Next weekend, for 3 nights only, Hollywood is gettin’ a special version of the Tony Award winning musical Rent in an all new production directed by actor and Rent alum Neil Patrick Harris. This new version of Rent stars Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal) and Skylar Astin (Spring Awakening) as Roger and Mark alongside Vanessa Hudgens (as Mimi), Nicole Scherzinger (as Maureen), Wanye Brady (as Tom Collins) and more! This production of Rent will play at the Hollywood Bowl and promises to be a very special one-of-a-kind production … which will debut next Friday night after only 1 week of rehearsals! Here is a photo from these Rent rehearsals and some deets about the show itself:

RENT, written by Jonathan Larson, will be performed at the Hollywood Bowl for three performances only, Friday and Saturday August 6 and 7 at 8:30pm, and Sunday August 8 at 7:30pm. Neil Patrick Harris will direct the production, with musical direction by Tim Weil and choreography by Jamal Sims. The cast includes Skylar Astin, Wayne Brady, Vanessa Hudgens, Telly Leung, Collins Pennie, Nicole Scherzinger, Tracie Thoms, and Aaron Tveit. Tickets are now on sale, and may be purchased online at HollywoodBowl.com, by phone at 323-850-2000, in person at the Hollywood Bowl box office, or by calling Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000, and at all Ticketmaster outlets. With a 12-year run on Broadway, a Tony Award for Best Musical, and a Pulitzer Prize, RENT is one of the most groundbreaking and popular shows of all time. This year the Hollywood Bowl’s annual fully staged musical brings to life “La Vie Bohème”, “Seasons of Love” and all the songs that made RENT such a hit … Neil Patrick Harris said, “I’m thrilled with the cast. With this gang, I’m hoping to provide an eclectic mix of experienced RENT performers, amazing new talent, and recognizable faces in unexpected roles. Of paramount importance to me, though, is honoring the piece as a whole – the music, the vibe, the creator – so that those who have never experienced RENT will be able to appreciate it alongside die-hard fans. We’ll only have one week of rehearsal, which I like to call ‘madness’, but as of now my hopes are very high.” Appearing in RENT at the Hollywood Bowl as Mimi is Vanessa Hudgens, best known for her breakout role in the High School Musical series as Gabriella Montez, for which she received numerous nominations and awards. Nicole Scherzinger, solo artist, lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls, and this season’s winner of Dancing With the Stars, will play Maureen. Emmy winner and Grammy nominee Wayne Brady plays Tom Collins. Aaron Tveit, from Broadway’s Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal and the upcoming feature film Howl plays Roger. Skylar Astin, who played Georg in Spring Awakening on Broadway, plays Mark. Collins Pennie who appeared in the films Fame and the upcoming Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming, plays Benny. Tracie Thoms, a regular on CBS’ Cold Case, will be Joanne, a role she played in the film and the final cast of RENT on Broadway. RENT alum Telly Leung will play the role of Angel. Gwen Stewart, the original Broadway vocalist of “Seasons of Love,” will join the production as well. The ensemble of RENT includes Yassmin Alers, Eric B. Anthony, King Aswad, Susan Beaubian, David Burtka, Kathy Deitch, Sam Given, Rachael Harris, Tricia Kelly, Ethan Le Phong, Kristolyn Lloyd, Zarah Mahler, Laura Mixon, Jason Paige, Miri Park, Gwen Stewart and Brandon Wardell. Gwen Stewart was the original Broadway vocalist of “Seasons of Love.”

Rent is absolutely one of my all-time favorite Broadway shows … and is the one I’ve seen the most times (30+ at last count). I am so excited to see this new production, even if I have some reservations about the casting.

In all honesty, I’m not entirely convinced that Vanessa Hudgens can bring Mimi to life on stage … but I trust NPH‘s decision to cast her. I’m very curious to see how the whole show comes across, to be honest. I’m pretty sure that we will be going to the opening night performance on Friday … and I’m really excited. Here’s hoping this new production of Rent will do my fave show justice … or else ;)

[Photo credit: Ed Krieger; Source]

First comes the arrest, then comes the mugshot. Nicole Snooki Polizzi has joined the ranks of the famed Hollywood “It” Girls now that she has her very own mugshot:

TMZ has obtained Snooki’s mug shot — taken moments after the Seaside Heights PD arrested the “Jersey Shore” star for disorderly conduct Friday afternoon. Snooki — aka Nicole Polizzi — was in held in custody for several hours … before she was released on her own recognizance. As we previously reported, Snooki had been partying on the boardwalk earlier in the day with a beer bong … and at one point, she fell off of a bicycle. Sources tell us Snooki went out to dinner with one of her cast members after the incident last night.

Meh, all in a day’s work. Snooki‘s finally made it, y’all. She’s a star now.

[Source]

Last night David and I met up with Darion and Peter for dinner at The Smokin’ Joint for some BBQ and we pretty much ate our faces off … it was very fun. After dinner, Darion gave me a belated birthday present that I fell in love with at first sight:

Darion found me a blue trackjacket with my fave Transformers character on the back … Soundwave! Last night was really cold here in LA so I was doubly happy to have this fun new jacket.

Before bed, I managed to watch Batman Returns because as I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been on a bit of a Batman kick lately:

I have to say, I think Batman Returns is my fave Batman movie of all. The story is very cool and the villains are among my fave of Batman‘s Gallery of Rogues. I always loved the fact that Max Shreck is the most evil character in the film … you feel sympathy for The Penguin and Catwoman, Shreck is just evil. I also love how Siouxsie and the Banshees co-wrote the Batman Returns theme song Face to Face with composer Danny Elfman:

There is not a single thing I don’t love about this movie. Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman really makes the film … it’s a shame that she didn’t get a film of her own. While I don’t hate the Halle Berry film Catwoman as much as pretty much everyone else on Earth, I think a film starring Pfeiffer would’ve been far superior. Ah well … I guess it was never meant to be.

Tonight, David and I will be hanging out with Rob and Tam and then we’re supposed to hit up a midnight pool party in the Hills … we’ll have to wait and see how any of that actually turns out. Hope you’re having a fab weekend :)

Uh, oh!

After a weak debut with his first single "Something 'Bout Love" last week, David Archuleta's upcoming album The Other Side Down has been pushed back from a September release to October.

His website reads:

"We’d like you all to be the first to know that the release date for The Other Side of Down has changed. It will now be coming on October 5th. Like the last time we dealt with a date change, this one is definitely for the best. David would like to make sure he’s delivering the best possible album and he needs just a little more time to do it."

Never a good sign!

[Image via WENN.]

• HERE is a first look at Chelsea Clinton‘s wedding which will take place today.
• Jennifer Lopez on American Idol is NOT a done deal just yet … and NO AI announcement will be made on Monday.
• T.I. got hitched!
• Casey Affleck gets hit with a 2nd sexual harassment lawsuit.
• Tom Jones kindly requests that YOU stop throwing your underwear at him at concerts.
• Chris Pine has been cast as the young Tom Clancy hero Jack Ryan.
• Teresa Giudice of The Real Housewives of New Jersey gets a new job.
• Dean Cain is 44, J.K. Rowling is 45, Fatboy Slim is 47, Wesley Snipes is 48 and Susan Flannery (The Bold and the Beautiful) is 67 years old today. Click HERE to see who else is celebrating a birthday today.
• Light paintings.

It's like a scene from a movie!

Democratic New York Representative Anthony Weiner got very fired up when discussing medical care for the responders of 9/11.

Talk about passion!

Check it out above!

Here is this week’s photos sent in by Pink is the new Blog readers — Melissa from Dallas, TX sends in an amazing photo of her sister Angie and her newborn baby girl Dahlia Elena (8 lbs, 19 ½ inches long) who was born on July 12 … which is also my birthday ;) — Syrina, who hails from the Netherlands, sends in a great photo with her friend Janneke on a recent trip to Mauritius, Africa. The ladies were celebrating their birthdays on holiday together … Janneke‘s birthday was July 6 and Syrina‘s birthday also shares my birthday on July 12 :) — Erika, who I got to meet at Starbucks earlier this week, sends in a fun photo of a Pink is the new Blog cupcake that her mother made expressly for my blog! You can find other delicious cupcake creations at LittleSugarCupcakes.webs.com — Richard from Oklahoma City, OK sends in a photo from his recent family trip to Colorado — Vanessa sends in a fabulously timed photo from her friend’s recent Jersey Shore-themed party where she showed up as Snooki‘s mugshot … which is hilarious considering that the real life Snooki got arrested in Seaside Heights, NJ yesterday:

Much love and many thanks to you all for taking the time to send in your fab photos. Much love goes out to the birthday girls Dahlia, Syrina and Janneke! Love, Love, Love goes out to YOU all for continuing to send in your amazing photos. Please keep ‘em comign! I need more, more, more :) xoxo

Justin Bieber, you controversial 16 year old, you!

Protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church made their disdain for the Biebs known with their presence outside his Sprint Center concert in Kansas City, MO, and many parents made their disdain for the protestors known as well.

An angry mother screamed the following at the protestors:

"You're a shame that you think you can walk around this god-forsaken country and treat people that way.”

Another angry mother, Amber Heavner, lashed out and said the following:

“He has not done anything wrong. He's here to entertain the public, I guess just like she's here to entertain the public. He has not done anything wrong. These are children …these are children… my children can read, my children can see, my children can see that she's got signs that say 'God hates America!'"

Wow Biebs, you really got this Church group angry. What satanistic things are you doing at your concerts? Is there something we should know about?

[Image via WENN.]

Photographer Tyler Shields has released new images of Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan, the artist currently known as Inmate #2409752 serving part of a 90-day jail sentence at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, CA, in costume as 70′s porn star Linda Lovelace. As you may know, Lohan is scheduled to portray Lovelace in an upcoming biopic called Inferno and these photos are the latest attempt to remind us that L. Lo still has a career in showbusiness:

Lindsay Lohan revealed her darker side recently during a photo shoot for her upcoming porn star biopic “Inferno” — and she did it all wearing nothing but your grandma’s underwear. The photos were taken by well-known photog Tyler Shields … but they’re for promotional purposes only. The film — in which Lindsay plays porn legend Linda Lovelace — hasn’t even been shot yet.

See, not even a stint in jail can derail Lindsay Lohan‘s film career … in fact, her current legal woes appear to be the best thing to happen to hear career in ages. Not only is Lindsay due to appear in Inferno but she has also filmed scenes for a new film called Undercover Comedy 2010. As you may recall, yesterday we got our first look at Lindsay in this new Comedy film — which is being made by and stars Vince Offer Schlomi … better known to the world as The ShamWow! Guy. After the jump, check out a couple more photos of Lohan as Lovelace, a few screencaps of Lohan in Underground Comedy 2010 and watch the video trailer for the film …

Here are a few caps of L. Lo as a gun-toting Marilyn Monroe in Underground Comedy 2010:

And here is the trailer for the film itself:

Ye gods, does this look horrible! I can’t even begin to list all the things that look terribly, terribly wrong with this movie … I mean … yeah. To be honest, the inclusion of trainwreck Lohan seems to be the best thing about the film. I mean … could any of this get any more tragic? I highly doubt it but … ugh, I’m afraid to find out. What do y’all think of any of this? Does Underground Comedy 2010 look like a film you’d pay good money to see?

[Source, Source]

Sources are telling us that you are being inundated with fan mail while you sit locked away in Lynwood prison. Rather than waste the stamp, we thought we'd just write to you from here.

What's that? You don't know what we are talking about?

Oh, well, the staff in the mailroom at your prison has been besieged with love letters, ransom notes and Valuepak coupons all addressed to one Lindsay Lohan. They are from your fans. Didn't you know you had any of those, did you? The prison folk say that they've been roughly getting around 250 letters a day for you.

Can you feel the love?

What's that now? You haven't gotten any of this mail?

No, you wouldn't. Not yet anyway. The prison only allows it's occupants 10 letters at a time. But no worries, when you are released from the clink and moved to your seaside rehab facility, they'll hand over the bushels of envelopes to you and you can delve into what is sure to be a fountain of literary poetry.

We hope you'll share some of the gems with us via Twitter. We're looking forward to it.

Hugs and Kisses and Cocaine, Perez

P.S. - If there is white powder in any of the envelopes, don't inhale! It might not be what you think!

[Image via WENN.]