But if the U.K. tabloids are to be trusted, the Daddy of Puff may have more in common with fellow rap-man Eminem than just legal troubles: He may have big-time women woes.

The Daily Star is reporting that Jennifer Lopez has dumped Puffy after overhearing him having a steamy phone conversation with someone who was, she quickly deduced, not her.

"Puffy had no idea Jennifer was overhearing his X-rated chat -- he thought she was having a shower," a "friend" reportedly told the tabloid. "She said, 'I've always suspected Puffy's had a roving eye, but catching him was the last straw.'"

The paper claims that Puffy's people have confirmed the report and have admitted that the rapper's "been catting around." But Lopez's people are denying the "catting" and the split.

Mee-yow!

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Still a wallflower

"That's absolutely not true -- I'm as miserable as ever."

-- Jakob Dylan, disputing recent reports that he's finally feeling at ease with himself professionally.

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Manson to fans: Mutilate your body, not your language

Judging from Marilyn Manson's questionable actions over the years -- peeing on fans, sniffing coke off terlet seats, once even finding himself moved to cover a naked blind groupie with luncheon meats -- you might conclude that nothing disgusts him. But you'd be wrong.

Quite a few things repulse the self-mutilating Satanist: Jerry Springer ("I'm amazed to see how backward humans have gone on the evolutionary chart," he says, apparently without a hint of irony), rap music ("It's not really advancing any sort of art form") and people who "stir up shit just for the sake of stirring up shit," for instance.

But if there's one thing that really gets under his elaborately decorated skin, Manson tells Talk magazine, it's bad grammar; it really "offends" him. "Bad grammar ... makes me more pissed than anything in the world, as someone who respects the educational system or someone who just respects the way things are intended to be in America," he says. "We have the ability. There's no reason that people can't simply use decent grammar."

And he's no fan of profanity, either. "If every other word is 'fuck,'" he inquires, "then what’s the barometer of fuckness? It's like, if everyone was cool, what would the point of cool be?"

Fuck if I know.

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Juicy bits

I got chills, they're multiplying. And I'm losing control ... because 'N Sync's Lance Bass has reportedly been hinting around that he's itching to make "Grease 3," starring fellow 'N Sync-er Justin Timberlake and his girlfriend Britney Spears as Danny and Sandy. Just don't tell me Christina Aguilera's playing Rizzo.

Too much information: Russell Crowe has apparently posted photos on his Web site of the shoulder surgery he recently underwent in Melbourne, Australia, to correct the "primary post-traumatic slap lesion of the antero-superior portion of the labrum" that delayed the filming of "Flora Plum." The somewhat blurry photos, which can be sent as "E-cards," depict Crowe's "arthroscopic reconstruction, with re-absorbable plugs." Here's how he (or his people) translate that into "basic English": "Four incisions, scrape away torn tissue, rasp bone, drill holes in bone, insert directional wire, drop re-absorbable plugs down wire into holes, hammer plugs through labrum tissue into bone bringing bicep tendon back into place. Bob's your uncle. Piece of piss. No wuckin' furries (forry's)." Marilyn Manson would not approve.

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Gotta have more? Read yesterday's Nothing Personal.

Brilliant Careers: Sound and Vision Audio and video highlights of our Brilliant Careers profiles