Clive Davis Has Forgiven Kelly ClarksonJennifer Hudson may have been the Idol alum on Clive Davis’s arm when UJA-Federation honored him at a Music for Youth benefit yesterday, but the veteran hit-maker has no hard feelings toward her fellow former Idol, Kelly Clarkson, who very publicly dissed him earlier this month and then apologized last week. “Kelly’s been a vital, vital recording artist for us from the very beginning,” he told us, displaying the diplomacy that’s made him a success in the music business for decades, “so I’m delighted to take her back on track, and we’ll be getting to work on her next album real soon.” Former Giants running back Tiki Barber — who knows a thing or two about public tiffs — was there, and he defended Clarkson’s outburst, and her apology. “Kelly has an opinion about her life. It is her prerogative to express it,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with saying sorry.” So has he apologized to his former coach, Tom Coughlin, whom he publicly criticized? “I never really criticized him,” he said. “There was a story that I criticized him, but it wasn’t him I was criticizing. It was others. But the media will run with what they want to run with.” Barber, we’ll remind you, is now a national correspondent for the Today show. —Shira Levine
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Si to Shutter ‘Teen Vogue’?Teen Vogue may be the next Condé Nast magazine to fold. Some 370 girls auditioned to be Rockettes recently; two were hired. Reggie Jackson took issue with the scene in The Bronx Is Burning in which he loses his temper. Usher and Tameka Foster may be married in the Hamptons this week. Kelly Clarkson apologized to Clive Davis after realizing that her album was as bad as he claimed it was. Diddy wrote a song and shot a video about ex-girlfriend Kim Porter. A 9-year-old girl cried after being rebuffed for an autograph by Hilary Duff. Flava Flav got the celebrity-roast treatment. Elle is throwing a party for August cover girl Sarah Jessica Parker in the Hamptons. John Legend shopped for BBQ fixings at the Houston Street Whole Foods.
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Regan Outfoxes News Corp.?Judith Regan has secret tapes that may help her $20 million lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch. The Land Rovers and helicopters used to launch a new Ralph Lauren cologne may have disturbed a community of East Hampton piping plovers. Cindy Adams, who has a vendetta against Larry David because he dissed her once, claims that Laurie had been stepping out on him for quite some time (and that he’s being set up with Ellen Barkin). Olivia Newton-John really liked Xanadu. OK! dropped $400,000 on sex pics of Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo, but the mag won’t publish them. Claire Danes may have landed the lead in the Pygmalion revival because the director directed her boyfriend in Journey’s End. Annie Leibowitz angered the Queen of England by asking her to remove her crown during a photo shoot.
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Chuck Schumer, Lady’s ManAfter college, Chuck Schumer picked a girl over a scholarship. 50 Cent is really rich. Gay activists don’t like John Travolta in the Hairspray movie because he’s a Scientologist, not because of his performance. Brian Grazer is getting divorced. Eliot Spitzer banged his head on the trunk of his car. Rufus Wainwright defends Anderson Cooper’s lifestyle and choice of gym. Maggie Gyllenhaal might come to Broadway as Nellie in South Pacific. Kevin Spacey partied at Lotus. Lily Allen put on a bad show at the Roseland Ballroom, then she hung out with Josh Hartnett. At Graydon Carter and Anna Wintour’s party for Nicholas Coleridge’s A Much Married Man, Ron Perelman thought the book was about him.
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Since U Been Making Him MoneySony BMG chief Clive Davis doesn’t like Kelly Clarkson’s music, even though it makes his label a lot of money. Barbara Corcoran dropped trou for a bunch of people who commented that she’d lost weight. Ellen Barkin returned some diamonds she was loaned to wear to a Darfur benefit at Cannes at 3 a.m. Usher has taken to calling in radio stations to complain about hosts who make fun of his fiancée. President Bush promised a bunch of Vietnam vets that he’d read a book that alleges that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, among others, were responsible for keeping soldiers in Southeast Asia even after the U.S. withdrew from the region. In her new book, former venture capitalist Christine Comaford-Lynch compares Barbara Walters to a small action figure.