Melissa Etheridge and her longtime girlfriend Julie Cypher are making like Anne and Ellen and splitting the sheets. Together for 12 years, the couple has two children, birthed by Cypher with a little help from David Crosby's sperm.

"With the utmost of love and respect for one another, we have decided to separate," the couple announced Tuesday.

"As committed parents, our top priority continues to be what is in the best interest of our children. Though elements of our lives will change, our family will always remain intact."

The couple refuses to discuss who will get custody of their 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son. And while neither splittee has offered an explanation, just a few weeks ago, Etheridge revealed in a book proposal that her hit "I'm the Only One" was written in response to Cypher's confession that she was attracted to a mutual friend. The incident, she admitted, stirred up all sorts of feelings about relationships, love, mistrust and psychological sex.

Looks like celebrity lesbianism needs a few new poster girls ...

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Liz Smith to the rescue!

"All this crap about 'coming out'! Honey, I don't think I have ever really been in."

-- Gossip columnist Liz Smith on the frenzy over her decision to out herself in her new book, "Natural Blonde."

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Farrah says that shit won't stick

Farrah Fawcett's losing it again.

The actress says she's so mad at Joe Eszterhas for alleging in "American Rhapsody" that she once took a crap on the lawn at a fancy Hollywood bash she could just "slap his face." Half a dozen people, Eszterhas contends, watched through the window.

"I'm so upset," she told the New York Daily News, claiming the incident couldn't possibly have happened on accounta her flinchy bowels. "I'm shy. I mean, I can go on a trip for days and not go because I won't sit on a toilet seat on a plane. I'm certainly not going to go on somebody's lawn. Could you imagine, in a cocktail dress?"

No, thank you.

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Don't turn to Farrah for help!

"I need to learn the word 'elimination.' I'm overbooking myself."

-- "Survivor" sweetheart Colleen Haskell on learning to say 'no' to the hype machine.

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Love, "Survivor"-style?

And speaking of Colleen ...

My suspicions have been confirmed! Haskell and fellow "Survivor" alum Greg Buis have been spotted "canoodling" in her hometown of Bethesda, Md. According to USA Today, Greg was seen fetching Colleen from a salon, where the staff called him "Colleen's boyfriend."

What's more, fellow non-surviving Survivor Gervase Peterson told CBS that, although Greg and Jenna Lewis had a thang goin' on at the beginning of the show, that "ended real quick because he got so close to Colleen."

Guess Richard Hatch wasn't the big winner after all.

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Juicy bits

And you thought it was such a good idea! Court TV has decided to pull the plug on "Confessions," which featured the real videotaped testimony of murderers and rapists, just eight days after its debut on September 10. After "a number of valid concerns and complaints" were "raised by a portion of our audience regarding the show," Court TV chairman Henry Shleiff confessed, management was forced to reconsider its decision to air it. "Court TV's goal is always to inform or entertain but certainly never to knowingly offend," he said, adding that he hoped his company's swift admission of its mistake would serve as an example to other businesses. "Corporate Confessions"? Now that has a nice ring to it.

The winner of the U.K. version of "Big Brother" has donated his entire winnings (more than $100,000) to help raise money for an 18-year-old woman with Down syndrome who needs a heart and lung transplant. Can you see Jamie doing something like that? Didn't think so.

Don't go getting your hopes up just yet. Alec Baldwin says he never said he'd leave the country if George W. Bush wins, as was widely reported, and his wife, Kim Basinger, never said he said it. What's more, neither of them have ever heard of Focus, the German magazine that quoted Basinger as saying she'd follow her husband if he opted to move. I suppose this means he won't be taking Billy with him, either. Dang.

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