Disney star Demi Lovato’s debut album, Don’t Forget, may be full of upbeat songs, but she also has a dark side.

“I used to write %26#91;really dark%26#93; songs every night in my room - like, five or six a night - and I’d be up until 5 in the morning,” she tells MTV News. “%26#91;Mom%26#93; would come up and say, ‘So what are you writing?’ I’d play her a song, and she’d go, ‘Wow - go to therapy.’ But it really is therapy for me.”

Still, Lovato, 16, hopes that at least one song on her album (one she wrote herself) will resonate with her young audience.

“The song is about feeling insecure and just not feeling pretty, and I hope girls my age can relate to it, because I just felt like there needed to be a song about how not everyone has confidence,” she says.

So who is Lovato’s dream duet? “I hope to do a collaboration with Kelly Clarkson,” she admits. “%26#91;She%26#93; has been my idol growing up. %26#91;That%26#93; would be the biggest dream come true.”

Don’t Forget hits stores on September 23.

• Heidi Montag, color-coordinating her baseball

outfit with Spencer Pratt while watching the Los Angeles

Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds. The Hills star didn’t seem

too invested in the game, however, chatting instead with her fiancé and neighbors in the stands. Also on Heidi’s mind: getting photographed. During the seventh inning stretch, she and Pratt stood up - not to sing, but to pose for pics. Days earlier, Montag also got noticed while taking her camera crew for a full body wax at Ona Spa in Los Angeles (she was filming her MTV hit). Montag was wearing a white sundress which, a source says, was (oops), “totally see-through!”

• Also at the Dodgers Game: Nick Lachey, getting

booed when the jumbotron showed the Cincinnati native waving a Reds cap. The

crowd of 35,000 began yelling while he simply smiled.

• At Rihanna and Kanye West’s

Hartford, Conn. show, Chris Brown was spotted grooving from the side of the stage and enthusiastically cheering on his girlfriend, “as if he was seeing

%26#91;her%26#93; for the first time,” a witness tells us.

• Renée Zellweger,

grabbing a quick bite at the Palm in West Hollywood en route to the airport.

The actress ordered salmon, which was brought out immediately, and had a

glass of white wine while doing some business on the phone.

• Kelly Clarkson, beating the unseasonable heat

with some Chardonnay at Asia de Cuba at the Mondrian Hotel in West

Hollywood. The pop star dined with friends and ate a noodle box and chicken

skewers.

• Vince Vaughn and buddy Tom Morello (of

the bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave), sharing dinner, a show, then breakfast in West Hollywood. After dining at the Rainbow Room, the guys ventured next door to Key Club to see the band Steel Panther - the band formerly known as Metal Skool - perform. An onlooker tells us that the guys and the ladies they were with were “totally rocking out at a table.” Following the musical mayhem, the group went to an IHOP in Santa Monica,

eating breakfast food and chatting for over an hour.

Also Spotted…

• Brody Jenner, club-hopping around Chicago -and taking an extended stop at the Underground. … And Matthew Fox and Zach Braff, munching on some Buffalo chicken wraps at Crown Bar in West Hollywood.

• By REAGAN ALEXANDER, JENNIFER GARCIA, MAUREEN HARRINGTON,

LESLEY MESSER, EUNICE OH and MICHELLE TAN

Celebrity Hot Spots.

Tuesday’s Caught in the Act >

American Idol winner Jordin Sparks wants to set the record straight: she and Blake Lewis are not dating.

“It makes me laugh. We went through this whole experience and it’s like I can’t even look at him that way,” she told Elvis Duran and the Morning Zoo on New York’s Z100.

But being the subject of gossip isn’t the only downfall to her newfound fame.

“I can’t really go to the mall anymore,” Sparks said. Even though she’s tried everything to be able to go out in public and not get recognized - including wearing hats and hoodies - she sticks out “like a sore thumb.”

“Everybody sees my hair and then they see how tall I am they’re like, ‘There’s Jordin, right there.’”

Not that she’s complaining. “Everything is coming so fast. My life is just turned upside down. But I love it and I want to do it for as long as I can,” she told the radio DJs just moments before they premiered her first single “Tattoo.”

The track, which describes the scar left when a relationship ends, was one of the first songs she considered for her debut album after winning Idol in May. “I didn’t even get through the first chorus before I was like, ‘I need to have this song!’”

Click here to listen to “Tattoo.”

While Sparks’s debut is due in November, previous Idols Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood’s Grammy-winning, multi-platinum successes have put pressure on the 17-year-old to make her own mark on the music world.

“They’ve risen the bar so high and I’m like, ‘I hope I can reach it,’” Sparks recently told the AP. “I just really hope that when %26#91;my CD%26#93; comes out it’ll be great and maybe as good as theirs. And hopefully it’ll sell well and people will like it.”

Meanwhile, Sparks has spent the summer touring with her fellow finalists - including Lewis, Melinda Doolittle, Chris Richardson and Sanjaya Malakar - whom she considers like a “dysfunctional family.”

“It’s abnormally weird how well we still get along,” she admits. “We get on each other’s nerves, but, at the end of the day, we’re still just like, ‘Hey, you wanna hang out?’ ”

And as for Lewis, 26, he’s just been signed to 19 Recordings/Arista Records and is already working on his debut album, due later this year.

• Reba McEntire, hanging out backstage at Cirque du Soleil’s

LOVE show with former tourmate Kelly Clarkson. The two

watched the show with Kix Brooks (of Brooks and Dunn), and sipped

cocktails in their seats. Earlier in the weekend, Sugarland also

checked out the Beatles-inspired extravaganza.

• File this under unlikely friends: Carrie Underwood, sharing a private room with Rascal Flatts and

Justin Timberlake at the Mix Lounge on top of the Hotel

at Mandalay Bay on Friday. The group spent several hours together drinking

water, vodka and Jack Daniels.

• Jewel, celebrating her 34th birthday a few days early

- actual birthday May 23 - with a shopping trip to Caesars Palace Forum Shops. The night

before, the singer dined on filet mignon and drank martinis at Social House.

• Before he wracked upall his ACM awards (including his fourth straight Entertainer of the Year

trophy), Kenny Chesney dined on yellowtail tuna at the Hard Rock Hotel’s Nobu with a date on Thursday.

• George Strait, indulging an impromptu autograph signing

session inside the MGM Grand Casino. Later, the legendary country crooner greeted

Julianne Hough at Rouge Bar, who in turn got chatty with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles during Universal’s official afterparty at the bar,

• By EILEEN FINAN and MARK GRAY

MORE ON THE AWARDS
Exclusive! Backstage at the ACM Awards
Vegas Goes Country! Photo Special
Kenny Chesney Wins Big

Plus: Celebrity Hot Spots.

The only thing tougher than singing for Simon Cowell? Keeping it together for the Pope. American Idol winner and pop star Kelly Clarkson proved she can handle both Saturday, performing “Ave Maria” for Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Joseph Seminary in New York in front of about 25,000.

“I was so excited to be asked to sing for the Pope,” Clarkson said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to perform ‘Ave Maria.’ To have that dream come true on such a special occasion is truly a blessing.”

Kelly Clarkson is speaking her mind again, this time about Internet leaks of four new pop songs she’s been working on.

“The fact that people have heard music that’s not ready yet sucks,” the first American Idol winner, 25, tells Billboard of her Nashville-inspired tracks, “but I hope they like it.”

Last week, the demos - “Close Your Eyes,” “Ready,” “One Day” and “With a Little Bit of Luck” - were posted on the music blog Pretty Much Amazing!, and their iffy sound quality reflected the fact that they’re works in progress. As of Monday morning, all four were removed from the site.

Fans Protested Leaks

Fans flocked to the Pretty Much Amazing! site when Clarkson’s songs surfaced, some of them defending Clarkson’s right to keep her work private. Others, such as one named, simply, “Rick,” said, “They sound pretty damn good! Excited for this ‘pop’ album of hers.”

One music critic from New York magazine’s Culture Vulture was also impressed - sort of - with Clarkson’s “With a Little Bit of Luck”: “This track will need more than a little bit of luck to put Clarkson back on top of the charts (more like a million dollars’ worth of production and engineering), but the melody’s not bad. We like it.”

Next up for Clarkson? Singing for Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to New York City on April 19.

She’s a little bit country, she’s a little bit rock ‘n’ roll - and Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson have hit the road to give fans a little bit of both. “You’re feisty, you’re fun, you let me sing harmonies… I’m a happy camper,” the country legend gushes to the former Idol champ in this new video from behind the scenes of their “2 Worlds 2 Voices” tour, which just kicked off. (See the rest of it here.)

The pair first hooked up for the CMT show Crossroads, and it worked so well, they decided to take their act on tour. Meanwhile, McEntire’s former Reba costar, Melissa Peterman, is blogging from the road: “Reba and Kelly are having a ball and I think we are bonding more and more. I like to call us the Three Musketeers. So far I am the only one calling us that but I am sure it is going to catch on.”

Mandy Moore is feeling the Aussie spirit these days.

The pop star, blogging on her MySpace page from “Dan Undah!” (as she calls it), says she’s having a blast playing with fellow singer Ben Lee - and, after she opens for Kelly Clarkson, she’s looking forward to coming home and “hopefully” finding a “compelling and challenging” movie project.

Says the 23-year-old star in her posting:

me away in EVERY way. We just got to Adelaide after spending three full

days in Perth. Amazing. We played two shows with Ben Lee opening for

him before he took the stage in front of a 65-piece orchestra. Words

can’t explain how brilliant he is and how genius the arrangements were

of his songs. He had the crowds in the palm of his hands.

It was a bit awkward to step on stage here for the first time here in

years - especially with my own music and (and no dancers that I’m sure

a bulk of the audience might have been expecting!) We are touring barebones-style with just Loren on piano and Chaves on guitar. It’s

actually really great sometimes to not have the pressure of the full band but I can’t wait to get back down here with the set-up we toured

with in the States.

For the next week, we’ll be doing a short intimate set opening for Kelly

Clarkson down here and then off to Manila to play one show there on the

12th.

Happy to come home after this trip and really dig into some film

projects i’ve had my eyes on now that everything is back up in motion.

I am so ready to get back to work in terms of writing my next record,

recording some demos and hopefully locking in a compelling and

challenging film project.

Hope you are all well and enjoying life. I’ll post some pics this

week from down here. Hoping to see you all soon …

xx

MM

Facing an arena of screaming fans or a room full of movie critics - child’s play. But taking a trip by yourself? Now that’s scary, says Mandy Moore.

“I was always kind of terrified of going on vacation alone,” the 23-year-old actress told Reuters at the launch of uPumpItUp.com, a Web site aimed at helping women balance their busy lives. “The thought really scared me, but I wanted to push past that bruise and do it anyway.”

So how was it? “I ended up having the most incredible time,” she gushed. “It was so peaceful, not having to answer to anyone or take anybody else’s opinions into account. It is empowering, and it’s such a simple thing to do.”

“We all struggle with finding time for ourselves between family and friends and work and all those other obligations, and we neglect ourselves,” Moore said. “Having that sense of balance in life between personal and all that other stuff is kind of essential to leading a happy life.”

In the past, the performer has admitted to battling depression after the 2006 break-up of her relationship with Zach Braff. She has also dated tennis player Andy Roddick and actor Wilmer Valderrama.

These days, she’s focusing more on herself. The License to Wed star said she’s taken a tip from uPumpItUp to compliment one person each day. She also plans to take cooking classes and blog about her experiences.

But first, she’s traveling to Australia and - no worries - this time she’ll have company: She’s playing a few concert dates with Kelly Clarkson.

John Mayer was eco-friendly onstage - wrapping up Live Earth by jamming with The Police at Giants Stadium on Saturday - but backstage he had some global warnings.

For one, don’t ask him about Jessica Simpson.

“I’m going to practice some conversation conservation right now and minimize my bull—- footprint,” he told a reporter who asked if Mayer still spoke to Simpson.

Also, don’t ask him if he has any “eco-sins” (as many of Live Earth’s electricity-using, private-jet-flying rockers readily confessed to).

“What is my eco-sin?” Mayer answered. “I don’t know if that is that provocative a question for me. I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out what my motivation is - what is the positive side to the things that I could do?” He later added: “If you want to peg me as not being entirely eco-friendly, you’ll win,” though he said, “We have a tour, which is inherently carpooling.”

Less confrontational was Kelly Clarkson, who says that while she recycles and carpools, she’s still learning the best ways to conserve resources.

“We need just as much information as the audience,” she said after her Giants Stadium set. “We’re not brilliant. I’m not the most educated on the process, but I’m learning.”

Rosario Dawson said backstage that not only is she “that person who turns off the light every time I walk out of a room,” but that she’d seriously question dating anybody who isn’t green.

“I’d probably have a really huge problem with that,” she said.

• Reporting by BETHANY LYE, KC BAKER and RENNIE DYBALL