Despite having some anxiety about making the transition from teen actor to Hollywood star Zac Efron seems to be a hot commodity right now.

“Senior Year” director Kenny Ortega wants the 20-year-old to take the lead role of the modern version of “Footloose”, insisting that Efron would be “perfect” for the role. Ortega told BBC, “I think he’d be the perfect, perfect, perfect candidate to step in. I mean he’s got this global excitement, this wonderful know-how.” Further hinting that Efron may take the role once belonging to Kevin Bacon, the filmmaker then added, “He’s the perfect age, so versatile, and talented and dynamic. You know it’s hard for me to even imagine anybody that I think would be more perfectly suited.”

Zac who is now a young veteran in musicals including High School Musical and Nikki Blonsky’s co-star in “Hairspray” commented: “I’ll always be open to more musicals. I think they’re fun and I think it’s our responsibility as performers to try and keep them alive. I love Footloose - it’s a great movie.”

On the remake project of the 1984 flick itself, it is expected to begin sometime in 2009, according to Ortega.

Zac recently revealed he could still “mess up” and is looking to get advice on how to steer his acting career:

“I would love to just sit down and talk with Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp and pick their brains about their early careers. They do it because they love it, not because they enjoy being famous. You have to have good foresight and be really careful. If you don’t adapt and learn at a very young age, you can really mess up.”

Zac is clearly hoping to shed his wholesome image, having just finished shooting period drama Me and Orson Welles alongside Claire Danes.

It’s also been revealed the Disney heartthrob has been approached to take over from Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in controversial Broadway play Equus. Zac let slip at the London premiere of High School Musical 3, saying: “You know that Daniel Radcliffe role on Broadway, well it’s been mentioned.”

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Pregnant former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm is set to marry her longterm boyfriend Thomas Starr.

According to Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper, the parents-to-be got engaged last month.

The couple is reportedly planning to exchange nuptials shortly after the baby arrives.

The pop star and her partner of six years are expecting a baby together in the new year, thought to be around March  2009.

Mel C will be the last of the Spice Girls to become a mother - Melanie Brown has two daughters; Posh Spice Victoria Beckham has three sons with soccer ace David Beckham, and Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton each have one child.

Lisa Marie Presley gave birth to twin girls yesterday. Lisa Marie’s husband, musician Michael Lockwood,and her two older children, Riley, 21, and Ben, 16, from her first marriage to Danny Keough, were with her at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California.  A friend of the family tells Star Magazine:
“Michael was by her side “the whole time. She’s feeling good, a little tired too. She is so happy and Michael is ecstatic. He’s wanted to be a dad for so long. This is his dream come true.”

The family friend also said:

“There was no drama. The babies are healthy and beautiful. Ben was seen pushing them down the hall in their cart and cooing to them,” the blabber mouth friend added.

Lisa Marie was said to have had a rough pregnancy and also quickly ballooned up weight wise. After being photographed looking plump in a yellow hoodie, Lisa Marie was forced to admit her pregnancy before she was ready to. Legal action was rumored against the UK Daily Mail newspaper the originators of the photos and media comments about her weight, which forced her to reveal the pregnancy.
All that is in the past now. Congratulations to the family!

Feast your eyes and ears on the official director’s cut video for Britney Spears’ new single “Womanizer” which premiered last night on 20/20. The new Album CIRCUS will be in stores December 2nd! As expected Britney shows lots of different looks in the video, including a naked Britney Spears in a sauna, as a sexy secretary, a skanky waitress and a slutty chauffeur, to go along with the catchy new tune.

Salma Hayek settles into recurring TV Role

Salma Hayek has landed a juicy role on another Thursday-night series. Hayek has been confirmed for a recurring role on NBC’s Emmy-winning 30 Rock, (on set above with baby Valentina and Alec Baldwin) playing no less than former GE exec Jack Donaghy’s new love interest. Hayek says in a statement:

“I have been a fan of [30 Rock exec producer] Tina [Fey]’s talent, both as an actress and a writer, since working with her years ago on SNL.” ” I am so excited to be part of such an intelligent, funny show, as well as working with the brilliant Alec Baldwin and the rest of the cast of 30 Rock.”

Hayek produces and once guest-starred on ABC’s Ugly Betty.

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Men Who Stare at Goats

The cast coming together for “Men Who Stare at Goats,” based on the book by Jon Ronson. The Iraq-set movie centers on a desperate reporter (McGregor) who stumbles upon the story of a lifetime when he meets a man (George Clooney) who claims to be a former secret U.S. military psychic soldier. Rebecca Mader, best known for playing scheming redhead Charlotte on ABC’s “Lost,” is in final negotiations to play Ewan McGregor’s wife. Clooney’s business partner Grant Heslov will direct, and will produce with the actor.

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CosmoGirl magazine is calling it quits in perhaps another sign that the economy cool.

Hearst Corp. which also is the publisher of Good Housekeeping and Esquire said it plans to consolidate CosmoGirl with Seventeen magazine, Hearst’s bigger-selling teen title. Hearst started CosmoGirl in 1999 as a spinoff of its women’s title Cosmopolitan. The magazine has a circulation of more than 1.4 million.

Magazines that cater to teenage girls are having a particularly rough go as young people spend more of their free time online. The magazine follows similar teen titles, including Teen People and ElleGirl in folding. Hearst said CosmoGirl will continue on the Internet as part of the company’s network of teen-focused Web sites. The teen-magazine market already has faced a shakeout. Time Inc.’s Teen People and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.’s ELLEgirl closed their print versions in recent years but maintained a presence online.
Through the October issue, CosmoGirl’s ad pages are 15.5% lower than a year earlier, according to Mediaweek Monitor. Ad pages at Seventeen and Condé Nast’s Teen Vogue are off 8.8% and 5.8%, respectively. More titles are expected to face pressure to close as advertising dollars dry up, costs for paper rise, readers move online and economic conditions remain uncertain.

CosmoGirl, which plans to stop publishing after the December issue, is among several established magazines to shut down in the past year. Hearst this summer decided to fold housekeeping magazine Quick & Simple, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Inc. discontinued Home magazine and Condé Nast Publications closed House & Garden and Golf for Women.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is resting after successful surgery to remove gallstones.  The Tibetan spiritual leader has reportedly suffered from gallstone pain for over a decade, but it was during a recent checkup in New Dehli that doctors decided it would be best to finally have them removed. The Nobel Prize-winning Buddhist elder was hospitalized in New Delhi on Thursday.

The surgery will not affect the Dalai Lama of traveling several months a year, as he plans to continue at the end of the month, educating people on the tenets of Buddhism and the Tibetan struggle.

In August, the Nobel Prize-winning Buddhist elder was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai for abdominal pains. He was released in good condition, but advised to cancel a trip to Europe on account of exhaustion. While the exiled Tibetan community grows increasingly divided on pacifist versus active action against China, the Dalai Lama remains deeply revered and a focal point for their hope. At 73-years-old and this recent health scare, followers wonder what the inevitable death of the Dalai Lama will mean.

Supposedly Avril Lavigne’s marriage to rocker Deryck Whibley is going through a rough patch.

The story is that the couple has been growing apart since Avril started her world tour earlier this year. Avril had said that they stay in touch through phone and email, but as many particularly young couples have experienced it’s not easy staying connected this way.

The National Enquirer’s sources say that part of the problem is that Deryck’s career is on idle, and he’s turned to drinking and partying to occupy his time.

He was also allegedly spotted holding hands with a mystery woman at a nightclub in LA recently leaving the gossips to speculate.