The exalted transfiguration of Sarah Palin from Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate to bona fide glamgrrrl celebrity was made official this week with the publication of her memoir, Going Rogue, and the launch of her national book tour yesterday at a bookstore in Grand Rapids, Mich. Hundreds of admirers lined up hours before the event to catch a glimpse of the conservative thinker, author and activist whose book has topped bestseller lists for weeks. Some fans camped out overnight so they could win a priceless artifact: an orange wristband that gave bearers an opportunity to have their books personally signed by Sarah.

One fan, Todd Shaffer, 38, told the Associated Press that Sarah would be a good presidential candidate. "As a woman in politics, she's a pioneer in the Republican Party and she's opened a lot of doors up for a lot of women to think about politics" as a career, he said.

Two in the hospital

We pray Nicole Richie has a swift recovery. The celeb daughter of a celeb yesterday checked into an L.A. hospital for pneumonia.

Richie shared of her illness in a tweet on Sunday: "ok cold, it's been 6 days."

The 28-year-old former The Simple Life star had to miss the Nov. 10 launch of her House of Harlow jewelry line due to illness. Her rep tells USmagazine.com that "she is doing well."

Famed composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, 61, has been readmitted to a London hospital after developing a chronic infection following surgery for prostate cancer. A statement on his Web site says that despite the complication, the operation was successful. "He still hopes to be back at work in the new year," it added.

Bon Jovi rules the charts

Bon Jovi's new CD, Circle, this week debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts, becoming the band's second CD in a row to debut at the top. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Circle sold 163,000 copies - far less than the Jersey band's '07 hit, Lost Highway, which sold 292,000 in its first week.

Rounding out the top three, tenor Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas sold 136,000 units for No. 2, while Carrie Underwood's Play On slipped down to No. 3 with 128,000.

Adam Lambert, an older, wiser star

American Idol hero Adam Lambert is keeping his head, despite all the accolades, the money, the fame. "Being in L.A. around young Hollywood for the past eight years desensitized me to the whole machine," the singer tells USA Today. "If this were brand new, I'd be overwhelmed. At 27, I've already done a lot of self-searching to learn who I am."

AL, whose CD, For Your Entertainment, is due Monday, denied that he waited until after Idol to disclose his homosexuality to avoid bad publicity. (He came out in a Rolling Stone interview in June.) "I didn't want to label myself yet," he says.

And, he wanted to avoid being labeled a role model. "I don't want to be a gay poster child, but I am by default, because there aren't that many," he says. "Like it or not, it's projected on me. I'm not saying, 'Do what I do.' I say, 'Do what you do.' "

Clint tells it like it is

From his days as the Man With No Name to his wisecracking killer cop in the Dirty Harry movies to his message of tolerance (and responsible gun ownership) in Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood has told us many truths.

In his latest pronouncement, the 79-year-old auteur tells GQ for its annual Man of the Year issue that the children of Twitter Nation are driving us all into the Abyss: "[America is] becoming more juvenile as a nation. The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits."

How do we mend ourselves? Clint says his new film Invictus, about South African civil-rights-leader-turned-president Nelson Mandela, is a good way to start: "The world needs this kind of story nowadays. It's just . . . everybody's so screwed up. It seems like our country's in kind of a morbid mood, because of the recession or whatever." Love him or hate him, but he's right. . . .

Is that what it's really like?

In a frightening report, Us Weekly claims that Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise do not have a storybook marriage - even though they dined out together in Boston on Saturday to celebrate their third wedding anniversary.

Citing myriad anonymous sources, the mag says Tom is a "Svengali-like movie star" who is so controlling, so tyrannical that Katie is forced to live a life of miserable isolation cut off from the rest of the world. (Wonder if the neighbors see her braiding her locks out the window of her castle tower?)

Tom apparently dictates every single aspect of Katie and daughter Suri's lives, including telling his wife what she should order at restaurants. It all comes down to an alleged contract Katie signed promising Tom seven years of marriage and two kids in exchange for various financial incentives.

A source says Tom does it out of love.

A lawyer for Tom tells the mag there is neither discord in the marriage nor a contract.

Tidbits 'n' pieces

MTV Video Music Awards director Hamish Hamilton has been hired to direct the March Academy Awards.

Beloved avuncular political sage Dick Cheney is a granddad for the seventh time: His daughter Mary Cheney yesterday delivered a baby girl, Sarah Lynne Cheney, at a hospital in Washington. This is the second baby for Sarah and her long-term partner, Heather Poe. Their son, Samuel David Cheney, was born in '07.

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