People: A Ray of hope for home cooks
Are you a wannabe celebrity chef, the most inventive cook on the block?
If so, then Rachael Ray just might be looking for you.
Ray, host of the popular Food Network program “30 Minute Meals,” is launching “So You Think You Can Cook?” – a nationwide search for an enterprising foodie.
“We just want to give a person – a real person, not a chef or somebody specially trained to do this for a living – a shot at showing everybody their personality and how much fun you can have with food,” she says.
Ray and her producers will narrow the field of candidates to five promising cooks, who will undergo two weeks of intense competitions and challenges before a winner is announced on the air in late November.
“I’m always telling people how my career was an accident,” she says. “I just wanted to sort of marry up the idea for the show that anybody who likes to cook could literally be Rachael Ray, the ‘30 Minute Meal’ girl.”
The winner of the contest will co-host the “Rachael Ray” talk show for a day and receive training at a U.S. culinary institute.
Full house, indeed
Newsmakers on a busy celebrity baby beat:
“Casey Affleck and his wife, actress Summer Phoenix, expecting their second child.
“Reality TV villain Jon Dalton – better known as Jonny Fairplay of “Survivor: Pearl Island” – and his girlfriend, “America’s Next Top Model” competitor Michelle Deighton.
“Jeri Ryan (“Shark,” “Star Trek”) and her husband, French chef Christophe Eme.
“Former “Full House” child star Jodie Sweetin and her new husband, Cody Herpin.
Premature delivery?
Paris Hilton may have jumped the gun a bit at a post-party for Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards when she told host Christina Aguilera: “Congratulations to the most beautiful pregnant woman in the world. You’re gorgeous.”
Aguilera, who has been avoiding speculation she’s with child, looked shocked.
Roots of the problem
More sad details from Britney Spears‘ lame Video Music Awards comeback performance:
People magazine reports that Spears, who’s more comfortable with female hairdressers, had a pre-show row with stylist Ken Paves, who walked out while doing her extensions.
And Britain’s Daily Mail confirms that Spears broke down in tears following her appearance.
But the other Howard’s loving it
Howard K. Stern, the late Anna Nicole Smith‘s longtime attorney and later partner, says claims in a new book that he and Smith’s ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead had a videotaped sexual encounter are absurd and could psychologically damage her infant daughter.
”Dannielynn is gonna read this garbage, and it’s almost like she’s gonna have to get counseling from the age of 3,” says Stern.
The birthday bunch
Actor Walter Koenig (“Star Trek”) is 71. Singer-actress Joey Heatherton is 63. Actress Faith Ford (“Faith and Hope,” “Murphy Brown”) is 43. Actor Dan Cortese is 39. Actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley (“According to Jim”) is 36. Rapper Nas is 34. Singer Amy Winehouse is 24. Actor Adam Lamberg (“Lizzie McGuire”) is 23.