Hilary Duff: Media made me skinny

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Hilary Duff has gone from a baby-faced teen queen to a super-svelte starlet in the public eye. And the actress-singer admits that her weight loss a couple of years ago was motivated by media criticism of her figure.

The 19-year-old “Material Girls” star admitted to the U.K.’s Mail on Sunday that “I did get skinny. I’ve felt that pressure like everyone else in my position. When a newspaper comes out that says ‘Duff Puff — she must have gained 15 pounds’ or something like that, how would any normal person react?”

Hilary laments, “It’s so mean, but everyone keeps buying that stuff and talking about it, so it’s not going to go away.”

Maybe if more celebs were candid about the problem, it would. Props to Hilary for being honest.

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Snow Problem

(Getty Images) Local police decided not to charge Kid Rock for allegedly assaulting a female fan at his home. 

Kid Rock may be known as a bad-boy rocker, but his rep was not enough to convince police to buy a woman’s claim that he got aggressive and pushed her face-first into the snow. Michigan prosecutors declined to charge the singer for the incident, citing lack of evidence, and now Kid reportedly says he’ll sue the woman for filing a false police report.

The accuser claimed that after meeting Kid Rock at a bar, she went home with him — then was grabbed and shoved into the snow outside when she refused to stay the night.

But according to the rap-rocker’s version of events, the woman had become drunk and belligerent and was asked to leave — at which point she threatened to make up a false attack story for the cops.

Kid Rock’s lawyer conceded that his client “may not have used the best judgment in inviting [her] to his house that night, but this is how he is paid back for being a nice guy.”

Simon: No Guilt

Caustic “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell is known for his brutally frank comments to contestants, but he says there’s nothing cruel about his criticism. “I don’t think I’m humiliating anybody,” Simon said Sunday on “60 Minutes,” adding that if anything, the wannabes are actually “humiliating themselves.”

“No one is dragged into that audition room kicking and screaming,” the pop impresario points out.

Of his hurtful remarks, Simon declares, “I don’t have a conscience about this at all. At the end of the day, if you’ve decided you want to enter ‘American Idol,’ you want a short circuit to be rich and famous. If that means you have to take a bit of criticism along the way — tough.”

Well, when he puts it that way, we tend to agree.

Expecting Baby

(AP Photo) Larry Birkhead was all smiles when he left the Bahamas courtroom on Friday.

Anna Nicole Smith’s baby daughter may be in the hands of Howard K. Stern, but the late model’s ex, Larry Birkhead, is confident that he will soon be proved to be her true biological father.

The photographer, who was beaming after a Friday court appearance, seems extremely optimistic about being reunited with daughter Dannielynn.

“What seems like it has taken months and months in California is basically going pretty quickly here in the Bahamas,” Larry told “Access Hollywood.” “I feel good about that. I think good things are coming pretty soon.”

The self-proclaimed papa declared, “April will be like the greatest month of my life, I’m hoping. I mean, you never know. You just hope for the best and I’m pleased with what I heard today and I’ll stay as long as I have to stay to get done what I need to get done.”

A DNA test is reportedly imminent, although Larry could not confirm that buzz. Let’s hope little Dannielynn finds out who her real dad is soon.

Kitty Raymond is an entertainment writer who has a celebrity astrology blog at www.celebastroblogy.com.

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