When it comes to fighting cancer, all women - including celebrities - have got to stick together. That was the message from Kelly Ripa Wednesday, as she hosted an event to kick off Ovarian Cancer Month.

“A friend was diagnosed %26#91;with the disease%26#93; and I wanted to learn more about early detection,” she told PEOPLE at the Electrolux-sponsored fund-raiser. “It’s my mission to get the word out.”

Ripa also took the opportunity to praise Christina Applegate, who has been public about her battle with breast cancer and recent double mastectomy.

“It takes a lot of courage to come forward and help other women and to get ahead of %26#91;the disease%26#93; like that,” Ripa said of the Samantha Who? star. “It really made me call my doctor to get tested.”
- Liz McNeil

Kelly Ripa and Christie Brinkley caught Jonas Brothers fever Saturday when the heartthrob boy band performed in East Hampton, N.Y., at a concert benefiting the tony Ross School.

“Kelly and her kids are huge fans,” says a source who attended the $1,500-a-ticket fundraiser.

And how. When the event planner was looking for someone to help raffle off two guitars to raise money for the prestigious school, Ripa immediately stepped forward.

“Kelly said, ‘I’ll do anything for the Jonas Brothers! They have made my kids so happy! And I just want to be onstage to see what it’s like to be a rock star!’”

Also there were newly divorced Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook.

“It was his weekend with the kids so she came to the concert with her son, Jack, a half hour before doors opened and met the band,” said a source. “Then she left and Peter, who brought their daughter, Sailor with him, stayed at the concert with the kids.

Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin was another fan who couldn’t wait to see her favorite band.

“She is a HUGE fan,” says another source. “She was so excited to be there. She was swarmed by fans afterward who wanted her autograph.”

The feeling was mutual. “The Jonas Brothers wanted a picture of them with her. They are big fans of hers.”

Lindsay Lohan’s little bro, Cody Lohan, wanted a front row seat to see the band and got it. ”hen he came in, he pushed his way up to the front of the stage. Dina kept saying, ‘I lost him!’ Cody was having the best time.”

• Lauren Conrad and Hills costar Lauren %26#34;Lo%26#34; Bosworth, laughing over dinner and drinks with some gal pals at Eva Longoria Parker’s restaurant Beso (co-owned by Paula Abdul’s ex JT Torregiani) in Hollywood. Next, the ladies followed up dinner at Crown Bar, where they took a seat next to the deejay booth, Soon Bosworth and her friends got dancing to Katy Perry’s smash “I

Kissed a Girl” and shouted lyrics along to several Madonna tunes. Conrad stayed at the table, though, focusing on an intimate face-to-face conversation with a brunet hottie - and cracked up while pointing to her dancing

compatriots.

• Also at Crown Bar: Leonardo DiCaprio, sharing rounds of drinks with guy friends. The actor wore a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes - clearly trying to go incognito during his guys’ night out. Meanwhile, in a booth across the bar, Paris Hilton joined sister Nicky, David Katzenberg and Casey Johnson out for the night.

• Kelly Ripa, toning her abs and thighs in the “intermediate” level ballet barre class at New York’s Physique 57, a favorite workout of hers.

• Sarah Jessica Parker and Neil Patrick Harris, cheering on George Michael during the first night of his two-night-stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The second night was equally star-studded: Andre Agassi, Steffi Graff and Linda Evangelista took in the show, which featured plenty of the pop star’s hits including “Faith” and a saxophone-accented “Careless Whisper.”

• Alex Rodriguez, sitting on the rooftop bar of New York’s Empire Hotel for drinks with two male companions. Casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, the beleaguered baseball star seemed to be picking up the table’s bill and leaving.

• Kate Bosworth, floating onto the patio at West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, looking youthful and summer-appropriate in her pale, cropped denim jacket and short navy dress. After greeting a few friends, the actress sat down with her scruffy male dinner companion. At one point, British actor Jack Huston approached the table, hugged Bosworth and crouched down for a chat.

Also Spotted …

• Mischa Barton, hanging very close to her rocker beau Taylor Locke at 86, a bar/lounge in L.A. At one point, the couple met up with Jonah Hill while on a smoke break outside. … Steven Tyler, buying La Prairie eye cream in the basement level of New York’s Bergdorf

Goodman.

• By JENNIFER GARCIA, ALYSSA SHELASKY, CHARLOTTE TRIGGS and SUSAN YARA

Celebrity Hot Spots.

Thursday’s Caught in the Act >

Ellen DeGeneres did it again - claiming the title of outstanding talk-show host, for the fourth year in a row - at Friday night’s 35th annual Daytime Emmy Awards, where a jubilant Tyra Banks and Rachael Ray also ended up in the winner’s circle.

“I never take this for granted,” said DeGeneres, clutching her shiny statuette. “I know every single year people joke about it.” Besides acknowledging her show staff and partner Portia de Rossi, DeGeneres also thanked her show’s fans, “amazing, amazing people.”

In something of a surprise, however, instead of Ellen’s winning a fifth consecutive Emmy as best talk show (entertainment), the accolade went to Rachael Ray. “Holy cat. That is exciting,” said the cooking host. “I really can’t breathe.”

The supermodel, whose Tyra Banks Show won in the new category of informative program, was first shown in a clip delivering her TV tirade about her shape and size, which ended with her telling her detractors to kiss her behind.

In her thank-you, she reprised the message, saying that no one should ever listen to naysayers.

Banks also thanked her mother (”My mama is crying like a baby,” she exclaimed on the podium) and Oprah Winfrey, “for being the queen.”

Daytime Drama Awards

The night’s first winner was supporting actress in a drama series Gina Tognoni, of The Guiding Light, who noted the show is 71 years old this year. “I am proud of daytime,” Tognoni said, “and I pray it goes on for a million more years.”

The top drama series Emmy went to General Hospital, which also claimed Emmys for its lead actor Anthony Geary - his sixth Emmy.

Other winners included The Young and the Restless’s lead actress Jeanne Cooper (a first-time winner) and its supporting actor, Kristoff St. John (his second Emmy); Guiding Light’s Tom Pelphrey, as best younger actor (his second Emmy); and As the World Turns’s Jennifer Landon, as younger actress (her third consecutive Emmy).

Regis Recognized

Regis Philbin received a lifetime achievement award, introduced by Jimmy Kimmel, who referred to Kelly Ripa as Regis’s granddaughter. Diane Sawyer, Anderson Cooper, Don Rickles and Pat Sajak also chimed in with sentiments.

Cristina’s Court was honored as the best show with a gavel-pounding judge, another new category.

• Janet Jackson, rolling up to L.A. hot spot

Foxtail with beau Jermaine Dupri for a night on the town.

• Matt Damon, sharing a bagel breakfast with his

pregnant wife, Luciana, at Bagel %26 Co on Miami’s Biscayne

Boulevard. A source tells us: “Matt and his wife were so nice and gracious,

we were all excited to see them here. They even signed autographs.”

• Kelly Ripa and dapper hubby Mark Consuelos, enjoying a rare night out following the screening of their

ESPN documentary, The Streak, at Tribeca Cinemas. Ripa lovingly draped

her arm over Consuelos’s shoulder and held a glass of white wine as the

couple chatted up guests.

• Casey Affleck and Summer Phoenix, picnicking with their two sons and an older male pal at Los Angeles’s Griffith Park. The family set themselves up in the shade - and Phoenix held their infant, who also enjoyed some naked tummy time atop a blanket on the picnic table. The couple’s elder son, Indiana, 3, was beating the 100-degree heat with a friendly water-fight, using a bottle. Meanwhile, a shirtless Affleck watched his happy family, quietly taking in the scene.

• New parents Brooke Burke and David Charvet,

making the rounds as hosts of the Tracy Paul %26 Company and Hollywood Life

lounge. According to an onlooker, the two were very caring toward each

other. Every now and then David would run his hands through Burke’s hair or

touch her back.

• Stacy Keibler and October Road star Geoff Stults, cuddling all

night during a birthday bash for the owners of West Hollywood’s Les Deux.

“They were so cute, totally still into each other,” says an eyewitness. Also

at the birthday blowout: Brody Jenner and Wilmer

Valderrama.

• BY JENNIFER GARCIA, LISA INGRASSIA, LINDA MARX and KRISTEN MASCIA

Friday’s Caught in the Act >

You think there’d be a little professional rivalry between Kelly Ripa and Kathie Lee - but you’d be wrong.

In fact, Ripa - Regis Philbin’s current cohost - could not be more thrilled for her predecessor, who just landed a co-host gig on the fourth hour of NBC’s Today show.

“I’m so exited for her,” Ripa, 37, gushed to PEOPLE Thursday. “Everybody’s like, ‘Have you ever met her?’ I’m like, met her? I know her intimately! I’m so happy for her.”

The two women worked together on an episode of Ripa’s now-defunct sitcom, Hope %26 Faith, but Ripa says she was a fan of Gifford, 54, from her early days on Live with Regis %26 Kathie Lee.

“She’s very influential in my life,” said Ripa, who replaced Gifford on the show in 2001. “I saw her doing it all - a working mom. She had a big impact on me.”

Happy Homemaker

These days, it’s Ripa - who’s married to actor Mark Consuelos - who’s known as the quintessential working mother (to Michael, 10, Lola, 6, and Joaquin, 5). That might explain her newest role, star of a spring ad campaign for Electrolux kitchen appliances. (She’s also helping the company raise cash for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.)

As an added bonus, the company hooked her up with a kitchen full of new goodies. “It’s gorgeous,” she said.

Video courtesy Buena Vista Entertainment
After falling ill during Tuesday’s show, Kelly Ripa returned to Live with Regis %26 Kelly on Wednesday, only to have Regis Philbin suggest she’d had a bout of morning sickness and a heckler compare her to Marie Osmond.

“I’ve got my own theories, and let me tell you: She’s pregnant again!” Philbin joked at the beginning of the program, adding, “I’ve been through it twice now!”

Ripa, 37, was quick to squash that rumor. “No, no,” she said. “That would be nice, though. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“The lady’s calling me Marie Osmond!” Ripa said. “Thank you, ma’am! It’s nice to get heckled the day after I recover.”

Ripa had a more sympathetic audience the night before, she said, as her parents took care of her. (Before she got sick, her husband, Mark Consuelos, returned from the Live set in the Bahamas to New York.)

“My parents, who are sitting here in the second row, took care of me all night,” Ripa said. “They gave me cold compresses and nice hot tea, and they really took care of me. There’s nothing like your parents taking care of you when you’re not feeling well.”

Ripa won’t be on the air on Thursday, however. Immediately after Tuesday’s program, Philbin taped a second show with wife Joy as co-host.

“Tomorrow, Joy will be here, and you won’t, and they’ll say, ‘My God, she really is pregnant!’ ” Philbin said.

Video courtesy Buena Vista Entertainment
Kelly Ripa left the set of Live with Regis %26 Kelly halfway through Tuesday morning’s telecast, and Regis Philbin explained later in the show that she had not been feeling well.

The program was being broadcast outdoors from the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. Early on, Ripa seemed uncharacteristically low-energy and sipped frequently from a drink on the cohosts’ table. She made it through the opening segment and an interview with Project Runway judge Tim Gunn, but did not return after the halfway mark of the show.

She did not return.

Ripa’s rep, Stan Rosenfield, said in a statement, “It’s a little case of the flu and she didn’t do the second show. That’s all. It’s holiday season and it’s flu season, even in the Bahamas.”

Live is broadcasting all this week from the Paradise Island resort.

Later, Philbin told Extra, “I thought she was pretty brave to come out and try to finish the whole show, but under the sun and everything, I guess she got a little warm.”

Ripa is expected back on the show Wednesday.

Kelly Ripa has a simple formula for making her butt look good: buy the tightest jeans around, do a clever little lift-and-push, and presto.

“I buy jeans that are tight in the rear end. I’m not kidding,” Ripa tells Fitness magazine in its December/January issue. “I treat my cheeks like breasts in a push-up bra. I just reach down in there, lift them up and push them together. And they’ll stay put if the jeans are tight enough in the seat.”

The Live with Regis %26 Kelly co-host, 37, recently began exercising with a vengeance, and says her vanity is what kept her motivated to stick with it.

Ripa certainly knows what it’s like to feel tired and out of shape. When she was pregnant with her and Mark Consuelos’s first child, she gained 68 pounds. Back then, it fell to her husband to make her feel good.

“Mark made me feel like the Queen of Sheba every day - ‘You’re so beautiful, you’re so gorgeous,’ ” she says. “At this point, we’ve been married too long for him to say, ‘Oh, you look so hot in that!’ ”

Ripa’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle goes beyond her personal workout routine. She’s currently supporting HEART for Women, a bill before Congress that requests funding for and education about gender-related aspects of cardiovascular health.

But, she does admit to one major health fear. “I used to smoke, so lung cancer is the thing that keeps me awake at night,” she reveals. “I worry, ‘Did I quit in enough time? Did I do it for too long?’ It’s one of those things where I think, ‘Boy, what a foolish thing I did.’ ”