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Fiancee's Take on Charlie-Denise War | Lion King | Britney and Billboard

Charlie-Denise War: Fiancee Weighs In

The Charlie Sheen-Denise Richards custody battle over two little girls has yet another twist to it.

On Wednesday, I told you exclusively about the bizarre and angry e-mails Sheen sent to Richards last month in their ongoing battle.

But there’s more. What I didn’t tell you about were the e-mails sent by Sheen’s fiancée, Brooke Mueller, to Richards. They shine an interesting light on her engagement and what it’s like to be caught in the middle of a nasty tug of war between two warring parents.

A pair of e-mails from Mueller to Richards sent on July 11 show the strain that Sheen’s fiancée was under when trying to deal with the “Two and a Half Men” star and Oscar nominee’s personal dilemmas.

The e-mails were written on the same day tabloids broke the news about Sheen and Mueller’s engagement. Those reports forced a formal announcement on the 12th.

In the first one, Mueller writes: “Hey honey. I can’t talk now. He just yelled at me for e-mailing you after I got [home]. He’s totally pissed tonight and screaming at me too. He is in the worst mood I have ever seen. I told him I am e-mailing you and that’s it. I stood up for myself because I feel like I [got] caught trying to call you…Please Denise ignore everything he wrote to you tonight or said. He is going through something bad right now. Xoxo”

But it’s the second e-mail from Mueller that’s more telling about what goes on behind the scenes. Again, Mueller begs Richards to ignore everything Sheen has said or written to her that day. Apparently, it was Richards who told the magazines the couple had become affianced before Sheen had the chance to tell his family.

“I believe he doesn’t want to be engaged,” Mueller writes. “And that is the root of this. He hasn’t even told his mom or anyone. He did not think you were going to tell the tabloids. Every thing’s going really [well] between all of us. But today he is acting like you told me would…”

One major issue in the custody case expressed by Richards in her own declaration to family court is that Sheen favors the couple’s older daughter, Samantha, over their baby, Lola. The couple separated while Richards was still pregnant with Lola.

“…he was hurt that you don’t think he wants to be around Lola,” Mueller tells Richards. “He loves Lola. I promise you that. He adores her and has been cooing over her a lot lately when she comes to the house. He is getting closer to her every day.”

Still, Mueller notes, Sheen’s anger continues to get the best of him.

“You know him well, and that he doesn’t react to things calmly… I have stayed clear of him today and followed your advice that he would be in a bad mood after the announcement of our engagement…”

For his part, Sheen is not altogether unaware of what’s been going on around him or what he’s said or written to Richards.

In another e-mail to his ex-wife sent at 1 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2007, the subject line read: “Please do not delete. Nothing mean or harsh here.”

The gist of this e-mail, also obtained exclusively by this column, Sheen writes: “I have been responsible for some of the worst dialogue and venom-spewing behavior in the past few weeks, that I can possibly recall; ever. The anger and frustration that our situation has generated is beginning to manifest itself in physical forms and cellular regression.”

He tells Richards he’s developed Cluster headaches, a cyst on his wrist and “debilitating” acid reflux.

“I am ashamed of my treatment of you recently and for that I am not only truly sorry but severely embarrassed as well. And as I illustrated earlier, there is no coincidence between this behavior and the physical pain I’m enduring during these trying times. I know on some level, hope really, that this act of humility, with or without your blessing, will put me back on the road to a much better place spiritually, emotionally, and if I’m a bit lucky, physically.”

The pain of divorce and child custody laid bare — not a pretty sight, even in Hollywood. Especially in Hollywood!

Lion King Feels the Love in Paris

"The Lion King," Disney’s premiere musical showcase, is still sold out on Broadway after almost 10 years!

Last night, the magical musical opened in Paris, a city not usually associated with Broadway shows. This isn’t London, you know!

Nevertheless, the show got the full red carpet treatment, including the restoration of the beautiful Mogador Theater, built in 1919 and now gleaming in the 9th arrondissement on the Right Bank.

Because the renovation was only completed two weeks ago, "The Lion King" was only able to put on seven previews before opening to critics. That’s not a lot of time.

But the show went over like gangbusters, and that’s good news, since ABC/Disney chief Robert Iger flew over with wife Willow Bay to make sure his investment paid off. It did, thank goodness.

I hadn't seen "The Lion King" in many years, but time hasn't done it any damage. Neither has translation. The French are sure lucky to get this production, an ebullient and true enough rendering of African music and dance that it transcends the original cartoon movie and becomes a joyous, moving experience all over again.

It didn't matter too that it's in another language. The story and production are so strong that "The Lion King" has become Disney's popular timeless light opera.

Also in attendance to take well-deserved bows were director Julie Taymor and writers Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi. The latter pair worked with translators and dialect experts to make sure all their jokes and puns made it into French without causing an international incident.

After the performance, Disney theatrical chief Tom Schumacher — who’s put "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," "Mary Poppins" and "Tarzan" all on Broadway, was set to break the air-time speed record.

He was off to Los Angeles to open “High School Musical on Ice” — I can’t even imagine what this might be like — and then he must be in upstate New York by Saturday night for run-throughs of “The Little Mermaid” before it comes into Broadway. He’s the Travel King!

Britney and Billboard: Times Change

After I told you Thursday that radio stations were not playing Britney Spears’ “Gimme More,” along came this news: the 179,000 downloads the song has gotten on ITunes has put it at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top 100 chart.

How times have changed! It used to be, children, that you had to go into a record store and buy a record for it to count on Billboard’s charts. In fact, we wanted to go into record stores! It was a fun, communal activity. It was a place you where you ran into friends, met people, made plans, talked about music. But I digress…

The 179,000 downloads are nice but not much, considering fans have been listening to “Gimme More” for four weeks. You’d think more than that number would have wanted it on their computers.

And yet, radio’s lack of interest in the song doesn’t seem to register with Billboard, which doesn’t take into account that one person can account for more than one download — just like the old days when truckloads of records could wind up in a record exec’s garage after being counted as “sold”!

Radio is going to tell the story with Britney Spears, not downloads. If her new songs are not ubiquitous fare on Top 40 stations, Spears will be in much career trouble.

As much as I enjoyed the tracks I heard off her new album, it’s just hard to imagine that a 25-year-old mother of two, accused by a family court judge of being a drug addict and a bad parent, is going to find a friendly world out there when her album is released in six weeks.

But then again, O.J. Simpson is still out there, walking around…