Contrary to the In Touch report, Mischa Barton claims she is not dating thenewno2 band member Jon Sadoff.

“I would just like to set the record straight and say that I am not, nor have I ever been, dating Jon,” the actress blogged on her official Website and explains that, “Jon and I met a few months ago through mutual friends at a concert in LA, and we have been good friends since.”

Barton added that, “We have a similar taste in music and we always have a great time together, but it is completely platonic!”

After seven months of dating, the O.C alum split from boyfriend, Rooney guitarist Taylor Locke, in September.

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Tom Cruise declares Katie Holmes swept him off his feet.

“I knew I wanted to marry Kate when I met her,” he stated in the Dec. 7 issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, wherein he and his wife appear on the split covers of its “Holiday/Reinvention” issue.

Apparently when Holmes disclosed to him that she dreamt of marrying him as a little girl, “I said I wouldn’t want to disappoint her,” Cruise shared.

He then bought Holmes an engagement ring soon after their first date in 2005.

“At one point, I thought she was going to ask me to marry her first and I put her off by changing the subject,” Cruise interjected. “I wanted to ask her.”

In a separate interview, Holmes said she “admired him growing up” and admitted she was also “completely in love” after their first date.

“He was so warm, and I thought, ‘Wow,’” revealed the actress. “I thought, ‘You can be a superstar and a human being.’

“He made me feel so amazing,” Holmes added.

They welcomed their daughter Suri in April 2006 and officially tied the knot November that same year.

Holmes declared that ever since her romance with Cruise started, “My life has expanded. My family and friends are all a part of this bigger life.”

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Natalie Maines, a Dixie Chick singer, faces a defamation lawsuit by the stepfather of one of three 8-year-old boys slain in 1993.Maines spoke in behalf of three people convicted of the killings and reportedly claimed the stepfather was, instead, involved in the murders.

Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Steve Branch, who was killed in 1993 along with Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Nov. 25. The suit names all three members of the Dixie Chicks, but basically concentrates on Maines.

The suit is said to seek compensatory and punitive damages. Hobbs claimed suffering from loss of income, injury to his reputation, as well as emotional distress.

Maines attended a Dec. 19 rally in Little Rock, where she claimed Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley, who are ? known as the “West Memphis Three”, ? were innocent and that alleged new evidence pointed to Hobbs. Her speech included a Nov. 26, 2007, letter that was still on the Dixie Chicks’ Website on Thursday, wherein Maines claimed that new DNA testing of hair from the crime scene linked Hobbs to the killings and that his behavior after the killings were indication of his guilt.

The lawsuit, however, says the claim is false.

Hobbs told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in an interview on Feb. 1  that his reputation was “in tatters and he wanted to clear his name.”

“I want people to know I haven’t done nothing wrong,” Hobbs said. “I want them to hear it from me.”

The lawsuit claims that  Maines’ statements were “so extreme in degree as to be beyond the pale of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society.”

Attorneys seeking new trials for the three convicts made similar assertions to those made by Maines.

The boys’ bodies were reportedly found by police a day after they disappeared from their neighborhood on May 5, 1993. Police arrested the three after a confession by Misskelley wherein he described how he watched Baldwin and Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys while he ran after another trying to escape. A jury gave Misskelley a life-plus-40-year sentence for the murders. Another jury later gave Baldwin life sentence without parole. Echols, who was then already 19 years old, and being the the eldest of the three, received the death penalty charge.

The Arkansas Supreme Court later upheld the convictions, but a documentary that emerged later sparked interest across the Internet, as well as among celebrities, including Maines, who strongly felt the teens were discriminated by police for their interest in heavy metal music and the occult. Supporters claim they raised more than $1 million for a legal defense fund for the three, enough to pay for legal fees, new DNA testing, and a second federal appeal on behalf of Echols.

A judge, however, has since denied defense motions for a new trial.

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Tyler Perry testified in a copyright infringement lawsuit yesterday, Wednesday, that he did not steal material from a woman’s play for his movie “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”

Donna West is suing Perry in federal court, claiming that the actor-screenwriter lifted material from a script she wrote titled “Fantasy of a Black Woman”  that was based primarily on her personal experiences. She reportedly wants a jury to award her family all the profits made from Perry’s 2005 film, which garnered around $50 million.

Perry insisted that his screenplay is an original, but under the questioning of West’s attorney, said he did not know whether anyone actually saw him write the script, according to The Marshall News Messenger’s report for its Thursday editions.

Perry’s attorney said his client doesn’t have an original copy of his script, because he allegedly sends all his work to the Library of Congress for a copyright.

West’s attorney, Aubrey “Nick” Pittman, suggested that Perry copied concepts from other films and incorporated them into his box office hit. He asked Perry whether he had taken ideas from “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “The Color Purple,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and Martin Lawrence’s role in “Big Momma’s House.”

“I never stole anything from anybody — never,” Perry stated as he locked his eyes with the jury.

Jurors on Tuesday watched the film and listened to a reading of the script from West’s play that was performed in 1991, at the Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters at the Dallas Convention Center.

L.D. Dabney, an associate of West and a theater arts enthusiast of the Dallas area, testified earlier that when he first saw Perry’s film in July 2006, he thought it was based on West’s play since he already knew what was going to happen from one scene to the next.

Testimony is, nonetheless, expected to resume later today, Thursday.

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Mark Ruffalo’s publicist reports that  the actor’s brother is fighting for his life after being shot in Beverly Hills.

Jessica Kolstad, publicist for the “Zodiac” actor, confirms that 39-year-old hairstylist, Scott Ruffalo,  was found early Monday with a gunshot wound to the head.

Beverly Hills police spokesman Lt. Tony Lee would, however, only say that “suspicious activity” took place at the location and time of the shooting, which was first reported by ETonline.

Besides “Zodiac,” Mark Ruffalo has appeared in “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind,” “You Can Count on Me,” “13 Going on 30″ and this year’s “Blindness.”

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‘Tis fast becoming a season filled with expectations.

First we find out Kelly Rutherford of Gossip Girl is pregnant, then Mary Kate Olsen’s rep declares the star is not. Now we discover that Men in Trees actress Anne Heche is.

Heche and her beau, actor James Tupper, are expecting their first child together,  her rep told Usmagazine.com exclusively.

“They are thrilled,” according to her rep.

The couple first met in 2006 on the set of their short-lived ABC drama Men in Trees, while Heche was still married to Coley Laffoon.

“In that friendship, we kind of discovered we saw the world in a somewhat similar way,” Tupper, who was apparently also married that time, told the Vancouver Sun last year. “I think we both made decisions that were based on the relationships we were in.”
Shortly afterwards, Heche announced her divorce from Laffoon, with whom she has a 6-year-old son, Homer. Consequently, Tupper and Heche stepped out publicly.

“I wish people could meet her in person,” Tupper told the Sun. “She has such a sparkle and such a love for people, and she works so hard. She is so dedicated to all the good things.”

Heche told Extra a year ago that she was relieved they could finally be open about their relationship.

“We’re so much more comfortable now that our feelings are exposed and everybody knows about them,” shared Heche, who will be appearing with Tupper on an upcoming episode of Samantha Who? this season.

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Emmy winner Craig T. Nelson will star for a three-episode stint in the CBS crime drama “CSI: NY.”

He will play Robert Parker, a powerful New York publishing magnate and a nemesis to Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise).

Nelson, who won an Emmy for his starring role on the comedy “Coach,” had a recurring role on NBC’s “My Name Is Earl” last year.

He will next be seen on the big screen in the comedy “The Proposal.”

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Although a recent National Enquirer report stating otherwise, Mary-Kate Olsen is not pregnant with her first child.

“Mary-Kate is absolutely not pregnant,” her rep told Usmagazine.com on Tuesday.

According to the paper, rumors cropped up that the 22-year-old Full House alumni was expecting when her weight went  up to 102 pounds.

Citing an alleged source, the National Enquirer reported: “Mary-Kate has been looking a lot rounder recently. It is good she has put on weight, because she previously suffered from anorexia, but a lot of people think she could actually be attempting to hide her pregnancy.”

Olsen’s rep denied the allegations.

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