Celebrity Gossip and Photos

Beware, High School Musical fans: the Ashley Tisdale you knew and loved has left the building.

In an interview with MovieFone to promote her new album, Guilty Pleasure, the singer talked about the new edge to her music.

“I’m 23 years old, and this is where I am in my life right now. I’m not trying to run away from my fans. Hopefully, they’re growing with me. But it’s something that’s obviously not like High School Musical. It’s edgier.”

Speaking of edgy: you won’t find Tisdale club-hopping or staging photo ops for herself and boyfriend Jared Murillo. She’s – gasp! – content to just hang out with friends.

“Me and my friends are different. We all like to chill at our house, watch movies and hang out or have parties at each others’ houses. It’s not like we have to go out somewhere and have paparazzi follow us to the clubs and stuff. I mean, they follow me doing things – like really weird stuff like going to Coffee Bean or doing errands.”

When Melissa Rycroft was dumped by Jason Mesnick on national TV, she was forced to bare her soul in front of millions.

Now, though, Hugh Hefner is giving the scorned Bachelor suitor the chance to bare her body for millions!

Or half a million, at least.

According to Star Magazine, Playboy has offered the Dancing with the Stars contestant $500,000 to pose naked in an upcoming issue.

“Hef really wants Melissa to do a pictorial because she’s the ultimate girl next door,” a source said. “He thinks she has it all: beauty, brains and spunk. And it doesn’t hurt that she has a terrific figure.”

Melissa Rycroft nude in Playboy? That only involves two fewer layers than she’s seen wearing in these photos.

Rycroft’s DWTS contract prevents her from posing nude while associated with the show.

But it doesn’t prevent her from talking about it with a certain, often-naked fellow competitor. Might Holly Madison convince Melissa to take it all off? Or, better yet:

Should she?!?

Diddy and Cassie are not engaged.

However, following months of speculation about their relationship, the singers are reportedly dating.

A witness that attended a private after hours party at Diddy’s Florida estate over the weekend told the following to Scandalist: “Diddy and Cassie were definitely together. They were all over each other and didn’t leave each other’s side the whole night.”

Has Diddy found a new number-one gal?

It’s been four weeks since Jason Mesnick dumped Melissa Rycroft for Molly Malaney on The Bachelor’s “After the Final Rose” special. It was a stunning TV event, but all parties have moved on and seem to be happy with where they are in life.

That hasn’t stopped Jason’s Bachelor predecessor, Matt Grant, from sharing his unsolicited, boring two cents on the season finale almost a month later.

Specifically, Mesnick’s move of going off-script and unceremoniously breaking up with Rycroft and romancing runner-up Molly was not smart, Grant says.

“This guy kind of committed suicide,” Matt Grant opined at The 23rd Genesis Awards in Beverly Hills on Saturday night. “He’s a nice man. I’ve met him quite a few times. But I think he should have gone about it differently.”

Seen here with interim fiancee Shayne Lamas, Matt Grant is critical of Jason Mesnick for his Bachelor actions, but acknowledges that it took guts to follow his heart.

The world is still watching anxiously as Mesnick and Malaney continue their courtship while the jilted Rycroft struts her stuff on Dancing with the Stars, keeping an eye on everything as the three resume life away from The Bachelor cameras.

Matt Grant, however, does give Mesnick credit for facing up to his mistake early on. “Ultimately, he had the [guts] to say, ‘I screwed up.’”

The London native, who says he’s still dating his publicist Sarah Robarts – admits he was lucky in his role on The Bachelor: London Calling. “I had an easy ride. I had a great group of women; we all just got on fairly well.”

Grant proposed to that skank Shayne Lamas but their engagement ended in July of last year after she reportedly cheated on him numerous times.

Tim Allen had better be ready for some new home improvement.

The actor and wife Jane Hajduk welcomed daughter Elizabeth on Saturday in Los Angeles. The little bundle of joy checked in at 5 pounds, 13 ounces.

Publicist Marleah Leslie says the couple, who married in 2006, is “thrilled” with the new arrival of Elizabeth, and both mother and child are healthy.

Tim Allen and Jane Hajduk now have a daughter.

This is the couple’s first child. The 55-year-old Tim Allen also has a 19-year-old daughter, Katherine, from his first marriage to Laura Deibel.

The Allens have joined Jenna Jameson and Tito Ortiz, Carson Daly and Siri Pinter, Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller, Andrew Firestone and Ivana Bozilovic, Anne Heche and James Tupper, M.I.A. and some guy as new celeb parents this month.

Congratulations to the happy couple!