Joel Madden Tired of Hilary Duff & Nicole Richie Shots on Reviews

Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden is aggravated by personal swipes in a number of reviews of the band's new "Good Morning Revival" album -- attacks in the form of snarky comments about his romantic involvements with Hilary Duff and Nicole Richie, his making the nightclub scene and hobnobbing with Hollywood A-listers.  "All credibility goes out the window when someone refers to your personal life rather than the music you're doing," declares Madden, who returns with his band mates to the States this week for the album launch after several weeks of touring Europe. "Some of the things they've said are really small, you know, and so cliché. I really do feel this angry, jealous, hateful kind of thing going on."

Joel Madden Tired of Hilary Duff and Nicole Richie Shots on Reviews

He adds, "I've never been the kind of person who's out bragging a lot. I see myself as a dude that's in a band, living life the way I want to live it. If I've done something wrong, I'll evaluate it and apologize. But we've never had anything given to us, and after 11 years, we're working harder than ever to go new places musically and reinvent ourselves."

That's certainly true of "Good Morning Revival," for which the band created some 60 demos over six months before coming up with the collection of songs they and producer Don Gilmore desired. "When we first met with him, he was the only producer who said he wanted to take us into the next phase of our career and make something fresh and exciting. He said, 'If it's not good or different enough, we're not keeping it.' That was the approach we wanted, not the 'If it's not broke, don't fix it' formula," says Madden. "We want to keep moving along, keep the things we love and leave things behind we've grown out of."

OH, BABY!: "The Office's" Melora Hardin shoots down rumors, before they have a chance to gestate, that her character, Jan, might be expecting a baby by Michael (Steve Carell).

"That's so funny; everybody thought she was pregnant," says Hardin, referring to the recent episode that had her character becoming ill at the end of an office party. "I would love it if they did that. I think it would be really funny and wonderful." However, she adds, "I won't be (pregnant) this season because we're on our last episode." And as for Jan and Michael, Hardin says things aren't looking too good. "Jan and Michael are probably heading for a breakup," she says. "But I think their whole relationship is going to be them coming together and busting apart over and over again. I think they're going to have a very volatile love affair for many years to come."

No baby news may be forthcoming, but Hardin says, "there is a big surprise in the season finale people can look for. I can't say any more than that, but the word 'big' is key, and you'll know what I mean when you see it."

OH, BABIES!: ABC's "Notes From the Underbelly" pregnancy comedy isn't due for delivery until April 11, but we are already impressed. That is because the half-hour show, from director/producer Barry Sonnenfeld and producers Kim and Eric Tannenbaum ("Two and a Half Men") has turned into a breeding ground for expectant moms, for real. The Tannenbaums just welcomed their baby girl, conceived while the show was in production. Creator and executive producer Stacy Traub is due the end of June. Series star Michael Weaver (who, ironically, plays the one guy on the show who is happily single and childless) and his wife are expecting any day, and two of the male writers' wives became pregnant during the shoot.

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Virginia Madsen has been taking some time off for herself since filming "The Astronaut Farmer" and "The Number 23," but says she's now ready to get back to the grind. "I took about six months off to be with my son because I home school him now," she reports. "I'm eager to get back to work, so I'm reading a lot of scripts and trying to find something I love. Alexander [Payne] is working on his new script, and I'm trying to find a way to manipulate my way onto that project." She certainly had a lot of luck with the "Sideways" director/writer the first time around.

Madsen, by the way, considers Billy Bob Thornton's heroic, family-oriented "Astronaut Farmer" character to be closer to the actor's real personality than his other roles. "I know he's got a lot of tattoos, and he likes to play rock 'n' roll, but he's a real sweet guy," she says of Thornton. "I think Billy Bob and I felt like the roles we played in 'Astronaut Farmer' were more like us than anything we've ever played. And I love that people can see him as heroic, because he really is. He's so generous and just a loveable guy. I'm sure he'd hate I said that. No guy wants to hear that about himself."

(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster)