Pet’s passing mourned

New York – Oprah Winfrey is mourning the death of her 2-year-old golden retriever, Gracie.

“Weeks have passed,” Winfrey says in the August issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, “and the pain has not subsided. Every time I think about it, my heart starts racing and I feel like I just got stabbed in the chest.”

On May 26, Gracie choked to death on a plastic ball that belonged to Sophie, Winfrey’s 12-year-old cocker spaniel, while out with her dog walker and two other golden retrievers, Winfrey says.

Winfrey, 53, says she learned this lesson: Enjoy life but remember to slow down, too.

“She never stopped moving. Was energy in motion. … I have never seen a being, human or animal, always so full of joy,” Winfrey says of Gracie, who ran amok and gulped food and treats. “This dog lived every moment as though it were her last.”

Winfrey says she “got the message” to slow down and catch her breath when Gracie died.

“I don’t believe in accidents,” says the host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” “I know for sure that everything in life happens to help us live.”

Waxing heroic?

Washington – Former Mayor Marion Barry, who in 1990 was busted for crack cocaine, is being immortalized in Madame Tussaud’s new Washington digs.

The wax museum, which will open in October, chose Barry after polling 600 common folk. The former mayor and current D.C. Council member, beat out Nancy Reagan, Cal Ripken – even Oprah Winfrey. He’ll join 49 other figures, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, both George Bushes and Bill and Hillary Clinton, too.

“I’ll be among the greats of the world,” Barry said to the Washington Post.

A local TV station claims Barry will be in a “Scandal Room” with Richard Nixon.

Ditty targets Stewart

Katonah, N.Y. – Like many wars before it, the one between Martha Stewart and some of her Westchester County neighbors has inspired a protest song.

Written by Katonah resident Marc Black, the song takes aim at Stewart’s attempt to trademark the village’s name for use on a line of furniture and home products.

That idea has outraged many residents, who say that no one should own the name “Katonah,” and some American Indians, who say the name is taken from a beloved 17th-century tribal chief.

“The bottom line is, I’m just hoping, I think we all are, that Martha will hear the song,” Black said in a video posted on The Journal News Web site.

“We love you Martha,” sings Black in the video, strumming an acoustic guitar as he lounges in a hammock on his porch.

While “Martha” is already endowed with a natural “a” ending, other words have been infused with an “a” to rhyme with Katonah:

“And that’s why I wrote this song-a. We like you here, you can belong-a. But you just can’t buy us, and simply own-a. Somebody should have told you, it’s very wrong-a. To take our name and try to become chef Katonah.”

A different video of Black performing the Stewart protest song while onstage appears on the YouTube Web site, where it has been viewed more than 200 times.

Chappelle seeks treatment

San Francisco – Dave Chappelle spent 12 hours in a San Francisco hospital over the weekend for exhaustion and dehydration, E!Online reports.

“He stayed up (late) and did a show (at the Punch Line Comedy Club) … and at the time he did it, he did not get enough water to drink and had a little bit of dehydration,” Jamie Masada, who owns the Laugh Factory comedy club, said Wednesday. “I spoke to him, and he’s OK.”

Of course, rehab rumors flared up, but they were dispelled quickly.

Dave is “so thin, and he gets so creative, he forgets to eat and drink,” Masada said.