Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jun 13, 2011

Hospitalized:

--CLARENCE CLEMMONS, sax player for BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND, has suffered a stroke. ROGER FRIEDMAN of showbiz411.com posted last night that "The Big Man" is seriously ill. Clarence is 69 years old. (Marino)
--JENNIFER HUDSON came down with a nasty bit of food poisoning last Friday. The UK's Daily Mail reports she had just finished a performance for "Good Morning America" when severe, "excruciating" stomach pains set in. The newly-slim beauty hightailed it over to a Manhattan hospital, but had to cancel an appearance on the "Early Show." Jen has been hard at work promoting her new weight-loss book, says she's loving her body "more than ever" and dropped eighty-pounds on Weight Watchers. (Lee /Marino)
--SELENA GOMEZ was rushed to the hospital Thursday after an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." She canceled an event on Friday at a mall in Santa Monica promoting her new movie, "Monte Carlo." TMZ.com said Selena was nauseous and had a really bad headache. She has been undergoing tests for blood pressure issues, but doctors still can't figure out what's wrong with her. Rumors started to fly that Selena was pregnant and that JUSTIN BIEBER is the father. There is no truth to that story at all. (Marino)

Bid'ness is Bid'ness:

An employee at a San Francisco Apple retail store is trying to make some noise about unionizing the company's retail workers. Thirty-year-old CORY MOLL has worked part-time for Apple for four years and makes $14-dollars-an-hour, but is unhappy with the conditions at Apple's local outlets.
Moll told Reuters, "The core issues definitely involve compensation, pay, benefits."
Unions are pretty much unheard of in Silicon Valley. Apple employs about 30-thousand workers at over 300 retail stores around the world. (Pacelli)
Editor's note: Great --now when I go in there, half of them will be on a coffee break. (Maiman)

Idle gossip & unconfirmed rumors:

There's more rumors swirling that BRITNEY SPEARS is taking a third trip to the altar. Sources tell AbsoluteNow.com that longtime love JASON TRAWICK popped the question! Word is the agent is quite the romantic --he lit candles, arranged roses and wrote a poem for his future bride. Apparently the pop tart is "on cloud nine" and the two are planning a romantic, Hawaiian ceremony once her tour is finished.
BS said "I Do" to KEVIN FEDERLINE in September of 2004 and the two separated in November of '06. She also had a fifty-five-hour marriage to JASON ALEXANDER that was immediately annulled in January, 2004. (Lee)

Broadcast, cable and video news:

Congrats to "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which is the most-watched TV show around the world.
The CBS show, which is moving to Wednesdays this fall, was honored over the weekend at the 51st Monte Carlo TV Festival for the highest ratings worldwide in 2010 across five continents.
Deadline.com reports it's the 4th time that the series has been given this honor in the past six years.

Grace notes:

METALLICA now has its own Monopoly game. A posting on the band's official website reveals the box cover and says the game will be available this week. Metallica joins others who have been Monopolized including THE BEATLES, the GRATEFUL DEAD and KISS. (Marino)

Small town, small people:

We now have a new "world's shortest man." Officially recognized by the Guinness book, he's a Filipino named JUNREY BALAWING: 23.6 inches tall. (pic)
Balawing reportedly stopped growing shortly after his birth, but no one is sure why and his family is too poor to investigate any possible medical condition. They withdrew him from school after he proved distracting to other children. He's 18 now.
The family calls him "their lucky charm," saying his father, a blacksmith, had been unemployed until he was born, then found a job after his birth.
Previous world's shortest man: THAPA MAGAR of Nepal, 26.4 inches tall.
Editor's note: Well, that's gotta be a bummer. Whaddya do if you're the second shortest man? "Hey, guess you came up short, huh?" (Maiman)