For a while there have been whisperings that all is not well in the Britney Spears camp. Not really, really bad. You shouldn't be seeing her strapped to a gurney again any time soon. There have been a few stories that Britney's career comeback is too much, too soon, that she resents her time in the spotlight and wants to retreat back to the south to raise her two sons.

There are rumours that she's trying to get in touch with her horrid ex, Adnan Ghalib, he that looks like he sports the remnants of a Brazilian wax on his chin. She wants to see him, and her dad Jamie point blank refuses.

In a new interview out in the December issue of Rolling Stone Britney doesn't seem like she's feeling this new and improved image as much as her people would hope. She sounds hemmed in, stifled. You get the feeling that she can't wait to bust out.

Still sporting a weave from the infamous head-shaving incident of almost two years ago (I wonder how long her real hair is now?) Britney looks better than she has in ages. She's got a great body, especially after having two kids. She's always been about rocking the abs, even if the bellybutton barbell is a little passé.

But like she did in the released snippets from the upcoming documentary For The Record, Brit Brit doesn't seem too keen on the strict conservatorship she's under.

"I feel like an old person now," she tells the magazine's Jenny Eliscu, who's interviewed her on several occasions. "I do! I go to bed at, like, 9:30 every night, and I don't go out or anything, you know what I mean? I just feel like an old fart."

Says Eliscu of the golden haired comeback kid: "She has never been very articulate, but she always tries to be accommodating."

This time around, apparently, Britney is more guarded. Her manager, Larry Rudolph, is ever present, and Eliscu was instructed only to speak to Spears about her comeback and her children. And it's obvious from the piece, available on US news stands on Friday, that Britney's still smarting over her divorce from Kevin Federline.

"I think they look like me...They don't look like their father at all. And it's weird cause they're starting to learn words like ‘stupid,' and Preston says the f-word now sometimes. He doesn't get it from us. He must get it from his daddy. I say it, but not around my kids."

F**k yes! I say it too. There's nothing more satisfying when you hit your little toe on the side of the coffee table. But there's something wrong if a three-year-old is running round dropping the f-bomb.

Mind you, let he without sin cast the first stone and all that. Kevin may not be father of the year, but Britney's not a shining example of parenthood.

Rolling Stone does give Britney's new album, Circus, a decent review, three and a half stars out of five, calling it ‘clubby, adventurous pop.'

Which is more generous than they were to her last February, at the height of her troubles. Then, in an article entitled ‘The Tragedy of Britney Spears,' the mags referred to her as "an inbred swamp thing who chain smokes, doesn't do her nails, tells reporters to ‘eat it, snort it, lick it, f**k it,' and screams at people who want pictures for their little sisters."

Thank God we've moved on from then.

If you're ever wondering if that troubled Britney of old will make a return, here's an indicator to go by. Eliscu reports in her feature that there's an understanding amongst Britney's inner circle.

"When she's blond, she's happy. When she's brunette, she's sad. When she's pink, she's crazy."

Check out the Rolling Stone cover and article here

A dish on the side

Speaking of those who like to use the f-word, hasn't Gordon Ramsay found himself in some hot water this week! Or has he?

Britain's News of the World broke the story on Sunday that the chef has allegedly been having a seven-year affair with some blonde, who he met up with on Thursday night in central London for a bit of how's-your-father. They've got snaps of the pair leaving the hotel, and confirmation from a ‘source' that ‘they had sex.'

I'd assume the source is the woman herself. Sarah Symonds was already known in Britain for having an affair with another famous married man, Jeffery Archer in 2001. She seemingly enjoyed it so much that she wrote a book Having An Affair? A Handbook For The Other Woman. It caused such a hubbub that she was invited on the Oprah show. She's approached celeb publicist Max Clifford to help her get TV work. She wants to get famous, Rebecca Loos-style.

But will she get her wish?

The Ramsays seem to have taken lessons from the Beckham school of publicity after the Rebecca Loos bombshell hit their marriage in 2004. Stand up together, keep your mouths shut, and put on a united front. If you refuse to acknowledge that it happened, then it didn't happen.

Unsurprising, since the couples are fast friends. The Ramsays appeared outside their west London house on Sunday to face the press, casually dressed, all smiles, and popping out to get some ingredients for Sunday lunch.

Mind you, there may well be nothing to deny. Symonds may be a liar and a fantasist. Just as David and Victoria Beckham claimed Loos was. But I don't think I've met one person who didn't believe Becks did the dirty on his wife.

Since then it's been all smiles from Mrs Ramsay, 33-year-old Tana, as she does the school run and errands. Her husband, staying tight-lipped, has been going to work as per. The couple have been married for twelve years and have four kids. Their youngest child is five. If said affair has allegedly been going on for seven years, well, you do the math. It's not pleasant stuff for any woman to digest.

Tana Ramsay met and married her husband before he was rich and famous. She's since made a name for herself hosting a TV cooking show and having written a cookery book. I don't think it's spiteful to point out that this is largely on the back of her famous husband's success.

Even if the allegations are true, I don't think she'll leave him. There's too much at stake. And who knows? She could well have known about this previously, if true. Tana Ramsay certainly doesn't look like a woman under strain in the photos I've seen taken of her since the weekend.

You could argue that this is none of our business. That a man's personal life is his own, and while Ramsay puts his work in the kitchen out there for public consumption what he does behind closed doors should be his concern.

This would be the case if he didn't involve his wife and children in publicity for his career. The Ramsay children often appear on their father's TV shows. He has spoken at length in interviews about his feelings for his wife and sharing rather intimate details of their love life - such as she asking him to keep his chef's jacket on when they make love. Not really talk from a man who wants to keep his private life private.

And when he's made millions of pounds, partly hinging on his reputation as a dedicated family man, then I do think his dilly-dallying in a bit of Welsh tart is relevant to the public.

He says he's only met her four times. She's set to reveal more in this weekend's tabloids. This one looks set to run, people. 

Sigh. Famous men! Next you'll tell me Jamie Oliver is having it off with some slapper. That I would be surprised at.

When baby names go bad

Last week Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and her husband Pete welcomed their first-born son, Bronx Mowgli Wentz, to the world. It's not the worst celebrity baby name ever, but, let's face it, it's not great. It's not Pilot Inspektor or Moxie Crimefighter. It's on a par with, say, Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale. Say it out loud. Bronx Wentz. It's not the name Bronx itself, although, personally, I wouldn't give it to my kid. It's the sound of them together. Bronx + Wentz = weird.

Another place name, and probably my least favourite out of the others celebs have chosen - Alabama, Brooklyn, Kingston, Ireland, Dakota, Paris and London among them.

I actually think the baby's middle name, Mowgli, would have sounded better with his surname. But hey! It's not my kid.

Pete Wentz has stayed rather mum on the couple's inspiration behind Bronx, but he was happy to share his thoughts on his new son's middle name on the Ryan Seacreast radio show earlier this week.

"The Jungle Book is something that me and Ashlee really bonded over. It's a cool name."

We'll see whether their son thinks so in fifteen years.

Congrats, you two!

Spotted

Kate Hudson and four-year-old son Ryder arriving home in Los Angeles from London for Thanksgiving...A leather jacket-clad Lindsay Lohan leaving a doctor's office in Beverly Hills...Russell Crowe and sons Charlie and Tennyson having a boy's day out in LA...Isla Fisher and daughter Olive shopping for baby clothes in LA...Jade Jagger, Alice Dellal and Pixie Geldof at the British Fashion Awards in London...Hilary Duff heading to a Hollywood recording studio...Kate Moss and Jamie Hince leaving The Ivy restaurant in London...Amy Poehler taking newborn son Archie for a walk in NYC...