Simon Cowell was reportedly offered a $100 million salary to snap at people on American Idol, but he turned it down for X Factor so he can “mentor the artists … change what they wear.” Annie Leibovitz has settled with Italian photographer Paolo Pizzetti, who sued her for $350,000 last fall. Pizzetti claimed Leibovitz passed off his photos as hers, but now he says she’s “one of the great photographers of our time.” Ben Silverman proposed to Jennifer Cuoco by hiding the ring in a golf hole at a country club in Miami and getting down on one knee on the green after Cuoco parred the hole. Martin Scorsese’s upcoming HBO period drama Boardwalk Empire is the channel’s most expensive show ever, and the first episode cost $50 million. Courtney Love is back on Twitter, and she’s considering suing her in-laws to regain custody of her daughter, Frances Bean. Love wrote, “im severely lonely without my best friend and no am not on drugs BTW.”
Candice Bergen saw Avatar with Marjorie Gubelmann and Sotheby’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer, who was seeing the film for the sixth time. Al Gore ate the Peking duck at Philippe. Howard Rubenstein hosted a fund-raiser for Andrew Cuomo in his apartment. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $1 million to Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Haiti foundation for Haitian relief. Captain Sully and the passengers of Flight 1549 will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the “Miracle on the Hudson” at Providence, surrounded by goose-shaped piñatas commissioned by artist Tony Dominguez. Sarah Palin’s debut as an analyst on Fox News drew nearly 4 million viewers, beating every other cable news channel in the time slot combined and giving O’Reilly a 22 percent ratings spike. Palin will be on Oprah today with James Cameron and Lady Gaga. David Hyde Pierce said that if he were less “girly,” he’d try to seduce Fela! producer Daryl Roth.
In a new video, Tila Tequila decides that her ex-“fiancée” Casey Johnson likely died from a mix of sleeping pills and diabetes. “Her last wish was to have me have [her daughter] Ava,” Tequila said. She also wrote on her Twitter: “Say goodbye to Tila Tequila … I am God’s messenger, an Angel.” Related: Tila Tequila’s publicist quit.
At a downtown court yesterday, voice mail-hackin’ publicist Ali Wise was given a continuance until April 6. Miley Cyrus’s kid sister Noah Cyrus posted a YouTube video in which she lip-synchs Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok.” Joe Giudice, Teresa’s husband on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, wrecked his car and was subsequently arrested for DWI. He spent the night in jail. And New York Housewife Jill Zarin interned at Gawker yesterday, answering commenters’ questions and going on a lunch run.
