Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jul 22, 2011

Equal time:

The Federal Election Commission ordered JOHN EDWARDS to pay $2.3 million back to the U-S Treasury from his candidacy in the 2008 presidential primaries.
   In a routine audit, the FEC says the Edwards campaign received $2.1 million more in federal matching funds than it was entitled to, which it now must repay.
   That's a lot of $400 haircuts.
   This development is unrelated to the felony charges Edwards face for using campaign funds to cover up an extramarital affair. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to accepting over $900-thousand in contributions, part of which went to conceal his affair with RIELLE HUNTER, with whom he had a daughter. Edwards will stand trial for those crimes in October. (Maiman)

Auto World /Gas Guzzlin' Update:

The U-S government no longer owns a piece of Chrysler.
   Fiat just paid $560 million for the remaining government shares and now owns more than 53 percent of the company. That means Chrysler headquarters could move to Italy. (Maiman)

Idle gossip & unconfirmed rumors:

SCARLETT JOHANSSON just bid a fond adieu to SEAN PENN, but is already moving on. Spies tell the NY Post's Page Six gossip column she went to check out JUSTIN BARTHA in the off-Broadway play "All New People," then the two went out with the cast for dinner. Word is they were "completely engrossed in each other," did a little flirting and enjoyed some deep conversation. 
   Meanwhile, her ex-husband RYAN REYNOLDS may not be that into CHARLIZE THERON. Bystanders at a night club tell the Post he seemed to have some "definnitely chemistry" with a mystery brunette. (Lee)

KATE MIDDLETON is breaking all the royal rules. In Touch magazine reports that the new wife of PRINCE WILLIAM has done her own thing and not followed protocol set forth by the QUEEN. She doesn't wear pantyhose all the time, cuddles and kisses her hubby in public and even whispers in his ear and does the ultimate no-no, eats in public! (Myers)

TABOO from the BLACK EYED PEAS has cut his trademark long hair.
   CocoPerez.com says this is his first cut in 22 years and that he did it to mark his freedom from addiction. He took to Twitter to make the grand hair pronouncement: “The long hair scary guy 2003-2007 doesn’t live here anymore. He left along with the drugs and alcohol... Before, I always wore [my] hair down and dark glasses to hide the drugs I was on. Not me anymore. I'm a new man.”
   Taboo also said that he’s “not going bald or short, just clean to fit my new sex symbol Latino lifestyle." (Bartha)

Now here is a perfect combination: LADY GAGA and CHER! They are recording a duet for Cher's new album, which will be her first since 2001's "Living Proof." The track is called "The Greatest Thing" and it was written by Gaga and RedOne. Cher has already recorded her vocals and she Tweeted that she can't wait until Gaga puts her own voice on it. Gaga's demo of the song leaked on the Internet last week. (Marino)

Tampering with Mother Nature:

Paging Dr. Frankenstein: human-animal hybrid experiments are becoming dangerously close to "monsters."
   Or at least that's what scientists in GREAT BRITAIN are saying. Reuters reports that the experiments in question are those that involve inserting human cells or genes into animals. Humanizing animals is becoming increasingly common, due to the fact that it helps scientists understand how diseases develop and the way human bodies work. Yet it is also becoming increasingly controversial 
    A public opinion poll conducted for the report found that most people supported this sort of research if it was in the name of human health. But what concerned people were experiments involving the brain, fertilization if human eggs or sperm in an animal, and giving animals distinctly "human" characteristics (like facial features, speech, and others). (AB)