Looks like Kate Hudson's coziness with Dax Shepard has progressed from his just-friends shirt-doffing to skin-tastic PDA. Paparazzi caught the itsy-bitsy-bikini-clad actress, 28, and the rubber-faced "Punk'd" rapscallion, 32, getting handsy while holidaying last weekend in Muskoka, Canada, where Kate's folks Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have a house. A source tells Us Weekly that Dax "fit right in" with Hudson's family, bonding with stepdad Kurt and giving 3-year-old son Ryder (with ex-hubby Chris Robinson) a fishing lesson. Still, the coupling has left some in Kate's inner circle scratching their heads. "Everyone thinks it's a strange choice for her," a pal tells the mag. "Dax is wild and weird." But it seems he does share one important quality with Owen Wilson, whom Kate split with in May. Says the source, "He makes her laugh."

Did Usher's mom decide to spruce herself up rather than stand up at his wedding? People reports that when the crooner, 28, quietly said "I do" with Tameka Foster, 37, on Aug. 3 in Atlanta, his mother and ex-manager, Jonetta Patton, skipped the civil ceremony in favor of a day of beauty at a local spa. The wedding took place just days after the stork-awaiting couple's elaborate, Hamptons-set nuptials were abruptly called off, with rumors for the cancellation ranging from the groom's chilly tootsies to a tussle over the reception menu. "It was beautiful and private," Usher gushes to Us Weekly of his under-the-radar knot-tying. "We didn't have a first dance -- but we had a lovely, intimate dinner filled with candlelight and flowers." As for the future, he tells the mag he and mother-of-three Tameka have a couple things in mind: They plan to have a blowout wedding bash "sometime later in the year, or after the baby is born," and they're going to get ready "for the birth of our first child."

Renée Zellweger raised eyebrows last weekend when she slow-danced with a mystery man during Billy Joel's concert in the Hamptons, but an insider insists to People that there's nothing romantic going on with the "tan, toned guy" to whom the smiley and newly cropped Oscar winner was clinging tightly. "They're just friends," dismisses the source, who concedes that they did look "really cute together." Zellweger, meanwhile, also chatted up and giggled with a sweat-soaked Alec Baldwin. According to the mag, the "30 Rock" actor was spotted putting his presumably damp digits on Renée.

For a guy who once tattooed Paris Hilton's name on his wrist, Nick Carter sure doesn't have any lingering warm and fuzzy feelings for his jailbird ex. "Honestly, I don't keep up with her," the back-in-shape Backstreet Boy cold-shouldered to a New York radio station on Tuesday. "I don't care anymore. I think half of America doesn't care either!"

Kate Walsh can't seem to stop making major life changes. Not only is the actress preparing to get hitched to studio exec Alex Young, who popped the question in May after three long months of dating, but she's also moving into a palatial new pad with him. Us says Walsh, whose "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off "Private Practice" debuts in the fall, has plunked down $4.75 million for a 6,000-square-foot home in Los Angeles. The five-bedroom, six-bath Spanish-style abode comes with such newlywed-friendly amenities as a wine room, spa, hot tub, bar and media room. But the auburn-haired beauty may be hedging her bets. According to the mag, she's decided to rent out her former residence, which is less than a mile away from the new place. For a mere $8,800 a month, you can settle into the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath digs, which were recently featured in the pages of O magazine.

Jude Law has laughed off recent rumors claiming he's wooing his "Holiday" amour Cameron Diaz, but there's apparently additional quelling that needs to be done. "Entertainment Tonight" helpfully throws some more cold water on the romance rumblings by reporting that although the very single co-stars recently broke bread together, it was nothing more than a couple of pals catching up.

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