Halle Berry has taken another trip to Splitsville.

The RadarOnline site says the twice-divorced actress has parted ways with Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, who have a 2-year-old daughter together. They’re sharing custody.

The site quotes an unnamed source saying it was Gabriel who ended things and that their age difference (he’s 34, she’s 43) was a factor in the split.

This anonymous insider said, ”Gabriel just felt it wasn’t working anymore. When they were first together the 9-year age difference between them didn’t phase him, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever dated and he was totally in love. But as time went on he started feeling it more and more. Also, Gabriel started noticing other women, and he felt it just wasn’t right to stay with Halle in those circumstances.”

Whoever this source might be is clearly a member of Team Gabriel.

“Gabriel is a really nice, decent guy and he would never cheat on her, but I suspect that he had become attracted to someone …

Continue reading Halle Berry is single again »

Jenny Sanford, the ex-wife of S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, signs her new memoir at 7 p.m. tonight  at the Discover Mills Mall Books-a-Million store.

You can pretty much ask her anything.

“The world knows my personal business,” she told us during an interview this week.”They did even before I wrote the book.”

In the book, a quick and compelling 212 pages, she details life with Mark Sanford, who seems like a tightfisted jerk long before he bolted for a tryst with his Argentinian lover and said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. But although she writes candidly about how he went on a mountain hiking trip with his buddies just two weeks after his first child was born, made her work as his campaign manager because he wouldn’t have to pay her, and demanded she return a diamond necklace he bought her after deciding he’d spent too much money, she shows no bitterness toward the father of her four sons.

“I’ve always respected Mark for the way he led in office,” she said. “Whatever …

Continue reading Jenny Sanford in Atlanta tonight »

So what if her sketchy husband has grabbed headlines with his tatted-up honey lately? Oscar winner Sandra Bullock has reason to celebrate: she is a mom.

People mag has the story of the part-time Tybee Island resident’s new love. Louis Bardo Bullock, born just over three months ago in New Orleans, joined her and estranged husband Jesse James in January but it’s been kept quiet until now.

Bullock, whose husband’s extracurricular dalliances have been much in the news lately, is adopting as a single parent.

Continue reading Sandra Bullock has a new baby »

NEO, the elegant restaurant overlooking the verdant gardens behind The Mansion on Peachtree, hosts a special four-course dinner Wednesday to benefit the Atlanta Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.

Dubbed “NEO Unplugged,” as the courtly butler will check your Blackberry or other attention-diverting gadgets during the meal, the event features the following menu:

First course – Sunchoke Soup, Spring Garlic Custard, Morels

Second course – McClellanville Lump Crab Cake, Clementine Scented Poached Crayfish Tails, Sagpond Verjus Butter

Choice of Entrée:

Braised Kurobuta Pork Cheeks, Grilled Ramps, English Peas, Fava Beans, Five-Hour Burgundy Reduction

or

Roasted Fluke, Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns, Florida Avocado, Tomato Water

Dessert – Valhrona Chocolate Cake, Salted Peanut Caramel, Buttermilk Ice Cream

It’s $65 per person, including tax and tip, and 10 percent of proceeds from all food sales will be donated to Les Dames d’Escoffier. Valet parking during the dinner is …

Continue reading The Mansion hosts dinner for Les Dames d’Escoffier »

Jean Kwok’s debut novel tells the story of a girl who immigrates with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, where she toils long hours in a grueling sweat shop but finds a ray of hope through education. The experience of Kimberly, the plucky main character in “Girl in Translation,” is somewhat similar to Kwok’s own story.

Kwok’s work feels destined for to become a pick of summer book clubs, and she’ll be here next month to read and sign. The appearance, coordinated by the Georgia Center for the Book, starts at 7:15 p.m. May 4 at DeKalb County Public Library, 215 Sycamore St. in Decatur.

We interviewed her via e-mail from her home in Holland.

Q: To what extent is the book autobiographical?

A: “Girl in Translation” is a work of fiction, so the storyline and characters are not real. However, it was certainly inspired by my own life, and by the worlds I had seen. My family moved from Hong Kong to New York when I was 5 years old and we, like Kimberly Chang and her mother, …

Continue reading Interview with Jean Kwok, author of “Girl in Translation” »

Dear Whitney Houston:

I hope life treats you kind. Kinder than some of the fans at your recent show in London. That doesn’t seem likely as long as you keep singing.

Love, Buzz

Whitney Houston performs in London. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)

The diva croaked through another show on what is becoming a disastrous tour with booing (and sometimes departing) fans reacting to her shambles of a voice. After her froggy performance at London’s O2 Arena, she apologized and blamed the air conditioning.

“Sometimes the old girl sings, but not tonight,” Houston told the crowd, according to a news report in the Guardian. “I want to do it, but she doesn’t want to … She’s getting a little temperamental.”

The troubled performance has, of course, been well documented on YouTube (although some fans have posted comments suggesting security guards have tried to stop people from making recordings during concerts – good luck with that).

Here’s our favorite video of the London performance - make that attempt …

Continue reading Whitney Houston bombs in London »

To hear his ex-wife tell it, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford was a tightfisted jerk long before he left on a trip to the “Appalachian Trail” that turned out to be a tryst with his lover in Argentina.

He went on a mountain hiking trip with his buddies just two weeks after his first child was born. He pressed his wife into service as his campaign manager because he wouldn’t have to pay her, and demanded she return a diamond necklace he bought her after deciding he’d spent too much money.

And, in an ominous bit of foreshadowing, he had the bit about fidelity stricken from their wedding vows.

“He was worried in some odd nagging way, he said, that he might not be able to remain true to that vow,” Jenny Sanford writes in her new memoir, “Staying True.” “In retrospect, I suppose I might have seen this as a sign that Mark wasn’t fully committed to me, and with the benefit of the knowledge I have about Mark now, I could point to this moment as a clear sign of things to come.”

She will be in …

Continue reading Questions for Jenny Sanford, ex-wife of S.C. gov? »

How’s this for a spoonful of sugar: We have four tickets to this Thursday’s opening night performance of “Mary Poppins,” playing at the Fox Theatre.

The live show about the children under the loving care of a flying nanny, the singing chimney sweep, and the longest adjective in history is here through May 16. (Or is it a noun? A verb?)

A co-production of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, the production opened on Broadway on Nov. 16, 2006 before hitting the road. Based on P.L. Travers’ cherished tale and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, the stage play features the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.

The stage production has been created, in collaboration with Mackintosh, by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who has written the book, and the Olivier Award-winning team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, who have composed new songs and additional music and lyrics.

Alright, so who’s going to win this four pack of …

Continue reading Updated with winner! Win tickets “Mary Poppins” the musical! »

Locke and Burruss brave the weather in style

Crummy weather on Saturday didn’t stop some of the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast members from clinking glasses under the Chairman’s Tent at the Atlanta Steeplechase. Bravo cameras were there rolling (naturally) as stylist Dwight Eubanks made the scene, Kandi Burrus sang the National Anthem

Locke and Eubanks make the scene

and two of the new additions, Cynthia Bailey and Phaedra Parks, showed up looking elegant in lovely hats. B 98.5’s Vikki Locke was there partying with the “Housewives” crew, looking very lovely herself!

By the way, Vikki posted a thrilling video clip of her husband Mike learning to sabre a bottle of champagne.

Wielding the sword like a pro, he delivered a clean blow that got the job done without wasting one precious drop. Great job!

Bravo cameras were rolling during the outing

Continue reading “Housewives” at Steeplechase »

Oprah Winfrey and Holly Robinson Peete team up next week to discuss texting and driving with a Georgia Tech audience.

Georgia Tech announced on its website that Winfrey’s April 30 show about distracted driving will feature viewing rallies in five cities, including Atlanta at Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center for the Arts.

“During the event, the Oprah show will cut to a live feed of the crowd in Atlanta at the Ferst Center on Georgia Tech’s campus,” the Tech announcement said. “Those in attendance may appear on camera.”

It’s free and students, faculty and staff are invited.

Peete, an actress, author and “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant,  will moderate the event here.

The topic is a timely one as the Georgia legislature has talked texting this session. A bill to ban texting while driving passed the House on Crossover Day and is now in a Senate committee.

In somewhat related news, a proposal by House Speaker David Ralston to ban lobbyists from texting legislators during session or …

Continue reading “Oprah” audience to talk texts at Tech »