JENNIFER Lopez was a diva with a capital D shopping last week at the Catherine Malandrino boutique on Manhasset's Miracle Mile, near where she lives with hubby Marc Anthony.

"She demanded the store be shut down for her to shop alone, but they said, 'Absolutely not,' " said our spy.

"Then one of her eight-person entourage, including two bodyguards with their guns showing, was yelling at the clerk that Jennifer gets a 50 percent discount.

Jennifer also tried on about a million outfits, then just threw it all in a pile in the dressing room and didn't buy one thing."

J.Lo's rep did not return a call via

HEATH Ledger's father, Kim, mother, Emma, and other family members are flying in for the "Dark Knight" premiere on July 14 for what some are calling a "sort of tribute" to him - but don't expect to see his ex, Michelle Williams, or daughter, Matilda.

An insider said, "Michelle is furious with Heath's family and threatening to boycott the premiere. Matilda is supposed to be the beneficiary of the will, but Michelle has seen nothing from them.

Heath didn't have much in cash, but there was a big house in LA and a back-end deal for 'Dark Knight' [that] could reap millions."

Ledger's will, made out in 2003 before Matilda was born, left everything to his father, mother and sisters. But Matilda is now considered the beneficiary, and Kim is the executor. Williams fears that by the time Matilda reaches 18 and can cash in on her inheritance, nothing will be left.

Years ago, Kim's brothers charged that he mismanaged their father's estate, losing millions. A rep for Williams didn't return repeated calls. via

Supermodel Christie Brinkley's cheating hubby, Peter Cook, paid $300,000 to his former teenage lover to keep her from singing about their torrid affair, The Post has learned.

Cook's payment to then-20-year-old Diana Bianchi last March came in exchange for a promise not to sue him for sexual harassment.

The Post first reported last year that a deal had been made - but terms of the confidential settlement had been kept secret until yesterday.

Two sources familiar with the deal said Cook, 49, paid Bianchi $300,000, and in return she agreed to never talk about their relationship, which began when she was just 18 years old and working in his Hamptons architectural firm.

Bianchi had told The Post in 2006 - right after Brinkley booted the horndog hubby from their house - that Cook "first physically made advances at me . . . probably a month after I started working there."

Once Bianchi raised the possibility of a lawsuit, Cook asked his lawyers how much it would cost him to defend it in court, a source said.

Cook desperately wanted to avoid that sort of public spectacle to spare his kids with Brinkley - Jack and Sailor - the pain of learning tawdry details of the affair, said the source.

In hopes of preempting the suit, Cook suggested that his lawyers offer Bianchi a payment close in amount to what a trial defense would cost.

After months of negotiations, Bianchi agreed to accept the $300,000, sources said.

Ironically, Cook's settlement with Bianchi might turn out to be a huge waste of money, and his kids could eventually hear her tale anyway.

Last week, a Suffolk County judge ordered, over Cook's objections, that his upcoming divorce trial with Brinkley be open to the public.

Brinkley's lawyers have subpoenaed Bianchi to testify at the trial - which means she might be forced to publicly spill the beans about her trysts with Cook.

Confidentiality agreements typically are not binding on witnesses subpoenaed to testify at a trial.

Bianchi yesterday told The Post through her lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold, that, "I am not interested in getting involved in a dispute with Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook.

But, she added, "If compelled to testify, I will do so truthfully."

"I do not enjoy being in the spotlight," Bianchi said. "I'm looking forward to moving on with my life and regaining my anonymity.

Arnold said Bianchi "feels that she should not be blamed for the breakup of a marriage."

The lawyer would not discuss any details of Bianchi's settlement with Cook, saying she was allowed only to confirm that "the matter has been resolved."

A source said one potential stumbling block to the deal was that Cook wanted Bianchi's step-dad, ex-Southampton Village cop Brian Platt, to agree to stay at least 100 feet away from him.

Platt - who had confronted Brinkley about the affair - refused that stipulation because he feared that abiding by it would be difficult in the close-quarters Hamptons. via

Live Nation is on the defensive about the health of its $120 million Madonna deal.

Big sales around the world for the Material Girl's upcoming "Sticky & Sweet" tour have been overshadowed in music industry circles by chatter about the large number of tickets still available for a key stop in Los Angeles in November and softer-than-expected sales of her latest album "Hard Candy."

The tour so far has grossed more than $74 million in sales for 13 dates in Europe and piled up a string of sellouts at arenas across North America, according to Live Nation.

Arthur Fogel, chairman of global music and CEO of the global touring division at Live Nation, projects the tour will gross more than $250 million in ticket sales - surpassing her record-breaking "Confessions on a Dance Floor" tour two years ago, which pulled in $195 million worldwide.

But just over half of the 43,000 seats available for a Nov. 6 date at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium - 27,000 tickets in all - have been sold in their first three weeks of availability, raising red flags about the limits of US demand for the 49-year-old Madonna at this stage of her career.

It also comes as Live Nation's management has been at odds over the strategy of handing out big-bucks, all-encompassing contracts, known as 360 deals, for aging stars like Madonna and Jay-Z. The rift led to last week's exit of company chairman Michael Cohl.

To be sure, Madonna's sales have been better at other venues.

A Nov. 4 show at San Diego's Petco Park has sold 29,000 of 35,000 seats. And over 33,000 out of 42,000 available tickets were sold for a Nov. 26 stadium date in Miami.

And her US arena dates, including three nights at Madison Square Garden, have sold out.

But at the biggest venues, consumers in the US are not rushing for Madonna tickets with the same fervor that they are in Europe and other parts of the world.

An Aug. 30 show at the Military Airfield Deubendorf in Zurich, Switzerland, sold over 70,000 tickets in days in May, and an October date in Vancouver, BC, sold 50,000 tickets in 29 minutes.

The economy could be a factor - top tickets for Madonna are running as high as $500 at a time when food and gas costs are soaring.

Her latest album is doing solid but unspectacular business in the US. "Hard Candy" has sold 544,000 copies domestically, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's barely half of what rapper Lil Wayne recently sold in the first week for his latest album "Tha Carter III."

Analysts note that the album could be hard pressed to match the business of her last album "Confessions on a Dance Floor," which sold more than 1.6 million copies in the US.

Fogel, who has produced Madonna's last three tours, said concern about ticket demand is overblown.

He noted that there are close to five months to go before the US stadium shows in question open, and each one has already grossed $3 million to $4 million in sales.

Live Nation stock closed down 3.92 percent, or 46 cents, at $11.27. via

Do they really want to hurt him?

That's the question Boy George's managers are asking U.S. authorities now that the singer has been denied a visa to enter the country.

The Culture Club frontman had planned a U.S. tour for the summer, including a free concert at the New York City Department of Sanitation's Family Day in August. He performed court-ordered community service for the department in 2006 over a drug case.

His managers said in a statement on Monday that the visa denial was not because of his past brush with the law in the U.S. but because he is awaiting trial in London.

The singer of such hits as "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" has pleaded not guilty to imprisoning a man at his London home.

The State Department says visa records are confidential so it can't comment. via

Brooke Shields, who will publish her first children's book on Tuesday, said writing the 145-word story was more difficult than recording her struggle with postpartum depression.

The "Lipstick Jungle" star's book, "Welcome to your World, Baby" is written through the eyes of her five-year-old daughter Rowan and how she excitedly viewed the arrival of her younger sister Grier, who is now two years old.

"This honestly was so much harder than writing (my memoirs) 'Down Came The Rain,"' Shields told Reuters in a recent interview.

"When you're dealing with a children's book so much has to be said in the drawings and then whatever's left, the most important part, has to be preserved for the one or two lines. It's just easier for me to be verbose," she said, laughing.

Shields, 43, who shot to fame as a child model and actress in movies including "Pretty Baby" and "Blue Lagoon," said publisher HarperCollins approached her to write the book.

"I had been recording things my daughter had said since the day I found out I was pregnant,"

she said. "So it's all said through her eyes and all from things that she really did say at one time, so basically she wrote the book."

Shields suffered postpartum depression after the birth of Rowan. In June 2005 actor Tom Cruise publicly attacked Shields for revealing in her 2005 memoir that she took medication as treatment. He has since apologized to her for his comments.

The actress, who starts filming the second season of NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" this week, said she has just finished a second children's book about two little girls and the alone time they spend with their father and their dog.

"It was so much faster, because we had the voice and we knew what kind of a series we wanted it to be," Shields said. via

Anthony Hopkins has been confirmed as the latest actor to play King Lear in a big screen adaptation of Shakespeare's great tragedy.

American newcomer Josh Michael Stern has assembled an all-star cast for the ambitious film, which will start shooting in Britain or Ireland early next year .

Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts and Kiera Knightley will play the tragic king's three daughters, and director Stern insists there will be many more suitable big-name surprises in his blockbuster.

"It's going to be really good," she said. "The one thing that I'm staying away from is stunt casting, so there won't be the American comedian, but there will be some really great actors playing smaller roles that will make a lot of sense."

Stern also plans to stick to Shakespeare's dialogue in the film in a bid to make sure the movie is as authentic as possible.

I'm not very fond of the modern adaptations," he said. "It's pre-Roman, Celtic, very raw.

"It's a period in British history, from which ('Lord of The Rings' author) Tolkien took a lot of his inspiration, where there were thatched-roof roundhouses and fortresses."

Stern's new Lear will give Hopkins the chance to revisit a character that won him acclaim on stage - the Oscar winner played the role in revered playwright David Hare's 'King Lear' production at the National Theatre in London in the late 1980s.

The director adds: "Hopkins is thrilled." via