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Madonna and Ritchie announce divorce

LONDON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Publicists for U.S. pop star Madonna and British filmmaker Guy Ritchie have confirmed the couple plans to divorce, the BBC reported.

The Sun Wednesday morning said a statement confirming the celebrities are ending their marriage had been prepared and was to be issued "imminently."

The newspaper said the couple decided to announce the breakup because they "can't bear to live with the pretense any longer."

Ritchie has been on the promotion trail for his new film "RockNRolla" and is getting ready to shoot "Sherlock Holmes." His wife has been on tour supporting her latest CD "Hard Candy" and doing publicity for her own film, "Filth and Wisdom."

"Madonna and Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after 7 1/2 years of marriage, their representatives confirmed today," said the statement issued to the BBC later Wednesday. "They have both requested that the media maintain respect for their family at this difficult time. A final settlement has not been agreed upon yet."

"It's very sad. They were a great couple and brilliant parents. They just couldn't live together any more," a source told The Sun. "Despite huge attempts to patch things up they both knew deep down that divorce was on the cards. It wasn't a matter of 'if' but 'when.' They tried hard over the last few months but their fighting was getting out of control."

The Sun report said Ritchie plans to move out of the London home he shared with Madonna this week because his soon-to-be ex-wife owns it.

Janet Jackson suffering from migraines

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Janet Jackson's manager said vestibular migraines forced the U.S. pop star to cancel several recent concerts.

The nature of the recording artist's illness had previously not been disclosed.

People magazine said Jackson has been undergoing treatment for the condition, which creates the sensation of vertigo, and is now eager to resume her tour.

"(Janet is) a world-class entertainer and needs to be at the top of her game to give her fans the show they expect," her manager Kenneth Crear said in a statement. "She's feeling much better and is ready to hit the road again."

Jackson is slated to perform Wednesday night at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Aravind Adiga's 'Tiger' wins Booker Prize

LONDON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Indian author Aravind Adiga has won the 2008 Man Booker Prize for his first novel, "The White Tiger."

Along with prestige that comes with winning the fiction prize, the 33-year-old writer also took home an $88,000 cash award.

"The book is a novel: it's fiction," The Times of London quoted Adiga as saying when asked how much research he did before penning the book. "Nothing in its chapters actually happened and no one you meet here is real. But it's built on a substratum of Indian reality. Here's one example: Balram's father, in the novel, dies of tuberculosis. Now, this is a make-believe figure, but underlying it is a piece of appalling reality -- the fact that nearly 1,000 Indians, most of them poor, die every day of tuberculosis."

Michael Portillo, the chairman of judges for the literary competition, called "The White Tiger" "in many ways perfect."

"It knocked my socks off," Portillo told The Times.

DiSpirito eliminated from 'DWTS'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito and his professional dance partner Karina Smirnoff were the latest couple eliminated from "Dancing with the Stars."

"It's all gravy! This was a wonderful experience and there's nothing to complain about," DiSpirito told E! News backstage after learning of his fate. "I got to learn how to dance. I got to make friends with Karina. I even got (judge) Bruno (Tonioli) to dance!"

No one was eliminated from the show last week because Olympic beach volleyball champ Misty May-Treanor was forced to drop out due to an injury.

Reality television personality Kim Kardashian, actor Ted McGinley and comedian Jeffrey Ross got the boot during previous episodes of the U.S. dance competition show.