Ha! This story just struck me as ridiculously funny, and I know that admitting that makes me a horrible person. Apparently, there’s a rumor going around Palm Beach, Florida that Donald Trump and his third wife, Melania, are having some relationship problems. The whole thing might stem from the fact that Donald seems to be spending more and more time alone in Palm Beach while Melania stays in New York with their nearly four-year-old son (I know, I keep thinking their kid is just a baby, but he’s turns four in March, despite this report claiming Barron is five). The Donald has already denied the alleged relationship trouble, but his hilarious denial kind of just added fuel to the fire when he claimed that Melania had to stay in New York with the kid because of school on Friday evenings. Seriously!

The Palm Beach Daily News which isn’t exactly known for wild speculation reported earlier this week that the marriage of Donald Trump is in trouble. The Donald says that just isn’t true and he told the newspaper that also. “There was a report in the Palm Beach Daily News that Melania and I are having problems, and it is 100% false, as I told them.”

The rumors started because Donald has been spending weekends alone in Palm Beach while his family stays behind in New York. His explanation for this is “Melania used to come with me to Palm Beach every weekend, but now that we have a young son, his school comes first.”

He went on to say that their five year old son has school on Friday evenings so the family has to stay in New York. OK, first things first here. I’m sure there are kids who have school in the evenings. But Friday evenings? Really? He is five. That part doesn’t make any sense. Second of all, if he is so enamored of his family why don’t they fly to Palm Beach after school ends? It isn’t like Donald is flying commercial. The plane leaves when he wants it to leave. The kid is five. How late is he staying in school at night? Finally, why is he going down every weekend? Stay at home with your family. Just because he is in school Friday evenings still leaves Saturdays and Sundays that the family could be together. I smell lots of trouble here.

[From Crazy Days and Nights via Gossip Rocks]

School on Friday evenings! Hilarious. When I was in college, it was difficult for me to make it to class on Thursday mornings, I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if classes were held on Friday evenings. Regardless of the “Friday evening school” shenanigans for a three-year-old (for real!), what do you think? Is there trouble is gold-plated paradise? I think there’s something there!

I swear, there’s only one picture out of the whole bunch where Sarah Jessica Parker isn’t draped on her husband Matthew Broderick. Which, you know, is fine I guess. But the weird thing is that Matthew looks like he wants to be anywhere but there. Is this rude? Of course it is. It’s perfectly possible that Matthew Broderick just looks like this always, that he always looks bored and over it, which, in all fairness, he probably is because he’s been famous for decades. Lainey summed it up be calling Sarah Jessica Parker “Always Grateful”:

It’s Photo Assumption, sure, but doesn’t she seem it? Like, super appreciative to be gifted with his attention? Maybe it’s just me…

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick attended the Broadway opening of Present Laughter last night. Funny I don’t remember him at the New York premiere of Did You Hear About the Morgans. He was likely busy. With the twins. Or something.

There’s nothing wrong with a desperate wanting to please, and being desperately pleased when wanted. Just… I wonder how often he wants her. What? Look at him. That is a man who wants his wife all the time. Never mind Photo Assumption. It means nothing. Even when the photos assume it over and over, it totally means nothing.

[From Lainey Gossip]

Sigh… this makes me feel sorry for Sarah Jessica, and I know I shouldn’t. She’s got a pretty good life with her kids and her thriving Sex and the Retirement Community sequels and all of that. But I’m with Lainey, SJP and Broderick do not look like a happy couple.

In other SJP news, she was just named the new president of Halston. A lot of critics are complaining that this was a boneheaded, Lindsay Lohan-esque move for the House of Halston, but I don‘t hate it. It‘s not like Halston is Oscar de la Renta or anything - Halston makes pretty cocktail dresses, slinky gowns and generally very cute, wearable clothes. SJP might be a natural. About her appointment as president, SJP says: “I think this is a brand new kind of business model, and it illustrates how serious I am about this position. I think it’s wonderful to feel invested in something. I tend not to just endorse something. I like feeling the stakes.”

SJP also admits that she came to the company in a “rather unorthodox way” but that unorthodox isn’t really bad, so whatever. As for what she brings to the table at Halston? “Good manners, a point of view that is inspiring, that is hopefully smart, and an incredible passion and excitement and enthusiasm, as well as some experience of what I know about women, that having been pretty much the focus of my role in ‘Sex and the City.” Oh, crap. She’s going to send of fashion lines based on Carrie Bradshaw? Halston is doomed.

Sarah Jessica and Matthew at the opening night of ‘Present Laughter’ in New York on January 21, 2010. Credit: WENN.

This may only interest me, but I find the royal family of Monaco fascinating, so we’re going to enter into the marriage of Princess Caroline and her third husband Prince Ernst August of Hanover. They’ve been married for 11 years, and from what I’ve read throughout the years, they’ve always been somewhat mismatched. Oh, did you know that Princess Caroline is a homewrecker? Prince Ernst was married to a nice Swedish Swiss woman when he and Caroline began their affair, and then he left his wife for Caroline, and he and Caroline went on to have a daughter. Since then, there have been tons of stories about the prince’s drinking, carousing and general unpleasantness.

There are always split rumors about Caroline and Ernst, but last fall the rumors seemed to be getting more serious. Still, no split came, and I haven’t heard anything about them for a while. Now it seems that they spent their holidays apart - Caroline went skiing with her kids, while Ernst spent time in Thailand with a lady friend. How do we know this? Because there are photos of Ernst with this lady friend! Scandal!

The already-tumultuous marriage of Monaco’s Princess Caroline and husband Prince Ernst August of Hanover appears to have hit a new bump with the publication Thursday of photos showing the 55-year-old Ernst August over the Christmas holiday walking the sand, sunbathing on a beach in Thailand and kissing in the surf – all with someone other than his wife, who was skiing with the couple’s children in Switzerland.

In a four-page photo spread headlined “Amorous Escapade in Thailand,” Thursday’s editions of France’s Paris-Match show Ernst August and an unidentified woman locked in an embrace. “The Prince and his friend,” the publication says, “only had eyes for each other.” Meanwhile, Germany’s Bunte also published the photos, declaring, “Monaco’s First Lady Is Being Publically Duped.”

The photos raise a new round of rumors concerning a possible divorce action by the thrice-married Her Royal Highness Caroline Princess of Hanover, Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg, 52, the eldest child of the late Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly.

They also show the latest in a chain of indiscretions that has made the couple’s 11-year marriage a royal soap opera starring Ernst August in incidents of public drunkenness, hospitalizations, scuffles, alleged infidelity and one all-too-well-documented episode of public urination at Expo 2000.

The couple – who were seen together on only three occasions in 2009 – have been living apart for some time. In September, photos allegedly revealed the Prince’s close friendship with a Parisian socialite. Days later, while Ernst was in Libya celebrating the 40th anniversary of Colonel Khaddafi’s reign, Caroline moved out of the family’s Fountainebleu home, taking their 10-year-old daughter Alexandra with her and resettling in Monaco.

A press spokesperson in Monaco told PEOPLE on Thursday that the Palace had “no comment” regarding the photographs.

Publication of his holiday snapshots couldn’t possibly have taken place at a less opportune moment for Ernst August. Next Wednesday, after months of negotiations, a court in Hanover is to hear testimony from a newly discovered eyewitness in Ernst’s appeal to have a 2000 battery assault conviction against him overturned.

That eyewitness is none other than his wife.

[From People]

It’s juicy, I think. I’m actually hoping Princess Caroline has had enough. My opinion - just from reading the odd Vanity Fair hit piece - is that Prince Ernst has always been a buffoon. A drunk baffoon. Of course, I think Caroline probably has some secrets she wants to keep hidden, and God knows she isn’t perfect. But she carries out her royal duties flawlessly, and she needs to rid herself of the dead weight, so to speak.

It sure was a shock to learn, just before Christmas, that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins were breaking up. Since their very brief announcement, the rumor mill has been running wild. A new article by a reporter from The Daily Beast, who has a long history of not-so-pleasant run-ins with the couple, suggests that the split may have been caused by Susan and Tim’s differences of opinion on political issues. Specifically, the report claims that Robbins has been quietly donating campaign money to Republicans (gasp!) while Susan has gone even further to the left. According to this report, even Susan’s own mom was surprised by the breakup.

It was their low-key, under-the-radar, one might even say boring approach to life in the big city that apparently allowed them to separate in the summer with zero publicity. Lenora Tomalin, Susan’s 86-year-old mother, says she was “shocked” when her daughter called last week to tell her about the split a day before the news broke. “It was perfect timing because the press couldn’t do much with it, because of Christmas and all the other news that would be in the forefront,” Tomalin told me over the Christmas weekend.

She recently saw Susan and Tim at a family wedding in New Jersey and says everything seemed normal. “My daughter was a little concerned about my hearing about it otherwise. It has affected me a lot, I’m still dealing with it,” Tomalin told me. “The way she was talking, it was very amicable. Tim is still in the picture because of the kids. I think they’re handling it beautifully. There’s no recrimination of any kind.”

Tomalin roundly dismissed published speculation that the 63-year-old Sarandon has taken up with 31-year-old Jonathan Bricklin, a business partner and co-investor in the Manhattan ping-pong club Spin. “Gracious, no!” Tomalin said, adding that she met Bricklin recently when he and Susan gave her a tour of the establishment. “He’s a gem. He has nothing to do with her other than as a business partner… If she was [seeing Bricklin romantically], Susan would be upfront about it.”

Tomalin added: “I’m fond of Tim even though I had that blowup with him years ago.”

That was back in early 2003, when I was writing The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column and Tomalin gave me an interview in which she identified herself as a staunch Republican and described the tension her political differences had caused between herself, Susan, and Tim. After the item appeared, Tim called her to angrily upbraid her for airing dirty laundry. She said she was devastated. Weeks later, when I ran into Robbins at a party in Los Angeles, he was still steamed—profanely putting me on notice that if I ever wrote about his family again, he would “find” and “hurt” me. Months later, he was still telling anyone who’d listen—like a lunchtime crowd at Washington’s National Press Club—that I am “a sadistic creep who writes, or rather, scratches, his column with his fingers in the dirt.”When it came to politics, Robbins and Sarandon tended to espouse and admonish rather than try to persuade. Either you were enlightened or just weren’t—either ideologically chaste or downright corrupt. “I am not, was not, a big Clinton fan,” Robbins told me back in 2002. “I hear he was a liberal. I hear people described as liberals all the time that I don’t tend to agree with. I think the rise of the Southern Democrats and the Democratic Leadership Council has pushed the definition of what’s a liberal farther and farther to the right.”

…Loyal Dems would undoubtedly be gobsmacked to learn that, if Federal Election Commission records are to be believed, Robbins has not only donated regularly to Democratic candidates over the past 18 years, he also has written checks to conservative Republicans. In the 2006 election cycle, according to public records, the actor gave $5,000 to 10 Republican candidates for the House and Senate—including, most shocking of all, Minnesota’s resident wingnut, Rep. Michele Bachmann. Why such largesse to the enemy? Former GOP congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, who lost in 2006 despite Robbins’ $500 donation, was baffled and surprised when I reached him over the weekend. “Maybe because I covered the Durham Bulls as a sports broadcaster in the late 1970s and early ’80s? Maybe because I used to frequently rent Bob Roberts back in the ’90s?” Hayworth wondered, mentioning two of Robbins’ starring vehicles. “All I can say is, ‘Thank you!’ I hope he enjoyed the Christmas card.” My efforts to reach Robbins to hear his explanation were unavailing, alas.

[From The Daily Beast]

But other sources are saying that the couple’s breakup was due to Susan’s flourishing relationship with a business partner who is 30 years her junior. Jonathan Bricklin, 31, is reportedly getting “touchy feely” with Sarandon, even though her rep, Jonathan’s rep, and Susan’s mom are all denying it.

Susan Sarandon and long-time lover Tim Robbins announced their split two days before Christmas, with their rep issuing a statement saying they “separated over the summer” and “no further comments will be made.”

Since then Sarandon, 63, has denied she is in a relationship with ping-pong club owner Jonathan Bricklin, 31, as has his rep.

But an inside source close to Bricklin tells Fox411.com that the two are spending a lot of quality time together.

“The way they touch each other, greet each other and spend so much time together, they are far more than friends,” said the source. “They are very comfortable with each other, very touchy-feely. You don’t touch a friend the way Jonathan and Susan do.”

The source, who has seen the two together since Sarandon and Robbins announced their split, added that “Susan looks great…. She’s been extremely busy over the holidays with her kids, the new club and Jonathan. She meets him at the club all the time in the middle of the day.”

The club in question is a new NYC ping-pong club called SPiN, in which they have both reportedly invested money.

Yes, we’ll say it again, a ping-pong club. (Only in New York…)

Anyway, the couple even apparently spent part of the New Year’s holiday together.

“Susan is always around [SPiN], she enjoys being with Jonathan, and they were together over the New Year last week,” said the insider.

While some eyes may widen at the couple’s 32-year age difference, the insider says the two look great together.

“She may be 63, but she is glowing. She hardly wears makeup and she still looks phenomenal,” the pal blabs. “Susan is too gorgeous to be single!”

The source adds that the May-November relationship wasn’t what ended the Sarandon/Robbins romance.

“[Sarandon and Robbins] have been separated for some time,” said the insider. “It was definitely not a rash decision, and Susan and Tim are very protective of all their children, especially their two boys.”

[From Fox News/Hollywood 411]

For a couple like Susan and Tim, who have long been very vocal and passionate about their political views, it makes sense that a change of opinion might be a deal-breaker. It’s too bad, because there are a lot of couples with differing political views who somehow find a way to make it work - look at Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. Maybe it was a combination of the two? Either way, I doubt that Tim or Susan are ever going to comment about it. But at least they are taking the high road and not talking smack about each other.

Methinks People Magazine is doing some damage control! People just released a new story on the Jake Gyllenhaal-Reese Witherspoon rumors that began yesterday, when People first reported Jake and Reese had split. According to People’s new article, they had a source who claimed Reese “told close friends around Thanksgiving that she and Gyllenhall… had broken up.” People Magazine also does a somewhat defensive timeline of how Reese has been solo the past few weeks, as if to say “Dude, they weren’t photographed together for two weeks! What were we supposed to think?”

People goes on to make it sound like Reese and Jake have broken up several times, the working (and unspoken) theory being that Reese and Jake did actually break up a few weeks ago, but might get back together yet again. Another claim: Jake wants to marry Reese (“Jake would marry her tomorrow”) but Reese is gun-shy about re-marriage and strictly adheres to a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy (“Jake can be a little overbearing at times, and Reese is really happy with life right now. Why screw that up or change a good thing?”).

While the precise status of the Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal relationship remains unclear – over the weekend a source close to the actress told PEOPLE the couple had split, a claim denied by their reps – the two have certainly had their share of highs and lows during their two-year relationship.

Witherspoon, 33, told close friends around Thanksgiving that she and Gyllenhall, also 33, had broken up, says the source. She was seen driving alone in Los Angeles over the weekend, then on Sunday she was spotted at the Whiskey Kitchen in Nashville – without Gyllenhaal.

As a couple, the last time they were seen together was two weeks ago, when they spent time in Philadelphia (where Reese is shooting a yet-to-be-titled movie with Oscar-winning director James L. Brooks) and in Pittsburgh (where Jake is shooting his new movie, Love and Other Drugs).

“As much as everyone thinks they’re right there, they’re really not near the whole marriage thing,” a source close to the couple told PEOPLE last spring. “Jake would marry her tomorrow, but Reese doesn’t want to go there yet, even though he would like to.”

The source adds: “There’s a huge attraction between them, and they’ve becomes a team, partners, but Jake can be a little overbearing at times, and Reese is really happy with life right now. Why screw that up or change a good thing?”

Then there are her children – daughter Ava, 10, and son Deacon, 6 – with former husband Ryan Phillippe to consider. “The kids are her first priority,” says the source. “They’re not ready for that, at least as far as Jake.”

The pair first met on the Morocco set of the movie Rendition in 2006. “Jake went and introduced himself to Reese,” a source close to both told PEOPLE. From there, “things slowly progressed, but it was never something she thought would happen from the start. She just kind of developed this little crush over time.”

But with Witherspoon’s divorce from Phillippe still pending at the time, the actress took a step back during the summer of 2007.

“They broke up. It’s totally and completely over,” a source in Witherspoon’s circle told PEOPLE at the time. “Reese was the one who had to do it. She just got out of a divorce and was so concerned with her family, she just didn’t have the time for him and he really demanded that.”

The divorce was finalized in June 2008, but moving on proved difficult for Witherspoon. “When people get in your face and say, ‘This will pass,’ you think: Are they crazy?” Witherspoon said in the April 2009 issue of Elle magazine, adding that the divorce was, “very humiliating and very isolating.”

Still, Witherspoon came to realize, “If it’s not painful, maybe it wasn’t the right decision to marry to begin with. Those are the appropriate emotions.”

Reuniting with Gyllenhaal in 2007, Witherspoon later said her beau was “really a fantastic guy.”

“He’s very supportive,” was she told Vogue last year. “Suffice it to say, I’m very happy in life, and I’m very lucky to have a lot of really supportive people around me who care very much for me, and, you know, that’s all you can hope for in life. I am very blessed in that way.”

Still, Witherspoon was hesitant to discuss the possibility of marrying again. Despite repeated rumors that the duo had gotten engaged, reps for the pair denied a proposal – and Witherspoon made it clear that she wasn’t ready.

“Family is all we have in life, but I don’t know how I feel about marriage,” she told Parade last year. “Obviously, I’m not far enough out of being married to think about doing it again. You sort of reconstitute your family. You find a family with people who come into your life for a reason.”

[From People]

Well, I think it’s perfectly reasonable that Reese would be rather “meh” on marriage after the chaos of being married to Ryan Phillippe. Excuse me, I mean “alleged” chaos. He was allegedly cheating on her all over the place, and I could see Reese having some big trust issues. It’s also interesting to hear that Jake is “a little overbearing” - I’m just happy to hear he’s not Mr. Perfect, although I do think it’s kind of sweet that he is the one who wants to get married and Reese is the commitment-phobic one. Good work, Reese!

Reese and Jake in New York on June 6, 2009. Also, Reese and Jake at the ‘Rendition’ premiere in Toronto on September 7, 2007. Credit: INF.

At the beginning of the month, Star Magazine reported that Chris Martin had been cheating on his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, with Gwyneth’s “younger version” Kate Bosworth. Various sources had Kate and Chris making out and hooking up at a U2 concert and at various California restaurants. After that, many people claimed that Gwyneth and Chris’s marriage was “over” despite Chris’s denials and threats of a lawsuit against Star Magazine. For the past few weeks, Gwyneth and Chris have been rather quiet, although both have been spotted out and about in London, separately. But that’s not even newsworthy - they always did things separately, and it’s really difficult to even find photographs of the two of them in the same frame. The latest solo venture for Gwyneth was her attendance at the Chopard boutique opening in Marrakesh on Thanksgiving. And now The Daily Mail’s gossip girl Katie Nicholl is reporting that Chris and Gwyneth will be spending “months” apart come the new year:

It’s been a rocky few months for career-driven stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin – and things don’t look set to improve in the New Year.

Just weeks ago, Coldplay singer Chris, 32, was forced to deny reports that he cheated on his wife with Hollywood starlet Kate Bosworth.

And now I’m told that the couple face months apart when Gwyneth starts working on two movies next year.

Gwyneth, 37, left, took some time out to look after their children, Apple, five, and three-year-old Moses, but has just signed up for the new films.

‘Gwyneth will be spending a lot of time away to focus on her new movies,’ says a source. ‘She goes to Berlin in the spring to make The Danish Girl. Before that, she will star in a small-budget independent musical set in America’s Deep South. She loves singing so it was a role she couldn’t turn down.’

Busy Gwyneth is also committed to promoting Iron Man 2 with co-star Robert Downey Jnr. But a spokesman insisted her new schedule ‘leaves plenty of time for her family’.

She even incorporated an attendance last week at the star-studded opening of a hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco, alongside Miranda Kerr and Jennifer Aniston. The actress looked every inch the Grecian goddess as she appeared in a one-shoulder dress.

[From The Daily Mail]

Is Gwyneth looking for a way out? Is she starting to gather her wits about her and begun to formulate an exit strategy? Who will be Gwyneth’s next conquest post-divorce? I know, I know. I’m jumping the gun. If she leaves Chris, she’ll probably spend a few years single, and giving interview after interview about how amazing it is to be a single mother. Then she’ll find some minor European royal (probably gay) to marry her, and she’ll finally be a princess! That’s how it’s going to happen, I swear.

You might remember Anthony Michael Hall as the lovable geek in “Sixteen Candles,” or the lovable geek in “The Breakfast Club.” But the “Dead Zone” actor isn’t so lovable, according to his ex-girlfriend, who filed for a temporary restraining order against the actor after he allegedly stalked her and attacked her. Yikes!

It’s always the quiet ones you’ve got to watch out for. Brian Johnson, we’re looking at you.

A temporary restraining order has been issued against erstwhile Breakfast Clubber Anthony Michael Hall by his ex-girlfriend, who claims, according to the New York Post, that the actor attempted to kick down her apartment door last week.

Diana Falzone, a radio personality and (irony alert!) relationship expert whose last column was titled “How Not to Date a Loser,” filed a police complaint a week ago. She had dated the actor for roughly a year, but the duo is no longer together.

She reportedly said that after Hall’s failed attempts to kick down her door, she let him in her apartment, only to have him bash her head against the wall.

The 41-year-old former Brat Packer allegedly stalked her prior to the attack, and the order bars him from “assault, stalking, harassment, menacing, reckless endangerment…intimidation,” among other behavior no-nos.

While Hall himself, who suffers from a mild case of bipolar disorder, has yet to speak out on the incident, his spokesman told the Post that “all of the allegations are erroneous and will be addressed accordingly.”

Still, it could have been worse. He could have had a flare gun.

[From E! Online]

Gee, E! It sure is funny when you crack jokes about domestic violence. NOT. A woman was stalked and had her head slammed into a wall, and you’re busting on her? Way to be appropriate. I was a fan of Hal’’s back in the day- his Ted character from “Sixteen Candles” is a classic. I did wonder what was up with him when he re-emerged as the pushy, dominating boyfriend in “Edward Scissorhands.” He seemed a bit too comfortable in that role, I always thought. And finally, I have a question for any mental health experts out there: is it possible to have a “mild” case of bipolar disorder?

On Friday, Jaybird talked about a report from the National Enquirer about David Letterman’s wife allegedly kicking him out. According to a source to the Enquirer, “Dave admitted he’s sleeping in the city after Regina let him have it. He took a few days off from the show so they could try to work things out…But if anything, he may have made the situation worse. Regina demanded that he tell the complete truth about what he did with the women, but Dave hemmed and hawed. Now he’s moved out of the house.”

Well, that might have been crap. Letterman’s spokesman is saying now that the Enquirer’s report is “wrong”. Which it very well may be, and it wouldn’t be the first time. The Enquirer gets a lot of stuff right, but an equal amount of stuff wrong, and they’ve been doing some really exploitative coverage of the Letterman scandal.

TV funnyman David Letterman on Sunday denied a supermarket tabloid report claiming his wife booted him from their Westchester mansion over his sex scandal.

Letterman’s spokesman Tom Keaney blasted the National Enquirer report as bogus.

“The National Enquirer has it wrong,” Keaney told the Daily News.

The Enquirer, quoting an unnamed source at the CBS “Late Show,” claimed Letterman, 62, moved out of the couple’s North Salem home and into his luxury loft in lower Manhattan.

The Enquirer said Letterman’s wife, Regina, 49, asked him to leave after he balked at telling her the complete truth about the female staffers he bedded.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Letterman’s mother, Dorothy Mengering, said.

[From The NY Daily News]

Here’s a question - why is Letterman’s spokesperson even bothering to confirm or deny a report from the Enquirer? They’ve been running negative, tawdry pieces (like the story about Dave’s “sex tapes”) about Letterman for weeks now, so why all of a sudden deny this report? Is it because it hit a little too close to home? I’ll tell you something - if I was Regina, I think I would kicked him out, at least temporarily. There comes a point where it’s not about maturity or talking about your issues or any of that stuff. That point is where you just don’t want to see the guy’s face, because if you do, you know you’ll be prone to violence. My guess is that Regina caught herself lookingly longingly at the steak knives, and told David that he should stay somewhere else for a few weeks while she calmed down.

Here’s David outside of ‘The Late Show’ studios in New York on August 24, 2009. Credit: Fame.

Rosie O’Donnell confirmed her relationship trouble with Kelli Carpenter in an interview with USA Today a few weeks ago. Rosie didn’t get into specifics, but she made it sound like she and Kelli had been having problems for a while. A week later, Rosie went on Howard Stern’s show and got a bit more specific, saying she and Kelli had “come to a point where we are seeing [if] what will make everyone happiest is maybe to not live together, but continue to parent.” Rosie also told Howard: “Kelli and I have a lot of issues and sex wasn’t one of them.” Ugh. Later, the Enquirer reported that Rosie feared her own mental health issues would not look good in a prospective custody battle with Kelli, should it come to that. Apparently, Rosie may fear losing their kids.

Now the Enquirer is reporting Kelli’s take on the situation, through unnamed sources quoting Kelli. It could totally be crap - Kelli doesn’t really strike me as this vicious. I tend to think Kelli doesn’t want her side of the story out there - she seems like a very private person, but whatever.

Summing up her years with ex-wife ROSIE O’DONNELL – and revealing why there’s NO chance they’ll recon-smile – KELLI CARPENTER told pals the comedienne’s “a monster to live with and, other than being a great mom, has no positive aspects!”

Despite their vow to stay “friendly” in public, sources say, Kelli admits in private that “DONALD TRUMP was right – Rosie destroys everything in her life.”

Said a close friend: “Kelli thinks Rosie’s a great parent, but a lousy mate. She’s a monster to live with. While she is kind and patient with their four children, she’s snappish, condescending and constantly argumentative with Kelli.”

Having a large family didn’t help. “Rosie’s focus turned from Kelli to their four kids…and took her eye off the ball in their relationship. Finally seeing the writing on the wall, Kelli opted out. Rosie was heartbroken, but accepted it,” said the friend.

“She was a big enough woman – no pun intended – to realize much of it was her fault.”

[From the National Enquirer]

I’ll buy that Rosie is a “monster” to live with, just because I could easily imagine how she would be a pain in the ass. The part of the story that might lend credence to these quotes being legit is the acknowledgement that Rosie is a good mom, so maybe there’s something there. But I just think the Donald Trump comment was for tabloid value. But maybe that’s because I can’t see anyone willfully siding with Trump.

Rosie O’Donnell and Kelli Carpenter are seen at the PS 122 Spring Gala 2008 in New York City on May 15, 2008 and the ‘Sherie Rene Scott: You May Now Worship Me’ benefit concert at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York on March 31, 2008. Credit for both: WENN.