Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane have always been an odd couple. Years ago, before Rebecca got pregnant with her first child, there were lots of rumors that she had a big drug problem, involving some hard, hard living. Eric seemed to be fine with it, probably because he used drugs too, and he and Rebecca had somewhat of an “unconventional” marriage that involved naked hang-outs with Hollywood madams (all on tape). Shortly after the faux-sex tape thing, Rebecca announced her first pregnancy, and everything seemed to settle down in their marriage. Time passed. Then, several months ago, Rebecca announced her second pregnancy (which I called) and two seconds later, Eric Dane announced that he was going into rehab for an addiction to pain medication. That was in July, and he allegedly checked himself in to a 30-day treatment program. He’s still there. And Life & Style reports that Rebecca wants him there, because their marriage is in shambles.

Just months away from the birth of the couple’s second child, Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane’s marriage is in trouble.

An insider close to the couple tells Life & Style exclusively, “She’s having problems with his addictions. He went to rehab to try to get it all straight before the birth of their second kid. They are trying, but the marriage is not working out.”

Life & Style has learned it’s so serious, Eric has voluntarily remained in rehab weeks after completing a 30-day treatment program to beat his dependence on prescription painkillers. A source confirms that Eric is improving, however, he and Rebecca “aren’t talking much.”

Reveals the insider, “Rebecca is trying to hold it all together as she deals with her pregnancy, but she thinks right now it’s better if she’s alone.”

The source adds that Eric wants to make sure his problems are behind him before moving back into the house, so for now, “Rebecca’s family has flown in from Kentucky to support her.”

Rebecca was seen without her wedding ring on Aug. 18 at a book-launch party in LA and again not wearing her ring on Aug. 27 leaving an LA Target.

[From Life & Style]

My first reaction was “Why is Rebecca getting so high and mighty about Eric’s problems when he stuck with her through her issues?” I guess I wasn’t taking into consideration the fact that Rebecca is a mother now, and she’s hopefully putting her children’s welfare ahead of her own…? For the kids’ sakes, I hope Rebecca has vanquished her demons and she is really putting Billie and her unborn kid ahead of herself. But I suspect that it’s a mixture of things – Eric’s problems, plus Rebecca just wants out of a marriage that wasn’t that strong to begin with, no matter how many kids they have. Oh, and CB thinks Eric was having an affair – though they both could have been screwing around, judging from their attitudes about fidelity.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

Eric Dane goofs around with a lady he just met

Eric Dane, 38, recently checked into 30 day inpatient rehab to treat what his spokesperson claims is an addiction to pain pills following a back injury. As far as explanations for rehab goes, this one is pretty good and makes it all sound very understandable. He’s got a one year-old daughter at home and his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, just announced her second pregnancy. That must be some serious pain pill addiction if he’s leaving his baby and pregnant wife at home for 30 days in rehab.

Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane recently checked into a Los Angeles rehab clinic, Star magazine is reporting.

The Dr. McSteamy hunk entered The Hills Treatment Center, a sober living recovery residence in West Los Angeles, in mid-June as a “preventative measure,” a source told Star magazine.

His spokesperson confirmed the 30-day stint and told Star: “Actor Eric Dane voluntarily checked himself into a treatment facility to help him get off of pain medication that he was prescribed for a sports injury that he suffered over the recent hiatus. He reports back to work next week. Business as usual.”

With filming starting back up on his ABC show on July 19, and with his wife Rebecca Gayheart pregnant with the couple’s second child, Dane had far “too much to lose” if he slipped, according to a family friend.

“Eric felt things spiraling out of control and decided he needed to get some help,” the source told Star.

[From Radar]

I’m getting the whiff of some kind of cheating scandal on the horizon that Dane is trying to fend off by going to rehab. I know that sounds heartless, but it’s the cynical gossip in me. Why else would a dad take so much time away from his family? Maybe it’s cut and dried as they’re trying to make it sound, but I’m guessing we haven’t heard the bulk of this story yet. At least he’s going to rehab now before his second child comes.

I wrote all that before I saw these photos of Lane with his arm around some “mystery woman” outside a jewelry store on June 25th. It looks like the guy is joking around and doesn’t seem to be a cheating situation. The photo agency writes that he “played a joke on the waiting paparazzi by leaving the IWC store with a mystery woman, who turns out to be a member of the public also shopping at the same store.” He definitely could be looped out of his mind, judging from these photos.

Eric is also shown with wife Rebecca Gayheart on 5/21/11. Credit: WENN

These are new photos of Rebecca Gayheart, out and about in LA yesterday. As you can see, Fame Pictures has drawn a giant red circle around Rebecca’s belly, so you know there’s a story! I seriously think Fame might have gotten it right on this one, though – that doesn’t look like a little bloat, or just a breeze. That looks like a full-on baby bump, maybe three to four months along. Rebecca and her husband Eric Dane welcomed their daughter Billie last year – March 2010. So Billie is… something like 16 months old. If Rebecca is knocked up, it’s not quite an Irish twin situation. I wonder if she’ll smoke for this pregnancy?

Meanwhile, guess who else is pregnant? Kari Ann Peniche, the beauty queen/drug dealer/madam/hooker who was the third person in Eric and Rebecca’s naked hanging-out non-sex tape. We know Kari Ann is pregnant because her estranged husband went to court to ensure that Kari gets the kid a paternity test, because of all of the dudes she’s been boning while they’ve been married. Wouldn’t it be funny (and sad, but mostly funny) if Eric was the father of Kari Ann’s baby too? Ha!

UPDATE: Life & Style is confirming it:

After weeks of speculation, Life & Style can exclusively reveal that Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane are expecting their second child together!

“She’s glowing — and so happy,” a friend tells Life & Style. “They wanted to add another child to their family, and now they’ve got that! They’re in a real good place.”

The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star, 39, and Grey’s Anatomy actor, 38, tied the knot in October 2004 and welcomed their first daughter, Billie Beatrice, in March 2010.

Reps could not be reached for comment.

So… it’s not a definite confirmation from a rep, but I really do think she’s pregnant.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Eric Dane gave some quotes to People just in time for Mother’s Day about how much more he loves his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, now that she’s the mother of his child. I know that I should find these quotes touching and meaningful or whatever, but they just rubbed me the wrong way. He said he loves her “exponentially more” now that they have a kid without qualifying that he never knew this type of love was possible until he had a child. It’s like he was holding back or didn’t really love her before, but I’m nitpicking I know.

Life has changed for Eric Dane since welcoming daughter Billie Beatrice last year — and, as a result, so has the actor’s love for wife Rebecca Gayheart.

“I don’t know if there’s any change more significant that a human being can make than that of a woman becoming a mother. There’s no change more dramatic,” the Grey’s Anatomy star, 38, tells PEOPLE during the opening of IWC‘s A Night in Portofino.

“You know, I’m a hundred times more attracted to her now and I love her exponentially more than I did before. It’s just great to see her be a mother.”

And while the couple “have a little bit of help,” Dane reveals Gayheart happily takes on the responsibilities of motherhood.

“Rebecca is really hands-on,” he says. “There’s not a lot that goes on that she’s not a part of.”

But Gayheart isn’t the only one who loves spending quality time with Billie. Dane — who admits the “unconditional love” he receives from the 14-month-old who “doesn’t know any better” is the best part of fatherhood — enjoys spending afternoon father-daughter dates at the park.

“I like watching her laugh,” he shares. “Seeing this kid laugh when you put her on the swing, or slide down the slide with her, it’s just … She owns me.”

[From People]

That’s sweet what he said about how his daughter owns him. A lot of dads feel that way. It was also really nice how he gushed about his wife. Still, it’s like he’s saying he didn’t really love her before. Like when they were hiring hookers for threesomes. (Consenting adults, yada yada.) It’s honest I guess. Men want to procreate and they only truly love us when we ensure their genetic code lives on. I’m only playing devils advocate here, but I know that I’m a cynic at heart. I’ll say something nice – that’s one smoking hot dad.

photos are from 4/28/11 (event photos, credit: WENN) and 4/22/11 (candids with daughter, credit: Fame)

Okay, CB and I cannot stop laughing. This is, like, the BEST BABY COVER EVER. Best reveal of a celebrity baby, period, full stop. CB asks “Who thought this was a good idea?” I mean, Eric Dane, shirtless. Holding his baby. With Rebecca Gayheart’s head popping out from behind, like it’s so obvious that Us Weekly’s readership don’t give a sh-t about her. Eric showed up at the photo shoot and was like “Let me take off my shirt, my pants and hold this baby.” And Rebecca was like “WTF?” CB also thinks they ‘Shopped his chest and his happy trail, writing “There’s something sketchy about that and it’s hard to tell from this small image but it doesn’t look like it matches the rest of his coloring.” I can’t really tell. I just think we, as a society, should demand that when celebrities pose with their newborn babies, they shouldn’t have to pose in their underwear like they were doing a cheesecake “Firefighters of Ladder 21” calendar to raise money for a new hose. Speaking of hoses, do we really need to see Dane pube? Really?

Anyway, here’s Us Weekly’s excerpt from their cover story:

First-time parents Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart debut the first photos of their precious 2-month-old daughter Billie Beatrice Dane in the new Us Weekly (on newsstands now).

“She’s beautiful,” the Grey’s Anatomy star, 37, tells Us Weekly. “When she came out, she was really alert and her eyes were open. The doctor gave her to her mom, and I was so … you know, I was obviously very emotional.”

Giving birth March 3 at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center “was an overwhelming moment — probably the greatest moment in my life thus far,” adds Gayheart, 38. “We felt so blessed. The moment we’ve been waiting for finally came.”

Dane tells Us Weekly fatherhood has been “life changing. It changes how you look at things and how you feel about things. I like to think of myself as an artist — but now I’m working for my kid. Now I’m a father. I’ve got a lunch pail, I go to work and I come home and I make sure my kid is taken care of, and I make sure my wife is take care of.

“Childbirth is a miracle,” he adds, “and we’ve created this life.”

For more – including additional exclusive photos of Billie, how many hours Gayheart’s “difficult” labor lasted, why they named their daughter Billie, how their baby has taken their marriage “to the next level” and their plans for another little one — pick up the new Us Weekly today!

[From Us Weekly]

Well, I’m glad the baby was healthy, even though Rebecca was smoking throughout her pregnancy – and was perhaps doing drugs too, allegedly. I’m sure both Eric and Rebecca are thrilled beyond belief. That’s all I can really say, though, because I’m still crying from laughter.

Update by Celebitchy: I must mention that in the version of this cover available on US Weekly’s website, you can see Eric Dane’s supposed belly button clearly, and it really ads to the freaky factor of this image. (That’s below.) In the actual cover that Kaiser found on Cover Awards, the belly button is covered by the UPC symbol and the image doesn’t look as strange and inappropriate for a baby cover. Here’s US’ version, which is even more hysterical: [via Celebrity Baby Scoop]

Us Weekly cover courtesy of CoverAwards.

According to reports, Eric Dane and wife Rebecca Gayheart welcomed a baby girl at some point yesterday. The report is still unconfirmed, but I think it’s probably true. Judging by recent pictures I saw of Rebecca, she seemed ready to pop at any moment, and she and Eric had already announced they were having a girl. The girl’s name is unknown.

Eric Dane put on a pair of doctor scrubs — and no, it wasn’t for his role as McSteamy on the set of Grey’s Anatomy. His wife Rebecca Gayheart gave birth to a baby girl, Hollyscoop reports.

This was the couple’s first child together.

According to Hollyscoop, Rebecca checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. and gave birth this afternoon with her loving husband at her side.

Eric’s beautiful wife has been seen out and about town L.A. looking like she was ready to pop.

After their little bundle of joy was born, Eric called close friends and family members to give them the good news, Hollyscoop reports.

“They’re both over the moon about it,” a source close to the couple told Hollyscoop.

“It just makes sense that I’m having a girl… I don’t know what it is, but I am excited it’s a girl,” Eric said in a recent interview before his daughter was born.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Congratulations to the happy family if this is true. I’ve read interviews where both Rebecca and Eric have stated they were trying for a baby for a while, so it’s nice that it finally happened for them. They confirmed the pregnancy last September, just a short time after their naked-hangout/kind-of sex tape with a hooker went online, and after wide speculation about Rebecca’s alleged drug problems. I hope that Rebecca remained sober and clean throughout her pregnancy, and will continue to be clean and sober for her child. Even though it seem like Rebecca was still smoking cigarettes through her pregnancy – well, at least it wasn’t crack, you know?

Rebecca Gay heart & Eric Dane on February 8, 2010. Credit: WENN.

People Magazine is finally running the Rebecca Gayheart-is-knocked-up story, which basically means someone officially connected to Rebecca and Eric Dane okayed the release of the information. Which means Rebecca’s pregnancy is official. I know, I know. Rebecca is barely B-list, but her husband is high B, perhaps even A-List (in the television world, because of Grey’s Anatomy). This would be such a non-story if not for a few other significant events.

The rumors about Rebecca’s pregnancy have been swirling for a while – almost as long as the minor scandal of the naked-hang-out tape with former beauty queen/maybe hooker Kari Ann Peniche. The other rumor swirling is that Rebecca is still on drugs. We already knowshe’s still smoking. I hate to be a judgy bitch (that’s a lie), but I find it revolting that she’s still smoking. I don’t judge smokers as a rule – but the exception I make is for dumb pregnant women who smoke in this day and age.

Out on a stroll in Los Angeles last weekend with husband Eric Dane, Rebecca Gayheart showed in public what the couple’s close friends have known for some time: that she’s expecting. In February, Dane, 37, told Ellen DeGeneres that he and Gayheart, 38, wanted a baby. “They’re definitely happy,” a source tells PEOPLE. “They’ve been trying for so long.” Reps for the pair have not commented.

[From People]

Well, congratulations and God bless. A shiny new baby will solve any pesky little p.r. problems for the next year or so. Now Rebecca needs to quit the smokes, quit the drugs, quit the liquor and take her prenatal vitamins. Judging from the bump Rebecca’s been sporting, my guess is that she’s probably in her fourth month, but that is just a guess. I’m hoping this pregnancy actually makes Rebecca clean up her issues, and I hope mom and the baby are happy and healthy. Fingers crossed.

Rebecca Gayheart is shown out on 9/23 and 9/25/09. Credit: WENN.com

A few weeks ago, Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart got caught up in a minor scandal. A video was released online featuring the married couple with Kari Ann Peniche, a former beauty queen-turned-hooker/madam. There was no sex on the tape, but they were naked, hanging out, and smoking something. Most people were kind of “meh” about the scandal, but it seemed to me like Eric and Rebecca were really worried the tape would affect their careers. Within a week, there were some fresh pregnancy rumors for Rebecca, as if a wholesome, vanilla, pure, non-hooker-related baby was just the ticket to get back to some clean, fresh career path. Now Page Six is reporting another addition to the baby rumors – when Eric and Rebecca went to DJ AM’s funeral, Eric made sure people spotted him “putting a protective hand on Rebecca’s stomach.” Because that’s the way babies are made, silly. Fertilization through the Sperminator McNudie hand.

ERIC Dane was very attentive to Rebecca Gayheart at DJ AM’s memorial — fueling rumors she’s expecting their first child.

Dane was repeatedly seen putting a protective hand on Rebecca’s stomach during last week’s service at the Hollywood Palladium, also attended by Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson.

Sources say the “Grey’s Anatomy” star and his wife — who made their first pub lic outing since their nude tape was re leased — have been trying for some time to become parents.

[From Page Six]

If it’s true, I don’t begrudge them a baby, I really don’t. And the state of Rebecca’s womb has nothing to do with me. If she’s pregnant, God bless. But the rumors of her excessive drug use (addiction?) have been pretty steady, and I think they’re going to stick around. There are going to be questions about whether she’s still using through her pregnancy… but probably not by any of the major media outlets, like People or Us Weekly. We’ll see!

Update by Celebitchy: PopSugar has photos of Eric and Rebecca out shopping yesterday and she truly looks pregnant! Congratulations are in order I guess.

Rebecca Gayheart is shown outside Ellen Pompeo’s baby shower on 8/29/09. Credit: Fame Pictures. PopSugar also has recent photos in which she’s looking pregnant.

After their little “naked three-person hangout” tape was released last week, Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart seemed to play their hand pretty coolly. They didn’t offer any gasping, cloying apologies, they didn’t even offer up some extreme lie. Instead, they had their lawyer issue a hilarious word-parsing statement to the press, warning people not to refer to the tape in question as a “sex tape” while still managing to threaten everyone with a massive lawsuit if anyone officially released the entire “naked hangout” tape.

Personally, I was surprised at how little people seemed to care about this. I’m not even a Grey’s Anatomy fan, and I enjoy a good “Eric Dane is naked” story, so I really expected this stuff to get more play. I mean, it was Eric Dane naked! With his wife, the Noxema girl! And a beauty queen/prostitute/madam! That’s a good scandal! The collective attitude of the American public seemed to be “meh” or “consenting adults, whatever.”

But now it’s looking like Eric and Rebecca might be a little concerned that their images have taken a hit. Because “sources” are telling Life & Style Magazine that having a nice, wholesome, pure-as-snow, nothing-to-do-with-a-hooker, People Magazine-friendly baby is their top priority. Mm-hm. One “insider” even claims Rebecca is already knocked up:

Less than a week after a nude video featuring a seemingly intoxicated Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane hit the Internet, the actors were spotted laughing on their way to a romantic stay at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, Calif., on Aug. 21. How could they be so lighthearted after the release of what could be a career-killing tape? Because they may be expecting a little McSteamy!

“Having a baby has been a top priority of the past six months,” reveals an insider. Though another insider says Rebecca, 38, and Grey’s Anatomy hunk Eric, 36, have had trouble conceiving since they eloped to Las Vegas in 2004, the first insider believes Rebecca’s finally three to four months pregnant.

“She turned down the role of Penn Badgley’s mother on Gossip Girl because it was based in NYC and she didn’t want to be away from Eric or travel that far. It was bad for her health,” the insider says. “She also turned down a Hallmark movie and a Lifetime movie because she was trying to have a baby.”

[From Life & Style Magazine]

See… doesn’t baby news just drown out all of those confirmations that Cari Ann Peniche is a madam, and that Eric and Rebecca paid for her services? Don’t you just want to cover your ears and sing “La-la-la-la-la” over the sound of an on-going LAPD investigation into the activities on the tape? Babies! They’re not just band-aids for relationships anymore. They can save careers too!

Country singer Mindy McCready is the former roommate of Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart’s naked non-sex tape co-star, Kari Ann Peniche. Rumor had it that McCready was the one who leaked the tape, which she denied through her rep, who said “Her story will be told in due time. There’s a lot more to it than just the tape. She did not leak the tape.”

McCready is now reasserting her claim that she didn’t release the video along with making it clear that she really hates Peniche. She calls her “evil personified,” and in case that wasn’t strong enough McCready adds that Peniche “will hurt anyone she can to make money.” The way McCready phrases it makes it all sound a bit supernatural, as if Peniche has powers beyond us mere mortals. Maybe I’ve just been watching too much “True Blood”:

Mindy McCready apparently doesn’t have very fond memories of her Celebrity Rehab days, considering her roomie was the devil.
At least, that’s what the country singer called model Kari Ann Peniche, who’s now more famous for getting naked with Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart than for any solo success or foible.

“She is evil personified, she is evil in human form. She will hurt anyone she can to make money,” McCready told Access Hollywood in denying Peniche’s accusation that the troubled songbird was the one who leaked the graphic Dane-Gayheart-Peniche tape.

“I did not want to be dragged into all this,” McCready said. “I did not want to be a part of this.”

And neither did Peniche, who exclusively told E! News last week she is “not some swinger person or somebody you can pay to have sex with.”

Certainly good to know. Peniche told us she had no idea the tape was not in safekeeping until she got a call from Dane and his attorney asking, “You know the video we did? Somebody has it, and what to do we have to go to get it back?”

Dane, who was “obviously upset,” called her up and asked her something about McCready, as well, Peniche said.

Shortly after the tape hit the Internet, the swimsuit designer told TMZ.com that McCready vengefully stole her computer hard drive when the ladies were bunking together.

“If I was going to leak it, I would have done that a long time ago,” she told E! News. “If someone else was going to leak it, they would have done it a long time ago…I would never leak this tape.”

And by the way, she added: “There was no sex—he’s married! We were just having fun.”

Meanwhile, Dane and Gayheart opted to get out of town for the weekend. (Wonder why…)

The couple and their dogs drove up to Montecito, Calif., Friday for a stay at the luxurious San Ysidro Ranch. They returned to L.A. on Sunday.

[From E! Online]

That’s interesting that Peniche denies that she’s a prostitute, but doesn’t deny that she worked as a madam. Talk on the leaked tape reveals that Eric and Rebecca asked specifically for Peniche instead of one of her “girls.” The NY Daily News reported over the weekend that three sources were willing to go on the record and confirm that Peniche worked as a madam. McCready told the Daily News that it was true that Peniche ran a prostitution business. “Did she say she’d been a madam? She sure did.”

Another Daily News source, author Mark Ebner, revealed that he’s the one who gave the tape to Gawker and added that Peniche was a subcontractor for convicted Hollywood madam Michelle Braun. Were Dane and Gayheart just involved with the wrong sex broker? Is this leaked tape just an instance of someone using celebrities to try and take a Peniche down? Who else did Peniche service and will their names get leaked too? The LAPD confirmed last week that the tape is in their possession but state that they’re not yet sure if there will be a criminal investigation. It sounds like McCready certainly hates Peniche enough to tell the cops about her. Maybe she’s the one who gave them the DVD.

Mindy McCready is shown on 6/7/08. Kari Anne Peniche is shown on 7/15/08. Credit: WENN.com