The NewsWire

Maybe love is better the second time around, which is probably why Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are getting married again tonight (after their previous phony-baloney hookup in Mexico last year). But one thing that definitely isn’t better the second time around: the payday from celebrity magazines for “exclusive” wedding photos.

This time, Spiedi reportedly got a small-change offer only from second-tier mag OK! and will instead sell pics to all the mags nonexclusively, trying to make up the difference in volume.
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Does any celeb have a good relationship with paparazzi?
—Chuck in Poquoson, Va.

True fact: The average celeb totally gets along with the paparazzi. Not everybody is Madonna. Heck, a star-shootin’ source told me this week there’s one li’l target they consider their queen: Miley Cyrus.

They give her room. They wait down the street, not right outside the house. They say “hello” and “how do ya do” and she says “hello” right back. Working out for her, donchathink?
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Don’t expect to see Natalie Portman hawking lip gloss anytime soon.

Thursday, the actress, along with business partner Christine Aylward, launched a behind-the-scenes entertainment web portal called MakingOf, and spoke about the project at the Apple Store in New York City, as an element of the Tribeca Film Festival. During her address to fans, she all but promised a beauty campaign was not in her future (perhaps she’s still a bit burned by the failure of her shoe line).

“I don’t have a problem with making money, but I don’t believe in doing something you don’t believe in to make money, like a makeup campaign or something like that—the opportunities that young actors have all the time,” she says. “ is an exciting model to do something you really believe in and create something positive out of that…It’s possible to do something positive in the world that’s still entrepreneurial.”

That positive thing is a website aimed at all brands of film junkies and filled with interviews with filmmakers showing all angles of the industry—composers, costume designers, editors and more.

“The goal is really to be a comprehensive, centralized place for people who want to learn about film if it’s specific aspects like how they got that cool explosion in the Bond movie or the serious film student wondering what lens they used when they shot that midnight scene or whatever,” she explains to E! News. “We want to have that range and also cover departments that aren’t typically covered in entertainment news.”

The idea, she says, came to her “off-the-cuff” during a dinner with Aylward, whom she met on a film set in Madrid (presumably Goya’s Ghosts), and other friends. Months later, Aylward came back to it and they agreed to “really make this happen.”

On the site already, Jason Bateman offers advice on auditions, Billy Bob Thornton shares his insecurities, West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin explains how he picks a project, Ron Howard recalls his start and, of course, Portman offers her experience being a first-time director (she recently shot two shorts). However, the former Star Wars queen promises the site won’t be simply an ego booster for her.

“I’m not intending for it to be about me,” she says. “Obviously, I’m featured in an interview, but the goal is really for people who are interested in filmmaking to have access to all these different components. I’m not gonna make you guys get sick of me by being featured in every section.”

As for the technical aspects, the self-proclaimed “near-luddite” claims she’s not too tech-savvy. She tells E! News exclusively, “I’m not on the internet that much but I have a BlackBerry, so I definitely email nonstop all day long. But not that much time on the actual computer.

“And I’ve never Twittered before.”

Matt Lauer lost the Hudson River hero, but he gained the Somali pirates survivor.

The Today host scored the first interview with Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates and survived a five-day standoff on the Indian Ocean that ended when Navy Seal snipers took out his captors.

The result of their sit-down, which took place in Phillips’ home state of Vermont, will air April 28 on the Today show.

“I share the country’s admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew,” President Obama said in a statement immediately following the rescue. “His courage is a model for all Americans.”

Aside from getting network newshounds scrambling, Phillips’ death-defying experience and the awareness it brought to the seemingly archaic presence of pirates in foreign waters has already become fodder for South Park and helped Spike TV seal the deal on the months-in-the-works reality show Pirate Hunters: USN.

“I didn’t think I’d ever get out of that boat,” Phillips tells Lauer. “We really owe it to the military for what they do day in and day out that we never even hear about. What they did was impossible,” he said, referring to his daring rescue at sea.

Navy officers only fired on the pirates when it appeared that they were close to shooting Phillips, who had tried to swim away but was easily recaptured.

“I was in deep trouble from day one, so it didn’t change for me,” the cargo-ship captain said of the atmosphere onboard after his escape attempt. “I was in deep trouble from day one, so it didn’t change for me. atmosphere, the body language, yes, things changed from that point on.”

The Phillips interview was quite the get for Lauer, who was supposed to be the first interview stop for Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who successfully executed an emergency landing in the Hudson River and was credited with saving the lives of a plane full of people.

Sullenberger was prevented from speaking with Lauer while the FAA was still investigating the incident, so Katie Couric got the get.

HollywoodBunny Reports:

• Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie are both shooting movies in New York City right now. You know what that means: tabloid theories about Jen’s Angie-induced agoraphobia.

• Here’s a little bit of footage from the New Moon set, but mostly a whole lot of annoying talking and Robert Pattinson’s attempt at a lame gold-digger joke.

• So it seems to be kind of a debate whether or not Michael Phelps and Miss California are dating, or maybe it’s more of a debate whether or not we care. Anyway, it looks like the two have more of a booty call and wonky Facebook picture-taking arrangement.

• First Speidi lost their $100,000 club appearance fee and now no weekly mag wants to buy their wedding pictures. They can try to blame the economy, but maybe it’s time they look inside.

• Wherever this picture of Britney Spears is, it doesn’t matter, it is amazing.

Hey, Big Pic famous people, what’s happening? Just shopping, reality-show filming and working out. Cool.

HollywoodBunny Reports: Jay Leno is “doing great” and will return to ‘TONIGHT’ on Monday. And that’s no joke.

After being laid up in a hospital Thursday night and forced to cancel his first Tonight Show episodes since taking over from Johnny Carson, the late-night funnyman is home and ready to get back to work, his reps tell E! News.

“We are happy to say that Jay Leno is feeling much better and has been released from the hospital. He’s anxious to return to work on Monday,” said a spokeswoman for NBC.

Leno was discharged from Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center on Friday afternoon. His publicist, Dick Guttman, says doctors held Leno overnight for observation purely as a precautionary measure.

While Leno will likely mine his stint in sick bay for laughs when he returns to Tonight on Monday, he’ll spend the rest of the weekend resting up from whatever ailed him.

Guttman was unable to confirm reports that comedian had been struck by food poisoning or dehydration.

“I’m not sure that’s the case but whatever it was, it certainly was severe enough that he couldn’t do the show but it wasn’t symptomatic of anything major and he’ll be back on Monday,” the rep said.

Aside from Thursday and Friday’s Tonight Shows, Leno, who turns 59 next Tuesday, also canceled his two weekend standup gigs in Las Vegas.

This is rich. Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are getting married
tomorrow, and they are deeply concerned about safety — so they are trying to keep the paparazzi at bay. Of course, we’re not buyin’ what they’re sellin’.

We got our hands on a flyer sent around the Pasadena neighborhood where they will be tying the knot. The flyer asks residents to sign a petition, allowing the Heidi and Spencer crew to shut down some of the streets and sidewalks for “an untitled reality TV project” — otherwise called the wedding. BTW — the person who is listed as the line producer produces “The Hills.” Why so misleading, Speidi?

Now here’s the best part: They want No Parking signs on a strategic street “to discourage paparazzi from parking and hiding out in their cars” — they say for safety reasons. Excuse us, but isn’t this the couple that courts hordes of paparazzi to follow them on every street in Hollywood? Could it be they want to restrict paparazzi because it’s more lucrative for them if the pappers don’t get the shot? We are such cynics.

And the final sweet touch — in making the request to the neighbors, they say they will be filming “interior and exterior dialogue” at the church. For normal people, those are called wedding vows.

UPDATE: We’re told the neighbors surrounding the nuptials have signed off for all the necessary permits. Wedding on!

“Slumdog Millionaire” lovebirds Dev Patel and Freida Pinto shared a real life cute moment together while having lunch in Israel earlier this week.

Neither of their parents have ever attempted to sell them.

Jai-ho!

• Hugh Jackman says he’s not gay in Sunday’s Parade. But he’s definitely a Friend of Mickey.

• So Susan Boyle wasn’t telling the truth about having never been kissed once in her 48 years. It was “a joke…I’ve got a wicked sense of humor,” she said. This is even more shocking than when she plucked her eyebrows. We’ll never be able to trust reality TV again!

• On Ellen, Lindsay said she doesn’t believe in cheating because she says her dad cheated on her mom. When will she learn? Never bring him up—it just makes this happen.

• How about an Octomom update? When she was a stripper, she went by the name Angelina like that actor lady with all the kids she’s never heard of, and she wants a pig.

• Hilary Duff sez “Enough scarf jokes, guys. I like this, OK?”

• Whoa. Did everyone see Miley Cyrus at the London premiere of Hannah Montana: The Movie? Probably the most awesome we’ve ever seen her look.

Oh look there’s Miley again looking cute and signing autographs in the Big Pic. There’s no such thing as too much Miley. Fact.

Now where have we seen extraordinarily sinewy people practicing capoeira before?

Tonight’s reward on Survivor: Tocantins was a day trip for Erinn Lobdell, J.T. Thomas, Debbie Beebe and Tyson Apostol that included the requisite feast and a chance to dabble in the aforementioned acrobatic Brazilian martial art form—which coincidentally also factored into the first challenge on America’s Next Top Model last night.

And as it turned out at Tribal Council, the members of the Forza tribe showed just as much loyalty to each other as the skinny minnies on Top Model. (Translation: not so much.)
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