'AMERICAN IDOL' HOST FLIPS FOR 'BAYWATCH' BABE

Once on "Baywatch" always on "Baywatch"--given that Brooke Burns is currently known as the hostess of reality stunt show "Dog Eat Dog". The "American Idol" host in question is Ryan Seacrest, who'd been dating ancient "Idol" judge Paula Abdul. But a guy pretending to be 26 is probably better off getting busy with a chick pretending to be 24.

Beautiful Brooke had been married to "Charmed" star Julian McMahon, but they split after she read in The ENQUIRER that Julian had been cheating with Shannen Doherty on a sexy island vacation.

That'll usually do it, yes. No word of where Brooke's 2-year-old daughter Madison goes when mom and Ryan are hiking together on the weekends on trails through the Santa Monica Mountains, the beach in Malibu, or strolling hand in hand through the art exhibits at the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A.


Mike Walker, meanwhile, reports on Ryan being obsessed (italics his) with the suspicion that judge Simon Cowell is flipping him the bird of a regular basis. Cowell says Seacrest is delusional--which is why columnist Walker is offering $200 to the first reader who identifies the best scene where Judge Sarcastic flips the bird. Could it be the recently dumped spinster Paula Abdul's extended digit that Ryan is imagining instead?