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People: Christina Aguilera, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Aldean
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Her records have sold more than 50 million units worldwide, and now pop star and Wexford's own Christina Aguilera is owning her power -- and her saucy curves, People reports.
In a new interview with Billboard, she says she is no longer dealing with music label detractors who bemoan her size.
"You are working with a fat girl. Know it now and get over it," Aguilera, 31, said she told her record label as she recorded her upcoming album, "Lotus," due in November. (Her first single from the disc is called "Your Body.") "They need a reminder sometimes that I don't belong to them. It's my body."
Recalling the promotion of her 2002 album. "Stripped," "The Voice" judge said she was tired of being "toothpick thin," adding that she's of Ecuadorian heritage and not some "skinny, blue-eyed white girl."
"The next time my label saw me, I was heavier, darker and full of piercings," Aguilera recalled, adding that she gained about 15 pounds during the "Stripped" tour, much to the chagrin of her label. "Let me tell you, that wasn't an easy pill for them to swallow."
"They called this serious emergency meeting about how there was a lot of backlash about my weight," she told Billboard. "Basically, they told me I would affect a lot of people if I gained weight -- the production, musical directors."
Now, the 5-foot-1-inch singer, who said in January that she loves her body, explained: "My body can't put anyone in jeopardy of not making money anymore. My body is just not on the table that way anymore."
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Arnold Schwarzenegger says it took seven or eight years before he found out that he had fathered a child with his housekeeper, People reports.
It wasn't until the boy "started looking like me, that's when I kind of got it. I put things together," the action star and former California governor, 65, told "60 Minutes" on Sunday.
Although Mildred Baena continued working in the family household and Schwarzenegger quietly began to provide financial support to her and their son, Joseph, Schwarzenegger deliberately delayed revealing his secret to his wife, Maria Shriver, and their four children.
"It was very difficult, strange, bizarre," said Schwarzenegger. "I just said to myself, 'OK, I'm going to put this away.' "
Appearing on the CBS program to promote his book, "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story," he admits that he "lied" to his wife of 25 years until the day after leaving the governor's office.
That's when he finally told her about the affair and his son when confronted by Shriver during a marriage counseling session. She later filed for divorce.
Schwarzenegger also describes telling his four other children of the affair.
"I asked them for forgiveness," he said. "They cried. It tears your heart out."
Schwarzenegger, who says he did not show the book to Shriver in advance, declined to speak about his son Joseph, saying, "The important thing that everyone should know is that I take care of him and I take care of her [Baena]. And I fulfill my responsibility and I'm glad to do that."
Looking back at his actions, Schwarzenegger says, "If you would have asked me 10 years ago, five years ago, two years ago, what is the most important thing in my life, I would tell you over and over, it's my marriage, it's my family. So the thing that really meant the most to me kind of fell apart because of my doing. That is something that I will always look back and say, 'How could you have done that?' "
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Country star Jason Aldean has apologized to fans after pictures of him acting "inappropriately" last week popped up, the Associated Press reports.
Aldean tweeted Sunday that he wanted to talk to fans directly instead of letting gossip websites tell his story. The tweet comes after photos appeared showing Aldean and former "American Idol" contestant Brittany Kerr together at a bar Wednesday in Los Angeles. In one photo, they appear to kiss.
Aldean says, "The truth is I screwed up," had too much to drink and acted inappropriately at the bar. He noted that he left alone and added, "ultimately I ended up embarrassing myself and my family." Aldean is married with two children. A publicist says there will be no further comment.
The multi-platinum singer releases his fifth album, "Night Train," on Oct. 16.
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Drew Barrymore is a mom!
The actress and her husband, Will Kopelman, welcomed their first child -- a daughter -- on Wednesday, People reports.
"We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter, Olive Barrymore Kopelman, born Sept. 26th, healthy, happy and welcomed by the whole family," the couple said in a statement.
"Thank you for respecting our privacy during this most special time in our lives."
Although rumors of pregnancy began swirling in February, Barrymore, 37, never said a word, preferring to let her June wedding portrait speak for itself. In it, her husband -- an art consultant -- gently cradles his wife's growing baby belly.
"I can't wait until I have my children," the actress recently told Haute Living, indirectly referring to her pregnancy. "I just want to build fun, great things for my family."
In recent weeks, Barrymore had been spotted attending prenatal yoga classes and spending time with Kopelman's parents, who were in town ahead of the birth.
"Drew is so motherly," a source told People in January. "Will would like to be a dad. Family is so important to him."
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Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire lead a cast of stars in a new public service announcement urging young voters to use social media to express the issues most important to them in the upcoming election, the AP reports.
Zac Efron, Selena Gomez, Ellen DeGeneres, Jonah Hill and Joseph Gordon Levitt also appear in the Vote 4 Stuff video unveiled Monday, joining other stars in a call to voters to post tweets, photos and short videos about concerns they feel deserve presidential attention.
"This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime," said DiCaprio, whose production company, Appian Way, is a producer of Vote 4 Stuff. "We are using the power of social media throughout the Vote 4 Stuff campaign to incite bipartisan conversation around real issues, encourage registration and voting in November."
Edward Norton, Sarah Silverman, Benicio Del Toro and Amanda Seyfried are also featured in the 21/2-minute video, which promises that content created in response to it will be incorporated into Vote 4 Stuff's future online efforts.
Among the concerns these stars reveal in the video: Jobs, marriage equality, climate change, foreign policy, reproductive rights, immigration, worker's rights, teacher salaries and education.
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George Michael is canceling Australian shows so he can get treatment for major anxiety he's suffered since a serious health scare last year, the AP reports.
The singer said on his website he had hoped making music and performing would be enough to work through it but that he underestimated how hard his recovery would be.
The 49-year-old former Wham! frontman was to perform in Sydney and other Australian cities in November and early December.
He still has concerts scheduled this month in the United Kingdom. They are makeup dates for shows he canceled after being hospitalized for pneumonia in Vienna in November.
Michael spent about three weeks in the hospital and said later that his health had been "touch and go."
He performed at the London Olympics closing ceremony in August.
First Published October 2, 2012 12:00 am
