STAR SMACKDOWNS: WHY CAN'T THEY ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Kids--I mean actors--say the darndest things. Several years ago when then-Young and the Restless star Victoria Rowell (center) complained that the pre-nomination process for the Daytime Emmy Awards was "contaminated" and "racist," her then-costar Peter Bergman (left) said that he didn't think she was "playing with a full deck." Not that he didn't concur. Today I read an interview he did several weeks ago at the Daytime Emmys with Soap Opera Weekly's Carolyn Hinsey, and here's what he had to say: "If you don't get a pre-nomination for your show...it means your show doesn't like you. We had a number of people walking around here--I'm naming no names--who had a great year but are left to think, What did I do? Did I offend someone?...It's a flawed process that is destroying the morale of the company [of actors]."

Okay. He agrees with Victoria. Sort of. So why ship her off to the loony bin, Pete? Maybe there was some behind-the-scenes intrigue involved. Whatever it was, I think actors and musicians and other entertainers need to stop publicly dissing each other. Think about it: They won't talk about their love lives or whether or not they're pregnant with twins, but they have no problem publicly beating each other down. Elton John, one of my all-time favorite singers, does it all the time. He once dismissed Madonna's "Die Another Day" as "the worst Bond tune of all time," adding that contrary to his unpopular opinion, he is a Madonna fan...and that the Bond folks should have gotten Shirley Bassey or Lulu or him to deliver a better song. He also instigated a recently ended years-long fued with former BFF George Michael by saying unkind things about not only George's lifestyle but his Patience CD as well. Sour grapes against more bankable hitmakers? Someone get Elton a hearing aid--or better taste in music!

Then there's Tom Cruise. When he was kicking off his meltdown phase a few years ago, he blamed the state of Brooke Shield's career on her use of anti-depressants to combat post-partum depression. I'll never understand what one has to do with the other, but perhaps Peter Bergman would care to weigh in on whether Tom is playing with a full deck. And Jennifer Lopez. She seems to have mellowed, but she used to be one of the biggest offenders. Cameron Diaz and Salma Hayek both have been on the wrong side of her verbal smackdowns. Also, back when people still cared about all three of the actresses involved, I remember reading interviews in which she questioned the thespian prowess of Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow.

(Insert "Say what?" face here.) And she's Meryl Streep? What is it that they say about people who live in (multi-million-dollar) glass houses? J. Lo's older now. Let's hope she's wiser, too.