Dixie Chick does the splits after 9 years of marriage

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 7, 2008 | by Vicki Walker

One of the Dixie Chicks has seen her marriage come to an end. Happily, not the way the marriage did in the group's song "Goodbye, Earl."

The San Antonio (Texas) Express-News reported that country singer Charlie Robison filed for divorce from Emily Robison in January. The couple, who have three children, were at the Bexar County Courthouse on Wednesday when the divorce was finalized.

The divorce filing states their marriage had "become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities." They wed in 1999.

Robison had her marriage dissolved days before sister and bandmate Martie Maguire and her husband, Gareth, celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary.

DEATH AT LIL' KIM PARTY: A bar worker at a Times Square karaoke club was arrested Thursday after confessing to beating a woman to death with a pipe on the club's roof during an argument, police said.

Syed Rahman, 24, admitted he smashed Ingrid Rivera over the head about 2:45 a.m. Monday during a birthday party for rapper Lil' Kim that the victim had paid to attend, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference. Her body was discovered Wednesday.

A friend of Rivera pointed police to Rahman by telling them she (the friend) had fought off his sexual advances on the roof shortly before the slaying, Kelly said.

ANDERSON VS. DINA: Salvos continue to fly between CNN's Anderson Cooper and celebrity mom and coattail-rider Dina Lohan.

While guest-hosting Monday on "Live With Regis & Kelly," Cooper called the Lohans' E! reality show, "Living Lohan," a "train wreck" and said Ali Lohan, 14, Dina's other daughter, "looks to be about 60" and "wants to be a singer and or actor-slash-performer of some sort, striptease person, I don't know."

No, that was Lindsay who played the stripper in "I Know Who Killed Me."

The next day, Dina whined to OK! magazine, "People are just cruel!" She's just now figuring this out after all Lindsay's been through? Who's the 14-year-old here?

Back to Cooper, who used his show "AC360" not to apologize Wednesday, but to reiterate concern for Ali: "She seems like a nice person, but she should be a kid, not in a (reality show)."

Meanwhile, over on Access Hollywood, Michael Lohan defended his spawn and ex-wife by saying Cooper, 41, was the immature one: "He is the last person to judge anyone, when he and his own family have their own issues."

In this corner: mother who shills designer jeans, brother who killed himself, prematurely gray hair. In that corner: alcoholic and vehicularly incompetent family members and trying to live through children by turning them into cash cows/tabloid and rehab staples. The Vanderbilt-Coopers may have issues; the Lohans have a subscription.

GOD HEALS: Morgan Freeman was discharged Thursday from a Tennessee hospital after the Oscar-winning actor was treated for broken bones and other injuries sustained in a weekend car crash in Mississippi.

"I feel real good," Freeman, 71, told "Entertainment Tonight" on Thursday.

He thanked the staff at Elvis Presley Regional Medical Center and "my many well-wishers. It's great to know people care about you."

Ah, dear Morgan, wait until the stickybeaks interfere with your recuperation by badgering you about the state of your marriage and what sort of "friend" your passenger was.

PUT IN OUR PLACE: For those who thought it was just awful that none of Estelle Getty's "Golden Girls" co-stars were at her funeral last month, actress Betty White has something to say: Piss off.

"We were with Estelle when it mattered," White said Thursday on "Entertainment Tonight." "Funerals are about (journalism) "... who was there and who wasn't? That's not about Estelle."

Getty, who won an Emmy as Bea Arthur's mother on the sitcom, died July 22 after a long battle with Lewy body dementia.

"Her passing is tough on us, but it's a blessing for her," White said. "She's in a better place now, wherever she is."

Morgan Freeman, keep White on your speed dial. You might need her.

Today's People Column was compiled by Vicki Walker from news service and online reports. Comments? Write to us c/o the Times, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-8099. Or call 925-943-8323, fax 925-943-8265, or e-mail vwalker@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Birthdays: Producer Dino DeLaurentiis (89), actress Esther Williams (87), singer Mel Tillis (76), actor Dustin Hoffman (71), actress Connie Stevens (70), singer Phil Balsley of the Statler Brothers (69), actor Keith Carradine (59), singer Airrion Love of the Stylistics (59), country singer Jamie O'Hara (58), movie director Martin Brest (57), radio-TV personality Robin Quivers (56), musician Dennis Drew of 10,000 Maniacs (51), TV personality Deborah Norville (50), musician the Edge of U2 (47), musician Rikki Rockett of Poison (47), rapper Kool Moe Dee (46), rock singer Scott Stapp (35), country singer Mark Wills (35), musician Tom Linton of Jimmy Eat World (33), singer JC Chasez of 'N Sync (32), singer Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees (32), actress Countess Vaughn (30), tennis player Roger Federer (27), Britain's Princess Beatrice of York (20).