Yesterday, just a week after he was dumped by his girlfriend of four years, actress Anne Hathaway, cherub-cheeked Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri was arrested for fraud. A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan paints the 29-year-old as a con artist whose life has been based on a web of lies.

Follieri, who was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering, has been accused of bilking a private equity firm of millions of dollars by claiming that he could buy property from the Roman Catholic Church at huge discounts because he was the Vatican's chief financial officer. He holds no such position. The complaint says Follieri used the money to live it up in a $37,000-a-month Manhattan apartment.

The tale of torrid treachery makes you wonder if Hathaway, who plays that wiliest of all spies, Agent 99 in Get Smart, was so blinded by love she never realized her man was (allegedly) less than he claimed.

A Spears victory

Britney Spears yesterday left the latest in a long line of custody hearings with a small victory: TVGuide.com says Los Angeles Court Commissioner Scott Gordon has ruled that Brit can once again have - monitored - weekly overnight visits with her two boys, Preston, 2½, and Jayden James, 21 months. Brit's ex, Kevin Federline, continues to have primary custody of their children.

A court rep told reporters that Gordon questioned Spears and her parenting coach Lisa Hacker before making his ruling.

Brit and K-Fed are due back in court July 15.

No comment yet from either side.

Locklear troubled by depression

Heather Locklear's rep, Cece Yorke, says the Spin City alum yesterday checked herself into an Arizona facility for treatment of psycho-emotional (as opposed to addictional) woes.

"Heather has been dealing with anxiety and depression," Yorke tells Entertainment Tonight. "She requested an in-depth evaluation of her medication and entered into a medical facility for proper diagnosis and treatment."

Locklear has steered through some rough turbulence lately. She felt betrayed when her ex-hubby, Richie Sambora, began going steady with her erstwhile best friend, Denise Richards.

And in March, Locklear made headlines when someone claiming to be her doctor called 911 to report that the actress was attempting to commit suicide. Locklear turned away emergency personnel, insisting she was fine.

Cookie Monster enlists

In a bid to help kids from military families adjust to their parents' deployment in the various conflicts that make up the War on Terror, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover and other Sesame Street heroes will perform a 60-minute live show, Sesame Street Experience for Military Families, for free at 43 military bases across the country, says USAToday.com.

Williams backs G.I. Bill proposal

Comedian-actor Robin Williams tells the New York Daily News that he's squarely behind the campaign to pass a new G.I. Bill, which would allow soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to go to college for free.

"It's payback for them," Williams said.

"It's all-access to the American Dream. We in no way have given the vets their due."

The political ain't the personal

The New York Daily News also reports that warbler Stevie Nicks has cracked that most uncrackable of all political conundrums - a question that has made philosophers crack up throughout history: How to bring about world peace.

Nicks' answer - which belongs on the list of Most Fatuous Political Remarks Ever made - is simple: Boogie to music.

"Music has always helped me through the dark times in my life," Nicks told fans at her show Saturday at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

"So listen to the radio, dance in the streets, buy records - save the music business! - and maybe we'll be able to bring peace to our earth." (Man, I always suspected global peace and harmony depended on the music biz.)

New teach on '90210'

Yet another hot young thesp has been added to the cast of the CW's update of Beverly Hills, 90210. TVGuide.com says Dirt actor Ryan Eggold will play Ryan Matthews, a new teacher who is fresh out of college.

So where will the show take the character?

Matthews is "kind of a kid himself. A lot of options there," says Ryan, implying perhaps that the teach likes to party with - or date - his students?

"There is some tension between a student and myself," says Ryan, who declined to elaborate.

Heath's loved ones feud and fume

The New York Post says Heath Ledger's baby mama, Michelle Williams, is dead angry at the late actor's parents, Emma and Kim, for not giving her and Heath's daughter, Matilda, any of her inheritance.

An anon source tells the Post that Michelle is afraid that Matilda's gramps will spend the small fortune before Matilda turns 18 and can legally claim the money. No comments from Williams' reps.

Return to . . . purgatory?

The Bee Gees, who supplied the soundtrack to that most infernal of all decades, the 1970s, are threatening to make a comeback.

Robin Gibb tells the BBC that he and his brother Barry may reconstitute the band. (Their brother and bandmate Maurice died five years ago.)

Robin says the band will be resurrected only if Barry "feels comfortable with it."

But can the band really come back as the Bee Gees? Shortly after Maurice's death, Barry and Robin declared they would never again use the Bee Gees name.

"We decided that on an emotional level at that point," Robin tells the BBC. "Whether or not that will change, we don't know. It's a personal thing and we'll do it when the time is right."

Love us: We'll pay your mortgage!

Just to show that unlike other gazillion-dollar corps, Columbia Pictures is not a rapacious, money-grubbing, heartless vulture that feeds off our hopes and dreams, the studio will pay off one lucky family's mortgage. The payoff contest, which is being offered "in the spirit of" (read: to publicize and hype) the new flick, Hancock, requires entrants to write a "200-word essay explaining why they" deserve the $.

Enter at www.Hancockmovie.com by July 6.

The Will Smith-starring Hancock - no doubt the most super-duper action comedy ever - opens next Wednesday.

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Contact "SideShow" at sideshow@phillynews.com.

This report contains information from Inquirer wire services and Web sites.