It's Hard To Be A Star

George Clooney may be known for his devil-may-care attitude, but he reveals he barely made it through a recent period of sheer hell. "It's probably the worst year personally I have ever had," the suave star said last week on NPR (via the London Sunday Times). "My brother-in-law died of a heart attack aged 45, my grandma fell, broke her hip and died this summer. And my dog got attacked by a rattlesnake and killed." As if that wasn't bad enough, Clooney also suffered a brain injury on the set of the forthcoming "Syriana" that caused spinal fluid to leak from his nose. Before going under the knife to shore up his sagging cranium, the A-lister endured excruciating pain, short-term memory loss and suicidal thoughts. " ... It was the most unbearable pain I've ever been through, literally where you'd go, 'well, you'll have to kill yourself at some point, you can't live like this,'" admits Clooney. "I don't take painkillers because we've had members of our family who have become very fond of painkillers over the years." Want to make George feel a whole lot better? Go see his critically lauded new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Does Keira Knightley need to grow a few layers of super-thick skin? The London Daily Mail says the cute-as-a-button actress "wept for 24 hours" over a review that eviscerated her performance in the bounty hunter flick "Domino," which quickly fizzled at the box office. Criticism leveled by New Statesman magazine included comparing Keira's tough girl persona to "a five-year-old who has just been told that the birthday-cake icing is vanilla instead of chocolate as promised." As for the starlet's gyrations in a lap dance scene, the poison-penned author snits, "I once threw my office chair out the window on to a bouncy castle and witnessed more erotic movement."

Looks like Kate Moss has picked up a new habit in rehab. The London Mirror says the model is penning poems "to help her relax." "She's found writing her thoughts down in verse very calming," a friend blabs to the paper. "Her friends and family are pleased she has something to focus on while she recovers." Moss has supposedly been reaching out and touching troubled rocker beau Pete Doherty with her literary masterpieces, which include an ode titled, "What Matters." Sample line: "What matters is what is underneath."

Madonna admits she was once ready to say adios to Guy Ritchie. "I got married for all the wrong reasons," she says in her new documentary, "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret." "My husband did not turn out to be everything I had imagined him to be ... I just wanted to end everything." But the Kabbalah-loving, disco-reviving pop icon, whose exes include everyone from Sean Penn to Dennis Rodman, eventually realized that "there is no such thing as the perfect soulmate," and says she thanks "God every day that I married a man who makes me think. That is my definition of true love."