It wouldn't be October - make that it wouldn't be all eternity - if the world didn't stop to take in, really take in, what Madonna said Wednesday night during her appearance on Late Show With David Letterman. The true top kahuna of late-night television asked the single-name star if she might ever marry again.

"I think I'd rather get run over by a train," her Madonna-ness replied.

Yow, she was a guest on fire, calling her eight-year marriage to director Guy Ritchie "the Bush years" and confessing she had smoked a joint before an earlier appearance on the Letterman show - though she hadn't inhaled. What does her aversion to marriage really mean? Probably that she knows how to fake death-by-train.

Shielding Brooke from, well, nothing

Hope you weren't yearning to see the nude image of a 10-year-old Brooke Shields in heavy makeup - first of all because that's kind of creepy, and second of all because Britain's Tate Modern museum has temporarily closed an exhibition called "Spiritual America" by artist Richard Prince and halted sale of the accompanying catalog, according to the Associated Press.

The cover-up came after a visit from a unit of the London police that deals with obscene publications. Now, we don't like police dictating what gets shown in museums - would police like artists to decorate their coffee-stained headquarters? - but we like even less mothers who let their children be phototropic nude.

Britain's Guardian newspaper reports that Shields' mum, Teri Shields, let her daughter be photographed for $450. The images also were reprinted in a Playboy Press book. It's not as though Brooke wants them exhibited - she vainly tried in 1981 to stop further use of them. Hey, wait, this is the computer age! Photoshop baby Brookie in a snazzy ensemble and - poof! - problem gone. The museum, London police, and Brooke can thank us later.

Not to be Pooh-Poohed

Speaking of childhood, haul out your honeypot. Going on sale Monday will be the first sequel to A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh tales that is authorized by the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, which, the Associated Press tell us, manages the estates of Milne and Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard. Can we just say how cool The Trustees of the Pooh Properties sounds?

The new book, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, is written by David Benedictus and will pick up where the 1928 House at Pooh Corner left off. Word has it that Christopher Robin looks older in the new illustrations by Mark Burgess, but that Piglet and Pooh are little changed. Obviously, Pooh hasn't been reading up on the obesity epidemic or just isn't interested in one of those trendy, flat-belly diets. Hey, just to tie up loose ends, maybe Pooh can marry Madonna in a coming adventure to burnish her mommy credentials.

Downey up to Harvey remake?

Speaking of animals, let's catch up on the magnetic actor Robert Downey Jr. No, this isn't some reference to his longtime drug problem, which we dearly do hope is behind the talented actor. We're talking about rumors on E! Online that his next movie role may be starring in Steven Spielberg's remake of Harvey, the 1950 Jimmy Stewart classic. Downey presumably, possibly, would succeed Stewart in his portrayal of Elwood P. Dowd, whose invisible BFF is a 6-foot-tall bunny. Here's an idea - let Madonna star as the bunny!

Money makes their world go 'round

Wondering who the highest-paid stars on television are this year? Wonder no more, thanks to TV Guide. It reports that the top male actor is Charlie Sheen, star of Two and a Half Men, who earns a neat $875,000 an episode. Behind him is 24's Kiefer Sutherland at $550,000 per and House doc Hugh Laurie and Christopher Meloni of Law & Order: SVU, each at $400,000 per episode.

Among women, Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay also earns $400,000 per episode. Paychecks of the same amount also go to those Desperate Housewives - Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, and Eva Longoria Parker. That kind of dough - no pun intended, Bree Hodge - doesn't sound too desperate to us.

Dressed to thrill

Might Katy Perry or Lady Gaga be dressed like a mirror disco ball at her next soiree? Either may, seeing as how both are clients of rising Indian designer Manish Arora. Paris was all a-twitter, or all a-whatever twitter is in French, over yesterday's Arora show at the Crazy Horse cabaret.

We simply cannot do better than to quote the Associated Press' descriptions of some of the frocks: "Dresses covered in scintillating Swarovski crystals and pleated skinny pants were outfitted with elaborate space-age harnesses with epaulets dripping in rhinestones." The stodgy old wire service also said that "golden chains swung suggestively from models' hips as they pounded the stage on vertiginous booties." Whew. Just wondering when these outfits will be coming to Target!

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