Hilary Duff RCA

DUFF STUFF: Hilary Duff will drop her first single as an RCA artist, the Colbie Caillat-co-penned "Chasing the Sun," on 7/29 (it's available for preorder now), with an album, her fifth, due sometime in the fall. Duff, who began her career as the title character of Disney's Lizzie McGuire franchise and achieved platinum status multiple times as a Hollywood-signed act in the first years of the millennium, took a hiatus from music in 2008, ostensibly to focus on acting and writing. In that time she established her own clothing line, a branded jeans line for DKNY and two Elizabeth Arden fragrances, and published a novel that hit the New York Times bestsellers list. Label CEO Peter Edge welcomed the "supremely talented" artist to the fold; President Tom Corson hailed her as a "global superstar." Both noted that Nipper had all kinds of questions for her about the relationship between Goofy and Pluto. (7/23a)