Sideshow: Madonna following the rules

Madonna

"is following all standard procedures that are required" to adopt a child in Malawi, the star's rep,

Liz Rosenberg

, said yesterday in response to allegations that Lady Madge is using her fame to muscle through her application to adopt a 4-year-old girl named

Chifundo "Mercy" James

, whose 18-year-old unwed mother died soon after giving birth to her.

The Spiritual Mom, who is in Malawi awaiting a court ruling, was mobbed yesterday by aggressive paparazzi and hundreds of indigent kids as she took her Malawian-born son, David, 3, her 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, and 8-year-old son, Rocco, to visit the orphanage where David once lived. On Monday, she took David to see his biological father, Yohane Banda.

Taye Diggs

, 38, and his wife of six years,

Idina Menzel

, 37, who met in '96 on the original Broadway production of

Rent

, are expecting their first baby, says Usmagazine.com. Idina previously told Us, "I love [Taye] so much, and I feel like we both have each other's backs, and we have a great respect for each other."

Fox News reports that singer

Rihanna

is refusing to cooperate with Los Angeles prosecutors in their case against bf

Chris Brown

, who allegedly assaulted her on Feb. 8. Anon sources say the Barbadian beauty is angry that photos of her bruised and battered face were leaked to the media shortly after the alleged assault. Prosecutors reportedly have enough evidence to proceed without R.'s testimony.

In a move likely to bring thousands of tweens to the brink of suicidal despair, Disney actress-singer

Miley Cyrus

says she will never make another

Hannah Montana

film. "We got really lucky with having the material to make one movie," said the heartless 16-year-old diva, who claims the flick's "very clever" plot line makes a sequel near impossible. But don't fret: Miley says the TV show isn't going away - at least for one more season.

Variety says a sequel has been green-lit for

J.J. Abrams

'

Star Trek

, more than a month before the first film's May 8 premiere. Abrams will produce the follow-up, though it's uncertain if he'll also direct.

"There's obviously a lot of hubris involved in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn't even come out yet," says Damon Lindelof, who will co-write the sequel. "But we're so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed."

MSNBC's

Keith Olbermann

, once described as the angriest newsman on TV, says

Bill O'Reilly

is telling fibs about his Fox News show,

The O'Reilly Factor

. Bill recently told Broadcasting & Cable mag that

Factor

, which has been the top-rated cable news show for 100 consecutive months, is the only TV show ever to have reached that milestone. "I don't think it's ever been done in any kind of TV milieu," proud Bill said. He repeated the claim yesterday on

Good Morning America

: "

Bonanza

didn't do it,

Gunsmoke

didn't do it."

Monday, Keith noted on his show, Countdown, that Today has been No. 1 for 166 months and Meet the Press for 131.

Will

Nicole Richie

's creative juices ever cease to flow? WWD says the pro celeb has signed a deal to design shoes for manufacturers

Rick

and

Brian Cytrynbaum

.