Friday's Gossip

50 Cent is betting his entire rap future that he'll beat Kanye West on Sept. 11 - the day both artists drop hotly anticipated albums.

The two have long competed, but Fitty upped the ante yesterday when he swore to hang up his mike if his CD "Curtis" didn't outsell West's "Graduation."

Fitty blasted it out over sohh.com, knowing the hip-hop site gets 4.5 million visitors monthly - many of them teen record buyers.

"Let's raise the stakes," said the Queens-born rapper, whose given name is Curtis Jackson 3rd. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer [perform] music. I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out any more solo albums."

West knows how to make hits: His last CD, "Late Registration," has sold 2.8 million to date - but 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Tryin'?" has sold nearly 8 million.

"They would like to see Kanye West give me a problem," Fitty mused to sohh's Carl Chery, "because I've worked myself into a space where I've become the favorite. Everybody roots [for] the underdog when he goes against the favorite. "And I bet this: When Kanye West's sales come in, he's gonna have a 70% decrease cause Def Jam is gonna buy records [the first week] to keep him closer to 50 Cent. So watch the first week and then watch the second week. Watch his a - drop off the planet."

He added: "I didn't get one trophy for ‘The Massacre.' ... I don't get trophies, I get checks. He gets the trophies. ... And I'll be sitting here like, ‘It's cool 'cause I get the check.'?" Last week, Fitty - who has his own label, G-Unit Records - accepted an offer from BET of a debate with Kanye to be televised on the network; in it, the two would decide which had the better-produced record. "I accept the challenge," Fitty said on BET's "106 & Park." "Kanye, he's not going to want to show up." "What am I going to debate about?" West asked reporters at the MTV Video Music Award nominations Tuesday. "I thought [the debate] was the stupidest thing. When my album drops and Fifty's album drops, you're going to get a lot of good music at the same time."

He didn't comment on Fitty's challenge by deadline.

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It's hoped that Amanda Bynes uses more fabric in her affordable new Dear clothing line than she wore Wednesday night. Spydiners at Taka, the West Village sushi joint, tell us her dress was "seriously shorter than socially appropriate. If it was any shorter, we would've been able to see her butt." BTW, the "Hairspray" star is 21, but stuck to Diet Coke.


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Ed Harris was detained at London's Heathrow Airport on Monday when a knife was discovered among his things, the Daily Mirror reported. His rep said, "The knife was in his bag and he didn't realize it was there."

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Hollywood tattoo artist Kat Von D has worked on hard-core canvases, such as members of Green Day and Guns N' Roses, but what's the weirdest tat she's ever given? "I did a bear having sex with a cat for Bam Margera," she told us at the premiere this week of her TLC series, "LA Ink."

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Finally, a celebrity on the other side of the bench: Brad Pitt showed up for jury duty in L.A. today.


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Warring exes Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are both in the Hamptons. But while they had the bitterest celebrity divorce proceedings in recent memory, some say they are on a covert "family bonding" mission for the sake of their daughter, Beatrice, who is almost 4.

Gatecrasher spies spotted Mills working out at an East Hampton gym Tuesday, and McCartney was seen at a gym in neighboring Amagansett on Monday. It is believed they arrived last week.

"It won't be a conventional family holiday — there's still tension," a source told a British newspaper when rumors of a reunion circulated last month.

The former couple are also believed to have met at Sir Paul's Hamptons home last summer, although for less than an hour, in a bid to smooth relations.

And having them both on Long Island is proving a nightmare for hosts who cannot have them at the same event.

One promoter of an A-list venue told me: "We were expecting Paul last weekend, although he didn't show. But we were specifically keeping Heather off the guest list in case he came. There is no way those two can be in the same place in public."

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MARIE Claire cover girl Ashley Olsen told the magazine that she and her twin sister Mary-Kate "both carry the weight of each other." (It surely helps that they don't weigh very much.) Ashley told Marie Claire, "Our bond is really beyond words. I know when she's hurting, I know when she's going through something. I know when she's happy - whether I'm with her or not, I know."

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WHO knew Ashlee Simpson was the jealous type? In Chicago last weekend with boyfriend Pete Wentz to stop by the Blender Sessions at the Hard Rock Hotel and help Crobar Chicago co- owner Mike Matushcka celebrate his 40th birthday, Simpson refused to let any girl come between herself and her man. When female fans tried to take their pictures with Wentz, Simpson "got whiny and dragged him away," a spy said.

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