Jessica Simpson identifies a style that fits: Is Jessica Simpson more than just another washed-up, talent-free starlet? New York mag makes a pretty convincing case for the affirmative, pointing out that last year her "fashion empire" rang up sales totalling - wait for it - $750 million. Her stuff sells.

The mag says she personally approves the design of everything that bears her label. (Almost. If she's really busy, she delegates to her mom.) $750 million isn't bad, the mag observes, for somebody who's just a decade removed from being a clueless hick and is now basically finished as a performer. This year she may hit $1 billion in sales, with new lines she's adding. (Reminds me of Liberace - ask an old person - who when mocked used to say, "I'll cry all the way to the bank.")

Quote of the day: Italian model Elisabetta Canalis says she's fine with the reality that she and boyfriend George Clooney won't be having kids. "(Motherhood has) never been an objective for me," she told Cosmo mag's Italian edition. "My maternal desires are fully satisfied with my dogs."

Spotlight couple: Matthew Morrison, who's on the big hit show Glee, turned up at a New York Rangers game the other night with Olivia Munn, the starlet from the new NBC sitcom Perfect Couples. They were pretty smoochy, too, says the N.Y. Daily News, which spotted the woosome twosome.

Let's see here: She used to date Star Trek star Chris Pine, and then, maybe, for one memorable weekend, Justin Timberlake. Last summer Morrison was said to be seeing British pin-up girl Kelly Brook. Olivia is 30; Matt is 32.

Remember I told you about Cogan's Trade, the great George V. Higgins novel of the Boston underworld, being made into a movie? Well, they're about to start shooting, but in New Orleans, and they've turned it into a caper comedy, which is like converting Waiting for Godot into an episode of Jersey Shore. What the heck are they thinking?

True, the cast that's been lined up is impressive. Brad Pitt has the lead, and Casey Affleck, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins (of Six Feet Under), Sam Rockwell, James Gandolfini and Vincent Curatola (also of The Sopranos) are all reportedly on board. There's been talk about Javier Bardem, too, but maybe not. The girl is starlet Bella Heathcote. Still, if they wanted a caper picture, why didn't they write one, instead of messing up this minor American classic?

If we set aside - as I think we should - his numerous and disorderly extramarital couplings, Charlie Sheen has been married twice. Now his latest brainwave is that his ex-wives should both move into his neighbourhood, TMZ.com reports. His thinking is actually disappointingly reasonable: He wants his kids to know each other and him.

He and Denise Richards, who divorced in 2006, have daughters Sam, who's 6, and Rose, now 5. He and Brooke Mueller, who split so memorably at the end of 2009, have twin sons Bob and Max, now almost 2.