To understand where Bravo TV executive and talk show host Andy Cohen gets his prodigious energy and gift for gab, one need only meet his mom. Evelyn Cohen, 75, silver-haired and diminutive, proves that big personalities can come in small packages.

On this spring day, mother and son are having dinner at one of the Palm steak houses in Manhattan. Evelyn arrived in the afternoon from Clayton, Mo., the St. Louis suburb where 43-year-old Andy and his older sister, Emily, were raised (and which he fondly refers to as “Pleasantville”). They are dining on separate orders of filet mignon, Andy having announced preemptively, “I don’t want to split with you; I want a whole one for myself.”

Cohen’s appetite is well earned. He has already finished up work at his day job, as executive vice president for development and talent at Bravo, and had a session with his trainer. Next he will head to his second gig, as host of Watch What Happens Live, a half-hour, five-night-a-week celebrity chatfest that airs live on Bravo at 11 p.m. on the East Coast. Evelyn is coming along to watch him work.
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Q: What happened to my favorite American Bandstand couple, Justine Carrelli and Bob Clayton? —Blanche Keastead, N.J.

Bob and Justine share their memories of the late Dick Clark and more

A: Though they split in 1960 after three-plus years of jitterbugging on the Dick Clark–hosted show, they were happy to see each other at the 40th reunion in 1992. “We danced and it was like we had never stopped,” says Clayton, 70, who owns a gift boutique in Delaware (Carrelli, 68, sells real estate in Arizona).

The season of shocking eliminations continued last week as American Idol said farewell to country singer Skylar Laine.

The 18-year-old Mississippi native was a fan favorite all season long, but her performances of “Fortunate Son” and “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” last week were not enough to keep her out of the bottom two. She was joined by Hollie Cavanagh, who has ranked in the bottom for the last few weeks.

Laine talked to reporters about her surprising send-off, the upcoming Idol summer tour, and plans to stick to her country roots.

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Despite giving his best performance on Dancing with the Stars on Monday, Disney star Roshon Fegan was sent home during last night’s dramatic double elimination episode. Despite the setback, the 20-year-old was simply thankful to have his tried-and-true supporters nearby.

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“My family are my biggest cheerleaders,” Fagan told Parade.com. “They keep me excited about everything and make sure I know I did a good job. It’s all good. It’s all gravy.”

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This Sunday, the women of Wysteria Lane will say goodbye after eight seasons of deliciously naughty nighttime television. Felicity Huffman, whose character Lynette Scavo was often the show’s emotional and moral anchor, recently spoke to Parade about the final weeks leading up to the series finale.

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As Addison Montgomery on Private Practice, Kate Walsh is used to looking picture perfect for the cameras. But that doesn’t mean she always rolls into the makeup chair that way.

“After a long time of coming to work everyday and entering the makeup trailer with watery eyes and runny nose, I figured I had allergies,” the actress, 44, laughed, adding that her problems would start at home. “I’ve got four roommates and they all have fur and tails,” she told Parade.com. “So between all of those cats and dogs, it’s a festival of allergies. Plus the garden, it’s a nightmare.”

To help others combat “allergy face” Walsh partnered with Zyrtec, her go-to itchy eyes fighter. “I don’t like to take a lot of stuff since I’m really sensitive to medications,” she said. “But I take Zyrtec. It’s the one thing that works for me.”

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At the end of this month, the seniors of William McKinley High School will face a fate similar to millions of teens across the country: graduation. On May 22, Glee‘s season three finale is bringing more than the end of the season. It’s an end of an era for the show’s actors.

“We’re definitely going to have a couple of cast parties this week to say goodbye to each other,” Matthew Morrison, who plays McKinley’s glee club director William Schuester, told Parade.com on Saturday while promoting his latest film What to Expect When Expecting (in theaters May 18).

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Michelle Pfeiffer greets me with an air kiss and introduces her husband, TV writer-producer David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice, Harry’s Law), at whose office in Burbank, Calif., we are meeting. Kelley—handsome, bemused—kisses his wife. “We won’t be long, I promise,” Pfeiffer tells him as she leads me to a room across the hall, laughing flirtatiously, a woman used to handling men.

She settles in next to an open window, looking ethereally beautiful in the afternoon sun, casually dressed in slim, tailored black jeans and a beige silk blouse worn unbuttoned over a fitted white T-shirt. A diaphanous, flowered silk scarf hangs loose against her elegant neck. Everything about her, from her appearance to the sound of her soft voice, seems exquisitely feminine, like costly perfume. We talk for several hours about things that matter greatly to her: family, friends, the career that serendipitously brought her from a grocery checkout line to enduring stardom.
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Q: Does Jennifer Lopez work with a stylist on American Idol each week? —Chelsea Nicole, Norfolk, Va.

A: Lopez works with stylists Mariel Haenn and Rob Zangardi, but she knows how to dress her famous bod. “Her style is classic but still cool, fun, and chic,” Haenn says. And how long does it take this diva to get camera-ready? “An hour and a half,” Haenn reveals. “Including our fittings, hair and makeup, and getting her dressed and out the door!”

See our slideshow of Jennifer’s Idol outfits and vote for your favorite!

In person, Will Smith has the same larger-than-life presence that he does onscreen so it’s no surprise that his childhood fantasies were pretty spectacular.

On Thursday, while promoting his latest film Men in Black 3 (which hits theaters May 25), Smith, 43, opened up about his childhood and the surprising inspirations behind his life and career.

“As a child, I watched Dallas and that was my vision for my life for as long as I could remember. How does that property have a name? Southfork!…Everyone worked the family business,” said Smith. “And I was like ‘I want that!’ So I’ve been a mad scientist ever since trying to build Dallas through Star Wars and rap music.”

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He added, “The joy [of life now] is watching an idea that I had at seven years old coming into fruition. I am actually building the family that I’ve always dreamed about…Building a family around the entertainment business. I love watching my kids and my family blossom from something that was a seed from a seven-year-old’s mind.”

Read on for how he and wife Jada Pinkett Smith keep their kids grounded and his friendly competition with his son:

On his love of franchises.
“The greatest experience I ever had in a movie theater was Star Wars. It shaped how I looked at the world. My imagination was so small before I went into that movie theater and it was an explosion. I just couldn’t figure out how someone came up with that or make me feel like that. For me, there is nothing more valuable than how people feel in a movie theater about a movie. Even more than awards, which have never been that important to me. Those are about what a small group of people think. For me, it’s about the maximum amount of people that can have an experience that will give them a little germ to think or talk about. That’s all that is important to me in making movies.”
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