Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster welcome baby Aiden into the world

Rod Stewart has become a father for the eighth time after Penny Lancaster gave birth to their son Aiden.

The rock star, 66, and his wife said they were ‘proud and thrilled’ to announce the ‘long awaited arrival’ of their second child – a brother to their five-year-old son Alastair.

The couple told how they went through three rounds of IVF before Miss Lancaster, 39, finally became pregnant. The gruelling fertility treatment had sent them on an ‘emotional rollercoaster’, they said.

Miss Lancaster revealed that she was expecting last August, saying: ‘I couldn’t believe it. I burst into tears. I called Rod when I was still sobbing.’

‘Rod said, “I’m in the middle of a restaurant in Russia, crying.” I kept pinching myself.’ A spokesman for the pair said Aiden was born on Wednesday weighing 7lb 12oz. ‘Mother and baby are healthy and blissfully happy,’ he said.

The couple have been together for more than ten years. They were married in 2007 in Italy just outside Portofino, making Miss Lancaster Stewart’s third wife.

Aiden is the star’s eighth child. Aside from Alastair, who was conceieved naturally, the newborn joins Kimberley, 30, and Sean, 29, from the singer’s first marriage to Alana Stewart.

Stewart went on to have another daughter, Ruby, 23, with girlfriend Kelly Emberg. He then had Renee, 18, and son Liam, 15, with former wife, model Rachel Hunter.

He also has daughter Sarah Streeter, 46, who he fathered early in his career with art student Susannah Boffey and who was raised by adoptive parents.

Speaking about their fertility struggle, the couple told how they saw experts in both America and the UK.

Miss Lancaster insisted the gruelling procedure was worth it just to see Alastair’s joy when she broke the news to him. ‘Our son’s happiness made all the IVF treatments worthwhile,’ she said. Despite this, Stewart has said Aiden will be his last child. He said: ‘I can’t have any more kids, otherwise I’ll be touring until I’m 90.’

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Sex, drugs, singing and swearing: Sneak peek at the Royal Opera House's X-rated new production - Anna Nicole the opera

Regular visitors are used to seeing internationally acclaimed works by the likes of Puccini, Rossini, Verdi and Tchaikovsky.

So it may have come as a surprise last night when the main stage of the Royal Opera House was taken over by a blonde soprano grabbing her breasts, swearing, taking drugs and pole dancing.

Bosses at the venue risked a backlash from traditionalists after the debut of Anna Nicole – an opera about Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, who married an elderly billionaire before dying at 39 following a drugs overdose.

Just six performances have been scheduled between last night and March 4, and all have sold out.

But while Royal Opera House bosses claim they are trying to ‘move the art form forward’ by covering contemporary subjects, the production is likely to attract accusations of dumbing down and selling out from the company’s more conservative fans.

Billed as ‘a celebrity story of our times’, the opera, which stars Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, carries a warning that it contains sex, drugs and ‘extreme language’.

The libretto has been written by Richard Thomas, co-creator of Jerry Springer The Opera – which attracted 55,000 complaints when it aired on the BBC, largely due to its negative portrayal of Christians.

Anna Nicole follows Smith’s journey from working as a lapdancer to posing for Playboy and marrying oil tycoon  J. Howard Marshall when she was 26 and he was 89.

Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage told Radio 4: ‘It is difficult to know what audiences will make of it, really. If you think about older opera composers like Puccini and Verdi, they were doing things that were about then, that were about their time.

‘Anna Nicole was a global figure. When she died it was on the front page of the Financial Times.

‘How often do you get someone who is a Playboy model getting that sort of coverage?’

Librettist Mr Thomas added: ‘There is something deeply eccentric and absurd about the story and I think opera actually manages to deal with extreme subjects, extreme language, absurdly and beautifully and that’s what I think is unique to the medium.

‘It is a very delicate thing because sometimes you just want to say, “God, why are they yelling their lungs off and making this insane noise?”, but when it is right it is transcendental.’

Elaine Padmore, director of opera at the company, said: ‘This is an opera many people have had their doubts about but we are here to create operatic history, to be doing new things, to be moving the art form forward.

‘The creation of new operas has slowed down enormously. But we feel it’s terribly important that it continues.’

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Taylor Swift is a real bathing beauty in holiday snap from Bahamas getaway

 Taylor Swift looked every inch the beach goddess during her latest visit to the Bahamas.

A photograph has emerged of singer that shows her perched on the water's edge during a getaway to the picturesque tropical island in October.

Wearing a black bikini and flip flops, she stood with arms outstretched as she took in the magical view and soaked up the sun.

The 21-year-old is currently in Asia on the first leg of her sold-out Speak Now tour.

She has already visited Singapore and South Korea and most recently performed in Tokyo.

She tweeted today: 'I love Tokyo, I love Tokyo, I love Tokyo! Thank you for two magical nights at the Budokan. Unforgettable.'

The star, who is single following her split from Jack Gyllenhaal earlier this year, spent Valentine's Day in Japan but still managed to attract a not-so-secret admirer in her home country.

Owl City’s Adam Young took to his blog to share his admiration for the Back To December singer.

The pair have been exchanging tweets since September 2009 and are understood to have met in New York some years back.

Electropop star Young came to the conclusion that Taylor's song Enchanted is likely about him after she explained the inspiration for the song.

She said: 'It was about this guy that I met in New York City, and I had talked to him on email before, but I had never met him.

'Meeting him, it was just this overwhelming feeling of, "I really hope that you're not in love with somebody." And the whole entire way home, I just remember … sitting there thinking, am I ever gonna talk to this person again? It was that feeling of pining away for a romance that may never even happen.'

Young wrote on Feburary 14: 'I'm so tremendously honoured that Taylor would write such an elegant song and thereby offer a gracious nod in my direction. Needless to say, I was lost for words and utterly smitten. I couldn't stop smiling.'

"Everything about you is beautiful. You're an immensely charming girl with a wonderful heart and more grace and elegance than I know how to describe.

'I'm terribly sorry it's taken me such a long time to reply but I figured Valentine's Day was the perfect time to write this note to you and simply say. I was enchanted to meet you too.'

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Victoria Beckham a dead ringer for Cheryl Cole as she dons cosy woolly hat and shades

They've stepped out in similar clothes on more than one occasion - but Victoria Beckham was the spit of her younger fashion rival Cheryl Cole when she stepped out yesterday.

The pregnant former Spice Girl, 36, was wearing a black beanie hat, big shades and jeans when she headed back to London last night - just like the 27-year-old Girls Aloud star was wearing earlier this month.

The style-loving pair have previously had a fractious relationship when it comes to fashion, with X Factor judge Cheryl once saying she was 'too old' to wear Victoria's dress designs.

However, the stars appear to have to have struck the same chord  when it comes to style this time.

Cheryl and Victoria used to be close, back when the Geordie star was still a WAG married to Ashley Cole.

But cracks appeared in their relationship when Cheryl accused Victoria of not getting in touch when the news first emerged that Ashely had cheated on her.

Shortly afterwards, when asked about Posh's foray into fashion, Cheryl sniffed that the  dresses were for  'older women' and 'not something (Girls Aloud) would wear'.

However, Victoria seemed more than keen on Cheryl's style when she left a hotel in New York to jet back to the UK, looking just like Cheryl had on a day out in Venice earlier this month.

Victoria had been in the Big Apple to debut her autumn/winter 2011 line at New York Fashion Week days earlier, she couldn't resist an extra shot of publicity as she sauntered to her car.

She made sure she brandished a bag from her own range in front of her burgeoning pregnancy bump.

Called 'Clutch', the design is a snip at just £1200 - if you're a multimillionaire former popstar, that is.

It looked as though the designer was showing her equally stylish husband how it is done last night, as the footballer strutted behind her.

Victoria looked runway-ready as she strutted to her waiting car in a fierce outfit, with a dapper David trailing behind.

David, who has been sporting a more dapper style of late, looked studious in a pair of thick-framed glasses.

His hair was perfectly coiffed and the 35-year-old wrapped up in a heavy black coat, jeans and tan shoes.

The sportsman had jetted to New York to rendezvous with his wife for Valentine's Day.

But instead of spending the evening in an intimate dinner, they attended an anniversary party for Allure magazine, Victoria is the cover girl on the latest issue, at Minetta Tavern.

Earlier this week she appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon this week, and discussed her pregnancy.

After reports this week claimed she was having a girl, she told the comedian: ‘The bizarre thing is that the tabloids think they know the sex of the baby before we do.

'We have no idea, so it is kind of scary, how do they know?’

The couple is still trying to decide whether to find out before the birth or wait to make it a surprise.

She added: ‘We don’t know, we might find out though, we are excited. It will either be a boy to add to the three boys we have and we will have half of a five-aside football team if you add in David.

‘We have so much testosterone in our house it is crazy.’

The family are due to return to LA shortly, with David's football commitments with the LA Galaxy resuming at the end of the month.

Victoria told her Allure magazine issue: ‘There’s nothing better than being in LA with my kids, cooking dinner with my husband and having a romantic night in.’

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Emma Watson swaps Hogwarts for Hollywood

Emma Watson has graduated from Hogwarts in style. She was at every party going over the Bafta weekend. And she certainly caught the eye of Hollywood executives and directors, many of whom would like to work with her. At the W, early Monday morning, Emma was perched on a banquette between Darren Aronofsky and Mark Ruffalo and his wife Sunrise.

Certainly, Aronofsky listened intently to what she had to say, and perhaps he’ll toughen her up in a year or two in a movie about a ballet-loving female wrestler (OK, for you slow ones at the back, he made The Wrestler and Black Swan).

The 20-year-old was still chatting at 4.15am as organisers from the Weinstein studio and Momentum Films were desperate to go home.

The actress, who has played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films for half of her life — the last of which, The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, is released in July — has star quality in spades. She has a grace and style that’s rare.

Soon she will go before the cameras to film The Perks Of Being A Wallflower opposite Logan Lerman, while autumn will see the release of Simon Curtis’s film My Week With Marilyn, in which she has a small role opposite Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne.

 
A rough-cut print of that movie was screened in London last Sunday and received favourably, though there was a bizarre interruption when an aide to Harvey Weinstein, one of the main backers, brought in a BlackBerry containing an email with a profane two-word message from a marketing bigwig which read: ‘You *!@&.’

Thank goodness Emma wasn’t in the room to hear such outrageous talk.

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Six children, a sex tape and savvy selling: How Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner built a $65m family empire

Kim Kardashian and her family made $65 million last year - more than Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock and Tom Cruise combined - it has emerged today.

The staggering figure was revealed in entertainment bible The Hollywood Reporter.

The family have made millions through hit reality TV shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians and a slew of marketing deals.

Matriarch Kris Jenner is almost entirely responsible for her family's huge business empire - and even wishes she had more children to contribute to the family's earnings.

'My fantasy is to have Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Season 26,' says the 55-year-old mother-of-six.

Who knew it would be this profitable? I should have had more kids.'

According to the Reporter individual members of the Kardashian clan are lucrative in their own right.

Kim can charge up to $250,000 just to turn up at an event.

Her sisters Khloe and Kourtney can be booked for $25,000 a piece, while their stepfather - former Olympian decathlon - garners up to $10,000.

Kim, 30, can even earn thousands of dollars just by tweeting about a product or an event.

The reality TV star - who has more than 6million Twitter followers - supposedly charges as much as $25,000 to mention and link to a brand or company in a tweet.

The Kardashians' success is staggering, especially as their fame skyrocketed after a sex tape that Kim made with her ex-boyfriend, rapper Ray J, was sold to porn video distributor Vivid Entertainment.

enner recalls the moment in February 2007 when her daughter told her about the explicit film.

The businesswoman - who acts as her family's manager - says she was already trying to get her family a reality TV show at the time.

'I thought: "Oh well, there goes the reality show,"' Jenner says.

'But you can either be a problem maker or a problem solver. And I'm a problem solver.

'My job as her mum and manager is to take care of the problem - whatever it is.

'I had to cry and get upset in the privacy of my own room and then come out and help her, because she's my daughter.

'What good is it for me to berate her?'

Jenner - who says she has never seen the tape, Kim Kardashian Superstar - hired a communications expert to help her respond to the scandal.

'I was way out of my league,' she says.

'I would never think I knew enough to care for a situation like that. What's that Kenny Rogers line?

'You got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em'.
'All I knew was that I had to make some lemonade out of these lemons fast. Real fast...

'My job was trying to take my kids' 15 minutes and turn it into 30.'

Eventually Vivid had to pay Kim a reported $5 million to sell the tape, which became one of the company's best-selling DVDs in ten years.

Later that year Keeping Up With the Kardashians debuted on the US cable channel E Entertainment.

During its fifth season the show averaged 3.5 million viewers.

In 2009 Kourtney, 31, and Khloe, 26, starred in their own reality show, Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami.

This year Kim and Kourtney launched Kourtney & Kim Take New York, the third offshoot of the Kardashian reality enterprise.

As manager, Jenner, takes 10 per cent of the family's earnings, according to the Reporter.

The Kardashians have endorsed everything from tampons and Sketchers Shape-Ups shoes to Charmin Ultra toilet paper and diet pills Quick Trim.

The family's latest project is launching the first 'celebrity destination' store at the Mirage resort in Las Vegas.

'We'll take Kim in a bikini and put her on a beach towel,' Jenner says of one of the products that will be sold.

'So you would be laying on a Kardashian at the pool.'

Khloe, who is married to Lakers basketball player Lamar Odom, acknowledges her mother's media savvy.

'My mother has just always been this: "Let's make water into wine" person,' says the woman who has just launched a fragrance called Unbreakable with her husband.

'She knows how to take one small talent or ability and grow it into something huge.'

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Megan Fox Wasting Away! Actress Megan Fox Has The Waist of an Eight-Year-Old Boy!

MEGAN Fox is disappearing before our eyes.

Sources say the actress — who’s married to actor Brian Austin Green — has the same waist size as her eight-year-old stepson Kassius after she put herself on an extremely strict 1,000 calorie-a-day diet.

Megan apparently weights just 7st 4lb.

“She’s wearing tiny jeans,” a Megan insider told Britain’s Now magazine.

“Meg might like the way her body looks, but her legs are too thin and she won’t listen to anyone who tries to tell her to put on weight.

“She’s happy with the way she looks and says she’s eating balanced meals.

“Megan loves sushi. She’s not eating anything bad — just not eating enough.”

This isn’t the first time Megan’s weight has been a talking point.

Reports last year claimed the star was left furious when Transformers director Michael Bay told the actress she looked “unhealthy” and that he wanted her to put on weight for the third film in the movie franchise — and that’s why she quit the project.

“Megan stormed out after a huge row with Michael Bay,” a source told British newspaper The Sun.

“He thinks she has lost too much weight and looks too frail. He wanted her to put on some weight and it all kicked off.

“The crew don’t think she looks well, let alone the wholesome, curvy star they cast in the first film.

“She’s going for this gaunt, pale image and it just looks unhealthy.”

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Celebrity birthdays for the week of Feb. 20-26

Feb. 20: Actor Sidney Poitier is 84. Jazz and soul singer Nancy Wilson is 74. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is 70. Actress Sandy Duncan is 65. Guitarist J. Geils of The J. Geils Band is 65. Actress Brenda Blethyn is 65. Actor Peter Strauss is 64. Singer-bassist Walter Becker of Steely Dan is 61. Country singer Kathie Baillie of Baillie and the Boys is 60. Actor Anthony Stewart Head ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is 57. Actor James Wilby ("Gosford Park") is 53. Bassist Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing) is 52. Actor Joel Hodgson ("Mystery Science Theater 3000") is 51. Singer Ian Brown of Stone Roses is 48. Actor French Stewart is 47. Model Cindy Crawford is 45. Actor Andrew Shue is 44. Actress Lili Taylor is 44. Singer Brian Littrell is 36. Actress Lauren Ambrose ("Six Feet Under") is 33. Actor Jay Hernandez ("Crazy/Beautiful") is 33. Guitarist Coy Bowles of Zac Brown Band is 32. Actress Majandra Delfino ("Roswell") is 30. Singer Rihanna is 23.

Feb. 21: Actor Gary Lockwood is 74. Actor Peter McEnery is 71. Record company executive David Geffen is 68. Actress Tyne Daly is 65. Actor Anthony Daniels (C3P0 in "Star Wars" films) is 65. Actor Alan Rickman is 65. Keyboardist Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads is 62. Actor William Petersen is 58. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 56. Singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 53. Actor Jack Coleman is 53. Actor Christopher Atkins is 50. Singer Ranking Roger of General Public and of English Beat is 50. Actor William Baldwin is 48. Country singer Eric Heatherly is 41. Bassist Eric Wilson (Sublime) is 41. Bassist Tad Kinchla of Blues Traveler is 38. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 32. Opera-pop singer Charlotte Church is 25. Actress Ellen Page is 24. Actor Corbin Bleu ("High School Musical,""Jump In!") is 22.

Feb. 22: Actor Paul Dooley is 83. Director Jonathan Demme is 67. Actor John Ashton is 63. Actress Julie Walters is 61. Actress Ellen Greene is 60. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 52. Comedian Rachel Dratch is 45. Actor Paul Lieberstein ("The Office") is 44. Actress Jeri Ryan is 43. Actor Thomas Jane is 42. Actress Lea Solanga is 40. Actor Jose Solano ("Baywatch") is 40. Drummer Scott Phillips of Creed and of Alter Bridge is 38. Actress Drew Barrymore is 36. Singer James Blunt is 34. Singer Tom Higgenson of Plain White T's is 32. Actor Zach Roerig ("The Vampire Diaries") is 26. Actor Daniel E. Smith ("John Q.") is 21.

Feb. 23: Actor-director Peter Fonda is 71. Musician Johnny Winter is 67. Steel guitarist Rusty Young of Poco is 65. Actress Patricia Richardson ("Home Improvement") is 60. Guitarist Brad Whitford of Aerosmith is 59. Singer Howard Jones is 56. Guitarist Michael Wilton of Queensryche is 49. Actress Kristin Davis is 46. Actor Marc Price ("Family Ties") is 43. Actress Niecy Nash ("Reno 911!") is 41. Bassist Jeff Beres of Sister Hazel is 40. Guitarist-keyboardist Lasse Johansson of The Cardigans is 38. Actress Emily is 28. Actress Dakota Fanning is 17.

Feb. 24: Actor Abe Vigoda is 90. Actor Steven Hill is 89. Actor Dominic Chianese ("The Sopranos") is 80. Movie composer Michel Legrand is 79. Actor James Farentino is 73. Actor Barry Bostwick is 66. Singer-producer Rupert Holmes is 64. Actor Edward James Olmos is 64. Musician George Thorogood is 61. Actress Debra Jo Rupp ("That `70s Show") is 60. Actress Helen Shaver is 60. Country singer Sammy Kershaw is 53. Singer Michelle Shocked is 49. Actor Billy Zane is 45. Actress Bonnie Somerville ("NYPD Blue") is 37. R&B singer Brandon Brown of Mista is 28. Drummer Matt McGinley of Gym Class Heroes is 28.

Feb. 25: Country singer Ralph Stanley is 84. Actress Diane Baker is 73. Actress Karen Grassle is 67. Singer-guitarist Mike Peters of The Alarm is 52. Actress Veronica Webb is 46. Actor Alexis Denisof is 45. Actress Tea Leoni is 45. Comedian Carrot Top is 44. Actress Lesley Boone ("Ed") is 43. Actor Sean Astin is 40. Singer Daniel Powter is 40. Singer Justin Jeffre of 98 Degrees is 38. Comedian Chelsea Handler is 36. Actress Rashida Jones is 35. Actor Justin Berfield ("Malcolm in the Middle") is 25. Actors James and Oliver Phelps ("Harry Potter") are 25. Bassist Erik Haager of Carolina Liar is 24.

Feb. 26: Singer Fats Domino is 83. Guitarist Paul Cotton of Poco is 68. Actor-director Bill Duke is 68. Singer Mitch Ryder is 66. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain of Journey is 61. Singer Michael Bolton is 58. Actor Greg Germann ("Ally McBeal") is 53. Actress Jennifer Grant is 45. Bassist Tim Commerford (Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine) is 43. Singer Erykah Badu is 40. R&B singer Rico Wade of Society of Soul is 39. Singer Kyle Norman of Jagged Edge is 36. Drummer Chris Culos of O.A.R. is 32. Singer Corinne Bailey Rae is 32.

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