In the current issue of Star Magazine, there’s an article about Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy’s break-up. Although I haven’t seen it confirmed, I think Star Mag might have known about Jim and Jenny’s breakup before they announced it, and Star was prepared to run a story about it, and that’s why Jenny and Jim suddenly announced their split late one afternoon last week. Basically, I’m saying that Star Mag might have nailed this story, to the point where Jim and Jenny were trying to do some early damage control.

Now, at the time, my thoughts were only that the breakup was very sad and that they seemed to be a good match. However, it only took a few days for the rumors to start, and the rumors seemed to revolve around Jim’s mental health, and his battle with depression (or manic depression, say some sources). This is the reason Star Magazine gives for the split. Various unnamed sources tell the magazine, “Jim is not easy to be with. He has a lot of problems with depression.” Jim himself admitted that he was on Prozac in 2004, but also said that “at a certain point” he had to go off his meds and deal with the “peaks and valleys” of life. Star claims that towards the end of their relationship, Jenny was distraught that Jim refused to take his medication, even when those peaks and valleys became “crazy highs and ugly lows.”

A source also told Star: “It was such an emotional roller coaster for her. When he’d get down, he’s just disappear. He would hide out in a hotel or one of his homes, not answering her calls.” It got to be too much for Jenny and she “told friends she needed more support from her man.”

I believe this. I believe Jim Carrey is one dark motherf-cker, a man who probably sinks into very deep, intense depressions. I also believe he’s probably very, very smart, and he thinks he’s too smart to stay medicated, a common problem. Some manic depressives can’t deal with how their medication slows everything down – some miss the crazy highs and lows of their imbalance. I find it very sad, but I totally get why Jenny wanted and needed to get out of there. Ultimately, she has to take care of herself and her son first.

But now even People Magazine is running a piece about Jim’s sanity. They quote him (from his Twitter) as saying “I’m not having a breakdown.” Which could be just a standard-issue People Mag suck-up, only check out how they wrote this piece:

Jim Carrey’s relationship with Jenny McCarthy isn’t the only thing that’s in the past. So too, he says, is a part of himself he’s happy to shed.

“I have freed Truman at long last!,” Carrey wrote in an explosion of post-breakup Tweets, referring to his alter-ego from The Truman Show whose entire life was surreptitiously filmed for a reality show.

“I am grateful for my avatar’s many yrs of dedicated service, but no one has ever won the Tour De France while back peddling. … so I killed him,” he wrote late Sunday night. “I do not plan 2 bow to expectations or to be confined by the fear of losing altitude in the ‘statusphere’! (my word).”

It has freed him to comment on such delicate matters as the Tiger Woods scandal and make a passing reference to Sandra Bullock’s marital crisis.

Acknowledging that “some folks out there are worried that I stay up too late,” he insists, “This is no breakdown! It’s a breakthrough! And if you’ll just loosen these straps, I’ll show you the difference!”

[From People]

I read this and I thought, “Jesus, this guy is off his meds.” Is that the response People Mag wanted to elicit? Out of curiosity, I looked at Jim’s Twitter feed to see all of what he’s been writing since he got publicly slammed for writing that Elin Woods was a “willing participant” in Tiger’s affairs. He’s been tweeting a lot the past few days… I think I’ll call them “manic tweets”. Different from crack tweets or rage tweets. Manic tweets are when your mental illness reveals itself through a flurry of crazed tweets about subjects only you care about. This sh-t is not good.

One of my most well-documented peeves is any kind of doctor who will give named quotes “diagnosing” a celebrity that the doctor has never met. I’ve said it before – I find the whole thing unethical and simply cheap. So I take this latest report with a certain amount of angst – and yet I find myself agreeing, at least partially, with the doctor who is giving Cameron Diaz an armchair-diagnosis.

Is it any secret that Cameron has had a prolonged battle with her skin? It’s not just the normal young-starlet excess-sunbathing sun damage, Cameron’s skin often looks totally wrecked. Adult acne, psoriasis, all of the bad stuff seems to effect Cameron. Well, there’s this random doctor (Dr. Reese) who has given a bunch of quotes about Cameron and her skin issues – Dr. Reese even gives out “awards” to “celebrities with bad pocks, pimples, zits and scars.” Dr. Reese has some unsolicited medical advice for Cameron – and if she doesn’t follow it, Dr. Reese will “award” her the dishonor of a Bad Skin Lifetime Achievement.

CAMERON DIAZ is battling another skin condition – a top doctor has spotted a nasty case of psoriasis just below her right elbow. The itch is known as ‘heartbreak’ by dermatologists, because it doesn’t clear easily and can come back.

Diaz dared to bare her arms as she unveiled her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday and eagle-eyed bystanders could clearly see the actress isn’t all perfect.

In fact, celebrity skin expert Dr. Vail Reese has been scrutinising Cameron’s scabs and pimples for years and he insists the ringworm on her arm is just the latest in a long line of pigment problems for the actress.

He says, “After battling acne for years, yet another skin condition to deal with! She has also suffered with facial pigmentation issues and sun overexposure.”

But all is not lost – Dr. Reese, who serves up his Skinnies dishonours annually to celebrities with bad pocks, pimples, zits and scars, insists Cameron’s latest itch is easily treated. He adds, “Though she is not my patient, it looks she has a form of psoriasis, that’s showing some clearance in the center portion.’

Psoriasis is a pesky form of non contagious inflammation.

“Treatment for small areas involves prescription topical cortisone creams and vitamin D creams. Extensive psoriasis can be treated with injectable anti-inflammatory medicines called biologics. Since they suppress the immune system and can increase the risk of infections, those tend to be reserved for wider areas.”

But, if Diaz doesn’t get her latest skin issue cleared up quickly, she could land the ultimate dishonour on Dr. Reese’s Skinnies list: “With her history of acne and everything else and now this, this may be her year for a Lifetime Achievement award!”

[From Contact Music]

I remember an interview several years ago where Cameron said that she broke out the more stressed she was – I was like that in college, but thankfully, my skin got so much better in my twenties. However, I still battle mild psoriasis to this day. Even right now, I have a weird, itchy, dry, screwed-up patch of skin on my hip that just appeared a week ago. When I broke out in a really bad way several years ago, a doctor prescribed a course of oral anti-inflammatories that did nothing. I’ve always found that a rigorous course of Aloe-based products plus daily cortisone does wonders, but Dr. Reese’s injection suggestion intrigues me. Since I think Cameron is worse off than me, I’m thinking that she should listen to Dr. Reese’s armchair diagnosis – not that she should actually go to him. God, no. He sounds like a douche. But she should look into some of this stuff with a really good dermatologist. And she should stop spending so much time in the sun. Just my diagnosis, Cameron!

Cameron Diaz is shown last night at the NY premiere of My Sister’s Keeper. She is also shown earlier in the day outside MTV studios. Credit: RAM/Fame Pictures.

Suzanne Somers is obsessed with youth. She was on “Oprah” yesterday, where she admitted that she takes 60 pills a day, along with estrogen and progesterone creams. Oh, and estriol, which she injects vaginally. That’s quite the hardcore routine. Somers admits she comes across as a nut and is obsessive about her routine. Which is a bit of an understatement.

Suzanne Somers has always been preoccupied with staying fit and looking young. But has the former Three’s Company star gone too far? On an appearance Thursday on “Oprah,” Somers, 62, invited cameras into her home to watch her daily routine of hormone injections and supplement popping.

She begins with rubbing a syringe of estrogen on one arm, every day. For two weeks out of the month, she rubs progesterone on the other. After that, she injects estriol vaginally, which she graciously spared the audience from watching. But it doesn’t end there.

She can’t start her day without taking 40 pills, 15 of which she downs in a thick, yellow smoothie her husband makes for her (she says it’s the secret to their marriage!). Then she ends her day with an additional 20 pills at night before bed.

While she admits the routine makes her seem “like some kind of fanatic,” she says it has helped her beat the “Seven Dwarfs of Menopause: Itchy, B**chy, Sleepy, Sweaty, Bloated, Forgetful and All Dried Up.”

“I wanna be there,” she said, pointing to her head. “Until I’m 110. And I’m going to do what I have to do to get there.”

[From Fox News]

The Huffington Post has a video of Suzanne’s routine. I will admit she looks good for 62, but what would really make her look better is a hairstyle that wasn’t all the rage in 1995. And that wouldn’t require any pills! I have a theory that all women keep whatever hairstyle they have at forty for the rest of their lives. Suzanne was clearly trendier than the average woman so she’s stuck with the hairstyle she had at about fifty.

This is one of those great opportunities to lecture about moderation – which she does do in the brief Oprah clip. Somers basically says that she knows she’s really extreme about her routine, but it’s just something she’s fanatical about and she’s not saying other people ought to take it that far.

A lot of it really depends on what she takes. Some people don’t like taking a multivitamin/multimineral and prefer to take things separately. If that’s the case, it’s not quite so crazy. She does look good for her age, but I bet it takes a lot of work to keep up with that kind of regimen. However many women have managed to age gracefully without 60 pills a day. I’m sure there’s a sane middle ground somewhere.

Here’s Suzanne with husband Alan Hamel at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards on January 6th. Images thanks to WENN.

Pete Wentz has always been the kind of guy who’s open with reporters and shares the type of things most would want to keep private. He freely offers up honest answers even when they’re unflattering. A great example is a recent interview he gave to Blender magazine, in which he said he pops Ambien like Skittles and can take a ton of Xanax without it affecting him.

On a personal level, Pete Wentz is on top of the world as hubby to pop princess Ashlee Simpson and dad to their first child, Bronx Mowgli. Professionally, his band Fall Out Boy continues to rock. But all of that doesn’t mean the 29-year-old is all smiles.

Wentz recently turned up to a breakfast interview at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the upcoming issue Blender Magazine (which hits stands nationwide on Jan. 13) half-an-hour late, reportedly looking worse-for-wear with dark circles around his eyes and a jaundiced-like pale complexion.

He told the reporter that he is lucky to get three hours sleep per night and “pops Ambien like Tropical Skittles.”… “I can take three Xanax bars and not feel a thing. It’s kind of scary,” he added.

Wentz was also overheard by another diner discussing his extreme paranoia and his confrontation with an intruder a few nights earlier. We’re told the bassist was in his kitchen when he saw a man in the security monitor scaling the fence, prompting him to run outside. Wentz claimed the intruder then hopped in his car and sped off, smashing the Range Rover on the way.

According to a Pete pal, the musician’s health is causing a little concern. “He’s always been very hard-working and creative but with the band and the baby and everything that’s going on he’s probably rundown,” said the source.

[From Fox News’ Pop Tarts]

It’s interesting that Fox says he has extreme paranoia and that he “claimed the intruder then hopped in his car and sped off,” as though they’re doubtful about the accuracy of the story.

Pete’s pill popping sounds like it could be a big problem. When you can take a bunch of Ambien and Xanax and it doesn’t have much effect on you, then you’ve probably built up quite a tolerance to them. People seem to think Ambien is no big deal because it’s “just” a sleeping pill. But it is a dangerous drug, and it needs stronger warnings. The FDA is trying to get the labels changed to reflect the multiple dangerous side effects of the drug, which include sleep eating, sleep driving, sleep phone calls, and sleep sex. It is NOT a pill to pop like candy. Pete’s got a wife and baby, and it sounds like it’s time for him to take some of these health issues more seriously.

Here’s Pete Wentz shopping at The Grove before Christmas in Los Angeles on December 23rd. Images thanks to Fame.

Every so often you read a story and you just want to shout, “How dumb do you think I am?” Amy Winehouse’s PR team seems to think they can get away with telling us that the woman who’s got to be the world’s most famous drug addict was hospitalized last night for a mere accidental mix-up with her medications. I have no idea what kind of policies British hospitals tend to have about privacy, but the hospital Amy was admitted to is going along with the medication mix-up story. I just don’t buy it.

Amy Winehouse has been discharged from the hospital 12 hours after she was rushed to an emergency room, PEOPLE has confirmed. “Amy is fine and she is on her way home,” says her U.K. rep, Chris Goodman.

Winehouse, 24, was taken by ambulance from her home in north London to the University College Hospital on Monday night after suffering what was believed to be a seizure. Wrapped in a red blanket, she was taken to the vehicle in a wheelchair while her dad Mitch looked on.

The setback was part of her struggle to get clean, the rep insists… “She was taking a new [medication] as part of her anti-drug treatment program,” says Goodman. “And it was an adverse reaction to that new drug. You have to try different things but unfortunately this was not the right one.”

…Almost exactly a year ago, Winehouse was treated at the University College Hospital for “exhaustion.” Her father later revealed she had overdosed and need her stomach pumped.

[From People]

If PR reps were honest, I’d consider the possibility that this might be true. But last year’s exhaustion turned out to really be an overdose and severe problems are always played off as not that big a deal, it’s hard to believe something so minor really went down. That said, Amy was released rather quickly, but I’m assuming it’s into the hands of other doctors. One would hope.

Amy had her most chaotic weekend in recent memory just a few days ago, and was photographed with obvious crack pipe burns. She’s been acting like a nut – even for her, the behavior has been totally wacky. I can’t imagine how she’s going to live another year. She passed most people’s rock bottom a long time ago, and it’s a miracle she’s still alive.

Here’s Amy on May 19th with a small spot of blood on her vest, as well as fresh cut marks on her arm, and sores on her hands. Sadly she looks a lot better like this than in pictures from the past two weeks. Images thanks to WENN.

I don’t know if it’s a fluke or just my warped perception, but it seems like there’s an extra amount of Hollywood drunken-while-drivingness lately. Ray Liotta was arrested in February after he drunkenly hit not one, but two parked cars. That takes talent. It takes a certain level of skill just to hit one parked car. What with it just sitting there, taunting you. But then to go after another… that guy must have been really hammered. Though if you ask him, he just had an unfortunate interaction between two medications. I’m guessing it was more like two medications and the twelve beers he washed them down with, but whatever. Technicalities I suppose.

Ray’s been given a pretty lenient sentence, compared with a few of our jail-serving celebrity friends.

Actor Ray Liotta has pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge after police say he drove into two parked cars. Liotta initially was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He could have faced up to six months in jail if convicted of that charge, Mateljan said.

“Ray had some unexpected drowsiness from the interaction of some medications prescribed by his doctor,” said his attorney, Blair Berk. Under the terms of his plea, Liotta was placed on three years’ probation and ordered to enter a 12-hour alcohol education program, according to court documents.

Liotta was arrested in February following the non-injury crash in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. He will have to pay $1,328 in restitution and fines and pay the owners of the damaged vehicles, the court papers said.

[From Yahoo! News]

I have to tell you, while I understand extreme sleepiness, if it were that bad, I’d pull over. If you’re so tired that you’re swerving into parked cars, I imagine the only thing on your mind would be finding a parking space. Hitting one car, and then going on to hit another, probably won’t get you home into bed any faster. I’m continually amazed at how many celebrities drink and drive. If broke college students can manage to get it together and call a cab, I think you can too. Seriously, when you can now legitimately be compared to Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and Lindsay Lohan, wouldn’t it have been better to just pull over and take a nap in the gutter?

Picture note by Jaybird: Header image of Ray and his daughter at the “Bee Movie” premiere on October 28th. thanks to PR Photos.

Have you seen those commercials with Montel Williams? He drives around on a bus, doling out prescriptions (or I guess prescription assistance) to Americans who don’t have insurance, all the while assuring us that America’s drug companies really do care about our health. How calming and reassuring. It turns out Montel isn’t just the pretty face for their television ad campaign. He actually does go around doing publicity for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance. No word on if he actually does it in the big PPA bus though.

Montel was giving an interview in Savannah on Friday when Courtney Scott , a high school intern reporter, asked him, “Do you think pharmaceutical companies would be discouraged from research and development if their profits were restricted?” Seems like a fair and well thought out question. Apparently Montel didn’t agree. He very angrily responded, “I’m trying to figure out exactly why you are here and what the interview is about. I’m here as a patient advocate talking about the fact that medications available today are saving people’s lives, that’s what’s saving mine and after that, this interview is done.” Seems awkward and weird, but I doubt anyone would have made anything of it. Except that was just the beginning.

When the Savannah Morning-News reporters later returned to the hotel for an unrelated assignment, he approached one of them – high school student Courtney Scott, an intern at the newspaper. “As we were preparing to film, Montel walked up with his bodyguard and got in Courtney Scott’s face pointing his finger telling her ‘Don’t look at me like that. Do you know who I am? I’m a big star, and I can look you up, find where you live and blow you up,’” said Joseph Cosey, a web content producer for the newspaper. “At this time he was randomly pointing at all of us.”

Scott said she wasn’t sure how to interpret Williams’ comment. “I’m not sure if he meant ‘blow me up’ and ruin my career or really blow us up, but it was threatening,” Scott said.

Williams, a patient advocate since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, later issued a statement apologizing for the outburst. “I mistakenly thought the reporter and photographer in question were at the hotel to confront me about some earlier comments,” Williams said. “I was wrong, and I apologize for my overreaction.”

[From the Huffington Post]

Sounds like Montel might want to consider adding a few antipsychotics to his pill regimen. I’m guessing that’s the equivalent of swag with the PPA. From his apology, I don’t think Montel quite understands what he did wrong. The problem wasn’t that he threatened the reporters even though they weren’t there for him; the problem was that he threatened them at all. Even if they were there for him, it’s probably not a good idea to threaten to blow people up. Especially in a public setting. Oh, and especially with reporters. What with that great access to the press and all. Probably also not the greatest plan to threaten to harm a high school student. Again, that’s just me, but I’d at least aim my comments at the adults. But I’m old fashioned that way. When I threaten to blow someone up, I get a glance at their driver’s license first, just to be safe.

I really like Drew Carey. I don’t find him to be the funniest guy around, but he’s taken what life’s given him and worked with it pretty well. He’s a chubby dork and he works it like no other. He doesn’t pretend to be cooler than he is – I mean when you host “The Price is Right” how cutting edge can you be? Drew has started doing videos for the nonprofit Reason Foundation. His first video was about hellish Los Angeles traffic. Pretty mild topic, most people would agree with what he has to say. His second video? Legalizing medical marijuana. Probably a bit more controversial. I can’t help but wonder what his 73-year-old “Price is Right” viewers would think about that.

Drew Carey has his issues—with the federal government, that is. “I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it—safely and easily,” Carey said, describing the point of “Drew Carey Defends Medical Marijuana,” the second installment of The Drew Carey Project, his ongoing short-form documentary series posted on reason.tv.

In the new video, Carey first stands on a Brentwood—”where O.J. used to live”—street corner and points out all the places, including a pharmacy, a liquor store and Starbucks, where you “can get anything you want to bring you up and down.” The former sitcom star then visits a West Hollywood facility that sells physician-prescribed pot, which is legal in California, to people suffering from a range of debilitating ailments, from chronic back pain to cancer. The video also features interviews with average, gainfully employed, middleclass people who use medical marijuana to ease what ails them, as well as with L.A. County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Steve Whitmore, who says that “dispensaries are low on the priority scale of law enforcement,” in terms of who is partaking of pot within those walls.

“I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana,” Carey, standing in a gas station parking lot, says in closing. “If that bothers you, it if makes you nervous that people are out there using marijuana to ease their pain, drive down to any old gas station in America like this one, buy yourself a nice, cold brew and pop the top. They really take the edge off.”

[From E! News]

Drew Carey actually makes some pretty good points, in terms of how readily available much more dangerous drugs are. I’m not really going to throw myself into the old medical marijuana debate – we’ve already established that I am adorably naïve and randomly old-fashioned, so we’ll leave it at that. I do generally understand the arguments both sides make. Here’s Drew’s video for the Reason Foundation:

That’s one of those headlines I wish I were creative enough to have made up all on my own, just to make you all laugh. But each word in that delicious title is entirely true. You may remember that the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards suffered from a bit of an injury after he fell from a coconut tree in Fiji last year. What was Keith Richards doing up a coconut tree? That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard. What would Keith Richards not be doing up a coconut tree? Now that makes more sense. As a result of the fall, he had to have brain surgery. Yeah it must have been a pretty severe fall to necessitate opening up his cranium. I’m guessing that the doctors had gotten confused and assumed the coconut had somehow slammed into Richard’s head so hard that it knocked his brain clear out of his body and the coconut now resided where his brain was supposed to be. Yeah that sounds far-fetched, but this is also the guy who – since this accident – has claimed that he snorted his own father’s ashes. So I’m thinking having a coconut for a brain could make a lot of sense, medically.

Well since the accident, Richards has had to take Dilantin to prevent seizures, causing many to be concerned for his health.

Keith Richards sparked fears for his health after slurring his way through an acceptance speech. The Rolling Stones rocker – who picked up the prize for Best Cameo at Spike TV’s Scream 2007 awards for his performance in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ – rocked back and forth as he mumbled his thanks to fans and co-star Johnny Depp in a pre-recorded video message. Keith, 63, said: “Thank you all fans voting for me in, you know. It’s a first – it’s not my land, usually, to do this sort of stuff, but due to enormous public pressure. I’ve got to say thank you very, very, much and also to Johnny – who insisted that I play his father.” He added: “We had a great time and it was a wonderful thing. Driving into the Disney studios, I laughed. God, at last I’m working for Mickey Mouse.”

It has now emerged Keith’s slurred speech – which had the audience at the glitzy Los Angeles ceremony on Friday (19.10.07) in hysterics – could be a side effect of the medication he takes daily to prevent seizures. The guitarist has taken the powerful drug Dilantin – which slows down nerve impulses in the brain – every day since undergoing brain surgery after he fell out of a coconut tree in Fiji 18 months ago. Keith – a former heroin addict – has previously joked taking Dilantin means he has to limit his intake of illegal substances. He said: “The drug I’m on now because of the brain job, Dilantin, means you can’t take cocaine any more, which is fine with me.”

[From Divine]

I have to say, he still sounds the same to me. Isn’t Keith Richards known for being an incoherent mess? Now he just has a reason that makes you feel sorry for him instead of judging him. I am pretty sure that the Dilantin isn’t the problem – I think there’s a 99% likelihood that the aforementioned coconut is still living in his brain. Or it ate his brain. One or the other.