Hicks: Taylor Swift cries over the Internet

The Internet makes Taylor Swift cry.

Swift told Harper's Bazaar that she has spent hours crying about things she has read about herself online, but the songstress still has plenty to smile about.

All that emotion is making the 22-year-old rich. Swift, who sold 1.2 million copies of her latest album "Red" in its first week, frequently uses heartbreak in her personal life for song inspiration. Swift, who is on Bazaar's December/January cover, said that since her romantic life plays out in the media, she's forced herself to stop reading about herself.

"What I had to learn to do, in order to maintain a general happiness in my life, was to stop reading everything," she said.

The pop star who is the highest-paid entertainer under 30 -- making $57 million last year, according to Forbes -- said, "And then it gets really bad if you go through a breakup and those blogs have these polls asking, 'Who should they date next?' And you're just sitting there staring at the laptop bawling. But you can live in a normal world where a breakup is just a breakup if you don't expose yourself to what's being speculated about yourself. That's where I live now."

Sounds rough. Thankfully, piles of cash are good for wiping away tears.

Swift also said she has a close group of friends, including actresses Emma Stone and Selena Gomez. She said they "never talk about fashion, about career, about our ambitions or our projects. We just talk about

relationships, feelings, love, and boys."

Don't we all?

JUSTIN BIEBER MAY WANT SELENA GOMEZ BACK: Justin Bieber apparently wants his woman back already.

That's right. Nothing is over until the Biebs says its over. Was it over when the Germans attacked Pearl Harbor?

No.

Despite every media outlet on planet earth -- and a few beyond -- reporting over the weekend that dreamy teen star Bieber and actress/singer Selena Gomez broke up recently over schedule conflicts and whatnot, in swoops TMZ on Monday morning to say we all may h! ave gotten hysterical over nothing.

The website reports Bieber is not involved with anyone else, despite pictures of him with Victoria's Secret model Barbara Palvin out and about in New York last week (Palvin later tweeted that there is no rmance between the two).

On Saturday, Bieber performed Justin Timberlake's famed breakup song "Cry Me a River" in concert.

TMZ cites inside sources as saying Bieber already wants Gomez back. Apparently they've already totally, like, broken up SOOO many times and have always, like, totally gotten back together. This time is only different because those media bloodsuckers have nothing better to do than, like, totally follow two kids who are better looking and more talented than them around.

Uh ... right. We'll bring you any exciting developments in this totally super important story as they develop.

ARIEL WINTER'S MOM MAY BE STAGE MOM FROM HELL: Ariel Winter's mother Chrystal Workman was an overbearing stage mom who constantly criticized Ariel and ordered her never to leave her side, says TMZ, quoting a source on the set of one of Ariel's recent movies.

An overbearing stage mom in Hollywood? Whoa. That's a new one ...

Ariel's 34-year-old sister Shanelle Gray took over temporary guardianship of Ariel on Oct. 3, after a judge heard allegations that Workman physically and emotionally abuses the 14-year-old actress. Workman denies the allegations, saying Ariel only sought new guardianship after her mother discovered her in bed with her 18-year-old boyfriend, Cameron Palatas.

According to Workman, Ariel only wanted out of her home so she could continue her relationship with Palatas.

Ariel filmed "The Chaperone" in June 2010, starring Triple H, the pro wrestler-turned actor. But according to a source who worked on the film, Workman acted like she was the star of the movie.

Workman allegedly had her own director's chair and listened to each take on her headphones, then frequently pulled her daughter aside to tell her ! what she ! did wrong.

If this is wrong, there's a lot of Little League parents out there who don't want to be right.

TMZ said Workman often told writers and the director what she thought of each scene, and went as far as to order around production assistants, making them fetch her food.

Well, even overbearing, abusive stage moms have to eat ...

The film featured other child actors, with whom Ariel couldn't hang with because she wasn't allowed to leave her mother's side.

But the source said that while Workman was the stereotypical stage mom, they never witnessed serious abuse.

TMZ spoke with Workman's brother-in-law, who said Workman acted the same way with Ariel's sister when she was growing up.

The brother-in-law says Workman was extremely hard on Gray, controlling what she ate and how she looked.

Ariel's grandfather, James Batistas, filed a letter to the court to vouch for Workman's character and parenting skills.

"I have never seen any abuse from my daughter or son-in-law towards my granddaughters neither physical nor emotionally," he wrote in the letter, obtained by TMZ, calling Workman "a very good mother to all the children."

Batistas also wrote that Gray came to live with him when she was 16 as well after she accused Workman of abuse.

Sources close to the family told TMZ Batistas actually has limited contact with his granddaughters, but is actually quite close with Workman.

BARBARA WALTERS ISN'T HAPPY WITH LINDSAY LOHAN: Lindsay Lohan has angered Barbara Walters.

Lohan pulled out of a TV interview with Walters last week, after Walters wouldn't promise not to talk about Lohan's June car accident, for which authorities are reportedly set to charge the actress with lying to police. But after ditching Walters, Lohan's PR people signed her up for an interview with Jay Leno.

I think this all makes perfect sense, Barbara. Jay Leno pitches fatter softballs than a guy who plays in a pitch-to-your-own-team league.

Walters said o! n "The Vi! ew" Monday that Lohan's people didn't even have the courtesy to explain why she pulled out.

"If they'd said to me 'You know, Barbara, she isn't up to the kinds of questions that you might ask,' If they had told me that, I wouldn't feel quite as disappointed as I do today."

Barbara, she isn't up to the kinds of questions that you might ask.

Lohan's interview with Leno is supposed to air next week.

AFFAIR MAY AFFECT FANS, SAYS 'TWILIGHT' ACTRESS: The tumultuous Robert Pattinson/Kristen Stewart romance might harm "Breaking Dawn Part 2," says the pair's co-star Ashley Greene.

"I don't know. Hopefully, it won't taint it and people will still be able to enjoy the movie," Greene said in an interview Seventeen magazine. "I think a lot of people see us as our characters; I really want them to still be able to do that."

I don't know either. Stewart cheating on Pattinson with director Rupert Sanders has me thinking I may only see it nine times instead of 11 or 12.

Greene says she knows what it's like to be in love and would never wish anything but happiness for her co-stars and friends, who made her time on set memorable.

"We secretly coordinated a dance-off during a scene! We were all in on it, but (director) Bill Condon didn't know," Greene explained of one of her last days shooting the franchise. "(All the vampires) were supposed to charge at each other and destroy each other, but instead we just started dancing! Everyone did it -- the Cullen clan and probably 20 vampire extras! It was such an amazing way to end it all."

DANIEL CRAIG SPECULATES ABOUT BOND GIRLS: Daniel Craig said Rihanna would be a better Bond girl than Beyonce.

(Salma Hayek would be better than both of them).

What ... er, anyway, because he's already been asked every question on the planet, in a recent interview with Global Grind, Craig (aka James Bond) said he believes Rihanna would be a better Bond girl than Beyonce, because the former is "dirtier."

Oh.

And he also! likes Pr! esident Obama. Craig was in the United States on election night and was quite pleased with the result.

"It was great," he said. "It was very inspiring, watching the democratic process work -- and it did. It's complicated, getting your head around the collegital electro -- whatever it's called, the votes in each state. But it's very inspiring."

If he thinks the name is hard, he should try figuring out how it works. No one here has yet.

Of course, Craig has much to be happy about this month. New Bond film "Skyfall" has racked up over $518 million at the global box office over all, bringing about $90 million for its domestic opening weekend, which is a record for a Bond film.

Contact Tony Hicks at thicks@bayareanewsgroup.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks.

NOVEMBER 13 IN HISTORY

Tuesday is Nov. 13, the 318th day of 2012. There are 48 days left in the year.

1789: Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, Jean-Baptiste Leroy: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

1849: Voters in California ratified the state's original constitution.

1909: Fire erupted inside a coal mine in Cherry, Ill., killing 259 men and boys.

1927: The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1937: The NBC Symphony Orchestra, formed exclusively for radio broadcasting, made its debut.

1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1956: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public city and state buses.

1969: Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spi! ro T. Agn! ew accused network television news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints.

1971: The U.S. space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars.

1974: Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.

1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin, was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

1985: Some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

2002: Claiming Iraq was seeking the "path of peace," Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors. U.S. Roman Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved a compromise sex abuse policy after the Vatican demanded they make changes to balance fairness to priests with compassion for victims.

2007: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto demanded the resignation of U.S.-backed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, dashing Western hopes the two would form an alliance to confront strengthening Islamic extremists. CC Sabathia won the AL Cy Young Award to become the first Cleveland pitcher in 35 years to earn the honor.

2011: President Barack Obama dove into a day of summit diplomacy in his home state of Hawaii as he gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. A day after Silvio Berlusconi reluctantly resigned as Italy's premier, economist Mario Monti accepted the monumental task of trying to form a new government that could rescue Italy from financial ruin.

BIRTHDAYS

Producer-director Garry Marshall (78), actor Joe Mantegna (65), actress Frances Conroy (59), actress Tracy Scoggins (59), actor Chris Noth (58), actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg (57), former NFL quarterback Vinny Testaverde (49), rock musician Walter Kibby (Fishbone) (48), comedian Jimmy Kimmel (45), actor Steve Zahn (45), actor Gerard Butler (43), NBA player Metta! World Pe! ace (formerly Ron Artest) (33), actress Monique Coleman (32).

Associated Press