Benji and Joel Madden haven’t spoken to their father for more than ten years, after the (now recovering) alcoholic walked out on the family. Father Roger Combs (the boys changed their name to Madden after their mother’s maiden name) says that while he had some contact with them over the last three years, it is baby Harlow that has created a common bond. he talks to In Touch magazine about their reunion.

“My kids were mad at me, and I don’t blame them,” says Roger, who also has a daughter, Sarah, 27, and a son, Josh, 30, with Benji and Joel’s mom. Though Joel did start mending fences with Roger three years ago, it was Harlow who really reunited them. “We are good today, and that’s all that matters,” Roger says.

[From In Touch]

Roger Combs doesn’t say whether he has a relationship with his older children. He does add that holding his granddaughter was very special.

“It was a wonderful moment,” Roger exclusively tells In Touch. “She’s such a beautiful girl. I felt very proud.”

In Touch also reports that Nicole reassessed her relationship with her parents, saying that she ‘put them through a lot.’ Nicole has been to jail, and also rehab, as well as being best friends with Paris Hilton, which would make any parent nervous.

I’m not sure if Roger Combs sold his story to In Touch magazine, or if the Madden twins sold it, or if Roger was just sought out for comment. He might not understand the tabloid scrutiny the Madden brothers are under, and was just being a proud grandparent. He doesn’t talk at all about Paris Hilton, or Nicole Richie, who are most likely to result in inflammatory headlines. Hopefully his comments appearing in the press won’t create a misunderstanding like Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie’s relationship.

Joel and Benji Madden are shown at “Hornitos Tequila celebrates the ultimate ‘Cinco de Mayo’ experience at Crown Bar” on 5/5/08, thanks to WENN.

Last week, Marc Anthony called into a radio show and talked about how he and his mega rich wife, Jennifer Lopez, are caring for their three-month-old twins, Max and Emme, without the help of nannies, butlers, or even anyone else. He said “It’s just us… we’re figuring it out and having a great time.” He also talked about how he was assigned overnight duty with the twins and that his shift is from 10pm to 8am. Maybe by “us,” Anthony meant his mother-in-law too, because she’s been staying in the couple’s mansion on Long Island and helping out:

Jennifer Lopez’s mother, Guadalupe, is such a doting grandmother to babies Emme and Max that she’s now livin in her daughter’s Long Island estate. “Jennifer has been having her mom stay at their home to help out with the kids. She likes having her around, even if it’s just to ask her advice,” says an insider…

J.Lo, 38, and Marc, 39… are hands-on parents, too, but they still listen to Guadalupe

[From In Touch, print edition, June 9, 2008]

The In Touch article came out late last week, and was published ahead of Marc’s interview, so if it’s accurate his mother in law was already living with them at that point.

Grandmothers love taking care of their grandchildren and it’s not like it’s a hardship for Guadalupe to live in luxury and watch her daughter’s adorable babies. Anthony wasn’t being entirely truthful when he said “it’s just us,” though. They surely have a maid along with J.Lo’s mom to care for their children and allow them time to go out alone. Many families have that arrangement, but they also acknowledge it by telling friends that their mother is living with them. They don’t have a public image to consider, though.

Lopez and Anthony were recently spotted at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ housewarming party in Beverly Hills. I wonder if they brought the babies with them or left them with grandma.

Guadaulpe Lopez is shown below at the NY premiere of El Cantante on 7/26/07. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are shown at the Costume Institute Gala on 5/5/08. Thanks to WENN.

Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz were due to have their shotgun wedding last weekend when Ashlee decided she didn’t want her dad, a former Baptist minister, officiating. She got it in mind that she was going to have a Buddhist minister instead, despite never having previously expressed an interest in Buddhism that I could find. The argument between Ashlee and her dad got so heated that she said she would cancel the wedding if he wouldn’t let her have a Buddhist priest preside. Ashlee’s fiancé Pete Wentz stepped in and was able to save the wedding by convincing Ashlee to give in to her dad:

“In the 11th hour, Ashlee clashed with her father over the ceremony, and when he would not cave, she actually decided to cancel,” said a family friend.

The dispute… was because Ashlee… decided at the last minute to have a Buddhist priest perform the ceremony instead of her father.

“Joe completely lost it!” the source said.

“They were down to the wire. Every last detail was in place and he could not believe his daughter came up with this last-second Buddhist idea after everything was set.”

Joe Simpson, a former Baptist minister, “dug in his heels,” according to the source, and told Ashlee there was no way he’d host a Buddhist wedding.

In the end, it was… Pete who saved the day.

“He ran after Ashlee, sat her down and told her there was too much at stake now to cancel the ceremony,” said the source.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, June 2, 2008]

Maybe Joe was pissed because the wedding was all planned out already, but if Ashlee had an available Buddhist minister in mind, and it’s not clear from this article that she did, it seems like a simple change to have a different person officiate. It’s her wedding and she should be the one to decide who is marrying her. Instead Joe Simpson almost let her cancel the whole thing because he was too stubborn to step down and concede his daughter’s wishes! That’s ridiculous. You can understand him being hurt, but it’s his daughter’s special day and he should care enough about her to step down. Instead Joe showed that his ego is more important than his daughter’s feelings.

The National Enquirer has details of Ashlee’s wedding that we’ve partially already heard. She had an “Alice in Wonderland” theme “decorated with a top hat, teapot and pocket watch with a pot of flowers on top…. Tables were laden with black beauty roses… and tents were decked out with black chandeliers, black rugs and white couches with red pillows.” Guests dined on a dinner of “crab cakes, shrimp tacos, sushi, roast organic chicken, Kobe beef and baked Alaska.”

Just Jared has pictures of Ashlee and Pete’s wedding invitation, complete with Alice in Wonderland “eat me” cookie, and their chocolate table settings with guests names.

Ashlee and Pete are shown at LaGuardia airport in New York last night after returning from their honeymoon. They’re in the same pose as on their People cover. Thanks to Splash News.

The more I hear about this story, the sicker it gets. Dadager Joe Simpson just can’t stop meddling with his daughters’ relationships, and now that football star Tony Romo has broken it off with older daughter Jessica, he still can’t mind his own business. With younger daughter Ashlee getting married to emo poster boy Pete Wentz this weekend, Papa Joe is imploring Romo to show up to the wedding. But is it because he has his daughter’s best interest at heart, or is he hoping that if Tony shows, the media might actually give a crap about this stupid wedding?

Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson may be done, but her dad still wants the quarterback to “support the family” at Ashlee’s weekend wedding.

“Joe has called Tony and asked him to come to show support for the wedding,” a source tells Usmagzine.com.

It’s unclear if Romo accepted Joe’s request, but he’s scheduled to fly into L.A. over the weekend.

Romo wasn’t present at a bachelor party Joe threw for Pete and a few of his pals at Mr. Chow’s on Thursday night. E! reports a steady supply of beer and wine was brought to their table. After the celebration, Joe picked up the $1,000 tab!

(Back at Ashlee’s parents’ Encino, California, home, Jessica and mom Tina threw a bachelorette party for Ashlee that E! reports was a “mellow affair.” About a dozen of Ashlee’s closest family members and friends attended the backyard event, decorated with balloons.)

Ashlee (who is pregnant) and her fiancé Pete Wentz are tying the knot on Saturday. Big white tents were being set up at her parents’ home on Thursday. For more exclusive wedding details, click here.

“Proper invites have not been sent out but instead guests have been given a save the date notice,” a source told Us.

The rehearsal dinner – described by the source as “an intimate affair” for “family and close friends only” – will take place on Friday.

[From Us Weekly]

Oh, sure - like the Simpson family EVER hosts a party for family only. I’m convinced that Jessica, Ashlee and their parents would probably cease to exist of they stopped being photographed and interviewed. Papa Joe has orchestrated both of these “relationships” for his desperate fame whore daughters, and you can bet he will orchestrate their break-ups as well. If I were Tony Romo, I would change my name and start playing for the Canadian Football League.

Here at Celebitchy, we laughed our asses off at Dina Lohan being named a Top Mom by some Long Island housewife association. Apparently, Michael Lohan doesn’t share our sense of humor- in fact, the whole thing has him pissed off and ranting to the media, talking trash about his ex-wife and her mothering skills. Oh yeah, he went there.

Michael fumed, “Are you kidding! Top celebrity mom? Look at her off-screen antics, her lack of morals and how she conducts herself. I guess they forgot to mention how this top super-mom leaves her kids alone at night and even parties in their presence. Just wait until we go back to court.

“She comes stumbling out of Butter at 3:15 a.m. with bloodshot eyes and a red runny nose, yelling ‘Oh, [bleep],’ when she saw the paparazzi,” Michael raged to Page Six.

He also ranted that his ex missed their weekly family therapy appointment in order to attend the award ceremony Tuesday night in Bethpage, LI.

But Dina responded to Michael’s remarks by calling him “infantile.”

“He’s a loose cannon,” she declared. “We speak to a therapist once a week and I’m not required to be there. My kids want me there, so I go. Obviously with our [TV] show and the event, [daughter] Ali and I reschedule.

“I’ve allowed him visitation once a week, so I don’t understand why he’s doing this. He’s jealous that I got the award. He even called the organizers and tried to talk them out of giving it to me.”

[From Page Six]

In typical Dina Lohan fashion, she goes on to say that the last time their rapidly aging starlet daughter Lindsay was in town, she had to hire extra security to keep her father at arm’s length, and that she believes Michael will violate the restraining order she has on him. Notice that she never directly addresses his claims about her bad parenting- instead, she deflects that and paints herself as a victim. You see where Blohan learned that shit? As for Michael, everyone knows he’s just seething with jealousy over the media attention his ex-wife gets. From the accounts I’ve read, his parenting is just as questionable. If ANY of the Lohan kids make it to adulthood without a criminal record, a sex tape, or an addiction of some kind, it will be a miracle.

Note by Celebitchy: Michael Lohan is shown with his girlfriend, who looks a little like his daughter when she was pretty, outside the Waverly Inn on 3/10/08. Thanks to WENN.

I’ve always been really surprised that there wasn’t more drama between twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I can’t imagine any sisters that don’t argue - I can only wonder how hard it would be to run a multi-million dollar business empire with your twin. The 21-year-olds have spent more time apart in the last few years and have been photographed actually hanging out with people besides each other. However their business interests have remained almost entirely intertwined. While it seems like the two have been nearly joined at the hip, apparently there’s been some trouble between them, and they’ve been fighting over business and real estate decisions.

“They’ve finally had enough of each other,” says a friend. “They just don’t see eye-to-eye anymore and are tired of constantly butting heads.” Now friends say the rift between the twins seems to be growing bigger by the day. “Ashley isn’t an angel, but she’s tired of having to take care of Mary-Kate,” says the friend. “One second Mary-Kate is maniacally happy, and the next she’s sobbing. Her mood swings are dragging Mary-Kate down, and finally, Ashley’s decided she doesn’t want to go down with her.”

But no matter how they feel, the twins can’t simply ignore each other, sources say. At stake is their $100 million personal fortune - also a bone of contention between the squabbling sisters, say the insider. “Ashley’s been considering separating their assets and trusts and getting her own business manger,” the insider says.

[From Star, April 7 2008, print edition]

The Enquirer also has a similar story, saying the pair are fighting over the company and have deep-seated resentments towards one another. Apparently Mary-Kate feels Ashley manipulated her into making bad business decisions, and regrets the twins’ choice to cut their parents out of their company Dualstar.

And one of the biggest rifts between the sisters centers on their decision to “fire” their parents - David and Jarnette, who are divorced - when they took charge [of Dualstar]. Although they both agreed to the move at the time, Mary-Kate now blames Ashley for pushing her into it, says a family insider.

Mary-Kate went along with the firing in part because she was angry that her family forced her into Utah’s Cirque Lodge rehab in June of 2004 to get treatment for an eating disorder. “Mary-Kate had some real issues with the family after they put her in rehab. But now she feels like that may have colored her decision to cut them out of Dualstar. Mary-Kate now regrets her decision — on the other hand, Ashley thinks it was the right move. That’s what Mary-Kate and Ashley mainly fight about.”

[From the National Enquirer, April 7 2008, print edition]

Neither magazine says if the girls’ parents are still speaking with them, though the Enquirer notes that their dad and stepmom have publicly criticized the way they’ve run Dualstar since firing their parents. Both articles are a great example of exactly why it’s not a good idea to mix business and family. Some manage to pull it off with amazing success, but it sounds like the Olsens are starting to unravel a bit. They also bickered about the sale of their Manhattan apartment – whether to sell it, and then for how much. Their identities have always been so wrapped up in each other – at least publicly – that it seems inevitable that they’d eventually want to carve out their own niche in the world. The fighting seems sort of unavoidable to me. It seems like Ashley’s idea to separate their finances could be a really good thing, and then they could try just being sisters instead of business partners.

Here are Mary-Kate and Ashley with Karl Lagerfeld and with Mario Testino and Claudia Schiffer at the Chanel Fashion show, during Paris Fashion Week Fall-Winter 2008-2009 ready to wear collection, at the Grand Palais in Paris on March 8th. Images thanks to Splash.

15 year-old sensation Miley Cyrus and her dad, country singer Billy Ray, were interviewed on Access Hollywood by former “Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick. Billy Ray talked about how he tries to keep the paparazzi in line around his teen daughter by asking to see their faces and having chats with them. Miley also told a cute story about how she took her dad to get a little tattoo on his hand she designed and took him to a salon afterwards to get highlights in his hair. Billy Ray, 46, said it was Miley’s day when that happened and that he willingly submitted to the makeover.

On the paparazzi
Billy Ray: “When I see people taking pictures of my little girl, I usually try to get them to roll down the window and get a picture of them, because I just want to know who’s stalking my family.”

“I’ll go knock on the window and say ‘I just wanted to see your face because you’re taking pictures of my little girl’… just in case.”

Miley: “‘If I have to hunt you down and kill you,’ then he knows what they look like.’”

Miley told a story about how her dad intimidated a photographer. She said “He was like ‘Dude. Not cool’ [making mean face] The other guy was like ‘Sorry Mr. Cyrus’” [holding hands up]

On the heart tattoo and highlights Miley got her dad
Billy Ray: “We were sitting in church, uh…”

Miley: “You never start a tattoo story off with ‘I was sitting in church,’ that sounds so terrible.”

Billy Ray: “This is the truth… we were sitting beside each other and I noticed that she picked up my hand and drew this little heart on there, and I had already declared that day was Miley’s day. I said ‘Anything that you want to do, today is your day’”

“She said, ‘Daddy, I know what I want to do… take you to the tattoo parlor.’ The next thing I know we’re driving out there, heading for Pasadena on a Sunday afternoon.”

Miley: “And then I took him and got him highlights.”

Billy Ray: “We come across a place called ‘Wackos,’ open on a Sunday afternoon.”

Miley: “It was $20 for a whole head.”

Billy Ray: “It was Miley’s day, she took me to the tattoo parlor and to Wackos for a hairdo.”

Miley: “So I get my dad a makeover”

15 year-old Miley is the new paparazzi target after Britney’s return to sanity. It’s nice to know that she has a protective family and that they do fun activities together. Still, it’s can be a nasty business and I hope she can get through her teen years with her childhood relatively intact. It’s got to be crazy to be swarmed by photographers like that wherever you go and it’s nice that her dad is looking out for her. Maybe a move to the country might be in order soon.

Here’s the video of the interview, thanks to rockers94 on redlasso. Photos are of Miley out shopping yesterday at the Beverly Center, thanks to Splash News.

Heath Ledger’s uncles have gone public with their concerns over Heath’s father Kim Ledger’s spotty track record of managing financial estates. After Heath’s death, it was revealed that the actor left his assets to his parents and sisters, because he hadn’t updated his will since before his relationship with actress Michelle Williams and the birth of their daughter Matilda. Now, Kim Ledger’s brothers are expressing worry that Kim’s lack of asset management skills could jeopardize the estate.

Heath Ledger’s uncles are speaking out against his father Kim’s handling of the actor’s assets, saying Kim has a bad track record of estate management.

Ledger’s father so mishandled the management of their grandfather’s estate 15 years ago in Australia that Kim was removed as executor, the uncles claim.

“It plunged into enormous debt,” Mike Ledger, one of Kim’s brothers, tells PEOPLE.

Heath died in January at age 28 of an accidental mixture of prescription drugs – leaving behind a daughter, Matilda, by his ex, actress Michelle Williams. His will, written before his relationship with Williams, leaves everything to his parents and sisters.

Ledger’s uncle Mike insists the family has nothing to gain by removing Kim: “Our only vested interest is to assure that Matilda is well looked after.”

Mike added that Kim’s recent statement that Matilda “will be taken care of” was not enough assurance. “When you are talking about large sums of money like this,” he says, “it should be an independent executor, but Kim hasn’t chosen that way.”

Williams’s Father Raises Questions
Another of Kim’s brothers, Hayden, tells PEOPLE that Williams’s father, Larry, asked him if Kim was capable of managing the actor’s estate. “I just said, ‘No, not if he handles it like ours,’ ” he says.

The bitter dispute among the brothers dates back more than 15 years, when Kim became an executor of their grandfather Sir Frank Ledger’s estate, which they estimate was worth about $2 million in the mid 1980s. The family patriarch was a respected engineer in Perth.

According to the newspaper The Australian, Frank’s daughters filed a motion in Supreme Court asking to have Kim removed as the executor. The submission to the court stated that Kim’s handling of his grandfather’s estate “placed the assets at risk.” A report in Australia’s The Sunday Times says that a Supreme Court judge eventually removed Kim from overseeing the estate.

[From People]

Quite frankly, it’s none of the uncles’ business how Kim Ledger chooses to manage his son’s estate. But this does illustrate how important it is for people to update their wills and make sure their financial assets are in order, even when they’re only in their 20s. You just never know what will happen, and it’s really a strain on the surviving family who has to figure all of that out after you’re gone. I’m sure little Matilda is going to be provided for, no matter what. Heath’s family and Michelle Williams will see to that.

Kim Ledger is shown in the header image outside his son’s funeral on 2/10/08, thanks to Splash News. (We said we would post no funeral photos, but this one is a little different.) Heath is shown below in London taking his daughter out in her stroller.

Actor James McAvoy has been notoriously tight-lipped when asked about his family. The actor, 29, has garnered a lot of attention lately for his starring role alongside Keira Knightley in “Atonement,” for which he won a BAFTA. He’s also gotten a lot of press for his low-key lifestyle - he and his wife, actress Anne-Marie Duff, 38, live in an apartment they bought several years ago for 178,000 (about $346,000 USD), share a ten-year-old Nissan Micra that’s worth less than $2,000, and admit to rarely leaving their apartment. James has actually said that he purposely tries to avoid “celebrity bullshit,” and I can think of few actors who’ve stuck to an ideal so thoroughly. Even Matthew McConaughey eventually gave up his Airstream trailer – but McAvoy has adamantly stuck to his beliefs. The Daily Mail has written a surprisingly thorough article on McAvoy, in which they hypothesize that the reason he lives such a low-key existence is that he doesn’t want to draw a lot of attention to his family.

After McAvoy won his BAFTA, he thanked his mother, grandparents (who raised him), and wife, yet made no mention of his father or half-brother. It turns out that James has not spoken to his dad, James McAvoy Sr, in 21 years. His parents divorced when he was seven, and his father, who works as a roofer - claims that that eight-year-old James pulled away from him after he started seeing another woman.

“Our son took it hard,” says McAvoy Snr. “He just wasn’t the carefree little boy he’d been before.” At first, father and son continued their relationship, with James Snr taking his son swimming or to watch Celtic football team. But when a year later James Snr moved in with a new lover, Mary McKinnon, the eight-year-old McAvoy refused to have anything to do with his father.

“I think James still had hopes of me and his mum sorting things out,” claims McAvoy Snr. “He started refusing to see me because he didn’t like Mary. In the end I took a step back rather than upset him.”

The young McAvoy demonstrated his steely nature when a few years later he was larking around in the playground of the St Thomas Aquinas secondary school in Drumchapel and spotted his father working on the school roof. “James just looked away without saying a word,” recalls his father sadly.

[From the Daily Mail]

That appears to be their last encounter. James has a half-brother named Donald from his father’s relationship with the aforementioned woman. Donald was recently sent to jail after stabbing a man eight times.

To understand the extent of his transformation, perhaps we should look at McAvoy’s 18-year-old half-brother Donald, currently languishing in Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution near Falkirk. Donald - James Snr’s son from his now-ended relationship with his lover Mary - has never met James the actor.

But no one could blame the star for distancing himself from his violent, alcoholic brother. Just a fortnight ago, Donald was sent to Polmont for stabbing a man eight times and, in a separate incident, threatening a 14-year-old with a hammer.

James Snr, who lives in a dingy first-floor flat, sighs: “I am standing by one son who’s a maniac, but can’t stand by my other son, who has done so well.” According to Mr McAvoy, Donald’s problem stems from his penchant for alcohol: “He’s a polite boy who doesn’t cause trouble until he has been drinking.”

[From the Daily Mail]

It sounds like James McAvoy (Jr) isn’t so much distancing himself from the unsavory side of his family - he simply has no relationship with them and never has. He’s not under some obligation to acknowledge them now that he’s doing well. They haven’t been a part of each other’s lives for a long time – and in the case of his half-brother, they’ve never even met. James himself has admitted to struggling with alcohol, and credits his wife with helping him straighten out his life, noting in his BAFTA acceptance speech, “she taught me to respect life.” Having no relationship with his father is sad, but his dad doesn’t say anything that implies he tried to reconnect with his son before he was famous – he even said he “took a step back” from their relationship rather than upset James, which makes no sense to me. McAvoy clearly has a lot of talent and a great head on his shoulders, and has made a lot of his life already. His family history is sad, but it explains why he doesn’t want to talk about them and has insisted on moving forward.

Here’s James McAvoy at the 2008 Wonder Con in San Francisco on February 22nd. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Johnny Depp always manages to expertly skirt that fine line between keeping his private life close to his manly chest while remaining a massive star beloved by the public. Depp recently said that after he gave some sort-of revealing interviews about his family a few years ago he was schooled by Marlon Brando to not reveal much about his private life, whose advice he took to heart.

There were two sets of photos of Depp and his family that came out from the same agency recently that made me shake my head. One was of Johnny’s partner, Vanessa Paradis, at Disney Land with their two children, Lilly Rose, 8, and Jack, 5. Paradis looked mighty annoyed that photographers were taking pictures of her children, and Johnny has made it clear that his children are off limits and that he will confront any photographer that takes photos of them. It’s a good thing he wasn’t there. Another set was of Johnny confronting paparazzi after they followed him around LA while he was scouting locations for a film.

If Johnny Depp says he doesn’t want his children’s photos taken, we will not publish them. If he’s pissed at the paparazzi and thinks they’re out of line, we won’t publish those photos either. Other stars can make demands, but nothing quite elicits a response like a request from moderately-humble and almost always gracious Depp.

Depp gave a general but very glowing interview in the latest In Touch about his family. He just sounds like a great dad and protective of his children and family:

Q: You’re such a famous actor — how important is your family in keeping you grounded?
A: My family is my sanctuary. I live for them. I finally found a reason to exist in this world. There’s nothing like it. I would give away everything if I could only keep my family. They have given me life, and they’re the greatest gift in the world. ”

Q: How do you keep your romance with Vanessa so strong?
A: I think trust is the most important thing in a relationship, along with the ability to communicate honestly with each other. Once communication stops, that waylays danger.

Q: You and Vanessa never married — do you think you will at some point?
A: We have considered ourselves husband and wife since the day we moved in together. We just haven’t gone through the formality.

Q: How do you feel about having to raise your children in today’s uncertain world?
A: As a parent, my job, besides giving them love and education, is to protect them by not allowing the harsh realities and difficulties of our world into theirs. You’ve got these pure, innocent little things, and all they want is love and happiness.

Q: You move around with your family a lot, having lived in LA and France. Have you always been such a free spirit?
A: Yes. It has to do with my upbringing. I don’t like to be stuck in one place for too long. We were total nomads when I was growing up. We traveled around all the time. It’s ingrained in my being. I think it’s good for kids to get out there and see the world.

Q: You’ve been working a lot lately. What would be your dream vacation?
A: Running around on the beach with the kids and taking them out on the boat. I want to take them swimming with dolphins, though hopefully not with sharks!

[From In Touch, print edition, via Taylors’ Entertainment News]

So somehow Johnny always confirms what people think about him, and reveals just enough to let us into his world without ruining the mystery. Unlike other celebrities, we rarely know when and where he goes on vacation and especially not his daily whereabouts. Matt Damon is another A-list actor who has managed to keep his family life under wraps in this era of digital and instantaneous news. Damon has said that we didn’t get every last detail on the Hollywood greats of decades past, and we don’t need that kind of news about his generation, either.

We wouldn’t have much to talk about if we weren’t privy to all this private and often-fabricated information about the celebrities, but there’s also a gender bias in the news, as Helen covered a couple of days ago. Male celebrities who have non-famous partners seem to have an advantage in that the tabloids don’t pick them apart like they do female celebrities.

Johnny Depp is seen at the Sweeney Todd premiere in Paris on 1/16/08, thanks to PRPhotos.