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It's going to be awhile before John Travolta slips into a housecoat again.

Hairspray director Adam Shankman tells me the sequel to his 2007 musical box office hit is far from being a done deal...

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Hannah Montana's Aunt Dolly is not a lesbian.

Well, at least the country legend who plays her isn't.

Dolly Parton knows that she's been the target of gay rumors for years and years because of her close relationship with lifelong best friend Judy Ogle.

And once again, for the umpteenth time, she's setting the record straight...

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Talk about a showstopping performance.

Not long into Saturday's opening night of 9 to 5: The Musical at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre, technical issues with the elaborate set literally shut the show down.

Thankfully, Dolly Parton was on hand. "Don't make me have to sing," Parton boomed from her seat. "If I have to this time, I'll make Lily [Tomlin] and Jane [Fonda] do it with me." (Yes, her movie costars were there for opening night!)

An usher handed Parton a microphone and before you knew it, she was leading the audience in a "9 to 5" sing-along. "Thank you for being so kind and understanding," Parton said. "I'm glad I'm such a show-off." (She actually had to do the same almost two weeks ago when the set broke down during previews.)

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Long before Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, there was Franklin J. Hart Jr. in 9 to 5.

In the 1979 movie, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton play coworkers who seek revenge on their slimy sexist boss (Dabney Coleman) by kidnapping him. The staged musical adaptation opens on Saturday at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown L.A.

I caught up with Ms. Parton (who wrote all the music for the new production) and the stars of the show earlier this morning to find about their own real-life bosses from hell. Here's what they told me:

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Dolly Parton wrote all the songs for the new 9 to 5 musical, but that doesn't mean the show has an all-country playlist.

In fact, the musical's book writer Patricia Resnick (she also wrote the original movie) says "Backwoods Barbie" is the only country number in the entire show.

"The rest of the score is somewhere between pop and Broadway," Resnick said at last night's Outfest and American Cinematheque screening of the 1980 flick at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

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Jessica Simpson has returned to her Southern roots. If ya haven't heard by now, the former pop-singing, reality-television star is about to release her first country album, Do You Know.

But it was less than two years ago that Simpson thought her music career was over. The 28-year-old Texan blond bombshell filled me in on exactly what happened as we sat down earlier today for a little chitchat about the new album at the Casa Del Mar hotel in Santa Monica.

Read on to find out why she almost called it quits, why we probably won't see her acting again any time soon and why we shouldn't be thinking about Tony, John or Nick when listening to the lyrics of her many new songs about livin' and lovin'...

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Dolly Parton says it's time to leave a couple of the world's most famous starlets alone.

"Poor little Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan," Parton said at her concert last night at L.A.'s Greek Theatre. "Ain't it awful? If those little girls slept with as many men as they say in the tabloids, why their little butts would have more fingerprints than the FBI!"

All kidding aside, Parton said, "I kinda feel sorry for them. We should give those two a break."

It's too bad Spears and Lohan weren't in the audience to hear Parton's got their back. So, who was at the show?

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Miley Cyrus says there's no way she's going to be locking lips with Katy Perry at this Sunday's Teen Choice Awards.

The 23-year-old "I Kissed a Girl" hitmaker recently said in an interview that she was hoping to snag a same-sex smooch onstage with the 15-year-old Cyrus in the spirit of the infamous Madonna-Britney Spears kiss.

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Dolly Parton is heading to Broadway.

The country legend was in New York today to announce that the musical adaptation of 9 to 5 will open on Broadway at the Marriott Marquis Theatre on April 23.

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Courtesy Billboard Magazine

You’d think someone would have thought about launching a line of Dolly Parton makeup a long time ago. But apparently not.

Until now.

“I want my own cosmetics line,” Parton says in the new issue of Billboard.

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Leave it to Dolly Parton to get me singing about Jesus.

The second single from her new album, Backwoods Barbie, is called “Jesus and Gravity,” and the music video just hit YouTube, so I called up the director, my pal Steven "Flip" Lippman, this afternoon at his office in New York City.

Lippman, who also directed the video for the album’s first single, “Better Get to Livin’,” told me he got what he needed in just three hours with the singer. “She really gave it her all,” he said. “In the first couple of takes, I asked her to do it more subdued and more meditative and then for the final three or four takes, I told her to take it church…When you’re working with Dolly Parton, you’re not working with a novice.”

The shoot took place just days after Parton had come off of some much-needed—and doctor-ordered—down time because of back problems. “You would never have known she had ever been laid up,” Lippman said. “She was ripping across that stage.”

Wanna see the video? Click the video player below.

ABC/Richard Cartwright

Has someone sent you a link to Dolly Parton's latest video yet? Directed by Steven Lippman and starring Strangers with Candy's divine Amy Sedaris, the country music legend's new single, "Better Get to Livin'," from her upcoming album, Backwards Barbie, is turning into a YouTube smash.

Being a Dolly fanatic, I called Lippman—who's directed videos for Bette Midler, David Bowie, Carly Simon and k.d. lang—at his New York office to find out what it's like working with the one and only.

Congrats! The video is a hit on YouTube.
It really has taken us by surprise. We expected people to like it, but the two [posts] on YouTube are edging toward 172,000 hits, which is huge for a record that’s not even out yet...I think it’s the convergence of the two fan groups: the cult around Dolly and the cult around Amy.

How did you get hired?
They wouldn’t release the song, but they sent me the lyrics and they played the song for me over the phone. So, I actually submitted two different concepts to them based on the lyrics and me listening to the song over the phone a couple times...That's how I got the gig.

Was Amy Sedaris a part of your original plan?
I was thinking: Who could we get who has no vanity, is willing to go along for the ride and wants to do it because they love Dolly? We’re all huge fans of Amy Sedaris. We thought about some other people, but nobody seemed as right for it as Amy. I know a few people who know her, so we were able to kind of send word that we wanted her. The next thing you know, her agent calls and says, “I hear you’re looking for Amy.”

You shot on a farm in Dolly’s hometown, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. When did you first meet Dolly?
About five minutes before the first shot.

Are you serious? Obviously, you were in contact before.
Absolutely. She approved the concept. But you know, Dolly is a busy woman. She gave me a tremendous amount of creative freedom.

You’ve worked with some big stars, but I have to know: Dolly's the most fun, right?
Because the nature of the song and the video was so much fun, I would have to say yes, only because all the other work that I’ve done with these other people has been much darker and much more serious. Like, 90 percent of those women in the video were all from the secretarial pool in the accounting department at Dollywood. It was insane. Dolly was sitting there in between takes just cracking these women up. They were all howling with laughter.

Sounds like fun to me!

Click below for the video and see for yourself.