Brando’s final film role was something less than Stella

Marlon Brando started his screen career as a muscular leading man, and ended it as … an elderly woman. The actor’s last role was a voice performance for the animated comedy “Big Bug Man,” set for release in 2006, about a candy factory worker who gets superpowers after insects bite him.

Brando voices Mrs. Sour, the candy company’s owner — and he did it wearing a blond wig and a dress, with full makeup and white gloves, said writer/co-director Bob Bendetson.

“He was gorgeous,” Bendetson said. “I guess it was part of his Method training or something, where you almost embarrass yourself as the character, so that way you’re free to be the character. … About halfway through he took off the wig because he was getting too hot.”

Bendetson originally approached Brando for the role of the money-grubbing, 600-pound factory owner, but the Hollywood legend chose to voice the old lady instead.

“I was told by his agent and manager that it was always a dream of his to play a woman in an animated movie. For some reason, that was his dream,” Bendetson said.

Hey, he can take a hint

As Britney Spears prepares for her second strut down the aisle, her first (sort of) husband is dishing dirt about their 55-hour Las Vegas marriage in January.

Jason Alexander tells the British tabloid News of the World that the pop star proposed to him as they lay in bed after several nights of “mind-blowing and rough” sex.

“I didn’t tell the world about this before because I still hoped we’d get back together,” Alexander said. “But I now realize she won’t come back to me.”

Thank you, Mr, Berry — er, Benet

R&B singer Eric Benet denies that a sex addiction was the reason his marriage to Halle Berry fell apart.

Benet said on ABC’s “Primetime Thursday” that he never committed adultery, but did admit to “verbally inappropriate” behavior and “physical contact that was extremely inappropriate and wrong in a marriage.”

He also said being referred to as “Mr. Halle Berry” was difficult. “I would be dishonest if I told you that wasn’t an ego blow,” Benet said, but added: “That was not the reason why our marriage fell apart.”

Halle’s looking for that first litter

In her own interview Wednesday night on the syndicated “Access Hollywood” show, two-time divorcee Halle Berry said she’s determined to be a mother one day.

“I’ll adopt. … I’ll get artificially inseminated,” the 35-year-old “Catwoman” star said. “I’ll do whatever I will have to do. I really don’t want to miss motherhood in my life, and I know I love children.”

He’s no spring Chicken of the Sea

Pop star couple Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey want to go from “Newlyweds” to “Parenthood.”

The married stars of the MTV reality series “Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica” tell Us Weekly magazine they plan to start a family in the not-too-distant future.

“I don’t think it will be in six months or a year, but after that, Nick’s getting old,” the 24-year-old Simpson said of the 30-year-old Lachey.

Guess Whoopi really is a big loser

The Slim-Fast diet drink company has dumped Whoopi Goldberg from its “Big Loser” advertising campaign because of remarks the comedian made at a political rally mocking President Bush.

During the Democratic fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall, Goldberg at one point used the president’s surname in a sexual innuendo.

The birthday bunch

Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 56. Drummer Stewart Copeland (The Police) is 52. Dancer Michael Flatley is 46. Actress Phoebe Cates is 41. Actor Will Ferrell is 37. Actress Rain Pryor (“Head of the Class”) is 35. Actor Corey Feldman is 33.