Abdul breaks nose, fractures toe in avoiding stepping on dog

Los Angeles – Talk about bad timing. Paula Abdul broke her nose this weekend – just days before the season finale of “American Idol” – when she fell while trying to avoid stepping on her Chihuahua.

Abdul was recovering from the mishap and planned to appear on the shows Tuesday and tonight, her publicist, David Brokaw, said Monday. (Two “Idol” contestants remain – Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks.)

“She’s a little sore, but is doing fine,” Brokaw said.

Abdul, 44, told syndicated entertainment TV show “Extra” that she tore cartilage in her nose and fractured a toe.

“I took a nasty fall … trying not to hurt my dog. I bruised myself on my arm … my chest, my waist all the way down to my hip. All from my little chubby Tulip,” she said.

The dog wasn’t hurt, Brokaw said.

Italians seek to cancel Streisand concert over high ticket prices

Rome – Italian consumer groups want authorities to cancel Barbra Streisand’s concert in Rome next month because of excessive ticket prices.

The Adusbef and Codacons groups urged the city of Rome and the Italian Olympic Committee to deny permission for Streisand to perform at the Stadio Flaminio on June 15. It is the 65-year-old singer’s first-ever concert in Italy and the start of her European tour.

The ticket prices, which range from just under $200 to more than $1,200, are “absurd and shameful,” the groups said in a statement Monday.

The 24,000-seat stadium, owned by the city and managed by the Committee, “is public property and cannot be used for immoral deals that are shameful to a civilized country,” the statement said.

Concert organizers weren’t immediately available for comment.

All but the cheapest tickets were available for purchase Tuesday on the Internet.

Streisand’s monthlong European tour also includes concerts in Austria, France, Ireland and Britain.

Winfrey ‘stunned’ to learn her father is writing a book on her

Chicago – Oprah Winfrey said she was “stunned” to learn her father plans to write a book about her.

“I was upset. I won’t say devastated, but I was stunned,” Winfrey told New York’s Daily News in a story published Tuesday.

Winfrey said she laughed when one of her assistants told her the newspaper was calling to ask about a book her father Vernon Winfrey was writing.

“I said, ‘That’s impossible. I can assure them it’s not true,'” she said. “I called him and it turned out he is writing a book. The worst part of it was him saying, ‘I meant to tell you I’ve been working on it.'”

Winfrey was living with her mother in Milwaukee when she was sent as a young teen to live with her father in Nashville. She previously has credited him for imposing discipline on her and stressing the importance of an education.

The Daily News reported that the conversation with Winfrey took place Sunday.

Winfrey told the newspaper she last saw her father when he accompanied her on a trip to Africa a few months ago, but that they often talk and she has a good relationship with him.

“I would have preferred to have known my father was working on this. It would have been a nice gesture, a courtesy,” she said.

Vernon Winfrey plans to call his book “Things Unspoken,” according to the newspaper.

Dennis Quaid, wife expecting twins by a surrogate mother

Los Angeles – Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, are expecting twins later this year by a surrogate mother.

The 53-year-old actor and his wife are the biological parents, Quaid publicist Lisa Kasteler said Monday. The couple married in July 2004.

Quaid has a teenage son, Jack Henry Quaid, from his marriage to Meg Ryan.

His screen credits include “The Right Stuff,” “The Rookie” and “Far From Heaven.”