Sarandon, Robbins split after 23 years

Los Angeles — One of Hollywood’s most enduring couples has separated.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, partners for 23 years and parents of two sons, split up over the summer, publicist Teal Cannady said in a statement Wednesday. She did not elaborate.

Sarandon, 63, and Robbins, 51, met while shooting the 1988 film “Bull Durham.” He played a hotshot pitcher, she was the passionate fan who simultaneously seduced him and prepared him for the big leagues.

Sarandon and Robbins never married.

Brother: Simon Cowell to leave ‘Idol’ next year

Los Angeles — Simon Cowell’s brother says the next season of “American Idol” will be the judge’s last.

Tony Cowell said in his weekly podcast, “The Cowell Factor,” that a statement was being prepared that would certify that the acerbic British judge was leaving the popular Fox signing competition at the end of 2010.

Simon Cowell will concentrate on bringing his popular U.K. talent show “The X Factor” to the U.S. next year, his brother said on the Saturday podcast, which has since been removed.

The 50-year-old Cowell has been with “American Idol” since the series debuted in 2002. His contract ends after the upcoming ninth season, which begins Jan. 12.

Steven Tyler in rehab for painkiller addiction

Los Angeles — Steven Tyler has entered a rehabilitation facility to treat an addiction to painkillers the Aerosmith frontman has taken to cope with 10 years of performance injuries.

Tyler said he’s eager to return to work with his bandmates.

“I love Aerosmith; I love performing as the lead singer in Aerosmith. I am grateful for all of the support and love I am receiving and am committed to getting things taken care of,” the 61-year-old rocker said in a statement released Tuesday.

The band canceled a summer tour in August after Tyler fell off the stage during a performance in South Dakota and broke his left shoulder.

Dr. Brian McKeon, who is treating Tyler, said in a statement that orthopedic injuries over the past decade have left the singer with severe chronic pain that will require surgeries on his knees and feet.

A sexy Dr. Watson? Law says it’s elementary

London — Poor Dr. Watson. Always the sidekick, never the star.

Jude Law hopes to rectify that situation with his charismatic performance alongside Robert Downey Jr. in “Sherlock Holmes,” making the detective’s right-hand-man a handsome action hero in his own right. He’s just not that comfortable with his new nickname: “Hotson.”

“Mostly I was only hot because I was wearing those thick tweed suits, massive overcoats and hat and gloves,” Law said, deflecting the accolade. “I was always the one perspiring on set.”

Law stresses that the film’s version of Watson — a dapper army veteran with an eye for the ladies — is firmly based on the 19th-century stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Director Guy Ritchie wanted to give the tales a 21st-century spin while staying close to the original material.

“There’s a reference in one of the books to Watson being very popular with women,” Law said. “So that fits.”

Rapper T.I. released from Arkansas prison

Atlanta — Atlanta rapper T.I. was released from a federal prison in Arkansas and sent to a halfway house in Georgia.

A lawyer for T.I. said the rapper was released Tuesday morning.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., last May began serving his sentence of a year and a day for illegal firearms possession and possessing a gun as a convicted felon.

Steve Sadow said his client was sent to Dismas Charities halfway house in Atlanta and will be there for up to three months.

Cyrus becomes his dad in Hallmark movie

Nashville, Tenn. — Billy Ray Cyrus has been preparing his whole life for the role of Daniel Burton in the Hallmark Channel movie “Christmas in Canaan.”

“I started digging through like old boxes of stuff and finding old Polaroids of my dad from 1964,” he said. “I thought, if I can become my dad — if I can be Ronald Ray Cyrus in 1964 — then that’s this guy. Just go be your dad.”

Cyrus even cut his hair to look like his dad.

“I realized I just grew into my dad to be honest,” he said.

Cyrus plays a widowed father of three, living in Canaan, Texas, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement.

The script inspired Cyrus to write and record a song for the film. The song title, “We’ll Get By Somehow (We Always Do),” is something his character, Daniel, says four times in the movie. Cyrus acknowledges that the lyrics also reflect his own life, as he deals with criticism of his parenting from the media.

“I write about what is real. I write about what I’m living. ‘We’ll get by somehow, we always do.’ That’s not only Daniel’s mantra, that is my mantra,” he said.