Pamela Anderson dials up phone cards for PETA

Shanghai, China – A year after raising the censors’ hackles with bus stop ads, Pamela Anderson’s nearly naked image is returning to China on phone cards telling people not to buy fur.

The Canadian-born actress appears topless with her back to the camera and an arm partly hiding her right breast behind the slogan, “Give fur the cold shoulder,” in English.

Behind her, an image of falling snow appears above Chinese characters reading “Cold shoulders are nothing compared to the pain they feel” and “Please don’t wear fur.”

Government-owned China Telecom and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have printed 70,000 of the phone cards, a toned-down version of Anderson’s bus and train stop ads that were altered three times to reduce the amount of skin on show before being approved for public display, the animal rights group said recently.

“The people of China deserve to know about the immense suffering of animals killed for their fur,” said Anderson in a statement released by PETA.

“Once people know that animals are electrocuted, drowned, bludgeoned to death and sometimes skinned alive, they realize fur is disgusting and that there’s nothing luxurious or fashionable about it,” the 38-year-old “Stacked” actress said.

Outkast honored in hometown

Savannah, Ga. – Antwan “Big Boi” Patton has another prize to add to his collection of awards – and this one is from his hometown.

Patton, one-half of the multiplatinum duo OutKast, received the Fine Arts Award from the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation on Saturday for his achievement in the arts.

The foundation is dedicated to researching and preserving black history and culture in Savannah, Georgia’s oldest city.

“It feels great,” said Patton, a Savannah native who has lived and worked in Atlanta for over a decade. “It’s been a long time coming. After 13 years, I appreciate it.”

Patton and OutKast musical partner Andre “Andre 3000” Benjamin have won six Grammy Awards, including best rap album and album of the year for 2003’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.”

Lopez, wife named kidney foundation spokespeople

New York – George Lopez and his wife, Ann, who donated a kidney to the actor-comedian earlier this year, have been named national spokespeople for the National Kidney Foundation.

Lopez, star of the ABC comedy “George Lopez,” has a genetic condition that caused his kidneys to deteriorate. He had transplant surgery in April.

“If laughter is the best medicine, I promise to continue to make you laugh as my wife and I work together with the National Kidney Foundation to save lives,” Lopez said in a recent statement.

The couple will be honorary chairmen of the foundation’s Kidney Walk Program, a series of nearly 100 walks held every year in cities across the country.

“Latinos are a group that is at high risk for kidney disease,” the 44-year-old Lopez said. “My wife and I look forward to helping the NFK raise public awareness about the importance of screening and early detection in the fight against kidney disease.”

‘Sex and the City’ star to join Fox medical drama

New York – “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon will make a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of the Fox medical drama “House.”

The episode is slated to air in December, the network said Friday.

Nixon will play a “sharp-witted patient who suffers from a mysterious seizure and goes toe-to-toe” with Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), while he and his team try to discover the source of her ailment.

Last season, the 39-year-old actress played a soccer mom who suffers a stroke and is rushed to the emergency room in an episode on NBC’s “ER.”

Nixon played Miranda Hobbes on “Sex and the City.” She won an Emmy for her role on the HBO show.

‘Survivor’ host gushes about former contestant

New York – “Survivor” host Jeff Probst can’t stop gushing about “Vanuatu” contestant Julie Berry.

“I finally met someone who could teach me about love,” Probst says of Berry in the Oct. 17 issue of People magazine.

Berry, one of 18 contestants on CBS’ “Survivor: Vanuatu – Islands of Fire,” was among the five still in the running before she was voted off by her rivals. The winner of the ninth edition of the reality show was revealed in December 2004.

The couple didn’t start dating until after the show was over, Probst has said. His five-year marriage to Shelley Wright ended in divorce in 2001.

Berry, 24, has moved from Gorham, Maine, to Los Angeles, where she is earning her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy at California State University, Northridge.

“Being committed to each other – that’s the point,” Berry tells the magazine.

Meanwhile, Probst, 43, is mulling renewal of his “Survivor” contract, which is up after he tapes the show’s 12th edition this fall.

“There’s the inevitable point where you go, ‘Do I want to do other things?'” he says. “But … I’ll never have as good a job as ‘Survivor.'”

“Survivor: Guatemala” is now airing Thursday nights.