Sideshow: Colbert hangs with the best

In recognition of his status as the greatest political mind in the nation's history, the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington has hung a portrait of

Stephen Colbert

next to his peers in that rogue's gallery known as the America's Presidents exhibit. (

Peers

is saying too much: Could

Lincoln

,

FDR

, even

Washington

, ever measure up to Colbert?)

OK, so the portrait of the Comedy Central hero isn't exactly next to the presidents, but just outside, in the hallway next to the restrooms.

As a caption next to the faux painting (it's a "digital image on canvas") says, Colbert, whose show

The Colbert Report

nightly explores the sheer awesomeness of Colbertianism, has long tried to convince the Smithsonian that he is a national treasure. The caption says that the museum "agreed to go along with the joke," and will display the picture for the next six weeks.

You'd think that at 46,

Eddie Murphy

would know better than to pull a

Britney Spears

.

Murphy and

Tracey Edmonds

, 40, who wed just two weeks ago in a much-publicized intimate ceremony in Bora Bora, tell People they are splitting up.

The pair may have seen this coming: They tell People their nuptials were merely symbolic and they had yet to legalize the union.

"We have jointly decided that we will forgo having a legal ceremony as it is not necessary to define our relationship further," they said. What does define it?

Friendship

, they said.

Ike Turner

's death was caused by an accidental cocaine overdose, says

Paul Parker

of the medical examiner's office in San Diego.

Turner's daughter,

Mia

, confirmed to the Associated Press that the musician, who died Dec. 12, had a lifelong struggle with drugs.

Photo agency FinalPixx has released pics that show

Britney Spears

and her bf, paparazzo

Adnan Ghalib

- who works for FinalPixx - shopping for pregnancy tests Tuesday at a Rite Aid in Studio City, Calif.

Longtime Brit bud

Sam Lutfi

tells People that reports Brit had left him a suicide note are

totally

untrue. "She is not suicidal," he said.

People mag reports that on Tuesday,

Tom Cruise

and

Katie Holmes

went out on a double date with

Jerry

and

Jessica Seinfeld

to famed New York restaurant Sfoglia.

There was merriment. Jerry cracked jokes. Tom cracked jokes. Katie recounted tales. But Jessica's actions were not reported.

Gossipers are abuzz over a nine-minute vid produced by the Church of Scientology in which

Tom Cruise

extols the virtues of the religion. In the clip, Tom says that Scientologists are uniquely suited to right what ails the world, including crime and addiction. "It's like we're here to help," says Tom, who laughs a lot. "It's our responsibility to educate, create the new reality."

Miami-Dade County Court records posted by TMZ charge that Philly native

Scott Storch

, a music producer and

Paris Hilton

confidant, is late in making his monthly $7,500 child-support payment for

Jalen

, his 21-month-old son by ex-gf

Dalene Daniel

. Storch, 34, can afford it: According to Forbes, he made $17 mil in '06.

No comments from either party.

Guess all those days he spent roaming around the globe topless has paid off: Virility is indeed

Matthew McConaughey

's middle name. People mag's Sexiest Man Alive (2005) has announced on his Web site that he and his gf,

Camila Alves

, "made a baby together."

The rest of McC's neo-Beat Generation post reads like some

Allen Ginsberg

-meets-

Dr. Phil

-meets-

Dr. Spock

poem: "We are stoked and wowed by this miracle of creation and this gift from God, and so excited for the adventure that will come in raising this child, being mother and a father, and shepherding him or her through this life."

James McAvoy

,

Keira Knightley

and the rest of their

Atonement

squad can celebrate again: Their flick, which won for best film Sunday at the Globes, has been nominated for a leading 14 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards. The

Ian McEwan

adaptation is followed by

No Country for Old Men

and

There Will Be Blood

, which have nine nods each. Winners will be gazed at longingly Feb. 10 at London's Royal Opera House.

Clark County District Judge

Jackie Glass

rebuked

O.J. Simpson

yesterday in a Las Vegas courtroom for violating terms of his bail by contacting a codefendant in his botched armed-robbery case. Glass, who had kept Simpson in jail since Friday, also doubled his bail to $250,000.

"I don't know, Mr. Simpson, what the heck you were thinking - or maybe that's the problem - you weren't," said Glass.

Simpson allegedly left a Nov. 16 phone message for his bail bondsman, asking him to tell codefendant

Clarence "C.J." Stewart

how upset he was by Stewart's testimony in a preliminary hearing.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, told the Associated Press in an e-mail late yesterday that bond had been posted and that Simpson was expected to be released from jail within hours. Galanter had earlier said Simpson would post the deed to his home.

Johnny Depp

on Monday donated $2 mil to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, which last year saved the life of his 8-year-old daughter,

Lily-Rose

, when her kidneys failed as a result of E. coli poisoning. Brit paper Daily Mail also says that Depp dropped by the place unannounced on Nov. 29 to thank the staff.

The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation announced yesterday that the Philadelphia Book Festival, which debuted last May, will become an annual tradition, thanks to a $450,000 grant from the fest's main sponsor, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The foundation also announced that the next fest has been scheduled for May 17 and 18.