Celebrity Mound

Is the Upper East Side big enough for Serena, Blair and the Duffster?! We’re about to find out because the onetime tween sensation is joining Gossip Girl for a multi-episode arc, sources confirm to me exclusively.

The actress-designer-pop chanteuse will play Olivia Burke, a movie star who enrolls at NYU in search of a traditional college experience. She ends up rooming with Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) so it’s safe to say she’ll be majoring in Drama!

Duff will debut in this season’s fourth episode, slated to air Oct. 5.

Gossip producers spotted an opening in Duff’s schedule after NBC passed on her comedy pilot Barely Legal.

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WHEN will young Hollywood learn their manners? At the Stand Up 2 Cancer event held at Kitson in LA on Wednesday, co-hosts Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore both demanded to “exit the rear entrance of the store,” according to one snitch. After their hosting duties, they wanted to sneak out to avoid any paparazzi, and “onlookers were shocked and appalled that they would try to leave early,” our spy said. Too bad for them, as they soon realized, Kitson doesn’t have a back entrance and they were forced to walk out the reg ular people’s entrance.

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Hilary Duff

Lance Bass and actress Hilary Duff

Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Lance Bass and Lacey-Mae Schwimmer

Jennie Garth

Perez Hilton

Candis Cayne and William Baldwin

Singer-actress Hilary Duff’s father is apologetic about his bitter two-and-a-half-year divorce battle and his recent stint in jail.

“I was unfaithful to our marriage,” Bob Duff tells Inside Edition in an interview airing Tuesday.

“I feel very badly about that and the effect it had on the girls,” he adds.

Bob spoke to Inside Edition after spending a day in jail for contempt of court.

“I have never been handcuffed before,” he says.

Bob says raising Hilary and Haylie Duff to be stars contributed to tension with his ex-wife, Susan.

“Susan was very consumed with the girls’ careers,” he says, admitting to extramarital affairs. “We simply grew apart.”

As part of his sentence, Bob was asked to pay $12,500 to his ex-wife for Hilary’s 21st birthday party and a present; Susan was seeking $25,000 for the charges. He will also have to pay $367,537 from the improper sale of stocks last month.

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Singer-actress’s father is led away in handcuffs; mother wanted ex to give her $25,000 for star’s birthday.

It probably wasn’t his most important decision ever, but a Harris County judge on Wednesday weighed in on a case that will set celebrity bloggers buzzing: the fate of pop star Hilary Duff’s lavish 21st birthday party.

It’s the latest chapter in a bitter divorce between the parents of pop stars Hilary and Haylie Duff. The 2½-year-old case deteriorated so much that Wednesday’s hearing in family court ended with the young celebrities’ father in handcuffs after Judge Thomas Stansbury found him in contempt of court.

During the tense hearing, Bob and Susan Duff sat on opposite ends of the courtroom, surrounded by posses of lawyers and paralegals. They never spoke and rarely even looked at each other.

Their attorneys exchanged heated words, accusing each other of lying and acting unethically.

“I get very annoyed when he accuses me of lying,” Bob’s lawyer, Robert Piro, shouted at one point, pounding the judge’s bench with his fist.

“Well, then, he should stop lying!” growled Susan’s attorney, Marshall Davis Brown Jr.

Neither Hilary, 20, nor Haylie, 23, was in court Wednesday. Their father stayed in Houston when they moved to Los Angeles with their mother more than a decade ago. In 2001, Hilary became a star with ‘tween hit Lizzie McGuire on the Disney Channel. Both sisters have since appeared in movies and on TV.

At the hearing, Susan took the stand to ask for $25,000 to fund a present and party for Hilary’s 21st birthday, which is Sept. 28.

It’s the same sum she and her husband spent on a ring and a party for Haylie when she turned 21 a few years ago, she said.

The $10,000 her husband pays her in interim support each month is “not even enough to pay my own bills” and certainly not enough to afford such expensive birthday treats, Susan testified. She said she has to rely on Hilary for financial help to pay her lawyers and other bills.

In his cross-examination, Piro asked Susan if her “adult millionaire daughter” would be upset if she did not receive an expensive gift and party for her birthday.

Susan replied that her daughter “is emotionally upset by the abandonment of her father” and deserves “to have some kind of recognition for a young life well-lived.”

Piro asked her where she thought Bob would get the money, and Susan replied he could get it from the same place he got money to buy presents for his girlfriend’s sons.

“I know he’s a millionaire, and he’s got the funds,” she said.

When Bob took the stand a few minutes later, Brown asked him if he wanted Hilary to receive a comparable gift to Haylie for her 21st birthday.

“Yes,” Bob replied.

“You’re not mad at Hilary, are you?” Brown asked.

Bob hesitated, and Brown withdrew the question.

Stansbury eventually ordered Bob to pay $12,500 to Susan for Hilary’s birthday.

Bob took another hit when Stansbury ordered him to spend 10 days in jail for contempt of court. He is accused of violating an injunction against selling assets without court approval and must pay $367,537 he earned from selling stocks last month into a court repository.

Piro said his client plans to post bond as soon as possible and file an appeal.

At the end of the hearing, deputies fingerprinted Bob and led him away in handcuffs. When Susan saw the deputies click the cuffs on her husband, she gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

“This isn’t what I wanted,” she murmured.

As he was being led away, Bob said he wanted to talk to a reporter but couldn’t because of a gag order.

“I wish I could,” he said. “I’ve got a lot to say.”

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Hilary Duff and Olivia Thirlby

Hilary Duff is adding yet another credit to her movie career.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Duff has joined the cast of the comedy Stay Cool. The movie, which shoots in July, also stars Winona Ryder, Sean Astin, Mark Polish, Chevy Chase and Jon Cryer.

The tween star will portray a sexy high school senior who invites an older visiting author to her prom. Most recently, she appeared in War, Inc. opposite John Cusack.

Duff, who is dating New York Islanders Mike Comrie, plans to record her fifth studio album this summer.

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Tony Parker and Eva Longoria Parker

Marc Jacobs and Victoria Beckham

Michael Kors and Hilary Duff

Ashley Olson

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Eva Mendes and designer Francisco Costa