British actor finds American accent harder than it seems

New York – Hugh Laurie, the British actor who won a Golden Globe for his role on the Fox medical drama, “House,” says speaking like an American isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“I haven’t identified a single word that is pronounced the same in America as it is in England,” the 47-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 25 issue. “And that can really take you out of the moment, having to constantly listen to yourself and check your accent. It makes it harder to immerse yourself in the scene.

“It’s as if you’re playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon. I moan about it a lot.”

Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, the sardonic doctor who leads a medical team specializing in the diagnosis of rare disorders at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

House, whose leg has been crippled by a blood clot, walks with a cane, pops painkillers and has a perpetual stubble. He doesn’t like wearing a lab coat, and he’s testy with his patients and staff. However, he’s is a brilliant diagnostician.

“I could see him very clearly in my head from the start,” Laurie tells the magazine. “I could hear him in my head – the rhythm of his speech. What he was hiding behind the meanness and sarcasm.”

Hilton’s album so good she cries when she hears it

New York – Paris Hilton is no stranger to self-promotion. But when she asked DJs to play songs from her upcoming debut album, “Paris,” last spring, she wasn’t so confident.

“People go crazy,” the 25-year-old socialite/reality TV star/singer says in an interview in the September issue of Blender, on newsstands today. “They love it. Everyone’s like, ‘Who is this?’ I don’t tell. Because I don’t want someone putting their phone up and recording it and making a ring tone off of it.

“I think when people don’t know it’s me, they won’t judge it. But if they know it’s me, then they’ll be like, ‘Ugh.’ They won’t even dance.”

“Paris” the album was set for release today. Hilton’s breathy, reggae-infused single, “Stars Are Blind,” has climbed to the top of Billboard’s dance music chart.

Of her album, she says, “I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it’s so good.”

Hilton posed for Blender’s cover and inside pages wearing lingerie; in one photo, she wears a pink bra, black fishnet stockings and gold platform heels. In another, she wears a black bra and underwear.

She says the baby voice she uses on the reality TV show “The Simple Life” is an act.

‘Rock Star’ host Burke, actor engaged, expecting baby

New York – Brooke Burke, host of the CBS reality series “Rock Star: Supernova,” and actor David Charvet are getting married and expecting a child together, her representative, Nancy Iannios, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Charvet proposed to Burke on Saturday, Iannios said. The couple, both 34, began dating last fall, she said.

Burke split last year from husband Garth Fisher, a plastic surgeon who has appeared on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover.” They have two daughters, Neriah, 6, and Sierra, 4.

Burke, who has guest starred in TV’s “Monk” and “Las Vegas,” hosted the E! cable channel’s “Wild On …” from 1999 to 2002.

Madonna’s mock crucifixion won’t be investigated

Duesseldorf, Germany – Prosecutors in Germany said they have decided against opening an investigation into the mock crucifixion scene performed by Madonna at her weekend concert.

A crowd of about 45,000 packed Duesseldorf’s LTU Arena Sunday night to watch the first of two German concerts on the singer’s worldwide “Confessions” tour.

The scene – in which Madonna rises from the stage on a mirrored cross while wearing a crown of fake thorns to sing “Live to Tell” – drew criticism from religious leaders in Italy earlier this month, who condemned it as an act of hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church.

The 48-year-old pop star’s representatives have said the scene is not disrespectful toward the church.

Duesseldorf prosecutors said last week they would monitor reports about the concert but would not send observers.

Spokesman Johannes Mocken said Monday that while the concert stunt might be “hurtful to religious people,” there was no indication of a criminal offense.

Mocken said the scene was covered by laws protecting artistic freedom.