Sideshow | Heather shakes it up, baby

Call it an ironic comment on her dead marriage:

Heather Mills

stole the show Monday night on

Dancing With the Stars

by symbolizing the toil that was life with Sir

Paul McCartney

through a literal, yet so crushingly figurative, backflip.

After years of doing (metaphoric) backflips to please that lil' insect of a Beatle, Heather dazzled the usually soporific judges by executing an audacious, daring backflip while dancing the mambo. It was a brilliant bit of Shock&Awe, showing that Mills, who wears a prosthetic leg, is anything but a girly girl easily intimidated by Sir Paul's power.

It's about time Heather got a little public triumph. Since May, when they separated, Paul's unforgiving fans, who say she's a gold digger, have done nothing but deride her in public. Fact, they've hated her since she was born; hated her long before they, or Paul, ever knew who she was. They hate her because she's not that exemplar of the Pauline wife, the late great Linda McCartney, who first met Paul in '67 and who died of cancer in '98.

But who could possibly measure up to Linda?

Country superstar

Wynonna Judd

yesterday filed for divorce in Nashville, just days after her husband was arrested on sex charges.

On Thursday, Dan R. Roach, who has been married to Judd for 31/2 years, was nabbed in Abilene, Texas, and hit with three counts of aggravated sexual battery against a child younger than 13. No more information about the alleged assault has been released.

"I am obviously devastated," Judd said in a statement on her Web site. "Our family will pull together, begin the healing process and hopefully - by the Grace of God - become stronger."

Nashville cops say they are waiting for Roach to be extradited from Texas, where, according to Judd, Roach has been receiving treatment for drug and alcohol addiction since Feb. 21.

London paper The Independent reports that a novel that

Lord of the Rings

creator

J.R.R. Tolkien

began to write in 1918, only to abandon, has finally been completed by the

Hobbit

writer's son,

Christopher

, after 30 years of toil and bother, and mumbling and bickering. What's more,

The Children of Hurin

, described by its publisher as "an epic story of adventure, tragedy, fellowship and heroism," will go on sale next month.

Thousands of Brits will suffer an endless agony of pain over the next week as they are denied the chance to see and hear

Snoop Dogg

and

Sean "Diddy" Combs

say it like it is and lay it down like it should be, or something like that. The duo, who have already gratified the hip-hop music lust of millions on their feverish European tour, yesterday canceled five scheduled shows across Britain. The first was scheduled for today at London's Wembley Arena.

The problem? The great nation of Great Britain will not open her borders to the likes of Dogg - well, not his likes, but specifically him himself. Why hate the Dogg so?

Last April 6, Mr. Dogg and five others were arrested for raising a ruckus at Heathrow Airport.

An icon, Wikipedia says, is "a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it," the object usually being a holy object or person.

So we're ineluctably led to the question: Just what holy object is it that musical-signification-creators the Bee Gees represent, now that that singularly harmonious and mellifluous band of brothers - Andy, Maurice, Robin and Barry Gibb - has been chosen to receive BMI's Icon award for "their unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers"?

The Associated Press report doesn't answer that question. All we know is that BMI's 55th annual Pop Awards will be held on May 15 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in LaLaLand.

Protective to a fault,

Angelina Jolie's

brother is worried Angie's lost her groovy curves. He's worried she looks too thin. But as Us Weekly reports,

James Haven

isn't worried about stupid things like eating disorders, since he believes his sister has lost weight because she's still mourning the January death of the siblings' mom,

Marcheline Bertrand

.

Haven told the Mail on Sunday, "It's even difficult for her to eat. I keep saying to her, 'Don't forget to eat.' " A good, caring soul he is.

Kid Rock

is ready to rock-and-roll again - and he is. A couple of months since his divorce to

Pamela Anderson

was finalized in January, the Motor City king is going steady with

May Andersen

. (He can't get away from them Anderso/ens.)

May, who was at Kid's side during Elton John's birthday concert Sunday, is one of those models (Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret) who seem to make men feel queasy and weak at the knees and wobbly on their feet - and at the same time really exhilarated. Even happy . . . for a second.

Then, suddenly they notice she's already walked past.

"I haven't really been looking at all because I'm not at that place right now."

Thus Dita Von Teese, who filed for divorce from her handsome husband, Marilyn Manson, in December, assesses her preparedness for a new love interest. The disturbingly cute Michigan native, who wants to take it slow for now, makes a living as a pro burlesque dancer and likes to spend her leisure time collecting vintage china (she adores tea sets).

Ms. Teese, 34, told People, "I'm just really concentrating on work."

Want to be the next person to be labeled as the stupid, disgusting, selfish and cruel jerk whose nastiness is equaled only by your transcendent power to create gowns that make the angels sing?

Project Runway

will hold casting calls for its fourth season in New York April 7 through 9. For rules and info:

» READ MORE: www.BravoTV.com

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