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Johnny Depp returned to his musical roots Friday night, reuniting with his old band The Kids for a fundraiser in Florida.

With his girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis, and their 9-year-old daughter, Lily-Rose, screaming in the crowd of 2,500, the Oscar-nominated actor strapped on a guitar and sang backup vocals during the power-pop group's 90-minute set.

The second annual Sheila Witkin Memorial Reunion Concert honors The Kids' late manager, who was well-known in South Florida's music scene. All proceeds from the benefit go to the Dan Marino Foundation, which funds programs for children with special needs. The band also reunited in January 2007 for the same cause.

The 45-year-old actor joined The Kids when he was a high school student in Miramar, Florida, and moved to Los Angeles with them in search of a record deal. After the band broke up, Depp decided to pursue a career in acting.

Johnny and the boys are scheduled to rock out again tonight on day two of the benefit.

AP Photo/Edmond Terakopian

Here's a shocker: Amy Winehouse pulled out of a concert in Paris this weekend because she's too sick to perform.

The trouble-stricken Brit, who's been hospitalized twice since June, was too ill to make the trip from her home in London to the City of Lights for the Rock En Seine festival.

Her spokesman Chris Goodman told People, "It's nothing serious. It's just a normal illness – she hasn't visited a hospital or anything like that. She's at home in bed, just unable to sing."

The 24-year-old chanteuse is due to perform at next weekend's Bestival festival on England's Isle of Wight. Ticketholders, don't hold your breath...

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The half-century milestones this week for Michael Jackson and last week for Madonna got us to thinking: Which 50-year-old stars have the biggest upsides?

This isn't just about who's the hottest, but who will have the hottest career going forward. Take the poll below and give us your two cents in the comments section. FYI, we're putting the poll below the jump because there are so dang many deserving 50-year-old stars, but holla if we've left off any of your high-mileage faves.

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Sean "Diddy" Combs is done with his $250,000 round trips.

In his latest video blog, shot while boarding a regular old American Airlines flight, the hip-hop and fashion mogul cites inflated fuel costs as the reason he's had to ground his private jet for the time being.

"Gas prices are too motherf--kin' high," Combs complains, explaining that it has just gotten too expensive to fly back and forth between New York and L.A. (where he's pursuing his acting career) twice a month.

"I want to give a shout-out to all my Saudi Arabian brothers and sisters and all my brothers and sisters from all the countries that have oil. If y'all could please send me some oil for my jet, I would truly appreciate it."

The OPEC aficionado can hardly believe his misfortune as he proceeds through the terminal.

"Can you believe this, I'm actually flying commercial, that's how high gas prices are! So I feel you! Look, I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening..."

And then, the little shadow demons from Ghost appear and drag Diddy into the depths of hell.

Aka coach.

Phil Han/ZUMAPRess.com; George Napolitano/Getty Images; Lisa O'Connor/ZUMAPress.com

Ricky Schroder is drumming up some thunder down under.

The actor has signed on to direct the Sci Fi Channel movie Hellhounds, about a Greek warrior who teams with his loinclothed posse to rescue his bride from Hades, circa 500 B.C. The film, starring Men in Trees' Scott Elrod as the put-upon groom, is set to start shooting Sunday in Romania, per the Hollywood Reporter.

Schroder, the former Silver Spoons lad who grew up to carry a badge on NYPD Blue and most recently costar in The Andromeda Strain for A&E, has stepped behind the camera before for music videos and the boxing drama Black Cloud.

In other celebrity-gets-assignment news:

• Welcome to the jungle, Vanessa Marcil. E! News has confirmed that the former Las Vegas beauty has a recurring role coming up on the NBC estrogen fest Lipstick Jungle, playing an ambitious music manager who promises Paul Blackthorne's character a gig scoring an indie film.
• Current Spamalot player Drew Lachey has been tapped to host the star-studded Broadway on Broadway 2008 concert in Times Square, marking the launch of the coming theatrical season, which will be showcasing the talents of, among others, Katie Holmes, Haley Joel Osment, Daniel Radcliffe and Mary-Louise Parker. "I look forward to showing the Broadway fans from New York and around the world just what we have to offer," Lachey said in a statement.
• The newest addition to the plucked-from-obscurity canon, MTV's Top Pop Group, has snared the Black Eyed Peas' Taboo, former Destiny's Child harmonizer Michelle Williams and choreographer Brian Friedman for its judging panel. Mario Lopez is hosting the competition series, which premieres Sept. 11.

Gene Duncan

The Phelpsian frenzy shows no sign of slowing down.

When Michael Phelps shot an impromptu cameo for the new season of Entourage this week, the HBO comedy's fab four got a taste of what hanging out with the original Fab Four might have been like.

"It was like being in New York City with one of the Beatles," Kevin Connolly told E! News Friday about shooting a scene with the 14-time Olympic gold medalist, who's been the toast of seemingly every town since returning to the U.S. from Beijing.

“People were stopping in the streets and climbing up things to see him. They were going nuts. He’s like a superstar."

"It was fun," albeit "pretty humbling," added the actor, whose hit HBO show has its fifth-season premiere Sept. 7.

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Even a football stadium couldn't hold Barack Obama's audience.

An Oscars-esque 38.4 million watched Obama's speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, Nielsen Media Research said today.

Actually, the Oscar ceremony hasn't averaged 38 million-plus viewers since 2006.

Obama's Thursday speech, delivered before about 75,000 at the football home of the Denver Broncos, not only topped this past year's Oscars (32 million), but every night of the just-concluded Beijing Games (which, at its best, scored 34.9 million), and last spring's American Idol finale (31.7 million).

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We've probably mentioned a few times on this blog that we love Posh Spice. She’s fierce, sassy, has way adorable kids and usually we can get behind whatever crazy outfit she pulls out of her closet.

However, on the other side of the love scale is, of course, the things we hate. And on this hate scale you’ll hit jumpsuits. So what do we do when someone we love wears something we detest so much?

Well, we just have to let it go—you can’t win every outfit.

But what happens if on the same day as the jumpsuit incident, this person wears a completely respectable white dress with a cute headpiece but attaches a polar bear rug to her back?

This is where it gets tricky...

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When he was 15, Michael Jackson wondered in song if he'd grow up to walk on the moon. In a way, he did.

Now 50, Jackson is an unrivaled icon—a 13-time Grammy winner with more than 750 million records sold, and a score of moves as instantly recognizable as his songs.

Jackson, the former Jackson 5 prodigy who seemed beyond growing up, much less growing old, told Good Morning America he planned to mark his middle-aged milestone today with a "little cake with my children," adding, "We'll probably watch cartoons."

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Anthony, PacificCoastNews.com

• Carrie Underwood and Michael Phelps are allegedly planning a non-eating first date. Meanwhile, Lindsay Lohan could be text harassing Phelps. And all this means we need to cool it on the Phelps talk before the overexposure sets in.

• Heidi Montag receives the least amount of free designer fashion of all the Hills girls because, well, she's Heidi Montag. This explains why she constantly wears the same pieces on the red carpet.

• Also, Heidi must be pretty let down she isn't the official pick as McCain's vice president. But hang in there, Heids! Go stage a photo op or something—it'll make you feel better.

• We thought it was weird when Michael Jackson was rocking formal pajama wear in Vegas the other night, but now Madonna has been spotted out in public wearing a "Dancing Queen" bathrobe. Guess this is just the trend for 50-year-old pop icons.

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Talk about an endorsement. Oprah Winfrey was such a fan of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver Thursday night, she claims to have “cried [her] eyelashes off.” No easy feat.

"I've never experienced anything like this,” she continued. “I think that what he had to offer the country tonight will make us all better.”

Also caught up in the moment was Kanye West, who said, “It changed my life.”
Poor Obama. After being compared to Paris and Britney, the politician may have tried to downplay his celebrity support...but when Oprah talks about crying a river and boldfaced names from Sheryl Crow and Mary J. Blige to Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Alba turn out to see you speak—well, why fight it?