Friday, March 21, 2008

Lopez's Twins Get Their Big Reveal

PEOPLE magazine has the first photos of Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez's twin babies, who were born in February. On the cover of the magazine, Lopez is seen smiling while holding her two newborns.

For Lopez and Anthony, joyfully nesting with their month-old twins means diaper duty, sleepless nights and the best sung lullabies in the business, PEOPLE reports in its latest cover story, on sale Friday.

The pair were interviewed at their Long Island estate, where they have been holed up since Lopez gave birth by C-section on Feb. 22 to Maximilian David and Emme Maribel. Since then, Lopez, 38, has shed most of the nearly 50 lbs. she gained during pregnancy – and has also entirely re-adjusted her attention.

"I've been very career-oriented my whole life and very focused on my own world and my own life, and all of a sudden the focus just shifts. It's like, 'Whoosh!' I want to do everything for them," says the new mom.

For Anthony, 39, life has changed, too. "I don't go to sleep!" he admits.


Describing the arrival of the babies, Lopez says, "To me, they both looked like Marc. I think that's the first thing I said: 'She looks like you! He looks like you, too!' My doctor said, 'Did Jennifer get a gene in here or what?' "

But how much did the photos cost? Early reports suggest the price tag was as high as $6 million for shots of the newborn twins and their mother, besting the amount the magazine paid for photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's daughter, Shiloh. Read More on the Rising Price of Baby Pictures

PEOPLE magazine is known for it's coverage of the celebrity baby boom, with cover stories including Christina Aguilera and her son Max, and Nicole Richie with her daughter Harlow Winter, as well as the Jolie-Pitts and Lopez.

Pearl Jam Recharges For Summer Tour

After playing just two shows in 2007, Pearl Jam will return to the road this summer for a 10-date tour beginning June 11 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The dates come in conjunction with the group's previously announced co-headlining appearance at Tennessee's Bonnaroo Festival in mid-June.

"I'm looking forward to Bonnaroo," bassist Jeff Ament tells Billboard. "The thing that's probably the most exciting to me is that we've been a band for 17 or 18 years and there's still things like this that we haven't done."
The trek includes a June 24-25 stand at New York's Madison Square Garden, which has hosted some of the band's most iconic shows. Kings Of Leon will support from June 11-17, while Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will open the other dates.

A couple weeks ago, band members got together for eight days to begin kicking around ideas for the next Pearl Jam album, although Ament cautions, "It doesn't mean there'll be a record our next month, but it's the start of the process. Sometimes it takes six months and sometimes it takes two years."

"It's just fun to play," he continues. "We've actually gotten really good at jamming with each other, so it's fun to get together and crank up the amps. We'll have (drummer) Matt (Cameron) throw a beat at us and try to come up with something. There's some new, different kind of things coming out of people."


"We're just getting into it, which is so exciting," guitarist Stone Gossard opines. "We have no idea where it's going but we have a lot of great little starts."

Band members have plenty on their individual plates as well. Gossard is working on his second solo album with longtime collaborator Pete Droge and guitarist Mike McCready is preparing for his annual benefit show for the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, to be held May 3 at Seattle's Showbox.

Meanwhile, frontman Eddie Vedder's first solo tour, a short West Coast run, will get underway April 2 in Vancouver. "He's going to do great," Ament says. "He's been warming up for this his whole life, but especially the last seven or eight years, playing a song or two himself before our shows."

Here are Pearl Jam's tour dates:

June 11: West Palm Beach, Fla. (Cruzan Amphitheatre)
June 12: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)
June 13-15: Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo Festival)
June 16: Columbia, S.C. (Colonial Center)
June 17: Virginia Beach, Va. (Verizon Wireless Center)
June 19: Camden, N.J. (Susquehanna Bank Center)
June 22: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)
June 24-25: New York (Madison Square Garden)
June 27: Hartford, Conn. (Dodge Music Center)
June 30: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)

Britney Goes Gaga in 'Mother' of All Roles

(March 20) - Excited to see Britney Spears in her return to TV comedy on "How I Met Your Mother"? CBS has released two snippets of the troubled singer's turn as a lovestruck girl on the popular sitcom.


Britney Spears On How I Met Your Mother

Spears shares scenes with the show's lead character, Ted, played by Josh Radnor, as a somewhat ditsy receptionist who works in his doctor's office and becomes smitten with him.

The episode is scheduled to air March 24.

The show would mark Spears' first role in a prime-time TV series since a March 2006 guest spot on the NBC comedy "Will & Grace," in which she played a Christian conservative talk show host opposite series regular Sean Hayes.

Spears' career as a performer has been mostly on the skids since her personal life plunged into turmoil following her breakup with Federline in November 2006.

She has been in and out of rehab, and her highly publicized comeback performance on the MTV Video Music Awards in September last year was widely panned as an embarrassing flop.