Now that he’s promoting his new CD, Blake is out and about, and as you can imagine some pretty interesting things are popping out of his mouth.  Some of my favorites are right here in this video from US Weekly, where Blake is teamed up with some gossip dude, seemingly against his will, commenting on stories he doesn’t seem to care about:

Of course everyone also wants to know about Miranda, and he says that they’re actually getting to a point where they could consider getting married. He even says they went to Tiffany’s to look at rings, but when Miranda showed him the one she wanted, the price tag on it ($450k) put any plans Blake had on hold.

John Rich had a kid in January.  Then Karen and Jimi from Little Bigtown had a son.  James Otto has announced that he and his wife are expecting their first, and Luke Bryan’s wife is expecting baby #2.  Now Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts has joined the club, annoucing his wife Tiffany is also expecting their second.  Joe Don and Tiffany are already parents to 21 month-old Jagger, and the next one is due in September.  Time for someone to start a country star daycare in Nashville.

Gary allan’s new CD, “Get Off on the Pain,” is in stores this week.  There’s one song on there that Gary says he loves, but he may never play.  It’s called “No Regrets,” and it’s a tribute to his wife Angela, who committed suicide.  Gary says that while she was alive,  Angela always wanted him to write songs about her and he never did.  But now that she’s gone, he’s writing a ton of songs about her.  The only trouble is, he’s just not sure he can get through the songs live without getting too emotional.

We’ve already seen naked pictures of him (okay, he was about 7 months old). 

Now more skin from Brad.  But this time, it’s purple skin.  Just to make sure we didn’t think he was a wuss for going to the hospital after his big spill on stage last weekend, Brad shows us the monster bruise he got when he landed on his guitar:

Imagine a private show with Darius Rucker…just him, singing to you. How cool would that be? Well that’s what Darius did recently for a bunch of veterans who were at the VA hospital in Nashville. Instead of doing one show for a group of patients, he went around to the rooms and sang for the people who were not feeling well enough to be up and around. He said it was an incredible experience for him to meet these people, and that the song that seemed to connect the most with people was his #1 hit “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.” Nice work, Darius.

If John Rich’s tweets are any indication, things in his neighborhood of Love Circle are definitely not too lovey-dovey right now.  I told you last week that neighbors hate Mr. Richmore, John’s gigantic house, and they protested the bright lights that shine out from it.  Then John tweeted that he’s bought some night vision goggles and was keeping an eye on everyone.  And now, he’s tweeted this:

“Anybody know who vandalized my gate?  I’ll give ya a grand if ya turn em in.  Cash.”

So it sounds like nobody’s kissing and making up on Love Circle.

Here are Tim and Faith on the Red Carpet last night:

Of course Tim was there because his movie, “The Blind Side,” was nominated for Best Picture.  But who wasn’t there?  Nicole Kidman.  she was hanging out in Australia with the fam:

Last week I told you about Mt. Richmore, John Rich’s massive block of a house on Love Circle in Nashville that has neighbors up in arms, most recently because of bright lights that face out toward the rest of the neighborhood. After a protest last week where people gathered to shine flashlights toward the house, this message was posted on Rich’s Twitter:

Hey!! Just bought some kick-ass binoculars with night vision!! You’d be surprised what’s happening on Love Circle…I can see you! Watchout.

Just after that, he posted this:

Please tell ur friends to follow me on Twitter at johnrich! LOTS of crazy stuff about to happen! Send em my way…thx couzins!

Now either he’s going to wage war on his neighbors, or as Shannon at Nashville Gab speculates, someone new has hacked into his Twitter account. She noticed that these tweets come from a different source than usual even though they are posted on his account.

Well okay, Rascal Flatts got one nomination: Top Vocal Group. But that’s it. no entertainer of the year, no video of the year, no song, no single, no nothing! Kind of crazy. So they took to the Twitter to let their fans know they’re ok with it:

“Thanks for all your kind words and support about the nominations… Awards are great but we make our music for YOU, the fans. Not our peers.”

That’s from Jay DeMarcus. Meanwhile, Kenny Chesney, who got three nominations, disagrees somewhat: “When your peers recognize that work and that passion – well, that’s a big part of why these awards and these nominations matter.” OK, lesson learned. If you don’t get the awards, it doesn’t matter. If you do get the awards, then it does!