Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane has signed up to star in the music drama Burlesque.

The 37-year-old actor, who is best known for his role as Dr Mark Sloan in the US show, will join Christina Aguilera and Cher for the movie.

The film centres around the journey of an ambitious small-town girl, played by Aguilera, who finds love and success at an LA burlesque club run by Cher’s character.

Dane will be playing the part of a charming businessman who offers to buy the club from Cher’s character and falls for Aguilera, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Dane is the latest star to join the cast of the movie, which will also include Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, Kristen Bell and Alan Cumming.

Sofia Vergara left viewers shocked after making an ill-advised “rape joke” on live television.

The Colombian-born screen star – who was romantically linked to Tom Cruise in 2005 – tried to make light of her youthful appearance on American TV’s The View.

One presenter expressed surprise that Sofia, 37, dubbed ‘Sofia Viagra’ for her effect on certain men, was old enough to have an 18-year-old son.

Host Sherri Shepherd said: “And also, you’re a single mum of a teenage son – who’s 18?!

“You look so good!”

She said: “I cannot lie about my age because they count.”

As viewers saw a photo of her with son Manolo Gonzalez, host Sherri said: “What? Did you have him when you were 12?”

Laughing, she replied: “Thirteen. I was raped.”

Another of the show’s presenters, veteran reporter Barbara Walters, looked stony-faced as Sofia made the remark.

And Whoopi Goldberg, who also hosts the daytime talk show, appeared shocked at the comment.

Sarah Palin opened up to Oprah Winfrey about her family, her future and what went wrong during the election in a revealing TV interview.

Palin, who has just released her memoir, Going Rogue told Oprah about the moment she got a call from Senator John McCain asking her if she would be the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

“I didn’t blink. I felt quite confident in my abilities and my executive experience, knowing that this is an executive administrative job,” she said.

After that call, Palin flew to Arizona to meet Senator McCain to sign up as his running mate, but was so petrified by the process she confessed about a bad grade in college.

She confessed: “It went on for hours through that evening. I thought after all that, ‘Wow, I better confess it now. The one skeleton that is in my closet.’ By then, you know, they already knew about [my daughter] Bristol being pregnant. I said, ‘The one skeleton that I have to confess to is I did [get] a D 22 years ago in a college course.’ And I thought that was going to be the extent of the controversy of Sarah Palin’s life.”

Palin admitted to Oprah she was surprised that McCain’s team knew her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant because she thought it was a family secret. She said it disturbed her that the pregnancy became public knowledge and that she wished they could have dealt with the issue in a more productive way.

“If [Bristol and I] had been given the allowance to deal with the issue in a more productive way, we perhaps could have sent a better message: ‘This is not to be glamorised. It is not to be emulated. It is a tough, tough challenge and it is a problem in America, so let’s try and deal with it’.”

Palin revealed she spoke with Bristol when her pregnancy hit the headlines.

“She was quite devastated and, perfectly honestly, she was quite embarrassed,” she says. “She called me in tears saying ‘Oh, mom, now not just [in] Wasilla do they know what’s going on in my life. Now the whole world knows’.”

Palin said she was surprised that her children became a talking point during her campaign.

Her books have become international bestsellers, but now Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is the star of a comic book about her life.

And like her novels – and the film on which they are based – copies of the comic sold out in 24 hours.

The book tells Meyer’s life story and how she was inspired to write the Twilight series about werewolves and vampires, after having a dream about the characters.

The 35-year-old mother-of-three is the latest influential woman to be featured in the Female Force biography series, published by Bluewater Productions.

The stories of Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy, Michelle Obama and, most recently, the late Princess Diana have also featured in the series.

Bluewater Productions president Darren G Davis said: “Comic books are meant to entertain, yes, but just as often are used as educational and inspirational tools for a variety of ages.”

He added: “In fact, the Female Force series tries to focus on female empowerment and provide biographies that show the whole story of a subject’s life.”

He then laughs out loud and insists: “I really don’t!”

The tattooed 21 year-old is hitting back at recent criticism that he is a Hollywood troublemaker after he was left fighting for his life after being stabbed at a party.

But Clark, the grandson of Hollywood legend Clark Gable, says he doesn’t care what the critics say about him.

Instead he is determined to prove them wrong and fulfill the legacy his famous grandfather left behind when he tragically died at the age of 59 in 1961.

Clark never met his grandfather but the resemblance to the Gone With The Wind actor is uncanny.

He has the same brooding good looks and at 6ft 3in tall is even taller than his 6ft 1in grandfather.

He also has the same intense presence as he speaks out for the first time about the stabbing two months ago which left him in intensive care after his lung collapsed.

The attack left him close to death but as he recovered he claims he finally realised that he wanted to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become an actor.

Speaking at his Malibu home for the first time since the attack, Clark revealed: “The press reports about the stabbing didn’t really bother me but I just don’t want people to think that I am some kind of Hollywood brat.

“I have this great legacy that I’ve been left by my grandfather, that is amazing to have been born with.

“The stabbing has pulled me out of that other life that I was living and made me realize that I needed to wake up and use what I was born with.

“I realised that I needed to use this name that I was born with and follow in my grandfather’s footsteps.

“He was a legend. One of Hollywood’s greatest actors and I need to uphold that legacy.

“The criticism about me, or me cashing in the name, doesn’t bother me at all as I am not out there like other celebrity children or grandchildren.

“I’m not in Hollywood. Before the stabbing no-one knew who I was, or that I even existed!

“People have a false sense of who I am but I don’t think they should as they don’t know me.

“I don’t mind people knowing I am Clark Gable’s grandson but people need to know that I am not him.

“I am going to be doing my best to be myself.

“I want to make him and my father proud but I don’t want to be a clone. I am my own person.

“I want to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps the best way that I can. I am taking it one day at a time.

“I would love to be an actor. I don’t know if I could ever be on the level my grandfather was but I don’t mind if people make the comparison.

“But I don’t think people will compare me that much because I am my own person.

They are going to realize that once they see me on screen.”

Clark has begun taking acting lessons while he recovers from the stabbing.

He has also done some modeling work and appeared in a couple of commercials.

But now his goal is to make movies and hopefully one day become as famous as his grandfather.

He added: “I know the Clark Gable name is going to open some doors for me but I don’t want people to think that I am just using it and taking it for granted.

“I am not going to go out there and get loads of movie straight away because of the name, or going a win loads of Oscars.

“I am myself, my grandfather was his self. He had the fame, I got the name.

“That’s what I want to communicate to people.

“Even though my name is Clark Gable, I am still going to have to work to prove that I am good, perhaps even work harder because there is that legacy there that I have to live up to.

“I would love to play the Rhett Butler role from Gone With The Wind – just for the catchphrase.

“I love that catchphrase: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn’.

“But right now it’s just one day at a time for me. I am still recovering from the stabbing and am on anti-biotics so I need to take things a bit slower than usual.

“But I’m taking acting lessons and having some coaching and learning everything first.

“I’ve done a couple of little commercials but nothing major yet.”

Clark is lucky to alive and able to take acting lessons after he spent nearly a month in hospital after the attack.

It happened two months ago at a party in Calabasass, just north of Los Angeles when he went to help a friend who was being threatened by four other men.

Clark explained: “I went outside the party and a bunch of guys were standing around my friend and one of them had a knife to his throat, so I ran and tackled the guy with the knife.

“I don’t know exactly when I was stabbed but I tackled him to the ground and I think that as I got on top of him someone came up behind me and stabbed me then in the side.

“I didn’t realize that I had been stabbed at first. I just thought someone had punched me really hard in the side.

“The fight had been broken up and those guys took off.

I walked inside the house and all of a sudden I felt this warm trickle down my back.

“Being stabbed doesn’t feel how everyone thinks it feels.

“When you cut yourself with a knife or scissors and you get that instant pain, it didn’t feel like that at all. Instead it was like a hot burning sensation.

“Then I walked into the house and collapsed and started bleeding profusely.

I tried to wrap something around my waist and I couldn’t. Someone in the house called 911 and the paramedics got there within five minutes.

I was in the ambulance and was stable. But then all of a sudden my lung collapsed.

“I couldn’t breathe. I stopped breathing. And I was still bleeding everywhere.

“I was airlifted to UCLA Hospital in Westwood and I was there for seven days.

Heather had found out what had happened through my sister.

“After seven days I was released and sent home. Everything was great and I felt great.

“But by the time I got home I was sweating. The next morning I woke up with a 104 degree fever and a full recollapsed lung.

“I was rushed out of my house by an ambulance after my dad called 911 at 6.30 in the morning.

“I was taken to hospital again and was there for another three weeks.

“I had extensive surgery. I had got pneumonia and I had to have all the pneumonia in my left lung taken out.

“After my surgery I had three test tubes coming out me, plus my stab wound was stapled shut.

“It was a nightmare. I couldn’t believe that it was happening.

“I kept thinking it was a dream and I would wake up. But I did wake-up. The whole thing was a wake-up call and happened for a reason.”

Clark also revealed the stabbing led to him being reunited with his girlfriend, Heather Chadwell, 34.

The couple, who were introduced by Clark’s sister Kayley, had split a few months earlier, mainly because of the 14 year age gap.

But once Heather, who has appeared on such reality show as Rock of Love and Charm School with Sharon Osbourne, heard about the stabbing she went to the hospital.

The pair have been inseparable since and Heather has helped nurse Clark back to health.

The couple are now also planning a reality show about their life together and Clark’s bid to become an actor.

Heather, who did not believe he was Clark Gable’s grandson when they first met, revealed: “I was in shock when I heard about Clark being stabbed.

“It really scared me. I didn’t know what was going to happen.

But I knew I needed to be strong for him and so I headed straight to the hospital and was then at Clark’s side the whole time he was in the hospital.

“I think the stabbing saved his life. He was surrounded by some wrong people and we were on a break.

I had not talked to him in a while, I knew he wasn’t happy though. I kept worrying and worrying about him.

“I’ve been looking after him since he got out of the hospital and it’s taking a while for him to get back on his feet and back to his full strength.

“But now we’re back together and are planning a reality show together, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

While the couple are waiting to film their reality show, Clark is spending his time getting better – and going on casting calls.

Clark said: “I was aware of my grandfather when I was about six years old.

“My own father sat me down and told me about him and showed me some of his movies – Gone With The Wind, Stagecoach and I think The Misfits.

“If I can be anywhere near as good as actor as my grandfather, I would be really happy.

“AT the moment I am still recouperating as I came out of the hospital 17lbs lighter, so I just need to get back to my full strength.

“Now that I look back on it, it’s like it all came together for a reason.

It all lined up perfectly to where I was meant to be stabbed that night.

I think it saved my life. It happened for a reason.

“It was a blessing in disguise because ever since this happened things in my life have only got better and better.

“I know I am going to make my grandfather proud.”

When rumours of a separation emerged last month, Rosie angrily insisted they “remain a family” and “love each other very much” – and insisted: “Those are the only words I am ever going to say.”

But now, seemingly in an unplanned aside, Rosie admits that her long-term partner actually moved out two years ago.

Talking to a psychic on her US radio show about her dog, Rosie said she got the dog three days after Carpenter left.

“What happened [was] when Kelli moved out two years ago, I got the dog. Because I wanted another child or something to love. And I got the dog,” she said.

O’Donnell and Carpenter were married in a non-state-recognised ceremony in San Francisco in 2004 and have three adopted children – Parker, 14, Chelsea, 12 and Blake, 9 – as well as daughter Vivienne, 6, whom Carpenter gave birth to via artificial insemination.

When rumours of a split first surfaced last month, Rosie had insisted: “We’re a family, we remain a family … Kelli and I love each other very much, and we are working on our issues.

“Those are the only words I am ever going to say. Ever. And that is something that has been agreed upon by all parties.”

The on-screen family home of Twilight vampire Edward Cullen is up for sale in real life for a cool $3.3m.

The stunning three-floor Vancouver pad is home to Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson’s bloodsucking Cullen clan in New Moon, the latest instalment in the hit vampire saga.

The house is the setting for a pivotal scene in the new film, when Cullen’s adopted brother Jasper tries to attack Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart).

But now that filming of the third Twilight movie, Eclipse, has recently been completed, the house has been put on the market, priced at $3,298,000.

Real estate agent Jason Soprovich, who is handling the sale, describes the luxury five-bedroom property as “the Cullen House, as seen in the recent world-wide hit saga Twilight: New Moon”.

It is understood that the house will not be used as a filming location for future Twilight movies.

Renee Zellweger is the apple of Bradley Cooper’s eye, according to a New York newspaper.

The latest reports had the pair growing distant after a steamy European sojourn that saw them passionately embracing inside a historic church.

But the New York Daily News claims it’s all back on and that Cooper is on the verge of making things official. A source said: “It’s very serious. As soon as his mom gives the sign-off, he’s going to propose. Renee’s and Bradley’s previous marriages [to Kenny Chesney and Jennifer Esposito, respectively] both ended after only four months. They have that in common – it’s one of the things that brought them together.”

The pair is now planning to break bread over Thanksgiving with Cooper’s parents in Philadelphia. The source continued: “Things have been heading in this direction for the two of them for a while but this definitely solidifies how serious they are. Renee says she’s nervous, and she’s really hoping it goes well. She’s very excited.”

The romance is “quite serious. Renee and Bradley are crazy about each other”, the source added.

Serena Williams has revealed she has a rapper boyfriend but their arrangement is loose.

Speaking to The Telegraph in London about her new memoir, Williams said her boyfriend is the rapper and actor Common. “He does his thing; I do mine. Maybe we’ll meet somewhere in between,” she said, with her interviewer noting she lacked “enthusiasm”.

Williams, who is facing a fine and possible ban from the Australian Open over an on-court outburst to a line umpire, has penned her autobiography titled Queen Of The Court, published by Simon & Schuster.

Of the incident, where she threatened to shove a ball down the umpire’s throat and used the F-word, she said: “I was 100 per cent, unequivocally wrong. It was absolutely not professional. I didn’t react correctly. Spiritually. I let myself down and I have apologised to her. I’m not perfect. I’ll make another mistake – as you will – but making the same mistake isn’t cool. I’ve learnt a lot from that experience.”

Williams had always wanted to have children by the age of 30, she said, noting that since she was not near that goal and had reached 28, “I need to come up with a plan B”.

Tennis and Williams will not go on and on. She said: “I can’t play tennis for ever. It will be someone else’s turn. Someone bigger and better. When that happens, I don’t want to sit at home one day and look at Venus across the couch and be, like, what next? So I have a back-up plan.”

2012 star Thandie Newton said she has ‘never dated an actor’ and stopped using her sexuality as a tool in relationships a long time ago.

Newton, 37, married writer Ol Parker in 1998 and they have two young daughters together: Ripley and Nico.

The RocknRolla star appears in the new disaster movie 2012 alongside John Cusack, but she said she has never had a relationship with another actor.

She said to UK magazine In Style: “I’ve never dated an actor, just had the odd fling. Isn’t that weird?

“I don’t flirt with people – a long time ago, I stopped using my sexuality to have a relationship with people.

“I don’t think you really get a sense of me, sexually, and that’s why I have really great relationships with straight men.”