Madonna feels sad about her personal life, yet lucky and blessed professionally

Madonna has broken her silence about her split from Guy Ritchie - revealing her gruelling tour schedule is helping her through her personal troubles.

In an interview with the Associated Press, she says her intense schedule "provides a distraction that keeps me going", adding, "I'm sad about my personal life, but I feel very blessed and very lucky that I have the opportunity to do what I do in my professional life. It would be horrible if I was just thinking about getting a divorce and had nothing to do."

In addition to wrapping up her worldwide Sticky & Sweet tour, the star is currently promoting her documentary I Am Because We Are, about the poverty stricken African nation of Malawi.

Madonna and Ritchie were rumored to have split as early as this summer, but have kept quiet about details of their divorce despite relentless media attention.

They have agreed to share custody of son Rocco, eight, and adopted David, three, while Madonna's 12-year-old daughter Lourdes, from a previous relationship, will live with her mother.

Britney's mystery man

Britney Spears apparently wasn't exaggerating when she groused in her new documentary that her carefully controlled life lacks "passion" and "excitement." The popster looked beyond bored Monday night as she arrived at a Los Angeles eatery in a Porsche driven by a well-chiseled male model-type reportedly named Marco, an entrance that touched off a paparazzi frenzy that required police assistance. But it seems her subdued mood (and wardrobe, courtesy of a blah brown turtleneck) wasn't due to her date -- because it wasn't a date. E! News identifies Brit's tall, dark and handsome companion as the general manager of the salon owned by stylist Kim Vo, who tends to her problem tresses. Vo downplays that the two are just "good friends" and that there are no romantic overtones. Besides, dinner also included Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, along with her assistant and several other members of her inner circle. Still, Star is convinced there's something more than friendship and hair-care gab sessions afoot. "It is a fresh relationship, but Marco thinks the world of Britney and Britney really trusts him -- the two have been officially dating for just a few weeks," asserts a source. "It is going really well and both are really happy with one another."

Paris Hilton and Benji Madden split

Paris Hilton has called it quits with BF Good Charlotte rocker Benji Madden, Star magazine reported. “Paris was fed up with Benji always telling her what to do and bossing her around,” an insider told the mag. “She couldn’t take his overbearing ways anymore. It was stressing her out. He can be very aggressive and he was just too much trouble.”
The final straw allegedly came when Paris spent the night out last weekend with ex-boytoy, Greek heir Stavros Niarchos. “She felt she couldn’t cut loose and party,” says the source. “He doesn’t drink and doesn’t think she should either. She felt too fenced in.”