Let me lay these facts out before I say anything: I am not a country music fan. I never have been and never will be, even though my grandmother tried to brainwash me when I was younger by forcing me to watch recycled episodes of Hee Haw and all of the country singers that were featured. Like The Statler Brothers. I swear — I never got into it.

Anyway, country music artist, Chely Wright, has confirmed to People magazine that she is, in fact, gay. Wright’s been on the country music scene since 1994, when she debuted her first album, Woman in the Moon.  Though she didn’t gain any massive notoriety until 1997′s “Shut Up and Drive“, Wright knew that she had some kind of staying power then and would to this day.

Wright’s pretty successfully released albums almost every year since her debut in 1994. Girl’s trying hard. Give her some credit.

Chely speaks to People exclusively and discusses what took her so long to publicly own up to who she really was:

“There had never, ever been a country music artist who had acknowledged his or her homosexuality. I wasn’t going to be the first … I hid everything for my music.”

However, she changed her mind after realizing that she was only fooling herself:

“Nothing in my life has been more magical than the moment I decided to come out.”

Congratulations to Wright. There’s nothing more liberating than being who you are, damned the consequences.

Franco was recently photographed and he totally looked worse for the wear. According to Fame Pictures, speculation is being generated by his run-down, tired-looking appearance and they’re insinuating — gasp! — drug use:

“Pineapple Express” actor James Franco’s appearance at the “Saturday Night” premiere in New York City, New York on May 2, 2010 stirred up quite a few questions concerning the star’s well being. The usually strapping young performer showed up to the event looking sweaty, unfocused and could hardly keep his eyes open. Franco has always been an advocate of recreational marijuana use, but his thin frame and frighteningly questionable marks on his middle arm makes one wonder if he hasn’t started dabbling in something harder.

Wow, Fame Pictures.  Way to stir some shit up.

Check out the gallery photos which are depicting Franco as a sweaty, “unfocused,” drug addict, rather than the Yale-PhD-seeking A-lister that he’s, uh, “pretending” to be.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Seth Green. Not because he’s “cute,” not because he does voice-overs on Family Guy, but because he played the part of Richie Tozier so damned well on the television production of Stephen King’s It way back in the day. He rocked Richie.

Anyway, Seth has gone and tied the knot with his new bride, Clare Grant. Grant, the model/actress, gained her fame appearing in Black Snake Moan with Christina Ricci and currently stars in MTV’s $5 Cover, a show about bar-and-club-hopping wannabe musicians.

The two were engaged on New Years’ Eve and married this past weekend at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in Northern California.

Beep-beep, Richie Seth. Congrats.

According to eBay, there’s a 17-notebook lot available which claims to house the Queen of Pop’s personal thoughts, scrawlings, memoirs and juicy secrets. So, have $2.5 mil lying around? Damn, girl, for that low, low price it could be yours.

The seller states that she ended up with them because Melissa Crowe, Madonna’s former assistant, was unloading some stuff and didn’t want to be hampered with the journals any longer. Read: her storage compartments were raided and the contents auctioned off because she couldn’t pay for the space any longer:

“Today at a moving company, I bought some boxes that were owned by Melissa Crowe. She was Madonna Ciccone’s (singer known as ‘Madonna’) assistant from the years 1987-1996 … 17 binders/book on everything Madonna and Melissa did! I have not looked through each page, but there is a little of everything in them.”

Alright, man … Not saying that I believe that these, uh, Snoopy notebooks ever belonged to Madonna, but if you believe it yourself, you didn’t look through “each page?” What the hell’s your deal? Even assuming that Madge had no hand in writing these fairytale journals, I’d still probably read them cover to cover … just for the sheer imagery and entertainment value.

Like hell. Oh, yeah, that and there are absolutely no bids yet.

Madonna’s rep, Liz Rosenberg, confirms that these diaries are absolutely not — nor have ever been — the property of the Queen herself.  Rumor squashed.

So. Do you think these notebooks are the real deal? Madonna’s always been a notorious journal-keeper and the seller on eBay claims that he received a letter from an “expert,” claiming that the handwriting on the notebooks is the same as Madonna’s frilly doodling.  I mean, I guess that’s got to seal the deal right there, huh?

Wonder no more. It’s probably a combination of cigarettes, Pina Colada, Juicy Fruit chewing gum, the nether-regions of other Guidos or Guidettes and now, thanks to Spencer Pratt, “Guid-o Juice.”

“Guid-o Juice” is under research and development by the new dynamic business duo: Spencer Pratt and Snooki’s almost-tanner ex, Emilio Masella. The drink is said to become “the most popular Guido energy drink in the world.” The two have already teamed up in anticipation of the blockbuster show, “Fist Pumping For Love,” but it doesn’t look like the gravy train’s stopping there. Pratt’s obviously doing his damnedest to make sure he gets a piece of the <i>Jersey Shore</i> Guido/Guidette capital and he’ll stop at nothing to do it.

Oh, “Guid-o Juice.”

What’s the fascination, Pratt? Where’s the appeal in this for you? What’s with the hyphen?

Acting on film and acting on stage are two very different things. They’re two completely separate schools of acting, with two completely different ways of working.  Some people can’t do both (remember Jeremy Piven?), but some people really can, and Denzel Washington is one of those people.

In 1988, Washington was in a show called Checkmates, then in 2005 he was in a revival of Julius Caesar.  Now a revival of August Wilson’s Fences has started with Denzel in the leading role, and according to the reviews, he’s doing really well.  A CNN review put it simply by saying “he’s a force.”

It’s always impressive when movie stars make a move to theatre.  It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, Hollywood isn’t completely full of talentless hacks.  Thanks, Denzel, I really appreciate it.