Issue Date: May 24, 2009
Where is "American Idol"'s Season 5 runner-up, Katharine McPhee, and what is she doing?
Sally Young, Santa Barbara, Calif.
McPhee is back on TV this Sunday, singing two songs in the Memorial Day Concert live on PBS from Washington, D.C. The "Idol" star, 25, who just finished making a romantic comedy in Hawaii, signed on even before she appeared in a spring episode of "CSI: NY" and met concert co-host Gary Sinise, a passionate supporter of U.S. troops and veterans. "I just love this country," says McPhee, whose Memorial Day memories are quintessentially American, involving swimming pools and barbecue. "I've always had a strong sense of pride."
McPhee: excited to be a part of the concert
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Does Nicole Kidman have any new movies in the works?
Nicole Lord, Willowbrook, Ill.
Kidman's next big movie is "Nine," to be out at holiday season. It's directed by Rob Marshall, who was behind the Oscar-winning "Chicago," and Kidman, who sang in "Moulin Rouge!," sings in this one, too. Also, she's to start work this summer on Woody Allen's next movie, untitled at press time. Kidman's BFF, Naomi Watts, is in the cast, as well.
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Corey Reynolds, the handsome sergeant to Kyra Sedgwick's chief on TNT's "The Closer," returns for Season 5 on June 8, and he tells us the first three episodes are the show's strongest yet. But Reynolds, 34, spent his break from the show working to get his pet project off the ground. It's the story told in the Bradley Biggs book, The Triple Nickles, about America's first all-black paratrooper unit. The economy has made it difficult for studios to bite, he says, but "if you have a passion project, you're in it for the long haul." Reynolds got married last July; wife Tara is a lawyer he met in Detroit. "In L.A., you have to find something that you love more than yourself," he says. "For me, it's definitely that woman."
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I love "Dinner: Impossible" on the Food Network. Why was Robert Irvine gone for a while?
Thomas Maas, Wilmington, Del.
Irvine, 43, and FN took a "timeout" after it was discovered that he had inflated his chef credentials. But viewers supported Irvine, a network spokeswoman says, and "he made a conscious effort to clear the air, rebuild the relationship ... and apologize for the earlier inaccuracies."
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Many of the best actors on "Friday Night Lights" play students who are graduating from the fictional Dillon High. Can the series continue without them?
Tony Pejack, Yucaipa, Calif.
It can and will. It'll return for two more 13-episode seasons under the same terms as last season: NBC and DirecTV split the production costs, DirecTV customers see it in the fall, and NBC viewers see it in the second half of the 2009-10 season. If you saw last month's finale, you know the "FNL" writers left plenty of possibility to keep favorite students. They also introduced the opportunity to cast fresh faces by setting up a new school on the other side of town.
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Mandy Moore was going in such a different direction on her new album, out Tuesday, she even thought of releasing it under a pseudonym. In the end, the singer-actress went with her first and middle names, calling it "Amanda Leigh." Moore, 25, tells us the new CD "feels like the truest reflection of myself in terms of anything that I've ever been a part of creatively." The former teen pop star now draws on influences like Todd Rundgren, Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson -- and discovers new bands courtesy of her new husband, musician Ryan Adams. Says Moore: "We have similar tastes in music, but I've definitely been introduced to a lot of metal that I never knew about."
Moore's sound is vintage pop.
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Chalke dishes up fun on her new miniseries.
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"A gold digger with an edge" is how Sarah Chalke, 32, describes her role in Lifetime's "Maneater," to air May 30 and 31. "That's not the way I would go about seeking a relationship," laughs the engaged Chalke about her character's search for a husband. But, she says, it was fun to play her and wear stylish clothes instead of the hospital scrubs and white coats she wore for eight seasons on Scrubs. The actress says the sitcom's cast remains very close. "We have gone for dinners, traveled together. ... That will continue for a long time."
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BIRTHDAYS
May 24: John C. Reilly, 44; Kristin Scott Thomas, 49, Patti LaBelle, 65, Bob Dylan, 68
May 25: Lauryn Hill, 34, Molly Sims, 36, Mike Myers, 46
May 26: Lenny Kravitz, 45, Stevie Nicks, 61
May 27: Joseph Fiennes, 39
May 28: Kylie Minogue, 41, Gladys Knight, 65
May 29: Rupert Everett, 50
May 30: Wynonna Judd, 45
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Brian Truitt
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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