Kenny Chesney is no stranger to stadiums - his Poets and Pirates tour has been packing sports arenas all summer long. But on his way to his New Orleans concert this Thursday, he hit the football field for real.

For the second year in a row, the country superstar lived out his gridiron fantasies by practicing with the New Orleans Saints in Jackson, Miss., according to the Associated Press.

Donning a white Saints game jersey with his name sewn on the back, Chesney, who is pals with the team’s coach, Sean Payton, ran plays with the team and caught a long pass from quarterback Drew Brees.

At the practice, which was open to the public, Payton told players they would get Sunday off if Chesney - who was a receiver on his Tennessee high school football team - caught a punt in two tries.

“On the first one, I totally blew it,” Chesney told the AP. “On the second one, not only were they offside, but they interfered with me.”

Luckily for the players, Chesney got a third try at redemption. As the ball landed in his hands, he juggled it - but refused to let it hit the ground.

Jubilant players whooped it up, including Reggie Bush - Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend - who winged a water bottle across the field in celebration.

“Reggie told me I better not drop the third one because he didn’t want to practice,” said Chesney.

Payton declared Chesney “part of our team” - an honor the sports loving singer embraced.

“I quit growing too young to ever think about getting to have a shot at playing in college,” said Chesney, “so this is about as much fun I can have.”

RELATED GALLERIES
• See how the country superstar made headlines on multiple PEOPLE covers.

Shelley Malil, an actor who played one of Steve Carell’s co-workers in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, has been arrested for investigation of attempted murder after his former girlfriend was critically injured when she was stabbed more than 20 times, authorities said Tuesday.

Malil, 43, was arrested Monday in Oceanside, Calif., after disembarking from a train from Los Angeles, Lt. Phil Brust of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement, the Associated Press reports.

The actor had gone to the beach city to meet his attorney, who along with family and friends had persuaded him to surrender to authorities, police said.

“Malil and the victim had apparently been in a dating relationship which recently ended,” according to the police the statement, which said Malil faced charges of investigation of attempted murder, mayhem and burglary.

Sheriff’s deputies did not know the identity of Malil’s lawyer. Besides the 2005 Steve Carell comedy, the actor also appeared on such TV shows as NYPD Blue, Scrubs and Reba.

Carl Blonsky, the father of Hairspray actress Nikki Blonsky, has been released on $3,000 bail from a Turks and Caicos jail, says his attorney.

Blonsky, who was originally denied bail, resubmitted his bond application to an appellate court.

Blonsky is now free to leave the Turks and Caicos, attorney Oliver Smith confirmed to PEOPLE on Tuesday.

Smith believes that Blonsky is currently traveling back to New York.

Blonsky, 53, is due in court on Aug.19 where he will face charges of assault with grievous bodily harm in connection with an alleged airport brawl July 29 that police say involved him, daughter Nikki, America’s Next Top Model contestant Bianca Golden and Golden’s mother, Elaine.

“We look forward to court where my client can prove his innocence,” says Smith.

Nikki Blonsky is due in court on the Caribbean island in December, and Bianca Golden’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 17.

RELATED ARTICLES
• See how Nikki Blonsky landed her big Hollywood debut.

It’s a case of “sweet” gone sour for producer Johnny Vieira, who’s suing High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens.

In court papers filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by PEOPLE, Vieira is demanding more than $5 million and punitive damages from the Disney star.

Vieira claims that he and Hudgens, now 19, worked together to launch her career - and that they agreed to “share equally” in the profits. (Because the actress was a minor at the time, Vieira contends that a court approved the 2005 agreement.)

But after High School Musical became a hit, he says she dumped him - and that she still owes him $2 million - which the documents for the suit state Vieira discovered “after an expensive audit.”

There has been no comment from Hudgens’s camp.

In the Pitt-Jolie household Mommy doesn’t just stay home and make pancakes - she makes movies, too.

Angelina Jolie is in talks to replace Tom Cruise in the new espionage thriller Edwin A. Salt, Variety reports. (Cruise had long been interested in the project, but recently dropped out of the running, the paper adds. Writers are now reportedly reworking the lead character to be female.)

If the pieces drop into place, Jolie - who gave birth to twins in July with Brad Pitt - will portray a CIA officer falsely accused of being a Russian agent.

The BBC reports that Alison Carroll - a 23-year-old Brit with 12 years experience as a professional gymnast - will be the face of the iconic character for the new game, Tomb Raider: Underworld, out this fall.

Sunday Rose Urban may have arrived with her parents Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban in their native Australia only last Wednesday, but already the month-old star baby is traveling in some rarefied atmosphere.

On Tuesday she got a taste of moviemaking - alongside her mom on the Sydney set of the period epic Australia.

With Sunday safely nestled in a white baby sling across her mother’s chest, Kidman - outfitted in period clothing covered by a long coat, and with her hair set in a 1930s style - took a stroll in the company of her two off-screen leading men: husband Urban and her father, Dr. Antony Kidman.

After they departed, Kidman and her immediate family - Urban and Sunday Rose - paid their own social call to the home of longtime pal Russell Crowe, at Sydney’s posh Woolloomooloo Wharf.

• Reporting by ALICIA NEIL

Although former American Idol sensation Carrie Underwood has become one of the country music’s biggest stars, fame has its downside - especially when it comes to dating, she says.

“You never really know why somebody wants to be around you, or if they do genuinely like you,” Underwood, 25, tells Allure magazine in the September issue. “I wish everyone had a label on their forehead so you could automatically tell their intentions. Sometimes you just wish that no one wanted anything from you.”

The star, who earlier this year was inducted into Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, recalls a time soon after her success on Idol when a guy who’d ignored her in college - clearly enamored by her newfound success - called saying that “he wanted to explain.”

As for Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo, who now is dating Jessica Simpson, Underwood says she still hears from him sometimes - but doesn’t always pick up the phone. “We were both small town people doing very big things, and we relied on each other, dealing with fame,” says the singer who claims the relationship wasn’t serious. And now? “I don’t know. The phone will ring and it’ll be him, and I’ll maybe not answer.”

Some of her reservations about opening up to people seem to stem from an old flame who cheated on her. “I don’t want to name names, even though he probably deserves it, but he fooled around,” she tells the magazine. “Oh, yeah, and lied! It was one of those things that everyone knew but me. He was a good liar. Nobody would come out and tell me. And he seemed perfect in every way.”

Added the singer: “I’m sure we’ve all run into these people, whether they’re friends, boyfriends or girlfriends.”

Triple threat: American swimmer Michael Phelps earned his third gold medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Tuesday morning - easily blowing away the competition in the 200-meter freestyle.

He touched the wall in just 1:42.96 - a new world record - shaving almost a second off his old mark, set in Melbourne, Australia in 2007.

The silver medal went to Park Tae-hwan of South Korea, while Phelps’s teammate, Peter Vanderkaay, claimed bronze.

The win gave Phelps, 23, his ninth career gold medal, tying legendary American athletes Carl Lewis (track and field) and Mark Spitz (swimming).

Next up: The 200-meter butterfly and 800-meter free relay.

• Reporting by CYNTHIA WANG

RELATED ARTICLES
• In 2004, the swimmer talked about life after winning six Olympic gold medals.

• Fergie and fiancé Josh Duhamel, capping off their weekend with a big family dinner at West Hollywood Italian eatery Il Sole. The group of eight feasted on bellinis, heirloom tomato burrata salad and dover sole. Among the group: Fergie’s mother and Duhamel’s sisters. And while they were surrounded by family, the couple was “super affectionate,” an onlooker tells us of the two, who shot each other loving stares and shared kisses. On their way out, Fergie posed for photos with some of Duhamel’s family before calling it a night.

• Even at 6 a.m. Audrina Patridge was looking fresh as

she made her way through Chicago Midway Airport rolling her Louis Vuitton

bag, an onlooker tells us. The Hills star, who had “amazingly

glowing skin,” sported red pants, and wore her hair in a messy ponytail as

she walked through the airport terminal with a female companion. (Related photos: See other stars and

their fashionable airport looks!)

• Looks like she has a new favorite spot: After accidentally stopping by Hollywood’s Green Door earlier

in the week, Kirsten Dunst returned to hang out -this time on purpose! The actress, sporting a white T-shirt and black and

white printed skirt, drank vodka sodas (with lime) and “danced until the

lights came on at 2 a.m.,” an onlooker tells us.

• On the eve of the L.A. Tropic Thunder premiere, the

movie’s main men, a mustachioed Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller, celebrated Thunder screenplay cowriter Justin Theroux’s 37th birthday at West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont. “They were

inside and took over the entire lobby,” an onlooker says of the birthday

bash, which culminated in “fab chocolate cake.”

• Rumer Willis, stopping at a French Connection

in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The starlet danced along to the

store’s soundtrack as she shopped.

• In Beijing for the Olympics, David Schwimmer and Chris Tucker, partying

(separately) at Club Bud, a multi-level nightclub inside the National

Agricultural Exhibition Center in the heart of the Chaoyang District.

Also Spotted …

• Anna Kournikova, dining with a group of seven Russian

friends at Miami’s Kobe Club. … Lauren Conrad’s Greek costar Scott M. Foster, supporting Anthony Kiedis, who hosted the American

Eagle Outfitters’ New American Music Union festival (with performances by

Bob Dylan and Gnarls Barkley) in Pittsburgh.

• By JENNIFER GARCIA, MARY MARGARET, LESLEY MESSER and CYNTHIA WANG

Celebrity Hot Spots.

Monday’s Couples Watch >

You can believe your eyes - that’s really Britney Spears joking with MTV’s Video Music Awards host Russell Brand in new ads for the upcoming show.

“You are Britney Spears, right? I’m not dreaming this am I,” asks the British comedian in the ad, which also includes a 9,000-lb. elephant in the background.

“No, this is real,” Spears assures the show’s host - and pinches him to prove it.

In the second spot, Brand, who is well known in the U.K. but not in the U.S., presses Spears to remember his full name - which she doesn’t.

“You will remember that name because I think pretty soon it’s going to be your surname,” he quips. “Britney Brand.”

While MTV cannot confirm whether Spears will appear on the show airing on Sept. 7, Spears’s promo appearance is a promising sign. The singer, who has been nominated 17 times, has yet to walk away with a win and is nominated for two this year. She is up for best female video and best pop video.