Although not highly publicized, it would appear that NBA Star Rick Fox and Eliza Dushku are dating.

Word is the couple has been enjoying a quiet romance for over a year now. On last night’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars” Eliza was seen in the audience.

Rick Fox, an early favorite to win DWTS, was married to Vanessa Williams from 1999 until 2005. Eliza has never been married but was dating “Family Guy” creator Set MacFarlane.

Latest rumors are saying that Rick and Eliza will be paired up on together on an episode of DWTS, although this has not yet been confirmed.

A Michael Jackson fan is now the proud owner of the Las Vegas mansion rented by the late pop icon in 2008. The mansion has been the gathering point for Jackson’s many grieving fans. The home sold for $3.1 million. The buyer was a doctor and lawyer couple who owns property in California and Asia. Their names were not disclosed by Vegas Fine estates, the broker working the deal.

The previous owner turned the property over to the bank to avoid foreclosure and the sale closed on Tuesday. The home is the largest sale in Las Vegas for the last twelve-month period.

The broker has faced many challenges in trying to sell the home. Many fans have tried to pose as potential buyers just to get a look inside the mansion.

According to Carolyn Mullany of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty, the home features 15,000 square feet of luxury. The house has seven bedrooms, two office suites, an elevator, a theater room and an orchestra loft. The master bedroom has a fitness room, dance floor and dry sauna. The property also contains tennis and basketball courts.

Jackson reportedly rented the home for $1,000,000 over six months between 2006 and 2007 after returning from overseas.

Grammy award-winning blues singer Etta James has been hospitalized in Southern California for sepsis resulting from a urinary tract infection. The 72-year-old musician has been at a Riverside hospital for a week. Her son, Donota James, reports that just prior to the hospitalization, she was in a treatment center for other health problems, including a painkiller addiction.

Los Angeles-based celebrity news columnist Ministry Of Gossip  reports that the legendary singer “has struggled in the past with drugs, including an addition to heroin that led to a stint in rehab in 1974. She also had gastric bypass surgery in 2003 and lost 200 pounds.”

According to online medical source MedLinePlus, sepsis is a life-threatening illness during which a person’s bloodstream is overwhelmed with bacteria. Older people and children with compromised immune systems are at greater risk for this condition.

The four-time Grammy Award winner just celebrated her 72nd birthday on January 25th. She is an inductee at the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame, and is most well-known for her 1960 song “At Last.” In 2009, after the pop singer Beyonce performed James’ legendary song at President Obama’s inaugural ball, James made headlines by harshly criticizing Beyonce and the president. At the time her son told the media that James’ behavior is possibly related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Cash for Clunkers Program

All across the nation, consumers who were originally quite enthusiastic about the federal “cash for clunkers” program are increasingly feeling disappointed and let down. Expert analysts say that this program is going to fail in its expectations to reduce harmful gas emissions as well as potentially stimulating the depressed economy.

However, the facts are quickly emerging that the new rules instituted by the cash for clunkers program will only help in a very minor way the fuel economy and will instead cost the consumer much more than he or she would have originally wished or wanted. While the Obama administration is hoping to increase the sales of automobiles over the next several weeks by offering rebates, many experts say that his “CARS” program, or Car Allowance Rebate System, will only sell cars that would not otherwise be sold.

In fact, according to certain well respected websites and sources, this new program will only stimulate the purchase of roughly 50,000 cars that would not have otherwise been bought. Doing the math properly would then yield the fact that the $1 billion dollars invested in the program would be spending roughly $20k to help facilitate the purchase of each car.

The government is in essence, according to expert reports, paying consumers to do something that they would be doing anyway. The environmental impact of the program is fairly negated as well, since it limited by the amount of funding and the fact that consumers are only going to be buying cars that they were going to anyway.

However, official groups such as the Consumer Federation of America have been describing the program as something which will basically be good for consumers but will have a negligible impact on the environment.