In 2006 a small-town girl from North Carolina named Kellie Pickler found fame on American Idol’s fifth season, charming even grumpy Simon.

Six years later Kellie’s got three albums, tons of awards, and a freshman spot on Maxim’s 2012 Hot 100 under her belt. But none of these trump Kellie’s most admirable accomplishment: her unwavering support for America’s troops. This past Memorial Day marked her fifth tour with the USO.

Maxim: You recently came back from your fifth USO tour. What first inspired you to get involved?
Kellie Pickler: I come from a military family. My grandfather is a retired Marine, and I’ve always had a great deal of respect for anyone who serves our country. It really does take someone special to sacrifice everything. I don’t mean just their lives, either. There are men who are sacrificing the chance to hold their newborn baby!

Maxim: Do people ever mistake you for military?
KP: I go through the airport with the official military travel backpacks, and people will come up and say, “Thank you for your service.” I’m like, “Oh, no. Don’t let these bags fool you. I’m just a big supporter!” I know they’re either going, “She’s in the service?” or “Man, we’re f***ed.”

Maxim: You’ve sure been overseas a lot. Do you have any favorite USO memories?
KP: This past trip we were at Camp Spann in Afghanistan, and there’s a little chapel there. It’s nothing fancy, but it has a lot of love, and my whole band and I stayed up one night until 3 a.m., picking with the soldiers who played guitar. We had a picking party.

Maxim: A picking party?
KP: It’s kind of like a songwriter round, and people jump up onstage, pick and play whatever they want, and sing their hearts out. It was really cool to do that in a little chapel in Afghanistan.

Go to Maxim.com for the full interview with Kellie Pickler and more photos from her sexy cover shoot.

Actress Minka Kelly is reportedly the latest in a long line of celebrities who reportedly have a sex tape being shopped around.

According to a report from TMZ, the 30-minute tape features Kelly with an ex-boyfriend.

The former “Friday Night Lights” actress, 32, reportedly shot the tape in 1998, but it has only recently surfaced.

There is some additional controversy surrounding the tape because Kelly, who recently split with longtime boyfriend Derek Jeter, may have been underage in the footage.

Click here to read more from TMZ.

Jennifer Lopez gives fans a sneak peak of her new video for “Goin’ In.” Check out this story and more in today’s Fox411’s HotLinks.

J. Lo’s new video for “Goin’ In.” — Celebuzz

Cybill Shepherd is engaged at 62! — People

Sophia Vergara set to guest star on “Family Guy.” — Entertainment Weekly

Elton John and husband David Furnish have hired a surrogate to have a second child. — The Daily

Windy conditions create a wardrobe malfunction for Francia Raisa at the Teen Choice Awards. — TooFab

(Photo: Reuters)

The August issue of GQ features the gorgeous Tracy Spiridakos who stars in the new series, Revolution, premiering this fall on NBC.

She may look like a girly girl in the pics, but she admits, “I’m obsessed with my PlayStation.”

“I’ll come home and plug away at Fallout for a couple of hours,” she says. “Or if I’m feeling the hacking and slashing, I’ll play a little God of War.” 

Check out all her pics at GQ.com.

Lady Gaga bares all for a new fragrance ad. Check out this story and more in today’s Fox411’s Hot Links:

Robin Thicke lands first movie role. - Entertainment Weekly

Lady Gaga goes nude for fragrance ad. - People 

Backstreet Boys announce new comeback album and first reunion show. - Celebuzz

It was a close call for Katie Holmes and daughter Suri Cruise last night as the two were involved in a fender-bender with a garbage dumptruck, according to X17 Online.

Katie and Suri were believed to be seated in the back seat of their limo when the vehicle was struck on rear driver’s side, but no one was injured. According to X17, the truck backed into the car.

Click here for more from X17 Online.

(Photo: X17)

Kristen Wiig says she is aware that it seems like she left “Saturday Night Live” because her film career was taking off at lightning speed. And while she admits that was part of it, she says she always knew her days there had an endpoint.

She tells Marie Claire in their August coverstory:

ldquo;I know a lot of people probably assume, ‘Oh, she’s leaving because she is going to be doing movies now and things like that,’ which I will be. But I just always knew it was going to be seven and that was it. I think maybe if I were 22, I could see myself staying a little bit, but it just felt like the right time.”

She continues: Still, “it was very emotional. I just wanted to get through it without breaking down in every sketch. Because nothing says comedy like breaking down.”

But despite the sadness she felt at leaving the show she called home, she says she is the happiest she has ever been.

“I will say that I’m happier than I’ve ever been, and I feel very lucky.”

“Why?: “Where I am now. Who he is. Those are the two big ones.” [in reference to boyfriend, Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti]

Click here for the full interview with Kristen at Marie Claire

Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Colin Farrell  are remaking the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic “Total Recall.” The movie’s stars talked to Maxim, on sale Thursday, about fighting, special skills, and the original movie’s iconic three-breasted hooker.

MAXIM: Do you ladies think that after all the fight training you’ve done, you could beat up a bad guy in an alley?
JB: I definitely feel like I could.
KB: I think what’s dangerous about being an actor who does action movies is you think, Well, I can totally handle myself now. But if my opponent didn’t know the other half of the routine, I don’t know how well I’d do.

HOT SHOTS: Biel and Beckinsale in Maxim.

MAXIM: Kate, you’ve cornered the market in tight-fitting costumes. What was your most uncomfortable outfit?
KB: Coming to “Total Recall” from “Underworld,” I very much appre­ciated the lack of rubber and leather and latex. But I would say probably my least favorite costume ever was in “Van Helsing.” That was a huge pain because it had thigh-high boots with 30 buckles on them that had to be done up individually.

MAXIM: What gadgets from Total Recall do you wish you had in real life?
JB: A hovercar.
CF: A three-breasted hooker in a hovercar! That’s what I was hoping for as my wrap gift.
KB: I like the phones that are in your hand. It’s a sort of implant that suddenly lights up and rings, and you put your hand to your ear. I probably say, “Where’s my phone?” about 15 times a day, so anything that could be implanted onto me like that—phone, keys, sunglasses—would be great.

MAXIM: Are you surprised how excited people are about the return of the three-breasted hooker?
KB: I have been quite surprised about that, especially in the age of people watching porn on their cell phones…. At one point, when it looked like I wouldn’t be able to play Lori, I was going to do a cameo as the three-breasted woman!

MAXIM: Really?
KB: Yeah, and I started fretting about where they’d put the third one. Have I actually got room for a third one in the middle, or would it go to the side? Would it then be under an armpit and actually not sexy?

MAXIM: What special skills do you have that no one knows about?
KB: Apparently, I’m very good at firing a gun without blinking, which is unusual. That’s why so many action characters have to wear sunglasses during shoot-out scenes. That’s my party trick.
JB: I can walk on my hands.
CF: If you spit chewing gum into the air, I can catch it.

Michael Phelps apparently likes for people to think he is normal, telling Details magazine that he doesn’t “count calories.”

He says, “Whether it’s Sour Patch Kids or Reese’s or a bag of chips, if I feel like eating it, I’m going to eat it.”

But just a few lines later, the Olympic swimmer reveals some of his pre-race methods are less than traditional.

“At home, I sleep in an altitude chamber set to about 8,000 feet,” he revealed.

Wow.

But then again, not everyone is an Olympic gold-medalist either. But while Phelps felt on top of the world after his big win in 2008, he tells Details that he certainly experienced some low moments as well.

“At that point, I just didn’t have anything. It was weird going from the highest of the high, the biggest point of your life—winning eight gold medals—and then saying, ‘All right, where do I go from here?’ I wasn’t motivated. I did nothing, literally nothing, for a long time. I gained 25 pounds. A friend of mine and I were playing football on the beach in Miami, and somebody got a picture of us and put it all over the place. And he’s like, “Bro, you gotta start working out, man. You are fat.”

“I realized that I probably hadn’t reached my full potential. There was still more in the tank. As I come to closure on my career, am I going to look back in 20 years and say, ‘What if?’ That’s something I don’t want.”

He also calls his infamous marijuana photo “a learning experience.”

“It was a learning experience. I’m the kind of person who has to go through the learning experiences myself. Somebody could tell me, “If you eat this much you’ll be fat,” and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, okay, let me try it.’   I’ll be the first to say I’ve made thousands of mistakes, but I’ve never made the same mistake twice.”

Click here for more of Michael Phelps in Details magazine.

GQ hit gold with their July cover shoot with model Kate Upton.

The super sexy photos from the shoot went viral, the video of Kate Upton dirty dancing during the shoot caused a media firestorm when it was banned and then reinstated by YouTube, and now the magazine is dipping back into the well one more time with outtakes (one is above) from their Upton files.

PHOTOS: All the Upton outtakes.

What’s next, photos GQ wished they would have taken of Kate Upton, starring other models that kind of look like her? Other models wear Kate Upton’s swimsuits? A special all-Upton issue of GQ?

The mind reels.

EXCLUSIVE: Kate Upton sexiest Carl’s Jr. spokesmodel ever.