Joe’s no schmo: He’s depressed!

It’s hard to be upbeat all the time.

But Joe Pantoliano, the familiar-faced movie star, wasn’t upbeat at all – despite having made a number of successful movie and starring for a couple of seasons in the hit HBO series “The Sopranos.”

Then he discovered the reason for his moodiness – clinical depression – and finally, he says, he had an answer to why he’d been so miserable despite having the success and family he’d always wanted.

Pantoliano, 57, was in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday to talk about the organization he founded to help remove the stigma attached to mental illness: No Kidding, Me Too!

“Mental disease is the only thing you can be diagnosed with and get yelled at for having,” he said. “Why is that?”

Appearing with representatives from pharmaceutical and biomedical research companies, Pantoliano said medication has helped him manage his depression.

“From the moment I was diagnosed there was a certain sense of euphoria and ‘Thank God we figured this out,’ ” he said, “because I thought that I’d become such a curmudgeon.”

The prescription: divorce

On television, Kate Walsh, 41, plays a physician who has trouble maintaining relationships. In real life, she’s apparently much the same. Walsh is splitting from her movie-executive husband, Alex M. Young, after a single year of marriage. Young, filed for divorce in Los Angeles on Tuesday. His petition cites the dreaded tagline “irreconcilable differences” as cause.

If you got it, flaunt it

In the GQ magazine article that features a cover of her nearly nude, Jennifer Aniston, 39, talks about “Pumas,” the movie she’s now shooting. It’s a sex comedy, she says, about two “aspiring cougars (that is) so a comment on the sexual double standard.” No word on what her singer boyfriend John Mayer, 31, thinks.

We wouldn’t dare disagree

Just so you know, Tom Cruise – while doing press junkets for his forthcoming film “Valkyrie” – insists that he’s not a judgmental jerk. “I’m not a person who sits in judgment of people,” Cruise says. “That’s just not who I am.” And he adds, re. charges that he’s a controlling husband, “Anyone with that perception doesn’t know who I am – and doesn’t know who Kate (Holmes) is at all.”

Sing it loud, they rock so proud

Rock ’n’ roll may be dead, but it still pays. Billboard magazine reports that Jon Bon Jovi and his band are 2008’s top touring band by Billboard magazine. Seems the group grossed $210 million with their Lost Highway tour.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band came in second with $204.5 million followed by Madonna ($162 million), The Police ($150 million) and Celine Dion ($91 million).

The birthday bunch

Actor-comedian Tim Conway is 75. Singer Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes is 69. Drummer Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five is 66. Actor Don Johnson is 59. Bassist Paul Simonon of The Clash is 53. Country singer Doug Phelps is 48. Actress Helen Slater is 45. Actress Molly Price is 43. Actor Michael Shanks is 38. Actor Stuart Townsend is 36. Actor Adam Brody is 29.