I don’t know why they call it morning sickness,” said Driver, 38. “I am sick morning, noon and night, but it’s a fair trade-off.”
You are erect, sir?
Former “Tonight Show” sidekick Ed McMahon‘s publicist has revealed that he broke his neck in a fall last March and is recovering after two surgeries.
“It’s been a tough year, but I’m working hard in rehab and doing the best I can to get through it,” the 85-year-old McMahon, who’s been seen wearing a neck brace, said in a statement.
A simple ruling
A jury on Friday cleared a cardiologist and a radiologist of negligence in the diagnosis and treatment of actor John Ritter.
The “Three’s Company” and “8 Simple Rules … for Dating My Teenage Daughter” died of a torn aorta in 2003 at age 54.
Pecking order
India’s top court suspended an arrest warrant Friday against Richard Gere, wanted for allegedly breaking public obscenity laws by kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the cheek at an AIDS awareness event last year.
Mild at heart
Director David Lynch’s nonprofit foundation is donating $1 million to fund scholarships to study meditation techniques at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.
Lynch, who directed such films as “Wild at Heart,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Dr.” as well as TV’s “Twin Peaks,” is a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.
The birthday bunch
Actor Judd Hirsch is 73. Singer Mike Love (Beach Boys) is 67. Singer-keyboardist Sly Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 65. Singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 53. Actress Park Overall is 51. Model Fabio is 47. Singer Bret Michaels (Poison) is 45. Actress Eva Longoria Parker is 33. Rapper will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) is 33. Rapper Young Buck is 27.