Rhythm guitar player John Wilkinson, who performed with Elvis Presley more than a thousand times, has died at his home in southwest Missouri. He was 67.

Wilkinson passed away Friday at his home in Springfield after a fight with cancer, according to a family spokesman and the Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home. Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley offered their "deepest sympathy" to his family, saying in a statement that "John and the beautiful music he made with Elvis will live forever in our hearts."

Wilkinson first met Elvis Presley when he was 10 years old after sneaking into his dressing room before a show at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield. He amused Presley when he told him, "You can't play guitar worth a damn."

Family friend and spokesman Gary Ellison said a Springfield history museum recalled the pair's meeting in an exhibit that ran until about three weeks ago.

"John loved to tell that story," Ellison, a fellow musician, said Friday.

After the chance meeting, Wilkinson developed a name for himself as a singer and guitarist, performing with such groups as The New Christy Minstrels.

He was 23 when Presley saw him perform on a television show in Los Angeles in 1968, and asked him to join the TCB Band – not knowing he was the youngster who insulted his playing a decade earlier, Ellison recalled.

Wilkinson went on to play 1,200 shows as Presley's rhythm guitar player until the legendary singer's death in 1977.

"John considered Elvis more as a friend than as a boss," Ellison said.

Even after suffering a stroke in 1989 that left him unable to play the guitar, Wilkinson continued singing with fellow musicians, including the old TCB Band (the acronym stood for Taking Care of Business), and also made a living in retail and airline services management.

"He was honestly one of the best acoustic guitar players I'd ever heard," Ellison recalled, adding that Wilkinson kept in touch with many of the performers from the folk music era in the late 1960s and early `70s.

A statement from the family, released through Ellison, said Wilkinson also was proud of the fact that he never turned down a request for an autograph.

"It didn't matter if he was meeting adoring fans, joking with Chuck Berry about keeping his B-string in tune, or if he was talking to a neighbor about her dog, people were people to him," the statement said.

She may have been one of the hottest stars on the red carpet in her stunning Zuhair Murad aquamarine gown at the Emmys 2012, but no one would have guessed that Sofia Vergara experienced a disastrous wardrobe malfunction just before stepping onto the red carpet.

The 40-year-old sexy Modern Family actress suffered a terrible fashion faux pas just 20 minutes before hitting the bash where her hit TV show triumphed, sharing snaps of her mishap on Twitter of a broken back zip.

Renowned for her famous hour-glass figure and killer curves, Sofia's derriere proved too voluptuous for its own good as the high end designer dress failed to contain it.

The actress tweeted a snap of the hilarious wardrobe malfunction with the caption: ''Yes!!!! This happend 20 min before we won!!!! Jajajajja. I luv my life!!!!''

Sofia, in high spirits, later thanked her wardrobe team for helping her through the traumatising slip up before she headed onto the stage to pick up the gong for Outstanding Comedy for her show Modern Family, for the third consecutive year.

She wrote: ''20 min Modern Family won!! Dress malfuncion !!! Thank you emergency team!!''

But even if Sofia had collected her award with the Tom Kitten style rip in her dress, she would have still been the sexiest red carpet goer at the bash in the feminine number that did wonders for her figure.

Sofia Vergara's famous curves proved too much for her designer gown last night - after her dress split open, right over her derriere.

The Modern Family star suffered a wardrobe malfunction just 20 minutes before her hit TV show won a prestigious gong at the Emmy Awards.

The 40-year-old actress shared pictures of her fashion mishap on her Twitter page, showing the busted back zip of her Zuhair Murad teal cut-out gown.

Between her many nominations and choices of glamorous dresses, awards season is an exciting time time for "Modern Family" actress Sofia Vergara.

But Vergara, who has now scored three Golden Globe and three Emmy nods for her portrayal of Colombian-born bombshell Gloria on "Modern Family," doesn't have the best track record when it comes to keeping her curve-hugging gowns intact.

Two days before the 2013 Golden Globes, Vergara spoke with HuffPost TV via phone to discuss what she would do to prevent another slip.

"I always try, but some things happen that you cannot control," she said. "You know, it's a lot of a drama. You get in and out of cars and run because you're late backstage, and you have to try to go to the bathroom with those dresses. It's hard! They get a lot of wear and tear. It's a big possibility that things happen."

Just moments before "Modern Family" nabbed the award for Best Comedy at the 2012 Emmys, Vergara's teal Zuhair Murad split down the rear.

Uh-oh! This can't be good for Kim Kardashian's mental health as the mommy-to-be is busy house-hunting and shopping for shoes with beau Kanye West.

After facing trademark infringement allegations last year for their Khroma Beauty line, the Kardashian sisters have been hit with hefty lawsuit. Celebrity makeup artist Lee Tillett is seeking $10 million in damages from the fashionable trio and Boldface Licensing + Branding, the company that owns Khroma Beauty's license, for allegedly swiping the name of her cosmetics line and adding an "h."

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Tillett, who launched Kroma Makeup in 2004, filed the suit this Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court. She had previously filed a cease and desist letter back in June to Boldface Licensing + Branding, taking action one step further than Chroma Makeup.

"I developed the Kroma line myself, built my business through my own hard work, and took the legal steps necessary to protect it," Tillett said in a press statement. "And yet I have now been forced into legal battle with the Kardashians simply because they have decided to take something that doesn't belong to them."

While Boldface had told The Huffington Post last October that they too had gone through the necessary legal steps to secure their name, Tillett is preparing to protect her brand's name and money at all costs.

What do you think of the latest development in the Khroma Beauty legal battle? Do you think the Kardashians should pay up? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section.

Meanwhile, check out some celebrities who've had more successful ventures into the beauty world!

If you've read the recent New York Times Magazine profile of Lindsay Lohan, you may have wondered how the actress feels about the piece. Well, wonder no more, because, according to sources, she's fine with it.

Despite what many would say is a brutally honest portrait of Lohan's troubled career, sources tell TMZ that the "Mean Girls" actress acknowledges that the details in the story are true. Those close to Lohan say she admits to having been late to the set of "The Canyons," nervous to get undressed and argumentative with producers. The one thing sources say she adamantly rejects, however, is the portion in which she reportedly drinks and drives.

Lohan says most of what the story describes is standard practice in Hollywood, but she insists the drinking-and-driving portion is malarkey. Lohan claims she did not drink on set and then drive a car afterward, one of the article's several instances of Lohan wreaking havoc while shooting the movie. TMZ reports that friends of Lohan said the actress feels she is more responsible than that.

Lohan reportedly is not mad about the story, which chronicles the filming of the salacious Bret Easton Ellis-penned movie as it revolves around Lohan's notorious troubles. She says she's already been approached by "Canyons" director Paul Schrader to star in another of his movies.

The ladies at Thursday's Critics' Choice Awards definitely took a page from Taylor Swift's book, hitting the red carpet in gowns with plunging necklines and exposed cleavage.

"Silver Linings Playbook" star Jennifer Lawrence looked her best in a black gown with strategic cutout. "Zero Dark Thirty's" Jessica Chastain looked radiant in red, while Jaime King turned heads in black.

Even Sally Field dared to go with a plunging neckline, proving sixty-something are still sexy!

The red carpet was also the public debut of one couple we never expected to see together: MMA fighter-turned-actress Gina Carano and "Man of Steel" Henry Cavill.

Click on the "Launch Gallery" above to see even more stars, including Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey and Eva Longoria!

Beyoncé graced the latest edition of GQ. You can read the two page profile here and learn about all the crazy stuff she believes in. Like the empowerment of women. Just kidding. Anyway, she goes into detail about the existence of a digital archive of her entire life. Whatever she wants, be it an interview, a performance or what she had for dinner on Tuesday, she can pull up with the click of a button. It’s actually pretty amazing.

The high point of the article comes at the end with a quote from Beyoncé about the power she wields. ”I now know that, yes, I am powerful,” she says. “I’m more powerful than my mind can even digest and understand.”

After she said that, the clouds parted, transcendent music played and a ray of light enveloped her as she sprouted angel wings and ascended into heaven. Actually, it was just Jay-Z shining a flashlight above her while her assistant played the harp and attached costume angel wings to her. This interview is over!

On his Friday radio show, conservative talker and Fox News host Sean Hannity warned that the United States may fall apart if tax rates remain high.

“The states are now fighting and battling against their own federal government,” Hannity said. ”Same thing with individuals. If you live in a state like New York, New Jersey, California [or] one of these high-tax states [where] 60-plus cents of every dollar goes to taxes, you’ll say, ‘What the hell am I doing this for?’”

“A lot of people have told me that,” Hannity continued. “A lot of people are moving. … I noticed that Bobby Jindal moved to remove his state income tax. He’s not stupid. You know what’s going to happen in Louisiana? The same thing that is happening in Texas and Florida — their populations are soaring. They’re doing a lot better. State governments are fine. They’re surviving. They don’t have the property taxes they do in New York, which is obscene. In New York, you just pay and pay and pay and pay.”

States with lower taxes may soon decide they want to stop shouldering the burden of states with higher taxes, Hannity warned.

“People that are fed up with a power hungry, radicalized, abusive federal government intruding into every aspect of our lives,” Hannity continued. “People are going to say they’re fed up, and states are going to want more liberty and more freedom. They’re not going to want to tax their citizens to death anymore. If this pattern continues and gets worse and worse and worse, I can see at some point the states saying, ‘Forget it. I don’t want to be a part of this union anymore.’”

Hannity rejected the idea that secession is necessarily a “radical concept,” arguing that the Declaration of Independence is itself a “radical document.”

“There is a tipping point in all of these debates,” he said. “Now, politically speaking, that means people are going to be thrown out of office, I hope. But if not, there are going to be people in more conservative states that have had enough. I can see a state like Utah saying, ‘Enough is enough,’ [and] a state like Texas saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ I absolutely can.”

“A lot of people [are] getting sick” of President Barack Obama’s executive orders on matters like immigration policy, Hannity added.

Evan Rachel Wood is pregnant! Us Weekly reports that the "True Blood" actress, 25, is expecting her first child with British actor Jamie Bell, 26. Bell most notably appeared as the titular character in the 2000 film "Billy Elliot."

"Evan Rachel Wood and husband Jamie Bell confirmed they are expecting their first child later this year. The couple is thrilled," a rep for the actress told the publication.

Wood and Bell married on Oct. 30, 2011 in an intimate ceremony with friends and family in California. Shortly thereafter, Wood denied rumors that she was pregnant, going so far as to tweet in November: "Sorry to disappoint! But no baby on the way here."

On Friday, Wood recognized the irony of that statement on the social network, writing: "Remember when i said, 'No baby on the way here' Well I didn't know there actually was!"

The soon-to-be parents met in 2005 while shooting a music video for Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends." Wood was previously engaged to singer Marilyn Manson, whom she dated from 2006 to 2010.

The Duchess of Cambridge's first official portrait was has been unveiled - and was described by Kate as "amazing".

Award-winning artist Paul Emsley created the large head and shoulders painting of the duchess set against his trademark dark background.

Kate's painting was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and, following her suggestion, depicts her natural, not official, persona.

The official portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge, by Paul Emsley

The Duchess, who wore a burgundy dress by Whistles, was joined by her husband the Duke for a private viewing of the painting this morning before it goes on display to the public this afternoon.

The royal couple spent around 10 minutes looking at the portrait privately then met Emsley and his wife Susanne and daughter Marie.

Kate has been suffering from a rare form of pregnancy sickness but looked well and smiled as she chatted to the artist.

She told him: "It's just amazing, I thought it was brilliant."

William also had high praise for the painting, saying: "It's beautiful, it's absolutely beautiful."

The Cambridges later attended a private breakfast reception at the London gallery to mark the unveiling.

Among the guests were Kate's parents Carole and Michael Middleton and her brother and sister Pippa and James.