Brett Ratner, known for his work as producer, director and music video creator for chart-topping stars, is launching his newest venture as an advertising consultant.

When Tina Fey appeared at the premiere of Baby Mama last week, the man at her side was a half-head shorter, considerably older and unknown to the paparazzi.

A Harry Potter fan who sought to publish an encyclopedic guide to the series about the boy wizard broke down and cried on the witness stand yesterday as he faced his idol J.K. Rowling.

Turns out that drummer Max Weinberg marches to the beat of a different drummer.

He played Moses and Michelangelo, but Americans under 40 are more likely to know Charlton Heston as the conservative activist who walked out on filmmaker Michael Moore.

Sex, money and marital dysfunction: It’s all there in the Paul McCartney-Heather Mills divorce settlement, splayed out in 58 revelatory pages that read more like a British tabloid story than a legal decision.

A five-year legal fight over the use of the Beach Boys’ name has been settled amicably, paving the way for a possible reunion by the surviving members of the California surf-sound group.

How is actress Kim Basinger connected to musician Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame?

They were pioneers in the worlds of media, publishing and entertainment who made it to the top - and who became pals along the way.

Keith Richards

Keith Richards is the new face of Louis Vuitton.

The 64-year-old Richards appeared in his first fashion endorsement on London billboards on Tuesday. Print ads featuring Richards will hit U.S. magazines in March.

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the ad shows a haggard looking Richards sitting in a dimly lit hotel room, with a guitar and a Louis Vuitton luggage case. The caption reads, “Some journeys cannot be put into words.”

This was a year in which some of the least connected actors won the most coveted awards.

The often reclusive Daniel Day-Lewis took the Oscar for best actor, beating the omnipresent George Clooney. (Clooney has so many celebrity friends, colleagues and co-stars, he qualifies as a Hollywood hub.)

Every movie about a strike needs a heroine, someone brash enough to stand on top of a table with a megaphone and demand justice.

But some credit for the possible ending of the three-month-old strike by the Writers Guild of America may be going to a different sort of heroine.

New York Times reporter Michael Cieply writes today that Laeta Kalogridis, most recently the executive producer of Bionic Woman, helped bring the warring parties together not with a megaphone but with a phone and with e-mail.

Tracking the break-up aftermath for Spice Girl Melanie Brown and Eddie Murphy, it would seem that Scary Spice is coming out on top.

After ending his romantic involvement with the pregnant Brown in 2006, Murphy famously said, “I don’t know whose child that is until it comes out and has a blood test.” Brown and Murphy went to court to determine the paternity of Angel Iris Murphy Brown, and it was determined that Murphy was the father.

Since then, Melanie Brown has had a record year.

Musicians can be an unruly lot. Just ask British investor Guy Hands.

After Hands’s private equity firm, Terra Firma, bought EMI Group, it announced a “fundamental restructuring” that included elimination of up to 2,000 jobs and cost reductions of nearly $400 million.

This didn’t go over well with the artists.

Tom Cruise

An unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, released today, has put the Church of Scientology back in the news.

Andrew Morton, who has made a name for himself writing biographies of Princess Diana, Madonna and Monica Lewinsky, spent two years researching on Cruise. He concluded that Cruise is the second-highest ranking person in the church.

Cruise’s rep has called Morton’s book a “false, vicious and bigoted attack.” In anticipation of Morton’s interview this morning on the Today show, the church issued a press release denying many of the book’s claims.

With the writers strike, many TV addicts are left with only reality television to entertain them. To help fill the void, reality show heavy-hitter, American Idol, returns tonight and tomorrow for its seventh season premiere on Fox.

But American Idol may be one reality competition that isn’t actually about winning or losing. Lately, winners have been losing recording contracts and losers are topping charts, winning Grammys and Oscars, and debuting on Broadway.

What do Jack Shephard, Paris Hilton, Robert Levy, Andre Agassi, 50 Cent, “Don’t tase me, bro!”, Robert Chambers, Barry Bonds, Benny Hinn and Northrop Grumman Corp. have in common?

Not much really, except that they were the subjects of some of the most read stories on Muckety during 2007.

Paris Hilton’s future life may be slightly simpler than she planned.

Now that her grandfather, Barron Hilton, made the shocking decision to give 97 percent of his wealth to charitable causes instead of his family, it seems Paris may need to rely more heavily on the profits she’s generating from The Simple Life DVD sales than on her inheritance.

‘Tis the season for re-runs: all holiday themed
who can go a whole year without the Grinch being mean?
Whether Jim Carrey or Boris Karloff is your Grinch of choice,
after eggnog and presents, we’ll watch Hooville rejoice.

Lionel Barrymore’s mean; a banker from hell,
But an angel gets wings, when you hear a bell.
Donna Reed, bless her heart, stands by her man,
Tiny Bedford Falls remains life’s chosen land.

An awards show, by nature, is all about competition. But this year’s Grammy Awards, set to air on Feb. 10, may decide several music industry feuds of 2007.

One of the most public battles in the rap industry this year was between 50 Cent and Kanye West, who both scheduled album releases on September 11, 2007. 50 Cent proclaimed that if he were outsold by West, he would retire as a solo artist.