Avril Lavigne and Nickelback's Chad Kroeger split

* Us magazine reports that Avril Lavigne and Nickelback rocker Chad Kroeger are separating after two years of marriage.

This is the second marital split for Lavigne, who was married to Sum 41 rocker Deryck Whibley from 2006 to 2010.

* The new cast for the 21st season of "Dancing With the Stars" includes Alek Skarlatos, who overpowered a gun-toting train rider in France last month (with his friends Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler); Paula Deen; Gary Busey; Bindi Irwin; "Spy Kids" actress Alexa PenaVega and her actor-husband, Carlos; singers Andy Grammer and Chaka Khan; 15-year-old online star Hayes Grier; "Real Housewives of Atlanta" cast member Kim Zolciak Biermann; former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter; reality star Tamar Braxton; and Triple Crown-winning jockey Victor Espinoza.

The show returns Sept. 14.

This year's winner will be Nick Carter.

* The Asian director of Taylor Swift's new music video is defending the singer after some claimed she whitewashed her video based in Africa.

Joseph Kahn said in a statement yesterday that the video for "Wildest Dreams" includes black people and was produced by a black woman and edited by a black man.

"Wildest Dreams" is set in 1950s Africa and portrays Swift as an actress who falls in love with her co-star on the set. Black actors are seen in some of the clips from a distance.

Kahn said: "We collectively decided it would have been historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present."

Unless the movie is "Straight Outta Compton," if one loaded a movie in theaters now with black actors it would be historically inaccurate.

Fox anchor Faulkner creates sound and fury (and lawsuit) over Hasbro toy Hamster

IF YOU SAW an item from the Associated Press that said Fox News anchor sues Hasbro over toy hamster with same name, you would think it was Sean Hannity, right?

Sean Hamstery?

You can see the likeness. You can see his outrage.

But the Fox News anchor suing Hasbro for more than $5 million over a toy hamster isn't Hannity.

It's Harris Faulkner. She sued Hasbro this week over its plastic Harris Faulkner hamster, sold as part of the Pawtucket, R.I.-based company's popular "Littlest Pet Shop" line. She says the toy wrongfully appropriates her name and persona, harms her professional credibility as a journalist - hey, it's not like the hamster writes a Tattle column - and is an insult.

"Hasbro's portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is demeaning and insulting," says the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.

Faulkner has been at Fox News for a decade. She hosts the daytime show "Outnumbered" and anchors a Sunday evening newscast.

Her lawsuit says that in addition to sharing her name, the toy bears a physical resemblance to Faulkner's traditional professional appearance, including its complexion, eye shape and eye makeup design.

In the interest of serious journalism, Tattle took a look at the Harris Faulkner toy hamster and we don't think it resembles human Harris Faulkner at all. On the positive side, however, the hamster is fair and balanced.

The Harris Faulkner toy was introduced in 2014, according to the suit, and was sold in a package along with a terrier named Benson Detwyler. Other toys in the popular line include animals named Pancakes Watkins, Puffball Petrovsky and Pepper Clark.

Those last three sound like female roller-derby players, so I hope they're not suing.

The lawsuit says that Faulkner never gave permission for Hasbro to use her name or likeness and that she even demanded in January that Hasbro stop using it. More than three weeks later, it was still for sale on Hasbro's website, the lawsuit contends. It says that as of July, Faulkner's name was still being used on a website to sell "Littlest Pet Shop" products, and the plastic hamster that bears her name can still be bought at other online retail stores.

Julie Duffy, a Hasbro spokeswoman, said the company doesn't comment on litigation, but she took issue with the lawsuit's contention that the toy hamster is a "known choking hazard that risks harming small children."

Faulkner is seeking $5 million in damages and attorney fees, plus any profits the company made on the toy.

- Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

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