Brit Avoids Paris Like Plague

Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are so over as BFFs -- they ditched the same fashion show in New York just to avoid each other!

Both party princesses were slated to appear at the Heatherette show at Fashion Week, but both cancelled at the last minute, says Ben Widdicombe of the New York Daily News, because they didn't want to cross paths. Britney got as far as the parking lot before deciding she didn't want to risk seeing the hotel heiress, who reportedly branded Britney "an animal" to her friends.

But there might be another explanation for Hilton's absence, according to radaronline.com, namely, a long night the night before and its aftereffects, if you know what we mean. Officially, Hilton's no-show was blamed on a stomach condition.

The wheels might be back on Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow's romance, despite an ugly wreck of a break-up last year. The pair, says Star, was spotted in Solvang, Calif. at a restaurant they used to frequent. They stayed at the Royal Scandinavian Inn, though perhaps in separate rooms to avoid detection. Still, another source says that Crow was just in town to visit members of Armstrong's former cycling team, and that Lance just "happened" to be there too. The verdict, according to an inside source? The singer and cyclist have gotten "extremely close" again but are "just friends" for now.

Eddie Murphy is the odds-on favorite to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but now some Oscar voters might be changing their ballots because of Murphy's ridiculous-looking new comedy, "Norbit." According to the L.A. Times, the over-the-top "Norbit," in which Murphy exploits racial stereotypes (and not just black ones) might not be a fitting follow-up to his "Dreamgirls" role. "Every time I pass that billboard, it makes me sick," says an Oscar consultant. And worse yet, is the fact that "Norbit" is drawing fire from black activists who don't understand why yet another black male comedian has to play yet another morbidly obese black woman.

It's certainly one way to get over a tough break-up. Cameron Diaz has just gotten $3 million for appearing in a commercial for – yes – a Japanese cell phone company that took just six hours to shoot. In the ad, the new surfer-girlfriend of Kelly Slater, says Us Weekly (via WENN), wears a short bright-green dress and high heels on an urban street. The actress is so absorbed in her phone conversation that she doesn't notice the aliens, pirates, cowboys and mobsters swirling around her. Yep, sounds like a wacky Japanese cell phone spot.

During a recent dinner at Mr. Chow, Nicole Richie told Paris Hilton that she's terrified of going to jail, according to Life & Style, and she's worried that her second DUI offense might land her there. Paris, no stranger to facing legal punishment herself, told her that everything was going to be fine. ... Mark Wahlberg's scene-stealing turn as a cop in "The Departed" is already being developed into its own spinoff film, he says, possibly with Robert DeNiro as a corrupt government official. ... Former Sen. Lee Hamilton says, as reported by Rush & Molloy, that the Iraq Study Group almost came to blows in some late-night sessions. We're guessing that it was Sandra Day O'Connor and Edwin Meese just working out some Reagan-era angst ... The fourth Indiana Jones flick will be in theaters in May 2008, competing against the film version of "Speed Racer" from the Wachowski Brothers, who brought you "The Matrix."