I'm baaaack and I'm bringing a lot of people with me!

I'm finally done with my next book that's coming out in June. Betcha never guess what it's about. Nope, not celebrities (although I have written books on Ellen DeGeneres and Will Smith). It's about bowling! LOL. Yup, my Bowling for Dummies book will be out in July!

So over the next few weeks I have several athletes for you, the infamous coach of the New York Giants, Broadway personalities and many many more! So stop back frequently!

Ellen Joins Idol

It's Ellen! Degeneres announced her new gig yesterday during a taping of her talk show. The funny lady is a long-time fan of American Idol. She'll bring a fresh perspective to the judge's table since she doesn't have a background in the music industry. She's just a everyday music-lover! And she'll bring a consumer's opinion to the show.

*Getty Images

Couples Alert

Pete and Ashlee to marry this weekend! Both celebrated bachelor slash bachelorette parties last night. Pete, accompanied by Joe Simpson, his bandmates and Joel Madden, began at LA's Mr. Chow, followed by a party in the Marilyn Monroe suite at Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. As for Ashlee, she spent the evening at the luxury lingerie store Kiki De Montparnasse.

Since California's Supreme Court turned down the law banning gay marriage, Ellen DeGeneres announced yesterday that she and girlfriend Portia de Rossi are engaged. Congrats!

Are they or aren't they? Earlier reports stated that Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson are dunzo! But wait, Jessica (Ashlee's maid of honor) will be bringing Tony as her date to her sister's nuptials this weekend. Hmmm.

- Erin Dustin

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Ellen DeGeneres turns 50 this month and she only wants one thing for her birthday (well, maybe she wants more things, but she let us in on this one). Ellen has teamed up with Brad Pitt (gee, I wish I could say that one day! LOL) to help his worthy charity, Make It Right.

Come on people, let's get New Orleans back to where it should be! Brad Pitt and residents of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans launched a national fundraising campaign to help the city recover from the lasting devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, starting with the Lower 9th Ward.

Pitt was in the Lower 9th Ward on the site of his Make It Right project's first initiative ­ 150 affordable and sustainable homes in an area leveled by Katrina that are being built in partnership with Steve Bing.

Go to their website www.makeitrightnola.org and send a contribution that will help us rebuild homes for these families -- and rebuild their lives.

In addition to high-quality, sustainable design, the project incorporates the spirit and culture of the Lower 9th Ward and encourages it to flourish.

Pitt also unveiled innovative features of www.makeitrightnola.org. Users are able to walk through houses and select which items in the house they will support with their contributions. The site also allows users to provide parts of a house on behalf of their friends and families.

Following the announcements, Pitt hosted a party for Lower 9th residents.
The party included appearances by Jerry Lee Lewis, Ivan Neville, and Fats Domino.

Earlier last year, Pitt and Bing announced at the Clinton Global Initiative that they each would match $5 million in contributions to the houses, for a total of $10 million in matching funds, and challenged others to join them in rebuilding New Orleans.

Pitt became a part-time resident of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. After seeing the devastation first hand and meeting with the hardest-hit residents, he began the Make It Right project to catalyze the rebuilding of New Orleans starting with the Lower 9th Ward.

The 150-home community will address the dire need for single-family housing in the Lower 9th Ward and further spark rebuilding efforts in one of the richest cultural communities in America, an area that saw houses not just flooded by water, but swept off their foundations.

Make It Right's mission is built upon catalyzing redevelopment of the Lower 9th Ward by building a neighborhood of safe and healthy homes that incorporates modern, high-quality design and construction while preserving the spirit of the community's culture.

Make It right is committed to building 150 houses in the Lower 9th Ward; ensuring a green, affordable, sustainable, and replicable community to serve as a model for further rebuilding; including the Lower 9th Ward community as an integral part of the process; and a finance plan that ensures that residents who wish to return to the Lower 9th Ward can do so without further
financial hardship.

Core Make It Right team members include Graft, an innovative architecture firm that Pitt has collaborated with on projects around the world; William McDonough + Partners, which is developing the environmental criteria guiding the project; Cherokee Gives Back Foundation , the nonprofit arm of Cherokee, a firm that specializes in remediation and sustainable redevelopment of environmentally impaired properties; and Trevor Neilson and Nina Killeen, advisors to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

So, if you're a fan of Brad Pitt, want to give Ellen something for her birthday, or you know in your heart that New Orleans still needs our help and you want to give, please visit the site and make a donation. Ellen said on her show, if you can afford fifty cents, fifty dollars or fifty-thousand dollars, it all helps!

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Lisa

Check in with your favorite celebs! Thought I'd check in with some celebs -- sports, music, TV and more and see what they are up to!

Miley Cyrus, Ellen DeGeneres, Liv Tyler, and Jessica Simpson are among the celebrities that are helping fight pediatric cancer during the holidays—and you can see the results on BiddingForGood.com. BiddingForGood offers about 10,000 gifts for charity, and all the money goes to good causes--from St. Jude's (children's pediatric cancer), to feeding the hungry, to saving the earth. In the case of these celebs, they've taken time to custom-design UGG Boots, and UGG Australia is in turn auctioning them off through BiddingForGood. The leading bid for Cindy Crawford's boots right now is $1,500. The leading bid for Liv Tyler's boots is currently $3,600. You can find the auction by going to BiddingForGood.com and searching for UGG.

Kevin Costner is trying to save Sherwood Forest; Check this out.
Then visit http://www.thepeoples50million.org.uk/home and VOTE!

Melinda Doolittle, a finalist on American Idol, is supporting Malaria No More, an organization that is dedicated to eradicating malaria around the world. The organization's site is www.MalariaNoMore.org.

Dr. Laura was the special guest at this past weekend's fund raiser at the Santa Barbara Harley-Davidson store to benefit Operation Family Fund. As a part of the Fund Raiser raffle, a winner got to try and dunk Dr. Laura in the tank. When the winner did not hit the bullseye, Dr. Laura jumped into the tank! 100% of the money will go to benefit the families of our troops who have been injured or killed in action. For more information on Operation Family Fund and to donate please visit www.operationfamilyfund.org.

Andrew Shue, best known as “Billy” on Melrose Place, and Damien Fahey, host of MTV's TRL, are active board members for Do Something. Shue launched the organization in 1993. Check out the organization (PLEASE TYPE WWW.DOSOMETHING.ORG into your browser, I can't get it to link here. It is a grassroots initiative that uses the power of the internet to help young people change the world! The core belief of Do Something is that young people have the power to make a difference. The organization inspires, supports and celebrates a generation of do-ers: people who see the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action.

New York Jets linebacker Bryan Thomas donates his time to Computers for Youth (CFY), a nonprofit organization that partners with public middle schools in low-income communities to provide families with a free computer, educational software and free Internet access. (www.cfy.org) and has become very involved in the nonprofit and raising awareness of its efforts.
On the computer note, Masi Oka works with One Laptop Per Child - http://laptop.org

Jane Seymour works with ChildHelp USA (http://www.childhelp.org/) an organization to help prevent child abuse and CityHearts http://www.cityhearts.org/, Kids Say 'Yes' To The Arts is committed to intervene in a loving, supportive and nurturing way to break the cycle of poverty, neglect, abuse, homelessness, delinquency and violence that destroys the lives of our children.

And I’m so excited to report this about director Penny Marshall (Laverne & Shirley). Penny Marshall is one of my favorite actresses, from The Odd Couple to Laverne & Shirley (I’m sneaking in a mini-commercial here – Laverne & Shirley is on DVD whooooo! – yes, I have ALL of them so far, great stocking stuffers! – and, no, I’m NOT paid to say that – LOL) and in November, Marshall co-chaired an event that benefited the Brain Injury Association of New York State and raised $40,000. When a head injury caused by an explosion at the World Trade Center sent their cousin into a coma earlier this summer, diSalvo Interiors’ mother/daughter design team decided to hold a benefit to raise money for Brain Trauma Research. The auction was hosted and co-chaired by Lorraine Bracco, silent auction items from Rosie O’Donnell, Mark Wahlberg, James Woods and NFL players Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice and Brett Favre (Go Packers! I’m a cheesehead!) and more. Silent auction items included a signed Laverne and Shirley script (If I had ONLY known!)!

Retired NY Giants great George Martin is on his Journey for 9/11, a cross-country walk from NYC to SF to raise money and awareness of the healthcare problems of 9/11 first responders. For his efforts, George was named ABC News “Person of the Week” and will receive a special humanitarian award this weekend. As George continues through Tennessee, he will mark the 1,000th mile of his trek. You can follow George’s progress and location at any given moment by clicking on “Where is George?” on www.ajourneyfor911.info A co-captain of the NY Giants Super Bowl-winning team in 1986, George Martin is crossing the continent in an effort to raise money and awareness of health issues of 9/11 rescue workers. The New Jersey resident always was awestruck by the sight of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. On Sept. 11, 2001, he learned that two young men in his town had perished in the terror attack. In honor of them and the thousands of firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and construction workers who helped dig through the rubble, he is raising $ millions to care for research and rescue workers who developed illnesses related to 9/11 and its aftermath. (He has already pulled in $1.5 million.) Way to go George!

Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers hosted a San Diego community supported bowling event to benefit victims of the Diego fires as well as Volunteer San Diego, the San Diego Hall of Champions, and the Alpha Project for the Homeless. The event raised $80K at a minimum, at least $30K more than last year!


Chris Harrison, host of The Bachelor series and Designers Challenge on HGTV, is doing the voiceover and a short on-camera piece for a new DVD from the Scleroderma Foundation (his mother-in-law died from the autoimmune disease). He also served as a guest auctioneer for the Los Angeles chapter gala recently.

Beth Shaw, Clive Pearse HGTV, Marianna Toscana - Actress, Cliff Simon - SCI FI Channel StarGate, actress Linda Blair and CNN’s Jane Velez Mitchell are all involved in the AB1634 The Spay Neuter Bill coming back across the assembly floor in January. Beth Shaw has always been a well known leader in community service, but she has recently been devoting 50% of her time and effort to animal rights and causes for humanity, among them the AB1634 Spay / Neuter Bill up for review in the California State Assembly. Beth is writing, producing and funding the air time for commercial spots starring CNN Reporter Jane Velez- Mitchell, HGTV's Clive Pearse, Animal Activist and Starr Linda Blair and a host of other celebrities. Beth is committed to reducing the number of animals killed in the stare of California ( 500,000 annually) due to over population, over breeding and owner irresponsibility. For more information on this groundbreaking bill - go www.cahealthypets.com. Beth is also helping renowned actress Linda Blair’s World Heart Foundation. Beth recently won the “Mikey Award” for her animal rescue efforts from Karma Rescue, and Beth just been appointed the National Leadership Council of The Humane Society of the United States. Check out www.cahealthypets.com.

Television, film and stage star, Joe Piscopo returns to Red Bank, this time to perform at the historic Count Basie Theatre, 99 Monmouth Street, on Wednesday evening December 12th at 8:00pm. He will be accompanied by the 18-piece Red Bank Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Joe Muccioli. The Orchestra is the professional flagship ensemble of Jazz Arts Project, producer of the event. After a surprise appearance that quickly sold out this past summer during the Project's popular “Summer Jazz Cafe' Series”, the former Saturday Night Live star will once again showcase his vocal and musical talents in memory of his friend and idol, Frank Sinatra who was born on December 12th, 1915 in Hoboken, NJ.

Plenty to get involved in! I’ll be checking in with more celebs soon!

Until Next Time,
lisa