Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis - to split or shoddy "reporting"

So after 14 years together and two children, French actress-singer Vanessa Paradis and US actor Johnny Depp are on the brink of splitting up.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis (screenshot from Gothica940 YouTube video montage)

They're "living sad and separate lives" according to most "reports" and have been doing so for the past year.

Paradis hasn't been attending premiers of Depp's films (even when they're in the same city at the same time).

And goodness, the couple didn't attend last week's Golden Globes award together; Depp was there but apparently Paradis stayed at home with the kids.

The British and American media is "reporting" that it's as good as over and the French is following suit - but with a little more reserve.

It might be waiting for official confirmation but that doesn't stop it from "reporting" the rumours.

Why all those inverted commas?

Well you have to admit it, the term "reporting" has to be used loosely as there's very little demonstration of actual news gathering. You know, find a story, interview some people (preferably those directly involved) and then write or broadcast the material using attributions.

Nope instead "the highly respected publication" People Magazine - as that much revered bastion of quality journalism Britain's Daily Mail calls it - is used as the main source with "some insiders" or "informants" and of course unnamed "sources" providing insight into the couple's relationship and drawing conclusions which might - or might not - be true.

Accuracy, as it does so often, has flown out of the proverbial window to be substituted by rumour and speculation.

Paradis and Depp might well be on the verge of making some sort of announcement about splitting. They wouldn't be the first and they won't be the last.

They could also have been merely "co-habiting" for the past year, as has been suggested by plenty of celebrity journalists - or should that be "informed People watchers".

But come on, give us a break.

The story might sell and make great gossip, but how about doing some proper journalism before telling us all what is "apparently" or "supposedly" happening or about to happen.

Adriana and Christian Karembeu separate

It's official. What the French daily France Soir calls, "One of the most glamorous couples of French showbiz" are to separate.

Adriana Karembeu (screenshot from interview with Belgian daily La Dernière Heure/Les Sports in Feb 2011)

After almost 13 years of marriage the model Adriana Karembeu and her husband, the former French international football player Christian, are to split, according to an interview Adriana gave in Thursday's edition of the weekly magazine Paris Match.

The news doesn't exactly come as a surprise says France Soir, "Especially not to readers of celebrity magazines," as rumours had been circulating for some time that the Slovakian-born model was not happy with their lifestyle, her husband's hectic schedule and "the fact that they didn't appear to have a life together."

"I wanted to makes things clear," she told Paris Match.

"We have always been a very high-profile couple and in recent weeks I've been upset to see photographs of me with other men appearing in the press and speculation that I had a lover," she continued.

"The truth is I've never cheated on my husband but we haven't been together for a couple of months now."

While Adriana maintains in the interview that she had informed her husband about her decision to "go public" his version of how he found out is quite different.

Christian, a member of France's 1998 World Cup winning side has recently published a book (together with journalists Anne Pitoiset et Claudine Wéry) "Kanak" in which he recounts his childhood in New Caledonia and the story of his family.

He has been giving a series of interviews to promote the book but, "Had not alluded to the separation," Adriana told Paris Match, "Because he didn't know what to say. When I 'phoned him to tell him that I had granted you an interview, he seemed relieved."

But that wasn't quite the story Christian told on RTL radio on Wednesday.

"I think she's quite simply going to announce our separation," he said when asked for his reaction to details that had been leaked of the interview that was to appear in Paris Match the following day.

"I'm not in the habit of talking about my private life in public," he continued.

"But I didn't know about this interview when it happened, I was told about it afterwards."

Whatever the case their separation is official and marks the end of a relationship which began, as the French daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien says, "In the most romantic of manners aboard a Paris-Milan flight in 1996".

They were married in 1998.

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker to divorce

It looks as though the end is in sight for the marriage of Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria and the French basketball player Tony Parker.

After several weeks of speculation, the celebrity news website, TMZ.com revealed that the couple are to split.

Yes the collapse of surely the most romantic story in recent Franco-American relations is now official.

Happier days - 07/07/07 (snapshot from YouTube video)

Longoria has filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences" as the grounds for the break-up.

As appears to be so often the case nowadays, TMZ also has "proof" in the shape of a copy of the papers which the 35-year-old filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court.

In fact, so all-intrusive is the reporting about the end of the relationship that visitors to TMZ's site can even "drag" a copy of those papers to post on Facebook and Twitter, should the urge suddenly come upon them.

Ah the wonders of the Net and Social Networks.

And Longoria, in her obvious "devastation" as People magazine quotes a "pal" of the actress Mario Lopez as saying after she had found text messages from another woman on Parker's 'phone, is clearly playing the celebrity game in full.

In a manner which seems clearly to be par for the course for someone living their private life in the public eye, Longoria has used both Facebook and Twitter to announce that, "It is with great sadness that after 7 years together, Tony and I have decided to divorce. We love each other deeply and pray for each other’s happiness."

Ah seven years - nothing to do with that "itch" of course when people apparently "tend to re-evaluate their relationship".

And it's surely pure coincidence that the same number figured so prominently in their choice of date to tie the knot in the first place.

Remember they were married in a fairy tale wedding at the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois church in Paris on July 7, 2007 (07/07/07) and followed that up with a star-studded reception at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte just outside of the French capital.

"How to divide belongings in a divorce" - according to one French man

Another silly season summer story from France, although clearly the ending could have been quite different had the police not turned up in time.

It could be one of those tales brought to you as a big screen comedy such as the 1980s film "War of the Roses" starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, in which material possessions became the centre of an outlandish divorce battle between the two main protagonists.

But last weekend, in what is apparently a true story, a husband here in France went to extremes and literally followed his wife's wishes "to the letter" that the couple's belongings be shared fifty-fifty in their divorce.

As reported in the daily newspaper serving the northeastern French regions of Champagne, Ardenne and Picardie, a marital dispute was reported to the police on Sunday.

When they turned up at the family home at Rocroi, not far from the French-Belgian border, they discovered the husband "armed" with a chain saw busily splitting the couple's goods in half - as per his soon-to-be ex-wife's insistence in the divorce proceedings.

He had already made his way through the couple's sofa, the dining room table and the computer, and fearing that his behaviour might escalate and take on more dramatic proportions - namely his previously "better half" - the police successfully sought to calm him down and restore peace, according to the newspaper.

How exactly the couple will share the furniture which came under the saw isn't clear. Presumably it'll be consigned to the local dump.

Nor is it clear how the husband would have intended splitting the chain saw in half once he had finished with everything else!

One thing's likely though. Reconciliation is probably not on the cards.