Is Dr. Phil a stupid cupid?

Is Dr. Phil a stupid cupid?

The TV shrink is helping Paula Abdul find a sweetie, but a source tells The Scoop Abdul already has one.

In the TV special “Love Smart,” to be broadcast on Valentine’s Day, Dr. Phil McGraw is helping the “American Idol” judge find a man. He is sending Abdul on 10 blind dates in hopes that they can find someone who’s comfortable with her fame and isn’t “overwhelmed by her emotions,” according to advance press.

On the show, a source says, Abdul “sobs like the most distraught ‘American Idol’ reject” over her love life woes.

“It’s all so weird because Paula has a boyfriend,” a source tells The Scoop. “She’s been dating this model named Dante Spencer for months.” Abdul’s spokeswoman’s office insists that the two broke up “a while ago” — but couldn’t say when.

“They’ve been around, even in public in the last week, being all kissy and lovey,” says the insider, who insists that the romance is very much alive. “I haven’t asked him how he feels about this, but he’s very protective of her, so I imagine he’s just willing to go along with it all.”

Director’s date night
Quentin Tarantino put on a real-life romance show for some Swedish gawkers.

The “Kill Bill” director was recently in a bar called The Lab in Stockholm and was seen making out with a Swedish woman he had met that night, says our source in Sweden. “The were making out so crazily that they were practically licking each other,” says the source. “Ewww!”

But the evening turned artistic when the smooching couple went to a Stockholm music store called Pet Sounds, according to a Swedish Web site that chronicled the evening, and bought a copy of Tarantino’s film, “True Romance.”

Notes from all over
Some eBay merchants hawking a shirt and a pair of cowboy boots they say were worn by Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain” report that a children’s charity refused celeb memorabilia from the movie because of its controversial content. “The executive director informed us that several of the organization’s conservative board of directors had decided not to allow the ‘Brokeback Mountain’ items in their charity auction because they ‘did not agree with the movie’s homosexual views’, ” notes the sellers, identified as Live Oak Farm Auction House. “We were terribly offended and told the organization that we would gladly pick the items up. We have decided to list the items on here instead.” . . . More accusations are being hurled at James Frey. Some bloggers and Amazon.com reviewers are complaining that the faux memoirist not only fibbed about some details of his past — but that he also relied heavily on another author for inspiration. “Frey got those anecdotes the no-risk way: he stole them from a real druggie/criminal author,” notes blogger John Dolan, an early critic of Frey. “A much better and more honest one, a guy named Eddie Little —specifically, Frey looted Little’s great debut novel, ‘Another Day in Paradise’.” Eddie Little is now deceased. . . . . Was something lost in translation? Justin Timberlake is covered with fake tattoos for his role as a drug dealer in the film “Alpha Dog.” One of them is a Chinese symbol which, according to the London Times, means “ice skating.”

Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop Mondays through Thursdays on MSNBC.com