Our gossip columnist spends all day in bed scouring the wires for the hottest dish, doing her best to keep her mind active and focused on the troubles and scandals of other people. Reading about celebrities keeps her from getting overwhelmed by the feeling that that there really isn't any point in bothering anymore. Is there?

According to "Star," Nicole Richie was at home alone with her child the other night when she learned that her fiancé, Joel Madden, had been spotted partying with Lindsay Lohan. Richie was reportedly reduced to tears, and it must be assumed that her child could only sit and watch helplessly as her mother lost control. It is unknown whether this was the first time Richie's four-month-old daughter witnessed her mother's face wrenched with anguish. Hopefully, she's still too young to look into that pain and think, "One day I'll feel what mommy feels."

Friends of actor Colin Farrell are reportedly worried over his sudden loss of nearly forty pounds. Well, apparently friends of actor Colin Farrell clearly don't understand how hard it can be to put food onto a fork, lift the fork through the air, insert the fork into your mouth, and then somehow, with some force of miraculous magic, swallow. Multiply that herculean feat by the dozens, every single day. The very thought can make us want to go to bed someplace very far away.

Jessica Simpson reportedly found the news of former boyfriend John Mayer's romance with Jennifer Aniston too hard to take, so she attempted to drink until she was numb. According to "US Weekly," on the same night that Mayer and Aniston's romance went public, Simpson drank enough at LA's Mexicali Cocina Cantina that she had to be driven home by her mother. Clearly, Simpson wants to do to herself what Mayer and Tony Romo did to her: she wants to make herself just go away.

Just as sometimes laughter can sound like nothing more than desperate, panicked screams, for Gwyneth Paltrow, sweetness and pain are one and the same. Talking to "People Magazine" about what she eats with her family, the "Iron Man" star said, "We'll make chocolate chip cookies and eat them, but sugar makes me feel pretty bad." We feel the same way about sunlight.

Both of them tortured by scandal, barely able to work, bewildered by how far they've fallen, and clueless as to how they could ever begin to put their lives back together in some semblance of what they used to be, ET Online reports that Mel Gibson and Britney Spears left the country yesterday. ET Online did not say whether they planned to return.

"Nicole Richie Catches Joel with Lindsay Lohan!" - Star
"Jessica Simpson Binge Drinks Same Day Mayer and Aniston Go Public"- US Weekly
"Farrell goes from trim to thin" - The Sun
"Gwyneth Paltrow: 'I've Got Lots of Lovely Vices!'" - People
"Britney and Mel's Weekend Vacay!'" - ETOnline Posted by: Bob Powers      I’m a fan of Bob Powers