Brace yourselves – celebrities have not been playing poker and talking about it lately. The gossip columns are too busy watching Brittany Spears flirt with life/career/family disaster to focus on who’s been playing poker. Priorities, people!

Speaking of priorities, the writers’ strike is continuing, and many TV show productions have already shut down. Though there are secret talks rumored to be happening, no clear end is in sight. To find out more about the strike, check out United Hollywood. Keep in mind that without the writers, you’ll get more shows like Dancing With the Stars. Think about that.

The biggest news of late has been the elimination of Jean-Robert Bellande from Survivor: China on CBS. He was eliminated in ninth place but wasn’t put on a plane back to U.S. soil right away; he remains on the show as a part of the jury that will ultimately vote to award one person the $1 million prize. In his exit interview, he says he realized that he may have pushed all-in too early, but he was playing to win. (Writer’s note: Now that Jean-Robert is gone, go James!)

For those who watched it, what did you think of Bellande’s play, aside from the random corny poker references?

Some of you may remember Wil Wheaton from Star Trek: The Next Generation – or even further back from the film Stand By Me, but he has also played a role in poker over the past few years – playing and blogging. Aside from still being active in various TV shows and films, he has also self-published a book called “The Happiest Days of Our Lives.” Reviews are good, and the hardcover was just released with 300 autographed copies available. Get ‘em while you can!

In other news, Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon are still married. We all know it can’t last long, so the tabloids (and me) are awaiting the filing of divorce papers. Yes, that’s an assumption, and I’m a notoriously bad prop bettor, but does anyone really want to challenge me on this?

Those who have HDTV might be familiar with a show that debuted this year on the MOJO network called “I Bet You.” It’s a 30-minute show featuring Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak as they travel around the country and bet on everything. Prop betting gone wild, if you will.

This is a clip from one of last season’s shows:

The show has been renewed for a second season that is currently filming and will be ready for air in early 2008. Antonio discusses many of the bets on his blog.

I talked to Antonio recently for an article to be published in the current issue of All In magazine, and he absolutely loves doing the show. “We bet on everything,” he told me. “I would say that on a daily basis, Phil and I make at least three or four bets in the course of our normal lives.”

There are some clips on the network’s website, and if you have HDTV, the show seems worth a TiVo or DVR setting.

On another note, I was also able to get him to confirm that he had no relations with Pamela Anderson, though we now know that it was indeed Rick Salomon that she did to get out of a poker debt fell in love with and married.

Living and working in Los Angeles, just a few miles of nightmarish traffic away from Hollywood, it’s not difficult to keep up with tabloid journalism news of the rich and famous. And as they make poker news, this reporter is right there to help spread rumors and inconsequential news. You’re welcome.

Let’s start with MTV’s Video Music Awards that took place in Las Vegas last weekend. Sure, the important news was Brittany Spears and her, ummm, interesting performance at the show. But I’m here to give you the poker-related info.

Rolling Stone magazine took the opportunity of the celebrity mecca to Vegas to celebrate their 40th anniversary with parties and the obligatory charity poker tournament. Nowhere could it be determined what charity was benefiting from the event, nor what the buy-in was. It was confirmed that there were 15 tables that played out on Saturday, September 8, and some of the participants included Nelly, Kevin Smith, Joe Simpson, Brody Jenner, Cee-Lo, Ryan Cabrera, John Salley, and Vince Neil.

The winner? Rap superstar Nelly. At the WSOP, he played the $10k main event and donked off his chips in less than two hours. At this charity tournament, he outplayed a bunch of celebrities and won the thing. The best news was that he donated all of his prize money to charity.

How did Nelly go from donkey-status to semi-average poker player? Evidently, he’s been dropping in on home games with Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari. Homeboy seems to be serious about being a playa.

Other news at the VMA’s included the high school man-to-man fight between Kid Rock and Tommy Lee over Pamela Anderson, going forward to be referred to as Pammie. (Not that she and I are gal pals, but I like men to think so.) While the boys are fighting over her, she claims to be in love with a pro poker player. She refused to name the person to any source, even Ellen DeGeneres, but reportedly told one source that she was down several hundred thousand dollars in a poker game, and the player offered to take care of it in return for, ummm, take a guess. “I paid off a poker debt with sexual favors,” she said, “and fell in love. He took advantage of me… He’s a good guy.” And on the Ellen show, she confirmed that much and concluded with, “It’s so romantic. It’s romance.”

Awww.

The tabloids have put her statements together with some recent sightings of Pammie and Rick Salomon, infamous Paris Hilton sex tape entrepreneur, on a Malibu beach on Labor Day weekend, so rumors are running rampant that Rick is that poker player. Here’s a tip for Pammie and everyone else: Rick Salomon is not a professional poker player. Trust us.

But the Pammie rumor mill is not out of juice yet. According to the Las Vegas Magazine blog site, insiders are saying that Pammie’s new boyfriend is actually poker pro Antonio Esfandiari. Voila! That would be magical, wouldn’t you agree?

Speaking of Antonio, he’s made the tabloids lately with his recent Cristal-off. He was reportedly at the new nightclub Blush at the Wynn on the Vegas Strip, and he and NBA pro Kobe Bryant were each trying to buy more Cristal champagne than the other. Kobe ordered approximately 15 bottles – cheapskate! Not to be outdone, Antonio ended up ordering 26 bottles and spent nearly $35k for one night out. Then he told TMZ about it. Nice hand, sir.