Come To Her Window, Everyone, It’s Wide Open

How do you get the media to stop chasing you? Don’t hide, says Melissa Etheridge.

“If I’m willing to talk about it and be up front about it and truthful, the majority of the people actually respect that and leave me alone,” says Etheridge, who’s expecting a baby with lover Julie Cypher. “I get more privacy.”

Etheridge and Cypher, ex-wife of Lou Diamond Phillips, have been a couple for eight years. The sperm donor has not been revealed.

“We knew that Julie being pregnant would cause a stir,” Etheridge said. “People would want to know things. To maintain our privacy, we’ve agreed to do press and TV. Here we are. Look at her. Isn’t she good and pregnant? Here’s what two lesbians look like when they’re going to have a baby.”

Loose talk

Howard Stern, on his appeal (in Movieline magazine): “The only reason I can get women now is because I’m famous. But, unfortunately, my wife won’t let me date.”

Now we can officially call him old man Winter

Edgar Winter turns 50 today.

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone

Venerable ‘60s singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is searching for the out-of-wedlock daughter she gave up for adoption three decades ago, shortly after she dropped out of art school. The 53-year-old Mitchell told the New York Post she hopes to have her elderly parents meet their granddaughter while they’re still alive.

Necessity is the mother of inspiration, too

Folk-rocker Suzanne Vega had to restructure her work schedule after daughter Ruby was born two years ago, renting an apartment one floor below her New York home. “I had to schedule between 4 and 6 every afternoon to go downstairs and work,” Vega said. “If I could get started by 4:30, the inspiration would usually start coming by 5:15.”

He, of course, claims miscarriage of justice

Whitney Houston, who last week suffered her second miscarriage in 2 years, had her holidays dimmed further this week when police in Hollywood, Fla., charged her hubby, Bobby Brown, with drunken driving from an August incident in which his car jumped a curb and slammed into hedges and a sign. Brown was charged with drunken driving in April in Atlanta, and was arrested last year after a fight at a Florida nightclub.

If nothing else, the mystery remains alive

In the wake of persistent reports that The Artist Formerly Known as Prince’s baby was born deformed and died, Minnesota authorities are looking into the case of a mysterious “Boy Gregory” who was born Oct. 16 and passed away a week later. On the death certificate, the mother is listed as Mia Gregory (The Artist’s wife is Mayte), no father is named, and there is no matching birth certificate. The Artist has said only that “anything that happens, we accept.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino