Celebrities Exposed: Celebrity Gossip & Hollywood Gossip

Not since Knut, the polar bear, has an animal so captured the public’s imagination – and this one hasn’t even been found yet.

Speaking before the world at his victory rally in Chicago on Tuesday night, President-elect Barack Obama told daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7: “I love you more than you can imagine, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.”

It’s among many promises the candidate made during the campaign – and one he’ll be keeping, for sure. But what breed – or breeds – should the new First Puppy be? Read more…

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The main topic of the day was the economy, but President-elect Barack Obama did say Friday, at his first press conference since his election, that he is dealing with a topic close to home.

“With respect to the dog,” said Obama, “this is a major issue.” He said it has generated the most interest on his Web site, but before a new addition is made to the family, “two criteria that have to be reconciled.”

One is that elder daughter Malia, 10, “is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic.” The other is that “our preference would be to get a shelter dog,” which would point to the possiblity of a mixed breed, or, as Obama said, “a mutt, like me.”

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Oprah Winfrey joined hands with political veteran Jesse Jackson to celebrate the news that Senator Barack Obama’s landslide victory to become the 44th President of the United States of America.

Oprah joined thousands of people at Grant Park in Chicago, where the President Elect took to the stage to address his supporters and the world.

She joined audience members who leapt into the air, waving American flags.

Oprah Winfrey and Rev. Jesse Jackson celebrate the news that Senator Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States in Grant Park, Chicago

Flying the flag: Oprah celebrates Obama’s defeat of Republican presidential candidate John McCain to become the USA’s first black President

During an emotional interview Oprah said: ‘It feels like hope won. It feels like it’s not just a victory for,obviously, Barack Obama, it feels like America did the right thing. It feels like there’s a shift in consciousness.

It feels like something big and bold happened here, like nothing ever in our lifetime did we expect to happen. Read more…

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While family and friends mourn the tragic death of Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother, who were shot and killed Friday, support for the singer continues to pour in. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who shares the same Chicago hometown as the singer, issued a statement Saturday.

“Michelle and I were absolutely heartbroken to learn about this unimaginable tragedy and we want Jennifer to know that she is in our thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time,” the Illinois senator said. “We also pray for the swift and safe return of her young nephew.”

Hudson sang the national anthem during the Democratic National Convention in August after a personal request from Obama’s camp.

“That was the biggest honor, I feel like, in my career – one of the greatest moments,” Hudson told people earlier this month. “I had to separate myself emotionally so I didn’t get too emotional while I was singing because I can’t sing and cry at the same time…. I was lucky to be a part of it.”

“She has done so much for the campaign. Everyone here was just so shocked and saddened,” Obama’s campaign said about Hudson in a statement issued to people.

Meanwhile, American Idol judge Randy Jackson also shared his condolences for Hudson and expressed his disbelief of what authorities are calling a double homicide.

“My heart and soul goes out to her and the rest of her family,” Jackson tells people. “Such a huge tragedy – I can’t even believe that it’s possible. Paula Abdul and I were just talking about it yesterday and it’s just so sad.”

Jackson also says he has reached out to the singer since news of the tragedy broke. “I left a couple of messages for her and I’m just trying to give to her whatever I can. My God. The world is an ugly place right now.”

source people mag

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Barack Obama will leave the campaign trail for two days this week to visit his seriously ill grandmother in Hawaii, the Democratic candidate’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Monday.

“Senator Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life. Along with his mother and his grandfather, she raised him in Hawaii from the time he was born until the moment he left for college. As he said at the Democratic Convention, she poured everything she had into him,” said Gibbs in a statement.

“Recently, his Grandmother has become ill, and in the last few weeks, her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. It is for that reason that Senator Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her.”

The campaign is set to resume on Saturday. Read more…

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Barack Obama is trying to kick his smoking habit while running for president, and he confesses it hasn’t been easy.

“There have been a couple of times during the campaign when I fell off the wagon and bummed one, and I had to kick it again,” Obama tells the November issue of Men’s Health. “But I figure, seeing as I’m running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack.”

The Democratic candidate, 47, has this recommendation for would-be quitters: Eliminate “certain key connections – that first cigarette in the morning, or after a meal, or with a drink,” he says.

Obama says he manages to squeeze in 45-minute workouts, six days a week. “I lift one day, do cardio the next,” he says. He says he wishes his exercise sessions were longer, but admits that sometimes the need for sleep trumps time at the gym. Read more…

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Fresh from the Venice Film Festival, George Clooney will appear Tuesday evening at a Barack Obama fundraiser in Geneva.

According to reports from Swiss news agency ATS, the Burn After Reading star and longtime Obama supporter hopes to increase Democratic coffers by nearly $1 million at the event, held for U.S. citizens living overseas. Read more…

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Michelle Obama gave the kind of intimate, emotional endorsement only a wife could give in her headlining speech kicking off the Democratic National Convention on Monday night.

She recalled her husband, Barack Obama, as a nervous new dad, before the hype and hoopla of his life on the national stage, and said he has not been changed by politics. “He’s the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer,” said Michelle, “inching along at a snail’s pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands … [He was] determined to give her what he never had, the affirming embrace of a father’s love.” Read more…

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Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is pictured on Kailua Beach in Kailua, Hawaii, Tuesday, Aug. 12,2008, with his daughter Sasha, 7 and Malia,10. While in Hawaii,Barack has managed to raise $1.3 million:

HONOLULU — Old friends and big donors greeted Senator Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, at a fund-raiser here Tuesday night where the campaign took in $1.3 million — more than Mr. Obama has raised in the islands during his entire presidential campaign.
According to a pool report, a number of Mr. Obama’s friends and former high school classmates were among the 500 people who paid at least $2,300 for a ticket to the event that was held at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, a beach-front property here.
“I’ve got friends here who have just been lifelong friends, people who have seen me through thick and thin, in tough times and in good times,” said Mr. Obama, who grew up in Hawaii and is on a week-long vacation here that ends Friday.

Mr. Obama also touched on some of his usual campaign themes — the war in Iraq, alternative energy, access to health care — and also referred to the struggles many Americans face with housing costs and the ailing economy.

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The Obamas are covering the September 2008 issue of Essence magazine. In the issue the Obamas talk about family life,among other topics.

Michelle Obama says this about her family’s relationship to its neighborhood on the south side of Chicago: “For all of this wonderful madness that comes along with our lives — the Secret Service, the cars — there are kids on Forty-seventh and King Drive who can walk two blocks and be that close for the first time to somebody who can be the president of the United States. I love that.”

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Squeezing some family fun between campaign stops, Sen. Barack Obama kicks a soccer ball to his 10-year-old daughter Malia and, with a wink to a reporter on the sidelines, confides one of his wife Michelle’s secret talents: “She is the best Hula-Hooper I know. Once she gets the rhythm going, she can drop to her knees!”

And what about the Democratic presidential nominee? “That is one thing you will never see – me Hula-Hooping. I think that’s clear.”

Also clear: That even on the campaign trail, this is a brood almost

like any other, with set routines (chores!), boundaries ($1 allowance!) and playtimes (movie nights!). The Obamas opened up to people – first, at the family’s three-story home in Chicago in June, and again on July 4, at a park in Butte, Mont., where the family campaigned and celebrated Malia’s birthday – about the task of raising two girls, including 7-year-old Sasha, under the public eye.

PEOPLE: Someone told me today that you don’t do birthday presents.
Michelle: No, because we spend hundreds of dollars on a birthday party and movie tickets and pizza and popcorn …
Barack: That sleepover is enough. We want to teach some limits to them. And their friends bring over presents.
Michelle: They get so much stuff that it just becomes numbing. Malia believes there is still a Santa Claus even though she’s a little wary because some of her friends are non-believers. But Malia says, “Ma, I know there is a Santa because there’s no way you’d buy me all that stuff.” [Laughing]

So what does a slumber party at the Obama house look like?
Barack: They’re pretty noisy.
Michelle: The older they get, they just talk a lot. But they’re at the age where they’re pretty self-sufficient. [For Malia's birthday] we’re going to go swimming, see Wall-E, make pizzas, have sundaes.
Barack: I usually go for the swim but this time I want to go to the movie just because Wall-E has gotten great reviews. I find actually that children’s movies are the best movies these days. But I’ll probably, after that, peel off until the cake.
Michelle: [Laughs] “Peel off.” (source people)

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