We’ve got a couple of pieces of Pamela Anderson news today. First up, Pam launched her perfume brand in Miami last week (where these photos are from). What did we end up saying the perfume would smell like? Crisco and tragedy? K-Y Jelly and bleach? Fish and debt? Anyway, at the event, Pam’s manager tried to order the photographers at the event to only use the “ring flash” on their cameras. The ring flash does a better job with eliminating shadows and “imperfections” than a normal flash, and I’ve actually heard that Mariah Carey tries to make similar deals with photographers. But for Pamela to try to do this – well, it just seems sad, doesn’t it? There isn’t a ring flash big enough to make her look like anything other than an orange, sun-damaged, tragic old wh-re. Here’s what Page Six reported:

ARE Pamela Anderson’s famous looks fading? At her fragrance launch in Miami, her manager, Peter Asher, demanded that photographers shoot her only with a “ring flash,” which eliminates shadows and imperfections.

Asher got in a heated argument with top Miami celebrity lensman Seth Browarnik, who argued that the flash requires a large battery pack and slows the job. Asher then banned him and all others without a ring flash from Saturday’s Make-A-Wish Ball. A source said several photographers boycotted the charity event.

A rep for Anderson’s fragrance told Page Six, “I can only suggest it is something Pamela wanted.” A Make-A-Wish rep said, “In-house photographers were told to use the ring light, but our red carpet was issue-free.” Despite the blowup, Anderson persuaded attorney James Ferraro to donate $500,000 on auction items including a Ferrari California.

[From Page Six]

In other Pamela news, she gave an interview about living in a trailer park with her boyfriend and her two sons. Apparently, her sons take after their father, Tommy Lee. The boys, aged 13 and 11, are little terrors. Pam tries to make it sound like “boys will boys” cuteness, but they sound like destructive little bastards to me.

Pamela Anderson is struggling to control her sons as they enter adolescence – they go wild when she’s not around to discipline them.

The former Baywatch star is currently living in a beachside trailer with Brandon, 13, and Dylan, 11 – her kids with wildman rocker Tommy Lee – while their nearby home in Malibu, California is being renovated. And Anderson’s boys are so much trouble she now worries about scheduling work commitments out of town and leaving her mom, Carol, to look after her sons – because they’re beginning to take after their rock star father. She says, “Boy, they’re so feisty. When I get home and I’m not home for a couple days, they gotta be put back in their bodies immediately.”

“They got in trouble because my children are riding their dirt bikes through the whole trailer park, going crazy, doing flips – and everyone’s concerned for their safety. And mom’s like, ‘Oh, they’ve been riding the whole weekend, they’re having a blast!’ I was like, ‘They’re not allowed to ride their dirt bikes in the trailer park!’ They terrorize the neighborhood the whole time.”

She adds, “My son got in trouble at school for beating somebody up. Well, not really beating somebody up. Just one of the counsellors, who’s 18 or 19, made a rude comment about me to him. Brandon threw his Red Bull (drink) on him and then went after him and they had to peel him off him. Now I’m getting called into school.

“But I think when somebody says something bad about your mother, what are you supposed to do? It is hard when other kids are like, ‘I’ve seen your mom with her clothes off!’ I’ve tried to teach my kids I have no problem with nudity. Violence isn’t good but Brandon was really upset, he was shaking and crying and looking in my eyes. It’s so sad.”

Pamela on ex husband and father of her 2 boys Tommy Lee: “You can’t get heartbroken any more over all the disappointments or how he is as a father or anything like that. He doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong. I do tell him the truth, but it’s been 10 years of suffering over him so I’m over it.

“Whatever it is, it is – as long as my kids are happy and we’re happy and we’re safe, let him run around the world. I support him.”

When asked if she’d ever give Lee another chance, Anderson adds, “No. No way. I have no interest at all.”

[From Hollywood Rag]

Ugh. Is there really anything else to say about Pam? At one point, I might have felt really bad for her sons – simply because it must really suck to have Pam and Tommy as parents – but I don’t have sympathy for the kind of hell raising shenanigans that Pam is talking about. And I do think Pam’s attitude is part of the problem! Instead of setting limits (because even boys that age need limits), she’s just kind of like “well, what can I do?” You can try putting on some clothes, putting down your substitute phallus/perfume bottle, and actually attempt to be a mother.

Pamela Anderson launches her new perfume ‘Malibu’ at the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 5, 2009. She really is handling that bottle like she’s about to get a money shot. Credit: WENN.

James Gandolfini is one of those guys that – while I’m sure he can and generally is a very nice man – I’d definitely avoid should I run into him in real life. The line between television and reality is very blurry for a lot of those “Sopranos” actors, and many of them have rumored mob ties. And because I didn’t watch the show more than handful of times, I can’t really keep them straight, so I figure it’s best to just steer clear altogether. And there’s just something about Gandolfini that says, “Eyy, I’m a nice guy, but you piss me off just by having an ugly face and I’m gonna break your jaw.”

Excellent example of why I’m always right: an amateur photographer for the website Guest of a Guest got into it with James, after the guy filmed him for too long on Halloween. Gandolfini cursed at him repeatedly, then smacked his camera to the ground. Naturally, the whole thing ended up on the interweb.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again…I wouldn’t wish celebrity fame on my worst enemy. It has to be hard being followed all of the time, and I would imagine it becomes only a matter of time before one would snap. Unfortunately, for a Guest of a Guest photographer, the moment Sopranos star James Gandolfini snapped happened to be on his watch. On Halloween, in the West Village, Gandolfini assaulted our camera man. Watch video above. …below [is] the full story from our photographer:

“I was getting ready to go out for the night to shoot the Halloween parade and then was planning to go shoot the rose bar for you. I was walking up Jane Street towards the parade route, when I saw James trick or treating with his son and some other people. I decided to shoot some video of him, his son was inside a botique trick or treating, jim was standing outside.

I was maybe 25 feet away from him when he saw me. he then rushed towards me and pushed me into the street, then he took a swing at me and knocked the camera down. The person yelling get away from my son, was not my mom, but james ex-wife telling me to get away from her son. Then after the camera cut off, I tried to walk away, I got tackled from behind by one of his companions, right in the middle of the street, he was trying to steal my video away and ripped my jacket he tore away my still camera and it fell to the ground and broke. I then managed to break free and run back to my hotel.”

[From Guest of a Guest]

Page Six has a slightly different version of the story:

Don’t mess with James Gandolfini when he’s boutique-hopping. The “Sopranos” star got into a spat with an amateur paparazzo while shopping with his step-mom on Jane Street. In video of the incident posted by the fotog on Guest of a Guest, a mad Gandolfini sneers, “You understand me? I’m gonna break your [bleep]ing face,” before smacking the camera to the ground. The lensman tells us, “I’m not used to this type of abuse. I was not shooting James for any job, but just because I am a fan of his. The attack was totally uncalled for.” A friend of Gandolfini says, “The kid had been following him for an hour. He was a stalker.”

[From the New York Post]

The difference in the details (who he was out with, one person or many, shopping in boutiques versus trick-or-treating in boutiques [common NYC Halloween practice) isn’t massively important. What does make a difference is the addition of James’ son. In Guest of a Guest’s version, James was out with his son trick-or-treating, and the photographer says he was taping them. He didn’t mention that to the NY Post. I’m not saying that makes Gandolfini’s reaction okay, but it does explain it. Most people are protective of their children, and celebrities are particularly sensitive to their kids being filmed without permission. Especially when they’re out just doing their regular things. It’s not like James was at an event, he was taking his son trick-or-treating.

Celebrities live a different lifestyle in New York than they do in Los Angeles. They blend in more and are followed less. Most every New Yorker runs into someone famous now and again. A few months ago Wolf Blitzer alerted me to the fact that I had ice cream on my nose. Mortifying. They don’t have huge entourages around them or a bunch of security. And you mostly just end up thinking, “Hey, they’re a regular person. Awesome.” So I can understand why being filmed would be unexpected and upsetting. I am absolutely not excusing it, but I can understand where the anger came from.

Before I get into the whole protesting-parents thing, here is my girl Blake Lively on the cover of December’s Marie Claire. I kind of love that Blake has to get her boobs out even when she’s appearing on a magazine for women. These chicas today, I just don’t know. I guess I don’t mind it for Blake because her sexuality seems rather sweet and kittenish rather than the Megan Fox-style, in-your-face, “I’m too sexy for my director” vibe. Blake’s boobs are even out for most of the of other photos too (slideshow here). Oh, Blake. You don’t have to show your girls to everyone!

In the interview, Blake is kind of boring. She was even interviewed by her director (and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis) Rebecca Miller, who did The Lives of Pippa Lee. They talk about Blake’s Southern roots, her costars in the film (Julianne Moore is cool!) and how Blake “grew up in Disneyland”.

RM: What was your first day like on Pippa working with Maria Bello, who played your pill-popping mother? You had to face that tornado…
BL: I was honestly terrified. I hadn’t slept that much, and all I wanted that day was for Maria to say, “Wow, great job.” And when she didn’t say anything to me, I thought, Oh, my gosh, I’m terrible. She hates it. She’s calling her agent, saying, “What have you gotten me into?”

RM: [laughs] Maria was in character all day that day…
BL: But once we finished filming, she was so complimentary and sweet. The way Maria worked was very method, and then [costar] Julianne Moore was the complete opposite—between takes, she was a nice, normal mom talking about her kid’s baseball games. Then you would call “Action,” and suddenly she’s playing this creepo photographer! It freaked me out.

RM: Do you think of yourself as Southern, even though you grew up in L.A.? I think there’s a Southern girl lurking in you.
BL: I grew up in L.A., but I was the only one in my family born there. I have a tight-knit Southern family, so whenever I tell people I’m from L.A., they say, “Yeah, but you don’t count,” I guess because of the Southern values I was raised with, and the way I eat—the more sugary and cheesy and fried, the better.

RM: What’s your first memory?
BL: Oh, geez, I remember I was about 3 years old, and I woke up—we were staying at Disneyland. I was in a little pink silk bed, and there were Mickey and Donald and Goofy looking down at me. It was the most exciting place in the world. I kind of feel like I grew up at Disneyland.

RM: What do you mean, you grew up in Disneyland?
BL: My mom would take me there twice a week. I did well in school, so I guess my mom just wanted to have some extra time to bond with me. Sometimes, when I was older, she’d keep me out till 1 in the morning.

RM: [laughs] She would take you out of school and keep you out till 1 in the morning?
BL: We only stayed out late on weekends. We’d get a hotel room and then go to Denny’s, drink coffee, and talk for hours. I’ve always been a night owl. Even at home, we’d stay up all night talking. My mom tells the most amazing stories. In a way, she was kind of raising me to be a great actress without even realizing it.

RM: You went to 13 different schools growing up?
BL: I did. When I was only 3 years old, my mom enrolled me in the first grade. My older brother was supposed to start school, but he didn’t want to go alone, so my mom told them I was 6 since I was so tall. But after a few weeks, they said they would have to put me in mentally disabled classes because I wasn’t up to pace with the rest of the kids. They thought that I was slow because all I wanted to do was sleep while the other kids were doing their projects. [laughs] So my mom took me out of school.

[From Marie Claire]

Now, on to the protesting parents. Apparently, Gossip Girl has been airing promos for an upcoming episode – an episode that will feature a threesome (the ads say “3SOME”) allegedly starring Blake Lively and two other people (but that‘s not for sure about Blake). The Parents Television Council’s president Tim Winter calls the threesome “reckless and irresponsible” and the Council wants the CW affiliates to refuse to air the episode. Winter writes in a letter to affiliates: “Will you now be complicit in establishing a precedent and expectation that teenagers should engage in behaviors heretofore associated primarily with adult films? [This show] is expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers. CW has been defending graphic content on ‘Gossip Girl’ by asserting that they don’t target teenagers. Such a claim doesn’t even pass the ‘laugh test.’”

Unfortunately, the median age for a Gossip Girl viewer is 27 years old (seriously?), according to the CW’s data. Which means that there are lots of adult ladies who have girl-crushes on Blake too, right? It also means that PTC is getting their collective threesome-hating granny panties in a wad over nothing. I mean, sure, threesomes are (maybe) a bad idea for random, dumb teenagers. But by making a big deal about a television show’s threesome, you’re just fetishizing it and making it even more desirable amongst horny, dumb teenagers. Way to go, parents.

Photos from Marie Claire, where there are many more, and thanks to Cover Awards for the cover

Is anyone more interested in the “Eddie Cibrian Cheats on LeAnn Rimes Already” story on Life & Style’s cover? I am. Unfortunately, we don’t have that story yet, we only have this Kourtney Kardashian mess. The cover interview isn’t really anything new, which makes me wonder why L&S didn’t just put the Eddie Cibiran-LeAnn Rimes drama as the big cover story instead. Whatever.

In the interview, Kourtney talks about how she “loves” being pregnant and how she and baby-daddy Scott Disick are taking parenting classes. Good for them. Seriously, I’m not going to mock them for that, even I think they’re both pretty worthless people. It’s a great thing that they’re at least putting some effort into trying to make this experience about bringing a life into this world and being fully responsible for that life. Here’s more:

Talk about a dose of reality! Kourtney Kardashian moved to Miami earlier this year to film a show, Kourtney & Khloé Take Miami, about her and her younger sister as sexy singles in the city. But by the time they made the trek back to LA, Kourtney was carrying a little extra baggage. “It wasn’t something I expected or planned,” Kourtney tells Life & Style in an exclusive interview. “It was just meant to be.”

Now eight months into the pregnancy, Kourtney, 30, is eagerly preparing to welcome a bouncing baby boy with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Scott Disick, 26, in December. “My pregnancy has been wonderful,” she gushes. “I love being pregnant. I’m excited to be a mom — but I’m nervous.”

And viewers will get to see her take on the new role — and maybe even get a peek inside the delivery room — during season four of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. What they won’t see, however, is Kourt complaining about her burgeoning belly. “I’m totally excited to gain weight, and I’m embracing it,” she tells Life & Style. “I run around naked all day at home! I like that my body is changing. It’s a beautiful thing.”

And like a good teammate, Scott’s making every effort to redeem himself in the eyes of Kourtney’s family. In the past, she’s accused him of cheating, which he adamantly denies.

“Scott and I have been going to different parenting classes,” Kourtney tells Life & Style. “They made me nervous at first, putting all kinds of information into my head, but they’re helpful. They’re a fun thing for Scott and me to do together.”

But being a perfect father doesn’t mean Scott will necessarily make Kourtney an honest woman. “I’m 30, but I never was that girl who was like, ‘I need to get married,’” she says. “I never had a plan. Now I have so much to think about for the baby. I’ll worry about myself later.”

[From Life & Style]

“They made me nervous at first, putting all kinds of information into my head…” Okay, I’ll mock her a little for that quote. Does Kourtney get nervous when someone tries to teach her something? Does she get a migraine when someone tries to get her to memorize a fact?

As far as the “I’ll worry about myself later” marriage stuff, I have to admit, I do wonder if it’s Kourtney who is pulling away from the idea of marriage, or if it’s Scott. I tend to think it’s Scott who is utterly ambivalent about getting hitched, while Kourtney really wants to tie Scott down (in her mind).

Life & Style cover via Cover Awards. Kourtney Kardashian is shown out on 10/29/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

The traditional gift for parents when a celebrity first makes it big is to buy them a new house. That’s sort of the proud, “Look what I did,” or “I’m paying you back for all the ways you sacrificed for me” present. Lady Gaga, who is not so traditional, went another way – she bought her dad a heart. Okay that may or may not be all she bought him – her phrasing is rather vague and confusing – but she definitely shelled out for his recent heart surgery. Which is certainly better than a house.

DADDY’s girl Lady GaGa has given her father the gift of life — she paid for him to have a new heart. The Poker Face singer took to her Twitter account over the weekend to reveal that her dad, Joseph, had undergone open-heart surgery.

And now in an interview with with 104.7 KISS FM in Phoenix, Arizona, GaGa says she covered the cost of the operation with the advance for her new album.

“It was pretty necessary… It was the biggest nightmare of my life,” she said. “My father is my whole world; I’m such a daddy’s girl… I said, ‘I haven’t bought anything yet with any of the money that I’ve made from my new album… so let me buy you a new heart, dad.’ And he said, ‘OK, fine.’

“I took care of my mom and my sister and I took care of me, and he’s gonna be out in a couple of days… Now I feel like I can get back to work… For a while I was feeling like I just wanted to give up. This really kinda put things in perspective… When this happened I really just kinda said, ‘I don’t wanna do anything for the next two weeks; I just wanna be with my dad and be a good daughter.’”

[From Showbiz Spy]

I guess she meant she hadn’t bought anything for her dad yet, since she said she took care of her mom and sister and herself. Unless she meant “took care” in a different sense. This might seem like an obligatory thing to pay for on Lady Gaga’s part, since it’s a life or death situation. But in July she claimed to have been broke. It seemed like she was exaggerating, but it definitely left the impression that she’s not flush with cash, for whatever reason.

~

Lady Gaga claims that her expensive clothing habit has driven her to the poor house. In fact, according to her, she’s gone bankrupt four times.

She said: “I’ve gone bankrupt about four times now. My manager wants to shoot me!

“Every dollar I earn goes on the show. Now we’re finally getting to a place where it’s not bankruptcy. Then again, with another tour coming up soon I’ll probably be homeless again.”

[From Hollyscoop]

The bankrupt four times thing might have been hyperbole, but it does happen. And she’s said several times that all her money goes back into her shows – and her wardrobe. It actually doesn’t sound frivolous to me. It’s like remodeling your house – it’s enjoyable and makes things look better, and ultimately increases the value of the home. Gaga probably puts a good deal of her money back into her wardrobe and her show because ultimately it increases her value as a performer and a celebrity.

Hopefully Mr. Gaga (that’s his name, right?) will make a full recovery and enjoy his new lease on life.

Here’s Lady Gaga the last time she was photographed out – leaving the “Gossip Girl” set on October 13th. Images thanks to INF Photo.

Drew Barrymore was on The Today Show this morning talking about her directorial debut “Whip It,” which opens in theaters tomorrow. Whenever I see Drew interviewed I’m always shocked by how much I like her and how easily it is to relate to her. She’s been through so much in her life but managed to come out a stronger, better person for it. You can tell she’s truly reflective , and she tried to bring her life experience to her film.

“Whip It” is about a small town girl named Bliss Cavendar (played by Ellen Page) whose mother (Marcia Gay Harden) wants her to compete in beauty pageants. However Bliss discovers roller derby and meets some girls she instantly connects with. Her mother isn’t supportive of the idea, and Drew does a great job of showing the complexity of mother-daughter relationships. Talking with Ann Curry this morning, Drew points out that Marcia Gay Harden just wants what’s best for her daughter, and when she was growing up that was pageants. There’s a big focus on the motivation and the fact that it’s good, even if the result is stressful.

Drew also said some great things about how she’s changed in her thirties, and one of them really stuck with me.

“It was so wonderful for me to get to be able to make a film about what mothers and daughters go through because I’ve been through so much with my own mother, that I could really bring a lot of personal honesty and experience to it. And what I didn’t want to make was a Hollywood version of what families go through, because it’s rough, you can’t sweep things under the carpet, you have to deal with it, you have good days and bad days. And in my twenties I used to believe in happy endings – and I still do – but I my thirties I really love a good day.”

[Transcribed from the Today Show]

I love that Drew isn’t trying to gloss over the complexities within families and between mothers and daughters. And I really appreciate what she said about loving a good day. If you’re waiting for your happy ending… it’s not that you aren’t going to get it, but you might not realize it until way into the future. After all, it hasn’t ended yet. But appreciating just having a good day – that’s realistic, and it helps you to be happy each and every day. Maybe it sounds a little hokey but it definitely worked for me.

Drew was emancipated when she was 15 years old, arguing to the court that her mother, Jaid Barrymore, was a bad influence on her. She’d started drinking and smoking pot by the age of 10, was in rehab by 13, and tried to commit suicide at 14. After that she lived with David Crosby and his wife for several months. Crosby said Drew stayed with them because Drew, “‘needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety.’” After that she got emancipated and never relapsed. In fact she’s quite the Hollywood success story, given the way child stars often turn out.

While she’s got some great insights, Drew still doesn’t have a good relationship with her mother. She told October’s In Style, “‘I am okay with my dad, but my mom and I have yet to work it out… I don’t talk about it because … how do you talk about something you’re confused about?’” And really, all Drew can do is work on herself and do what she can to recover from the relationship with her mom, and build her own happy, successful life. She can’t force her mom to be the person she needs her to be. It sounds like she’s made what peace with it that she can, and if nothing else has used all that she’s learned to bring a surprising complexity and depth to her first directorial project.

Here’s Drew and the cast of “Whip It” at the premiere in L.A. on Tuesday. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Alec Baldwin (with Marci Klein) at the UJA-Federation of New York’s Leadership awards dinner at Pier Sixty in New York City on June 6th. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Depending on how you look at it, Alec Baldwin is either really gutsy, totally insane, or able to learn from his mistakes. Or perhaps a combination of the three. After the controversy of the infamous “rude, thoughtless little pig” voicemail message he left for his then 11-year-old daughter Ireland, you’d think Alec would hesitate to bring up the incident again. Sure he did the initial requisite round of apologies and explanations, and he seemed genuine in his regret. Partly because he didn’t apologize for everything, only the things he felt he truly did wrong – and I suppose that’s better than saying you’re sorry for everything and not meaning it.

Nonetheless, that was two years ago and Baldwin has done a good job of moving on, thanks to his consistently stellar performance on “30 Rock. But he’s going to bring it all up again – because Alec has an idea or two about how you should parent your kids.

He’s no Dr. Spock – but that isn’t stopping “30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin from writing a book – about parenting!

The actor, long embroiled in nasty family turmoil involving his daughter, recently told an interviewer: “It will be ironic for some people, but I’m going to write a parenting book.

“We’re at… an awful place right now in terms of parenting. Kids have too much power and call too many of the shots, telling their parents what they will and won’t do.”

…Alec thinks modern parents have gone soft, and he blames the bad economy and other social stresses for pulling them away from their kids.

“We live in stressful times,” Alec said. “People come home, walk up the driveway, put the key in the door, and they can’t do another hard job. Parenting your children effectively is a tough job.”

Said a source close to the Emmy-winning actor: “He really believes he can help other people with their parenting problems because he’s been through the whole thing himself – the good, the bad and the ugly. And he’s a lot more learned and loving as a result.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, July 13 2009]

The thing is, much as I think it’s ill-advised and big-headed of Alec Baldwin to think he’s in a position to offer advice to other parents, I agree with every word he’s said. I cannot believe the way I see children bossing around their parents, telling them what they will and won’t do. Not that I didn’t have my moments as a kid, but you can tell when a child is throwing a once-in-a-while random tantrum versus behaving in their everyday manner. Parents let far too much bad behavior pass without raising an eyebrow.

That’s a big part of it. Yesterday I was on the train, and this kid kept obnoxiously yelling at his mom over and over again, annoying the whole train. I wanted to glare at the kid, but quickly realized the real problem – his mom had her headphones on. Loudly. She didn’t want to be bothered with her kid (who was only trying to tell her about his afternoon at day camp) so the rest of us had to hear him screaming. So… Alec Baldwin, you may not have a leg to stand on, but I’m still going to read your book. And do my best not to call my future kids barnyard animals.

Since marrying last August, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have enjoyed nothing less than a seemingly blissful union. Portia described her life as Ellen’s wife a few months ago, talking about the contentment she felt, and even talking about how Ellen’s mom calls Portia her “daughter-in-law”. Now it’s Ellen’s turn to talk about marriage… and babies. In a new interview with AOL Television (story via People), Ellen talks up marriage, but seems to definitively rule out becoming a parent. She says that she and Portia have talked about it, and they have decided they like their life as-is, with their animals and their niece:

Don’t expect Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi to become moms anytime soon.

Although the couple told PEOPLE last August that they talk about having kids, they have decided that they are happier being cool aunts.

“I don’t think we’re going to have kids,” DeGeneres tells AOL Television. “We have animals, and we love them. And, you know, we are brand new aunts. Her brother and his wife just had a baby girl who’s a month old now, and it’s fun to be a part of that.”

After tying the knot last summer, DeGeneres told PEOPLE, “It’s something we would never take lightly and just say, ‘That would be fun.’ It’s a lot of work and we recognize that. In a way, we want to be selfish because we love our life, but we know how much that adds to it.”

DeGeneres, 51, and de Rossi, 36, who have crusading for gay marriage, have since decided to focus on their relationship rather than have children. “It’s just a huge responsibility, and I don’t know that that’s something we want to take on,” DeGeneres says. “We’re very happily married without children.”

[From People]

I totally respect Ellen or anyone else who comes right out and says that they don’t feel the need to be a parent. Cameron Diaz said something like this recently, and Sandra Bullock also spoke out about how she didn’t feel the need to have biological children. All too often, I think society subtly or not-so-subtly “punishes” women who have made the decision not to become mothers. That being said, I really wonder if Portia really feels the same way as Ellen. Portia is fifteen years younger than Ellen, and her biological clock might be on a different wavelength. I really hope Portia isn’t saying “no” to kids just because Ellen isn’t interested… but maybe I’m reading too much into it. Perhaps after Portia gave motherhood deeper consideration, she just decided she prefers the fur-babies too.

Ellen and Portia are shown out on 4/18/09. Credit: WENN.com

Brooke Shields has long had a semi-strained relationship with her infamous stage mom Teri, but the two are still very much in each other’s lives, according to Brooke’s friends. Brooke recently had to move Teri, 75, into an assisted living community because she is suffering from dementia. Teri’s received a lot of criticism over the years for the way she’s handled Brooke’s career, and Brooke fired her as her manager in 1995. Teri’s also had a relationship with the National Enquirer for at least 10 years. As Celebitchy pointed out in that article, there are lots of issues between the two (Teri is an alcoholic; Brooke can come across as overprotective), and it’s hard to tell who’s right and who’s wrong. But regardless of all that, Brooke’s friends say she’s still a devoted daughter and very good to her mother.

As a child star, Brooke Shields was always watched over by Teri Shields, a stage mom known for her tenacity. And now that her mother has been diagnosed with dementia and is living in an assisted living facility, it’s Brooke who watches over Teri, say friends of the star. “Her devotion is very apparent,” says longtime pal Anna Strasberg. “Brooke takes care of Teri. There’s a bond there. It’s not a public thing for show. It’s very deeply personal.”

… Shields has described Teri – who was widely criticized for allowing her then-12-year-old daughter to play a child prostitute and appear nude in the 1978 film Pretty Baby – as an alcoholic. In 1995, Brooke fired her mother as her manager. (Teri divorced Brooke’s father, Frank Shields, when Brooke was an infant.)

But the bond between mother and daughter, at times strained, was never broken. “It was us against everybody,” Brooke recently told More magazine. Shields’s friend Anna Strasberg, who has hosted Brooke and her mother for Thanksgiving and other holidays, notes how Brooke dotes on Teri. “When Brooke has her mother at gatherings, she knows that her friends know the situation and Teri’s not pushed aside – she is part of her life and that is so beautiful to watch,” she says. “It is painful and it’s beautiful.”

“They watch the floats and the [Thanksgiving] parade go by,” adds Strasberg. “Brooke is very tender and keeps watch over her to make sure she is okay, and that someone is talking to her. Teri may not be able to always have lucid moments, and she may not always be able to voice her feelings, but some moments are beautiful.”

Another of Brooke’s friends, Broadway director Kathleen Marshall, says of Teri’s deteriorating health, “[Brooke]‘s very direct and honest but doesn’t dwell on it.”

[From People]

Familial relationships can be incredibly difficult and challenging. There are some that are lucky to have supportive, relatively trouble-free family lives. But most of us have some degree of complexity with our families. It’s impossible for someone outside that relationship to understand all that goes into it, good and bad. Brooke doesn’t strike me as the sort to have simply abandoned her mother or treated her badly, as some articles have suggested. She seems to have made a decision to take the best care of her mother as she possibly can, without letting Teri’s issues affect her life any longer. And that’s completely fair.

Her mother lives in New Jersey, and Brooke and her family live in L.A. for the most part, though they spend a good deal of time in New York City. Teri needs to remain in one place, and it sounds like an assisted living facility is the best situation for her. It doesn’t seem like they’re the closest mother and daughter there ever was, but that happens. It doesn’t mean Brooke’s a bad daughter.

Here’s Brooke spending the day with her family in Soho on December 14th. Images thanks to Pacific Coast News.

Let’s see, can we do a quick tally on this week’s Brangelina tabloid rumors? The big one is the claim that Brad’s pulling a David Beckham and cheating with the nanny. Of course there are the required “Angelina’s pregnant again!” rumors that come out each week. And in National Enquirer territory, they say they’ve got the inside scoop on a feud brewing over the couple’s child care arrangements. According to their “sources” the couple has a deal, and Angelina is pissed because Brad broke the terms of this arrangement by recruiting his mom, Jane to help out with the kids while she’s working on a new movie.

Angelina Jolie has nixed Brad Pitt’s plan to move his mother into the $60 million estate they’ve rented on Long Island!

The Changeling star put the kibosh on Jane Pitt moving in to help with their kids because she felt it was too close for comfort, an insider told The ENQUIRER.

The A-list couple have an agreement that while one of them works, the other looks after their six children, and Angelina – who’s filming the spy thriller Salt – was incensed when Brad turned to his mom for help, said the source.

“Angelina feels Brad should be able to handle the kids on his own, and she saw his request for help as a cop-out,” said the insider.

“She cared for the kids while Brad made his last film in Germany, so she feels it’s his turn, and she told him to tell his mother they didn’t need her help.”

Jane and her husband live in Missouri, but she relocated to the south of France soon after Brad and Angie’s twins, Vivienne and Knox, were born on July 12.

“What Angie says goes,” the source divulged.

[From The National Enquirer]

Okay, that last sentence I do believe. She calls the shots in this relationship. But telling Brad’s mom that she is “not needed?” That seems a bit harsh. Besides, we all know that the couple has help with all those kids. What difference does it make if it’s Brad or grandma doing the diaper changing, as long as it’s getting done? Would it be so bad if Brad admitted that he can’t keep track of six little kids by himself?

Here’s Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and director David Fincher at the “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Japan premiere in Roppongi, Tokyo on January 28th.