Let's Get This Party Started: Top Stories for Tuesday 07/04/06

It may be hard to believe, but Lindsay Lohan turned all of 20 years old over the weekend, and she celebrated her very young life in high style at a beach house in Malibu on Sunday.

Page Six reports this morning that the actress partied the evening away at the Polaroid Beach House in Malibu, Calif. with friends like Courtney Love, Nicole Richie, Kate Bosworth, Jeremy Piven, and Eva Mendes, and did her best karaoke versions of new BFF Madonna and Journey, whose last hit came out roughly the year she was born. Even better, the whole thing was paid for by Life & Style magazine, says Page Six, which shelled out $100,000 in order to get exclusive pics of the bash.

Paparazzi hiding under the house and on boats in the ocean trying to get snaps were scuttled by house security.

Lil' Kim Gets Out of Clink

Lil' Kim's Independence Day came early with a high-profile, high-fashion, and high-calorie release party – from prison.

The rapper celebrated the end of her nearly ten-month incarceration yesterday with a glitzy return to society, replete with a Rolls-Royce, screaming fans, and red velvet cake from P. Diddy's restaurant.

The hip-hop artist also known as Kimberly Jones, who was sent to prison for lying to a jury about a club shooting, walked out of the federal detention center outside of Philadelphia and greeted dozens of cheering fans wearing a slinky all-white outfit. Some of her well-wishers had camped out all night to make sure they caught her 6:00 a.m. release. Jones then sped off to Newark, NJ to meet with her parole officer.

According to her publicist, Jones was later welcomed at her New Jersey home by family and friends and tucked into a spread including mac 'n' cheese, barbecued chicken, and a red velvet cake from Justin's, P. Diddy's New York restaurant.

And as sumptuous as her first day of freedom was after ten months in the clink (reduced from a year for good behavior), it seems that being inside wasn't all bad: one report says that the rapper's cellmates brought her breakfast in bed regularly, and tailored her clothes.

Mike Tyson, Man of Taste and Refinement?

Also celebrating his birthday over the holiday weekend was pugilist Mike Tyson, who did so with friends on a 100-foot yacht docked in the Hamptons, with lobster brought aboard from a local restaurant.

More surprising, however, was Tyson's very civilized behavior at a party Sunday night at a Russian heiress' home in nearby Water Mill, says Page Six. "There was a murmur and look of concern from some of the Hamptons socialite types at the party," says a guest, adding that some guests even headed for the doors, fearing trouble.

But the ear-biting brawler was very much the toast of the party, regaling women and decorously passing around flutes of champagne to attendees like Star Jones and husband Al Reynolds, Russell Simmons, and Angie Everhart.

Jessica Security Freed from Photog Dust-Up Charge

The owner of the Hamptons club where a newspaper photographer claimed yesterday that he'd been manhandled by Jessica Simpson's security said that it was his guys, not hers, that dealt with the lensman.

Pink Elephant owner David Sarner said, in a statement, "Jessica and her personal security had nothing to do with the incident," exonerating the pop starlet of any responsibility. Four bodyguards from the club who were assigned to look after Simpson allegedly broke New York Daily News photog John Roca's equipment and ripped his pants looking for a memory card.

A Pink Elephant rep said Roca was in the wrong. "John aggressively came at her after he was told to not take her picture inside," an account that Roca rejects.

Katie Couric Seeps Her Way into View, Silently

CBS has begun running promos for its new evening news with Katie Couric, and interim anchor Bob Schieffer is, at least at the outset, doing the hawking.

In the new campaign, Schieffer tells viewers that they should "just watch." Couric is seen talking on a phone but doesn't actually say anything.

The spot is part of the marketing blitz being rolled out to promote Couric's September 5 arrival as evening news anchor. Couric will be going out on the road on a six-city tour to find out what people what from their news.

Michael Douglas Settles Lawsuit

Actor Michael Douglas has settled a lawsuit against two companies that, he alleged, used footage that was supposed to be for educational purposes for commercial gain instead, the Associated Press reports.