Madonna was booed by thousands of fans Wednesday night at a concert in Bucharest, Romania, when she interrupted her show to condemn the discrimination against the Roma (better known as Gypsies) in Eastern Europe.

"It's been brought to my attention that there's a lot of discrimination against Romani," Crusader Madge told the throng of 60,000 assembled in the shadow of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's massive palace. "And that makes me very sad." One must never make Madonna sad.

The crowd did clap when Roma musicians performed on stage. Yet, when Madge said, "We believe in freedom and equal rights for everyone!" they shouted "No!"

An estimated two mil Roma live in Romania.

Heche waxes eloquent on Laffoon

"Can you say lazy ass on TV?" Anne Heche asked David Letterman on Wednesday night when the gabshow host inquired about her ex-hub, Coley Laffoon, who filed for divorce in February '07 after five years. "No, no, no. That's terrible," the thesp quickly added.

Asked what Laffoon, who fathered her 7-year-old son, Homer, does for a living, Anne, 40, said, "He goes out to the mailbox . . . and goes, 'Oh! I got a check from Anne! Oh! I got a check from Anne! Yay!' "

An injured Laffoon fires back

Poor, besieged Coley Laffoon yesterday told Usmagazine.com that he was deeply injured by Anne's diss. And, he added, he does have a real job, as a real estate agent, thank you very much. "After coming home from showing two different clients two different condominiums, I was disturbed to see Anne taking out her personal frustration on the father of her child on national television." He is especially upset that Heche griped about the monthly $3,700 she pays him in child support for caring for their boy, Homer.

Controversy dogs 'Bounty' Butler

Does Gerard Butler - who is not dating Jennifer Aniston - hate and abuse canines? RadarOnline.com says retired banker Fred Varecka has accused GB of striking one of his greyhounds, Mayfly, on Monday near the set of The Bounty in Queens, N.Y. Seems GB's pooch, Lolita, became embroiled in a heated argument with Mayfly.

GB proceeded to separate the dogs. He was abusive, the banker says. "My dog crashed into a fence before yelping in pain," says FV, who has filed a harassment complaint. (No arrests are necessary, police say.) A rep for the thesp tells People that Butler didn't use unnecessary force and that Varecka was exaggerating.

Pot calls kettle a narcissist

"She's doing it to get people to take pictures of her. I'm not as attention-seeking." So says attention-starved Octomom Nadya Suleman about competing Octomom Kate Gosselin in her ludicrous Fox TV special, Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage. Can't wait to see how Kate will retaliate. I'd buy tix for it.

Meanwhile, Gosselin Kids Go Back to School: The twins start third grade, and the sextuplets head to junior kindergarten.

Splitsville for Avril & Deryck?

Citing anon sources, the New York Daily News says the lovely and talented Canadian chanteuse Avril "Sk8er Boi" Lavigne, who turns 25 next month, is on the verge of divorcing her husband of three years, Sum 41 front man Deryck Whibley. There's solid proof: Avril was seen over the weekend having fun in Southampton sans DW. In fact, she was "hanging with a number of male admirers." Worse, the couple have not been photographed together since December. Neither party returned the News' calls for comment.

Chris Brown's dignity . . .

. . . was nowhere in sight Tuesday as the warbler partied all night after evading a prison sentence for assaulting onetime gf Rihanna, says Brit tab the Daily Mail. Just hours earlier, Brown was all gravitas as a judge sentenced him to five years of probation and six months of community labor. The tab ruefully notes that a gazillion girls flocked to Brown despite his conviction.

The roots of her addiction . . .

Melanie Griffith, who this week checked into the Cirque Lodge rehab center in Sundance, Utah, feels a fundamental lack at the center of her very Being, says People.com, citing multiple media reports. "I was never loved unconditionally," Mel told Vanity Fair in '94.

"Coke, booze give you . . . a buzz inside your body that takes the place of something you should have had when you were a child." Mel said that, when she was 10, she was drinking wine "like a soft drink . . . so I could escape my pain and insecurities."

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Contact "Sideshow" at sideshow@phillynews.com. This column contains information from Inquirer wire services.