Gaga ready to return to pop after hip op

WHAT DO Lady Gaga and Alex Rodriguez have in common? Both are planning their return from hip surgery.

Gaga's is more likely to happen.

The "Poker Face" singer will make her comeback at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 25. It will be one of her first appearances since going under the knife in February.

She will sing her new single at the show, which will air live from Brooklyn's Barclays Center, home of the new-and-improved NBA Nets. Her new album, "ARTPOP," will drop Nov. 11.

Justin Timberlake and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis lead the VMA Awards with six nominations each. Bruno Mars is up for four awards. Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, Pink and Thirty Seconds to Mars have three nominations each.

But, seriously, does anyone care (or even know) who wins the awards?

The Amanda Bynes mockery doesn't seem so funny now that TMZ.com hospital sources say she's showing signs of schizophrenia.

TMZ reports that during her psychiatric hold, Amanda has demonstrated long periods of lucidity, calmness and pleasant behavior and then she will, pardon the expression, wig out.

Sources tell TMZ that Amanda is aware "there's a good Amanda and a bad Amanda."

And "bad Amanda" is a bit like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist."

Today, Amanda's parents will be in a California courtroom seeking to become conservators of her estate.

Two Pakistan Tattle items in one week! That has to be a record.

Yesterday, Tattle learned that the country's media regulatory agency has banned a condom commercial starring a sultry Pakistani model after it received hundreds of complaints the ad was too racy, a senior official said.

The 50-second TV spot shows a Pakistani couple wondering why their neighbor's new bride, the model and actress Mathira Mohammed (playing herself), is working so hard to keep her husband happy. When asked about his secret, the neighbor smiles and holds up a pack of condoms made by Josh, which means excitement in Urdu.

(Here in the office, "Josh" means phillydailynews.com.)

"Bring Josh into your life," the neighbor says, just before explosions flash behind boxes of condoms on the screen.

Pakistani regulators banned the commercial Tuesday after reviewing it and determining that it violated the group's code of conduct, said senior official Mohammad Saleem.

Though mentioning strawberry-flavored condoms, the ad otherwise isn't racy by Western standards.

Advertiser Josh is a nonprofit organization founded to promote family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention through social marketing, according to the company's Facebook page.

One of the things holding back contraceptive use in Pakistan has been the conservative norms of the majority Muslim country. The lack of contraception results in hundreds of thousands of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies every year, according to demographic experts.

On Sunday, TV host Aamir Liaquat Hussain raised eyebrows when he surprised a couple during a broadcast by giving them an infant girl who had been abandoned outside a charity in Karachi. What, you were expecting a check from Publishers Clearing House?

The husband, Zulfiqar Hussain (presumably no relation), said he and his wife had been trying to have kids unsuccessfully for at least 17 years.

Even weirder? Zakir Samad, a spokesman for the charity where the child was abandoned, Chhipa, said the organization puts cradles outside its offices so people can drop off their unwanted children.

Here we can't even get people to recycle empty bottles.

Cynical critics, however, questioned whether the baby hand-off was simply an attempt to boost ratings and advertising revenue during Ramadan.

* Universal Furniture International, the North Carolina-based company that markets Paula Deen's furniture line, is sticking with the embattled celebrity chef.

So says the High Point Enterprise.

Jeff Scheffer of Universal Furniture says he feels bad for Deen. He says the Deen he knows is not the one who has been portrayed in the media recently.

Scheffer wrote retailers saying his company accepts Deen's apologies for her previous comments. He says part of the decision is based on retail customer feedback.

* Imax and Chinese partner Wanda Cinema Line plan to open up to 120 giant-screen cinemas in China's fast-growing film market.

Wanda Cinema is a unit of Wanda Group, which in 2012 acquired AMC Theatres.

* Boston radio station Kiss 108 canceled its contest to find Taylor Swift's biggest fan - the prize being a chance to meet the singer - when it was won by a 39-year-old man with the single name of Charles who stated for the record that he merely wanted to take a whiff of Taylor's golden locks as cameras rolled.

So as not to bring Taylor and Charles together, and perhaps later be forced to testify at the trial, Kiss 108 said the contest's "integrity" had been "compromised."

No word yet if Charles plans to take a sniff of a lawsuit.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

Phone: 215-854-5678

On Twitter: @DNTattle