Morning Links: Surgery keeps Hough from 'Dancing'
Julianne Hough, who left the set of "Dancing with the Stars" for "a bad stomach ache," after last week's elimination show, is expected to have her appendix removed today after being diagnosed with endometriosis. She hopes to return to dance in next week's contest, but in the meantime Edyta Sliwinska will take her place, dancing with Cody Linley. This has been an incredibly first-aided season of DWTS, which opened with two injuries suffered in practice -- Karina Smirnoff's twisted ankle and Jeffrey Ross's eye injury. Beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor was scratched with a ruptured Achilles tendon injury in early October and Brooke Burke had X-rays after hurting her foot during a jitterbug on Oct. 19.
"American Idol" judges Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell offered their condolences Monday to former contestant and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, whose missing 7-year-old nephew was found slain. Hudson's mother and brother were found shot to death Friday; the little boy's estranged stepfather is in custody. Out of respect for Hudson, who won the Oscar for her portrayal of Effie White in the movie "Dreamgirls," casting for the national touring version of the show was postponed.
Things may have turned ugly in the Madonna-Guy Ritchie divorce. Both are said to be competing to get household staff members to testify against the other. Guy is saying that Madonna seldom took care of her kids and had a rage problem; Madonna hopes they'll back up her claims that Guy was "emotionally distant." Meanwhile, her Kabbalah rabbi is said to be pressuring Madonna to reach an immediate out-of-court settlement, lest the fight damage the image of the mystical religion.
Just a few days after she reunited with ex-lover John Mayer for a couple of cozy dinners, Jennifer Aniston was spotted dining and being "very affectionate" with actor Gerard Butler, who appears in Guy Ritchie's film "RocknRolla."
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker appeared in public for the first time after the September plane crash in which four people died, with one leg still bandaged and burn scars on the other.
Amy Winehouse was back in the hospital, but her spokesman said she was being checked out for a chest infection and not going back into rehab. The MailOnline called her skin "scabby" and said she looked "painfully thin."
Disney Channel star Selena Gomez turned 16 in July, but, she says, doesn't have a driver's permit yet. "It's pretty embarrassing!" she added, before complaining about the number of tests she had to take to get a California driver's license. "I'm assuming I'll be 30 before I get my license," she quipped.
Paris Hilton, who raked in more than $100,000 in "appearance fees" for showing up at nightclubs in London the last time she visited, is being pinched by the economic downturn. The MailOnline calculates she's gotten just $39,000 this time. Things are tough all over!
-- Anne Neville
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