Pop Stand

Rating for Conan O'Brien's "Tonight Show" have surged as the dispute with NBC over the late night schedule continues. The Wall Street Journal reports that viewership is up for the show, including a 42% increase for the coveted 18 to 49 demographic. The boost came after O'Brien rejected NBC's plan to push "The Tonight Show" back to 12:05 a.m., and returning Leno to the 11:35 p.m. timeslot.

O'Brien has been taking shots at his employer during his monologues this week, and is said to be quietly waiting for a settlement, rather than quitting the network. If a settlement is reached for O'Brien to leave "The Tonight Show," he could make a jump to another network, possibly the Fox Network,  who is said to covet O'Brien and has a desire to get into the late night wars. 

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Conan O'Brien does have one offer, though, after joking the other night that his dispute with NBC has made him want to "work in a classier business with better people, like hard-core porn." TMZ says that O'Brien has been contacted by a porn company with a contract to create a film called "Conan the Boobarian." The company, Pink Visual, says there is a demand for "tall, lean, pale, male 'gingers' that have a David Caruso kind of thing going on."

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R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass died yesterday, after battling colon cancer for several months. Pendergrass had been in a wheelchair since a 1982 car accident, and had cancer surgery about eight months ago. Pendergrass' son says that the recovery from the surgery was very hard on his father.

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Police were called to Speidi's house yesterday when a neighbor feared that Heidi Montag had been kidnapped. Montag was spotted by the worried neighbor -- Mrs. Kravitz, maybe? -- entering her home with a scarf over her head, and the neighbor interpreted that as a crime in progress, apparently. "We're grateful this was only a false alarm and I just had my pink Hermes scarf over me. A neighbor was concerned and called the police. We're thankful to the LAPD for their response and making sure we were safe," Montag told People.

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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have donated $1 million to Doctors Without Borders to help the relief effort in Haiti after the island nation was devastated with a 7.0- magnitude earthquake. Of the donation, Pitt said, "We understand the first response is critical to serve the immediate needs of countless people who are now displaced from their homes, are suffering trauma, and most require urgent care."

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 Actor Michael C. Hall, of Showtime's 'Dexter,' has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to Us Weekly. Hall has received treatment and his rep says the lymphoma is "in complete remission." His rep, Craig Bankey, also says that Hall will attend the Golden Globes this weekend, and that production of his show will resume later this year. 

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Jessica Simpson has been working in the studio with former Smashing Pumpkins frontman, Billy Corgan. The two have been rumored to be romantically linked, but Simpson tweets that it is just a musical collaboration. A source tells People, however, that the two met about four months ago and were dating secretly, while another source says that the romance is over and they are just friends. 

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Another member of the crew that robbed Hollywood's young stars has finally been charged. Rachel Lee was charged Wednesday with three counts of felony burglary and two counts of receiving stolen property. The charges are related to break-ins at the homes of Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge and Paris Hilton. Lee turned herself into Los Angeles police yesterday, and has since been released on $150,000. 

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GM has dropped Tiger Woods as a celebrity endorser, joining AT&T, Gatorade, Gillette, Accenture and Tag Heuer as companies dumping Woods. Buick spokeswoman Dayna Hart said that Woods' contract expired in 2008, but was extended until the end of 2009. Hart says that the decision was made before the scandal, and that Woods has been permitted to keep vehicles he received as part of the endorsement.

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The disgraced former sheriff who was convicted of breaking into the home of the surrogate mother of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's twins has been given a light sentence for his crimes. Barry Carpenter was sentenced to 50 days house arrest and 3 years probation from breaking into the home of the surrogate and stealing items to sell to tabloids.

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Mark Wahlberg and his wife Rhea Durham have welcomed a daughter to their "funky bunch." Grace Margaret was born Monday, and joins sibs Brendan, Michael and Ella.