Divorce makes Mellencamp’s wife hurt so good

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

While the pending divorce between singer John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin, his wife of 18 years, is said to be “amicable,” people who ran into Irwin at a couple of Golden Globe parties last weekend in Los Angeles tell a different story.

While Mellencamp has told folks his marriage to Irwin was over well before he started quietly dating Meg Ryan last year, a source close to Irwin claims the “face” of Almay cosmetics thinks otherwise.

“Yes, John and Elaine had been dealing with problems in their marriage for quite a while,” said the source. “But Elaine truly thought they had a shot at patching things up and getting back together. … Then along came Meg and played that good old-fashioned role she’s played before: homewrecker. Only this time, her affair ruined someone else’s marriage besides her own.”

That was a reference to Ryan’s well-publicized fling with her “Proof of Life” co-star Russell Crowe in 2000, which led to the end of her marriage to Dennis Quaid.

† Mellencamp officially filed for divorce in Brown County, Ind., last Friday, only two weeks after the musician and his third wife announced over the New Year’s weekend that they were splitting.

Indiana was “a good place to file, because this is very quiet and out of the way,” a lawyer familiar with the case told People magazine Wednesday.

While Irwin was escorted to those L.A. parties by Vivi Nevo, my source laughed off reports hinting that Irwin was romantically linked to the Israeli venture capitalist.

“Seriously, they are really just friends. Elaine is still too fragile emotionally to begin dating anyone.”

A CLOSER BOND: On a happier note, the relationship between Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper seems to be moving closer to the altar.

When Cooper’s dad died Saturday after a long illness, Zellweger immediately dropped out of the Golden Globes — where she was supposed to be a presenter.

On top of that sadness, the couple and Cooper’s mother faced a fire that broke out at her Pennsylvania home on Sunday.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and the fire was quickly extinguished.

“This all shows that Renee has truly become a member of Bradley’s family. … They have clicked so beautifully as a couple,” said a Hollywood industry pro, close to both actors.

TOGETHER, OR NOT? Despite Sandra Bullock’s absolute denial on the Golden Globes red carpet that she’s dating Ryan Rey­nolds, a number of skeptical — and typically cynical — Tinseltown wags aren’t totally convinced.

“I think Sandy and Ryan have a relationship that somewhat mirrors the one portrayed by Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher’s characters in that new movie opening Friday,” said a top L.A. film exec.

“That movie” is “No Strings Attached,” which focuses on a “friends with [sexual] privileges” relationship.

SPAT SAGA: For those wondering about those reports of an angry verbal fight between Christina Aguilera and Julianne Hough at a pre-Golden Globes party, it reportedly dates back to issues that arose while the two filmed “Burlesque.” Aguilera supposedly heard about Hough dissing her and confronted her last Saturday.

For the record, reps for both stars deny any snit fit occurred.

FILM SPOTLIGHT:

Here’s what makes this great: Virtually every filmmaker at Sundance will come through that studio over four days, beginning Friday.

So when stars like Isabella Rossellini or Emma Roberts are there doing press interviews, directors and producers of their films can be exposed to a direct pitch to bring future projects to Illinois.

“It’s about the most targeted marketing we could ever utilize,” Steinberg said Wednesday.

TAKE A BOW: Congrats to Chicagoan Jon Siskel. Not only did his film “Louder Than a Bomb” win the best documentary prize at the Palm Springs Film Festival, but its TV broadcast rights were just picked by Oprah Winfrey’s new OWN network.

Before all that, “Louder Than a Bomb” will have a weeklong theatrical run at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Feb. 4-10.