Sarandon wants monitoring for U.S. elections

Susan Sarandon wants the U.S. presidential elections to be monitored by outside interests. The “Bull Durham” star says that the 2004 vote was so fraudulent that we need international oversight — like troubled third-world countries do.

“I believe our next election should be monitored by international entities, just like it happened in Haiti and Iraq,” Sarandon told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, according to our translator. “The last one was an embarrassment. Everybody knew there was fraud, but nothing was done about it. In some states there were more votes than people able to vote.”

Sarandon, who recently made headlines when she expressed her disappointment with Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton — who is widely considered to be a possible presidential candidate — and isn’t terribly optimistic about other Dems. “I honestly hope that the Democratic Party finds a candidate for the presidency, but I recognize that the scenario isn’t inspiring.”

Her assessment of President Bush’s administration isn’t upbeat either. “I think we’ve never been as close to George Orwell’s ‘1984’ as before,” she said. “We live in a society where individual rights and legality are definitely threatened and that’s scary.”

House hunting
Is Madonna house hunting in Israel?

The Kabbalah-loving diva reportedly is touring there this fall, and what’s more, she’s interested in buying a house in the ancient city of Safed, where Kabbalah was born. The diva’s previous visit to Israel caused international headlines.

“I know negotiations [for the concert] are at an advanced stage,” a “source close to Madonna” said, according to the Israeli news site, Israel21c, which also reports the rumors that she would like to put down stakes in Safed. “I haven’t heard that anything’s been sewn up — but I’d say it’s 80 percent that she’s coming.”

Notes from all over
Looks like Teri Hatcher’s new sweetie has relationship issues. “Growing up, I was very neurotic. I didn’t think I could trust anyone. I mean, literally, when I was younger, if a girl was in my house, I was afraid she was going to take something. You know what I mean?” Ryan Seacrest told Details mag. “I guess in my head I was protective of everything around me, because I was so desperately needing to be successful. I felt like if I fell in love, that would distract me, take me off the path a little bit, and I might blame that person.” ... Speaking of Hatcher, 71 percent of the public believes that her breasts are real, while 60 percent of the public believes that Jessica Simpson had a little surgical help in that department. Those are but a few of the earth-shattering revelations culled from a highly unscientific survey of 11,000 gamblers conducted by BetUS.com. In other results, 96 percent believe Tara Reid got breast implants; 88 percent said Mariah Carey did, 72 percent say Tori Spelling, did, and 98 percent believe Natalie Portman did not. ... Sharon Stone hasn’t given up on love. While promoting “Basic Instinct 2,” the star kept extolling the virtues of being single, but then blurted out: “I hope love at first sight still exists at 50. Can you just keep your fingers crossed for me?”

Jeannette Walls delivers the Scoop Monday through Thursday on MSNBC.com.