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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

This time around, it’s Houston, we have progress


Whitney Houston
 (The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokesman-Review

Whitney Houston is ready to try it on her own. The troubled pop diva has completed the 30-day portion of her drug rehab program that required her to have a chaperon with her at all times and has moved on to aftercare, according to her attorney.

Houston entered rehab in March to deal with a substance-abuse problem, but checked herself out after a brief five-day stay. Her rep, Nancy Seltzer, insisted that all was well, and that Houston simply preferred to continue the program on an outpatient basis.

“Miss Houston is continuing the prescribed treatment, as was planned,” Seltzer said at the time. “Her movements are in total keeping with the program.”

Meanwhile, music mogul Clive Davis is reportedly planning for her comeback.

“Clive is planning on having Whitney — if she is still clean and sober and taking care of herself — be the surprise musical guest at his (Grammy) party next year,” a source says.

For now, she’ll be Celine and not heard

Songbird Celine Dion has canceled five more performances of her nightly show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas after spraining her neck earlier this month.

Dion’s show “A New Day …” won’t go on Wednesday through Sunday. The 36-year-old singer also had to cancel last week’s performances because of the nagging injury, which she suffered during a Mother’s Day show.

Dion, in the second year of a three-year engagement at the Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino, is expected to resume performances May 26.

Suppose their boy’s name would have been Mac?

Gwyneth Paltrow has given birth to her first child: a baby girl named Apple Blythe Alison Martin.

The baby, weighing 9 pounds, 11 ounces, was born in a London hospital Friday after what Paltrow’s husband, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, described as “a long labor.” Mother and daughter were said to be doing fine.

The couple, who have been scrupulous about maintaining their privacy, were wed in December during a private ceremony.

Two guesses what their girl’s names were

Meanwhile, it’s a boy — and a boy — for Geena Davis.

The 47-year-old “Thelma & Louise” star gave birth to twin boys, Kian William and Kaiis Steven, at a Los Angeles hospital, her publicist said Monday. Davis and her surgeon husband, Reza Jarrahy, also have a 2-year-old daughter, Alizeh Keshvar.

That’s what those laptop dances will get you

Looks like Demi Moore might be joining Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton in Internet infamy.

“Celebrity Justice” is reporting that a laptop computer containing a series of explicit photos featuring Moore and Ashton Kutcher in “compromising positions” have been stolen from the home of Kutcher’s friend Adam Goldberg, creator of his hit MTV prank show “Punk’d.”

“Celebrity Justice” says police haven’t found any signs of forced entry into the home and have concluded the laptop is the only missing item.

Quoteworthy

“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, to graduates at his alma mater, Virginia’s College of William and Mary, on how they can become the new greatest generation by winning the war on terror: “Even if you don’t, you won’t have trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked pile of enemy prisoners and don’t give the thumbs up, you outdid us.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Robert Morse is 73. Actor Dwayne Hickman (“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”) is 70. Country singer George Strait is 52. Comedian Tina Fey is 34. Rapper Special Ed is 30. Singer Darryl Allen (Mista) is 24.