There might not have been quite as many Hilary Duff fans at Copps Coliseum last night as there have been at her previous concerts here. But they’re a bit bigger now, taller, and so maybe, by weight and height, there was as much fan in the seats as in the past.

And even if the crowd did not have the literal weight and mass to equal past audiences, they had it figuratively.

The nine thousand or so fans were actually listening to the music and not just shrieking in fits of fan mania as they did two or three years ago.

They were wildly enthusiastic and dancing in their seats but they seemed prepared to follow Duff, who has also grown musically, as she moves her act into more adult territory.

The rhythms and lyrics are more challenging, the themes a tad more shadeed, but not radically. Just a tad.

Duff is making her transition in manageable strides, perhaps out of respect for her fans. And last night showed a lot of respect, not just for their ability to keep up with her changes but also for their need to still be children.

And, so, while she performed a healthy dose of songs from her new, more adult contemporary album Dignity — Never Stop, and a churning take on Gypsy Woman — she balanced them with almost as many hits from the past.

Duff, like so many child stars, is having to negotiate the passage into adulthood with all that means in terms of altered demographics, new material and adjustments in style.

We have seen what has happened to some of her contemporaries who have taken the curves too fast. She even did a song last night, the backdrop to which featured a fast-shifting montage of scandal sheet headlines.

Duff, for all the bump and grind in her show, mostly by her exceptional backup dancers, has preserved much of the sweetness and ingenue charm that her fans associate with an earlier stage in her career.Her between-song patter was full of positive values for young teens and those about to become ones.

Before the show last night, HECFI chief executive officer Duncan Gillespie presented Duff with a special jacket saying Hilary Duff Number One. This was to recognize that she has sold more tickets at Copps than any other solo artist — 45,000, including a couple of almost instantly sold-out shows.

Her days of instant sellout might be on hold until she solidifies her new fan base. But if she keeps putting on shows like she did last night the fans will not desert her.

Last night’s show did not sell out, but there was a more than respectable turnout and they brought a real energy which, when mingled with Duff’s own and her band’s, made for a night of memorable entertainment for an awful lot of young people, whose faces were beaming after the show.

There was a dynamic light show, some sparkling choreography, and a lot of very creative stagecraft.

On a lot of the more driving number, Duff may not have quite the voice or dancing prowess to carry all the locomotive power on her own and this is where the other elements of the presentation came strongly into play.

It is a big part of any star’s artistry to know her or his own limitations. And when Duff got intimate with her audience on a heart-wrencher like Someone’s Watching Over Me, she bore the whole weight of her show and her growing audience more than capably on her very own shoulders.

[Source: Ultimate Hilary]
[Photo Credit: Oh Hilary]

A grand crowd waited at the doors of Time Supper Club, as the Dignity Tour buses drove pass, dropping off the evening’s guest of honor, Hilary Duff. Guests were taking the last bites of their dinners, when Duff walked in the club and into the “Music Loves Fashion” event, produced by Time Supper Club, Produkt Communications, and Myspace. All eyes gazed at the star and her crew as they stepped into their beautifully decked out VIP retreat, complete with exotic fruit platters, exquisite canapés, vitamin water bottles, fresh juice blends, and premium Belvedere Vodka bottles that were left unopened.

At around 11:15pm, the lights were dimmed down, sexy electronica music blasted the speakers, and the highly anticipated Soïa & Kyo coat fashion show started. The models, with dazzling tresses styled by Redken, trailed across Time’s signature 4-foot high illuminated catwalk, as industry professionals, the jet set, and Hilary Duff watched. Until the last walk, the crowd was whistling and clapping, Hilary’s area was on high-octane energy mode, and superstar DJ Yo-C was burning up the turntables with pure Hip-Hop tracks.

Duff couldn’t contain her excitement as she moved to the DJ booth through the bustling crowd, grabbed the earphones, and jammed a couple of tunes with a keen smile – not forgetting to include in the mix her hit “Stranger” as her adoring fans sang along. As soon as the song ended, she quickly stepped down to take photographs, autographs, and hugs.
Duff then waived to her crew and pointed towards the terrace.

An African styled hut housed the crew, as they continued to dance and sing to
internationally acclaimed DJ/artist Sultan. Time Supper Club’s glowing terrace was
packed with loungers and bottles on the impossibly conformable daybeds. Duff stuck to her non-alcoholic beverages and took in her Time experience to the maximum. More fans came to take a peak at Duff, who gladly snuck out of the hut to do a round of photos and autographs. Sadly by 1:45am, the tour bus had to hit the road. Duff walked away waiving and blowing kisses.

Yet another “Music Loves Fashion” event, in coordination with Myspace, which
heightened all senses and emotions!

[Source: Ultimate Hilary]
[Photo Credit: Oh-Hilary]

It makes perfect sense former tween queen Hilary Duff would want to name her most recent album Dignity. For one thing, she’s one of the only stars her age who could pull it off. To date, Duff is one of scant few members of Hollywood’s new guard who have yet to be arrested, shipped off to rehab, or caught flashing their lady parts to paparazzi while clumsily exiting a limo.

Instead, she has made a pretty smooth transition to popular big-screen projects such as A Cinderella Story and Cheaper by the Dozen from the teen-TV fare Lizzie Maguire. Along the way she’s released six CDs, and while critics haven’t always been kind to her fluffy brand of pop, the Dignity disc — awash in electro-clash stylings and heavily autobiographical lyrics — has been met with mostly positive reviews.

So what is it that keeps Duff, already a showbiz veteran at the tender age of 19, out of the scandal sheets?

“I guess it’s my mom,” says Duff, who plays Scotiabank Place tomorrow night. “I really feel like that is what has made it so easy for me to not have to go through all that.

“My mom and my sister being so close to me, and my actually caring what they have to say … Also having a mom that doesn’t want the lifestyle I have, but who just wants to be my mom.”

Perhaps we have Duff’s mom to thank for the pop star’s preternatural poise, which seems a bit at odds with the awkward antics she engaged in on the Lizzie Maguire set back in the day.

“Well, in some ways I was a lot like that character, but I’ve also always been pretty mature for my age,” says Duff, when asked which persona — clumsy klutz or dignified diva — most resembles the real-life Hilary.

DIRTY LAUNDRY

Not that she’s looking to show all her cards anytime soon. A far more private person than her compatriots, Duff says she found it difficult to air some of her dirty laundry on Dignity.

“At first it was scary, because you’re like, ‘How much do I want people to know?’ ” explains Duff, who’s romantically linked to former Ottawa Senator Mike Comrie. “It’s hard to let your guard down when you’re so used to having it up, but it got easier.”

That practice should prove beneficial where Duff’s acting career is concerned, especially since it’s the outlet she plans to focus on whenever doubling as an actress and a singer grows too demanding.

Though her prior efforts have netted her a string of Razzie Award nominations (not a good thing), she’s got two high-profile film projects due out this year — voice-work on the animated comedy Foodfight!, and a part in the political satire War Inc.

But fans of her albums needn’t worry — she isn’t done with singing just yet.

“It’s that instant gratification of having a live audience in front of you,” Duff says, when asked what recording offers that acting doesn’t. “Having people who don’t even speak the same language as you relating to you, and singing all the words to your songs.”

[Source: HDuffWorld]
[Photo Credit: Oh-Hilary]

As teen star Hilary Duff edges into her transition from squeaky-clean television and movie star to pop starlet, she seems to be making her own rules. Some of her peers — Lindsay Lohan comes quickly to mind — appear hell-bent on making a train wreck of their public images, clearly in confused attempts to break from their Mickey Mouse pasts and assert their coming adulthood.

Duff, however, is taking things slowly. Her dance-oriented, fluffy pop is innocuous, but slightly more thoughtful than most similar music that fits such a bill. And she’s made the jump to the photo-spread for Maxim magazine, like so many divas-in-waiting before her, but instead of coming off like a runaway strumpet, Duff is — like her music, and like the character she’s repeatedly played on TV and the big screen — more wholesome, less show boaty, as if she’s convinced dipping one toe into the pop-machine pool is a wiser course than stripping naked and diving straight in.

Duff’s first tour as an adult brings her to the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. appearance. She brings along her guests, the teen-pop version of ’70s power-poppers the Knack known as the Click Five.

Tickets are priced $25-$45 reserved, $20 on the lawn, and can be found now through www.LiveNation.com, and all Ticketmaster locations.

[Source: Buffalo News]
[Photo Credit: Democraticat and Chronicle]

One thing is clear after Thursday night’s performance at the Bank of America Pavilion: Hilary Duff isn’t just moonlighting as a musician.

The former Lizzie McGuire, successful film actress and teen-pop princess is taking her role in music seriously, and it shows.

Judging by the set of teens, tweens and parent chaperones in the audience, Duff still caters to a younger crowd, but does so with the air and style of a young sophisticate and the positivity of a motivational speaker.

And while Duff may not be this generation’s power vocalist, her high-pitched, angelic vocals held up well throughout the night, as on the “Laguna Beach” theme song and crowd sing-along “Come Clean.”

There was plenty to focus on during Duff’s 90-minute set: multicolored light shows, urban-sexy backup dancers, Duff prancing around the stage and working in light choreography, as on the butt-bumping fun of “Never Stop.”

Duff’s arsenal of glam-sexy jumper dresses, glittery tunics, sequined frocks and short flapper skirts helped keep things interesting, while her pre-song speeches about following dreams and ignoring negativity likely made parents happy they brought their children to the show.

Duff explored different genres, working in the disco flavor of “Play With Fire” and “Danger,” the pop/rock of “The Getaway” and the synth-heavy power pop of “With Love,” which garnered mega-screams from the crowd.

The 19-year-old threw in a few cover songs as well, including the Go-Gos’ “Our Lips Are Sealed” and Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield,” with Duff lending sweetness to the gritty chorus while her backup crew got into their best fist-pumping, pseudo-tough stances.

Duff’s double encore included an impressive reworking of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” and even though few audience members were likely old enough to know the original, it didn’t seem to matter.

Boston’s own Click 5, a shaggy-haired boy band somewhere between the Beatles and Backstreet Boys, provided adequate scream warm-up, especially with the spunky pop/rock of “Headlight Disco.”

[Source & Photo Credit: Ultimate Hilary]

Hilary Duff began her North American Dignity Tour in Winnipeg in July and will end it with shows in Quebec and Ontario this September.

The teen pop star/actress has helped collect more than 125,000 pounds of food on her past two Canadian tours and is asking fans to bring canned goods in support of Canadian Harvest and the Salvation Army to her upcoming shows.

“Working with Canadian Harvest is a way for me to give something back to the community,” says Duff. “The past two times I toured Canada, my fans did an amazing job of providing canned goods to help the efforts of this great organization. I’m certain this time my fans can do even better.”

If you want to take Duff up on her challenge, Salvation Army volunteers will be collecting donations at the entry gates to the concert venues.

Duff is touring in support of her fourth studio album, Dignity. She’ll appear in the upcoming film War, Inc. with John Cusack and her voice will be heard in the animated movie, Foodfight!.

Here are Duff’s Canadian tour dates:

Sept. 4 Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
Sept. 5 Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place
Sept. 6 Hamilton, ON @ Copps Coliseum
Sept. 8 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
Sept. 10 London, ON @ John Labatt Centre
Sept. 11 Sault Ste. Marie, ON @ Steelback Centre

[Source & Photo Credit: Ultimate Hilary]

Singer-actress Hilary Duff joined Stan Curtis’ Kentucky Harvest at the St. Vincent DePaul’s Open Hand Kitchen in Louisville, Ky.

Curtis founded the Kentucky Harvest in 1978. It has since expanded to become the international food-sharing program U.S.A. Harvest, The Louisville Courier-Journal reported Sunday.

“Good things happen because good people stand up and make them happen,” Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said at the event.

Duff joined the cause after she and Curtis met several years ago while distributing food in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, he said.

Duff also met with 186 fans — each of whom brought 1,000 cans of food for U.S.A. Harvest — prior to a performance at the Louisville Palace Saturday night.

[Source: Post Chronicle]
[Photo Credit: HDuffWorld]

Singer/actress Hilary Duff is such a bad driver, her friends and family avoid getting into the car when she is behind the wheel. The Lizzie McGuire star may be able to sing, act and dance but admits driving is not one of her greatest talents.

She says, “My garage sometimes jumps out at me.

“The other day I heard a scratch as I was pulling my car out. I thought I just ran over some bubble wrap so I kept going. When I got out I saw my mirror was hanging off. Everyone is scared to get in the car with me.”

[Source: PR Inside]
[Photo Credit: HDuffWorld]

Hilary Duff has been banned from buying her dream car by her business manager – because she’s a terrible driver.

The actress wants to get behind the wheel of a Porsche Cayenne 4×4, but her friends and family fear she’ll end up injured or in court.

She says, “The car I want is a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. But my business manager doesn’t want me to buy it – he says that I’m a terrible driver and don’t need that kind of car.

“The other day I had a little accident because I was driving while I was on the phone. It was just a tap, nothing serious, so I thought, I’ll keep going it’s fine, whatever. But my business manager told me, ‘You have to be careful, because people will sue you.’ So I need to be cautious.”

[Source: Post Chronicle]
[Photo Credit: HDuffWorld]

Centner is well versed when it comes to celebrity lifestyles and their party expectations. Eatertainment has planned and executed events for the likes of Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart and Hilary Duff. With guest lists that include Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Eva Longoria and Matt Damon, Centner is a pro at developing Hollywood-worthy atmospheres with menus, cocktails and dicor, and is a regular go-to source for all things entertaining. All actores will be in Toronto to premier their new movies and promote them. (Thanks to duffstuff on Hilaryfan).

So, Hilary will be attending the Toronto International Film Fesitival 2007 to promote and premiere her new movie, “War Inc”. Also, Hilary is set to perform on the MTV Latina America Video Music Awards [LAMVA]s 2007 in Mexico.

[Source & Photo Credit: HDuffWorld]