Sideshow: Macchio displeased with 'rude' critique

Ralph Macchio, sore as a blister after being dismissed Tuesday night from Dancing With the Stars, is talking smack about the DWTS judges. The TV audience hardly had time to make it to the refrigerator before the Karate Kid star was complaining about "rude and disrespectful" comments from Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli about Monday's performance. Tonioli was even bleeped. Macchio, 49, and partner Karina Smirnoff got the lowest scores of the night. What they didn't get, Ralphie groused, was the praise and encouragement he thought others were getting. Oh, how sharp the sting of disappointment; "SideShow" knows it well! Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward and actresses Kirstie Alley and Chelsea Kane go on to compete for the mirrorball trophy next week. And Ralph, who will win? "It's tough to predict because I would not have predicted the comments we got [Monday] night."

  hat Princess Beatrice wore at the royal wedding is being auctioned off on eBay through May 22. Bids have already reached $30,000.

The 100th birthday of the University of Pennsylvania's International House, which touts itself as the very first I'house in America, will be celebrated with a lush gala and silent auction Friday night. Personalities and personages at the do will include Mika Brzezinski, author and cohost of MSNBC's Morning Joe. Tix cost $250. Info: 215-895-6543; http://ihousephilly.org/give/centennialgala/

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Indie label Curb Records is suing country megadude Tim McGraw for breach of contract, for allegedly not providing the company with a fifth and final album by an April deadline, as per his contractual obligations. Tim's reps say last fall he totally turned in a new album, Emotional Traffic, which the company is holding "hostage" to keep the singer "perpetually" under contract. That is not nice, they add.

Bulgarian-born French wrap artist (as opposed to rap artist) Christo (born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff), who gets critics and art connoisseurs drunk with transcendance by wrapping stuff around buildings or putting colorful fabric thingies in parks - he planted 7,503 fabric panels or gates around Central Park in '05 - wants to wrap the Arkansas River in Colorado. But locals are afraid his project will harm their sheep, which graze on land adjoining the waterway.

Christo wants to place silvery, luminous fabric panels over the river between Salida and Canon City. Christo raps that his wrap is environmentally safe.

Demi Moore, who made a singularly un-sexy pole dancer in Striptease, is about to grab the pole again! E! News says she is negotiating to star in Steven Soderbergh's art-is-life-is-art-is-stupid flick, Magic Mike, the moving story of how hunky star Channing Tatum spent his pre-stardom time working as a male stripper. Tatum pal Reid Carolin is writing the script, while his other friend, Alex Pettyfer, will play Tatum. Tatum will also star - but not as himself.

Adele's numerologically superior album, 21, is atop the Billboard album charts for an eighth week, selling 156,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the longest run at No. 1 since Taylor Swift's Fearless had an 11-week stint in late '08.

Compilation CD Now That's What I Call Music! is at No. 2, with just over 68,000 sold, while comic troupe Lonely Island's Turtleneck & Chain is third with just below 68,000.

Expect Adele to be kicked off the charts next week by Lady Gaga, whose second album, Born This Way, just came out.

Her GagaNess is so important, Forbes mag has named her the most powerful celebrity in the universe. The Lady, who has $90 mil in earnings, 32 mil Facebook fans and 10 mil Twitter followers, has displaced Oprah Winfrey, who has made No. 1 four times.

Canadian teen Justin Bieber, who made $53 mil over the past 12 months, is at No. 3. His "Baby" hit song video was viewed 500 mil times, a YouTube record, Forbes notes. U2 and Elton John round out the top five.

Today's quote du jour is so confusing, we're not sure we're outraged, amused, bemused, or simply bored. Lars Von Trier, director of art-horror pic Antichrist, is at Cannes with his new pic, Melancholia, which stars Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, and Rebecca Hall

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Wednesday, he spat out this long monologue at a news conference: "For a long time I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew, then . . . I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family was German. That also gave me pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler. I sympathize with him a bit. I don't mean I'm in favor of World War II and I'm not against Jews. . . . In fact, I'm very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the [posterior].. . . How can I get out of this sentence? OK, I'm a Nazi."

It didn't take long for the Von to apologize. "If I have hurt someone this morning by the words I said at the press conference, I sincerely apologize," the helmer said a couple of hours later, "I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi."

Hyper-prolific rocker Elvis Costello, who is scheduled to play the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby Thursday night, bowed out of Wednesday night's concert in Montclair, N.J., citing "bronchitis" as the reason in a statement on his website. He added: "I am looking forward to resuming the tour at the Tower Theatre on Thursday the 19th of May." Concert promoters said Wednesday that as far as they knew, the show at the Tower would go on as scheduled.