Abdul breaks nose, toe trying to avoid her dog

Talk about bad timing. Paula Abdul broke her nose this weekend - just days before the season finale of “American Idol” - when she fell while trying to avoid stepping on her Chihuahua.

Abdul was recovering from the mishap and planned to appear on Tuesday and Wednesday night's shows, her publicist, David Brokaw, said. (Two “Idol” contestants remain - Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks.)

“She's a little sore, but is doing fine,” Brokaw said.

Abdul, 44, told syndicated entertainment TV show “Extra” that she tore cartilage in her nose and fractured a toe.

“I took a nasty fall ... trying not to hurt my dog. I bruised myself on my arm ... my chest, my waist all the way down to my hip. All from my little chubby Tulip,” she said.

The dog wasn't hurt, Brokaw said.

Group wants Streisand's Italian concert cancelled

Italian consumer groups want authorities to cancel Barbra Streisand's concert in Rome next month because of excessive ticket prices.

The Adusbef and Codacons groups urged the city of Rome and the Italian Olympic Committee to deny permission for Streisand to perform at the Stadio Flaminio on June 15.

It is the 65-year-old singer's first-ever concert in Italy and the start of her European tour.

The ticket prices, which range from just under $200 to more than $1,200, are “absurd and shameful,” the groups said in a statement Monday.

The 24,000-seat stadium, owned by the city and managed by the Committee, “is public property and cannot be used for immoral deals that are shameful to a civilized country,” the statement said.

Alba on rebellious streak: ‘I love challenging authority'

Jessica Alba - ranked No. 2 on this year's “Hot 100” list by Maxim magazine - has a rebellious side.

“I love challenging authority,” the 26-year-old actress tells InStyle in its June issue, on newsstands Friday. “It probably wasn't easy being my parents. The second somebody says ‘no' to me is the second I'm going to jump up and say ‘yes!”'

Alba, whose screen credits include “Sin City” and “Into the Blue,” reprises her role as Susan Storm/Invisible Woman in “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” set for release June 15.

“My experience in this business is that if people think you're going to put people in seats because you have a fan base, it's more important than anything,” she says.

She's finally “getting to play characters and dive into things and not just be sort of this version of ‘this girl,”' says Alba, who found she was typecast as “some kind of little tart.”

- From wire reports