And Dennings's smitten blog post from May about her "redonkulous superhuman" director (excerpted after the jump)? That's probably just a genuine gesture of professional respect:

I must note that I'm in Texas at the moment, filming a movie with redonkulous superhuman Robert Rodriguez. And as I tilted my head to look at the pavement tonight while we were talking I felt the ground give way beneath me and I've been a peanut butter person ever since. Holla

Holla! Of course, in the same breath she demands "the guys from the BBC's Top Gear to go with me everywhere," so maybe she's just friendly like that. Anyway, neither Dennings nor reps for Rodriguez have responded to our requests for comment, so we'll just wish them well and caution Dennings against going public with that Women in Chains! starring role Rodriguez promised her after McGowan suddenly became, ahem, unavailable last week.

• Evil Bread II [Kat Dennings]

Sources say the couple, who we reported last October were engaged, have split, partly over the problems Rodriguez had finding financing for "Barbarella" - the 1968 cult classic in which Jane Fonda played a sexy space adven- turess - with McGowan in the title role.

"Too bad 'Grindhouse' didn't gross $100 million. Then, maybe, 'Barbarella' would have gotten the green light," said one source. "Instead, the moguls were saying, 'We need a bigger star, a bigger name.' " Jessica Alba has been touted as a possible replacement.

Let us be the first to say good riddance to the former Mrs. Marilyn Manson, whose appeal and subsequent career success has always been a bit of a mystery for us. While we would never (never!) wish ill-will upon a budding couple, this relationship seemed to be standing in the way of the career prospects of one of our favorite directorial guilty pleasures (the Spy Kids franchise aside, obvs). Now we're not saying that McGowan is talentless, it's more that her days as a viable big screen sexbomb expired sometime around the time of Jawbreaker. They say love is blind, but clearly, big studio heads are not. When you're trying to appease a cult of twentysomething fanboys (Rodriguez's primary audience), the name Rose McGowan does about as much to get their horndog motors running as the name Bea Arthur. While we're not clamoring to see vapid actresses like Jessica Alba or Jessica Simpson fill the iconic spacesuit that Jane Fonda wore, there is one actress out there who possesses the requisite amount of sex appeal and bouncy hair who could get us to pre-order tix for the Barbarella remake stat. Just take our word for it, Robert, and have your people get in touch with Kate Beckinsale's people. You can thank us later.

• H'WOOD SPLIT GOOD FOR JESSICA [Page Six]

Director Robert Rodriguez is shopping around Women in Chains! a violent drama set at a woman's prison starring his fiancee, Rose McGowan. ...

McGowan is set to play one of five chained women at the center of the show, which Rodriguez is expected to direct. The two first worked together on last year's Planet Terror, Rodriguez's homage to 1970s exploitation flicks.

The new show also is rumored to be fashioned with a 1970s exploitation sensibility, with such staples like mud wrestling.

We're told there are scripts circulating — with dialogue and exposition in actual English — at networks including NBC and FX, where the market for prime-time exploitation dramas apparently surged when we weren't looking. We didn't think anything could shake McGowan from her single-minded alien ambitions from a month ago, but! Seeing as those Barbarella spaceships are only half-built and she can make a mud pit in about 15 minutes flat, we can't really blame her for compromising. A woman — even one in chains — has gotta eat, right?

• Robert Rodriguez shops prison series [THR]