Developing Stories

Paula Abdul isn't missing a beat. Our spies say she spent part of the afternoon yesterday with ABC entertainment honcho Steve McPherson.

We're told Stevie M. wants Paula to be a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars" in the worst way. We're told there was talk of making her a guest judge but that's not gonna happen, and we know why. Paula and Carrie Ann Inaba don't get along.

But McPherson, who's friends with Paula, wants more from her than "Dancing." There's talk of Paula doing a guest appearance on "Ugly Betty." And we're told Paula has a show in mind with her name on it.

As for that other show ... "American Idol" we think it's called ... Paula is not shutting the door. $10 million, and she's theirs.

Stay tuned...

The medical examiner who performed the Billy Mays autopsy is under fire for allegedly screwing up the report -- and the man pointing the finger is one of the most famous forensic experts on the planet.

Famed medical examiner Cyril Wecht tells TMZ the people who performed Mays' autopsy were wrong to almost immediately list "heart disease" as Billy's official cause of death.

According to Wecht -- who personally reviewed the autopsy and toxicology report -- the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner should have pointed to "acute combined drug toxicity" as the cause of death.

Wecht claims the M.E. jumped the gun when they published the report and "chose to ignore the combined cumulative effects of the drugs in his system as the cause of death ... this was bad toxicology work".

The lingering question: With Billy's authorized prescription drug use, why would the M.E. be so quick to pin the cause of death on heart disease, before receiving the toxicology results?

In the end, the M.E. concluded cocaine was a contributing factor in Mays' death. There were also traces of several prescription drugs in his system, including Xanax and Vicodin.

The entire Southern California coastline was roped into the story last weekend, after Alex von Furstenberg -- the son of designer Diane von Furstenberg -- hired a small plane to fly over the beaches with a sign that read, "Reggie Miller Stop Pursuing Married Women."

It's all over Alex's fiancee, Ali Kay.

According to Reggie's rep, Miller and Ali met at a Malibu supermarket back in March. Reggie says the two flirted and spent the rest of the day texting like crazy -- each sending more than 50 texts to the other in a 6 hour span (we obtained Reggie's phone records and verified the number of text messages that were sent back and forth).

Reggie claims Ali -- a clothing designer -- even texted him 2 provocative photos of herself (above), which TMZ has obtained.

But according to Reggie, in April he had enough and took her out of his phone contact list. But Reggie says in May, Ali reconnected with him, wanting to know why he had closed the door. Reggie says the next day he got an angry call from Alex.

Dr. Conrad Murray purchased Propofol -- the drug we're told killed Michael Jackson -- from the Las Vegas pharmacy that was searched today by the DEA, according to a new report.

An unnamed law enforcement official reportedly claims evidence was uncovered at Applied Pharmacy Services this morning, proving Dr. Murray legally bought the strong anesthetic there. We don't know if there is any link to Jackson.

We did some checking ... Applied Pharmacy Services is a home infusion pharmacy -- meaning they specialize in infusions in the home. Interesting.

As we first reported, the DEA searched the pharmacy for documents, computer hard drives, prescriptions and shipping information of controlled substances that may have been given to Jackson by Dr. Murray.