Matthew McConaughey puts down roots

Courtney Hazlett The Scoop

All of that money shirtless wonder Matthew McConaughey has saved in clothing has gone to good use.

McConaughey just purchased a $10 million, 3,500-square-foot Malibu home, reports In Touch Weekly.

Matthew is vacating his kitschy Airstream trailer because his girlfriend Camila Alves, a Brazilian model, wasn’t so impressed with the living situation as it was. “Camilla couldn’t take living in Matthew’s Airstream RV anymore,” reports the magazine. Perhaps Matthew and Camila are getting serious?

Lohan: ‘Ugly Betty’ to the rescue?

Video   Scoop: Strike stops ‘24’ clock Nov. 8: Courtney Hazlett talks with Morning Joe's Willie Geist about how the Fox drama has been postponed by the writers strike, plus more controversy on “The View.” MSNBC

Lindsay Lohan’s first post-rehab gig could be a three-episode guest role on ABC’s “Ugly Betty.” An anonymous source told the New York Observer that Lohan will play “a fallen beauty queen who takes a gig as the assistant manager of the fast food chain where Betty’s dad toils... Betty befriends Ms. Lohan’s character, who has fallen on tough times since high school.”

A chance to laugh with Lohan instead of at her — as was the case in “Georgia Rule” where her character was a little too easy to believe — would be great for Lohan’s career.

Alec Baldwin rants again?
Just when we were putting Alec Baldwin’s telephone temper tantrum behind us, the “30 Rock” star picked up the phone again, and ranted against his own Manhattan neighborhood. During a call in to WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show Baldwin said the Upper West Side is “one of the dirtiest neighborhoods,” in the city, marred by “all the mid-priced restaurants.”

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Should we be worried that Baldwin is losing his grip? Offended perhaps, if you’re from the Upper West Side, but not worried, his rep tells me. “Alec was taking part in a broader discussion about urban development that most people probably wouldn’t care to hear much more about.”

Hmm. He might be right about that.

A special note to “30 Rock” fans, despite the strike, filming continues. Baldwin’s rep tells me he’s been on set, taping as usual.

First comes Oscar, then comes … Mountain Dew?
In perhaps one of the strangest “next steps” we’ve seen from a recent Oscar winner, Forest Whitaker has partnered with Pepsi to produce the web-based fantasy game “DEWmocracy,” reports Variety.

The game “culminates in consumers creating a flavor of Mountain Dew to appear on store shelves next year,” says the magazine. “Whitaker helped conceive the virtual world, plot, characters and mini-games, as well as directed a live-action short film that kicks off the game play.” I guess there is hope for actors if the writer’s strike continues.

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