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THERE ARE GOOD DAYS AND BAD DAYS I: Usher 's latest single to top the Billboard charts, his My Boo duet with Alicia Keys , is his fourth No. 1 this year, making him the first artist or group in 34 years to have that many. The Jackson Five accomplished it last, Billboard says.
Usher, who recently turned 26, also is the latest celebrity rumored to have a hot underground sex tape, New York's Daily News says. David Hans Schmidt , a Phoenix agent who has brokered nude photos of Jessica Lynch and Paula Jones , told the tabloid he heard such a tape is on the market. The Daily News said its reporters viewed part of the purported tape, said to have been made when Usher was 19, and saw a woman moaning "Ush."
An Usher spokeswoman had no comment.
THERE ARE GOOD DAYS AND BAD DAYS II: Paris Hilton is opening a Club Paris in Las Vegas to go with her Club Paris in Orlando. And to go with the club, which will be part of the Aladdin hotel-casino, she will design her own suite, which the public can stay in when she's not using it, she announced Saturday. Both clubs will open on New Year's Eve, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, Hilton was "very upset" about another way she got press over the weekend, an Australian publicist said.
The gossip types went into a frenzy over a story that during a Los Angeles shopping trip, Hilton babbled to reporters that she loved, loved, loved her new boyfriend, Australian tennis ace Mark Philippoussis , who - prepare to up the juicy level - just broke up with an Australian singer, who - prepare to up that level again - is releasing a single about him and how he helped her recover from cancer and who - up that level one more time - Hilton said Philippoussis now calls "too boring."
Sounds plausibly Hilton. Except Hilton never sounded off, publicist Richard Squire told the Sydney Morning Herald . He said he knows because he was on that shopping trip, shepherding two Australian contest winners.
"I was with Paris all day, and I never heard her say anything about an affair with Philippoussis," Squire said. "She was very upset and called me when the story appeared. She was as bewildered as I was."
THERE ARE GOOD DAYS AND BAD DAYS III: If an American TV character could become president, it should be Homer Simpson, according to a poll in the British magazine Radio Times . The West Wing 's President Josiah Bartlet finished second, Frasier Crane third, 1950s icon Sgt. Bilko fourth and CSI head honcho Gil Grissom fifth, the BBC relays.
Meanwhile, Scooby-Doo will appear in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most episodes of a cartoon comedy series, overtaking The Simpsons , the BBC also says.
- Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com