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Everyone knows President Barack Obama likes a celebrity fix - just ask Johnny Depp. And today, just a day after pictures emerged of his extravagant 2009 Halloween party at the White House, the most powerful man in America was enjoying more VIP company. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie brought some Hollywood star power to Washington D.C. as they stopped by for a chat with the chief executive at the Oval Office.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama met with activist-actor George Clooney at the White House on Tuesday to discuss U.S. involvement in Sudan ahead of a critical election early next year in Africa's largest nation. Clooney recently returned from Sudan, and is asking the U.S. and world community to use international pressure and robust diplomacy to prevent violence ahead of the Jan. 9 election. The election is an independence referendum on south Sudan that is likely to split the country in two, and there are fears that the vote could lead to a new outbreak of north-south civil war.<>

Republican Jeff Perry, a self-proclaimed Tea Party member, said he doesn’t want former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to campaign for him because of the baggage she would bring, after dismissing the former vice presidential candidate as an “entertainer” in a TV interview. “I don’t want to interject the debate over the national Tea Party with my race about my district,” said Perry, seeking to replace U.S. Rep. William Delahunt. “I’m trying not to interject a national debate that would distract from my message.”

Even Calbuzz was moved when 11-year-old Paris Katherine Jackson took the microphone to tell the world that Michael had been a wonderful father and that she loved him dearly, which you can watch here on TMZ. That was the emotional high point of the MJ Tribute, for sure. The political high points were two: the Rev. Al Sharpton’s observation that Jackson was instrumental in breaking the color barrier and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s insistence on the presumption of innocence. Sharpton’s great line: “He put on one glove, pulled his pants up and broke down the color curtain.” The Rev...

Al Jolson called himself The World's Greatest Entertainer - and no one ever argued with him about it. That alone could set the man apart from most other show business people. It seems the epitome of - to use a word that figured largely in his vocabulary - chutzpah, but as Larry Adler who saw him at work told me, "He was not lying when he made that claim. It was an established fact." Adler also said, "All sorts of people like Chaplin and Chevalier say they were influenced by Al Jolson, I was influenced by Al Jolson - and...

He kissed my mother. She loved it. Even though she was on stage with a dozen other “grandmothers,” she waited patiently for her turn to receive a kiss from singer Don Ho. We were at the Cinerama Reef Towers Hotel in Honolulu for the Don Ho show, filled with music, dancing and comedy. Audience participation was a major part of Ho's show, and bringing the grandmas on stage brought shrieks of laughter throughout the room.

ON THE WEEK before Christmas, I was excited to take my family to go to our great Verizon Wireless Arena to see James Taylor in concert. I paid a little extra for closer seats. Like any big entertainment venue these days, it is not cheap, but I was happy thinking this would be a fun and memorable family moment. Old James T. is quite a musical talent. He has a long list of hits that folks from 10 to 90 years old can enjoy, songs ranging from "Sweet Baby James" to "Fire and Rain." The Verizon had a great crowd...

LOS ANGELES - Lane Smith, a longtime character actor who played a small-town district attorney who clashed with Joe Pesci in "My Cousin Vinny," died Monday. He was 69. Smith, who also played Richard Nixon in the TV movie "The Final Days" and Daily Planet editor Perry White in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," died at his home in Los Angeles, according to his wife, Debbie Benedict Smith.Born in Memphis, Smith appeared in numerous films and television shows. Most recently, he appeared in the 2000 movie "The Legend of Bagger Vance," starring Will Smith and Matt Damon.Lane...

The Republican Who Broke the Color Barrier By Joe Bendel One can only assume the Republican National Convention kicking off in New York this week will spend a good deal of time in tribute to President Ronald Reagan. As the man who drove a stake in the heart of an expansionist Communist Empire, and recast the Republican Party is his own image, such tributes are only fitting and proper. The RNC would also be well advised to give significant time to mark the contributions of another longtime GOP stalwart who passed away since the 2000 convention, jazz legend Lionel Hampton....

Elton John has said stars are scared to speak out against war in Iraq because of "bullying tactics" used by the US government to hinder free speech. "There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious," he told New York magazine, Interview. Sir Elton said performers could be "frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics", The singer likened the current "fear factor" to McCarthyism in the 1950s. "There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn't say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot...

KISS bass player Gene Simmons has caused an uproar among Australia's Muslim community by launching an attack on Islamic culture while in Melbourne. The lizard-tongued rock god who is touring Australia with the world's most enduring glam rock band launched an attack on Muslim extremists during an interview on Melbourne's 3AW radio - including comments which were labelled inaccurate. "Extremism believes that it's okay to strap bombs on to your children and send them to paradise and whatever else and to behead people," he said yesterday. The Israeli-born US musician went on to say Islam was a "vile culture" that...

The three-day shoot for the video was about to wrap, and director Mark Romanek needed just one more shot from his singer star, Johnny Cash. As Romanek recalls, "I said to John, 'This is the last take. So if you want to get angry or smash something up, this is your last chance.'" Cash didn't get it. He thought Romanek meant this would be the final shot in the ailing star's life, so he had better make it good. Cash wouldn't, couldn't surrender to such defeatism. "I hope it's not the last take," he said in that baritone growl, which...

Entertainer banned after Bush remark Presidential 'chicken legs' joke leads bookstore's customers to complain ---------- Apparently, it's become un-American--or at least highly controversial--for a woman to publicly say that the president of the United States' body is less than perfect. A Baltimore acoustic artist has been banned from playing the Fredericksburg Borders Books & Music store--apparently because she made fun of President Bush's legs between songs in her show Friday night at Central Park. Julia Rose, a singer-songwriter and a fitness advocate who often shows audiences her six-pack abs, told a Fredericksburg Borders audience Friday: "George Bush has chicken legs....

Bob Hope: 1903-200307/28/2003By PHILIP WUNTCH / The Dallas Morning News Bob Hope, the vaudeville jokester turned pop-culture giant whose ski-slope profile cast a wry shadow over the 20th century and into the 21st, died late Sunday night, just two months after his 100th birthday. He died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant told the Associated Press on Monday. From vaudeville venues to wartime USO stages, from big-screen Road tales opposite Bing Crosby to small-screen holiday specials opposite Brooke Shields, he kept America chuckling for nearly...

Bob Hope will turn 100 years old next week. It’s said that he’s made more people laugh than anyone in the history of the world, and who’s to say that isn’t so? Guinness World Records lists him as the most honored entertainer in show business, having been awarded five Oscars and 44 honorary degrees. The Oscars were honorary ones, but they count nonetheless. He was given a knighthood – an honorary one, naturally – by Queen Elizabeth. Congress designated him the nation’s only "honorary veteran." That recognition was particularly appropriate. Too old to serve on active duty in World War...