Celebrity News: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

21 Apr 2007 01:10 PM

THE GOOD

It's good news for Katie Couric. Thanks to her new gig at CBS, the former "Today" show anchor no longer has to wake up at the crack of dawn... and now we know who she has been sharing late night dinners with.

According to PEOPLE magazine, the new anchor of the CBS Evening News is dating a man 17 years her junior. The magazine reports that 50-year-old Couric has been quietly dating 33-year-old entrepreneur Brooks Perlin for the last six months.

Brooks who?

According to PEOPLE, Perlin is prep school-educated son of a wealthy Connecticut family. He used to work for several New York City hedge funds (he is also credited with starting up a business to market green construction material), but these days he travels the world competing in triathlons.

"They seem comfortable with each other," Couric's friend told the magazine. "She's a very young 50. She's playful. She's cute. She's down-to-earth. And he's mature. They seem happy."

THE BAD

What may be bad news for Clyde Drexler fans is great news to him. In what's being called the happiest elimination in the history of "Dancing with the Stars," the former Houston Rockets star has been tossed from the competition.

"I am extremely elated! I feel like I won the lotto! I don't think I've been this happy since I won the championship [in 1995]," Drexler shouted shortly after the results for the dancing competition were revealed.

The night after "Dancing" judge Carrie Ann Inaba told the athlete: "You're the worst dancer in the competition," Drexler got the boot and admitted he was ready to go.

Now he says he will have more time to do the things that make him happiest: playing golf and hanging out with his children.

THE UGLY

Just weeks after she was released from rehab, things have turned ugly between Britney Spears and her father.

Britney Spears' father recently turned to the New York Post to publicly criticize his daughter, saying she blames her family and her manager for problems that are her own fault.

According to the newspaper, Jamie Spears is defending Britney's former manager, Larry Rudolph, whom she reportedly fired last week.

"The Spears family would like to publicly apologize to Larry for our daughter's statements about him over the past few weeks," Spears' father wrote to the paper in an email. "Unfortunately, she blames him and her family for where she is at today with her kids and career. Larry has always been there for Britney. For this, we will forever be grateful to him."

It didn't take long for Britney to fire back. In a message to the paper, the 25-year-old singer said: "I am praying for my father. We have never had a good relationship. It's sad that all the men that have been in my life do not know how to accept a real woman's love. I am concentrating on my work and my life right now."

Hmmm... and I thought rehab was about healing...

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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