He may be a music superstar – but these days Usher is more interested in fatherhood than hit records.

The 29-year-old singer debuts his namesake 9-month-old son Usher Raymond V on the August cover of Essence magazine, and says that raising his son is a responsibility he takes very seriously.

“Now I represent what he is to become,” Usher says about his son. “He’s gonna admire me, he’s gonna look up to me. He’s gonna say, ‘I wanna be’ – or he should say – ‘I wanna be like my father. I wanna be a man of valor. I wanna possess what my father has as a man.’”

Though the singer’s relationship with his own father, Usher Raymond III, was troubled, he says, “I don’t judge my father because I forgave him for anything he’d ever done to hurt me unintentionally.”

However, Usher’s childhood has colored his views on fatherhood. “You should never abandon that responsibility, which is to be there, reading with your child, being supportive of your child’s growth,” he says when asked what advice he’d give to young parents.

Usher, who recently said that his 2007 marriage to Tameka Foster put him in a “great place”, adds that baby Usher Raymond V is an “extension of his union” with Foster.

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Matthew McConaughey and girlfriend of two years Camila Alves have welcomed a son Monday night, his rep Alan Nierob confirms. The baby – the first child for both – was born at 6:22 p.m. in Los Angeles, weighing in at 7 lbs., 4 oz.

“They’re so happy!” said a close pal.

In January, Matthew announced the couple were expecting on his website. “Camila and I made a baby together…,” he wrote at the time. “We are stoked and wowed.”

McConaughey’s oldest brother, Rooster, shared their elation. “Oh, it’s going to be fun!” he said. “He’ll make a really good dad because he’s got a lot of patience. I’m excited for him. It’s about time.”

Alves, a model and handbag designer, recently said she plans to take time off once the baby arrives. “More important than anything is that I have a peaceful life and a peaceful home,” she said.

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Britney Spears will team up with Madonna – virtually – during the singer’s upcoming Sticky & Sweet tour.

“Britney is going to film something for Madonna’s show in the next week or so,” Madonna’s rep, Liz Rosenberg, says.

As for details about what they will be doing – and where it will be filmed – Rosenberg says, “I don’t know. It’s a secret.”

Contrary to published reports, Spears is not in New York to film the video segments, nor has she already shot anything.

This isn’t the first collaboration for the pop stars. The two famously teamed up during the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, sharing the stage – and one memorable kiss – during the broadcast.

Spears is not expected to perform with Madonna, whose tour kicks off in Wales next month. The U.S. leg of her tour starts Oct. 4 in East Rutherford, N.J.

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Nicole Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, have welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, born Monday morning in Nashville.

“Husband Keith was by Nicole’s side, and mother and baby are very well,” said spokesman Paul Freundlich, who added that the couple were “delighted” to make the announcement. He also said the baby girl weighed 6 lbs., 7.5 oz.

The pregnancy was first announced in January. Kidman has two other children with her former husband Tom Cruise: Isabella, 15, and Connor, 13.

In the days leading up to the birth, the couple – who celebrated their second wedding anniversary on June 25 – didn’t stray from their normal routine in and around Nashville, where they reside in a gated community.

From early morning stops at a local Starbucks for warm drinks to a little sweat at the gym later in the day (Kidman was a regular at spin and yoga classes during her pregnancy), the couple remained low-key.

“She’s never been happier and healthier,” says a close family friend. “She is absolutely radiant and enjoying nesting and homemaking with Keith at their new home in Nashville.”

But getting ready for their baby was a priority. Urban admitted he was learning a new vocabulary for fatherhood and doing Lamaze lessons. “He doesn’t know the name [of the classes], but he has been very good at it!” Kidman told a local radio station on June 24.

The new parents also bought a couple of books to help them along: Pocket Dad: Everyday Wisdom and Your Pregnancy, Week By Week.

“The unknown excites me a lot,” Urban told reporters in May. “What kind of feelings will fatherhood bring? I’m sure I can’t even imagine, but I am really looking forward to finding out.”

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Angelina Jolie received two special visitors over the weekend in her French hospital room: brother James Haven and son Maddox.

A bodyguard carried Maddox, 6, into the hospital on Friday, July 4 to spend time with his mom, while James – wearing an orange sweatshirt and sunglasses – entered the hospital Saturday through a side entrance and stayed for an hour and a half.

After his visit, Jolie’s brother left in the family’s Mercedes van. Jolie, who checked into a hospital in the South of France last week, hasn’t been without a steady stream of well wishers. Last week, Brad Pitt visited Jolie at the hospital with daughters Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2.

Security has increased at the medical center since Jolie, 33, checked into Fondation Lenval Hospital in Nice.

During a press conference on July 2, her doctor told reporters that the actress, who is expecting twins, was not due for several weeks.

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Alex Rodriguez’s relationship with Madonna was “an affair of the heart” – not “sexual infidelity” – according to Cynthia Rodriguez’s lawyer.

Still, the baseball star’s relationship with the singer “was the last straw” before the Yankee slugger’s wife filed for divorce Monday, her Houston attorney, Earle Lilly, said.

Lilly says that A-Rod was smitten with Madonna, but makes no claim of any sexual liaison. “The correct analysis is a relationship,” he says. “Some people categorize an affair as something as sexual infidelity. We’re not claming that. It’s an affair of the heart.”

Over the weekend, Madonna issued a statement denying a romantic relationship with the baseball star, saying, “I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage.”

In fact, “Madonna’s name is not even mentioned in the papers,” says Lilly. “We don’t want the public to think this is an aggressive action against Madonna.”

Still, Lilly maintains that A-Rod has behaved badly for “a good while” and his client, Cynthia Rodriguez, has had enough. “She’s just a Greek Orthodox lady who has had as much as she can take,” he says.

Shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, Cynthia’s Miami attorney Maurice Kutner filed the divorce petition.

“This is an action for dissolution of marriage, which is being filed only after [Cynthia Rodriguez] has exhausted every effort to salvage the marriage of the parties,” the document reads. “However, Alex has emotionally abandoned his wife and children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him.”

Without naming any names, the document states, “The marriage of the parties is irretrievably broken because of the husband’s extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct.”

The couple were married Nov. 2, 2002 in Dallas. They have two daughters, Natasha, 3, and Ella, 2 months.

Both Lilly and Kutner maintain that their client hopes to settle the divorce as amicably as possible.

“Cynthia has made it very clear to me that she wants to take the high road and protect her children and herself,” Kutner said shortly after filing the papers. “She wants to resolve the issues between Alex and herself in an amicable fashion.”

A lawyer reportedly representing Alex Rodriguez did not immediately return calls for comment.

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Madonna has released a statement, denying that she is divorcing Guy Ritchie or having an affair with Yankee star Alex Rodriguez.

In it, she says: “My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce. I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study.”

Alex Rodriguez’s wife Cynthia blamed the rumored affair for the demise of her marriage to the slugger, sources say.

Amid growing buzz of divorce, the singer’s rep had earlier issued a denial that the singer and her husband of over seven years, Guy Ritchie, were splitting.

The singer, who is no stranger to rumors, also says: “I have learned over the years not to take accusations and the many false reports about me very seriously. I also appreciate how fiction and fact seem to be perceived as one and the same by people who read both newspapers and the Internet.”

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These days when he isn’t rocking out with Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz can often be found speaking to his unborn child or reading books about fatherhood.

“I talk to it all the time,” he said on Saturday at the Ultimate Fighting Championship 86 afterparty in Las Vegas. “The Expectant Father tells you that the woman, when she speaks, the baby hears her all the time. And the father’s voice isn’t familiar unless you talk to it, so I talk to it all the time.”

Armin Brott’s parenthood tome is just one of the books the bassist is reading to prepare himself for his and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz’s first child together.

“It tells you your partner’s moods month-by-month and week-by-week,” says Wentz, who is also getting advice from both his father and Joe Simpson. “It tells you why you’re feeling the way you are, how you can feel more involved in the pregnancy.”

And while Ashlee often has cravings for ice cream, pickles and green olives, everything is “going well,” says Wentz, who performed a two-hour DJ set at the House of Blues following the UFC match.

In fact, he is already hinting at more children in the future: “This is the first one so we’ll have to base the next one on how we do on the first one.”

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Christie Brinkley spent the Fourth of July “blowing off some steam” at ex Billy Joel’s Sag Harbor, N.Y., house, a source said.

Brinkley, whose ugly divorce from Peter Cook has been heating up in court, arrived with daughter Alexa Joel, 20, and “seemed good,” says a friend of the supermodel’s. “She was just blowing off some steam, being with family. It was just a relaxing little get-together. Nothing special. Just what everyone does on the Fourth.”

Another onlooker says Brinkley, Alexa, Billy and about a dozen friends “were having a blast,” eating barbecue ribs and corn and sipping white wine.

At one point Alexa dropped her first plate of food – “they were all laughing about that,” says the source.

As for Brinkley, “she was hugging the kids there, they were all laughing and eating. They seemed really relaxed.”

The day before, Brinkley also surrounded herself with family and friends, enjoying a midday lunch with her son Jack, 13, and a girlfriend at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, N.Y.

“Christie looked beautiful in a white floral sundress, but she wasn’t exactly upbeat,” says a fellow diner. “Maybe just a little tired but she seemed relaxed – kind of just getting away from it all and having a nice lunch.”

“She seemed OK, said hi to a few friends,” says the source. “She was very pleasant – calm and casual.”

Meanwhile, Cook spent the holiday with his 13-year-old son Jack and girlfriend Suzanne Shaw. After picking up Jack from Brinkley’s house, the trio went for a ride on Cook’s boat, The Sweet Freedom.

“He seemed fine, relaxed,” says an onlooker at Island Surf shop in Sag Harbor, where Cook stopped in with Jack to pick up T-shirts and “stuff for camp.” Adds the source: “He’s always in here with his son. He’s a good guy – and a great dad.”

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The honeymoon may be over, but Nick Cannon is enjoying the married life even more.

Although his wife Mariah Carey wasn’t in Las Vegas with him, the “Wild ‘N Out” host said his marriage to the singer is anything but rocky, despite Internet reports to the contrary.

At the opening of Las Vegas’s Christian Audigier The Nightclub Friday, Cannon said his marriage is “amazing.”

“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Cannon, who was sporting his wedding band, said.

Arriving just before midnight, Cannon quickly made his way to the club’s turntables where he began a two-hour set, spinning hip-hop, techno and rock.

At one point, he put on Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know.” Bobbing his head to the song, Cannon raised his hand high in the air and shouted the lyrics “Big ups, to all my haters.”

Carey and Cannon met on the set of her video “Bye Bye,” and after a whirlwind courtship tied the knot in May.

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