Sideshow: Barbara Walters confirms: She's retiring

You knew it. But now it's official. So now you really, really know. Barbara Walters, 83, since 1961 one of TV's most accomplished reporters, and since 1997 host of ABC's wildly populous The View, which she created, will leave TV journalism in summer 2014. (That leaves doors open for specials, etc.) ABC announced it late Sunday; Babs confirmed it on The View Monday. She stays exec producer. When rumors flew in March, Babs said she'd say when, and she said it. Joy Behar leaves The View in August, and rumors teem that token rightist Elisabeth Hasselbeck may be booted; all hands deny it, as per industry standard. Anyway, it's not clear who'll host after Babs bolts, or what the show will even look like.

A tsunami of uncorroborated whisper is cresting that Beyoncé, world's most beauteous, bodacious genius in the world, is again pregnant and also with child. Sources say Family Members say an announcement is coming soon. Ready for a sib, Ivy Blue?

Speaking of Beyoncé, her dad, Mathew Knowles, is now the proud recipient of an IRS unpaid-taxes bill of $1.2 million.

Congratulations to Malcolm Washington! The 22-year-old son of Malcolm X star Denzel Washington graduated Monday from the University of Pennsylvania. Denzel, 58, wife, Pauletta, and other fams were in West Philly for the 257th commencement exercises for the 2013 class.

In hot water because of standup routines outing John Travolta, very funny comic person Margaret Cho has decided to - up the ante. In April, she did a routine in Australia, apparently off the cuff, in which she declared that Travolta "is like Oscar Wilde gay . . . like Lord Byron gay. That kind of crazy, incredibly flamboyant gay." When criticized, Cho, who self-identifies as gay, wrote an eloquent blog post arguing that, while coming out may be painful, gay people should have the courage to do it, in light of the pain endured by so many in the gay-rights movement. And she is sticking to her guns. And her tweets. She has ignited a raging Twitter debate on the ethics of outing and leaving the closet. Travolta: no comment.

The other Travolta news is so weird we'll just report it and run like heck. A man thought (by some - we can't find much evidence John ever thought so) to be Travolta's nephew has published a book titled Unbecoming Travolta, in which he recounts waking up and realizing he was never that person. Rikki Lee Travolta has been in ent-biz circles since the late 1990s. In 2008, however, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Some mental-health pros aren't even convinced such a disorder exists, but in Unbecoming, the author recounts learning he wasn't who he thought he was, and learnt how to be someone else.

O.J. Simpson was in a Vegas court Monday, arguing that his defense lawyer, Yale Galanter, had a conflict of interest and shouldn't have represented him, and so there should be a retrial of his 2008 case. He was found guilty of charges related to armed kidnapping and robbery and is serving nine to 33 years. He's back in court Wednesday.

Charlie Sheen had a revelation working with Bill Murray on Roman Coppola's A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. "He changed the way I looked at the world through his work," Chas says in the extra features on the film's DVD release. "His brain opens up in like six different hatches when they call 'action.' " Hatches" in the brain? Sounds messy.

Cover girl and actor Angie Everhart (Another 91/2 Weeks, Jade), 43, is set to undergo surgery on Tuesday for thyroid cancer. "The prognosis is very good," her rep tells Extra. In November, Brooke Burke revealed that she had battled the same kind of cancer.

Aretha Franklin's people on Monday announced that the 71-year-old Queen of Soul requires treatment - for an illness they won't disclose - and therefore has had to cancel two concerts scheduled this month in Chicago and Connecticut.

Michael Douglas says it took the Medical-Industrial Complex nine months to figure out that the walnut-sized tumor behind his tongue was throat cancer.

"My tooth was really sore, and I thought I had an infection," Douglas, 68, tells the New York Daily News. Docs gave him antibiotics, to no avail.

Eventually, they decided to biopsy the walnut. "Two days later, the doctor . . . told me it was stage-four cancer," Douglas says. "I said, 'Stage four. Jesus.' . . . And that was that."