Alert the media! Shauna Sand has traded in her trademark well-worn Hollywood Blvd. Lucite hooker heels for a pair of sensible Melrose Ave. KISS/club kid above the knee platform boot things.

Sources connected with Chris Brown and Rihanna tell TMZ Brown’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, wants the judge to give Rihanna a pass from testifying because of leaks in the case.

We’re told Geragos and Rihanna’s lawyer, Donald Etra, believe Rihanna was compromised when her name surfaced as the alleged victim in the beating. They claim this and other leaks violate her privacy rights and therefore she should not have to further put herself out to the public by testifying against Brown in the case.

It’s further proof Rihanna and Brown are back together and in lockstep.

Geragos asked to meet with the judge in chambers, along with the prosecutors, on March 23 to discuss letting Rihanna off the hook. Brown’s arraignment is set for April 6.

Britney Spears performed in Hew York Wednesday night with Madonna in attendance. Britney also debuted her new music video for “If U Seek Amy”. Check out Britney’s new video below.

Supposedly there is controversy because if you say the title of the song fast, it spells the F-word. Now who sits around and has time to think up this stuff?

Anyway check out the video for yourself and tell us your thoughts!

According to an announcement early in the American Idol Top 13 performance round, two contestants will receive the boot during the Results Show on Wednesday.

In addition to top panelist Simon Cowell’s initial announcement, the crafty Brit also teased that possible alteration in the American Idol structure involving the show’s judges would be revealed. Host Ryan Seacrest said it will change “the entire theme and concept of the show.”

Beyond the rhetoric, what does it mean? A euphemistic way of saying “the fix is in”?

Those harboring such suspicions wouldn’t see it as the first steps during Season Eight the show has taken to artificially enhancing it’s slowly slipping year-to-date ratings.

According to E! News, American Idol producer Ken Warwick said “conversations surrounding the possibility of adding a thirteenth finalist only popped up a couple of weeks ago” due to the eighth season’s high talent level. That’s not exactly how Cowell tried to sell the move, having waited until the show’s closing seconds Thursday to offer North Carolina hopeful Anoop Desai an exemption — and admittance to the finals round Tuesday.

Warwick’s thin explanation to USA Today “it’s almost unfair to get rid of two kids if they’re really, really great” begs the question: Since when has that stopped producers in the past? C’mon, be serious. Combined with a premeditated “we discussed it beforehand,” it smacks of a run-n-gun, self-serving way to shape contest rules.

Despite the moves, Fox reality chief Mike Darnell doesn’t believe the alterations will “change what you think of American Idol,” he told TV Week on Thursday. Darnell said the show is “… American, it’s apple pie. We’re not changing the core of the show.”

Huh? Is Darnell watching the same TV series as we are?

No changes? What would you call?
– adding a new show evaluator,
– stretching the semi-finalist field from 24 to 36,
– whacking the early-rounds talent pool at three times the usual rate,
– inserting a judges-vote-only Wild Card round,
– adding a thirteenth contestant to the Finalist group.

Same old, same old — right? Oops, our bad.

How does that impact tonight’s results episode? Don’t be surprised if Idol judges reclaim more voting rights tonight and/or spin another way to shore up the contestant body to 12 — a prime way to neatly fit Idol into May Neilsen Ratings sweeps.

On second thought, that doesn’t sound like change — more like business as usual.

Actor turned hip hop artist Joaquin Phoenix continues to act like a freak! Phoenix jumped off stage to take on a “fan” at his hip-hop show in Miami. See the video of Joaquin confronting the heckler below.

Joaquin Phoenix, 34, got on stage around 1:50 a.m. at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel’s nightclub, LIV.

Near the end of his first song, Phoenix walked to the edge of the right side of the stage and called out an audience member whom he thought was heckling him.

“Bitch,” Phoenix yelled. “This is a $3,000 f—–g suit!”

Joaquin then jumped into the crowd as security rushed after him.

It was unclear whether the two men scuffled, but security dragged Phoenix away as the crowd chanted “Joaquin! Joaquin! Joaquin!’”

His brother-in-law, Casey Affleck — who is making a documentary about Phoenix’s career leap from acting to rapping — filmed the entire incident.

Phoenix’s strange behavior, which includes a bizarre Feb. 11 Late Show With David Letterman appearance could just be part of an elaborate hoax.

But Paul Dobransky — a relationships expert and author of The Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love — recently told the Los Angeles Times that Phoenix could also be schizophrenic, pointing to his “socially inappropriate behavior”

His rep denied the claims: “How absolutely inappropriate for a doctor who has no personal interaction or relationship with someone to diagnose them.”

So is Joaquin Phoenix crazy or is he fooling us all?

Kim and Khloe Kardashian hoofed their way into a nightclub event to pick up some Old Navy junk! After hob knobbing with the likes of Maria Menounos inside the event for 10 minutes, the two sisters quickly left in a waiting car after posing briefly with fans!

According to new reports from The Daily News, super diva Kimora Lee Simmons and actor Djimon Hounsou were married over the summer in Africa. Kimora and her ex-husband Russell called it quits in March 2006, but the divorce only became official in January 2009. I know what you’re thinking. How could they have gotten hitched an entire six months before Kimora and Russell were even divorced?

That’s a simple one. The “wedding” in Djimon’s native Benin, Africa wasn’t legally binding. It was more of a joining of souls, if you will. Kinda like when Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds exchanged ceremonial vows in Bora Bora, but split just two weeks later. They never did legally become husband and wife.

Now that Kimora is pregnant with Djimon’s baby, will it serve to speed up the process of tying the knot for real this time? Spies for The Daily News did spot the daddy-to-be eyeballing rings at the posh Martin Katz in Beverly Hills last week. It looks like Kimora will have to wait a little longer, as it appears that he left the shop empty handed that day.

Jasmine Murray says goodbye to Idol

American Idol

hopefuls Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nunez were asking for the following Wednesday during the evening’s elimination round. Oh baby, give me one more chance!

For the pair who came up flat during Tuesday’s top 13 performance round, the answer was no, and Murray and Nuñez were ushered out of American Idol competition Wednesday. They lacked support of call-in voters and a judge intervention alike.

Murray, a 16-year-old high school student, was the first finalist dismissed from the show’s eighth season. The youngster from Starkville, Miss. who packs a potent vocal punch in a smallish 5?2? frame, sang Michael Jackson’s I’ll Be There on Tuesday.

Judges found it a serviceable effort, but lacking personality.

Lead judge Simon Cowell found Murray’s cover “bland…a bit old-fashioned.”

Nunez, a 20-year-old from Carolina, Puerto Rico didn’t fare much better, struggling with the rapid-fire English articulation within Jackson Five hit Never Can Say Goodbye. The effervescent Nuñez saw the song choice as the lesser of evils.

Last week, Nunez, more comfortable with the plodding pace of Elton John classic Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, admitted he “thinks in Spanish” as his anxiety increases.

“I wasn’t going to sing Bad by Michael Jackson,” he told judges Tuesday.

“Well, you kind of did,” Cowell replied.

Wednesday’s episode began with the announcement of a new twist in the singing competition’s structure. Judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, Kara DioGuardi and Cowell may elect to save one contestant from being eliminated — from now until the top five finalists are selected. The move would require the four-person panel’s unanimous consent. Upon agreement, an additional contestant would be sent packing the following week.

During the new rule’s first night in effect, judges gave neither singer one more chance.

Jackson gave an apologetic “sorry” to Murray, while Cowell had no problem saying goodbye to Nunez; with an apathetic, stern “no,” a light scoff and a sour look of into the distance.

Anoop Desai survived despite a highly karaoke take on untouchable tune Beat It. Newsday.com writer Jamshid Mousavinez had recently given a bull’s eye analysis of the North Carolina grad student’s disposition, stating that Desai will become a contest force when he “stops messing around, just goes out there and sings…instead of worrying about appealing to the girls.”

Translated: C’mon! Get serious, Dawg!

Guest performers Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson — the original American Idol champion — commanded the stage in front of a packed Nokia concert hall and more than 22.7 million at-home viewers. West and Clarkson offered a premium product that reminded us why American Idol life would’ve sucked (or at least been diminished) without them.

Throwing Dwayne Johnson across a room isn’t easy.

Andy Fickman learned that the hard way. The director of Race to Witch Mountain, out today, searched for weeks to find an actor who could toss the 6-foot-4, 250-pound hulk across a stage.

“You wouldn’t believe how far down we had to go into Central Casting to find someone big enough to rough Dwayne up,” Fickman says. “We were shopping for thugs. Finally, we just told Dwayne that when the actor grabs him, he may have to leap a little.”

That, Johnson can do.

Yet he finds himself moving toward a brand few would have thought possible five years ago: family-film star.

He has given up wrestling. He no longer goes by “The Rock.”

Instead, he has been starring in family-geared movies such as 2007’s The Game Plan and last summer’s Get Smart. He appeared in the Disney Channel’s Cory in the House and is hosting Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards on March 28.

After Mountain, a reboot of the 1970s Disney franchise, he’ll star in the kid-friendly comedy Tooth Fairy and the animated Planet 51, both due in November.

And he’s making no apologies to fans who still remember him best for cracking folding chairs over opponents’ heads.

“When a family film is done well, there’s a character that every member of the audience can relate to,” he says during a break from shooting Mountain on the Disney lot. “I want to be one of those guys. I never wanted to be pigeonholed as the athlete who acted or the wrestler who did action movies.”

It’s understandable that Johnson works to shake the jock-turned-actor mantle. Few athletes have made a successful leap from sport to film.

Mountain could be a measure of just how far Johnson, 36, has come from his days as a football star and a wrestling icon. Game Plan and 2006’s Gridiron Gang kept Johnson in a sports setting. In Mountain, Johnson plays a cabbie who discovers two alien children on the run from extraterrestrials and government agents.

Like many of Johnson’s career decisions, he took the role largely because few could picture him in it. In college, he approached the University of Miami because they didn’t openly recruit him. He almost got the part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before director Tim Burton gave the role to friend Johnny Depp.

“If you tell me there’s something I can’t do, I’ll want to do it even more,” says Johnson. “Especially when it comes to entertaining. I knew early on that I wanted to entertain in some form. And I knew I would work as hard as anyone to do it.”

Wrestling with success

He wasn’t always a man with direction. Born in Hayward, Calif., Johnson moved often with his family as his father, the acclaimed wrestler Rocky Johnson, worked the local circuits.

By the time his family moved to Hawaii, Johnson was a problem kid. Arrested multiple times for theft and fighting, Johnson says he drifted until he discovered football. He earned a scholarship with the Hurricanes and played with NFL greats Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp.

Johnson played briefly with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, though he made so little money that he accepted a free mattress thrown away by a flophouse.

When a back injury ended his playing career at 24, Johnson slipped into depression and moved back in with his folks. “That was a defining moment for me,” he says. “That’s when I decided I’d train to be a wrestler.”

Long before he was asking fans at a packed Madison Square Garden if they could “smell what The Rock is cookin’,” Johnson was living a life similar to Mickey Rourke’s has-been athlete in The Wrestler.

Johnson moved to Nashville and made $40 a day wrestling in tiny circuits before as few as 25 people in vacant barns, used car lots, anywhere you could fit a ring. He lived off grits and eggs at the Waffle House and put 1,500 miles a week on his Isuzu Rodeo driving from event to event.

“I wasn’t making any money,” he says. “But I loved it.”

He corrects himself. “Well, I loved most of it. The entertainment part. But I saw these guys addicted to drugs, struggling to make a living, working well past their prime. I decided I wasn’t going to be that guy.”

Within a year, he was with the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment). Johnson, who is half Samoan and half African-American, would win seven WWE championships with moves like “The Samoan Drop” and “The People’s Elbow.”

“That was my first taste of acting in front of a big, live audience,” Johnson says. “I didn’t want to be the biggest wrestler out there, or the loudest. Just the most entertaining. I had found what I wanted to do.”

But Johnson knew that wrestling, like football, was a career with an expiration date. He approached WWE head Vince McMahon about branching into TV. He made an appearance on short-lived show The Net, followed by cameos on That ’70s Show and Star Trek: Voyager.

When he made his film debut in 2001’s The Mummy Returns, he had found a new career. He hired an acting coach and rented virtually every movie by Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood.

“Those were my models,” he says. “Guys who could be tough but self-deprecating, who weren’t afraid to make fun of themselves. And who can act in virtually any genre.”

In retrospect, Johnson says, acting could have been his first career choice. His mother, Ata Johnson, still has tapes of her boy as an 8-year-old, reciting dialogue from his favorite movies, Silver Streak and Stir Crazy.

When he wasn’t quoting Richard Pryor or Gene Wilder, Johnson was mimicking Elvis Presley — hip shakes and all.

“The first time I met Dwayne, I was a little nervous,” says Fickman, who also directed Johnson in Game Plan. “Here comes this huge guy who sits next to me, leans in and asks what I think of Elvis Presley. He might as well have asked me what I thought about beer nuts, I was so caught off guard.”

High Pitch Mike has his own website! Howard Stern’s writer/producer has quite a fan following. Check out High Pitch Mike in the lie detector video below.

High Pitch Mike is a writer and producer for The Howard 100 News Team and recently came out of the closet.

Today it was revealed that High Pitch Mike has his own website and you’ll never guess the name: HighPitchMike.com.

High Pitch Mike and Artie Lange are always at each others throats, and it is pretty darn funny.

High Pitch Mike officially came out of the closet on The Howard Stern show on December 1, 2008. Here’s what he said his MySpace Page:

“Earlier today, on the Howard Stern Show, I came out of the closet publicly. Something some of you, many of you might have suspected. Yes, I am gay. No longer am I ashamed of how I was created. Being gay is not a choice you make, And while some of you may question why I lived in the closet, through high school, college, and my career – let me put it very simply with 2 answers: 1) my mother told me years ago she would disown me if I was gay. 2) the bigoted society we live in where we celebrate that we are so open-minded that we can elect a black President, on the very same day gays and lesbians have their rights to marry revoked in California. Looks like the civil rights movement still has a ways to go.”