Jessica hard at work on country album

After her bad luck at the box office, Jessica Simpson is hoping to bounce back with a country music career. "I am a country girl," she says in a new interview with Billboard.com. "I grew up in Texas, and country music was what I listened to. I always wanted to make a country album, but I wanted to wait until the time was right." She also cites Martina McBride, Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire as inspirations, adding, "I think there is a strength in female country artists." She won't reveal her songwriting collaborators, but tells the website: "Writing is a release for me. It's a way for me to tell my story. That's not to say I wouldn't record a song that I didn't write. It's just that it has been a while since I have opened the book." Simpson is still not certain if she'll hit the road to support the disc, which is due later this year. "Since the record is in the beginning stages, there hasn't been much talk about a tour just yet," she says.

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Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds wed

Eddie Murphy celebrated New Year's Day by tying the knot with film producer Tracey Edmonds. Their representatives said the pair exchanged vows Tuesday on a private island off Bora Bora in French Polynesia in front of a small group of family and friends. Murphy and Edmonds began dating in 2006 and were engaged in July. Murphy, 46, has five children from his marriage to Nicole Mitchell Murphy, who filed for divorce in 2005. He also has a daughter with Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown. Edmonds, 40, has two sons from her 13-year marriage to singer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. As head of Edmonds Entertainment Group, Inc., she has produced the film and television series "Soul Food."
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Nicole's rep denies pregnancy

Nicole Kidman is not pregnant, her Australian press representative has said. Kidman's expecting a baby was first reported by the U.K.'s Daily Mail, which said The Hours Oscar winner, 40, had told friends and family members over Christmas that she and her husband of 18 months, Keith Urban, were expecting their first child together. But the Melbourne Herald Sun quotes Kidman's Australian publicist as denying the Mail's story. "It is incorrect," the spokeswoman tells the paper. "She must have had about 30 babies by now." As for Kidman, says the rep, "She's in Australia making a film" – director Baz Luhrman's epic Australia, costarring Hugh Jackman – "and her family are in Australia. She's happily ensconced away somewhere having a few days break. It's the silly season. As far as we're concerned, it's another rumor out of London." Still, a friend of Kidman's tells the Herald Sun it is "conceivable" that the actress is nearly three months pregnant. "She did have a small baby bump a month ago, so it would be reasonable that she'd now be three months and telling her friends and family," the unnamed friend is quoted as saying. Kidman and former husband Tom Cruise adopted two children during their 1990-2001 marriage: Isabella, now 14, and Connor, 12.

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Britney to be deposed soon

After a year of legal starts and stops, Kevin Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan is ready to move forward with his client's custody battle. "Britney Spears will have her deposition early this year," Kaplan told press outside Mr. Chow's restaurant in Beverly Hills late Saturday night. "We've got a lot to talk about." Spears, 26, missed her initial deposition appearance on Dec. 12, prompting Kaplan to request an emergency hearing and to delay their next court date from January to February. Though Spears cited physical illness and anxiety for her absence, Kaplan said, "She was, in fact, out later that day and night. It's not fourth grade where you get a doctor's note and it's all okay." The attorney expressed hope that Spears will appear this time around so further measures, such as pursuing her in contempt of court or delaying the deposition once again, will not be necessary. "Kevin isn't interested, nor am I, in punishing her," says Kaplan. "We just want to get information necessary to proceed further. I hoping remedies which include continuing hearings are all theoretical." As for tabloid rumors that Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1, will also undergo drug testing, he says, "I haven't even heard about that, and I don't think that is true." In fact, he says, the boys have been enjoying a wonderful holiday season. "It was a good Christmas for all," Kaplan confirms. "They were great. Kevin had all of his kids and it was a big, wonderful family setting. He was really happy, and the kids were happy." As 2008 beckons, Federline, 29, will be ringing in the New Year in Las Vegas. As for how Kaplan envisions the future, his wish is simple: "I hope we will prevail."

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Michelle Branch pregnant again?

Singer Michelle Branch has something wonderful to crow about. An insider told Page Six the 24-year-old songstress is expecting her second baby with her husband, bassist Teddy Landau, 43. The couple was married in 2004, and they had their first baby, daughter Owen Isabelle, the following year. Branch's music manager did not return calls for comment.

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Star party plans

Where your favorite celebs will be partying Monday night to ring in the new year:

MIAMI
Shore Club: Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz, with a performance by Eve
Mansion: Kim Kardashian
Setai: Jennifer Hudson
The Raleigh Hotel: Mandy Moore, Chace Crawford, Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Elisha Cuthbert, Jeremy Piven, Samantha Ronson
Opium Garden: Nick Cannon
Hotel Victor: Adrian Grenier
Sagamore Hotel: Shannon Elizabeth

NEW YORK CITY
Tenjune: Ryan Seacrest
Times Square: Carson Daly, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus, Carrie Underwood, Joel Madden, Ryan Seacrest
Hammerstein Ballroom: Slash, Velvet Revolver
MTV Party, Times Square: Tila Tequila

LAS VEGAS
LAX: Paris and Nicky Hilton, DJ AM, Criss Angel
Tangerine: Kevin Federline
Tao: Mariah Carey
Pure: Rick Salomon and Pamela Anderson
Body English, Hard Rock Hotel: Backstreet Boys
Prive, Planet Hollywood Resort: Avril Lavigne
Moon, The Palms: Jaime Pressley
Rain, The Palms: Dave Navarro

LOS ANGELES
Les Deux: Travis Barker
Playboy Mansion: The Girls Next Door's Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson
House Parties: Kate Walsh and Scarlett Johansson
Party For The Cause to benefit AIDS research, Woodland Hills, California: Vanessa Williams
San Diego's McClellan-Palomar Airport: Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge

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Jimmy Fallons weds

Former Saturday Night Live regular Jimmy Fallon and girlfriend Nancy Juvonen, a Hollywood producer who worked on Fallon's 2005 romantic comedy Fever Pitch, were married Saturday on Necker Island in the Caribbean, a publicist announced. Fallon, 33, and Juvonen, 40, had "family and close friends in attendance" at the ceremony, according to the statement from representative Ina Treciokas, the Associated Press reports. No further details were released. The proposal took place in New Hampshire last August "on the dock at sunset at the Junoven family home in Wolfeboro on Lake Winnipesaukee, where On Golden Pond was filmed," according to a friend of the pair. "He presented her with a one-of-a-kind ring designed by Neil Lane," the friend added. It is a first marriage for both.

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