HARD TIMES ADD: The Price Is Right game show host Bob Barker checking into a hospital next week to undergo prostate surgery, his publicist said Tuesday.
ON THE HOT SEAT: Embattled domestic diva Martha Stewart canceling her appearance on CBS' The Early Show Wednesday after the network told her she would be asked about the investigation into her stock dealings. She has also hired a crisis PR firm to handle damage control.
BIRTHDAY BOY: Tom Cruise celebrates the big 4-0 today. Cruise will reportedly be feted by friends and family.
UM, SORRY: Former superagent Mike Ovitz apologizing for comments he made to Vanity Fair magazine claiming his reputation and business were ruined because he was sabotaged by Hollywood's "Gay Mafia."
SEX AND THE CITY AND THE CONSEQUENCES: Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon confirming Wednesday that she is expecting her second child with longtime boyfriend Danny Mozes. The child is due at the end of the year. HBO says the pregnancy will not affect SATC's shooting schedule.
BABY & GREG: Former Dharma & Greg star Thomas Gibson and his wife welcoming a baby boy, Travis Carter Gibson, Monday in Los Angeles. This is the couple's second child.
BIG BROTHER WASN'T WATCHING? Krista Stegall, the former contestant of CBS' Big Brother 2 who had a knife put to her throat by contestant Justin Sebik, filing suit against CBS claiming Sebik should not have been allowed on the show because of his criminal record.
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES: Despite their other business squabbles, Michael Jackson and Sony Music teaming up to buy the 55,000-song library of legendary country music publisher Acuff-Rose. The catalog includes works by Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers.
FALSE IDOL: Fox booting American Idol finalist Delano Cagnolatti on Tuesday night's show after learning he had lied about his age. He is 29, but claimed to be 24--the cutoff age for the contest. He was replaced by first alternate Ejay Day, 20, whose performance was hailed by the judges as the best of Tuesday's show.
STILL THE KING: The remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" debuting at number one on the U.S. singles charts. The track, which has been topping the British charts for the past three weeks, will now be added to the upcoming Elv1s 30 #1 Hits collection due in September.
TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION: VH1 confirming it's in talks with Liza Minnelli and hubby David Gest about doing an Osbournes-style reality show. Meanwhile, MTV is planning on doing a reality show called FM Nation, in which a camera crew rides around with young people as they cruise such cities as Bakersfield, California, and Crashing With..., in which a touring act spends the night with a local resident instead of a hotel.
REMEMBERED: A private rosary will be recited for Rosemary Clooney at 7 p.m. tonight at the Church of the Good Sheperd in Beverly Hills. A private funeral will be held Friday in her native Kentucky. The entertainer died of cancer Saturday at the age of 74.
NO DICE: Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel and Casino refusing to give out the room number where Who bassist John Entwistle died last week of an apparent heart attack, despite requests from guests to stay in that room.
THE NAKED TRUTH: Jennifer Aniston settling her lawsuit against two magazine publishers she had sued for publishing unauthorized photos of her sunbathing topless in her backyard. Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
ISN'T IT IRONIC: Alanis Morissette filing a cybersquatting lawsuit against the operators of alanis.net, claiming the site sells various goods without her authorization, Reuters reports.
MATT TO THE RESCUE: The New York Daily News reporting that actor Matthew McConaughey saved a man who was having a seizure during a press interview at the Regency Hotel in New York by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The man is reportedly in stable condition at a local hospital.
IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED: Chicago attorneys in a lawsuit that accused the producers of HBO's The Sopranos of offending Italian Americans by depicting them as mobsters say they plan to seek another hearing on the case under the "individual dignity" clause of the Illinois Constitution.
CLEANING HOUSE: Jean-René Fourtou, a vice chairman of pharmaceutical giant Aventis' supervisory board, expected to replace outgoing chairman Jean-Marie Messier as the interim head of Vivendi Universal.
BACK TO WORK: After mourning the death of Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, the surviving members of the band TLC are back in the studio working on the group's fourth album, which is scheduled for release in the fall and expected to contain tracks recorded with Left Eye before she was killed in a car accident.
KICKING OFF: Acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan selected to open the Toronto International Film Festival with his latest film, Ararat, which examines claims of genocide in Egoyan's ancestral home of Armenia, organizers confirmed Tuesday.
CODA: Ray Brown, a legendary jazz bassist who played with giants Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson and his one-time wife Ella Fitzgerald in a career spanning more than half a century, died in his sleep Tuesday in Indianapolis. He was 75.