Posted on Tue, Sep. 26, 2006

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Aaron Carter takes back proposal

CELEBRITIES

Aaron Carter takes back proposal

Aaron Carter has broken off his engagement to his older brother's ex-girlfriend. The 18-year-old pop singer called off his engagement to 22-year-old actress Kari Ann Peniche just a week after he proposed onstage in Las Vegas, Us Weekly reported Sunday on its Web site. Peniche is an ex-girlfriend of Carter's 26-year-old brother, Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter. She's also a former Miss Teen USA and former Playboy Playmate. "I got caught up in the moment and proposed," the younger Carter told the magazine. "I then realized it was a hasty thing to do and I am not ready for marriage quite yet."

Paris Hilton knows a fetching outfit when she sees one — even if it's something more likely to be found on Bavarian women heading toward church on a crisp Sunday morning in the Alps. The 25-year-old American socialite, TV reality star and aspiring songstress showed off a golden dirndl-inspired creation in Munich, where the city's annual Oktoberfest began Sept. 16. "I've found four of them and bought them," she told photographers Monday before heading to one of the massive beer tents where the libation flows freely. Hilton, who is on a promotional tour for a regional wine producer, said it was her first time at Oktoberfest. Hilton's single, "Turn It Up," is No. 6 on Billboard's hot dance/club play music chart. Caterers at Oktoberfest expect to serve 1.6 million gallons of beer, 500,000 roast chickens and 90 roast oxen to revelers from around the world.

Elizabeth Edwards shops at Target

With her husband considering another run for the Democratic presidential nomination, Elizabeth Edwards says her lifestyle might not change much if the family finally makes it to the White House. "I shop at Target. We eat at Wendy's," she tells Time magazine in its Oct. 2 edition. "Even though we have a lot and I feel very blessed, we are basically the same people we were when we first started out and made, between us, $28,000 a year." Edwards, 57, has stayed mostly out of the public eye since her husband, former Sen. John Edwards, and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, lost to the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004. She has returned with a new memoir titled "Saving Graces," in which she describes her battle with advanced breast cancer. — Associated Press

Oprah says her lawyers overreacted

Oprah Winfrey says her lawyers shouldn't have gone after the man who is trying to promote her as a candidate for president. Not because she's running, mind you. "I feel flattered by it," the 52-year-old talk-show host said Monday. "My lawyers overreacted, I think, by sending him a cease-and-desist order because it really is a flattering thing." It should have been handled in a phone call, said Winfrey, who said she's thinking of calling Patrick Crowe of Kansas City, Mo., herself. Crowe has been campaigning to urge Winfrey to run for president for years, setting up a Web site that has its own campaign song. A month ago, Winfrey's lawyers sent Crowe a letter demanding that he remove her picture from his Web site. Winfrey's smiling face remained on www.oprah08.net Monday.

Jack avoided original during remake

Actor Jack Nicholson told a Hong Kong newspaper that he avoided watching the local crime thriller "Infernal Affairs" when he was shooting the Hollywood remake, "The Departed," directed by Martin Scorsese. "I wanted to concentrate on Scorsese's movie, and what it was going to become as we went through the process," Nicholson was quoted as saying in the Sunday edition of the South China Morning Post. "Infernal Affairs," which starred Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau, is about a police officer who goes undercover in a Hong Kong gang and a local gangster who infiltrates the police. Apart from Nicholson, the Hollywood remake also features Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin.

Mr. Sulu cuts loose

Prim Sulu has become a barbarian. With flowing hair and leather clothes, George Takei agreed to age 30 years for an Internet download episode of "Star Trek." The 50-minute production by Trekkie enthusiasts is being filmed at an old car dealership in the Adirondacks. The new episode, "World Enough and Time," has Sulu being unexpectedly transported. "I find myself on another alien planet. I live 30 years of my life there. I have a child," Takei said. Then he returns to the starship Enterprise. "It turns out to be only a minute or two that's passed on the Enterprise. I'm a changed man." Standing in for William Shatner as Captain Kirk is the episode's producer, James Cawley of nearby Ticonderoga, who has financed 15 years of such "Star Trek" episodes from his earnings as an Elvis impersonator. Cawley said the episode will be released in March as a free Internet download from his Star Trek New Voyages Web site.

Kinkade makes Graceland cozy

Known for his paintings of cozy cottages, country gardens and churches, artist Thomas Kinkade has created a similar tranquil scene in his painting of Elvis Presley's famous home. Kinkade, who finished the oil painting in about three hours on Friday, said he wanted to paint Graceland as if it were a brisk autumn morning with a fire in the fireplace. Kinkade described his 401st painting set for release as a "sketchy painting," a study that he will take to his California studio to refine it for a finished portrait to be released in March. Prints of the study and the finished portrait will be for sale around the same time as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Elvis' purchase of Graceland. Kinkade said his sister was an Elvis fan and that he seemed destined to paint the famous home: "When I was growing up, I had Elvis music in the house all the time."