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Katharine McPhee - Runner Up Idol

'House Bunny' Stars Katharine McPhee, Emma Stone, Rumer Willis Claim They're Awkward On The Inside
'Idol' alum talks about plans for next album, while Willis reveals her own musical aspirations.
Aug 21 2008 8:00 AM EDT
By Josh Horowitz

An "American Idol" runner-up, a "Superbad" breakout star and the product of one of the most famous celebrity couples of the last 20 years would seem an unlikely trio to play a band of misfits, but that's why they call it acting. Anna Faris may be the titular star of "The House Bunny," but this new twist on the "Legally Blonde" concept wouldn't get anywhere without Katharine McPhee, Emma Stone and Rumer Willis.

Faris plays Shelley, a Playboy Playmate unceremoniously booted from the mansion, only to take up with seven unpopular sorority sisters who are themselves on the verge of being kicked to the curb. MTV gathered McPhee, Stone and Willis to chat about their new film, who really is the most awkward of the three and which one just might be giving McPhee a run for a singing career.

MTV: I usually wouldn't bring an issue of Playboy to an interview, but Anna Faris is on the cover promoting the film.

Emma Stone: [Looking at the magazine] Aw, she looks adorable!

Katharine McPhee: She looks good!

MTV: Here's the big question: Where are your covers, and how angry are you that you didn't get one?

Stone: Not that angry. It makes sense. In the movie Shelley is a Playboy bunny, and it's nice to have that full circle. She's in character.

McPhee: Yeah, that's exactly her character.

Rumer Willis: It's fitting for Anna because that's who her character is. The movie is less about Playboy and Hef than about two different groups of women. Everybody thinks the popular girls don't get kicked out, but she's the ideal woman, and she gets kicked out of her house. We help each other to find our way.

Stone: She really gives us the confidence to go out and talk to people. And I think we give her confidence that there's more to her than meets the eye.

MTV: You guys really are dressed down for the first part of the film. Was that a relief?

All: Yes!

Stone: It was great! It was like three minutes in hair and makeup.

Willis: It was especially great for the two of us [gesturing to McPhee] since we were using props. [Note: Willis wears a brace through much of the film, and McPhee dons a fake pregnancy belly] It was very helpful for me to just have something else to make me feel more awkward and uncomfortable.

Stone: We already are awkward! It's nice to really explore the awkwardness, because I feel so much awkwardness inside of me. It was nice to go to the extreme with it.

MTV: Who is the most awkward person in this room?

Stone: Of the three of us?

Willis: [To Stone] You just looked at me! Wow, OK. I thought we were friends.

McPhee: I'm kind of awkward sometimes.

Stone: You are not awkward!

Willis: You are the least awkward person I've ever met.

McPhee: I feel awkward sometimes.

Stone: Everybody feels awkward, but that's one of the messages of the movie: Everyone feels like an outcast sometimes. I think the message in the end is "Embrace your inner awkward."

MTV: You all get to sing in the movie in a memorable karaoke scene. Katharine, I believe you have a musical background ...

McPhee: [Joking] A little bit.

Willis: Really?

McPhee: I do it as a hobby on the side.

Willis: Oh, cool.

MTV: Does anyone else here have musical aspirations?

Willis: No.

Stone: Yes. [Points to Rumer.]

Willis: Maybe.

McPhee: We all sang a lot on the set. I think Rumer eventually in her lifetime would like to do something with her singing.

MTV: Rumer, would you like to do an album?

Willis: Yeah. I would actually really like that. We had an opportunity to write part of a rap that's at the end of the movie, and Katharine sang. We had a great time.

McPhee: You guys did background vocals as well.

Willis: We did. It was very fun.

MTV: Katharine, what are you hoping to accomplish with your next album?

McPhee: I'm really just hoping to bring me to the record. I would like to have an authentic record that comes from the heart and is really my story and my thoughts. Not that the first one wasn't, but ...

Stone: You're over it.

McPhee: [Laughs] I'm over it. [Singing] I'm so moving on.

Check out everything we've got on "The House Bunny."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Katharine McPhee Debuts Video for 'I Know What Boys Like'

Originally posted Tuesday August 19, 2008 03:30 PM EDT

Katharine McPhee channels her inner sorority girl in her latest video, "I Know What Boys Like," the first single from The House Bunny soundtrack.

McPhee, 24, puts a twist on the '80s hit, sashaying in the video alongside sorority sister costars in the film, Emma Stone, Rumer Willis and Kat Dennings. The singer has long had acting ambitions before her Idol fame.

The comedy, which also stars Anna Faris as a Playboy bunny who mentors an awkward sorority, hits theaters Aug. 22.

The film's cast is set to appear on TRL Wednesday.
– Ken Lee



Katharine McPhee: 'Idol' Saved My Life

06/22/2006 4:00 PM, E! Online
Sarah Hall

In a new interview with People magazine, the fifth season runner-up reveals that she struggled with severe bulimia for five years, bingeing, and purging in a destructive cycle that could have permanently ruined her singing voice and caused devastating consequences to her health.

At her worst, McPhee says she was making herself vomit up to seven times each day, which she equates to "putting a sledgehammer to your vocal cords."

But all that changed once the 22-year-old aspiring singer got the go-ahead from the Idol judges, and realized that in order to succeed on the talent search, she would need to rein in her eating disorder.

"When I made it onto American Idol, I knew that food--my eating disorder--was the one thing really holding me back," McPhee tells People. "I was bingeing my whole life away for days at a time...So when I got on the show, I said, 'You know what? I can do well in this competition. Let me give myself a chance and just get ahold of this thing.'"

Backed up by her parents, frequent Idol audience members Peisha and Daniel McPhee, the Idol hopeful enrolled in an intensive treatment program at Los Angeles's Eating Disorder Center Of California, where she underwent three months of group and individual therapy, spending 10 hours a day, six days a week at the center.

"I really had to surrender and give up having a free life to do the program, because I'd be there from 9 in the morning until 7 at night," McPhee says. But she knew the sacrifice was necessary if she wanted to get well.

"I knew I had put off going to a treatment center long enough--I'd been struggling with bulimia since I was 17," she says.

McPhee attributes some of her problems with food to growing up in a city where tremendous emphasis is placed on celebrity-slim bodies.

"Growing up in Los Angeles and spending all those years in dance class, I'd been conscious of body image at a young age, and I went through phases of exercising compulsively and starving myself," she says.

By using the intuitive eating approach she learned at the Eating Disorder Center, McPhee was eventually able to redefine her relationship to food.

"I learned that there's no such thing as a bad food," she says. "If you look at a doughnut, people think it's a fattening food--why? Because if you eat it you'll get fat? No, you'll get fat if you eat 10 doughnuts."

As a result, she dropped 30 pounds and broke her cycle of bingeing and purging.

"That's why I say American Idol saved my life, because if I hadn't auditioned I don't think I would have gotten a handle on food," she tells the magazine.

By openly talking about her eating disorder, McPhee stands to help fans who may be struggling with similar issues, according to Dr. Thomas Weigel, a psychiatrist at the Klarman Eating Disorders Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

"Katharine's portrayal of her eating disorder and its effects on her life would tend toward helping people suffering with eating disorders to seek out treatment," Weigel said.

"She had a problem, which was affecting her career, and she went through a difficult treatment program to make progress toward recovery. It was hard work, but she fought against the eating disorder to get her life back."

And what a life it is. After the Idol finale, McPhee went on to sign a record deal with RCA Records in conjunction with 19 Recordings Limited.

Her first single, "My Destiny," coupled with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," is scheduled for release on Tuesday. As of Thursday, the tracks were ranked number 52 in music by Amazon.com.

Though the Idol competition is officially over, McPhee's still got her work cut out for her if she hopes to catch up to Taylor Hicks, who released his first single last week and instantly rocketed to the top of the charts.



Katharine McPhee Marries Producer Boyfriend

By Monica Rizzo

Originally posted Saturday February 02, 2008 07:20 PM EST

Singer-actress Katharine McPhee married producer Nick Cokas on Saturday in Beverly Hills, her rep Justin Gray Stone confirms exclusively to PEOPLE.

The 23-year-old American Idol season five runner-up and Cokas, 42, exchanged vows in a late afternoon ceremony at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church.

"(Nick) is the love of my life," McPhee gushed to PEOPLE. "This is a once in a lifetime occasion and everything is just perfect."

McPhee wore a strapless ivory Manuel Mota gown and Neil Lane jewels (diamond and platinum chandelier earrings and diamond and platinum bracelets), while Cokas wore an Armani tuxedo. Fellow season five Idol contestants Kellie Pickler and Mandisa were among the 305 guests on hand for the nuptials.

McPhee and Cokas met in 2005 when they performed in a Los Angeles theater production of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Their union began as a friendship and blossomed when McPhee auditioned for American Idol later that year.

The two quietly got engaged last year when Cokas presented her with a custom-designed round brilliant cut platinum and diamond engagement ring.

McPhee recently wrapped filming the Anna Faris comedy I Know What Boys Like.
resource : People

Anne Hathaway - About Raffaello Follieri

Raffaello Follieri and Anne Hathaway at the Luca Luca fashion show on September 12, 2004. By Brian Prahl/Splashnews.com.

Anne Hathaway Breaks Follieri Silence: "The Rug Was Pulled Out From Under Me"
September 10, 2008 09:48 AM

Actress Anne Hathaway has finally broken her silence over the June arrest of boyfriend Raffaello "Vati-Con" Follieri. She gave an interview to W magazine, on newsstands in LA and New York today. Also today Follieri pled guilty to fraud and money-laundering charges.

Hathaway showed up for the interview looking thin and was on the verge of tears for much of it.

"As soon as I found out about the arrest, I had to get on a plane to Mexico to do a press tour for Get Smart. And then I spent a week in shock at a friend's house. And then I had to go back and do more press, and I haven't stopped since."...

She's been staying at a friend's downtown since moving out of the midtown apartment she shared with Follieri, which was searched by the authorities. "I have to find a place to live," she says numbly. But then her voice catches with emotion and pools form at the corners of her eyes as she struggles to articulate her messy mix of feelings. "It's a situation where the rug was pulled out from under me all of a sudden," she says. "But just as suddenly, my friends threw another rug back under me. One said, 'Go stay at my house.' And Steve Carell [her Get Smart costar] stepped up for me during an interview when someone asked a question [about it]. He said, 'At some point you're going to have to talk about this time in your life. You don't have to do it this week. I'll take care of anything that comes your way.'

"I've been shown such kindness," she continues, wiping at an errant tear. "Not everyone gets that. A lot of people go through tough times alone."

Hathaway has less to say about the beating she's taking in the press. "What's going on is so much bigger than all that," she says. "Though it's crazy that things like that Newsweek article have become small stuff." One eyebrow arches with ironic resignation. She declares that she has no desire to correct any of the misinformation that's padded much of the scandal coverage, though a week later she sends an e-mail addressing a recent Page Six item: "I did not abandon my dog, Esmeralda, and no one had to ask me to go and get her. In fact, the day before that particular news item broke I had arranged to have her picked up and taken to my parents' apartment." (Hathaway's mother, a former stage actress, and her father, a lawyer, also live in Manhattan.) "My dad likes telling the story," the e-mail continues, "in a funny/sad sort of way, that Esmeralda was at [their] house watching herself on Access Hollywood as Nancy O'Dell or someone asked, 'Where in the world is Esmeralda?'"
resource: Huffington Post

Anne Hathaway's Ex Dissected: The Follieri Charade
Vanity Fair | September 4, 2008 11:40 AM

Anne Hathaway had broken up with him--sort of--10 days before. Federal prosecutors were circling, interviewing his associates. And now, on the cusp of 30, Raffaello Follieri was, in a sense, back where he'd started when he moved to Manhattan from Italy five years ago: sleeping on spare beds and scrambling for investors to make his business real.

It was a shocking comedown for the charismatic entrepreneur who'd whisked his actress girlfriend around the world on chartered jets and yachts, who'd stayed in the Dorchester hotel in London, the Ritz in Paris, and the Excelsior in Rome when he wasn't home in the Olympic Tower duplex overlooking Saint Patrick's Cathedral. He'd socialized with some of the world's most powerful people. Yet Follieri was unfazed. Ever confident--a confidence man, federal prosecutors would declare when he was dragged into court the next day--Follieri felt he had only two problems on the evening of June 23, 2008: his sinuses, and arranging his 30th-birthday party for that coming Saturday night at the Villa Verde restaurant on Capri.

The spare bed this time was in the hall of his parents' Trump Tower apartment. Follieri loved the instant status that Trump Tower conferred: he'd started out with a penthouse apartment there when he could ill afford it. When he bagged his first investors, he turned the apartment over to his parents, who spoke almost no English. But now he was sharing it with them because the lease had run out on his Olympic Tower duplex and none of his past or prospective investors, or Hathaway, were inclined to pay the $37,000-a-month rent.
resource: Huffington Post

Pitt Jollie Baby Pics in People

People to pay $14 million for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's baby photos - report

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Updated Friday, August 1st 2008, 5:56 PM

Exclusive photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's newborn twins fetched $14 million, a person involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press, giving People magazine and a British tabloid joint rights to publish the most expensive celebrity pictures ever sold.

The person asked not to be named because he was not authorized to release the figure. People will feature twin babies Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon in an issue to hit newsstands Monday, spokeswoman Nancy Valentino said Friday.



The money - more than double the $6 million People paid for Jennifer Lopez' twins on a March cover, according to Forbes - will go to a foundation created by Pitt and Jolie that largely focuses on helping children around the world.

It's the second time the celebrity weekly won the North American rights to the couple's first-look baby pictures, and the third time they've worked with the two magazines in exchange for a hefty donation to charity.



"We're thrilled to be able to feature these pictures in People," managing editor Larry Hackett said in a statement.

People will split the bill with London-based Hello! magazine, which has worldwide rights; particulars of the division were not disclosed. People.com will unveil the first photo online Sunday evening.



Even before the babies were born July 12 in Nice, France, the speculation began over which celeb mag would come out on top of an inevitable bidding war. The couple ultimately chose to go a familiar route with its joint deal between People and Hello!, with Getty Images as the photographer and go-between.

People ponied up a reported $4 million donation for the U.S. rights to the first shots of their daughter Shiloh, now 2 years old, while Hello! obtained the British rights. And last year, the couple sold intimate shots of their son Pax, then 3 years old, to Hello! and People.



Getty Images, which was involved in the Shiloh deal, also took part this time around. In a statement, Getty co-founder and CEO Jonathan Klein said his company was "delighted that all proceeds from these stunning images will once again be donated entirely to charity."

When People the published six photos of Pitt, Jolie and baby Shiloh in June 2006, the issue moved 2.2 million copies, its biggest seller at the time going back to its 4 million-selling 9/11 special, Media Week reported at the time.

Jolie, 33, and Pitt, 44, established their foundation that year. They donated $1 million in June to The Education Partnership for Children of Conflict to help children affected by the war in Iraq. Last year, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation gave more than $300,000 to support the International Rescue Committee's relief program for Darfur refugees.
resource:MyDailyNews