SideShow: Gwyn’s depression; Hugh Grant’s kids; Snooki and JWOWW

"I couldn't connect to anyone. I felt like a zombie. I felt very detached." Words not usually associated with that most joyous, accomplished thesp, Gwyneth Paltrow.

But that is exactly how Paltrow, 39, says she felt after the birth of her second baby, Moses, in April 2006. Paltrow tells talk-show host Amanda de Cadenet she didn't realize it at the time, but she was in the throes of postpartum depression. "I couldn't connect with my son the way that I had with my daughter [Apple, now 7] and I couldn't understand why," says the Oscar winner. Paltrow said she was shocked when husband Chris Martin, 35, suggested the postpartum diagnosis.

"I was mortified," she says. " 'No, I don't!' And then I started researching what it was and the symptoms, and I was like, 'Oh, yes I do.' "

Ryan O'Neal on cancer

Ryan O'Neal, who is battling Stage 2 prostate cancer, says he's just going with the flow. "What's the worst that can happen, I'll be with Farrah [Fawcett]?" he tells celeb show Extra, referring to his longtime love, who died in June 2009 of anal cancer.

It probably won't come to that: O'Neal says the cancer was caught early and is treatable. "Ryan has a great attitude. He's had chronic leukemia for 10 years. He's still in remission from that," says Ryan's doc, Lawrence Piro.

Ryan, who is due for knee replacement surgery, says once he's on the mend, he wants to join Dancing With the Stars. "I'm on for the next go-around," he says. "I really want to do it."

'American Idol Live' tix

This summer's fantastical musical tour "American Idol Live" is sponsored by Chips Ahoy and Ritz, which makes it very cookierific. Idol finalists Colton Dixon, DeAndre Brackensick, Elise Testone, Erika Van Pelt, Heejun Han, and Hollie Cavanagh will play the Wells Fargo Center in Philly Aug. 21 and Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City Sept. 7. Tix go on sale at 10 a.m. May 11. Info: www.AmericanIdol.com, www.ticketmaster.com or www.aeglive.com.

Love, kids, & marriage

Freddie Prinze Jr. and his wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar, are expecting their second baby, Us Weekly says. The couple, who met in '97 on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer and wed in '02, had their first child, Charlotte, on Sept. 19, '09.

Hugh Grant, 51, who has a 7-month-old daughter, Tabitha, reveals a shocking truth: Having kids "changes your life." I know! Shocking! But that's what he told Ellen DeGeneres on Friday. The change, he says, is salutary: "I recommend it. Get some!"

Grant won't spoil Tabitha, whose mother is Chinese actor Tinglan Hong. "Friends of mine — I see their kids being driven to school in London in great big SUVs," the thesp tells USAToday.com. "Make them walk or take the bus."

Adds Grant, "I hate the mollycoddling."

Tidbits & pieces

Whitney Houston's mom, Cissy Houston, is shopping a memoir about the late diva, the New York Times reports. ... Don't call Nadya Suleman "Octomom"! She hates the name. "I hate 'Octomom,' " she said on Good Morning America Friday. "I wanna take a freaking sledgehammer and crack her in half. That is some freak that they created in the media. I need it to be done." ... Fox has renewed its J.J. Abrams-created sci-fi wig-out Fringe for a fifth and final season. ... MTV's Jersey Shore spin-off, Snooki and JWOWW, a frank study of the lives of neurosurgeons Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jennifer "JWOWW" Farley, will debut June 21.

This article contains information from Inquirer wire services and websites. Contact "SideShow" at sideshow@phillynews.com.