In the women's mags: Eagerly dishing the dirt on messiest divorce of the year

It is the messiest divorce of the year and the women's mags are all eagerly dishing the dirt on the Heather Mills/Sir Paul McCartney fiasco.

Is she a mean-hearted gold-digger after his millions, or is the elder statesman of rock really a drunken, drug-taking wife-beater? This is the question all three magazines try to answer for their readers with big features on the tawdry tale.

Woman's Day devotes its cover to "The shocking story behind Heather's abuse claims" with tales of violent encounters and ritual abuse.

The Woman's Weekly has Heather admitting she's strong-willed but says their fights were sparked solely by her husband's "controlling and possessive" behaviour.

Speaking of strong-willed women, how's that Madonna thinking she can just waltz into poor old Malawi and get herself a baby.

Well, the Malawian authorities are not amused. The Day says the Material Girl is terrified authorities will take little David Banda away from her after the interim adoption was deemed "illegal". She is also being accused of breaking the adoption rules and could face a hefty fine and up to 12 months in jail. It is also revealed that Madonna turned to experts in the field, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who have successfully raided orphanages in poor countries for their tribe of children.

Amid all the furore, not much has been said about how Mr Madonna, aka Guy Ritchie, feels about the adoption. Well, New Idea can reveal that the 38-year-old ... um ... director (almost forgot what he does) was not happy about Madonna's latest accessory. The couple have argued, and it seems Guy gets his strong views from his mother, Lady Amber Leighton, who was forced to give up her baby for adoption when she was an unmarried 17-year-old.

With NZ Idol reaching the end of the road soon, all three magazines have stories on the surviving contenders. Did you know the extremely irritating but amazingly popular Indira Moala lied to her parents about trying out for Idol? The Day says that when her father - he of the sideburns-with-a-life-of-their-own fame - found out, he apparently started crying. Well, don't worry. Win or lose, she is likely to end up in the bargain bin of your local CD shop in the next few months. Remember Rosita? Thought not.

The other contender for the title, Matt Saunoa, is featured as your altogether nice guy from Levin. The smart money must be on him.

The Weekly has found out that Aroha Robinson, who made a tearful exit from the show last week, was the diva from hell. Idol judge Frankie Stevens says she was a bit spoiled and if he was her employer he would have "fired her at the beginning because of her attitude".

Frankie admits, though, that 18-year-old Aroha became more mature as the show went on and her talent shone through.

And what would this column be without a TomKat story. New Idea reports that Katie Holmes spent more than a million dollars in seven days. She and new gal pal Posh Spice took in the shows at Paris fashion week, but Katie managed to shop until she dropped. It seems her wedding to Tom Cruise is set to be a lavish affair, with the flowers alone expected to cost over US$750,000. The entire bash is to set to cost US$10 million.

A bit of local flavour, has our own Rachel Hunter telling the Weekly she suffered two nervous breakdowns before the age of 20 and was debilitated by a deadly illness when she was just 13. She is also not keen on her daughter Renee becoming a model.

"I worry for my daughter Renee. She's tall and beautiful and people often ask whether she wants to become a model. I don't want her to go through it - to be criticised for her looks and feel pressured to get super-skinny."

To round things off, we have kept the bottom spot for happy Sally Ridge and her perfect baby daughter McLane Ridge Parore (three surnames - not bad for the little mite). It seems Sally has bounced back into shape after the birth, but at the moment has eyes only for her baby. Oh, how perfect life is.