People: This ‘Idol’ shows his feet of clay
Looks like Ryan Seacrest has a sense of humor after all.
The “American Idol” host sends up his pompous image in the new comedy “Knocked Up,” about an ambitious entertainment reporter (Katherine Heigl) whose life is flipped when she learns she is pregnant.
Seacrest, playing himself as an E! network host, gets angry when Jessica Simpson arrives late for an interview.
He ponders retaliation by asking for her thoughts on an “exit strategy” in the Middle East, adding: “I don’t understand the young talent in this town. It doesn’t make any sense. I got four jobs – hell, I’m more famous than half the people we talk to anyway!”
Seacrest says director Judd Apatow asked him: “Hey, can you use a bad word and make fun of a couple people and, at the end of this whole scene, really make sure you make fun of yourself?”
His response: “Absolutely, let’s roll.”
“This was a very therapeutic exercise,” Seacrest says. “I mean, I didn’t want to stop that day. It’s a shame I only got to do it for however long I got to do it.”
Sink or swim
George Clooney says he couldn’t handle the pressure young Hollywood stars face today.
“If I were as famous as some of those kids who are on the magazines right now at 21 years old, I’d be shooting crack under my eyeball,” Clooney, who co-stars in the new “Ocean’s Thirteen,” tells Entertainment Weekly, citing the travails of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
“They’ll get through it,” he says, “but I wouldn’t want to be growing up around that.”
Simple life behind bars?
Nicole Richie says she’s afraid she might end up following gal pal Paris Hilton to jail.
Richie, 25, was arrested for DUI in December and volunteered she had smoked marijuana and taken Vicodin.
“I’m just keeping my fingers crossed, and, you know, of course, I’m scared also, but … I’m willing to face whatever consequences come my way,” she told David Letterman.
No ‘Indy’ films for him
Sean Connery says he will not return to play the father of Harrison Ford‘s globe-trotting adventurer in the next “Indiana Jones” flick.
“I love working with Steven (Spielberg) and George (Lucas), and it goes without saying that it is an honor to have Harrison as my son,” he says. “But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun.”
Barking up the right tree
Speaking of retirement, Bob Barker had one last little chore after taping his final “The Price is Right” on Wednesday after 35 years as host.
The longtime animal rights activist, who signed off his shows with “have your pets spayed and neutered,” got on the phone with California state assemblymen to lobby for a bill requiring pets to be fixed – which passed by three votes.
The birthday bunch
Comedienne Joan Rivers is 74. Actor James Darren is 71. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 67. Actress Sonia Braga is 57. “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams is 50. Actor-director Keenan Ivory Wayans is 49. Actress Julianna Margulies is 40. Actress Kelli Williams (“The Practice”) is 37. Rapper Kanye West is 29.