The divorce is final between Madonna and Guy Ritchie, and she can continue being a material girl.

Ritchie, who has his own wealth (estimated at more than $50 million), didn't want manimony and they both keep their assets.

The terms Madonna cited were "unreasonable behavior" by Ritchie — though the decree did not elaborate on what that could be. But what is reasonable is that they worked out an arrangement that didn't escalate into an ugly painful public battle a la Heather Mills and Paul McCartney. That divorce case has become a cautionary tale for any one.

Madonna and Ritchie worked out a custody arrangement where his sons Rocco, 8, and David Banda, 3, who was adopted from Malawi in 2006, can split their time between Britian and the United States.

But as we reported before, this is still a loss for the children since they will only get to see one parent periodically. When school is in session in the States, it's not as though Guy can just take them out for a quick Wednesday dinner or a weekend soccer game. There will be extended time away from his children. But like many fathers, he will deal with the cards he's dealt and play his best hand. Plus, the advantage of cellphones is that you can use them and soon the kids will be of age for email.

A British reverend has been banned from the ministry for seven years following an affair with a female parishioner, reports The Telegraph. Rev. Andrew Gair served as marriage therapist to a husband and wife, known only as Mr. and Mrs. X, in 2004.

Gair counseled the couple individually. He saw Mr. X on parish grounds, while he took "long walks in the countryside" with Mrs. X. (How romantic!) According to both Gair and Mrs. X, they fell in love and spoke of starting a new life together.

His guilt getting the best of him, Gair confessed the relationship to Mr. X, claiming that "these things happen." Gair and Mrs. X soon went their separate ways after realizing that they weren't meant to be together — although Mr. and Mrs. X are divorcing after all.

According to the article: Gair's scandal "emerged just days after the Rev. Teresa Davies, a motorbike-riding female vicar who held church services while drunk and went on wife-swapping holidays with her husband, was banned for 12 years."

Yikes. Those Church of England revs really know how to have a good time, don't they?

Madonna is about to find out that she can’t flex her muscles when it comes to her soon-to-be ex-husband’s parenting style. The self-described control freak reportedly gave a list of rigid rules documenting what Guy Ritchie could and couldn’t do when he has sons Rocco, 8, and David, 3.

The list reportedly included a ban on TV, no Miley Cyrus for these boys, no non-organic food such as microwaved pizza and soda, nor any clothes that were not 100 percent cotton and sent by her. She even wanted her total blessings on what water they drank — Kaballah preferred — and no toys that are “spiritually or ethically unsound.”

What this sounds like is a recipe for disaster.

Divorced women tell me all the time that the hardest part of divorce is not leaving the husband but leaving the kids with him. And if you, like Madonna, are used to control, it becomes agony to realize the limited power you now have over your ex-spouse’s parenting style. It’s as though handcuffs have been put on you just when you thought you were finally liberated.

“Moms go nuts about this but all they can do is write to Dear Abby or Firstwivesworld,” says noted divorce lawyer Raoul Felder. “The courts will not mini-manage or arbitrate parenting styles unless it involves safety or basic acceptable serious judgment issues.”

Such as?

“Other than allergies like peanuts, religion and sky diving, the hand of the parent who turned the kids over for their weekend with Pop has about as much to say in what the kids do there as Bush does in the choice of the next Secretary of State,” Felder says. “But isn’t that what week-end Dads are all about? Lot’s of hot dogs, chocolate and crummy blood and gory movies.”

The man allegedly responsible for his wife's disappearance has sought counsel from one of the country's top paternal rights divorce lawyers, states TMCnet.com.

Twenty-four-year-old Stacy Peterson was last seen just over a year ago driving away from her suburban Illinois home. Since that time, investigators have concluded Drew Peterson is in fact suspect, despite finding a lack of evidence — the Peterson home has been searched twice; investigators have impounded their cars for further investigation and sent divers into a nearby retention pond in an effort to track down clues on the case. The area has been combed by officials and volunteers alike.

Drew Peterson, who retired from the local police force shortly after Stacy's disappearance, has also been linked to the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio's body was exhumed to reconsider the current cause of death, which was labeled accidental, shortly after Stacy's investigation began.

Peterson has take an angry stance over Stacy's disappearance, claiming his wife most certainly left him for another man. When asked if he would take her back, should she return, he said it would "take a lot of talking" to persuade him.

Which is why it's not so strange that the 54-year-old met with attorney Jeffrey Leving last week to seek divorce information on the grounds of desertion. Peterson initially denied meeting with Leving (Leving represented Elian Gonzales's father and won custody of the Cuban child from his U.S. foster family on behalf of his client), but finally divulged that a divorce would allow him to move his children to a new location — once the marital assets had been divided.

Photo: ABC News

Let’s cast the movie in our minds. Shirley MacLaine could play Rebecca Willis, the dirty dancing granny. No, MacLaine is too old. Meryl Streep?

Rebecca Willis was back in the news last week after being awarded $275,000 in a settlement with the town of Marshall, North Carolina. That comes some seven years after being banned from the town community center for dancing in a "sexually provocative manner — gyrating and simulating sexual intercourse with her partner.”

She was suggestive. She was lewd.

She wore short skirts.

She exposed her panties, or worse!

The townspeople (the population is 831) said their children would be scarred for life. They didn’t just ban Mrs. Willis, they banned her “for life.”

Why? Because Rebecca Willis was a 56 year old divorced woman. And when the townsfolk asked her to tone it down, she just danced some more.

For her, it was a matter of freedom of speech. At least that’s what her lawyer, Jon Sasser, argued, after she found him through the ACLU. So the case was argued, appealed, argued, appealed. Up and down the courts for five years, during which time the dancing divorcee got married again.

Now 64, she gave a little dance of joy after the settlement (out of which she will have to pay her lawyer). She considers it a victory, even though she had to promise not to dance in the town center again. “It just tickles me to death,” she said.

The most recent decision came after her lawyer asked the town to prove she wasn’t being singled out. Jon Sasser told First Wives World that much of the town’s attention seemed focused on the fact that Mrs. Willis was divorced.

“Some witnesses testified that she was fine when she was married, but became wilder after her divorce,” he said. “There was definitely an undertone of jealousy.”

Pakistani women may have an entirely new outlook on divorce, if family law legislation is passed, reports New Delhi new web site ndtv.com. The Council of Islamic Ideology has proposed that a woman who files for separation is automatically granted a divorce if her husband does not respond within 90 days.

Currently, a man can divorce his spouse verbally (by simply stating "divorce") and privately, says Reuters. Women, however, must appear before family court — but first must surrender any right to mehr, or money her husband pledged to her when the two married.

The proposal is meeting stiff opposition, as you can imagine, from religious sectors, which claim the change challenges Islamic law.

Former prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his wife of 32 years have divorced, reports AFP. It's the unusual circumstances surrounding the split, however, that have government officials wondering if the couple divorced for financial or legal reasons, as opposed to personal ones.

A little background: Shinawatra was ousted from his position in a 2006 coup. Since then he has been charged with corruption charges; his wife, Pojaman, with tax evasion charges. The two fled Thailand for the UK in August, but their British visas have recently been cancelled. Up against a wall, it is believed that the two divorced so that Pojaman could return to their homeland claiming that she has no connections to politics (or to her husband's corruption charges) and reapply for a British visa.

Shinawatra announced the divorce at a military police dinner in Hong Kong. And a source close to the former PM said it was simply a "divorce on paper," indicating that it was for the public's benefit only. An anonymous source told AFP that the two are closer than ever.

Later reports indicate that the divorce will not aid Pojaman financially or legally, however.

If stress puts any relationship closer to the edge of a divorce, it would be this one. Had Shinawatra not made such a public spectacle of the divorce, I'd suspect the two really were on the road to splitsville. But with all the pomp and circumstance, I'd have to say this is a strategic move to lessen the pressure. So often couples must stay together for legal or financial reasons; but to have to split because of them? Not your run-of-the-mill divorce.

This was something that former View host Debbie Matenopoulos didn’t want to see. On Internet sites, there were rumors that her husband was cheating. Now to her shock and dismay, her husband, the music executive Jay Faires, has surprised her by filing divorce papers in California.

"I am deeply saddened by the dissolution of my seven-year relationship with my husband, a man I truly believed I would be with forever," Matenopoulos said in a statement to E! News, where she now works. “Although my public persona may seem unconventional at times, I do not take marriage and family lightly, and I am quite traditional.”

Faires filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court citing the usual — irreconcilable differences. He also said that, since the couple does not have any children and she is gainfully employed, he should not have to provide any spousal support.

It appears, he wasn’t supporting the relationship for some time. The couple, who married in July of 2003, did separate in March of this year. But like many women, Matenopoulos thought they were going through a rough patch and that maybe a separation would give them time to appreciate what they had.

But perhaps she should have read How To Tell If Your Man Is Cheating. Although she may have known that less than 5 percent of couples who separate ever get back together, hope is something all of us have when it comes to reviving troubled relationships.

Before it is truly over, women try really hard and are willing to forgive many sins in an effort to keep their marriages afloat. However, the boat has now left the dock and Matenopoulos will sail on solo, seeking a safe harbor with someone who will appreciate her, which is just what she deserves.

“I’ve been trying to sell this house for two years,” Chris Wealty said. He dropped the price from $850,000 to $599,000; still no interest. The house sits empty, once home to a married couple. They are trying to divorce, but settling the financial terms depends on selling this house in College Park, a neighborhood north of Orlando, Florida.

So he decided to advertise. On a large (and not very attractive) sign in the front yard, he wrote “3,400 sqft Lake View House: $599,000. Helping me get divorced: $ priceless $. 407 592 4964 (Husband)”

As he told the Orlando television station WESH, he and his wife had been married for 17 years, and had been in negotiations for several years over a divorce settlement. The house is in one of the nicer areas, former orange groves surrounded by lakes near the well-known Winter Park. It is not far from the modest bungalow where Jack Kerouac wrote Dharma Bums, a home that is now a writer’s colony.

But a nice four-bedroom, three bath house, a pretty view, a good neighborhood have not been enough. Housing prices in Orlando, which went up 34 percent from 2004 to 2005, have now dropped by 20 percent. One leading real estate expert, Robert Schiller, says Orlando prices will drop another 30 percent this year.

Thus Wealty’s desperation. If he doesn’t sell the house soon, he said, he faces foreclosure. One of his neighbors opined that putting up a sign airing dirty laundry was kind of “white trashy,” so the experiment hasn’t endeared him to the community. But his life, and his wife’s life, have moved on.

When asked what his soon-to-be-ex wife thought of the sign, Wealthy answered: “Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not real sure. We don't talk much these days except through lawyers.”

No kidding.

For every bride who discovers she had an ally, a mother-in-like, after the wedding, there are those who realize they have a monster-in-law. My monster-in-law gave me a fuzzy sleep suit with a big zipper up the front the first year of our marriage, possibly the least sexy piece of clothing ever. I felt like the Easter bunny. It was royal blue.

But the mother-in-law in the beautiful coastal town of Ravello, on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, must have been a doozie. The Italian press was all over the story of a man who got his marriage annulled this week because of interference by his wife’s mother. One Italian newspaper talked about mother-in-laws who put themselves between husband and wife, “with the docile tenderness of a Rottweiler.”

The Italian press readily conceded that it’s usually the husband’s mother, and not the wife’s mother, who acts like a Rottweiler. Last year a poll by Eures, a job portal on the internet, said that 3 out of 10 Italian divorces were due to "the unusually close attachment of Italian men to their mothers." The mothers sometimes move in, take care of the house, and often criticize their daughter-in-law’s housekeeping, cooking or child rearing.

This case was not nearly as severe; it hinged on an oral contract. Antonio Paolillo, a car dealer, was set to marry Maria Assunta Gemma Criscuoli in 1998, and there was a little bambini on the way. Paolillo, 27 at the time, apparently was apprehensive about his mother-in-law-to-be. So just before the wedding he told his bride, 21, that she had to keep her mother out of their marriage.

If not, he said, he would get a divorce.