It's been a while since we spotted the column of smoke heralding the End of Ideas train's arrival at Pop Culture Junction. But apparently Hilary Duff needed a ride, so cover your mouths.

1/16 — Saw HILARY DUFF at The Delta Spirit show at the El Rey. Actually, she was out front smoking alone with her coven while the band was playing, and I was just walking to Ralphs, but whatever. [Hollywood PrivacyWatch is written by and for Defamer readers; send your sightings to tips@defamer.com.]

· Seriously: NBC is developing Barely Legal, a half-hour comedy featuring Hilary Duff as an 18-year-old who becomes California's youngest lawyer. Naturally, when it fails, Ben Silverman will blame Larry Flynt. [THR]

Hilary Duff Opens The New York Stock Exchange [Splash News]

• Rudy Giuliani is reportedly in negotiations to take over Bill O'Reilly's syndicated radio show when he steps down early next year. Whether Rudy could handle sitting still for three hours a day and what effect this would have on his rumored plans to run for office, remain unclear. [P6]
• Jennifer Aniston is "bizarrely obsessed" with Angelina Jolie, says OK! The proof: She wore a dress that was "almost an exact copy" of something Angie once wore, and she can't stop talking about the couple to friends. [OK!]
• Madonna now says the financial details her publicist Liz Rosenberg released last week concerning her divorce settlement with Guy Ritchie were "misleading and inaccurate." [People, Mirror]
• Anderson Cooper was supposedly spotted shopping for sweaters with a "young Frenchman" at Barneys Co-Op. Wait, what happened to Julio? [P6]

· DreamWorks is in talks with Clint Eastwood to direct ghost movie Hereafter, which Spike Lee will later decry as featuring only white ghosts. ("Where are the black spirits?! You mean to tell me sheets don't come in brown? Another chapter of African-American afterlife history whitewashed by The Man.") [Variety] · The 18th Environmental Media awards (first we're hearing of them, but we're usually tied up this time of year at the Tire Fire Honors) singled out Into the Wild and 30 Rock, the latter commended for "its great strides in recycling older, less-overhyped sitcoms." [Variety] · Because there's no better way to kick off the weekend than a gloomy economic prospectus, enjoy this collection of downward trends and projected fat-trimmings sure to make 2009 your liquor-store-robbingest best! [THR] After the jump: What surely-no-longer-virginal Disney Channel star is about to get her own show on a tanking network?· Hilary Duff has signed a talent and development deal with NBC. They plan on building a new series around the star, tentatively titled, Law & Order: Hilary Duff Unit. [THR] · HD consumers prefer Blu-ray 10-to-1 over other -ray Colorz. [THR]

♦ Peter Chernin, Rupert Murdoch's right-hand at News Corp., may be planning to depart the company in the near future. [LAT]
♦ 60 Minutes has snagged the first interview with Barack Obama. [THR]
♦ WWD has a roundup of how magazines will fare overall in 2008. Most of the news is depressing, yes, but there are a couple of bright spots: Elle and Men's Journal reported 3 percent increases in ad pages. [WWD]
♦ You knew this one was coming: Political statistics star Nate Silver is reportedly shopping a pair of books to publishers. [NYO]

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel leaving Southern Hospitality on Second Avenue through the back door ... Nicole Kidman getting lunch with a friend in the West Village ... Hilary Duff and boyfriend Mike Comrie arriving at their hotel ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts pushing baby Alexander in a stroller ... Natalie Portman taking her dog for a walk in the rain ... Jessica Alba going to dinner at Via dei Mille on West Broadway with daughter Honor and other family members ... Katie Holmes and Suri leaving the Union Square Greenmarket .. Eva Mendes on the set of her new film ... country singer Taylor Swift arriving at her hotel ... Brooke Shields buying toys at FAO Schwarz ... and Keira Knightley and boyfriend Rupert Friend hugging in Central Park.

Hilary Duff attending a charity event at Roberto Clemente Elementary School on East 4th Street ... Jessica Simpson leaving her hotel with her dog Daisy ... Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts walking on Lafayette Street with son Alexander ... Sarah Jessica Parker leaving an office building in Midtown ... Madonna leaving the Kabbalah Center with her kids ... Katie Holmes leaving her apartment in the East Village ... Tom Cruise leaving Matt Lauer's Friars Club roast at the Hilton in Midtown ... Pink walking in SoHo with her dad ... Access Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell leaving her hotel ... Taylor Momsen on the Gossip Girl set ... Keira Knightley on the set of her new film in SoHo ... and Tim Robbins playing roller hockey in the West Village.

A new campaign launched today by the Advertising Council and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network seeks to educate American youth about the power of words to hurt—particularly when those words are: "That's," followed by "so gay." Joining them in their crusade is the extremely so-gay Wanda Sykes, and the not-so-gay-but-so- gay-worshipped Hilary Duff. They star in two PSAs (both after the jump) in which they casually saunter up to some pricky teenagers, and point out that calling something gay—when they don't mean it in the "fabulous" or "matter-of-factly enjoys engaging in sex with someone possessing similar genitalia" senses of the word—is just plain wrong. Its heart is in the right place, but we think the campaign would have been more successful had it suggested a less-destructive replacement expression, like—oh, we don't know—"That's so Seacresty," or "That's so Track."

Serena Williams is 27 today. Others celebrating: Music exec Andre Harrell is 48, Christina Milian is 27, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman is 62, Olivia Newton-John is 60, and Linda Hamilton turns 52. Two figures on the New York web scene will be blowing out candles this evening: Gothamist co-founder Jen Chung is 32. And Nerve.com founder Rufus Griscom is 41. Weekend birthdays after the jump!

Though Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff have been rivals for so long that no one can even remember how it began (wait, Aaron Carter? Really?), there's at least one thing the two starlets can agree on this week: their dads each need a serious time-out. In fact, while Lohan took to the pages of MySpace to chastise her father, Duff's received an actual sentencing: ten days in the slammer for poor parenting. Before we explore why, though, let's begin with the latest in the Lohan family psychodrama, which reached its boiling point this week when a fame-hungry Michael Lohan took to the press to denounce the woman who his daughter has "gone gay" for: Samantha Ronson. That didn't sit so well with Lindsay, who made a scathing rebuttal today on her Myspace celebrity blog:

• George Clooney's ex-girlfriend Sarah Larson may have cheated on the actor when she had a "weekend fling" with a "media mogul," although it appears she's paying for her crime since her new boyfriend is a lowly nightlife promoter named Joey Vanas. [P6]

After a bumpy spring protecting and investing their billion dollar baby Miley Cyrus, today brings news that there may be additional troubles brewing over at the Mouse House. 15-year old Selena Gomez, the rising star of the newest Disney series Wizards Of Waverly Place, whose elevator pitch was most likely "Gossip Girl Meets Harry Potter Meets Charmed But Like, Happy!," is reportedly usurping the scandal-plagued Cyrus' dimming star power. Quietly crowned “The Next Miley Cyrus” by various newsies, the Miley lookalike (minus gummy smile, plus premature Jolie-level hotness) plays Alex, whose painfully ironic mantra is "cast magic first, ask questions later." But the turbulence among competing teens trying to catch their big break by stepping over their peers left and right is a trend as old as the Mousketeers’ first dimpled disciples. After the jump, we count down our top three favorite teen feuds of yesteryear.

When it comes to the art of stealing boyfriends, no one does it better than Lindsay Lohan. As Star reports in their current issue, the blood-sucking barer of flesh successfully seduced her former slim fast buddy Nicole Richie’s fiance this weekend. And her timing is suspiciously awful, considering new mom Richie is said to be sorely missing her party girl past. As a source tells Star:

John Cusack's meander through his second-consecutive anti-war film is coming under heavy fire at the Tribeca Film Festival, where War, Inc. bowed this week to the kinds of reviews that made his previous Iraq entry — the $50,899-grossing Grace is Gone — positively shine in comparison. While he and his agent sift around for a more reliable rom-com follow-up, our preliminary poke through the wreckage yields yet more smoldering evidence that Iraq is officially over as a dramatic subject. We piece together the eyewitness testimony after the jump:

When we first heard the idea of a reimagined Beverly Hills: 90210, we believed it would be impossible to recreate the teary, teenybop magic of the original series. Who could possibly sneer like Luke Perry? Or turn the world on with his smile like Jason Priestley? But the Rob "Not Matchbox 20 Rob" Thomas-produced spinoff slated for CW's upcoming fall season is charging full-speed ahead, leaking news of potential cast members burdened with the challenge of filling our favorite Peach Pit regulars' Reeboks. Though recent casting announcements have been less than thrilling, two new additions have us busting out our dusty 90210 drinking game rule book once again. As E! News reports, "Producers for the CW's 90210 remake have reached out to Hilary [Duff] to offer her a starring role in the series." News on the other confirmed West Beverly students, plus which alum from the original has signed on to reprise their old role, after the jump.

Emailed stalker sighting of the actress/singer: "Saw her at the Blockbuster on 56th/First today at 3pm. She was browsing the new releases. Looked much shorter and thinner in person. Lots of make-up, messy hair in a high ponytail."

The time: 12 a.m.

The date: November 20th

The place: Butter, 415 Lafayette Street

Sighted: "Saw Hilary Duff and Hayden Panettiere getting out of a suburban outside Butter. Both hurried in and sat quietly at a table most of the night. Both looked good but are very tiny in person."

• Anne Heche's soon to be ex claims that the actress is "delusional" and shouldn't be given full custody of their kid. Heche's lawyers fired back a statement claiming that the former cameraman just wants more of Heche's money. It's all so Federline-Spearsy! [TMZ]