celebrity buzz

Nicole Richie has ignited reports she is to wed boyfriend Joel Madden after she was spotted at a Hollywood party wearing a large diamond sparkler on her ring finger.

The Simple Life star has so far refused to confirm or deny recent U.s. reports of a rumored pregnancy, prompted by pictures of the skinny star with a bloated belly.

And now the Good Charlotte rocker - who accompanied Richie to the YSL Pool Party at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Thursday night - appears to have proposed to his lover.

An eyewitness tells the New York Post's gossip column Page Six, "It was one big rock surrounded by more diamonds."

"(Madden was) overly attentive to her - keeping his arm around her all night - and repeatedly asked her if she was Ok."

Nicole Richie and her rocker beau Joel Madden have split, according to reports in Australia.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph claims the couple secretly split after attending the MTV Australia Video Music Awards last month (Apr07).

The publication's Sydney Confidential reveals Good Charlotte frontman Madden dumped Richie for being "too clingy."

Paris Hilton has always been the prime prima donna on the set of E!'s "The Simple Life" -- until now. Sources on set tell TMZ that this time around, toothpick Nicole Richie also got all divalicious during taping of the show's fifth season.

During the shoot, we're told Nicole constantly showed up late, and upon swanning in would impose a deadline on producers, saying "You've got me for an hour or two."

Our sources also say that Richie upped her unreasonable behavior to another level during the final shoot of the season, when the all-important "show open" was being taped. Nicole turned up "several hours late" with boyfriend Joel Madden, and then gave producers another impossible deadline. After a serious blow-out argument, we're told producers had to call her agents just to get her to stay on-set.