Breaking News
Ashlee and Pete: Newlyweds 2.0
Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz have made at least one thing official.
A little more than a month after announcing their engagement, the musically inclined couple swapped vows Saturday at the Encino home of the bride's parents, Joe and Tina Simpson, sources confirm to E! News.
"We're delighted to confirm that Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson were married this evening in front of family and close friends," a family rep told People.
Jessica Simpson, who served as Ashlee's maid of honor; her apparently still-willing beau, Tony Romo; Nicole Richie and Joel Madden; Scrubs star Donald Faison and his girlfriend, longtime Jessica pal and family friend Cacee Cobb; and Wentz's fellow Fall Out Boys were among the 150 guests in attendance.
Joe Simpson performed the nondenominational service, which took place about 7 p.m.
It's the first hitching for both the 23-year-old bride and her 28-year-old groom, who, sources have told E! News, are expecting their first child.
The (Yellow) Simpsons Take Over Universal
Ashlee and Pete's wedding wasn't the only Simpsons event today.
The Simpsons Ride debuted at Universal Studios Hollywood with a yellow carpet premiere, a human cannonball stunt and plenty of celeb families looking to go for a spin with Homer and his family.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa even got into the act. "Today, my name is Mayor Quimby," he said, joining show masterminds Matt Groening and James L. Brooks and Simpsons alums Lisa Kudrow, Kelsey Grammer and Fred Willard for a day at the park.
Larry Birkhead showed up with Dannielynn, and actually showed some good parenting skills. "She's too little to ride, but I'm gonna go for it," he said.
Good choice, Larry, because the immersive motion ride is packed with twists and turns, Simspons-esque puns and gags, a Pirates of the Caribbean spoof, a giant, radioactive Maggie and more, when Sideshow Bob sets out to sabotage the already-shady Krustyland attraction.
The ride got a thumbs up from the mayor ("I looooved it") to Hanna Montana costar Mitchel Musso ("It was trippy, crazy, awesome, unbelievable—all of that in one.")
Even Mr. Burns would be hard pressed to disagree.
The ride officially opens to the public on Monday. And from what we're hearing, Willard may still be there.
"I think I would be happier in cartoon land than in real life," said the Back to You star. "Everything's happier and more colorful. And if terrible things happen you just bounce back. If you fall off a cliff you right get up. It all happens as birds fly over your head. It's great, isn't it?"
ScarJo and Tom Waits: Under the Covers
All movie stars want to be a rock stars, and Scarlett Johansson is a prime example. But she's wisely dodging the mainstream pop bullet, going for indie cred in a big way by debuting with a CD of cover versions of tunes by gravel-voiced legend Tom Waits.
The CD, Anywhere I Lay My Head, drops Tuesday, but AOL Music had ScarJo in their hizzy to do live versions of a couple numbers and passed us the MP3s. Check 'em out:
Indy 5...Minus the Indy??
The fourth installment of Indiana Jones doesn’t hit theaters until Thursday, but there’s already buzz about making a fifth film without Harrison Ford in the lead role.
While walking the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Kung Fu Panda, George Lucas hinted to reporters about the possibility of a sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
"I haven't even told Steven [Spielberg] or Harrison this," he said. "But I have an idea to make Shia [LaBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out."
Although it’s hard to imagine what Lucas has up his sleeve, passing the bullwhip to LaBeouf’s character, Mutt Williams, could make sense. Rumors have been swirling for months that Mutt is Indiana’s lovechild with Marion Ravenwood, played by Karen Allen.
But, for now, diehard Indy fans can breathe easy: Ford, 65, hasn’t hung up his fedora just yet. On Friday he told reporters, "Till they tell me otherwise, I will continue to be Indiana Jones."
Ashlee's Big Day Dawns Bright
The sun is shining, the tables are set and the VIP port-a-potties are standing by. Time to have a wedding!
After days of flurried preparation on their behalf, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are primed to swap vows later today at the bride's parents' home in Encino, Calif., a little more than a month after announcing their engagement.
Jessica Simpson, who hosted a rehearsal dinner for the couple last night at her Beverly Hills pad, is expected to perform maid-of-honor duties, while her beau, Tony Romo, is expected to be her date. Any other boldface names on the guest list have been kept under wraps, but the sizable tent currently set up in Joe and Tina Simpson's decked-out backyard is going to holding between 150 and 250 people, all of whom received save-the-date notices rather than detailed invitations.
You know, for privacy's sake.
Exclusive
24 Star: Counting Down to Baby
The biological clock is ticking for one of the stars of 24.
Marisol Nichols, who plays Special Agent Nadia Yasser on the Fox hit series, tells E! News exclusively that she is pregnant with her first child and due in late October.
The 34-year-old actress and her director husband, Taron Lexton, 25, have five names picked out for their baby girl, but Nichols says, "I'll know which one to call her when I meet her."
E! News caught up with the new-mom-to-be at the same Bally Total Fitness center in Los Angeles that is frequented by Britney Spears. As the fitness chain’s celebrity spokeswoman, the über-toned Nichols is taking Pilates throughout pregnancy to help snap her body back in to shape after the baby is born. She hopes to return to work soon after giving birth.
Nichols and Lexton met last year when they were seated next to each other on a cruise.
"It was one of those love-at-first-sight things where we stayed up for two days talking about everything," Nichols says.
The couple, who are both members of the Church of Scientology, were married April 13 at the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles.
Ashlee and Pete Rehearse at Jessica's House
Wedding weekend got even more officially under way tonight.
A day after Ashlee Simpson celebrated her bachelorettehood with family—including her future mother-in-law—and gal-pals, Jessica Simpson hosted a private rehearsal dinner for her little sister and Pete Wentz at her Beverly Hills home.
Red-vested valet attendants greeted the friends and family who were invited to the intimate affair, held in the elder Simpson sib's backyard. Guests were also spotted mingling on the front terrace.
Candlelit tables and twinkling white lights strung through the trees helped set the mood.
A source tells E! News that Ashlee and Pete arrived via limo at about 7:45 p.m., while a team of security guards held court on the street outside.
There's no confirmation yet that Jessica's boyfriend, Tony Romo, was there, but the NFL star is reportedly planning to accompany the singer to the Simpson-Wentz wedding tomorrow night. The apparently cohesive couple were spotted having lunch at the celeb-frequented Katsuya in Hollywood earlier today.
—Reporting by Matt Donnelly and Claudia Rosenbaum
Simpson Wedding Watch, Ashlee Edition
The clock is ticking, the event-planners are bustling and maybe, just maybe, a fetus is growing.
After saying their respective farewells to the single life on Thursday night—which, aw, ended with the duo recoupling at the Roosevelt Hotel—Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are primed to swap vows sometime Saturday.
Sources once placed the nuptials at a friend's house in the tony beachside town of La Jolla, Calif., but now all signs are pointing to a Valleyfied affair at parents Joe and Tina Simpson's Encino home.
Party preparations started taking place Thursday as Simpson family employees, an SUV full of balloons—and, at one point, Jessica Simpson herself—were spotted bustling in and out of the Royal Oaks Colony, the gated community where Joe and Tina live.
And, thanks to telephoto lens-toting paparazzi, a tent was spied going up in their spacious backyard.
Idol Oddsmakers Dish On the Davids
If you've got some Benjamins riding on a David, be warned: Only one of them is Cooking. At least according to the bookies.
The online oddsmakers at BetCRIS.com have unveiled the favorite to take the American Idol crown...let's just say Papa Archuleta may have to be restrained.
Former bartender and Missouri's favorite rocking son David Cook is the odds-on pick to succeed Jordin Sparks during next week's finale, given a 74 percent chance of winning the whole shebang, per the online bookies.
Despite starting the season as the overwhelming favorite, tween dream David Archuleta has just a 32 percent possibility of becoming Simon Cowell's newest protégé, per the betting line.
Of course, last we checked, Gambling 101 was not a part of a grade-schooler's course load, meaning the actual voting demographic might not jibe with the oddsmaker's pick and it still could be anybody's contest.
Sightings: Selena, Charlize and Mr. Big
BERRY GOOD FRIENDS: Disney Channel stars Brenda Song and Selena Gomez, enjoying some treats at Pinkberry in the Studio City area of Los Angeles.
BLEEDING HEART: Mischa Barton, helping celebrity photographer Jeff Vespa celebrate his directorial debut, the short film Nosebleed, at the Cannes Film Festival during a party on the Bud Light yacht.
Jessica and Cash Hit a Ruff Patch
As if about-to-give-birth Jessica Alba doesn’t have enough to worry about, her dogs went MIA the other day.
I’m happy to report they weren’t lost for long, and they’re back home with Ms. Alba.
But here’s what went down:

















