HILTON

LAURIE

Paris Hilton is no stranger to self-promotion. But when she asked DJs to play songs from her upcoming debut album, Paris, last spring, she wasn’t so confident.

“People go crazy,” the 25-year-old socialite/reality TV star/singer says in an interview in the September issue of Blender, on newsstands today. “They love it. Everyone’s like, ‘Who is this?’ I don’t tell. Because I don’t want someone putting their phone up and recording it and making a ring tone off of it.

“I think when people don’t know it’s me, they won’t judge it. But if they know it’s me, then they’ll be like, ‘Ugh.’ They won’t even dance.”

Paris , the album was set for release today. Hilton’s breathy, reggae-infused single, “Stars Are Blind,” has climbed to the top of Billboard’s dance music chart. Of her album, she says, “I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it’s so good.”

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Hugh Laurie, the British actor who won a Golden Globe for his role on the Fox medical drama, House, says speaking like an American isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“I haven’t identified a single word that is pronounced the same in America as it is in England,” the 47-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 25 issue. “And that can really take you out of the moment, having to constantly listen to yourself and check your accent. It makes it harder to immerse yourself in the scene.

“It’s as if you’re playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon. I moan about it a lot.”

Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, the sardonic doctor who heads a medical team specializing in the diagnosis of rare disorders at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. The third season of House premieres Sept. 5.

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Prosecutors in Germany said they have decided against opening an investigation into the mock crucifixion scene performed by Madonna at her weekend concert.

A crowd of about 45,000 packed Duesseldorf’s LTU Arena Sunday night to watch the first of two German concerts on the singer’s worldwide “Confessions” tour.

The scene — in which Madonna rises from the stage on a mirrored cross while wearing a crown of fake thorns to sing “Live to Tell” — drew criticism from religious leaders in Italy earlier this month, who condemned it as an act of hostility toward the Roman Catholic Church.

The 48-year-old pop star’s representatives have said the scene is not disrespectful toward the church.

Mocken said the scene was covered by laws protecting artistic freedom.

Madonna was scheduled to perform in Hanover today. Authorities there have not publicly expressed concerns about the show’s content.