It’s been a rough summer for Indiana Jones star Shia LaBeouf, who crushed his hand in a car accident resulting in his arrest on suspicion of drunk driving. But don’t count him out, says a pal.

“He’s been through a lot, he’s had a hard life, and he grew up with some scars. But he’s a fighter,” says Christy Carlson Romano, who costarred with LaBeouf in the Disney TV series Even Stevens. “I have his back.”

But LaBeouf is no angel, she admits. “In fact, he’s crazy like a rock star!” she says.

“I’m not an advocate of drinking and driving,” Romano tells PEOPLE at a Samsung event Sept. 3 in New York City honoring fashion designer Valentino. “But I think that the criticism is a little overexaggerated. In Los Angeles, even if you have one drink, that counts as a DUI.”

Despite the setback, Romano doesn’t think LaBeouf’s rising star was tarnished.

“I grew up with girls like Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Duff, and I can tell star quality when I see it. He’s got it,” says the actress, who played Shia’s big sister Ren Stevens in the Disney original series and will now be joining the cast of Broadway’s Avenue Q.

She notes that LaBeouf still jokingly calls her “sis” but “he doesn’t call me up for advice!”

At the Tailgater sports bar in Wasilla, Alaska, the crowd cheered when the six televisions showed Gov. Sarah Palin at the GOP Convention on Wednesday night - and beamed with pride when the cameras focused on her husband, Todd.

“That,” said bar patron Martin Chapoton, “is our ‘First Dude.’ ”

Alaskans embrace Todd Palin as one of their own: a tough, blue-collar outdoorsman who calloused his hands with two decades of hard work at the North Slope oil fields and the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery - and who has earned a reputation for steely nerves and endurance as a championship snowmobile racer.

Palin, who turns 44 on Saturday, put his toughness to a test last February when he crashed his snowmobile during a race and went flying 70 feet. The smashup, caused when he hit a barrel lodged in the snow, “sent a minor tremor across the state,” the Anchorage Daily News reported at the time, citing his role as the husband of the state’s new governor.

But for Palin, it was just a part of racing. Davis loaded him onto the back of Davis’s snowmobile and drove him to the clinic, where he was found to have suffered nasty bruises. Palin then returned to the grueling 2,000-mile Tesoro Iron Dog race.

Shoved into the Spotlight

Todd Palin’s latest challenge, of course, began just days ago when Sarah, 44, became the surprise choice of GOP vice presidential candidate with John McCain - thrusting her, and Todd, into the spotlight.

Born of Eskimo ancestry, Todd Palin met Sarah in high school, and they had five children together, including a baby born in April with Down syndrome and a 17-year-old daughter who is pregnant with her boyfriend’s child.

Todd Palin made his living up to last year as an hourly - but well-paid - worker for BP, a London-based oil giant, earning more than $100,000 a year. He left in March 2007, he said, to work part-time for his union, the United Steelworkers Local 4959, to make more time for his family after Sarah was elected governor.

“I always see him around town with his kids taking care of business,” says family friend Warren McCorkell. “He gets asked about how he feels about people fawning over his wife and he shrugs his shoulders and says, ‘She’s being Sarah and I’m being Mr. Mom.’ ”

And a Union Man

In her speech before the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, Sarah Palin said that her husband “is a story all by himself.”

“He’s a lifelong commercial fisherman and a production operator from the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope and a proud member of the United Steelworkers union, and Todd is now a world-champion snow-machine racer,” she said to thunderous applause. “Throw in his Yupik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for a quite a package. And we met in high school, and two decades and five children later, he’s still my guy.”

• Additional reporting by LORENZO BENET

GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin let her hair down Wednesday, wowing the Republican National Convention with a spunky punch at critics of her experience - and a coupon-clipping approach to government waste.

Palin, the two-year governor of Alaska, boasted that she cleaned house when she took over the governor’s mansion. “That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay,” she said. “And I thought we could muddle through without the governor’s personal chef - although I’ve got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her.”

The crowd of die-hard Republicans went wild for Palin, 44. The entire Michigan delegation donned hockey jerseys in solidarity with the self-described “Hockey Mom.” Departing from her text, Palin gave those raucous fans a shout-out. “I gotta love the hockey moms. You know what they say about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”

Johnston flew to St. Paul, Minn., from Alaska on Tuesday night with the governor’s husband, Todd, and their five children for the hotly-anticipated address, her first since she and her husband made the stunning announcement that Bristol was five months pregnant and intended to marry Johnston, 18.

Earlier on Wednesday, Johnston and Bristol stood as a couple to greet Sen. John McCain in Minnesota. On the airport tarmac, the GOP presidential candidate hugged Bristol then wrapped the two in a loose embrace as he spoke animatedly.

What did he say to the young parents-to-be? “I’m sure he told them he supports them,” daughter Meghan McCain, 23, told PEOPLE. “Our whole family supports them. I just feel for her because even just two weeks ago, she was completely anonymous. She’s a very sweet girl and %26#91;Johnston%26#93; is very nice. My heart goes out to them.”

Speaker after speaker at Wednesday night’s convention railed against critics of Palin and the recent focus on her family. “The reporting of the past few days has proven tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ad-libbed in his speech.

And former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani brought the crowd to its feet when he lit into those who question how Palin could be vice president and also take care of her children. “How dare they?” Giuliani bellowed. “When do they ever ask a man that question? How dare they?!” Cindy McCain, with baby Trig Palin in her arms, stood to join the shouted refrain.

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When it comes to candidates’ children, Michelle Obama says both presidential campaigns agree: leave the kids alone.

The wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, 47, says on The Ellen DeGeneres Show “one of the reasons why I’m proud of my husband” is his slience about GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s family issues.

“I know that they care about their kids, and we should let them deal with this issue,” Michelle Obama, 44, a mother of two young daughters, says in the show scheduled to air Monday. “This shouldn’t be an issue for political discussion.”

Palin, the running mate of John McCain, announced earlier this week that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol is five months pregnant.

Burning question No. 1 at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday: Will exes Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston cross paths?

They arrive on different days, but in the movie biz, anything is possible. Pitt is due in Canada, sans Angelina Jolie, to hype Burn After Reading, his new Coen Brothers comedy with George Clooney. Aniston, meanwhile, will be talking up Management, a romantic comedy in which she’s wooed by Steve Zahn and Woody Harrelson.

But those are just two of the 249 feature films set to screen and a few of the stars - cue Dakota Fanning, Ricky Gervais and Charlize Theron - set to shine over the 10-day festival, which has come to serve Hollywood as the annual unofficial launch of the Oscar race.

• After scoring big at last year’s festival with Juno, Superbad’s Michael Cera returns with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. He plays a music-obsessed youth who finds love when he least expects it during a visit to New York City. The movie opens Oct. 3.

• In Rachel Getting Married, Anne Hathaway stars as a woman who, following a stint in rehab, returns to her idyllic Connecticut hometown for the wedding of her older sister Rachel. Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) directed the comedic family drama, which opens in limited markets Oct. 3.

• Keira Knightley again dons sumptuous period petticoats and gowns for her title role in The Duchess, a biopic about Georgiana Spencer, a scandalous 18th century English aristocrat. Her costars include Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling. It opens Sept. 19.

• Irishman Colin Farrell works on his New Yawk accent in Pride and Glory, a crime drama in which he and Edward Norton star as brothers who are NYPD cops. Family bonds are tested as they uncover something rotten in the Big Apple. The film, which was scheduled to open earlier this year, is now set for release Oct. 24.

• Wedding Crashers star Rachel McAdams teams up with Tim Robbins and Michael Pe%26#241;a in The Lucky Ones, a drama about three soldiers returning home to the U.S. after serving in Iraq. The film, due to open Sept. 26, has been sitting on the shelf for months after Hollywood became hesitant following the box office failure of several war-themed movies - Rendition, Lions for Lambs, Stop-Loss - in late 2007 and early 2008.

• Rising British heartthrob Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe and 21) portrays a young Irishman in Belfast in the 1980s who finds himself unintentionally caught between the British Army and the IRA in Fifty Dead Men Walking. Ben Kingsley and Rose McGowan costar. The film does not yet have a U.S. release date.

After the success of their TV movie Camp Rock, the Jonas Brothers are now prepping for their own Disney Channel original series.

“It’s going to be about us as a band but dealing with normal things like trying to take out the trash and not get hounded by fans,” Joe Jonas tells ELLEgirl magazine about the as-yet untitled series. “It’s going to be a funny show, and it’s going to be a great cast.”

The show - originally about the boy band living a double life as spies - has recently undergone a conceptual change. The trio, who just released their third studio album, A Little Bit Longer, told Ryan Seacrest on his KISS-FM radio show that the series will now be more like HBO’s Flight of the Conchords.

Biking with Brothers

It’s more than just the show that is waiting for Joe at home in L.A. The middle Jonas, who recently received a motorcycle with a sidecar as a birthday gift, can’t wait to get back and start taking his brothers for a ride.

“The sidecar’s in Los Angeles,” he said. “When we start filming our television show, we will be setting up the sidecar.”

As for their Video Music Award nomination for video of the year, “%26#91;This%26#93; is huge for us,” said Kevin, 20. “We can’t believe it.”

The VMAs, airing Sunday on MTV, pit the Jonases against Britney Spears, Chris Brown, the Ting Tings and Pussycat Dolls.

As her mother, Sarah Palin, addressed her constituents at the Republican National Convention, 17-year-old Bristol Palin held hands in the family VIP box with her fiancé, Levi Johnston.

But Bristol’s hand wasn’t the only thing Johnson was displaying on his fingers. As TV cameras were able to reveal, the 18-year-old hockey player is also sporting a tattoo that reads “Bristol” - located exactly where a wedding ring would go.

The young couple’s relationship has been embraced by their families, and Johnston joined the entire family onstage after Palin’s primetime speech Wednesday.

But one person, who knows what it’s like to be in the spotlight, has sympathy for all the attention on Bristol, who is five-months pregnant. “I just feel for her because even just two weeks ago, she was completely anonymous,” John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain, 23, told PEOPLE Wednesday. “She’s a very sweet girl and %26#91;Johnston%26#93; is very nice. My heart goes out to them.”

- Stephen M. Silverman

Missing out on the 5th annual Fashion Rocks concert? If you’re a devoted eBayer - or just a fan - you can own a piece of music history and give back.

Fashion Rocks, a style-themed concert that takes place during New York City’s Fashion Week, announced an online charity auction Thursday in conjunction with eBay’s Giving Works.

The good cause? Stand Up to Cancer, a new cancer-research initiative whose leadership team includes Katie Couric and Sherry Lansing.

The piece de resistance of the auction is a Gibson guitar autographed by Fashion Rocks performers and presenters, including show host Denis Leary and musicians Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.

The online auction takes place Sept 5 - 15. Ticket proceeds from the in Fashion Rocks concert will also benefit the charity.

The show airs live from Rockefeller Center on Tues. Sept 9.

Eric Benét sings about a pair of sexy “chocolate legs” on his upcoming R%26B album, Love %26 Life. But whose are they?

“I can’t kiss and tell,” Benét says coyly.

Well, maybe a little. “Those legs did actually belong to somebody,” says the singer, 41, who was once married to Halle Berry and is now dating Prince’s ex-wife Manuela Testolini.

When he wrote “Chocolate Legs,” he adds, “The state of the world was bumming me out. I had an intimate time with someone and it was one of those magical things. I felt so invigorated and ready to face the world again, hence the name of the song, ‘Chocolate Legs. Wrap them chocolate legs around me…’”

Whether or not those legs are hers, Testolini inspired many of the sensual songs on the album, which debuts on her birthday, Sept. 9. (The album’s first single, “You’re The One,” is No. 1 this week at Urban (A/C) Radio.)

The couple met at a charity event in Los Angeles two years ago. “We sparked up a conversation and became really good friends,” he says. “It naturally progressed into something else. We’re feeling good. We are really enjoying each other’s company.”

As for his girlfriend’s famous ex-hubby, Prince, Benét says, “I met the guy years and years ago and he was very gracious and cool.” He adds with a laugh, “But there’s no double dating going on.”

Benét has another woman in his life: his 16-year-old daughter, India, who sings on the album. (Watch a video of their duet below.)

“She just brings me so much joy and inspiration,” he says of India, whose mother died in 1993. “She’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But parenthood has its challenges…”

Like? “India is now dating,” he says with a sigh.

When Benét had a strange feeling about one of India’s boyfriends, he and India had a heart-to-heart. “Basically it was poetic justice because I was 16 before and my mind definitely wasn’t on the most honorable…” he says. “We talked and she made the choice herself but through parental openness. He got edited. He’s out of there!”

Michael Phelps delivered a brief cameo on Entourage - and some cast members would like to see the Olympian join them fulltime in the future.

“I could see him coming back as one of the boys,” said Jeremy Piven during a party to celebrate the fifth season premiere of the HBO hit - held Wednesday at New York’s Ziegfeld Theater.

And talk about swimming with sharks. Imaging how his own character - abrasive agent Ari Gold - would interact with the 23-year-old, real-life gold medalist, Piven, 43, said, “I can see Ari being very aggressive in recruiting him to represent him and also stopping at nothing to poach him from another client. That’s what Ari would do.”

Jerry Ferrera, who plays Turtle on the show, also likes the idea of Phelps coming back for more. “I’m lobbying to get him back next season so that I can be there,” he said. “He could teach Turtle how to swim.”

Swimmer Stopped Traffic

“It was the coolest thing in the world. When he showed up, I’m not exaggerating, city buses stopped and people started yelling and within five minutes we couldn’t even shoot,” said Ellin.

Phelps plays himself in his appearance and gives actor Kevin Connelly’s character a hard time.

“He and I bump into each other on the side of the road, at a crosswalk on 57th and 7th. He bumps into me and looks at me like he’s gonna beat me up,” said Connelly. “It was great. We had actually taken a few takes of the scene, and then we decided we’re gonna pop Michael Phelps into the shot.”