Sideshow: Sheen's ex going to long-term rehab

Brooke Mueller, 34, has finally decided to take the plunge: 10 days after she was busted in Aspen, Colo., for cocaine possession, Charlie Sheen's ex-wife is entering a "long-term, inpatient treatment center," her rep tells People. "Brooke's goal is to maintain her sobriety, and she believes this is the best option." This is the third rehab stint for Brooke, who still has custody of her twin sons with Charlie, Bob and Max.

Brooke's ex hasn't exactly been a model of sober living. Charlie's well-publicized dark night of the soul, which got him fired from Two and a Half Men, was so bad, says the show's exec producer Chuck Lorre, that he feared for the actor's life.

"Every time he got himself into trouble, we believed that there was healing that was going to come," Lorre tells TV Guide. "We intervened all the time. I was so afraid my friend was going to die." He says firing Chas was the ethical thing to do. "This was not a game. This was drug addiction writ large."

Lindsay Lohan won't be on with Ellen DeGeneres on Thursday after all! LiLo planned to unveil her new Playboy photo spread on Ellen's gabfest. A show rep tells Us Weekly that LiLo missed her flight back to Hawaii Tuesday, when she was scheduled to tape the episode.

Martin Scorsese's Paris-set phantasmagoria Hugo and Michel Hazanavicius' Hollywood-set French silent film The Artist dominate the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, earning 11 nominations each, including best picture. The Viola Davis-starring The Help and Danish master Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive share second place with eight nods each. A lot of other films earned a lot of other noms. The gala airs live from Hollywood on Jan. 12 on VH1.

Seth Rogen of 50/50 has been picked to host the 27th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards held Feb. 25 in Santa Monica, Calif.

"We really liked each other," says singer, comic, and sex symbol Doris Day of her fave costar, Rock Hudson.

Day, 87, who made three pics with Hudson in the 1950s, including Pillow Talk, says she was in for a shock when she ran into the actor in 1985, the year he died of AIDS.

"At first I didn't know who he was," Day tells Parade. "I looked at him and was almost in tears. He was so thin, just gaunt. . . . But we walked and laughed together. He was so seriously ill, but he was still funny. It just about put me away - it's so hard to be funny when you know what's going to happen."

Matt Damon is sitting out the next Bourne pic, The Bourne Legacy, which stars Jeremy Renner as a Bournesqueian assassin named Aaron Cross. It's just as well: Damon isn't a fan of the new pic's director, Tony Gilroy, who wrote the previous three films. Damon says Gilroy's script for The Bourne Ultimatum was a real stinker. "It was unreadable," Damon tells GQ. "This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude."

Los Angeles rocker dudes Tool will play the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on Jan. 29. Tix go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Info: 1-800-745-3000 or www.LiveNation.com.

Philly band leader Eddie Bruce will perform holiday songs on the Remember When show Dec. 17 from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Cohosted by Steve Ross and former Eagles GM Jim Murray, it airs on CBS Radio's Talk Radio WPHT (1210-AM).

Baywatch survivor Brooke Burns is engaged to Warrior writer-director Gavin O'Connor, says Life & Style Weekly. . . . Philly's home-brewed singer Christina Perri of "Jar of Hearts" fame fended off, with spunk and ferocity, a man who tried to carjack her in L.A., TMZ reports. . . . A trailer has been released for Tom Cruise's Rock of Ages, in which he actually sings. Trouble is, the trailer features no singing at all.