Keith and Nicole have to sneak their baby into Australia

Throngs of media, decoy cars, screaming fans….!

Looks like Sunday Rose Kidman Urban may be Australia’s newest biggest celebrity, according to People.com.

The celeb site says Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman wrapped up the one-month-old baby tightly in blankets and got off the plane in Sydney Wednesday evening local time, according to the Daily Telegraph.

That’s where the decoy cars were, to try to throw off all the reporters who showed to greet them (and probably try to get the first pics of Sunday Rose).

Nicole will be working while she’s there, doing some scenes and voice dubbing for the movie Australia, with Hugh Jackman, People.com reports.

Melissa Lawson, mother of five, wins ‘Nashville Star’

And she thought Hispanic Texan Gabe Garcia had it all the way.

Melissa Lawson totally psyched herself out on stage, convinced, even in the final two, that host Billy Ray Cyrus would be reading Gabe’s name.

Didn’t happen. Melissa was shocked. And her kids were thrilled she won — not the recording contract, but the pickup truck.

“They’re like, ‘Great, ou won, Mom. Can I go see the truck?’ They are climbing all over that thing. I’m like, “Oh, my boys are so out of control,’” she told me, laughing, about 20 minutes after winning.

The analysis: Melissa likely secured the votes of lots of female country fans who, just like her, might have postponed their careers or dreams to raise kids.

“Ultimately, I had to say, you know what? I need to show my kids that it’s OK to live your dreams. You don’t have to give things up because there are challenges and obstacles.”

Mazel tov!

No surprise here: Keith/Nicole baby has red hair

Looks like Sunday Rose Kidman Urban might already be favoring her mum.

A server at the Calypso Cafe in Berry Hill (I love that place!) tells me that Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman brought their newborn to the restaurant when she was only nine or 10 days old.

And the baby was sporting some tufts of light red hair.

Ain’t that adorable??

Some customers couldn’t help but sneak a peek at the famous baby, but folks pretty much left Keith and Nicole and Sunday Rose alone.

Jessica Simpson reveals her first country album cover!

You’ve been wondering.

Will she be wearing Daisy Dukes? A gingham bikini?

Gold lamme unitard? Two hay bales and a smile?

What will Jessica Simpson wear on her first ever country album cover?

Well, my fine feathered friends, mystery revealed.

Jessica is wearing a white dress, cowboy boots and a sulky pout.

Delicious!

The album’s out in September.

Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers dude are just friends

That’s according to Taylor’s publicist, anyway.

The Web has been burning up for a couple of weeks or so about the rumored romance between Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift of, uh, Taylor Swift.

Seems Taylor has been spotted at several Jonas Brothers shows. So let the rumors begin!

Taylor’s publicist says the rumors have no merit. (Side note: This will be a great relief to my teen nephew Ethan, who seems to have a crush on Ms. Swift. On the other hand, Ethan’s idiot uncle just announced on the Web that Ethan has a crush on her. So this whole post is kind of a wash for Ethan.)

Taylor’s publicist says of Taylor and Joe:

“They are friends. She’s friends with all three of the Jonas Brothers. She has been out to see a few shows as she was invited to appear in their live concert movie.”

So there.

Taylor’s publicist had no comment on Taylor and my nephew Ethan.

Black Crowes say Gretchen Wilson ripped them off

Check it out: The Black Crowes say Gretchen Wilson’s new song, Work Hard, Play Harder – being used to plug TNT’s Saving Grace – sounds a little too much like their 1991 hit, Jealous Again.

Click on the links above and tell me what you think.

So the Black Crowes have filed a copyright-infringement suit. And not just against Gretchen.

The suit names Gretchen’s label, Sony BMG, publishing company J Money Music and TNT.

Those Crowes are MAD, yo!

No response from Gretchen.

John Rich to debut ‘Raisin’ McCain’ at GOP rally Friday

So you remember that John Rich of Big & Rich jumped on the Fred Thompson bandwagon at the beginning of the presidential race.

But John has had no problems sliding over to the eventual GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain.

In fact, John has written a song, Raisin’ McCain, and he’ll debut it Friday evening at a Country First concert in Panama City, Fla., with McCain on hand.

The chorus:

“Well we’re all just raisin’ McCain
“Everywhere across the USA
“You can get on the train or get out of the way
“We’re all just raisin’ McCain.”

John tells the AP:

“I wanted to offer him something that he didn’t have, a rally song, one that really captures that maverick spirit.”

You can download it and/or read all the lyrics at John Rich’s Web site.

Darryl Worley’s Uncle Ed, part-time video star, passes

I’m happy to be back after a few days off, y’all, but sad to say that Darryl Worley’s Uncle Ed died.

Uncle Ed, 95, showed up in several of Darryl’s videos, and that started when director Trey Fanjoy spotted Uncle Ed on the set of Good Day to Run.

He also was a regular at Darryl’s fan club parties and annual Tennessee River Run Event.

Uncle Ed died in his hometown of Savannah, Tenn., over the weekend.

“He taught me my first four chords,” Darryl said in a statement.

“While it’s upsetting, it’s hard to be real distraught – he had such a great life. He was a fixture in my life, and all the fans just loved him. He lived a really full life right up to the end.”

Seen in the City: Just call Tootsies’ “the Wiggles room”

The Wiggles, an Aussie band for kids, has a strict no-drinking, no-swearing, no-smoking police for the entire organization.

But that didn’t stop one of the Wiggles, Murray Cook – in town for a couple of shows today at Municipal Auditorium — from hitting the Lower Broadway honky-tonks last night.

Murray likes to hear all sorts of different music, and he says he wanted to check out the country bands in those bars.

Then a funny thing happened — some parents of Wiggles-aged kids recognized him.

“I was actually surprised a few people recognized me in those places,” he told me today.

“It was kind of nice. It made me feel very welcome.”

Hmmmmm. Not very, uh, “uncomfortable”?

Oh well. That’s almost as much fun as when Barney hit Bobby’s Idle Hour.

Fans and celebs all wish Hank Cochran well after surgery

Merle Haggard, Billy Ray Cyrus and Willie Nelson are among those who have called country veteran Hank Cochran to with him well after surgery to get rid of cancer in his pancreas and lymph nodes.

His friend and publicist, Martha Moore, says she visited Hank yesterday and he looks great.

Cochran, whose songwriting credits include I Fall To Pieces and Make The World Go Away, might be in the hospital for another week, and then he has about six months of chemo treatments.

Hank has had hundreds and hundreds of e-mail from around the world.

In a statement, Hank says, “I feel so blessed. The diagnosis was made very early, and the doctors expect me to make a full recovery.”

You can go to Hank’s MySpace if you want to pass along greetings.

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