Entertainment Briefs: Friday, September 5, 2008

Published: September 5, 2008

LOS ANGELES — He does comedy, writes books and mixes it up with the hottest stars in music and Hollywood. With all this, who needs swimming?

Certainly not Michael Phelps — not anymore, at least. But as a presenter at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, all that fresh Olympic bling will certainly help.

The swimmer who took home a record-breaking eight gold medals from the Beijing Games joins Miley Cyrus, Scarlett Johansson, Lindsay Lohan and Ciara as presenters at Sunday's music awards telecast from Los Angeles. British comedian Russell Brand will host.

It's a busy time for Phelps, who announced he'll write a book about his road to Olympic history (to be released in time for the holidays) and plans to host the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live” on Sept. 13. Last week, Phelps was in New York City filming a cameo for the HBO series "Entourage.”

Jamie Chung plays the title character in "Samurai Girl,” a new three-part, six-hour miniseries that begins at 7 tonight on ABC Family.

She says she had some tae kwon do experience before she became "Samurai Girl,” but she had to quit when she sprained her finger. For the show, she learned to hoist and wage combat with a heavy sword.

"For the fight choreography when we started to learn the fights, we used wooden katanas, and then we moved to aluminum swords for safety,” she says. "And there's always a prop sword, and whenever necessary, we used the real sword.

"But it was heavy, and these are the guns that I got because of them,” says Chung, flexing her biceps.

Source: Wire Services

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