-- restless tonight

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.

~Charlotte Bronte
(image from Hessdesignworks.com)

And so here I am, desperately wishing I could have been asleep hours ago but needing even more to make headway on some work. Although I'm finally settling down for the night, I feel dormant projects shifting, turning, tugging at the edges of my consciousness and threatening to cross the great divide and nag me in my dreams.

Usually I have no problems falling asleep but tonight I'm not so sure.

Paris Hilton shunned by sister?

Paris Hilton is being shunned by her sister Nicky.

Nicky is reportedly distancing herself from her sister because she hates Brittany Flickinger, the winner of Paris' reality TV show 'My New BFF'.

The situation came to a head in the early hours of Saturday morning (17)

A source told the New York Post newspaper: "Nicky can't stand Paris' new BFF."

The feud is believed to have reached new heights last week, when Nicky banned Paris from staying at Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg's house during the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Paris and Brittany had to rent their own apartment, but the heiress soon grew tired of Brittany, choosing to party with former Danity Kane singer Aubrey O'Day.

The source added: "Paris kept ditching Brittany for Aubrey".

The situation came to a head in the early hours of Saturday morning (17.01.09), when Brittany spotted Paris and Aubrey having fun at exclusive bar Tao.

Tags: Paris Hilton

Lily Allen apologises for topless text

British pop star Lily Allen has apologised after accidentally sending a topless photo of herself to Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson.

The Fear singer confessed she mistakenly sent the saucy text message to the rocker while she was on holiday.

During Lily’s interview with BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, Chris told her: "Ricky goes to me, 'I got this weird text the other day from Lily Allen of her topless.

"And I'm looking at it going why has she sent me that? Literally a minute later, 'beep beep ... Sorry, wrong Ricky!'"

The 23-year-old singer - who has provided backing vocals for Ricky’s band - admitted there had been a mix up and went on to joke it was intended for Never Gonna Give You Up singer Rick Astley.

She said: “That was really embarrassing. I was completely topless. It was meant for Rick Astley!"

Lily is no stranger to being captured topless on camera.

Last week, the star - who has often been photographed baring her breasts during sun-drenched holidays - revealed her "third nipple" to a Dutch TV chat show host, saying: "It gets hard when you touch it."

Tags: Lily Allen, Singer

Jiah Khan seeks permission to wear a bikini

After working with Aamir Khan in Ghajini, Jiah Khan, we hear, is taking her work too seriously. This sexy siren had to do much to camouflage her 'sexy' image after that Nishabd stint. But with all actresses showing skin these days, it won't take much for Jiah to slip into a two-piece, na?

"You know surprisingly I come from a strict Muslim family. So I have to ask my mom for permission ten times before I say 'Yes'." Now, that's a new one. These mommy-girls are something else, we tell you. Are the filmmakers already on the lookout of a certain Jiah kkan's Mom?

Tags: Jiah Khan, Hot Stills, Ghajini, Nishabd

Victoria Beckham had another boob job!!!

Victoria Beckham has sparked rumours of having had another boob job after her twin assets seemed to have been given a boost in recent ads.

The former Spice Girl had followed in the steps of her hubby-soccer ace David Beckham by stripping for a series of saucy Giorgio Armani underwear ads.

The fashion icon was said to have worked hard on her body for 6 months to get the preferred look in the ad campaign. And since the publication of the advert, Victoria has come under the scanner for her varying chest sizes over the years, reports News of the World.

Victoria, in 1999, had publicly denied that she shelled out 10,000 pounds to have her assets enhanced, saying: "I'm totally natural, except my nails and fake tan. I haven't had a boob job."

But according to High Court papers revealed in 2005, the designer had confessed having gone under the knife. And now, while the mum-of three was speculated to have had the surgery, her rep laughed off the suggestion.

Tags: Victoria Beckham, Armani, Fashion, Designer

-- Obama's speech online, and crowded metro pic

L'Enfant Plaza metro stop line, 2pm

Metro to Baltimore pic, 3:45pm

Both pix from CarFreeJan20 on Twitter

Here's a view leaving the Metro station headed to the swearing-in ceremony: a journey that normally takes 15 minutes took almost 4 hours! -- Inauguration 2009 Contributor Kathleen Hicks, Fort Worth City Council member

Look at this crowded mess! As of 5:30 am, the Greenbelt, Branch Ave and New Carrollton metro station parking lots were FULL. It took one twitterer 5 hours to go from VA to DC late morning (what normally takes a 20-30 minute commute) because the metro stations were absolutely mobbed. Estimated capacity was about 100,000 people an hour on the metro this morning. One woman fell on the tracks but she is ok. Also Senators Byrd and Kennedy were rushed to the hospital during lunch... hope they are ok too.

Over one million people rode the metro today. Average ridership was about 100,000 per hour. (See Metro Ridership Tops 1 Million, Shattering Record from the Washington Post.) Wow! On the other hand, one friend of mine that rode the bus had the best possible commute -- he arrived and departed with no delay whatsoever. I think more people relied on the metro than buses.

Text of Obama's speech -->

-- live web cams of Washington DC

So about a half hour ago I was driving past the Greenbelt metro station on I95, craning my neck to see what the station looked like. There were a fair amount of cars there at this late hour even though I thought they weren't even going to open the station for parking until 3:30am.

I'm probably not going. Dan is still sick and it's not realistic. I can't sleep because I'm so excited, so I gathered some links in case you're like me and want to see what's going on downtown from the comfort of your computer. See what DC is like with upwards of 4 million people roaming around (at least that's what they're expecting):

Live web cams all over DC: For some reason, this link MUST point to the I395/14th street Bridge camera first but click around to see more. I love this camera, I'll probably be parked here tomorrow. Zoom in on the map and click around (a good place to start is The Mall) to see what's going on.

Live web cam of Capitol and Union Station which rotates/zooms. I'm imagining many people will walk from Union Station to the events so check this out for kickin' traffic.

Live web cam of Capitol, Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool and Mall, but you have to watch a commercial first before it "clicks on" (just once though). From the Washington Post.

Another live cam of the Washington Monument further away at a distance. Also from the Washington Post, but no ads.

Inauguration DC will be twittering from downtown, check for frequent updates. They operate the official Inauguration website which (if you scroll down) also has news updates.

Enjoy!