Celebrity Trash

TARA REID POSES: Tara Reid, former Taradise star, will appear in the January/February issue of Playboy. Having suffered through botched plastic surgery, a stint in rehab, and a public wardrobe malfunction, Tara says: "I've grown up a lot, and it's time for people to see who I am." Well, this ought to show them all right.

JERSEY SHORE SPONSORS PRESSURED TO PULL ADS: The Italian-American group UNICO is continuing to pressure sponsors to stop airing its commercials during the MTV reality show Jersey Shore, TMZ reports. Domino's Pizza and an insurance group pulled their ads after the debut episode of the show. Now, UNICO has sent letters to Papa John's Pizza, Nivea, LG Electronics and Burger King, demanding that they stop supporting the show, which they call "discriminatory, insulting and Italian-bashing."

The Italian-American organization claims victory on one point: MTV has at least stopped using the terms "guido" and "guidette" in promo clips and on their web site.



30 ROCK'S GRIZZWALD CHAPMAN NEEDS KIDNEY TRANSPLANT

Actor Grizzwald "Grizz" Chapman, who plays a security man for Tracy Morgan on the NBC comedy 30 Rock, is suffering from kidney disease. The actor, who is 35, will talk about his struggles today (Tuesday) on The Dr. Oz Show. The 6-foot-11, 378-pound Chapman is receiving dialysis treatments three times a week for severe hypertension. He is on a five-year-long waiting list for a kidney transplant, but has to lose 75 pounds before he can be considered a candidate for the surgery.

Chapman admits that he ignored his high blood pressure for more than decade, and didn't even take medication for it.
Dr. Oz says of Chapman: "He's got a winning spirit, and if we follow his story carefully, everyone's going to learn a lot from it."

Nicole Richie has grown up and gone glam. The new and improved Nicole showed off brunette locks and an elegant gown at Costa Mesa's Bloomingdale's, where she was promoting her House of Harlow 1960 holiday jewelry collection over the weekend. As E! Online points out: "It seems like just yesterday she was wandering around everywhere looking like a hot mess."

The e!online site also features a "Most Improved" gallery of other stars who have gotten seriously glammed up, probably with the help of a whole team of professional stylists. The list includes Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba, Kate Winslet and Kim Kardashian.


It's so nice taking the baby to the zoo when it's not crowded. In fact, if you're Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, you get the zoo to just shut the whole place down so you can visit with your 3-year-old daughter. One day last week, the Hollywood couple took daughter Suri to the Guillena Mundo Park Zoo outside Seville, Spain. Tom is there to film Knight and Day with Cameron Diaz. Zoo officials closed the zoo to the public so the family could just have the place to themselves. Suri reportedly was very pleased. "She loved stroking a newborn tiger cub, twin baby jaguar cubs and a baby donkey, so small it looks like a ball of fluff," a zoo official told reporters.

If it succeeds, this is the movie that is expected to kick off the next big multi-part movie franchise: Robert Downey Jr. is starring in a new and very offbeat version of Sherlock Holmes, opening on Christmas Day. The movie, with Jude Law co-starring as Holmes' loyal sidekick Doctor Watson, is directed by Guy Ritchie, best known in America as Madonna's British ex-husband. Even if most movie-goers love it, you have to wonder how fans of Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective will react to this latest movie version. The Hollywood Reporter asked Downey if detective fiction fans will recognize his Sherlock Holmes. Downey replied: "Well, we got invited to the annual Baker Street Irregulars ball in New York, so I guess we haven't fallen too far from the tree." (For those who don't know, the Baker Street Irregulars are serious students of Holmes.)