Sideshow: 'Jersey Shore' ending (finally!)

It's a happy, happy day for the Garden State: Jersey Shore has decided to pack up and leave. (That'd be the TV show, not the locale, though I wouldn't mind if Wildwood took a hiatus.)

On Thursday, MTV said the coming sixth season of its educational reality show will be its last, "bringing the party to a close after three years, two continents and one lil' bambino   (not to mention countless punch-ups, blowouts and catchphrases)."

The final season will premiere Oct. 4, but the cabler will have a full slate of programming to say goodbye to Paul "Pauly D." DelVecchio, Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino, Jennifer "JWoww" Farley, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, and the rest of the cast. The torture begins Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. as a clever lead-in to the MTV Video Music Awards.

But the Jersey Shore legacy will never die. Trust me: Fifty years from now, scholars will head-butt each other at heated conferences on the Freudian reading of The Situation's sixpack or the role of the subaltern on the show.

And the top stars, increasingly famous, are gaining even more visibility: Snooki and JWoww are doing their thing in a spin-off show, and DJ Pauly D. has a record deal with 50 Cent's G-Unit Records. For his part The Situation, whose $5 mil income in 2010 made him the second-highest-paid reality star after Kim Kardashian, is all over the place. He did Dancing With the Stars and continues to be in demand on talk shows.

Après le "Jersey Shore," le Déluge . . .

Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian has checked into a 30-day program at an unnamed treatment facility to seek help with emotional issues.

"This is just a time for me to emotionally check out for a second and take care of myself and come back in 30 days as the best 30-year-old woman I can be," Rimes tells People.

So she's in rehab for booze? No, insists Rimes rep Marcel Pariseau, who tells People that she's simply there "to cope with anxiety and stress." Adds Pariseau, "while there will be speculation regarding her treatment, she is simply there to learn and develop coping mechanisms."

Eddie Cibrian, who wed Rimes in April 2011 after the pair had an infamous affair while married to different people, says he'll be "with her every step of the way."

Rimes, whose next LP, Spitfire, is due next year, hinted at her decision in an online post Tuesday about her 30th b-day party. "I had a wonderful day full of peace with my friend's [sic] and family. I'm so happy to have arrived here. It's a true time of reflection and healing, exactly what I'm going to do."

Good Morning America's Robin Roberts on Thursday announced on the show that she was leaving immediately, a day early, for her sick leave.

"Some things happened at home," she said, but did not elaborate. ABC tells USAToday.com that Roberts wished, before going for her bone-marrow transplant surgery next week, to spend some time with her ailing mom, Lucimarian, 88, who lives in the hurricane zone in Mississippi. Roberts' sis, Sally-Ann, who is donating the bone marrow, was expected to go with her.

California pilot Doug Gotterba has added new details to his claim that he had a six-year affair with John Travolta, beginning in February 1981.

Their first dinner date, Gotterba tells the National Enquirer, was magic. "I got the sense I was being courted. As we walked . . . back to the room, John suddenly said, 'Hey, would you like a massage?' " says Gotterba, 62. "John was gentle but very passionate." Gotterba says Travolta took him on romantic trips to Hawaii, Amsterdam, and Kenya. He claims Travolta sometimes would bring a woman, but only as a front, adding that he encouraged Travolta to use Brooke Shields as one such "beard."

Reps for Travolta, 58, are fuming, telling the New York Daily News the story is "ridiculous."

E! News correspondent and media maven Giuliana Rancic and hub Bill have welcomed their long-awaited baby son, Edward Duke Rancic, they tweeted on Thursday. Rancic fils was born by surrogate, since Giuliana cannot become pregnant lest she endanger her cancer prognosis. She was treated for breast cancer last October.

Playing a bad guy isn't easy, says John Stamos, 49, who stars as ruthless, take-no-prisoners presidential candidate Joseph Cantwell in Broadway's The Best Man.

"It's one of the hardest things, to be a bastard for two hours and 40 minutes," the Full House alum tells People. "It's exhausting."

The political satire costars James Earl Jones, Kristin Davis, John Larroquette, and Cybill Shepherd.

Bombshell Courtney Stodden, who married 52-year-old Lost actor Doug Hutchison when she was 16, is finally 18 - and she's being bombarded with offers to star in X-rated films, she tells TMZ. Stodden says Doug isn't all that receptive. "I'm not gonna say yes [to the films] right now," she says, "and I'm not gonna say no."