Before it happened, his friends were begging him not to do it. Begging him not to make it permanent. But he was in too deep, and a little wounded too after his most recent professional setback. So it happened. Despite all the warnings, he went ahead and made it official.

But the happily ever …      

You guys know how I feel about the Rihanna and Leonardo DiCaprio “pairing.” I don’t like it but can’t look away, even though my gut tells me this is nothing but a repeated hookup. I want Rihanna to find a really great guy, and Leo is … not that guy. Everyone knows his modelizing reputation, and I’d hate to see Rihanna really fall for him. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind her crushing his entitled heart into pixie dust.

This story has gone too far a few times, including claims that Rihanna judges Leo to be incredible in the sack and how they whisper sweet nothings to each other. I ignored Us Weekly’s update about how Leo helped throw Rihanna’s birthday party, but People chimed in with a similar story. When People approves a couple, it’s either PR-sanctioned or really real. The party happened about a week ago.

TMZ acquired a few photos of Rihanna and Leo together at the bash. This is the first time they’ve been pictured in the same frame. You can see the pics here with this story:

Rihanna and Leo DiCaprio should be a perfect match — neither’s into settling down with one person for too long — but now that they’re banging … one of them is way more committed than the other.

We got pics of RiRi and Leo getting cozy recently at her birthday party — which he helped organize — and sources at the bash tell us one thing was clear … Rihanna’s the clingy one.

We’re told Leo is affectionate enough — they engaged in plenty of PDA — but he could barely get a moment to himself. As one source put it, “she’s the baddest bitch in the party, but she’s following him everywhere.”

We’re told they’ve been hooking up for about 3 months, but it’s still not exclusive — more like they’re each other’s first choice. Not that anyone’s crying for either of them.

[From TMZ]

“Rihanna’s the clingy one…” Those words sound like Leo’s other girlfriends but not like Rihanna. The body language of the photos only reflects a brief moment in time, but I don’t see chemistry. The press is loving this coupling. Last week’s print edition of Us Weekly cites a source who saw Leo and Rihanna kissing at the party: “I hear their hookups are really hot!”

Here’s a picture of Leo hopping into a car on 2/22. We’ve used every other photo of him far too many times, and I can’t deal with his unkempt beard right now.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

Here are pictures of Cecily Strong in Capitol File magazine, in advance of her hosting the White House Correspondent’s dinner next month. She looks great and talks about how she’s most looking forward to meeting the Obamas, which sounds normal and exciting and good for her.

…      

Here are pictures of Cecily Strong in Capitol File magazine, in advance of her hosting the White House Correspondent’s dinner next month. She looks great and talks about how she’s most looking forward to meeting the Obamas, which sounds normal and exciting and good for her.

…      

Kim Kardashian flew from London to LA last Friday, after enjoying a bit of a holiday with Kanye in London. North West was back in LA, presumably with Kris Jenner. Kanye West stayed in London, and I’m including some new photos of Kanye out and about in London this morning. Oddly enough, Kris Jenner and North West arrived in England very early this morning too. But no Kim. So I’m including some of those photos as well. For what it’s worth, North seems very comfortable with her grandmother. There are also some assorted Kanye stories going around, so here’s a list.

*Kanye’s new album is called So Help Me God. Is that better or worse than Yeezus?

So Help Me God pic.twitter.com/e3UUsQQEts

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 1, 2015

*Someone on the internet is trolling Kanye. If you go to loser.com, it redirects to Kanye’s Wiki page.

*Kanye will be speaking the Oxford Guild Business Society today. They’re expecting a crowd of 1800.

*Kanye performed on the Jonathan Ross Show last night, and he ended up on his back, completely prone, during the performance of “Only One” (which is what he did at the SNL anniversary show too). Ross had some fun with it at the end though.

Cute photos of North and Kris arriving in London. North has a rooster tail!!!!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

While promoting her new film Danny Collins, actress Jennifer Garner says she’s enjoyed being at home with her three kids – daughters Violet, 9, Seraphina, 6, and son Samuel, 3 – while husband Ben Affleck has worked on various projects. That said, it’s time for mama to return to work.

“I’ve been home for a long time,” Garner told Us Weekly. “It’s my turn and I’m going to go to work this spring. I think I’ll work the spring and summer, maybe the fall too, as long as some of it’s at home. I don’t think my deals are done yet so I can’t say, but yeah, I’m about to go to work.”

Garner, who earned critical acclaim for her starring role in the early 2000s series Alias, has starred in Dallas Buyers Club alongside Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, as well as Draft Day, Men, Women & Children, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

“I really choose by what I like,” Garner said. “I thought Alexander was a super smart script. Just [costar] Steve [Carell] alone would have been enough, gosh I love working with that guy, he’s just the best.”

“I have had the best luck with costars, I’m just saying. And I’ve only married a couple of them,” Garner joked about Affleck, whom she met on the set of the movie Pearl Harbor, and first husband Scott Foley, whom she met on the TV series Felicity. “But yeah that was fun for me. My kids really got a lot of juice out of the fact that I was in that movie. I heard about a little kid saying to their mom the other day at school. The mom said something about Ben and the little kid said no Sera’s mom is a movie star, and her dad just comes along. I was like that’s awesome, because she saw Alexander.”

While they’ve both got successful Hollywood careers, it sounds like Ben and Jen have got the perfect balance at home as well.

“Ben is super busy and I’m super happy for him,” Garner said. “I chose to stay home this year and just said, ‘Go for it babe. Do it all. Do Gone Girl, do Batman, do The Accountant. Do everything.’ I want that for him and I’m happy for him. And he says the same to me. Except that he’s really busy. But he understands that when I really have to do it, we figure it out.”

She added: “You’d be amazed how we figure it out. I’ve never been away for more than I think four days. Maybe once I was gone for my kids for five days… I sit down at the beginning of the movie and say to the people making the schedule, ‘Let’s look at this.’ Then I figure out where I’m going to take the kid and when I can get home.”

Brad Pitt was at LAX on Saturday. Some say he was heading to France to check in on their property and the wine. Brange has been quiet lately, on the Hollywood front at least. She’s likely in post for By The Sea and he has yet to confirm his next acting role, although it’s been reveale…      

Whenever someone asks me for my favorite gossip story, my go-to answer is Nicolas Cage’s extreme spending, because it’s not a well known story and it’s easy to tell. (I prefer the more scandalous gossip, but everyone knows about Tiger, Jesse James and Tom Cruise et al.)

We heard in 2009 that Cage owed $6 million in back taxes, which he promptly blamed and sued his former money manager for. It turned out that Cage lived an insane, nearly unimaginable lifestyle. At the time he owned 15 homes (including several castles in Europe), four yachts, an island, a jet and millions in cars, art, jewelry and pets. He would buy a top of the line luxury vehicle about once a month, and he owned and displayed exotic pets, including snakes which were so deadly that the antidote hung nearby. Cage would also throw “Gatsby-style parties,” that would run into the morning and include amenities like fake snow, professionally lit displays, and ice carved into serving tables. The Daily Beast had an excellent article in 2009 which detailed Cage’s spending following the news that he was necessarily downsizing.

That’s what came to mind when I heard that Robert De Niro, too, owed over $6 million in back taxes. That’s more money than most people will see in their lifetimes and it sounds like willful neglect, but De Niro has a good excuse: the IRS notices were being delivered to an old address where no one was picking up the mail. De Niro’s rep claims that his client had a check for that amount hand delivered the moment he found out about his debt – from the press:

In response to a report that the Oscar-winning actor had been hit with a $6.4 million tax lien, De Niro’s rep assured that the outstanding government tab was just the result of the Internal Revenue Service sending paperwork to the wrong address.

“IRS notifications of taxes due had been sent to an old address, currently an unoccupied commercial building,” the rep said in a statement obtained by E! News Friday. “Once Mr. De Niro learned of this tax delinquency, he had a check for the full amount hand-delivered to their office yesterday.”

And how did De Niro learn that he still owed Uncle Sam big bucks?

He saw the media reports about it, of course.

According to the notice filed Feb. 3 with the New York City Department of Finance and obtained by the Smoking Gun, De Niro’s debt stemmed from the 1040 he filed for his 2013 income taxes and was lodged three months ago. The wrong address in question was a Tribeca condominium building that De Niro and his real estate partners developed.

[From E! Online]

That’s so scary to me, that all of a sudden you’ll get a notice from the IRS and whoops, you owe a ton of money and it’s too late to make it right. It’s like some House of Sand and Fog nightmare. I guess in De Niro’s case it was easily remedied, but it still had to sting. It’s not like we hear about De Niro living like a king and ignoring his responsibilities. He does have some other things in common with Cage, though. They both have starred in some excellent and some pretty sh*tty movies.

photo credit: WENN.com

George Clooney was photographed in NYC this weekend getting to work on Jodie Foster’s Money Monster. The Clooneys, George and Amal, have moved to NYC for the next couple of months to accommodate the shoot schedule. Page Six reports that they were having drinks last week at the Carlyle with …      

19 Kids and Counting stars Josh Duggar and Anna Duggar are thinking pink.

The reality star couple – who are already parents to sons Michael, 3, Marcus, 1, and 5-year-old daughter Mackynzie – are expecting their fourth child. In a new clip, the couple revealed their baby’s gender.

And it’s a girl!

“Josh thought it was a boy, I thought it was a girl,” says Anna, 26. “Mackynzie wanted a girl, Michael wanted a boy.”

Even though four is a lot of kids, Josh, 26, says he and Anna will have “as many children as God will give them.”

“I’ve done the math, and there is no way we can have 20 kids that I can figure,” Josh says. “But the reason most people don’t have a large family is because they feel the financial pressures. It’s tough to have so many kids in today’s world.”

He adds: “Is there pressure? Sure, there is. But one of the biggest blessings is to have kids and teach them to serve God and others and be the best they can be. You can have a career, and be famous and have lots of money, but that will fade. Children will be there. When we were young, we would visit nursing homes with my family and when I talked to people there, the number one joy they wanted to share was their children and family. And those who didn’t have children expressed the greatest regret. We want to be the best parents we can be.”

19 Kids and Counting airs Tuesdays at 9/8 p.m. CT on TLC.